Former Nigerian President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo seems to have carried the anti-Buhari campaign to the international community, Per Second News gathered Thursday in Washington.
Obasanjo in a letter to President Muhammadu Buhari recently asked him not to seek for a second term in office, saying each day President Buhari offers fresh proof that he is failing the office that Nigerians entrusted to him.
Information indicate that the former President has commenced high level talks with some powerful institutions in Washington, partnering with a former top U.S official with vast network of media and institutional lobby groups.
The group is able to operate within the halls of power in Washington and has the power to mobilize bipartisan support in the U.S congress to form a comprehensive Nigeria policy in Capitol Hill.
A member of the team who spoke to Per Second News in ‘high Confidentiality’ said the U.S. foreign policy toward Nigeria should be to push for a regime change in 2019.
In order to pressure President Muhammadu Buhari, not to seek for second term, the official pointed to the use of diplomatic, economic and covert actions.
He also told this newspaper that the U.S. should “support internal domestic dissent” within the country in order to get their desired outcome, noting that there are multiple minority ethnic groups in the middle belt, North East, and the South who “aren’t enthusiastic about living in another four years of the Buhari led administration’s nepotism and insecurity.
He lamented the chorus of criticism, complaining of paralysis and a lack of urgency under his leadership in tackling the economic malaise.
He alleged that Buhari’s legitimacy was built on empty showmanship, hyped-up claim of morality and discipline coupled with dose of disdain for elitism, all overshadowed by the economic crisis he was not equipped to tackle.
Another member of the team also expressed safety concerns with the federal government in its current state.
He cited the deployment of soldiers that has resulted in many cases of excessive use of force, unlawful killings and extrajudicial executions throughout Nigeria.
He said recent herdsmen violence has been brazen and seemingly unprovoked with villages, farmlands and communities attacked and razed at night leading some to describe the attacks as genocide.
The slow response of the Buhari government has also been criticized by human rights group and civil society groups, he said.
The agenda is set to get a boost later this month when President Donald Trump announces his Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs at the State Department.
Per Second News gathered that the Trump administration plans to nominate, J. Peter Pham for the position.
Pham, a close ally to Obasanjo’s friends in Washington has written profusely on Africa and rejects previous approach of president Barack Obama that democracy and human rights should be the cornerstone of US support for Africa.
Pham emphasized that security, good governance and economic growth should be the cornerstone.
In an event attended by Per Second News last year, Pham talked about ‘earned engagement’ with the US, implying that African governments must first win America’s respect, or at least its favour.
“The US has continued its longstanding practice of funding programs that are aimed at promoting fair elections and human rights, but also strengthen opposition groups,political parties and the people’s movement, said a longtime friend of Obasanjo, who owns a leading lobbyist group in New York.
“There’s absolutely some organic movement against the government to continue in 2019, he revealed.
The fresh plot is being unveiled hours after Obasanjo stormed the Ogun State Secretariat of the Nigeria Union of journalists Thursday in Abeokuta to inaugurate the Coalition for Nigeria Movement.
Obasanjo said it had become imperative for the nation to “rethink and retool the way” things are done today if the country hoped to witness true development, cooperation and unity.
He accused President Buhari of violating the principle of federal character in the appointment of heads of security agencies in the country.
“A body of professionals and civil society activists have identified with the Coalition for Nigeria Movement, the group said in an email sent to Per Second News Thursday morning.
The Coalition for Nigeria Movement said that the group known as Civil Society and Professionals Coalition for Nigeria (CSPCN) has joined the Obasanjo led group to rescue Nigerians from politicians in 2019.
“Today, the country appears to have transited from the domain of bad governance to the zone of a failed state, said CSPCN.
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