War of Words: PDP chieftain offers advice to Obasanjo, Tinubu

A former chairperson of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Anambra State, Dan Ulasi, has condemned the recent hot exchanges between President Bola Tinubu’s media team and former President Olusegun Obasanjo.

PREMIUM TIMES earlier reported that Mr Obasanjo, at an event in the US, claimed Nigeria had become a “failed state” due to the policies of the immediate past president, Muhammadu Buhari and his successor, Mr Tinubu.

But reacting on Monday in a statement, Bayo Onanuga, Mr Tinubu’s Special Adviser on Information and Strategy, said Mr Obasanjo was not an ideal leader to emulate.

Mr Obasanjo ruled Nigeria as a military head of state from 1976 and 1979 and as an elected president from 1999 and 2007 on the PDP platform.

Mr Tinubu said Mr Obasanjo’s “habit of casting aspersions on every subsequent administration has devolved into a recurring pastime, overshadowing the expectation of an elder statesman to join a constructive dialogue on attaining national progress.”

He added that the former president should also reflect on the missed opportunities during his time in leadership.

‘It’s toxic’

Speaking when he appeared as a guest on the Morning Show, an Arise TV programme, on Wednesday, Mr Ulasi described the hot exchanges between the two leaders as “unfortunately toxic.”

The PDP bigwig stressed that such hot exchanges were dangerous because they could stoke unnecessary political crises and hate.

He admitted that Mr Obasanjo’s comments on the state of Nigeria were largely “factual”, but that the former president should have been more civil in his speech.

Mr Ulasi also criticised the presidency for being “too personal” in its response rather than addressing Mr Obasanjo’s points.

“I would have expected the Presidency to reply him (Obasanjo) point by point by trying to respond to some of the items he mentioned.

“He (Obasanjo) cannot completely say that this current regime is a failure. I would accept that eight years of Muhammadu Buhari’s administration was a tragedy for this country,” he said.

“And anybody who inherited (the government from) Buhari would not have performed any magic because the whole system collapsed.”

‘Running down Nigeria’

He also argued that although Mr Obasanjo has the right to expression, he should refrain from making comments that can “run down” the country.

“I expect Obasanjo to know that he is a senior statesman. He has a right to make commentary, but not a commentary that even runs down your country because once you run down the leadership of your country, you have run down the country,” he said.

‘Carried over of crisis’

Messrs Obasanjo and Tinubu have a history of political animosity, beginning when the former was president and the latter was governor of Lagos State.

Mr Tinubu was the only governor from the Alliance for Democracy that Mr Obasanjo’s then-ruling PDP could not unseat in the 2003 elections.

Speaking at the TV programme, Mr Ulasi described the current rift between the two leaders as a “carried over crisis.”

“So, I can see a carryover of what happened (between Obasanjo and Tinubu) some 20 years plus ago into the present dispensation,” he said.

‘Tinubu’s two biggest mistakes’

Mr Ulasi said Mr Tinubu’s two biggest mistakes so far was the removal of petrol subsidy and the floating of naira.

“Getting up on his inauguration day to announce removal of petrol subsidy without a concomitant solution is part of the problems we are facing in this country. He created a problem that he cannot solve.

“Again, when he floated Naira, he also created a problem that he cannot solve. They (the problems) are self-inflicted. These two problems are the summary of Nigeria’s economic woes today,” he said.

He, however, said any criticism of Mr Tinubu on the basis of the petrol subsidy removal and floating of Naira was “justifiable because Nigerians are dying” as a result of those policies.

‘The right time to assess Tinubu’s govt’

Mr Ulasi said despite the harsh economic realities in Nigeria, it is too early to assess Mr Tinubu’s government within just one and half years in office.

Asked to speak on the right time Mr Tinubu administration should be assessed, he responded: “What I normally say is that once someone takes over, he has a justifiable reason to want to understudy. So, he needs at least one (additional) year at least to be able to understand what his predecessors did.”

The leading PDP member, however, said that by now Nigerians ought to have been seeing the “footprints” of Mr Tinubu’s governance direction.

“Those footprints, I haven’t seen. And I must be honest with you. I am not an economist,” he said.

“They may have some footprints, but I am not seeing it because the problem in Nigeria is mounting by the day, by the week and the month. Nigerians are not feeling any footprints.”