Obasanjo, you can’t just wish him away!

Bolaji Tunji
Nigeria on My Mind
bolajitunji@gmail.com, 0805 423 8905 SMS ONLY
I have decided to write on former President Olusegun
Obasanjo, believing if I do, it would help me unravel what
really makes Baba Iyabo,as he is at times called, really tick. In
fact, I want to know who he is, without sounding
disrespectful. Why he is what he is and why he gets away
with things others would dare not even try. I have to sound a
note of warning that I am not that confident that the task I
have set myself would hit the bull’s eye.
I do not need to talk about the fact of his having been head of
the Nigerian state twice. First as a military leader in1976 till
1979 when he handed over the reign of governance to Alhaji
Shehu Shagari.
Like a cat with nine lives, he came back from prison where he
had been sentenced for a coup plot believed to have been
orchestrated by the late Gen Sani Abacha military junta, to
again assume the mantle of leadership of the country when
there were serious suspicion and acrimony in the land with the
death of Gen Abacha and the acclaimed winner of the June
12, 1993 elections, Bashorun MKO Abiola who had been
clamped into detention by the junta for claiming his mandate
and proclaiming himself the president of Nigeria.
Need we talk of the fact that the election that ushered him
into the highest office in the land in 1999 did not have the
support of his kinsmen in the southwest. Other parts of the
country voted for him, but not his people. One can go on and
on about Baba Iyabo. There would always be one tale or the
other to tell. Someone once said that if a man achieved what
Obasanjo has achieved in life, then such a person deserves to
be the father of the nation and thus would be at liberty to do
anything. Is that really what makes Baba tick? I do not know
whether this is why Baba courts controversy or why
controversy continues to trail him? And the controversies have
been many. Whether in his public or private lives,
controversies have always been on the look out for Baba or is
it the other way round?
The bombshell by Gbenga, son of the former president that his
father had amorous relationship with his wife sent the whole
nation reeling in shock. It sounded far fetched. But the son
had gone to court to swear to an affidavit that his wife
actually had an amorous relationship with his father in order
to curry favour from Obasanjo who was the country’s
president at the time. And she was adequately compensated,
“for her adulterous acts with several oil contracts with the
NNPC amongst which was the NNPC consultancy training in
supply chain management and project management awarded
to her company, Bowen and Brown,” was how Gbenga puts it.
Next was the turn of his favorite daughter, Iyabo, who was
appointed Commissioner for health in Ogun state by the
Gbenga Daniel administration. Years later, the chummy
relationship between Obasanjo and Daniel broke down and
ever since there had been no love lost between the duo.
Iyabo, in a letter widely publicised by newspapers, had
accused her father of being a liar, manipulator, two-faced
hypocrite, “determined to foist on President Goodluck
Jonathan what no one would contemplate with him as
president”. Among several others, Iyabo accused her father of
cruelty, abandonment of his children and a legendary
reputation of maltreatment of women, and so on and on. When
the letter initially came to the public domain, it sounded
unbelievable and a lot of people initially viewed it with
disbelieve, that a letter of that nature could come from Baba’s
favorite daughter. But Iyabo never came out to refute the
letter. Thus lending authenticity to her claims. Who else would
know a father more than the daughter?
As an author, Obasanjo has equally stirred controversy. First
was the accusation of Brigadier-General Godwin Alabi-Isama
that Obasanjo’s earlier book, My Command was a tapestry of
inaccuracies. It was the same controversy with his latest
book, My Watch. One can go on and on about controversies
that have trailed the former President.
More recently and in the build up to the February election,
Baba has made it clear that President Jonathan would not be
getting his support. A letter by the ex-president in late 2013
to President Jonathan, entitled, ‘ Before it is too late’, gave
indication that it had not been smooth between the duo. It
was this letter that brought out the anger in Iyabo who
accused her father of playing God.
More recently, the ex president had accused the president of
having failed Nigeria. He stopped short of accusing the
president of incompetence for having depleted the foreign
reserve left behind by him and his successor, late President
Umar Yar’Adua and squandering the crude oil savings of $
35billion.“We left what we call excess crude, let’s build it for
rainy day, up to $35 billion; within three years, the $35 billion
disappeared. Whether the money disappeared or it was
shared, the fact remains that $35 billion disappeared from the
foreign reserve I left behind in office. When we left that money,
we thought we were leaving it for the rainy day…” It was that
same week that he attended the wedding of the President’s
daughter. And that is the Obasanjo enigma.He had criticized
the president publicly and had no compulsion in attending the
president’s daughter’s wedding. Since his 18-page letter to
the president, he had not hidden the fact that he would not
want Jonathan to continue, but stand down as the country’s
president.He is said to have always said he would support
any candidate except Jonathan. Although Obasanjo had not
come out to deny ever saying this, his body language and his
consort with the opposition party is indicative of his stance.Is
Obasanjo really playing God? To many people he is indeed
doing so. People are also quick to point out that when
Obasanjo takes on anybody, the person had better be careful.
Recall his quarrel with his deputy, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar. Atiku
had never hidden his desire to govern the country, but the
quarrel with Obasanjo scuttled that ambition. The tar of
corruption painted the former Vice President has refused to go
away, in spite of the fact that the courts found no evidence to
sustain that claim.
In Ogun State, his home state, the ex president is at
loggerhead with so many people in his party. Apart from
former governor Daniel, he has refused to accept Prince Buruji
Kashamu who he tagged as a wanted criminal in the United
States. And if Obasanjo is playing God, is his position not a
reflection of the feeling of the generality of Nigerians? How
would his stance affect the outcome of next month’s election.
Is it this fear that has gripped President Jonathan, which led
to an emissary of PDP governors to the hilltop mansion of the
former President to beg and more recently, a meeting between
the duo in the presence of two topmost religious leaders in the
country, Pastor Enoch Adeboye and Bishop Oyedepo?
Whichever way one views Obasanjo, though many would say it
matters not, it is always better to be in his good books, those
who had been on his less than positive side would say.