A politician's word is not worth the paper it's written on, an anonymous person probably said one time in passing conversation, so it is instructive to review every contemporary statement against the infallible backdrop of history.
Today news broke that ex-president Olusegun Obasanjo had finally shed his subtlety and endorsed the opposition's leader, General Muhammadu Buhari - even going so far as to suggest that President Jonathan is 'mediocre.'
Oh, well. It's politics.
We take a walk down memory lane (2012, to be precise) where General Muhammadu Buhari accused President Jonathan, Ibrahim Babangida and Olusegun Obasanjo of 'killing' Nigeria's oil industry.
He also blamed the nation's insurgency on the actions of these three men.
According to Sahara reporters (read here), Buhari said: "The biggest challenge of Nigeria is for adequate security to be in place and ways in which we can protect the riches of this country and provide job opportunities for the youths in the country, so that we can build more industries as it was before."
“Inability of these industries to work has brought mistrust and corruption to Nigeria. Therefore, our leaders have to be sincere and lead with the fear of God and carry all along for Nigeria to be a better place.”
In 2004, Vanguard reported this story: "PRESIDENTIAL candidate of the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP), General Muhammadu Buhari, has accused President Olusegun Obasanjo of habitually shedding crocodile tears after each mayhem in the country "when he would have averted them through purposeful leadership and genuine concern for the lives and welfare of the citizens."
In a statement in Abuja, General Buhari was quoted by his spokesman, Mr. Uche Ezechukwu, as lamenting "the inability of the Obasanjo administration under whose tenure Nigeria has recorded the greatest number of violent incidents and consequently the highest number of losses of innocent lives since the civil war, to have found a proactive formula for stemming the tide of those frequent and totally avoidable incidents.""
Today, when asked what he thought of Obasanjo endorsing him, Buhari said on CNN: "I am happy about it. It means more supporters and more confidence for those still sitting on the fence. He's well respected. No serious issue can happen (in Nigeria) without people seeking his opinion and listening to it."
This is reminiscent of El-Rufai's seemingly staunch support of Buhari right now when in the past he wrote polemics against the general, and it also strikes familiar chords of Femi Fani-Kayode's calling President Jonathan a lamb sitting on a lion's throne.
Today news broke that ex-president Olusegun Obasanjo had finally shed his subtlety and endorsed the opposition's leader, General Muhammadu Buhari - even going so far as to suggest that President Jonathan is 'mediocre.'
Oh, well. It's politics.
We take a walk down memory lane (2012, to be precise) where General Muhammadu Buhari accused President Jonathan, Ibrahim Babangida and Olusegun Obasanjo of 'killing' Nigeria's oil industry.
He also blamed the nation's insurgency on the actions of these three men.
According to Sahara reporters (read here), Buhari said: "The biggest challenge of Nigeria is for adequate security to be in place and ways in which we can protect the riches of this country and provide job opportunities for the youths in the country, so that we can build more industries as it was before."
“Inability of these industries to work has brought mistrust and corruption to Nigeria. Therefore, our leaders have to be sincere and lead with the fear of God and carry all along for Nigeria to be a better place.”
In 2004, Vanguard reported this story: "PRESIDENTIAL candidate of the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP), General Muhammadu Buhari, has accused President Olusegun Obasanjo of habitually shedding crocodile tears after each mayhem in the country "when he would have averted them through purposeful leadership and genuine concern for the lives and welfare of the citizens."
In a statement in Abuja, General Buhari was quoted by his spokesman, Mr. Uche Ezechukwu, as lamenting "the inability of the Obasanjo administration under whose tenure Nigeria has recorded the greatest number of violent incidents and consequently the highest number of losses of innocent lives since the civil war, to have found a proactive formula for stemming the tide of those frequent and totally avoidable incidents.""
Today, when asked what he thought of Obasanjo endorsing him, Buhari said on CNN: "I am happy about it. It means more supporters and more confidence for those still sitting on the fence. He's well respected. No serious issue can happen (in Nigeria) without people seeking his opinion and listening to it."
This is reminiscent of El-Rufai's seemingly staunch support of Buhari right now when in the past he wrote polemics against the general, and it also strikes familiar chords of Femi Fani-Kayode's calling President Jonathan a lamb sitting on a lion's throne.
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