Ime Akpan
Since the birth of the 4th Republic in 1999, former president Olusegun Obasanjo has dominated the political space within and even outside Nigeria. Recently, he went to Ethiopia on the delegation of the AU and pulled the ears of the country’s president Mr. Abiy Ahmed Ali and the leader of Tigray separatist movement Mr. Debretsion Gebremichael to stop the two-year-old war that claimed thousands of lives and left many homeless.
While in office, Obasanjo went to Sao Tome and Principe in 2003 and collected guns from mutinous soldiers who had toppled a civilian government and ordered them to frog jump to the barracks with “immediate effect and automatic alacrity.” He collected the keys to the presidential palace and handed them back to then President Fradique de Menezes.
Escaping from Abacha’s gallows by the whiskers, Obasanjo left Kuje prison (correctional centre) – and with as little as N20000 balance in his bank account, according to senate chief whip Mr. Orji Kalu – became Nigeria’s president.
Since leaving office in 2007, the former president has had his imprimatur, willy-nilly, in whoever emerges as president. Before leaving office, he solely picked the late Musa Yar’Adua as his successor thus putting paid to the ambition of the likes of Messrs Peter Odili (Rivers State), Victor Attah (Akwa Ibom State), Donald Duke (Cross River), and a horde of others who were visibly angling to step into Obasajo’s big shoes.
Yar’Adua won the 2007 presidential election and took ill afterwards. Obasanjo advised the ailing president to “choose the path of honour and the path of morality” and resign since he could no longer serve the Nigerian people.
After Yar’Adua’s death on May 5, 2015, the Ebora Owu as Obasanjo is fondly called played a front row role in the emergence of former President Goodluck Jonathan to serve out Yar’Adua’s remaining tenure.
When the contest opened again in 2011 and current presidential candidate of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Mr. Atiku Abubakar, who had joined the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) rushed back to the PDP to wrest the ticket from Jonathan, Obasanjo elbowed him and ensured that Jonathan won the primary and went ahead to win the election for a fresh four-year mandate.
Mid-way into Jonathan’s tenure, Obasanjo had a quarrel with the president. Both parted ways, albeit, politically. OBJ, as he is also called floated ‘Anything But Jonathan” (ABJ) movement during the lead up the 2015 election.
Recruitment into the office of the president began and the ‘kingmaker’ vowed to use the movement to ensure Jonathan did not win a second term.
The standard bearer of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Mr. Bola ‘Emi Lokan’ Tinubu and co, were ‘employed to do the head hunt. They set out northwards where they found the current president, Muhammadu Buhari who was marooned in his pen in Daura, Katsina State following three humiliating election defeats he suffered in 2003, 2007 and 2011 and presented him to Obasanjo for ‘anointing.’
Someone once described Obasanjo’s anointing oil as ‘agbonmagbe’ (Yoruba word for inexhaustible).
The former president later told the ‘archeologists’ that Muhammadu (he likes calling people by their first names) will be strong in fighting corruption “but for doing economy, e no good for dat one o.”
Buhari ‘defeated’ Jonathan at the pools in 2015, but his romance with Obasanjo did not last long because of his (Buhari’s) “nepotistic” tendency and “Fulanisation” agenda which Baba Obasanjo discovered rather too late.
Then came 2019 when Obasanjo endorsed Atiku who served as his deputy (1999-2007). He did not support Atiku out of love. After all he had confessed that “One of the mistakes I made was picking my Number Two when I wanted to become the president. But because it was a genuine mistake, God saved me.” He assessed Buhari and Atiku and settled for the latter, who in his estimation, was a better devil. Atiku was trounced at the poll.
As the 2023 polls near, Obasanjo, in his New Year’s Day treatise written in the form a letter to Nigerians, particularly the youths, urged them to take back Nigeria.
In the letter, the former president assessed the present contenders for the office of president – Atiku, Tinubu, Labour Party (LP) candidate, Mr. Peter Obi and New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) frontrunner, Mr. Rabiu Kwankwaso – and settled for Obi.
He admitted that none of the contestants is a saint “but when one compares their character, antecedent, their understanding, knowledge, discipline, and vitality that they can bring to bear and the great efforts required to stay focused on the job, particularly looking at where the country is today and with the experience on the job that I had, Peter Obi as a mentee has an edge.
