By Dele Sobowale
“Three or four other (sic) of us from different part (sic) of the country got together and said to ourselves what do we do?”
Obasanjo, in story titled “I and others brought Buhari to salvage Nigeria”, published on August 20, 2016, by a national daily.
Forget the atrocious grammar which should have been corrected while Segun Aremu Obasanjo was a student at Baptist Boys High School, BBHS, Abeokuta. The teachers who produced the likes of Prince Bola Ajibola, CFR, former Attorney-General and World Court jurist, did their best.
But, with regard to certain students, “Washing a donkey’s head is a waste of water.” (VANGUARD BOOK OF QUOTATIONS, VBQ, p 42). Let us address the substance of that statement which Buhari had not refuted – perhaps because the President does not realise the danger posed to his legacy by close association with Obasanjo. The man’s touch, laid on any person, is literally poisonous. This is one revelation, if true, which Buhari needs like a shot in the head.
For a start, one of my most highly respected sages and mentor, and a founding father of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, when OBJ was still in prison for what the ABACHA regime tagged treason, had made the following observation:
“If as Obasanjo claims, the four of them had brought Buhari to clean up the mess the PDP left behind in its sixteen years in power, Obasanjo served in eight of those years and so must have been responsible for half of the mess. Furthermore, Obasanjo laid the foundation for the corruption which charcterised his administration from 1999 to 2007. He single-handedly imposed Yar’Adua and Jonathan on the nation. The two presidents he imposed added to the mess. Who is this man to be talking?”
Well, the answer to who is this man is a long one. But, before that, Buhari needs to be asked if this is the sort of person he wants to be associated with. For every friend Baba Iyabo makes for PMB, he makes a thousand enemies – especially, in the Southwest – where, even today, Obasanjo cannot, on his own run for dog-catcher and win in a free and fair election. Now let me present the evidence one by one as to my estimation of Obasanjo. Incidentally, most of these facts were in the public domain since 1999 and can be easily verified.
First, here is the evidence on morals. Back in 2011, a verbal exchange occurred between Obasanjo and Babangida when the latter wanted to contest for the presidency after OBJ had decided to impose Jonathan.
OBJ VERSUS IBB: READ THE BOOK
“Babangida should be pitied and shown sympathy, rather than anger and condemnation because the old saying says a fool at 40 is a fool for ever and I would say a regret at 70 is a regret to the grave”. Former President Olusegun Obasanjo.
“Calling IBB “ a fool at 70” especially by a man accused by his own son of something as terrible as incest, is a compliment. Nigerians know who is truly a fool or the greatest fool of this century”. IBB’s spokesman.
Few people remember the episode. Obasanjo’s own son, Gbenga, had accused OBJ of sleeping with his daughter-in-law – Gbenga’s wife. Anyway you look at it, the story could either be true or a figment of Gbenga’s imagination. Nevertheless, if true, then Baba must have an issue. If untrue, he had raised a son who would defame his father who was accused of a heinous crime. And, he must have reasons; it is not everyday that sons accuse their fathers of incest – just to win an argument. Is this Buhari’s bosom friend? Is this the man who gave us Buhari? God forbid and Buhari better issue a disclaimer soonest.
Great statesmen are not self-centred schemers. They aim to leave lasting legacies for their people. OBJ having failed in eight years to achieve greatness attempted a third term bid and failed. Then, he schemed the country into eight years of political, social and economic disasters. First he imposed Yar’Adua who was known to be terminally ill. Then, he imposed Jonathan as the Vice President and waited for Yar’Adua to fall – hoping that he would be in position to manipulate GEJ.
His failure to gain power by remote control resulted in the verbal attacks on Jonathan’s administration till the end. By the seventh year OBJ was again on the move – in search of another stooge to impose. God forbid that Buhari is that man. His two previous successors died – Yar’Adua went six feet under and GEJ died politically. Both succumbed to the kiss of death from the same man. Who is next?
As President, Obasanjo encouraged what, in my opinion, was treason and did not punish it. His accomplices were the Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, Malam Nuhu Ribadu, the Inspector General of Police, Dr Ngige and Mr Mba.
Nuhu Ribadu, it would be recalled, shut down the Plateau State House of Assembly, using police men provided by the IGP – with Obasanjo’s approval. Ribadu then took seven members of the Plateau House to Abuja, provided them protection while they proceeded to suspend sixteen members in order to get Governor Festus Dariye impeached. It required a courageous justice of the Federal Court to restore the people’s sovereignty to them. The verbal spanking Ribadu received should have been sufficient to get a honourable man – and a lawyer at that – to resign. It was pure treason OBJ-style.
Former Governor Ngige of Anambra remains the only sitting governor to be kidnapped in his own state by a bloody civilian called Mba – to who Ngige had been remitting state’s funds on a monthly basis. Ngige was kidnapped with the help of the police when he stopped paying. After regaining his freedom, the two met in Aso Rock with the President and Audu Ogbeh – who was then National Chairman of the PDP. There, a startling revelation of grievous crimes was made. Mba told Ngige “You know you did not win the election; that it was rigged.”
To this Ngige answered “Yes, I know I did not win.” Meanwhile, the case about the election was in court. Obasanjo heard a confession in Aso Rock about election malpractices and did not call for the arrest of Mba and the discontinuation of Ngige’s defence of a stolen mandate. Ngige continued to use the state’s money on the case all the way to the Supreme Court. The only man present with any modicum of decency was Audu Ogbeh who wrote Obasanjo a letter asking “What happened to honour?” Obasanjo had him removed for asking for an elected president to uphold the law. Ngige is now a Buhari Minister and OBJ apparently is his friend. Well, as the saying goes, “Show me your friends, and I will tell you who you are”. Buhari better wipe that kiss off…
good article