Season of letters

In a way it is providential that it was Obasanjo who wrote that earthshaking letter to President Jonathan. If a northerner had written the letter, Jonathan’s ethnic and religious champions would have dismissed it with a sectarian wave. But as Jonathan had himself acknowledged, next to God and his parents, Obasanjo made him. Who in […]

In a way it is providential that it was Obasanjo who wrote that earthshaking letter to President Jonathan. If a northerner had written the letter, Jonathan’s ethnic and religious champions would have dismissed it with a sectarian wave. But as Jonathan had himself acknowledged, next to God and his parents, Obasanjo made him. Who in the north would have been better or equally positioned to raise such explosive issues without mincing words, as Obasanjo? Jonathan’s is the most dangerous leadership since Abacha – and Obasanjo is in a position to know.
At this moment, I’m not really bothered about Obasanjo’s qualifications for writing the letter or even his motives. Contrariwise, I’m concerned with the meat of the letter and what possible impact it could make on Jonathan’s unbridled ambition and inexorable march on the path of dishonour. For President Jonathan to call Obasanjo’s letter “self-serving, hypocritical, malicious, indecent and very disrespectful”, in an interim reaction from Reuben Abati, indicates that the letter has struck a damaging blow on the presidency.  
Obasanjo’s letter further confirms that Jonathan had indeed made a commitment to serve only one term. As the former president has himself observed, even though Jonathan has not told anybody that he would contest in 2015, “the signs and measures on the ground do not tally with your (Jonathan) statement”. Never in the history of Nigeria have we had a presidency in perpetual denial. The only thing Jonathan hasn’t denied is the existence of God. Obasanjo’s letter has also revealed that despite his posturing, the Benue State Governor, Gabriel Suswam, is well aware that Jonathan had committed himself to serve only one term.
Additionally, in spite of his consistent portrayal of himself as a thoroughbred and loyal party man, we now know that Jonathan had betrayed PDP during elections in Lagos, Ondo and Anambra States in furtherance of his personal political preferences. According to Obasanjo, in exchange for political support towards his election, Jonathan had traded the interests of the ruling party. Obasanjo confirmed what everyone knows: Jonathan is actively dividing the country along North-South, Christian-Muslim seams believing this could help his cause. This explains why ethnic hate attack dogs like Asari Dokubo and Chief Edwin Clark who were not card-carrying members of the PDP, and religious bigots like Pastor Oritsejafor, are coordinating their pro-Jonathan statements with the presidency.
But the most alarming is the training of hit squads and the placement of 1000 Nigerians on political watch list, whatever that means. According to Obasanjo, Jonathan is “training snipers and other armed personnel secretly and clandestinely acquiring weapons to match for political purposes” and he firmly warned that “no one should prepare to kill or maim Nigerians for personal or political ambition….” In the same vein, Obasanjo accused Jonathan of helping a murderer to escape justice and again sternly warned that “assisting criminals to evade justice cannot be part of the job of the presidency”.
The industrial scale oil theft also attracted Obasanjo’s wrath and he seems to have confirmed what Nasir El-Rufai had hitherto said, that Jonathan knows those stealing the country’s oil. Rampant oil thefts appear to have full state backing which is why Obasanjo remarked that “when the guard becomes the thief, nothing is safe or protected in the house”. On the whole this is a damning letter that utterly condemns the scandalous Jonathan presidency, questioning his competence and claim to patriotism. Ordinary citizens have been jailed for even trivial offences compared to this grand treason from a president that lays claim to transforming the country.
According to Obasanjo, rather than fighting corruption, the Jonathan government has elevated it. Obasanjo condemns the unconscionable opulence of the governor in utter disdain for the masses. The neglected cases of corruption involving persons very close to Jonathan are becoming legion. Olusegun Aganga, Diezani Alison-Madueke, Mohammed Bello Adokie, Godson Orubebe, Stella Oduah and Bala Muhammed have all been accused of corruption; and even Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala has lately been fingered for her reckless granting of waivers to importers.
Obasanjo’s fifth letter to Jonathan is coming on the heels of another one reportedly penned to him by the Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria, Malam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi. In his own letter to the president, Sanusi reported that between 2012 and 2013 the NNPC didn’t remit nearly $50b revenue to the national treasury. This is unprecedented and NNPC’s high-pitched and woolly explanation hasn’t absolved it of responsibility or convinced anyone. Not long ago, Nuhu Ribadu’s excellent report on his panel’s probe of the NNPC was jettisoned after Steve Orosanye was deliberately positioned to discredit it during presentation at Aso Villa.
In the postscript of his letter, Obasanjo asked President Jonathan to feel free to share its contents with retired Generals Yakubu Gowon, Ibrahim Babangida, Abdulsalami Abubakar, TY Danjuma and former Vice President Alex Ekwueme. In a further sign that he is opposed to their ambitions of leading the country or doubts their statesmanship, or because they’re Jonathan’s rivals for the presidency, Chief Obasanjo omitted the names of former Head of State, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (rtd) and former Vice President Atiku Abubakar among those who should share in the contents of the letter.
Obasanjo has done very well by writing that letter to President Jonathan. The people desperately asking us to focus attention on Obasanjo’s person instead of the issues raised in his letter are the ones who are “self-serving, hypocritical, malicious, indecent, and very disrespectful”. Nigerians are waiting for Jonathan’s “full response” to Obasanjo’s fifth letter.