He described Obi as “a needle with thread attached to it from north and south.”
Besides, he said the LP candidate “has people who can pull his ears, if and when necessary. He has a young and able running mate with a clean track record of achievement both in public and private life.”
Obasanjo did not spare the current government in the letter saying it has turned Nigeria into “hell” for the citizens.
“Obasanjo opted for Obi because the southeast (Obi’s region) has not produced the president of Nigeria since 1999.
Obi (from Anambra – South-East), Atiku (Adamawa – North-East), Tinubu (Lagos – South-West) and Kwankwaso (Kano – North-West).
Did anyone make the mistake that Ebora Owu would get away with the endorsement? Of course not.
Given the option between Tinubu and Atiku, Obasanjo would have grudgingly preferred Tinubu as the better of the other ‘bad’ option. Until Obi came into the picture, Obasanjo’s body language favoured Tinubu.
After Tinubu’s consultative meeting with Obasanjo in his Hill Top Mansion, Abeokuta in August 2022, the speaker, house of representatives, Mr. Femi Gbajabiamila, who was on the entourage reported that the former president made encouraging statements about Tinubu’s aspiration and “embraced our candidate like a brother, gave him a pat on the back, and prayed for him copiously.”
How did the Tinubu camp respond to Obi’s endorsement? Spokesman for the APC presidential campaign council, Mr. Bayo Onanuga dismissed the endorsement as “worthless” adding that Tinubu would not lose sleep over endorsement.
He said Obasanjo has no electoral value adding that the former president has gained notoriety for always opposing progressive political forces “as he did against MKO Abiola in 1993.”
Onanuga contended that Obasanjo is a political field commander who has neither grass nor roots and a “political paperweight” who “has not successfully made anyone win election in Nigeria since 2007.” he added that his principal would trounce his (Obasanjo’s) preferred candidate at the polls on February 25.
“The endorsement is actually worthless because the former president does not possess any political goodwill or leverage anywhere in Nigeria to make anyone win a councillorship election.
“Let alone win a presidential election, he is a political paperweight; he is also not a democrat anyone should be proud to be associated with.
“Not even in Ogun State can anyone rely on his support or endorsement to become a governor or councillor.
“…Chief Obasanjo cannot win his polling unit and ward in Abeokuta for Obi in the coming presidential election on 25 February, 2023.
“Chief Obasanjo’s endorsement is not a political currency Mr. Peter Obi can spend anywhere in Nigeria because he is not a political force, even in his part of the country.
“Chief Obasanjo similarly endorsed Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, Peoples Democratic Party candidate in 2019 against President Muhammadu Buhari. Atiku was walloped by Buhari with a wide margin in the election.
“History will repeat itself in February as our candidate Asíwájú Bola Ahmed Tinubu will equally beat Obi by a large margin,” Onanuga declared.
Speaking at a rally in Benin, Edo State, Tinubu said Obasanjo was trying to deceive Nigerians by endorsing Obi.
“Can that man recommend a leader for you in Nigeria? Is that not sending an agent to pick your pocket? A blind leading the blind.
“I am sorry I am not insulting visually-impaired people. But it won’t work; they will end up in the ditch. If I talk about Obasanjo and Obi, you will think they are human beings together. One who doesn’t know the way cannot show the way,” he said.
Adding his perspective to the discourse, presidential spokesman, Mr. Garba Shehu employed ‘agbero’ tactic, saying there is an air of “moral squalid,” in Obasanjo’s attack on his boss.
Shehu also said Obasanjo was jealous of Buhari’s rising profile, even outside Nigeria hence his continuous attacks to diminish has principal’s achievements.
“Former President Obasanjo is so well known to all that no one needs to describe who he is.
“He will not stop attacking President Muhammadu Buhari because the former President won’t stop being jealous of anyone who beats him to a new record in the nation’s development process.
“President Buhari just completed the world-class edifice that is the Second Niger Bridge after three decades of failed promises. It is now awaiting commissioning.
“Obasanjo laid the sod for the bridge in his first term as elected President and work never started.
“President Buhari has been stating and restating that he will supervise a better election than the one that brought him to office and to leave as and when due.
