Former president, Olusegun Obasanjo, has excluded President Muhammadu Buhari from names of African leaders he said are taking progressive economic measures and recording giant strides in line with the demands of the 21st century.
Obasanjo, during a speech on leadership at Oxford University on Monday, January 8, at the Blavatnik School of Government, commended three African leaders for their exemplary leadership, Premium Times reports.
The former president specifically commended President Allassane Ouatarra of Côte d’Ivoire for focusing on transformative potential in that country.
Obasanjo said Ouatarra took immediate steps to heal the country following the violence that greeted his election in 2011.
“(Mr Ouatarra) changed the narrative to get ahead of the economic curve by posting a double-digit GDP growth, exporting electricity to neighbouring Ghana and Mali and exporting processed versions of Ivory Coast’s rich raw materials and agricultural produce like cocoa, cotton, rubber and palm oil and making his country live with the largest percentage of middle class market in all of Africa,” Obasanjo told his audience.
He also listed Rwanda and Ethiopia as the two other countries doing well alongside Côte d’Ivoire.
But the former president did not mention Buhari, whom he backed for president during the 2015 elections.
Meanwhile, Obasanjo at the same occasion said it is not yet time to say if he would support President Muhammadu Buhari for second time in the coming 2019 presidential election.
On fighting corruption in Nigeria, the ex-president said the late President Musa Yar’adua failed to maintain the structure he (Obasanjo) put in place to curtail corruption.
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