One Twitter user, Hally Ramzy, has blasted the presidency for saying that the president, Major Gnereal Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), is ahead of former President Olusegun Obasanjo in all consequences.
After Obasanjo backed Labor Party presidential nominee Peter Obi as his preferred candidate for president ahead of the upcoming February elections, the presidency, the ruling All Progressives Party and the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party had all lobbied hard for the ex-president .
However, the Twitter user, who shared a chart of Nigerian presidents’ performance from 1999 to 2021 based on Nigeria’s annual GDP growth rate and cited the World Bank as the source of the shared data, said Buhari only predicted Obasanjo in “backwardness.”
The data shared from the chart ranked Obasanjo as the best-performing president in terms of GDP with the highest rate of 15.33% in 2002, while Buhari with 0.81% in 2017 and 3.35% in 2021 as the was classified as the lowest performer.
Describing the graphic, Twitter user @HallyRamzy wrote: “Bashir said Buhari was way ahead of Obasanjo on every count, this was proof that Buhari was really way ahead of backwardness on every count. Data doesn’t lie. Nigerians, it is very clear: VOTE WHITE.”
The Twitter user responded to a tweet by the Special Assistant for Digital Communications to President Bashir Ahmed, who wrote on Monday: “President Buhari is ahead of Chief Obasanjo in every area of national development and to do so is a mortal sin Obasanjo whose hallucinations he.” say he is the best Nigeria has ever led and there will never be anyone better than him. – The Presidency.”
The PUNCH reported Sunday that in a letter to Nigerians, Obasanjo endorsed Obi as his preferred candidate for president ahead of the 2023 presidential election in February.
In the 2023 New Year message, signed by the former president and made available to journalists by his assistant Kehinde Akinyemi, Obasanjo described Obi as his mentee and said the former Anambra state governor has an advantage in the 2023 election.
Obasanjo said: “None of the candidates is a saint, but if you compare their character, their background, their understanding, their knowledge, their discipline, their vitality that they can bring and the great effort that it takes to settle on.” to focus the work, especially considering where the country is today and with the experience on the job that I’ve had personally, Peter Obi has an advantage as a mentee.
“Others, like all of us, have what they can collectively contribute to the new dispensation to liberate, restore and save Nigeria.
“Another important point to make about Peter is that he is a needle with a thread attached from north and south and he must not be lost.
“In other words, he has people who can pull his ears if need be. He has a young and capable comrade-in-arms with a solid track record in both public and private life.”
The ruling All Progressives Party and the opposition Peoples Democratic Party have strongly protested Obasanjo’s endorsement of Obi, who took power as president under the PDP.
PUNCH reported that APC and PDP both claimed that Obasanjo’s support of Obi would have no electoral value in the upcoming election.
In response to Obasanjo’s lengthy message, Bayo Onanuga, director, media and public relations, APC Presidential Campaign Council, told Tinubu he would not lose sleep at the former president’s support for his Labor Party counterpart.
Speaking to The PUNCH over the phone, PDP National Publicity Secretary Debo Ologunagba said: “What is important is the support of the Nigerian people. Supporting one person, no matter how high, does not lead to victory in the elections.
Read Obasanjo’s full text here