President Muhammadu Buhari on Thursday in Bauchi State explained why he did not reply personally to former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s ‘letter’, where he had listed his alleged failures and advising him not to seek reelection in the 2019 polls.
The President’s response, which is in the wake of the controversy that greeted the letter, was coming barely four months after Obasanjo’s open ‘letter’ to him, was, however, replied by the Minister of Information, Alhaji Lai Mohammed.
Many Nigerians had thought the president would respond with withering scorn but he has given reasons he did not reply or allow his aides to make a direct response to Obasanjo’s ‘letter’ to him chronicling his alleged failures and advising him not to seek re-election in the 2019 polls.
Similarly, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has said that President Buhari was suffering from self-deception to think he could win the 2019 presidential election, in spite of his abysmal performance and widespread rejection by Nigerians.
However, an online news portal, Per Second News, reported that President Buhari had while recalling the controversy on the letter in Bauchi State during his two-day visit, said: “Tonight, I want to remind the people of what Lai Mohammed, Minister of Information, did against my wish, in the sense that when a letter was written containing our failures as an administration, Lai Mohammed agitated that he should reply and I said no.
“I said no for two reasons: He is much younger than the person who wrote the letter and myself; two, he is from the same constituency as the person who wrote the letter.
“But when Lai Mohammed came, I said he should go out but he said he won’t go. I asked why and he said let me give him a chance to say what he wanted to do. I said go on.
“He said in what he would do, he would not mention names but only try to remind Nigerians what the country was when we came in, where we are now, and what we have done with the resources available to us.
“Eventually, I had to admit that he was right and I was wrong because a number of people who could get in touch with me have said that Lai had done a good job. A lot of them are in the media who I don’t have time to see – but of course, they are very busy people. Therefore, I am very happy with the performance of our party, the All Progressives Congress (APC).”
Meanwhile, the party said it was unfortunate that President Buhari could not read the handwriting on the wall, even as demonstrated by the scanty attendance at his Bauchi rally on Thursday, where he boasted about winning the 2019 elections.
In a statement yesterday by its National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, PDP noted that the president and his handlers were banking on manipulating the electoral processes to foist themselves back to power.
“What President Buhari has failed to come to terms with the uncompromising resolve of Nigerians across the country, particularly the youths, to resist any form of rigging in 2019,” the party stated.