Former President Olusegun Obasanjo may
be on the verge of the milestone age of 80, but many Nigerians agree
that the hard-hitting elder statesman has no intention of soft-pedalling
on speaking his mind.
As some pundits have observed, Obasanjo never fails to use any available public platform to fault his adversaries.
The ex-President has made several
appearances on local and international media and authored several books
and letters that have generated controversy, leading to heated debates
across the country.
Many believe the attention the
ex-general demands is due to his influential status as the first former
military Head of State to have returned to power as a democratically
elected president for additional two terms of eight years–the longest
any Nigerian has ruled the country.
As the former President celebrated his
79th birthday penultimate Saturday, he took a retrospective look at the
Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, which he set up during his
presidency, and concluded that the anti-graft agency had become a
toothless bulldog after the exit of the pioneer chairman, Nuhu Ribadu.
He stated that the ex-EFCC boss handled
the job so well that people coined the saying, “The fear of Ribadu is
the beginning of wisdom.” The former president, thus, bemoaned the fate
of the anti-graft agency, describing it as a toothless bulldog.
“And the thing you will ask is, how did
we go down? How did we lose that? Ribadu is still here; he is still
alive. The institution that we started together is still there, so what
made the institution become a toothless bulldog?” Obasanjo added.
Close watchers of Obasanjo have
described him as one of the few politicians in the country who have
“seen it all.” Obasanjo became head of state in 1976 and ruled until his
resignation in 1979. The retired general took the top office again
after his election as the first president in the Fourth Republic. He won
the 1999 presidential election as the candidate of the newly formed
Peoples Democratic Party and was re-elected in 2003.
Following his exit from the presidency
in 2007, Obasanjo became the Chairman of the PDP’s Board of Trustees,
which made him a more influential figure in the erstwhile ruling party.
The second former military leader to
achieve this feat is incumbent President Muhammadu Buhari, who first
came into power in December 1983 through a bloodless coup d’état,
ultimately ruling for about two years as Head of State.
A Professor of Political Science at the University of Ibadan, Adigun Agbaje, told SUNDAY PUNCH
that though the Obasanjo had a fundamental right to express his view on
public affairs, it was his political precedent that placed him on a
pedestal.
The political scientist said, “Given his
status in society, he has been perhaps the longest serving head of
state and president of this country; the mixed nature of his record in
office is the reason why all of this gets a lot of media attention. As a
citizen, he has the right. But whether he has any moral right to
comment the way he does is something else.”
This perhaps is why Obasanjo stirs public outrage whenever he unleashes a fresh round of criticisms.
A Lagos-based activist lawyer, Mr. Festus Keyamo, commenting on Obasanjo’s criticisms, told SUNDAY PUNCH that Obasanjo might not be fully aware that the anti-graft agency had “woken up” from its slumber of yester-governments.
He said, “I agree with him that at some
time in the past, the commission might have gone through a difficult
period. But the commission has woken up and it is meeting up with the
vision of the new government with regard to the fight against
corruption.
“Perhaps Baba has not been fully briefed
about the new impetus within the EFCC. I will encourage the new
leadership of the EFCC to go and brief Baba about the activities going
on now within the commission,” Keyamo said.
The ex-President also took a swipe at
some state governors recently for “living like emperors” while demanding
sacrifice from the citizens for Nigeria to survive the hard times.
At the inaugural conference of the
Ibadan School of Government and Public Policy, University of Ibadan, on
February 1, Obasanjo said when he became Nigerian president in 1999, he
recognised corruption as a major impediment to the Nigerian state,
leading to the set-up of structures like the EFCC and the Independent
Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission to fight the
rot.
He said since his exit from office,
however, corruption had returned to Nigeria with a vengeance, draining
billions of dollars from the nation’s economy that could hardly afford
to lose even a million dollars.
Among several accusations, he blasted
the governors for living in obscene opulence, ignoring the issue of
unemployment, acting like emperors and rendering public institutions
irrelevant and useless.
However, the Executive Chairman of the
Coalition against Corrupt Leaders, Mr. Debo Adeniran, criticised
Obasanjo for condemning governors.
Adeniran said Obasanjo could not accuse
the governors of opulence and moving about in convoy when the
ex-President did the same as a head of state.
“He blames people for offences of which
he is the worst culprit. We are not saying the way the present governors
are living is good enough, but they are not living in as much opulence
as his (Obasanjo’s) governors when he was in the saddle. His governors
did more and he didn’t do anything about it then,” the CACOL boss said.
Another recent attack by Obasanjo came
in a letter to members of the National Assembly, accusing them of
corruption and extravagant wastage of the nation’s resources, despite
the harsh economic reality confronting the nation.
The letter, dated January 13, was
addressed to the Senate President, Sen. Bukola Saraki and the Speaker of
the House of Representatives, Mr. Yakubu Dogara.
