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FormerPresident Olusegun Obasanjo is a troubled soul. What better way to
show hisrestless nature than that at a time he would have been in
retirement, the oldman is hustling on the streets. At a time he was
supposed to sit back and thankGod for his bountiful favours on him,
Obasanjo is trudging on the roads,swearing, lying and scheming for power.
Yes, at over eighty years, this fellowwho is among the few that have been
hugely favored by the inchoate Nigerianstate and who has made very
bountiful, corrupt harvest from that fling offortune, is still coveting
political fortunes. He is still recruiting eunuchson whose back he wants
to wield power after 11 years of direct control of power.He is still
desirous of coming back to power through the backdoor. Nigerians
understandObasanjo’s trajectory better than his futile but desperate
efforts to stay inpower through the infamous third term when he completed
his mandatory two termsas civilian President after another three years as
military head of state!
Havingrealized the fatal blunder he made in writing President Buhari and
threateningto remove him from power from very selfish and egoistic
considerations and withthe very rude way Nigerians reacted to his insipid
letter, Obasanjo has calledhis old, ancient pride to action and instead of
eating the humble pie, goinghome to rest, has decided to march the
irrevocable road to destruction by goingforward with his unpopular task.
Let us remember that Obasanjo vowed that hehad quit politics and would
disembark from the coalition he threatened to formin his infamous letter,
should it decide to transform into a political party. Yes,he has tried to
give action to his threat but his effort at forming a coalitionhas met
with humiliating disappointment as only a few grumpy, tired
politicallightweights and his traditional hirelings and courtiers have
signed on to hisjaundiced coalition. That should be added warning to
Obasanjo that he isthreading the paths of self-destruct but with a
character like Obasanjo, whohas a bloated impression of himself, drowning
in the cesspool of hubris and egothan dismount a high horse of pride will
always be a better option. It is obvious that Obasanjo, fired by thedeep
wound of Buhari’s snubbing of his letter, doesn’t pretend any furtherabout
respect and honour as he had proceeded further to not only turn
hisso-called coalition into a political party but gallivants all over the
countrywith sour, bitter tales about President Buhari’s government and a
threat toremove him from power come next year. This report however, is not
about Obasanjo’s multi-faced personality butabout his years in power,
which many Nigerians swear, was riddled with sordidacts of corruption that
made his reign so ineffective and scandal ridden. Indeciding to revoke his
vow of quitting politics and re-engaging himself in theart of politicking,
with a prurient penchant to haul muck at others, Obasanjo’smessy steward
must be called to question and he must be ever ready to defendwhatever
took place under his watch.
Whilereceiving members of Buhari Support Group in Abuja last week,
President Buharireminded them of the kind of putrid mess those who are now
flatteringthemselves as redeemers of the people made here in Nigeria. He
reminded themthat a past leader (mind you he didn’t mention Obasanjo)
claimed to have spenta whopping $16 billion in the power sector and asked
where the power is. Thatwas enough to set afire the mounting fury of
Obasanjo and his supporters whowere still hurting badly from Buhari’s snub
of the many vile means they hadbeen trying to call him out for a shouting
match. They fawned, they threatenedand they wailed but yet refused to tell
Nigerians what they did with the huge$16 billion they claimed to have
expended on power. Particularly miserable wasObasanjo’s sorry reply,
through his spokesman, to the effect that Buhari shouldgo and read
Obasanjo’s book, My Watch, if he needs a reply to the poser hethrew. That
singular reply rebounded so badly that Obasanjo was left naked,soiled and
bruised among an angry populace who couldn’t believe that a man thatwas in
power for eleven years could give that kind of specious and
outlandishanswer on an issue that requires very clear and lucid reply.
Poor Obasanjo, hethought this time around he will muddle his way through
such huge poser byapplying his well known guile and puerile antics but he
seems trapped this timearound.
Nigeriansare asking if Obasanjo spent $16 billionon a power that exists
in the pages of his book? So Nigerians that have beenyearning for constant
power supply or neon years should buy Obasanjo’s book tosatiate their
cravings for more power supply? Did Obasanjo and his mediocrespokesman
mean that Nigerians will see power, real megawatts of electricity
inObasanjo’s book? Did Obasanjo use a whopping $16 billion to
generateelectricity that could only be accessed from his book? Was the $16
billionObasanjo said he spent to power meant to be for power in his book
only? You canimagine the audacity of corruption. You can imagine the
daftness of thecorrupt. You can imagine the porousness that undergirds
corruption. Yes, it iseasier to steal than to acquire and this shows a
demeaning limitation thatrules the mind of the corrupt.
