ABUJA – Signs that ex-president Olusegun Obasanjo subtly amassed support
for the election of General Mohammadu Buhari as the Nigeria’s next
president and also wants him to succeed in office became evident Thusday
when he handed over a report of a strategic development plan to Buhari.
The
reports contained templates that would assist the incoming government
to rapidly achieve its objectives of taking the nation a notch higher.
Top on the list were Education, Power sector, Economy, Security and Infrastructure.
The
development followed a research work embarked upon by the Centre for
Human Security of the Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library on major
social challenges facing Nigeria 4 months ago.
The event which
took place at the Buhari Support Organization, BSO’s office in Abuja
featured the chairman, governing board of the Centre for Human Security
of Obasanjo Presidential Library, Professor Akin Mabogunje, who was
incidentally the chairman of the committee, former Minister of Finance
and Committees vice chairman, Dr. Kalu Idika Kalu who present volumes of
the report to Buhari and Dr. Christopher Kolade who headed the power
committee.
Speaking to Journalists at the end of the brief
ceremony that was held behind closed doors, Mabogunje said the report
contained policy documents that would help the president-elect
restructure Nigeria, revealing that Buhari was full of thanks for the
documents.
He said: “Centre for Human Security of the Olusegun
Obasanjo Presidential Liberary has being working on a number of critical
issues for the development of this country and they have now sent a
delegation of those who’ve been involved with the preparation of those
policy documents to talk to the president-elect and get him to
appreciate what is being done to help his administration. That’s why we
are here.
“We’ve looked at education, security, economy, power
and Infrastructure. Those are the areas we’ve made recommendations and
which we hope the new administration will be able to work on.
“He
(Buhari) was very happy that we’ve been thinking about how to help him
hit the ground running and he expressed his appreciation for what we’ve
been doing.”
Giving details of the reports, Dr. Kolade explained the long, medium and short terms goals of the report.
According to him, the strategic plan hoped to raise the country’s power generation to 10,000 MW within a short period of time.
Expanding
thoughts on the development also, the Buhari’s media spokesperson,
Mallam Garba Shehu said “the whole idea was that Obasanjo set up his own
think- tank with the aim of carrying out a study on challenges facing
the country in five key areas of Education, Power sector, Economy,
Security and Infrastructure. The study was commissioned four months ago
so that the outcome will be made available to the incoming
administration after the election.”
He also stated that the
president-elect expressed gratitude to Obasanjo for their kind gesture,
however regretting that the outgoing regime of president Goodluck
Jonathan had not done anything close to that.
“An appreciative
President-elect expressed gratitude to Obasanjo and his team, describing
their intervention as a great impetus for the incoming government.
Buhari
regretted that the out-going government that is supposed to give him
tips on how to take-off has done nothing so far. He thanked the
Obasanjo for their gesture, assuring them that his incoming
administration will be needing their advice as time goes on”, Shehu
said.
Mallam Ahmed Joda, chairman of Buhari transition committee
refused to speak in his capacity as the transition committee chairman
when asked by Journalists to make input.
“I am here not in the
capacity of the chairman of the transition committee. I am here because I
am a chairman of one of the committees of the centre that consider
security issues at the Obasanjo centre for human security”, he said.
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