Former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo quoted associate professor of communication Farooq Kperogi in a letter addressing the current president and sitting government of Nigeria.
Obasanjo wrote a letter titled “The Way Out: A clarion call for coalition for Nigeria Movement” to President Muhammadu Buhari. In the letter, Obasanjo requested that Buhari not seek re-election in 2019.
Obasanjo wrote in the letter that he thinks the party systems of Nigeria are failing the people. The current governing party, the All Progressives Congress, acquired control of Nigeria in 2015 led by Buhari. When the APC took power, Obasanjo’s party, the Peoples Democratic Party, was ejected from a four-term stint in power.
In his letter, Obasanjo explains his recent defection from his own party due to a difference in vision, as well as his lack of faith in Buhari because, “he is weak in the knowledge and understanding of the economy, [and] . . . in understanding and playing in the foreign affairs sector.”
Obasanjo mentions Kperogi’s work midway through the letter. The full quote is as follows: “Remember Farooq Kperogi, an Associate Professor at Kennesaw State University, Georgia, United States, call it ‘a cruel Hobson’s choice; it’s like a choice between six and half a dozen, between evil and evil. Any selection or deflection would be a distinction without a difference.’”
Obasanjo took the quote from Kperogi’s column in the Nigerian newspaper The Daily Trust to allude to the dysfunction of the APC and PDP at this crucial point in Nigerian politics.
“I was shocked,” Kperogi said. “Of course it is always nice to know you are being read by people who matter.”
Kperogi agreed with Obasanjo’s letter.
“The presidency is above his mental pay grade,” he said.
Kperogi also admitted that his views differ slightly from Obasanjo’s views on the current Nigerian President.
“As someone who believes in the virtues and principles of democracy, I would never ask someone to not run for re-election,” Kperogi said. “I want people to know he is not the best candidate and that voters should go out and defeat him at the polls.”
Kperogi said he also sees unsettling similarities between Nigeria’s current President and U.S. President Donald Trump.
“Trump’s election was also a consequence of a dissatisfaction with a certain type of politics,” Kperogi said. “Like Trump, he [President Buhari] expects absolute loyalty. If he had his way, he would shut down all criticisms of his policies in the media. The same way Trump talks about the media in ways that suggest he wants to clamp down on the media.”
