Twitter User Drags Buhari's Govt for claiming to have out perform OBJ's Govt.
Prior to the upcoming elections in February, Obasanjo declared Peter Obi, the presidential candidate of the Labour Party, as his preferred candidate. The endorsements of the presidency, the ruling All Progressives Party, and the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party poured in for the former president.
Buhari is just ahead of Obasanjo in "backwardness," according to a Twitter user who tweeted a graph illustrating the performance of Nigerian presidents from 1999 to 2021 based on Nigeria's annual GDP growth rate and credited the World Bank as the source of the data.
According to the statistics from the graph, Obasanjo had the best GDP performance as president, with a rate of 15.33% in 2002, while Buhari had the worst performance, with 0.81% in 2017 and 3.35% in 2021.
The Twitter user was responding to a tweet from the Special Assistant on Digital Communications to the President, Bashir Ahmed, who wrote on Monday that, “President Buhari is ahead of Chief Obasanjo in all fields of national development and to do that is cardinal sin to Obasanjo whose hallucinations tell him that he is the best ever to lead Nigeria and there will never be another one better than him. – The Presidency.”
In a letter to Nigerians published on Sunday, Obasanjo named Obi as his preferred candidate for the February 2023 presidential election, according to the PUNCH newspaper.
Obasanjo referred to Obi as his mentee and claimed the former governor of Anambra State had an advantage in the 2023 elections in the 2023 New Year letter, which was signed by the former president and provided to journalists by his aide, Kehinde Akinyemi.
Obasanjo said, “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.
“Others like all of us have what they can collectively contribute to the new dispensation to liberation, restoration and salvaging of Nigeria. One other important point to make about Peter is that he is a needle with thread attached to it from North and South and he may not get lost.
“In other words, he has people who can pull his ears, if and when necessary. He has a young and able running mate with a clean track record of achievement both in public and private life.”
Both the incumbent All Progressives Party and the opposition Peoples Democratic Party have vehemently denounced Obasanjo's support of Obi, who was elected President of the PDP.
According to PUNCH Newspaper, both the APC and PDP asserted that Obasanjo's endorsement of Obi would not matter electorally in the upcoming elections.
In response to Obasanjo's lengthy message, Bayo Onanuga, Director of Media and Publicity for the APC Presidential Campaign Council, stated that Tinubu would not be disturbed by the former president's support of his Labour Party counterpart.
References
Punchng, 'Obasanjo: Buhari ahead in ‘backwardness’, tweep blasts presidency' (online, 2022) <https://punchng.com/obasanjo-buhari-ahead-in-backwardness-tweep-blasts-presidency/>.
