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Obasanjo |
There is this malaise that former President Mathew
OkikiolaOlusegunObasanjo has refused to extirpate from his character, so, it
looms large in the despicable footprints he has left on Nigeria’s unfortunate
history. And if we could look earnestly at this man, whom chance and bad
judgment of otherwise well-meaning persons have thrown up at various times in
Nigeria’s history instead of gawking, we would easily notice the terrible
streak I’m addressing.
No, there is no need to blame Gen. AlaniAkinrinade and
Brig-General Alaba-Isama, erstwhile able assistants to late Brigadier “Black
Scorpion” Benjamin Adekunle, for recommending Obasanjo to be the new General
Officer Commanding (GOC) for the Third Marine Commando, in late 1969. Yet,
when the Nigerian Civil War ended months later in January 1970 when a
hunger-flagellated, arms and ammunition-forsaken and totally fatigued Biafra
welcomed peace and gave up the struggle, Obasanjo alone claimed all the credit.
And he wrote a brash book to celebrate it and mislead those who would have the
misfortune of thinking that a book written by an officer about the war he
fought in should have a modicum of truth.
Then, on Nigeria’s tragic day of 13th February 1976, Lt. Col.
BukaSukaDimka and his collaborators assassinated Gen. MurtalaMuhammed, who had
been in power for all of 200 glorious days. The officers who rallied together
to stop the coup attempt did the supposedly right thing by insisting that
Murtala’s second in command should assume office. Thus, Obasanjo, who was
hiding under the bed of the late business mogul, Chief S.B. Bakare, while other
officers risked their lives to rout Dimka and his fellow malcontents, was
pushed onto Nigeria’s centre-stage. 20 years after he left office, lightning
struck at the same spot a second time; the same Obasanjo, a Yoruba, was invited
to come and lead Nigeria, in recompense to the Yoruba, for the presidency
denied the late Chief Moshood K. O.
Abiola, though he had cleanly and clearly won the June 12, 1993 election.
Actually, this was another attack on Abiola, for by then Obasanjo was already a
known enemy of Abiola as Abiola, Obasanjo’s school mate, had become far richer
than Obasanjo; and Obasanjo brooks no competition. Former Vice-President Alex
Ekweueme and other members of the G48 who stormed late Gen SaniAbacha’sAso Rock
lion’s den and asked him to “halt and desist” from mutating into a civilian
president, were almost all hounded and humiliated by the ingrate who reaped
where others had sowed.
Now, Obasanjo has left office; no, he was forced out, in
2007. He had his eyes fixed on a life presidency. The rest of us had actually
thought the man was bent on just having a Third Term of four years. But his
then Vice-President, AtikuAbubakar, has let the world in on the great secret
that Obasanjo was embarked on a life-presidency gambit. And because Atiku had
the gumption to stoutly oppose that inglorious life-presidency bid, for which
some $5 billion (yes, five billion United States of American dollars) were
amassed, Obasanjo declared war against him. Then the money was expended in the
largest and most despicable bribery effort in Nigeria, and perhaps the whole
world. Or, in which other country and for what pupose did anyone, no matter how
demonic, attempt to bribe the entire legislature of any luckless country? The
parliamentarians received from N200 million to N50 million apiece. It was the
world’s most inglorious bazaar.
Atiku also led the fight against that life-precidency bid.
He found like-minds in Gen. T.Y Danjuma who said Obasanjo wanted a Fourth Term
and told his former friend: “we did not fight the Civil War for you alone”,
Sens. SuruYariGandi, UcheChukwumerije, IdrisKuta, B.M. Maccido, Ben Obi, etc.,
and a gallant Senate President Ken Nnamani ensured that the obnoxious bill to
benefit an obnoxious man died an obnoxious death.
Please note that, here, we are dealing with an Obsanjo
whose ego is so outlandish that he could oftentimes equate himself with God.
In fact, he has even insulted God Almighty, claiming that God is at his beck
and call. Or what would any right-thinking person make of Obasanjo’s saying:
“If I had asked God for Third Term, He would have given it to me”. So, to this
Mathew, God’s will is always trumped by Obasanjo’s whims. Perhaps, never before
has a so-called Christian so dastardly insulted God.
So, having situated Obasanjo’s rabid aggression against
Atiku, an aggression worsened by a hidden and defiant loneliness because he has
few genuine friends and poor filial love, coupled with his rampant egotism,
which does not admit of the fact that Nigeria could do without him; an egotism
rendered more toxic by tons of guilt he needs to hide, plus a total lack of
honour, the next stage is to show that his administration was not the Nigerian
version of the Belle Époque (“Beautiful Age”) in France and Europe. That will
be the part two of this series.
(Eluemunor, former Aso Rock Correspondent, adapted this from his
unpublished book: “The Audacity of Hypocrisy.”)
Dubious,dubious dubious people have been on the stage for so long and so early in Nigerian political drama the future is uncertain more uncertain because there is no systematic plan.
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