Former
Nigerian president Olusegun Obasanjo (C), arrives in the South Sudanese
capital Juba on April 24, 2014 (AFP Photo/Samir Bol)
Abuja (AFP) - Former
Nigerian head of state Olusegun Obasanjo on Wednesday reached out to
president-elect Muhammadu Buhari, in a possible sign that he is prepared
to help the country's leader-in-waiting.
Both
Obasanjo, 78, and Buhari, 72, are both former military rulers of
Africa's most populous nation who have gone on to become elected
civilian president.
Obasanjo, head of state from 1999 to 2007,
fell out with the beaten presidential candidate Goodluck Jonathan and
has launched a series of public attacks on the outgoing president.In mid-February he publicly tore up his PDP membership card and refused to back Jonathan's re-election campaign, despite having been widely believed to have helped his initial rise to the top job.
His public letter to Buhari so soon after his election win will likely be interpreted as a pitch for a job, after he made encouraging noises to Buhari's candidacy on the campaign trail.
"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," he wrote.
Although
once seen as a political godfather in Nigeria, Obasanjo's influence has
been on the wane and he retired from front-line politics to his chicken
farm.
But he still enjoys international respect outside the country.
He
is a member of the Africa Progress Panel advocacy group on equitable
and sustainable development and was UN special envoy to war-torn DR
Congo.
He also headed an African Union observer group to the Zimbabwe election in 2013.
http://news.yahoo.com/obasanjo-writes-nigerias-buhari-indicates-availability-174959652.html
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