Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has sent a congratulatory message to President-elect Gen. Buhari and implored him to be magnanimous in victory, while charging him to fight corruption and make establishment of institutional reforms in different sectors his most immediate task to tackle.
The former President who still garnered a lot of influence by the way he was actively followed by the media said Buhari needs to weed out corruption and reform many institutions that have been entrenched in a wrong way of doing things for too long.
Obasanjo also told Buhari that based on his wealth of experience, he is confident Buhari can help in bring about the reform the nation urgently needs.
“With so much harm already done to many national institutions including the military, which proudly nurtured you and me, you will have a lot to do on institution reform – education, healthcare, economy, security, infrastructure, power, youth employment, agri-business, oil and gas, external affairs, cohesiveness of our nation and ridding our land of corruption.
Your varied and wide experience will undoubtedly stand you in good stead. is blessed with men and women of goodwill, character and virtue across the board that you can mobilise to join hands with you in the reform, repairs and re-direction that will be imperative to put Nigeria back on the fast lane of good governance, unity, cohesiveness, development and progress. For me, the totality of 2015 elections hold many lessons for our democracy and democratisation process, which are both maturing. On this occasion, the system has been unnecessarily overheated before and particularly during the campaigns when emphasis was more on trivialities and hate, divisive, undignifying and disrespectful statements and comments rather than on pressing issues requiring attention. I know that in victory, you will be magnanimous to start binding the wounds and bitterness occasioned by the campaign and the evil disciples ”