My Watch: Obasanjo, a chronic liar – Osoba, Adebanjo

The former Governor of Ogun State, Chief Olusegun Osoba has accused former Nigerian President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo of lying serially in his newly published memoir, My Watch, describing the ex-military cum civilian ruler as a “big liar and an untruthful chronicler of history”. Osoba launched the attack against Obasanjo in Lagos on Monday while speaking at the launch […]

The former Governor of Ogun State, Chief Olusegun Osoba has accused former Nigerian President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo of lying serially in his newly published memoir, My Watch, describing the ex-military cum civilian ruler as a “big liar and an untruthful chronicler of history”.

Osoba launched the attack against Obasanjo in Lagos on Monday while

speaking at the launch of the book: Watch The Watcher: A Book of

Remembrance of the Obasanjo Years, authored by Yinka Odumakin, the

spokesperson of the pan-Yoruba socio-cultural group, Afenifere.

According to Osoba, he would soon write his own book to debunk “the

tissues of lies that Obasanjo had written in his book, especially as it

concerns how the Alliance for Democracy, AD, lost Ogun State in the 2003

general elections.”

Osoba said he recalled that sometime in 2002, at the University of Lagos

Convocation, Obasanjo asked him and other AD governors who were at the

convocation to meet him at the Dodan Barracks in Ikopyi.

“When we got there, he begged us to support him in 2003 to retain his

seat as President in the 2003 election. We told him that it was not a

decision we could take without the involvement of elders of the party

such as late Pa Abraham Adesanya.

“So, another meeting was fixed for Ogun Government Lodge in Abeokuta.

At the meeting, Obasanjo again begged for our support. However, two

weeks before the 2003 presidential election, Pa Abraham Adesanya accused

Obasanjo of trying to use military tactics to outwit us. He failed to keep to the terms of the agreement we had with him.

“I am surprised that Obasanjo in his book, denied knowing anything about

the arrangement between AD and his party, the Peoples Democratic Party

(PDP). I will give a full account of what happened in my book,” Osoba, a

veteran journalist, said.

Also speaking at the launch, another chieftain of Afenifere, Chief Ayo

Adebanjo also berated the former President, saying he is “a man that has

no conscience, a self-centred man who believes no other person matters

except himself.”

Adebanjo chastised the former President whom he said acted as President and Minister of Petroleum Resources throughout his eight years in office, without any benefit to the nation.

The reviewer, Prof. G. G. Darah, former Chairman of the Editorial Board of the Guardian, described the book as “a provocative and polemical book of memoirs and reflections by Yinka Odumakin about Gen. Obasanjo.”

He said the author intended to challenge “the exaggerated claims of heroic grandeur and accomplishments made by the former President”.

“The author hopes that the book will add to the collective memory card

of Nigerians, so that they would not suffer the disease of amnesia, which encourages unworthy public men and women to act with impunity,” Darah said.

The author, Yinka Odumakin said he decided to write the book so as to set

the record straight for the sake of prosterity. He also said he chose former Governor Osoba as the chairman of the book’s public presentation because he was the one who rescued him when Obasanjo ordered his detention at State Criminal Investigations Department (CID), Panti in 2005.