Sour fruit from the old tree

But former President Olusegun Obasanjo cleverly took centre stage releasing another of his traditionally conceited memoirs – a chronicle of the history of Nigeria in which the most important element between God and country is its garrulous ruler of a time, Olusegun Obasanjo (vituperative inspired by Obasanjo himself in his writing style).Given the virulent manner […]

But former President Olusegun Obasanjo cleverly took centre stage releasing another of his traditionally conceited memoirs – a chronicle of the history of Nigeria in which the most important element between God and country is its garrulous ruler of a time, Olusegun Obasanjo (vituperative inspired by Obasanjo himself in his writing style).
Given the virulent manner in which Olusegun Obasanjo took President Goodluck Jonathan to the cleaners in his new book, it was critical that the two conventions held on the same day, one in Abuja (PDP) and the other in Lagos (APC). While Obasanjo’s cast a spell of darkness over the PDP Convention in Abuja, Muhammadu Buhari’s impeccable credentials added to the shine of the transparent contest of the All Progressives Congress, gave the opposition so much more advantage. Whatever encomiums you wished to pour on President Goodluck Jonathan, whether deservingly or via mere sycophancy, you were hamstrung by ugly characterisation of the man by Obasanjo. There could not have been a worse timing for the book release given particularly, the portrayal of The President in the book.
Without reading the book, a review is impossible, and any comment could most certainly be unfair. But given the publication of some of its very sensational, even salacious, contents, one can ponder on the obvious – the motive for the writing and publication of the book. On motive, I fault Baba Obasanjo and hazard the wrath of not observing God’s only conditional commandment, to honour thy father and thy mother, that thy days might be long. At age three score and six, need I fear death, particularly if I inclined my ear to Obasanjo’s sayings in defence of narcissism, that at age three scores and ten, no one needs threaten him with death, being the certain destination?
President Goodluck Jonathan is everything Obasanjo said in the book, BUT it would not serve the national purpose if we get carried away by our frustration with the President’s leadership deficit and paper over Obasanjo’s share of the blame for the critical national predicament. Indeed, Olusegun Obasanjo is the main culprit among those who carry the blame for pitching Nigeria in today’s dire straits. He is a larger part of the problem, and has little significance in our search for the solution to our national morass.
Far from edifying the nation, egotistic self adulation was all the purpose Obasanjo served in his book. Just like his family life, his democratic and leadership examples are woefully condemnable and rob him of the righteous indignation he claims in writing and publishing the book. I would rather believe that as much as there is truth in his caustic report card of President Jonathan, he stands to be blamed and condemned that a spectre like the Jonathan era ever happened to Nigeria. Obasanjo is a man tormented by a burden of guilt. Offered immense opportunity to exalt himself, a nation, a continent and even his creator, he missed the mark awfully, and is angered by his inability to re-string and harness a runaway puppet, even for his (Obasanjo’s) personal redemption.
In April this year, I wrote a piece in this column titled ‘Obasanjo it is; is it not’?
“With all that President Obasanjo attained in eight years of ruling Nigeria as a converted politician, “what is the Presidency of Nigeria that President Obasanjo felt so much as to determine who succeeded him and not a choice made by the people”? The simple argument is that if President Obasanjo had allowed the People’s Democratic Party to choose his successor by simple Primaries, the late Umaru Yar’adua would not have been President. If Yar’adua had not been the President, now hamstrung (even by Obasanjo’s definition), President Goodluck Jonathan would not have been on the saddle, with Obasanjo frustrating himself in a bid to remain relevant to the necessary change. In 2007, an ailing and unwilling Umaru Musa Yar’adua was made to run and win the election. Not a few people have expressed the view that the country’s face was thus deliberately scarred for former President Obasanjo’s personal whims. In his book ‘Conscience and History: My Story’, Dr Peter Odili likely besides Bauchi State’s Ahmadu Adamu Mu’azu to have won the PDP ticket, wrote that President Obasanjo singlehanded scuttled his Presidential bid and was able to even go further to switch him with Goodluck Jonathan as Yar’adua’s running mate.
Is there a better time than now, to ask President Olusegun Obasanjo what he saw in the protégés he promoted, particularly what he advanced as President Jonathan’s merit over all the potential so evident then? Should we beg to know what Obasanjo thinks of the outcome of his political engineering work?
In contemporary Nigerian political history, President Obasanjo’s thumb prints are smudged all across. From the crude derailment of his Vice President Atiku Abubakar, to Adamawa State’s installation of Governor Murtala Nyako as the Governor and the rancour and contention that Adamawa State has suffered these past 7 years. For the Supreme Court is yet to decide on the legality of Nyako’s election on the grounds that primaries as required by laws of the Party did not take place for him to emerge as running mate. Then across the border is Taraba State, where Obasanjo in Bauchi at the Rally Grounds for the release of flag bearers, rejected the Party’s nominated Danladi Baido of Taraba State, opting for just ANYBODY but Baido. The result, Danbaba Suntai, now ailing and leaving Taraba State, indeed Nigeria with an intractable constitutional crisis.”
One victim of Obasanjo’s midwifery of 2007 leadership of Nigeria is now the National Chairman of the ruling PDP, and clearly more than a mere adopted son of the narcissism of people in power. He was shoved aside through a process utterly undue for Umaru Yar’adua to be rammed down our throats by Obasanjo. Obviously children copy their small gods. I know not so few people who are worried that the National Chairman of the People’s Democratic Party, Ahmadu Adamu Muazu, and indeed President Goodluck Jonathan are both sour fruit off an old tree, Olusegun Obasanjo.