One-time Speaker of the House of Representatives, Ghali Na’Abba, who was always at loggerheads with former President, Olusegun Obasanjo during his
tenure, has advised President Muhammadu Buhari to be wary of the of advice he receives from the erstwhile president.
While urging the President not to allow himself to be distracted by his predecessor, Na’abba told Vanguard in an interview that Obasanjo played a big role in “weakening the legislature”, accusing him of seeking to install “puppets” in certain positions, which along with other actions “culminated in weakening the institution.”
His words, “The other day, I watched on television Obasanjo’s emissary handing over documents to Buhari on power infrastructure developed by his think tank, an action that made me laugh profusely. How could someone who spent $16b on power without achieving anything when he was President bring a proposal on that matter to anybody!” While I would not advise Buhari to repay Obasanjo in his own coins, I would advocate that he should not allow him to be distracting him.”
While expressing reservations over the closeness between the two leaders, the former Speaker said, “I obviously would not want to come between Buhari and Obasanjo. They knew each other in the military. Buhari was variously a minister
and military secretary under him as well as a military governor. So Buhari knows him better than I do. So he knows how to handle him.
However, in 1984, when Buhari became head of state, he said his administration was an offshoot of the Obasanjo administration.
“I was, therefore, baffled when, in 1999, Obasanjo, having become the president, became determined to embarrass Buhari over his headship of the Petroleum Trust Fund (PTF). He instituted probe after probe to find faults with Buhari.
Unfortunately for him he did not find anything. Indeed, he personally harassed and interrogated Buhari. I was in the government, so I know all these. He went on to disband the PTF in spite of the important infrastructural projects being undertaken by the body, against the advice of some of us.
“The nation lost so much to this singular misadventure in monetary terms that I personally called into question Obasanjo’s patriotic credentials.”
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