With Less than two months to the commencement of the 2023 general elections, former President Olusegun Obasanjo, on Sunday, blasted the All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential candidate, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, for his ‘Emi Lokan’ (It’s My Turn) claim, saying such was a wrong attitude and mentality to present Nigeria’s leadership.
The former president, who berated Tinubu in an Open Letter to Nigerians on New Year Day, specifically demanded that Nigerian youths must rise up and vote the Labour Party (LP) presidential candidate, Peter Obi, as the next President of Nigeria in 2023, so as to rescue their future from the hands of those intending to ruin it.
“Let me say straight away that ‘Emi Lokan’ (My turn) and ‘I have paid my dues’ are one and the same thing and are wrong attitude and mentality for the leadership of Nigeria now. They cannot form the new pedestal to reinvent and to invest in a new Nigeria based on an All-Nigeria Government for the liberation and restoration of Nigeria.
“Such a government must have representation from all sectors of our national life – public, private, civil society, professional, labour, employers, and the diaspora. The solution should be in ‘we’ and ‘us’ and not in ‘me’ and ‘I’.
“I reiterate that no human being is an angel let alone a Messiah, but there are elements of these attributes and on comparative basis and by measure of what we know of and what some of us have experienced from the front-runners, we must assess judiciously and choose wisely. If anybody claims he or she has anything to the contrary, it will be up to him or her to prove to us.
“None of the contestants is a saint but when one compares their character, antecedent, their understanding, knowledge, discipline and vitality that they can bring to bear and the great efforts required to stay focused on the job particularly looking at where the country is today and with the experience on the job that I personally had, Peter Obi as a mentee has an edge,” he said.
In the New Year message titled, “My Appeal To All Nigerians, Particularly Young Nigerians”, which he personally signed on Sunday in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital, Obasanjo also noted that he has carefully listened to and personally analyzed all the four leading presidential candidates before settling for the candidature of Obi, whom he described as a “needle with thread attached to it from North and South and he may not get lost.”
He added: “I believe that we need not be confused nor be gullible. Let us be cautious, not to be fooled again. I have interacted with the major contestants and I find it interesting that in one form or the other, each of them claims to want to do what I did during my presidency and to take Nigeria back to where it was at the height of my presidency and immediately after.”
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