The Arewa Youths Consultative Forum has formally reacted to the statement released by former President Olusegun Obasanjo advising President Muhammadu Buhari to shelve his plan to seek second term in 2019. In an interview with Vanguard, the President of the Forum, Alhaji Yerima Shettima said the content of Obasanjo's statement is the same message the Forum has been preaching all along. He said although Obasanjo and Buhari are the same, the message is clear and must be heeded.
He accused President Buhari's 'blind supporters' of being sycophantic and failing to tell him the truth.
According to him;
“Obasanjo is saying what people like us saw from inception. We saw it coming earlier than now. We felt patriotism does not mean if government favours you, you cannot be objective. Being objective means even if it is your father that is doing something strong, you should summon courage to say it is right or wrong.
To me, I strongly believe that the only way you can show you love Buhari is to tell him the simple truth, which we did long before now but when we advised him how to do better than the previous governments, we were tagged Buhari’s enemy by his blind followers who felt whatever he does is right.
It is not done that way because, government is like a barrack. Anybody can be there. “This is democracy. It is about the people. Your primary responsibility has to be the welfare of the people. Anything short of that is a total failure. You cannot torture people in the name of governance. people are dying because of hardship.if You do that, you waste all the goodwill. The blind followers will follow you.
We felt that if Buhari fails, it is the north that has failed.We feel the pains of Nigerians. According to him, even though president Obasanjo did not do better when he was in office, his message cannot be ignored. It is not because Obasanjo is better than Buhari but the message is Important. Obasanjo is the architect of what we have today. His words are important than him.
I commend him for his courage. He should have said that before now. The time Buhari should have performed he was complaining. So many people have spoken. Hali Na’Abba has spoken.They cannot all be Buhari’s enemies”, he said.
He also accused the President of being lopsided in his fight against corruption.
“Two weeks ago, we issued a statement warning him(Buhari) not to contest the 2019 general election because he is yet to fulfill his 2015 election campaign promises. We are also not in support of how he is fighting corruption in the country. Imagine what is going even within the so-called ‘cabals’ where issues bothering on corruption are dangling over their heads.
We are in line with what former President Obasanjo said. He (Buhari) should give way since he cannot fix the country and allow others with the capacity to do so come on board. Let him go home and rest in 2019.”
