FORMER President, Olusegun Obasanjo, has advised Nigerians not to re-elect President Muhammadu Buhari and his party, the All Progressive Congress (APC) in the coming presidential poll slated for 2019.

Mr Obasanjo said the President and his party have failed to meet up to expectation, hence the need to kick them out in the next election.

He had on January urged the president to shelve the thoughts of a second term in office, citing underperformance.

The former president gave the advise at the Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library (OOPL), Abeokuta while receiving a joint delegation of Nigeria Young Professionals Forum (NYPF) and New Nigeria 2019.

He also noted that the two major political parties, All Progressives Congress (APC) and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), cannot take the nation to the promised land.

He charged the citizens not to be hoodwinked by the reforms promised by the ruling APC or accept the recent apology tendered by the opposition PDP.

Making a veiled reference to the Buhari-led government, the former president noted that the administration was indulging in giving excuses, arguing that the current administration would not have been voted into power if there were no challenges to address.

He wondered why the President was scheming for re-election having allegedly failed to deliver on his electioneering promises to Nigerians.

While urging youths to participate in politics, Obasanjo admonished them not to allow themselves to be divided by the powers that be.

“What those I call power addicts would want to do is to divide you based on gender, age, tribe, religion and region. You have one commonality – interest of Nigeria. And it doesn’t matter where you come from. We had that interest.

“The truth is this: when you have an ineffective and incompetent government, we are all victims. And don’t let anybody deceive you. Those of you who are in business, your business could have been better today if we had a competent and effective and performing government.

“As I said, stop giving excuses; we met challenges. If there are no challenges, then we wouldn’t need you to come. You came in because you know there are challenges and then giving us excuse that you have many challenges, that is why you haven’t achieved results. And then you still want to go.

“The first lesson I learnt in my military training is never reinforce failure. What we have now is failure. Never you reinforce failure. Let failure be failure.

“And if you do not see what you should see, you will then be a victim of what you don’t like because it’s only when you see what you should see and you do what you should do that you put away what you do not like. And if you don’t see what you should see and you don’t do what you should do, you will be a victim of what you don’t like,” he said.

The two groups, led by Moses Siasia and China Anyaso, said they visited the ex-president to consult him on the state of the nation and assured him of their preparedness to respond to his clarion call for a popular movement to rescue Nigeria.