Obasanjo keeps mum over Buhari’s reelection | Nairalaw

As congratulatory messages continued to pour in from within and
outside the country over the re-election of President Muhammadu
Buhari, former President, Olusegun Obasanjo has kept mum over the
development.

The Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission
(INEC), Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, in the early hours of Wednesday
declared Buhari winner of the Saturday’s presidential polls.

Prominent and well-meaning Nigerians as well as international
leaders have since been commending and congratulating Buhari over
his victory in the election, widely adjudged as peaceful and
credible.

Obasanjo,who had been quite vocal in the build-p to the election
has, however, appears to have suddenly gone into hiding by keeping
silent since the result was announced.

Telephone calls made to Obasanjo’s Media Aide, Mr Kehinde
Akinyemi, by the correspondent of the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN)
were not picked while text messages sent to him for reaction were
neither acknowledged nor replied.

NAN recalls that Obasanjo, had severally castigated Buhari, and
openly campaigned against him few months to the election.

The former president also endorsed and adopted Atiku Abubakar,
the presidential candidate of the major opposition party, the
Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), whom he had once accused and
condemned over corruption claims.

He had also told Nigerians that God would not forgive him
(Obasanjo) if he ever supported Atiku to be president.

He, however, later changed political gear to ensure that Buhari
was not re-elected.

The presidency has however repeatedly asked Nigerians to ignore
Mr Obasanjo, saying Mr Buhari’s performance in office was enough to
earn him re-election.

From the results announced by INEC, Buhari had defeated Atiku in
Obasanjo’s polling unit in Abeokuta and also scored a total of
15,191,847 to defeat Atiku, his closest rival who scored 11,262,978
votes.