Former Nigerian President, Olusegun Obasanjo has stated that he is more than convinced that neither the ruling political party, APC nor the main opposition, PDP can lead Nigeria at this time.
Obasanjo made his assertion in a 13-page letter to President Muhammadu Buhari, suggesting that Nigerians opt for a new alternative.
“I have had occasion in the past to say that the two main political parties – APC and PDP – were wobbling,” he said in the letter titled, ‘The Way Out: A Clarion Call For Coalition For Nigeria Movement’.
He noted that, “I must reiterate that nothing has happened to convince me otherwise. If anything, I am reinforced in my conviction. The recent show of PDP must give grave and great concern to lovers of Nigeria.
“To claim, as has been credited to the chief kingmaker of PDP, that for procuring the Supreme Court judgement for his faction of the Party, he must dictate the tune all the way and this is indeed fraught with danger.
“If neither APC nor PDP is a worthy horse to ride to lead Nigeria at this crucial and critical time, what then do we do?\
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He then suggested a theory. “Remember Farooq Kperogi, an Associate Professor at the Kennesaw State University, Georgia, United States, calls it “a cruel Hobson’s choice; it’s like a choice between six and half a dozen, between evil and evil.
“Any selection or deflection would be a distinction without a difference.” We cannot just sit down lamenting and wringing our hands desperately and hopelessly.
“I believe the situation we are in today is akin to what and where we were in at the beginning of this democratic dispensation in 1999. The nation was tottering.
“People became hopeless and saw no bright future in the horizon. It was all a dark cloud politically, economically and socially. The price of oil at that time was nine dollars per barrel and we had a debt overhang of about $35 billion.
“Most people were confused with lack of direction in the country. One of the factors that saved the situation was a near government of national unity that was put in place to navigate us through the dark cloud.
“We had almost all hands on deck. We used people at home and from the diaspora and we navigated through the dark cloud of those days.
“At that time, most people were hopelessly groping in the dark.
“They saw no choice, neither in the left nor in the right, and yet we were not bereft of people at home and from the diaspora that could come together to make Nigeria truly a land flowing with milk and honey.
“Where we are is a matter of choice but we can choose differently to make a necessary and desirable change, once again,” he submitted.
