The Coalition of Northern Groups (CNG) has said that former President Muhammadu Buhari never wanted President Bola Tinubu to succeed him.
The coalition said this in reaction to the former president’s confession that the withdrawal of oil subsidy was not motivated by the country’s economic interests but rather as a political move to benefit the All Progressives Congress (APC) and its then-candidate, Tinubu, in the February 25 presidential elections.
Buhari’s confession was contained in a statement issued by his spokesman, Mallam Garba Shehu.
However, the confession attracted severe criticism from many Nigerians, provoking further questions about the Buhari administration’s commitment to promoting national interest against personal interests.
The decision to remove fuel subsidy itself drew serious criticism, with many commentators highlighting the multiplier effect on every sector of the economy.
Reacting, the Spokesperson of the Coalition of Northern Groups, Abdul-Azeez Suleiman said, “The confession by the former President Buhari did not come as a surprise to us at the CNG. If anything, it is a confirmation of what we have been pointing out throughout the eight years of that citadel of poor governance, indifference, insensitivity and unprecedented plunder that was the Buhari presidency.
“We however disagree slightly with Buhari because everyone is aware by now that he never wanted Tinubu to win, and never worked for his victory.
“Instead, he supported policy directions and encouraged actions that clearly aimed to subvert it. The failure of the Buhari administration to announce the removal of the fuel subsidy was merely one out of the several indecisions, lack of courage and political will to tackle national issues around security, the economy and reintegration that characterized an administration wrapped in the crude cover of crass political opportunism and breathtaking ineptitude.
“It is part of the burdens of the shared legacy of the Buhari administration in the bombs and bullets of insurgents, bandits, and the deteriorating standards of living as politicians and top government officials fleeced the poor of resources to develop, officials whose personal greed and ambitions remained tied to the continuation of decay and destruction of a nation and a people.
“He treated as enemies those of us who tried to wake him up to the magnitude of the humanitarian disaster that criminal activities have created with about five million of our fellow citizens internally displaced with hundreds of thousands of orphans, hunger and malnourishment, previously unknown in our land becoming alarming features of existence.
“Buhari’s confession is part of the unfortunate eight years under a leader who had spent a large part of his life asking all Nigerians to trust him to lead, but ended up getting the nation critically endangered by officials who failed to lead with justice and sensitivity to its plural nature and the limitations of our political process.
“Buhari’s confession had only proved that the nation was not wrong when it insisted that his image and vision were not being served by the quality and competence of almost all of the people he assembled to work with him and see the nation through its most difficult period.
“It is a vindication for those of us who were labelled enemies for insisting that the Buhari administration could do much better in managing the economy, in the all-important fight against corruption within the laws of the land, and in rebuilding a nation united around the values of justice and honest enterprise.
“It is a vindication for those of us who reminded him daily that hunger was stalking millions of homes, inflation was making life difficult by the day; people were losing jobs, businesses closing down, and infrastructure was decaying. It is also a belated admission that in the last eight years, he led an administration that had acquired the reputation of being the worst in the history of our nation in terms of any capacity to generate confidence in achieving credible national goals.”
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