“Furthermore, the totality of African leaders appointed President Buhari the Anti-Corruption Champion of the continent.
“…In Washington a few weeks ago, the US President Joe Biden at a meeting with African Heads of States and Government described President Buhari as a champion of democracy and role model for the leaders of African states.
“Clearly, Obasanjo has become even more jealous by adopting a vengeful attitude.
“He then keeps attacking out of frustration.
“Obasanjo’s vengeful attitude towards President Buhari is the height of selfishness and little short of moral squalor,” he said.
He went further to fault Obasanjo’s anti-corruption advocacy saying it was during Obasanjo’s presidency that money yielding national assets were parceled out for a pair of sandals in the name of privatisation.
“As an insight, the Aluminum Smelter Company of Nigeria, ALSCON, which was set up with $3.2 billion, was sold to a Russian firm, Russal, for a paltry $130 million. Delta Steel, which was set up in 2005, at a cost of $1.5 billion, was sold to Global Infrastructure for just $30million. ALSCON got back $120million for the dredging of the Imo River, which was never carried out,” he said.
Besides, he accused Obasanjo of destablising internal democracy by “orchestrating impeachment after impeachment of governors who were not compliant with his highly imperial administration.”
For the PDP presidential campaign council, Obasanjo’s endorsement does not reflect the position of the overwhelming majority of Nigerians across the country because Atiku is the most acceptable presidential candidate.
Spokesman for the campaign council, Mr. Kola Ologbondiyan said in a statement that the former president had succeeded in endorsing a “candidate that has not had any experience in governance at the national level.”
“It will be extremely difficult for Nigerians, particularly the youth demography, to accept Chief Obasanjo’s opinion as the solution to the myriad of challenges facing the nation today because the last candidate he introduced, by his own estimation, failed Nigerians,” he said.
“Atiku remains the most widely accepted candidate, whose choice is not predicated by sectional, tribal, ethnic or religious sentiments or the endorsement of any individual, high or low, but by record of ability and performance, authentic vision, honesty and character; physical and mental capacity; the very indices set by the former president,” Ologbondiyan stated.
Nevertheless, no a few people believe that Obasanjo remains an enigma in Nigerian politics; one who does not stand on ceremony. He says things the way they are, sometimes employing street idioms to convey his thoughts, like “I dey kampe.” Where other statesmen speak tongue in cheek, Obasanjo says it the way it is and tells you to “kukuma hug transformer if you no like weting I talk.”
Obasanjo may not have the political weight to mobilise even votes from his polling unit for a councilor, let alone a presidential candidate but what is certain is the fact that whenever the Ebora Owu coughs, people in far flung places like Malumfashi, Kabomo, Barde, Dawan Musa, Kabomo, Kwantakwaran, Amfani, Sandada, Gazara, etc in Katsina State would hear the sound. And if he sneezes, those in Abaribara, Abini Ajijia, Abrikang, Adim Edodono, Adim Obioko, Agwaguna Egbe, Agwaguna Emo, Ahapai Adom, Ahapia villages in Cross River State will have runny noses!
Meanwhile, leader of the Pan-Niger Delta Elders’ Forum (PANDEF), Mr. Edwin Clark, has high fived the endorsement and announced that his group had followed suit.
It has similarly reverberated in Benue State where the governor, Dr Samual Ortom and member of G-5/Integrity of the PDP, covertly endorsed Obi saying if he (Ortom) did not belong to a political party he would be at the forefront of LP candidate’s campaign. Latent
In ‘Obasanjo’s endorsement and the mob’ Dr. Ugoji Egbujo sums up Obasanjo’s worth thus: “Before all the major candidates went to Ota to seek Obasanjo’s endorsement, they knew about Odi and the third term misadventure. Obasanjo is a known quantity. His marital journeys are also well known. Yet Olusegun Obasanjo is an Iroko. A two-time president. He has ruled Nigeria longer than anyone else.
“His influence reaches across the country. Unlike other regular politicians, Obasanjo’s support may not fetch more than a few votes for anyone running for the Nigerian presidency, but his endorsement enhances the legitimacy of any major candidate. Obasanjo has international gravitas.”
