President Muhammadu Buhari and former president Olusegun Obasanjo/Channels
The Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) has asked former president Olusegun Obasanjo to act like a statesman and stop running down the country’s democracy. This charge came in on Sunday following Obasanjo’s 16-page letter to President Muhammadu Buhari. Obasanjo had in the letter accused Buhari and the Independent National Electoral Commission (Inec) of plotting to rig the 2019 elections. He had also noted that the country is going back to the days of its former Head of State, Sani Abacha. However, the ACF has said Obasanjo “Abacha never conducted elections. “If that is what he (Obasanjo) said, I would submit that most Nigerians were not aware since Abacha never conducted any elections before he died. “And given the fact that we do not know the alleged plans by the present regime to rig the elections, it would be wrong for any group to be worried. “This is because any worry would amount to vote of no confidence on our democratic institutions like INEC which has assured the nation of the commission’s readiness to conduct free and fair elections by improving on the performance recorded in the previous elections in 2015.” It added that “Even though the former president is fully partisan and may go any length to cast aspersions on the ruling party and the democratic institutions under her watch, it would be worthy of him to note that he cannot plough off his status as a statesman who is expected to help build and strengthen our democratic institutions for performance, and not to run them down without suggestions on how best to improve them.” Famzn News understands that Obasanjo described the Federal Government’s Trader Moni Scheme as “idiotic.” He also noted that the scheme might just be an indirect way of buying votes from Nigerians as the 2019 elections inches closer.