Not one to shy away from controversy or say how he feels on
national issues, former President Olusegun Obasanjo is one who has
persistently remained a thorn in the flesh of the current administration
as he has accused President Goodluck Jonathan of mismanaging the
security issues engulfing the country.
Obasanjo
expressed this view in an exclusive interview published in the February
issue of the pan-African magazine, New African. Obasanjo also laid the
blame for the deteriorating situation caused by the insurgent Boko Haram
at the foot of President Jonathan.
“If the President is the chief
security officer of the country and there is a security problem, where
do you go for the solution? And if that solution is not coming from the
chief security officer, who else inside and outside will get a solution?
He has the responsibility to solve the problem, and nobody else should
be blamed but him.”
In the same interview, the Ota farmer also
challenged claims made by Nigerian literary giant, Chinua Achebe,
regarding the country’s civil war in the 1960s. Obasanjo refuted claims
that successive Nigerian administrations have marginalized the Igbo
ethnic group within the country.
“Maybe he is making those remarks
because he is not living in Nigeria. If he was living in Nigeria, when I
was the president of this country, an Igbo lady was my Minister of
Finance, and Igbo man was the Governor of the Central Bank; an Igbo man
was one of the military service chiefs.
The permanent
representative to the UN was also an Igbo person. What more do you want?
For someone to say the civil war has not ended, 40 years after its
conclusion, that person is living in the past.”

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