By Ishaya Ibrahim
Acting News Editor
Radical politician and second Republic lawmaker, Dr Junaid Mohammed, has advised President Muhammadu Buhari of Nigeria to resign because he said that the president lacked the capacity to perform and cannot also be reformed.
Mohammed was reacting to former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s letter in which the former leader advised Buhari not to seek a second term.
“As far as I am concerned, whatever Obasanjo had said was merely a repetition of what I said two years ago. I still stand by my conviction that Buhari should be persuaded not only to go for a second term, but to also leave government. He has done what he could do. He is completely without any ideas, even bad ideas. He should pack his relations and his gangster friends who are dominating his thinking and get out and go back to Daura or Kaduna State.”
The Russian trained medical doctor said that he agreed with Obasanjo that Buhari lacked administrative and management competence.
“There is massive economic illiteracy and political illiteracy. There is lack of performance whether you are talking about security performance as depicted in the Boko Haram struggle in the North East, the situation in the Niger Delta with those miscreants and of course the Fulani herdsmen issue with the local farmers in Benue and Taraba.
“And I have said that these problems are complete inability on the part of Buhari to govern this country. And I said the man cannot perform, he cannot be reformed. The best thing will be for him to resign. I had given the indications of the danger to overthrow him by extra constitutional means. I also gave warning about the possibility of his wanting to do a second-term and use the armed forces and the money they are gathering in the presidency to win the election,” he said.
Mohammed also said that Buhari had been shielding corrupt members of his administration.
“Of course, you know that the anti-corruption war with which he championed his political programming has now grounded because some of the people who are caught and who are wanted by the EFCC are being protected by Buhari himself.
“You know they wanted to arrest his chief of staff, he protected the chief of staff. Up till now, he has not handed the chief of staff to the EFCC. Democracy is impossible without the rule of law. There is no law that says anybody, apart from those itemised in the constitution, has immunity. But not his chief of staff. Why is it that this chief of staff cannot go and report himself to the EFCC and answer questions. And the charges for which the chief of staff is wanted by the EFCC, all the charges are known to Buhari and the file is with him. So what are we talking about,” Mohammed said.
On Obasanjo’s dismissal of APC and PDP in the 2019 election, Mohammed said that the two parties were like two sides of the same coin.
“Both are very badly run, both are very corrupt, both have no respect for the rule of law. Impunity is the order of the day in the two of them.
“I had said APC had a chance to work itself towards legality and towards political legitimacy and towards political competence by moving further to the left and committing itself to the role of government in the management of Nigerian economy. If they don’t do that, they stood the chance of being dismissed as a party of corrupt, irresponsible people and Nigerians are going to back away from them the way they backed away from PDP. I made this assessment a month after Buhari was sworn-in and I still stand by that assessment.
On what choice of candidates and political parties for Nigerians now, given that election is just around the corner, Mohammed explained that Politics is not just about personalities.
“Personalities are important. But in the situation we’ve found ourselves, agreeing to certain assumptions, agreeing to what needs to be done as far as national security is concerned, as far as the specific issues of the Fulani herdsmen problem. It is better to come together and agree and after that we can now agree on who will go and mend the issues.
“At the moment, I can’t see anybody. Buhari, given his lousy performance cannot do anything. If you read what Obasanjo said, he is talking about national coalition. Its very important because political notions and political problems are based on coalition of ideas.
“Now, Buhari has no idea, the APC has no idea, its not even run on democratic norms. Everybody is there to get whatever they can get for themselves. That was how PDP was run. If Buhari is allowed to run and PDP is allowed to nominate somebody, it will be a choice between two evils. They will solve nothing. That is what is called in political science, election without choice. I will rather we don’t hold the election than have an election that will resolve none of our political issues,” he said.
