Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has said that
President Muhammadu Buhari-led government
ignored federal character in the appointment of the
Nigeria's security chiefs. Punch reports that he also berated the National
Assembly and the Federal Character Commission for
failing to check the excesses of the president in the
uneven distribution of public offices.
NAIJ.com gathered that Obasanjo said this on Thursday, February 1, at the secretariat of the Nigeria
Union of Journalists, Oke Ilewo area of Abeokuta ,
shortly after the Coalition for Nigeria Movement was
inaugurated in Ogun state, and he was registered as
a member of the movement. The former President, who was flanked by a former
military administrator of old Ondo state, Gen.
Ekundayo Opaleye and a former minister of state for
defence, Dupe Adelaja, said the ethos of nation
building through even distribution of public offices
had been abused. He said: “Let me emphasise important areas,
programmes, priorities or processes for improved
attention. To start with, we seem to have taken
nation building for granted. Nation building must be
given continued attention to give every citizen a
feeling of belonging and a stake in his or her country. “For instance, the Federal Character principle, as
espoused in our constitution, was to guide the
leadership to search for competent holders of major
offices to be distributed within the entire nation, and
avoid concentration in a few ethnic hands or
geographical places, as we currently have in the leadership of our security apparatus. “To avoid such non-integrative situation, we have
the National Assembly and the Federal Character
Commission, both institutions which must raise the
alarm or call for correction of actions by the
executive that violates the spirit of our constitution.” Obasanjo’s registration came almost 24 hours after
the CNM was inaugurated in Abuja. He arrived the venue at exactly 12.44pm in company
with dignitaries including former governors of Cross
River and Osun states, Donald Duke and Prince
Olagunsoye Oyinlola. The former president, while justifying the need for
the CNM, argued that if all the instruments the country
had used in the quest for nation building and
governance since independence had failed, it was
imperative to try new ways. He said: “If what we have tried in the past has not
taken us to the Promised Land, we have to try
something else and something else is this grassroots
popular movement built from the bottom-up to lead
us, I hope and pray, to the Promised Land.” He, however, warned that if the movement
“decides to transform itself and go into partisan
politics, I will cease to be a member.” Obasanjo further said the spate of violence, and other
forms of criminality had not received sufficient
proactive ameliorative responses through
transformational leadership. He said the youth and women would be carried
along, as “they must be part and parcel of
governance in this country.” Obasanjo, who urged Nigerians to go online and
register as members, said the CNM currently had no
link with other movements. But he, however, said: “if there are people of like
minds, people who share the views and the aims and
objectives of the Coalition for Nigeria Movement who
want to join this movement, we will not object, we
will welcome them.” He said the movement did not regard itself as a third
force, but “it sees itself as a popular movement that
can accommodate all Nigerians irrespective of their
political interest or affiliations and will propel Nigeria
forward.” Obasanjo added: “This is the new message in town,
the new dance in town, the ceremony in town and I
will appeal to you to join this ceremony and dance in
town. “There may be many masquerades and those of
you who had my own type of background, when we
were growing up, we were playing masquerades too
but those were small masquerades, but when big
masquerades come out, the small masquerades must
go.”
Obasanjo later led the gathering to sing a chorus
titled, ‘I see a new Nigeria, in the hands of God.’ Others at the event included a former deputy
governor in Oyo State, Taofeek Arapaja, a two-time
governorship candidate in Ogun state, Prince
Gboyega Isiaka and some other politicians in the
state.

Obj my guy, extremely smart and intelligent. But definitely CNM will be partisan