2019: Obasanjo receives Tanimu Turaki, blames leadership for Nigeria’s under-performance

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has attributed Nigeria’s under-performance to the problem of leadership.
Speaking when he granted audience to a frontline Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential aspirant, Kabiru Tanimu Turaki (SAN) at his residence in Abeokuta, Ogun State on Thursday, the former President said, however, that he had not lost hope because God has blessed Nigeria with men and women of calibre who can stand their own in the world.
Obasanjo noted that having listened to the speeches of Turaki and Boni Haruna (D-G Kabiru Tanimu Turaki Campaign Organisation), “we are not short of leadership that can perform, and that leadership has to be given opportunity to serve”.
He pointed out that Turaki had analysed what needed to be rectified or put right in the current situation facing the country. “Your analysis is correct and coherent”, he said.
The former president, who recalled that he consulted widely in 1998/1999 just as Turaki is doing now, revealed that he accepted to be drafted into the presidential campaign because of the need to unite the country. 
“Listening to you, I believe you have got the concerns of Nigerians today in the area of security, economy and cohesion. Anybody who will lead Nigeria to the promised land will have my support”, the former president said.
He referred to the siege laid to the residences of the Senate President and his deputy, saying that he feels embarrassed by a number of things, “especially these days that the social media will post them real time. We are in a position to do better than what we are doing today”.
Obasanjo said further that what Turaki had been doing is to firm up and stabilise Nigeria’s democracy which, he believes, is making some progress. 
He explained that the statement he issued in January was not done frivolously, noting that a nation can be destroyed not necessarily when people are doing bad things but when people keep quiet when danger looms. 
Turaki, who described Obasanjo as the ‘Father of Modern Nigeria’ said that it is people like him who speak truth to power that are working assiduously for a united country. 
The aspirant stressed that there is need to take up the challenge of rescuing Nigerians from the plethora of problems such as insecurity, poverty, divisiveness and hopelessness confronting them today . 
He said that with the support of respected leaders like Obasanjo “we know that we would be able to rescue our country as we have no other place to go.”
Turaki, who was also at the Ogun State PDP secretariat, received positive remarks when he met with elders, delegates and other members led by the chairman, Adewale Sikirulai Ogundele. 
He restated his commitment to the principle of restructuring covering all facets for the maximum good of a greater number of Nigerians. 
He promised also that if he succeeds to become president, his administration would examine every law including the constitution to make sure that those not serving the people fairly are amended.