The ex-president alleged that the
federal legislators allocated to themselves salaries and allowances
above the template approved by the Revenue Mobilisation, Allocation and
Fiscal Commission for National Assembly members, among other
accusations.
He further condemned a situation where
the federal lawmakers demanded a vehicle each as official cars, even
though the vehicles had been monetised, describing the legislators as
wasteful and insensitive.
The criticisms drew the ire of some
legislators, including the Chairman, Senate Committee on Federal Capital
Territory, Sen. Dino Melaye, who, in a rejoinder, alleged that it was
former President Olusegun Obasanjo that exposed the federal lawmakers to
corruption during his tenure.
The senator accused the retired general
of misplacing his anger on the current members of the National Assembly
and said Obasanjo should have forgiven members of the Fourth National
Assembly, who allegedly refused to impeach Speaker Umar Ghali Na’Abba,
despite an alleged huge financial inducement.
“I hope this is not in an attempt to
cover up and distract attention from the Halliburton and Siemens
corruption allegations. While I am against corruption anywhere in
Nigeria, I will not support accusations based on anger and
vindictiveness,” Melaye added.
Former Secretary of the National
Democratic Coalition and Convener of the Coalition of Democrats for
Electoral Reforms, Chief Ayo Opadokun, had argued that though Obasanjo
was the right person to make such a claim, some of the issues he raised
were major matters of national concern.
However, he said, “Part of what the
Obasanjo-led government did was the monetisation of salary and statutory
of office. Obasanjo cannot deny that. There were several instances
where money changed hands (between the Presidency and the National
Assembly); they even brought some into the open at the Assembly about
three times when he was to be impeached.”
According to political analysts, the
ex-President, over the years, has earned a reputation for dwelling with
military and democratic governments, even those whose ascension to power
he helped to actualise.
During the 2007 election campaigns,
Obasanjo had anointed Umaru Yar’Adua as the party’s presidential
candidate and chose Goodluck Jonathan as his running mate.
However, in January 2010, two months
after Yar’Adua left the country to treat a kidney disease, Obasanjo had
addressed growing concerns about a power vacuum by alluding to a call
for the resignation of the then president amid controversy. Speaking at a
lecture in Abuja, an audience member had accused the ex-President of
being responsible for the constitutional crisis by choosing a sick man
to succeed him as president Obasanjo
Obasanjo replied, “Nobody picked
Yar’Adua so that he will not perform. If I did that, God will punish me.
There is no reason why I should do that.
“If you take up an assignment, a job —
elected, appointed, whatever it is — and then your health starts to fail
and you will not be able to deliver to satisfy yourself and to satisfy
the people you are supposed to serve, then there is a path of honour and
the path of morality. There is path of honour and the path of morality
and if you don’t do that, then you don’t know anything.”
The comments had also generated public outcry, including from the now defunct opposition Action Congress and the PDP.
Following the death of Yar’Adua in May
2010, Jonathan assumed the office of the president. Obasanjo also
endorsed Jonathan in the 2011 presidential election, which he went on to
win. But Jonathan, after assuming the top political office, was not
spared Obasanjo’s verbal attacks.
In an 18-page letter, dated December 2,
2013, Obasanjo criticised Jonathan in what some have called the climax
of the ex-general’s battle with his former political godfather.
Obasanjo, in the letter, titled ‘Before
it is too late’, severely criticised Jonathan’s government, accusing the
erstwhile president of, among other things, not honouring his words and
taking actions calculated at destroying Nigeria.
Jonathan was further accused of pursuing
“selfish personal and political interests” based on advice from his
“self-centred aides” and failing to deliver on his promises to Nigerians
to curb insurgency and corruption in the country.
The feud culminated in Obasanjo’s exit
from the PDP the following month. The ex-President wrote another letter
to the then PDP Chairman, Bamanga Tukur, dated January 7, 2014,
withdrawing from all activities of the party at local, state and federal
levels in protest against his former political ally, Sen. Buruji
Kashamu, for being in charge of PDP affairs in the South-west.
On February 16, 2015, Obasanjo sealed
the deal by dramatically by shredding his PDP membership card at a press
conference at his Hilltop Residence in Abeokuta, Ogun State.
The incident was regarded as significant
because it occurred barely five weeks to the March 28, 2015
presidential election, which saw Jonathan contesting for re-election on
the platform of the PDP.
Jonathan failed to get Obasanjo’s
blessing to seek re-election. Instead, the ex-President threw his
support behind Buhari, the opposition All Progressives Congress’
candidate, who eventually won the poll.
Agbaje further said Obasanjo’s
criticisms over the decades have had some significance of historical
proportions. As a result, the political scientist explained, Obasanjo’s
comments arouse concern among some Nigerians.
