Senator Jimoh Ibrahim has faulted ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo’s comment in which he described Nigeria as a “failing state”.
Obasanjo was Nigeria’s president between 1999 and 2007 and had recently claimed that the country’s failing state is due to “widespread corruption, poor leadership, and immorality” under Tinubu’s leadership. He spoke while presenting his keynote address at the Chinua Achebe Leadership Forum held at Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, USA.
But Senator Jimoh of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) says Obasanjo’s remark does not reflect that of an elder statesman
“I disagree with President Obasanjo that Nigeria is a failed state. Two, I disagree with President Obasanjo that is using the language of war in peacetime. We are in peacetime. We don’t need this engagement of bullets interaction between an elder statesman and the government,” he said on Tuesday’s edition of Channels Television’s Politics Today.
“I’m also an elder statesman. I have two national honours – Officer of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and Commander of the Order of Nigeria. Do you think that is small?”
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According to him, Obasanjo’s assessment of the nation should be more holistic and not a focus on the economy.
Senator Jimoh said as a former military personnel, the former Nigerian president should shift attention to security issues where he has expertise.
In his remarks, Obasanjo had said, “Nigeria’s situation is bad. The more the immorality and corruption of a nation, the more the nation sinks into chaos, insecurity, conflict, discord, division, disunity, depression, youth restiveness, confusion, violence, and underdevelopment”.
However, the presidency alleged that the former president ran one of the most corrupt governments in the nation’s history and did not have the moral right to call out the Tinubu administration.
“Former President Obasanjo is a man with a tremendous capacity for mischief and Nigerians know it. His journey along the path of hallucinations has never been in doubt. So is his descent into muddling facts, forgetting that he ran a Presidency on record as the most corrupt. His recent diatribe at Yale University lacks sincerity,” presidential spokesman Sunday Dare wrote on his X handle on Monday.
