Adams Oshiomhole, the immediate former governor of Edo State, has lampooned Olusegun Obasanjo, former president of Nigeria, saying Obasanjo is not one of President Muhammadu Buhari’s official advisers and he is not qualified to advise the president on whether to seek re-election or not in 2019.
Oshiomhole disclosed this to correspondents at the State House, Abuja while on a solidarity visit to President Buhari on Friday, February 2, 2018.
The former governor was reacting to Obasanjo’s recent letter advising Buhari to forget the ambition of a second term, on account of nepotism, condoning corruption and mismanaging the economy.
Oshiomhole was quoted saying he came to assure the president of his loyalty in the midst of present challenges and for 2019 as it was not a time to sit on the fence.
He added: “I think that in moments like this nobody should sit on the fence. Our country have challenges and there are huge temptations here and there and is important he knows that he has men and women who even at this hour have huge confidence in his leadership ability.
“Everything taken to account, I believe that every Nigerian who wants us to sustain some of the renewed vigor to deal with one of the most challenging problem that Nigeria has faced namely corruption and things like that, you cannot but appreciate the president and all that has been done under his leadership this past two years and some months.”
Specifically on whether Buhari should ignore Obasanjo’s advice, the ex-governor said “I’m not sure when I see the list of the advisers that president Obasanjo is one of the advisers.
“But I also recall with respect that the day President Obasanjo was swearing in some of his advisers, he did say that anybody who is his adviser can advise him, he will make his own decisions. And I think that principle still stands”.
He also noted the present administration had not spent enough time in office to be able to solve the nation’s problems which he said were created in the 16 years of the former ruling party.
“I don’t think that anybody who understands the challenge of nation building, of national economic management etc will expect that in two years you can fix in a sustainable manner all of the things that have been destroyed over 16 years before this party came into office,” Oshiomhole declared.
Godwin Obaseki, his successor and incumbent Edo governor, also met with Buhari on Friday at the Villa to discuss the challenge of human trafficking and more federal assistance for the state.
He told journalists afterwards that “it’s a problem with Edo which we have accepted and we have rolled out our strategies to deal with them and we want to work with the federal government and other agencies of government to end this scourge of human trafficking and modern slavery.
“It is against the ethos of humanity for us to accept what is going on with our young people today.
“So, I came to see the president to explain what we are doing in Edo State and to solicits for more federal support for our actions.”
On the discontent expressed over stipend by some illegal Edo migrants who were recently repatriated from Libya, he said, it was a challenging situation for government as he admitted that some of them have not received any money.
According to him, “that is part of the challenge. The issues are very complex. The first set that were brought back by International Organization for Migration (IOM) were given stipend but the last wave of retunees that were repatriated nothing was given to them and they were a bit agitated.
“What we have done in Edo is that to help retunees settle and reintegrated back to their families, we give them stipend for three months.
“So, what we have done this time around is to bring them to Benin city and then give them first stipend to go back home and then be able to attend the skills acquisition centers which we have set up to train them.”
