Since he was amnestied from a 25-year treason term and manipulated to Nigeria’s presidency by the Absulsalami Abubakar junta, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, popularly known as OBJ, whose third term agenda was frustrated by patriotic Nigerians, has exhibited several discernible phases of attitudinal metamorphosis.
Like the biblical Saul who got converted on his way to Damascus, Obasanjo’s questionable conversion to democracy came by way of imprisonment for ‘treasonable felony’ under the late brutal Aldershot-trained infantry general, Sani Abacha.
For several years running now and to the consternation of all well-meaning Nigerians, the former president, whose imperial presidency fell short of all democratic tenets, now sees himself as the ‘conscience’ of the nation, lecturing successive leaders on how to run Nigeria, so much so that he now carries himself with magisterial arrogance and cockiness.
At this point, I crave the indulgence of my esteemed readers not to misconstrue my intentions after reading this piece. I am neither a fan of President Buhari nor enamored of his administration’s policies. Far from it! My decision to write this article is just to refresh the memories of Nigerians by taking them down the lane of recent history. Thereafter, they should be in a better position to judge whether Obasanjo deserves to wear the oversized robe of a conscience of the nation that he borrowed and currently putting on.
The former president who has established a reputation for writing letters to Nigerian leaders, including former President Goodluck Jonathan accusing him of lackluster performance and massive corruption, also wrote a similar epistle to President Muhammadu Buhari, which he dubbed an advisory. In the aforementioned epistle, while commending the president for his achievements in tackling insecurity and corruption in the polity, OBJ, who has now become a serial letter writer, scored Buhari low in overall performance. The icing on the cake of his gratuitous advisory is that Buhari should forget seeking second term in office.
Recently, Obasanjo went a notch higher when he described Buhari as a budding dictator in the mould of the late Sani Abacha, accusing the former of planning to rig the forthcoming elections. How ironic! The same Obasanjo whose administration organized the worst elections (2003 and 2007) in the nation’s history?
And above all, if past the leaders of Nigeria of which OBJ happens to be one and their lieutenants had done the needful and kept their itchy fingers off the nation’s treasury, the burden of recovering stolen funds and assets that fate had thrust upon the shoulders of Buhari’s government would have been averted.
For Nigerians to understand how undemocratic OBJ was as a leader and the numerous atrocities he visited on Nigeria and Nigerians, I crave the indulgence of my readers to come along with me was we mount the horse and gallop down the memory lane of history.
In understanding the true OBJ persona, a little peep into his imperial presidency (1999-2007) will suffice. On the whole, some few exemplifications of his legendary phenomenal metamorphosis or ambivalence will expose OBJ for who he is. It beggars belief that this same OBJ, who has the notorious reputation of disobeying court judgments; trampling on the tenets of separation of powers; sacking of PDP National Chairmen and Senate Presidents at will, is the same person pontificating on the nation’s ills.
For instance, in July 2000, Obasanjo commissioned late Chuba Okadigbo’s official residence as Senate President at Apo Village and even capped it up with a merry dance with Okadigbo’s wife, Margery. One month later, Okadigbo fell from his exalted seat as Senate President in a convoluted plot orchestrated by the mercilessly vindictive OBJ.
In the same vein, just like Judas Iscariot’s give away kiss to Jesus Christ at the Garden of Gathsemane, Obasanjo’s parting kiss to Chief Audu Ogbeh, the then National Chairman of PDP came by way of a meal of pounded yam at the latter’s house. And the contract to have Ogbeh’s head delivered on a platter like that of John the Baptist was handed over to Andy Uba, OBJ’s Special Assistant on Domestic Affairs, Senator Ibrahim Mantu, Gbenga Olawepo, Umar Farouk, then Govs Abdullahi Adamu and Abdullahi Kure of Nasarawa and Niger States respectively.
OBJ, who manifested traits of a budding dictator during his first term in office (1999-2003), became a full blown dictator during his second tenure (2003-2007). It wasn’t surprising because for anybody to expect OBJ whose carriage and temperament that were so manifestly military and with a dictatorial wing to fly in a political field that is fluid, dynamic and constantly changing is to live on a sugar candy mountain. It was this same man that nailed the coffin of party supremacy in Nigeria, whereby the President and Governors are now leaders of the party at the national and state levels respectively; a veritable platform that has nurtured series of indiscipline in the parties.
What makes OBJ’s case so annoying is that he believes that he is some kind of apparatus through which God can manifest His intentions for the country! He thinks he is Solomon for wisdom, Alexander the Great for majesty and Jesus Christ for godliness. As far as OBJ is concerned, his coin has only one side: HIS VIEWS.
Other atrocities of the Ota-born former president include: using five members of Ekiti House of Assembly to impeach the then Governor Ayo Fayose; using thugs to kidnap the then Governor Chris Ngige of Anambra State; invasion of Odi in Bayelsa State and Zaki Biam in Benue State where scores of innocent people were killed; withholding of Lagos State Council funds contrary to Supreme Court Judgment etc.
It would also be recalled that OBJ’s adversarial style, his presumed omniscience even with the grim evidence of his stark failure; his disdain for public opinion, his priorities that were often tangential to public expectations and above all, his political naivety all conjured to give vent to the embarrassment of his presidency nay the entire polity.
The greatest challenge Obasanjo faces today is that of self-demystification. OBJ who was politically lame in his South-west base and was given the crutches by other Nigerians to walk to Aso Rock, but failed woefully to deliver on his electoral promises, today treats everybody with leprous disdain. He feels he has monopoly of wisdom, but the truth is that it is this messianic complex coupled with I-know-it-all disposition that made him to fumble badly as president for 8 years. Thank heavens, his third term agenda fell flat on its face like a toad with its back on the floor.
Inasmuch as OBJ has the constitutional right to comment on the state of the nation, but as a former president and an elder statesman, he does not have the moral authority to pontificate on the administration of Buhari with such magisterial impudence.
Ochela writes from Abuja.
