TheCable

Iyabo Obasanjo, daughter of former President Olusegun Obasanjo, has advised President Muhammadu Buhari to heed her father’s advice and retire in 2019.

In a statement issued to Vanguard, Iyabo criticised supporters of Buhari’s administration for regurgitating a well publicised open letter she had written her father in 2013.

Iyabo accused the Buhari administration of evading the “fundamental issues of bad governance” raised in the special statement issued by her father.

She said Buhari’s supporters had resorted to “a cheap tactic” by focusing on “unconnected issues” instead of heeding the “advice and admonishment of one of the most brilliant leaders to ever emerge in modern Africa”.

Her statement read: “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.”