Using my letter to fight my father shameful, Iyabo Obasanjo tells Buhari’s supporters

Iyabo and Obasanjo

Ayorinde Oluokun/Abuja

Former Nigerian Senator, Dr Iyabo Obasanjo is not happy with the ongoing re-circulation of  an old letter she wrote to castigate his father over his verdict on the then President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration.

An old letter written by the former Senator to her father, a former Nigerian President has been circulating online in response to a recent letter in which Obasanjo asked President Muhammadu Buhari not to seek another term of office in 2019.

The former President had in the ‘special statement’ he circulated last Tuesday accused President Buhari and his administration of corruption incompetence, nepotism.

The old letter of the former Senator to her father started making the rounds on the social media few days after the release of Obasanjo’s damning verdict on the Buhari administration.

In reaction to digging up of the letter, Senator Obasanjo, first child of the former in a strongly worded statement issued from her Virginia, United States base on Saturday evening accused the Buhari administration of dodging the fundamental issues of bad governance raised in the statement issued by her father.

According to her, instead of drawing wisdom from her father who she described as of “one of the most brilliant leaders to ever emerge in modern Africa,” apologists of Buhari administration have “resorted to a cheap tactic that further reiterates the message that they found abhorrent enough to start looking for unconnected issues to put together to make their point”

She advised President Buhari to take the advice that he should not seek re-election in 2019 by his father in his statement in good faith: “To say that Nigeria has problems is to make an understatement. The wise should listen, wherever help and advice come from. Those who republished the old letter should have spent time to respond to the content of the said statement which, among other things, called on President Buhari to join the rank of retired elder statesmen in 2019. I would think this was appropriate and even unnecessary advice, given the serious medical problems he has had over the last few years.

Senator Obasanjo affirmed she has no relationship with the Buhari administration nor with the preceding Jonathan regime.

“The wise should listen, wherever help and advice come from. Those who republished the old letter should have spent time to respond to the content of the said statement,” Senator Obasanjo who served in the Nigerian Senate from 2007 to 2011 said.

Senator Obasanjo, now a university professor in Virginia, United States, in the statement said: “My attention has been drawn to the republishing (in social media) of a letter from 2013 that has since been overturned by events. I am surprised that agents of the current Nigerian administration who should benefit from the advice and admonishment of one of the most brilliant leaders to ever emerge in modern Africa have resorted to a cheap tactic that further reiterates the message that they found abhorrent enough to start looking for unconnected issues to put together to make their point.

“To say that Nigeria has problems is to make an understatement. The wise should listen, wherever help and advice come from. Those who republished the old letter should have spent time to respond to the content of the said statement which, among other things, called on President Buhari to join the rank of retired elder statesmen in 2019. I would think this was appropriate and even unnecessary advice, given the serious medical problems he has had over the last few years.

“I have had no connection with his administration or to the previous one after I left the Senate in 2011, and to try and use me and my name as some excuse is shameful. I agree with the contents of the open letter and like all people that wish Africa well, hope that Nigeria someday comes out of its death spiral to become a leading nation in the world.

“It is tiring to continue to be part of the Nigerian conversation when there is no positive impact to it. I really do not want to be part of it, as I have found over and over again that speech and words are wasted on people who have no understanding of the responsibility on us as black people on this planet.”