“He has tended to be a kind of
bellwether. He is known to have made comments that have caused some
discomfort to those in power and occasionally to signal the beginning of
some apparent end for government in power.
“His comments over the decades have had
more implications historically. I think that is why some people are a
bit sensitive when they hear Chief Obasanjo comment on public affairs,”
Agbaje said.
Speaking at a roundtable event on
February 6, 2016 at the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile Ife, Osun
State, Obasanjo said nobody might be able to rescue the abducted Chibok
schoolgirls because their whereabouts were unknown.
The former President also described the
defeat suffered by the PDP at the 2015 general election as a blessing in
disguise for Nigeria and expressed happiness that the party failed to
continue to hold on to power after 16 years. Again, these comments
generated pubic criticisms.
In a separate interview with SUNDAY PUNCH,
former Governor of the old Anambra State, Dr. Chukwuemeka Ezeife,
supported Obasanjo. According to him, whenever the ex-President says the
truth, he should be commended.
“No matter what anybody thinks of
Obasanjo, when he says the truth, he must be commended. Now, tell me,
where are the Chibok girls that we are going to release?
“Why should anybody keep talking about
releasing the Chibok girls as a promise made during campaigns? They are
not together anywhere. Obasanjo should be commended for telling the
truth,” Ezeife said.
Obasanjo’s three-part autobiographical book, My Watch,
had also stirred up a hornets’ nest. One of the ‘victims’ of Obasanjo’s
controversial book is Atiku Abubakar, who was the Vice-President during
his presidency.
The book reads in part, “From the day I
nominated Atiku to be my vice, he set his mind not for any good, benefit
or service of the country, but on furiously planning to upstage,
supplant or remove me at all cost and to take my place.
“Once I realised his intention and
programme, I watched him like a hawk without giving any indication of
what I knew and letting down my guard. I could not succumb to the
distraction, diversion and malevolence of an ambitious but unwise
deputy.
“To alert him of what I knew he was up
to would only lead to lying, denial, more mischievous plans and more
duplicity on his part. He was better managed that way. What was
important was not allowing myself to be surprised or outmaneuvered by
him. I must always seize the initiative and know what was going on if
not in his mind, but at least in his camp. That I did very effectively.”
Another long-time nemesis of Obasanjo nemesis is Nobel laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka.
Responding to a question on the frequent
battle with Soyinka during his roundtable discussion in the OAU,
Obasanjo described the renowned writer as a better hunter than a
political analyst.
“I will (rather) trust Wole Soyinka as
an ‘aparo (guinea fowl) hunter’ than trusting him as a political
analyst. I have no issue with him,” he said.
In July 2015, speaking on his controversial book, in an interview with Channels Television,
Obasanjo had similarly lambasted Soyinka, saying, “For Wole, no one can
be good, nor can anything be spot-on politically except that which
emanates from him or is ordained by him. His friends and loved ones will
always be right and correct, no matter what they do or fail to do. He
is surely a better wine connoisseur and a more successful aparo hunter
than a political critic.”
In his response, Soyinka Obasanjo called an unrepentant liar and an illiterate.
On August 28, 2015, when asked during a
television programme to respond to the ex-President’s description of
him, Soyinka said he was hardly bothered because he believed that
Obasanjo was a liar.
Soyinka said, “Obasanjo is entitled to
his opinion. But the question is, who respects the opinion of a liar? I
can spend the whole night proving that he is a liar.
“Obasanjo was once described by an
economist, the late Prof. Ojetunji Aboyade, as an economic illiterate.
They nearly went into blows that night. It was Prof. Mabogunje who
separated them. So, if an economic illiterate calls somebody a political
illiterate, no problem at all.
“In My Watch, Obasanjo told the
first lie when he said he deplored lies. Anybody who said he never
plotted to have an unconstitutional third term in office, even as a
writer, I need a word to describe him.”
Speaking on the implications of Obasanjo’s controversial outlook, Agbaje told SUNDAY PUNCH that history may not favour Obasanjo.
He said, “As a student of Nigeria’s
political history, Gen. Obasanjo’s judgment has been very suspect. I am
not sure the motivating factors have been from him, but I can say that,
obviously, he has not endorsed the best of candidates for us.
“I think, definitely, on that issue,
history may not be very kind to Chief Obasanjo. He has a field that was
usually full of potentially strong candidates and he always came up with
what I would consider advisedly suboptimal candidates. And that is why a
lot of people accuse him of being responsible for much of the really
dark situation in which we find ourselves,” the political analyst said.
To Ezeife, however, Obasanjo is a
convert. The former governor described Obasanjo as a changed man, who
has become incorruptible and promotes service to the people of Nigeria
as the principle reason for participation in politics.
“It is better for him to speak out and see whether he can convert other people,” Ezeife said.
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