“Atiku Is Not A Messiah, But He’s Better Than President Buhari” – Obasanjo

The former president, Olusegun Obasanjo, has said that his ex-Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, who is now the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is not a messiah or a saint, but would make a better leader than the incumbent President Muhammadu Buhari.

Olusegun Obasanjo said this during an interview with BBC Pidgin, that was published on Tuesday, January 23, 2019.

The former president further slammed President Buhari, saying he was undeserving of re-election, noting that his performance during his first term in office has shown that he cannot be trusted with a second term. He said:

“Atiku is not a messiah, he’s not a saint; and fortunately, he’s not claimed to be. He’s not claimed a fake sanctimoniousness. He came here, acknowledged and showed remorse.

“He acknowledged his past misdeed and showed remorse and all the things I’ve said about him still remains. I said them and nobody has come to controvert them but I am a believer and a Christian as such, and the teaching of God in my own religion is forgive so that you can be forgiven. In fact, it goes further that if you do not forgive, you have no right to expect God’s forgiveness.

“I’m a sinner and I want God to forgive me sins. So, if anybody who has offended me comes to ask for forgiveness, I must forgive him. That’s number one.

“Number two, the choice that we have for the immediate in Nigerian situation today and the immediate is 2019 is between the candidate of party APC and PDP. The other minor parties will line behind or not sufficiently relevant.

“So, if APC puts down Buhari and PDP puts down Atiku, and from what I know of Buhari and what you know, what he has done and shown is utter incompetence, nepotism, condones evil and misconduct, including corruption, the weakness of the body, mind and totality of Buhari compared with Atiku, I believe Atiku will perform two times better than Buhari.”

Obasanjo also poured scorn on the anti-corruption campaign of the Buhari administration, noting that it’s more about propaganda than actual honest work by anti-graft agencies which he said are being used to hunt down political opponents and critics.”

“Now, you can steal the whole of Nigeria, and if you belong to APC, you’re safe; but you can steal N10, if you criticise Buhari and his government, even when you stole that N10 15 years ago, they’ll come and ask for the N10.

“All these institutions that are meant for the running of good governance, of making Nigeria wholesome, are being abused and misused just to perpetuate Buhari in government. That cannot be the way to go.”