Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has described the regime of the late former President Muhammadu Buhari as the worst civil administration in Nigeria’s history.
Buhari, who died in London on July 13, 2025 and was buried at his Daura, Katsina residence on July 15, 2025 ruled as military dictator from 1983 to 1985 and later served as civilian president from 2015 to 2023.
Like the late former president, Obasanjo, who was also a former military ruler between 1976 and 1979, also served as civilian president on the country’s return from military rule from 1999 to 2007.
As a military ruler Obasanjo presided over a regime that returned the country from dictatorship to a civilian regime headed by the late Alhaji Shehu Shagari whose regime was ousted by Buhari and other coupists in December 1983.
In order to justify the sacking of the Shagari regime, Obasanjo in his new book entitled, Nigeria: Past and Future, recalled how Buhari described the regime of Shagari as corrupt and lacking in direction.
Not only that, he said Buhari accused the Second Republic legislators of not being alive to their constitutional responsibilities but were ‘‘preoccupied with determining their salary scales, fringe benefits and unnecessary foreign travels, etc, which took no account of the state of the economy and the welfare of the people they represented.’’
According to Obasanjo, in justifying the sacking of Shagari, Buhari added: “As a result of our inability to cultivate financial discipline and prudent management of the economy, we have come to depend largely on internal and external borrowing to execute government projects with attendant domestic pressure and soaring external resources.
“Nigeria was already condemned perpetually with the twin problem of heavy budget deficits and weak balance of payments position without the prospect of building a virile and viable economy.
‘‘The last general election was anything but free and fair …there is ample evidence that rigging and thuggery were relative to the resources available to the political parties.’’
Obasanjo, however, said that rather than tackling these identified problems when he assumed office as a civilian president, Buhari did little or nothing.
Obasanjo wondered whether the words were actually those of Buhari or were written for him to read:
Obasanjo wrote: “In General Buhari’s formal declaration of the coup, he said, ‘The 1979 Constitution was promulgated. However, little did the military realise that political leadership of the Second Republic will circumvent most of the checks and balances in the Constitution and bring the present insecurity.
‘The Premium on political power became so exceedingly high that the political contestants regarded victory at elections as a matter of life and death and were determined to capture or retain power by all means. It is true that there is a worldwide economic recession. However, in the case of Nigeria, its impact was aggravated by mismanagement. We believe that the appropriate government agencies have good advice but the leadership disregarded their advice.
‘This conclusively proved to us that the parties have not developed the presidential system of government in which the nation invested so much material and human resources…the corrupt, inept and insensitive leadership in the last four years have been the source of immorality and impropriety in our society. We deplore corruption in all its facets.’”
Obasanjo wondered why Buhari went to sleep and failed to work on the identified problems when he assumed office as the president, adding that what were supposed to be done were left undone by the late president.
He said, ‘‘Good points and good words (raised by Buhari when he overthrew Shagari) which Buhari failed to follow when he became the President years later.
‘‘Words are cheap and what needed to be done was left undone during Buhari’s civil administration from 2015 to 2023 – the worst civil administration regime so far in Nigeria’s history. Maybe these ideas and thoughts were not his; he just read them as was written for him.’’
Why Obasanjo detested Buhari – Garba Shehu
But the spokesman for the late former President, Mallam Garba Shehu declared that the two-time former president allegedly hated Buhari.
When contacted by LEADERSHIP Weekend on Saturday, Shehu said he had explained why Obasanjo never liked the late head of state in his book, ‘According to the President: Lessons from a Presidential Spokesman’s Experience’ and directed our correspondent to check the book for those reasons.
Shehu, in the book, which he made available to our correspondent, alleged that Obasanjo made some demands of Buhari while the later was president.
He said, ‘‘There are many around Buhari who hold that the spectacular falling out between him (Buhari) and his superior in the military whom he cherished and much respected, President Olusegun Obasanjo, was on account of the demand, reportedly put to him by Obasanjo, that the contract for the Mambilla Power Project be given to a contractor he preferred.
‘‘On this, Buhari politely told the former president to allow him to handle it his own way, following the due process that was in place.”
Obasanjo knocks Tinubu’s administration
Obasanjo, who is not new to controversy, also described the regime of President Bola Tinubu as competing with that of Buhari in inefficiency.
Though he did not dwell much on the reason for arriving at that conclusion, the former President merely said, ‘‘Only Bola Tinubu’s administration seems to be competing with Buhari’s (in the area of inefficiency) for now.’’
Efforts made to get the reaction of the Presidency to Obasanjo’s description of the Tinubu administration were unsuccessful.
Telephone calls made to the phone number of the Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, Mr Bayo Onanuga did not go through while a message sent to his whatsApp number was not responded to.
Also, a message sent to the Minister of Information, Alhaji Mohammed Idris, was not responded to as of the time of going to press.
I am in a hurry to see Nigeria rise, getting close to my departure lounge – Obasanjo
Meanwhile, Obasanjo has asserted that Nigerians already know that he is in a hurry to see that Nigeria achieves its potential for greatness and that Nigerians know that he speaks his mind with force but with no animosity.
He said, ‘‘All my writings have been aimed at making Nigeria better because I strongly believe that Nigeria can be made better and I also believe in documentation.
‘‘Why I published My Command and Nzeogwu, I did so to help readers see some of the events of the war through my eyes and the personality of one of the key actors in the events that led to the war.
In my books such as Not My Will or the three-volume of autobiography, My Watch, I have tried to speak about major policy decisions that I undertook and, in some instances, I have tried to show why I did the things I did. I have written about my difficult moments in life, my experience in prison and my views about God’s will in my life.
‘‘I have written Letters to my superiors and my successors in moments of our nation’s troubles and challenges. I have done these not out of malice but to help leaders to learn lessons and to draw the attention of Nigerians to the nature of the various crises.
“I have had the great honour of serving this country as a military Head of State and a President. So, it might be said that I have sat on both sides of the fence. I have gone through the crucible of rural life, meagre resources, military peacekeeping in Africa, war in my own country, humiliation and imprisonment.
‘‘I have learned a lot from what I have gone through, pleasant and no-so-pleasant. Now, I am getting close to my departure lounge, maybe without picking my boarding pass yet.’’
Obasanjo further stated that he was sure some would ask him what he did as former Head of State and President and that he was always sounding sanctimonious.
He also said that he knew many would accuse him of being guilty of what he had written about in his books, but he said he had never claimed perfection, as only God is perfect.
‘‘Some have accused me of being equally guilty of the things I have written about or accused others of. I rely on my conscience and my records and have no need to defend myself. It depends on where the commentator is coming from. Is he genuinely informed, misinformed, playing a script, working for his pay or suffering from other human manifestation of envy, hatred, etc?
‘‘Yes, I am both angry and sad because I have seen the best and the worst of our country. In my time, we tried to set things on the right path, especially as soldiers. With hindsight, we know we made some mistakes, but again we did some great things in our country, for our country and for Africa.”
According to Obasanjo, as military rulers most the actors were young and inexperienced, but patriotic to the country.
‘‘We were young, maybe somewhat naïve at times but we were patriotic and committed and sincerely so. We sought to feed our people, we sought o provide infrastructure, we sought to prioritise education, we sought to bring Nigeria to modernity and raise our profile in the international arena,” he said.
