Former President Olusegun Obasanjo yesterday described President Muhammadu Buhari as a good leader, saying he not only has listening ears, but is also anxious to learn.
He stated this when he led some Colombian security experts to meet with the president at Aso Rock to share their experience in tackling insurgency.
Speaking to journalists after the meeting, Obasanjo said Nigeria needed to take a cue from Colombia in respect to how that country had been able to manage that insurgency it had been battling with for more than 50 years.
He said: “I have come to see the president for two reasons. The first one is the one you have just seen: I brought a delegation of those of us who visited Colombia last year under the auspices of a foundation which I am the chairman.
“We went to Colombia to see how the Colombian authorities were handling the issue of insurgency which had been with them for more than 50 years. As a result of that visit and the experience we had, a book was produced and I said to them that it will be interesting for us in Nigeria to learn as much as we can learn from the experience of Colombia.”
On how the president reacted to their submissions, Obasanjo said, “He (Buhari) was interested. You know that one thing you can say about the president is that he is anxious to learn and he has listening ears. Of course, nobody knows it all. A good leader must seek every opportunity to learn and to put what he learns into practice.”
The former president also hinted that the second purpose of his visit to the Villa was to brief the president on the success recorded so far in resolving the political crisis in Guinea Bissau.
He said based on his visit to Guinea Bissau last Friday, where he spent last weekend and returned on Sunday morning, that country has finally agreed to put a new government in place, which would be formed either yesterday or today.
Obasanjo said, “The second aspect of my visit was the work that both the president and the ECOWAS gave me in Guinea Bissau. The last time, we were able to resolve all the issues of getting a new prime minister. This time, we had also been able to resolve the issue of now forming a government.
“If nothing intervenes, I believe, between today and tomorrow, a new government will be in place in Guinea Bissau. They have been without government for almost two months.
“When I was there, I praised the restraint of the general public and particularly the military because the military leaders hold me that for two months, they have not gotten salary. They could not even buy fuel into military vehicles and yet they continue to maintain restraints.
“That cannot go on forever. So, I hope that the actions that we have taken over the weekend (I was there on Friday morning and I left early morning of Sunday), we might be in the process of putting that behind us”.
On the lessons Nigerians can learn from insurgency in Colombia, he said, “The specific thing is that they have been fighting insurgency for 50 years. They celebrated their 50 years in existence in May last year, in fact, we went there in Junehttp://leadership.ng/news/466812/well-win-boko-haram-fight-like-civil-war-obasanjo

domcarez:
What hypocrisy!!!....Gowon told the whole world that there was "No Victor No Vanquish" in the civil war.....yet this old fool is saying this...huh...now I wouldn't blame those clamouring for Biafra because truly there is a grand plan to silence the Igbos and let no fuuul quote me to say am a bigot coz it's clear from the above statement of OBJ...