Ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo.
Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has said that the policy of lopsided appointments against merit and competence pursued by the Buhari administration has divided Nigeria along religious, ethnic, and other fault lines.
Speaking at the 50th anniversary of the Federal Government College, Kaduna, Obasanjo said for such reasons, Nigeria is presently on the "precipice," adding that " to be forewarned is to be fore-armed."
The former president further disclosed that he was worried about Nigeria's present poor economy, rising inflation, the high indices of poverty and hardship, and " seeming uncontrollable insecurity" in the country, according to SaharaReporters.
Obasanjo said, “Once again, our nation is dancing on the precipice and some of us are truly worried about the state of affairs today. I expressed that worry in my open letter to Nigerians and Nigerian youths on New Year’s Day.
“As I stated in the letter; ‘If we fall prey again, we will have ourselves to blame and no one can say how many more knocks Nigeria can take before it tips over. To be forewarned is to be fore-armed.’ Of course, I pray that Nigeria will never tip over. We must constantly work at it and pray.
“My worry is premised on several issues. First, I am concerned that the current state of our nation’s economy has widened the gulf of inequality and left many people in despair. Inflation is on the rise; poverty and hardship have returned to many households.
"The last decade has reversed many of the economic gains that were made in the first decade of the century. There is a general sense of hopelessness across the nation with seemingly uncontrollable insecurity.”
Obasanjo also decried what he called, "political mischief, " which has been deliberately used to sideline some religious and ethnic groups and disregard safeguards previously built into the system to ensure that every part of the country is treated fairly.
“In addition to the economic hardship is political mischief. Never have we been so politically divided along religious, ethnic, and other fault lines and deliberately so.
"Appointments in government are skewed and lopsided based on nepotism and mediocrity and disregard of merit and competence,” he said.
“Elections are here and may compound the problem. Political parties and politicians have now been emboldened to discard some of the things that were put in place to give all groups a sense of belonging.
"Exclusion is being taken as normal. Disunity stares us in the face and many of our leaders are more concerned about their selfish interests than the survival and health of our nation,” he noted.
Politics and Opinion.
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