“Let all the retired Generals of this country plot. They should know that Buhari too is not not a civillian but also a retired General. Don’t forget that it was only this Buhari and his former deputy, Tunde Idiagbon who drove to Ota to tell Obasanjo why they should all stand up against the Babangida’s misdeeds during his annulment of June 12 denying MKO Abiola to be declared elected President in Nigeria’s freest and fairest presidential election. Recall also that that Buhari is that retired General who will never be mentioned among other retired Generals who have had their hands soiled in the cause of the woes of Nigeria till today. Let them go on plotting, Buhari will get back to them after April 2019 as second term President of Nigeria,” he said.
The coast may have further cleared to see the real reason those who are writing letters saying asking President Muhammadu Buhari not to seek re-election, as former Military President, General Ibrahim Babangida (Rtd), has thrown himself into the controversy backing former President Olusegun Obasanjo position on the same reason.
Babangida, on Sunday, urged Buhari not to extend his tenure beyond 2019 in order to allow a new breed of leadership take over the leadership mantle of the country.
His letter is coming two weeks after Obasanjo wrote to President Buhari asking him ‘to dismount honourably from the horse in 2019’ and calling on Nigerians to form a coalition that will usher in a new dawn for the country.
Where many have sighted insincerity in the said Babangida’s letter is where the single reason he held on to for taking his position is based on Buhari’s not restructuring the country saying it was the promise he made to Nigeria that made Nigerians vote for him on March 28, 2015.
Babangida, in a special statement issued on Sunday, had lamented the failure of the All Progressives Congress (APC), to advance its change mantra in several areas of the polity, saying that the party failed to push ahead with the programme to restructure the country as canvassed to Nigerians.
But the man popularly called IBB may not have marshaled his reason well enough as more Nigerians say he goofed and lied, countering him that even if Buhari promised restructuring, it was not loud but that the more sung and only reasons Nigerians voted for the Daura, Katsina State-born President were to help fight insecurity known at that time to be mainly caused by Boko Haram, fight corruption and fix the already damaged economy.
When Obasanjo, Abdulsalami Abubakar and Babangida began to hold meetings at Minna in the heat of President Buhari’s anti-corruption war, The DEFENDER in a report had published that the meetings of those retired Generals at that early hours of the administration were suspicious, especially when Atiku Abubakar, Senators Bukola Saraki and Dino Melaye were constantly sighted in the 50-flat building of the former military President for undisclosed reason.
Obasanjo’s letter by which the Owu, Abeokuta-born former President denied complete that he never saw any good thing that has come by Buhari’s administration since 2015 is therefore believed to be the starting point for the implementation of the Minna series of meetings.
But a staunch Buharist, who demanded anonymity for due to his respect for Obasanjo, IBB and Abdulsalami, said, “Let all the retired Generals of this country plot. They should know that Buhari too is not not a civillian but also a retired General. Don’t forget that it was only this Buhari and his former deputy, Tunde Idiagbon who drove to Ota to tell Obasanjo why they should all stand up against the Babangida’s misdeeds during his annulment of June 12 denying MKO Abiola to be declared elected President in Nigeria’s freest and fairest presidential election. Recall also that that Buhari is that retired General who will never be mentioned among other retired Generals who have had their hands soiled in the cause of the woes of Nigeria till today. Let them go on plotting, Buhari will get back to them after April 2019 as second term President of Nigeria,” he said.
