Obasanjo blames Buhari for poor economy, says coup leaders unlikely to leave soon

Obasanjo blames Buhari for poor economy, says coup leaders unlikely to leave soon

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has attacked the administration of former President Muhammadu Buhari over the poor state of the Nigerian economy.

He also warned that the liberal system from the Western countries would not help Africa and expressed fear that coup leaders seizing power might stay for a generation.

He spoke on these issues in an interview with TheCable.

Obasanjo said, “Buhari was spending money recklessly. I know Buhari didn’t understand economics. I put that in my book. But that he could also be so reckless, I didn’t know. Who would you go to today and ask for a favour?

“Tinubu said the other day that it was unacceptable that he would spend 90% of his revenue to service debts. I wasn’t spending 90% when I went worldwide to get debt relief. Do you think that anybody would give you debt relief today?

“Tinubu says he has trimmed the number of people attending the United Nations General Assembly. Is that news? He will meet with Justin Trudeau, and he will meet with Emmanuel Macron. That will not solve any problem.”

When asked to comment on increasing era of military coups in Africa, Obasanjo described it as a new phenomenon in Africa.

He also insisted that the liberal democracy copied from Western countries would not work in Africa.

He said, “In 2021, when Col Mamady Doumbouya overthrew President Alpha Condé of Guinea, I recall that I travelled to Conakry. I spent two nights there. The coup leader didn’t want to meet with me because he didn’t know what I would say. They said he was out of town, which was not true. But I met every other important government official. I met his No 2 and his speaker.

“I listened to them and concluded that we had a new phenomenon on our hands. I realised that they had the support of the youths and were not thinking of staying in power for four, five years years. They are in for a generation.

“When I noticed this, I went to Addis Ababa to meet the chairperson of the African Union Commission, Moussa Faki Mahamat. I told him that maybe he had not seen what I was seeing. That I saw this in Guinea Conakry. He said I was talking about Guinea Conakry; what about his own country, Chad? He said Burkina Faso, Mali, Guinea Conakry, and Chad were thinking the same way and they were connected.

“I said that was a new phenomenon in Africa. I said I was the one who in 1999 advocated that if you are not a government backed by the constitution, you should be suspended from the African Union, and these chaps don’t even mind any suspension.

“I told him that all the instruments we had used in the past would not work and asked what he would do about it. He told me about his challenges, especially with his country.

“So we have a situation where we have a continent where we have to rethink democracy. The liberal democracy we are copying from settled societies in the West won’t work for us.”