Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has said leaders who fail to deliver good governance should not seek re-election, warning that ineffective leadership harms all Nigerians.
Obasanjo spoke during a recent interaction with business owners, where he criticised what he described as poor governance without mentioning any specific administration.
“You can’t fail to govern people well and still want re-election,” he said.
“When you have an ineffective, incompetent government, we are all victims. Don’t let anybody deceive you — those of you in business, your business would have been better today if we had a competent, effective and performing government.”
The former president also dismissed excuses often given by leaders for underperformance. “You come in because you know there are challenges. And then giving us excuses that you have many challenges, that’s why you haven’t achieved results — and then you still want to go,” he said.
Drawing from his military background, Obasanjo added, “The first lesson I learned in my military training is never enforce failure. What we have now is failure. Never enforce failure.”
Although he did not mention any individual, some users on X interpreted his comments as a veiled criticism of President Bola Tinubu.
An X user, DGov, wrote, “Tinubu even thinking of coming back for a second term should be considered a serious crime against the Nigerian people, honestly, let alone trying to destroy Nigeria’s multi-party democracy.”
