Obasanjo to Buhari: If You’re  C-in-C and Banditry Takes Place in Your Backyard, Then Wake Up

The former president Olusegun Obasanjo once again takes President Muhammadu Buhari to the cleaner denouncing his handling of security issues in the country.

Obasanjo says it’s worrisome that despite being the commander-in-chief of armed forces, banditry still occurs at the President’s  backyard’.

Obasanjo said:  “I thought I knew President Buhari because he worked with me. But I used to ask people that is it that I have not read him well or read him adequately or is it that he has changed from the Buhari that I used to know? I am not subscribing to the people who say we have a new Buhari from Sudan and all that nonsense,” the Punch Newspaper quoted Mr Obasanjo to have said.

“I know what I believed was his limitations and I have written about it – he wasn’t strong in economics, not all of us are strong in anything but you need to have sufficient knowledge of it for you to direct the affairs. He wasn’t particularly too strong in foreign affairs but I thought he was strong enough in the military.

 “From his performance in his first outing as head of state, I thought he would also do well in fighting corruption. I did not know the nepotistic tendencies of President Buhari maybe because he was not exposed to that sort of situation when he worked with me.

“But with what I have seen now, I believe that maybe he will be thinking of a legacy. Maybe he will also learn from what has happened in recent times. If you are the commander-in-chief and banditry is taking place in your backyard, then you have to wake up.”

On  the recent appointment of new service chiefs, Obasanjo said:  “Recently, the president changed his service chiefs after they have been there for more than five years without any perceptible improvement and some people started jubilating. Somebody spoke to me and said, ‘Oh, you are not enthused’, and I said, ‘I am not’.

“The person said, ‘Why?’ And I said I don’t know any of those people that have been appointed as service chiefs but you will hear my comments three to six months from now because, within that period, we should be able to show what they can do. And if they cannot bring about any perceptible change or improvement then you can write them off as failures.”