Let us notforget that the $16 billion sleaze in the power sector had
generated a hugelycontroversial legislative probe when the House of
Representatives set up aprobe panel headed by Ndid Elumelu to unravel the
mystery of investing $16billion in the power sector and having our power
fortune worse than it wasbefore the investment. Let us not forget some of
the sordid fallouts of theprobe where many of the so-called power plants
Obasanjo claimed he was buildingwere found by the house investigative
panels to be fenced open lands overgrownby weeds and nothing more. Let us
recallthat like in any other high net worth corruption case, the
legislative probehad been muddled in controversies, blackmail, threats,
counter smear and allmanners of efforts to suppress it. Let us recall that
the probe was stalematedbecause those that probed and those that were
being probed were caught in the matrixof compromise and Nigerians were
left guessing what the outcome of the probewould have been. The present
inquest of where the power that spewed forth froma $16 billion investment
will open vistas for more transparent probe of thishowling scandal that
Obasanjo presided over.
But probe orno probe, the question ‘Where is the power’ remains unanswered
and had almostbeen swept under the huge carpet where mountainous official
malfeasances havebeen buried for ages now. What we get are trillions of
megawatts of angryoutpourings and curses and abuses from Obasanjo’s
fawners and courtiers and no cogentanswer as to where our $16 billion
power is! In fact, in one of such diseasedreactions, one of Obasanjo’s
favored maidservants, and his former EducationMinister, Oby Ezekwesili ran
mad on twitter as he abused President Buhari as an‘incomplete President’
and threatened that she and her cohorts will deal withhim in the 2019
election. Going by the humiliating and totally deprecatingreactions she
got from her followers, what is not obvious is who will join herand her
haggard train of Obasanjo lovers to execute her 2019 threat. Can
youimagine the audacity and shamelessness of corruption? But she got far
more thanshe bargained in that voyage she undertook when what is required
of her and herboss is a very clear and convincing answer to a clear
question.
. Before PresidentBuhari asked that question last week, those who were
behind that elephantinerot were stomping all over the country,
pontificating and sermonizing abouttheir saintliness and the question
itself will dog Obasanjo in hisself-consuming messianic pretensions in the
Nigerian political space. In amoment of sheer audacity of the corrupt,
those who brought the country to itsknees were threatening to come back by
every means possible and among them wasan Obasanjo whose every pores drips
with corruption. That question will tagwith such other monumental heists
like the Halliburton case, Siemens contractcase, the controversial
presidential library issue, the Otta Farm resurgenceand very many other
putrid and dirty cases to reveal the messy underbellies ofan Obasanjo that
has constituted a national embarrassment in pursuance of hisself-propelled
vaunting ambition and self-serving ends.
Fromwhichever angle you look at it, $16 billion is too huge to be swept
under thesame carpet that has harbored the egregious acts of our past
leaders likeObasanjo. $16 billion can do wonders in the life of any
nation, even in theadvanced world. The money is too huge to be hidden
inside the pages of apejorative book that was aimed at self-praise and
self-canonizations for whichObasanjo is a class act. When you rightfully
invest $16 billion into the powersector, you are bound to have three giant
Mambila power plants; of the typeBuhari is building now. When you have $16
billion thrown into the power sector,you would generate over 10,000
megawatts of electricity and Nigeria would haveput its power problems
behind it by now. When you throw $16 billion into thecountry’s power
sector, the multiplier effects would have tremendously impactedon the
country’s economy by now and not on a book. These are hard,
incontrovertiblestatistics that do not need the subjective narration of
Obasanjo in aself-adulatory book to explain. These are raw facts that do
not need fartherelucidation, fits of stammering or the kind of confusion
Obasanjo and hislickspittle are trying to import into answering this
simple poser.
Nigerians,who have continually been frustrated in getting valid answers to
the corruptacts committed by their former leaders see a ray of light in
the $16 billionpower poser through a fresh and undiluted EFCC
investigations of what happenedto the $16 billion Obasanjo claimed to have
invested on power without any proofof improvement. Obasanjo and his aides
must be made to give us valid andincontrovertible answer to what happened
to such huge tranche of money whenthere is nothing on ground to show the
huge money went into the epileptic powersector we had in Nigeria for the
entire eight woeful years Obasanjo was inpower. Truth is that it is either
the huge money translates to verifiableinvestments that can be
ascertained, located and valued or it is stilldomiciled as raw cash
somewhere the country can access it and make meaningfuluse of it. Telling
us to read a book that has doubtful objectivity only showsnot only the
evasive intent of Obasanjo and his hirelings but also fuels thefear that
Obasanjo merely supervised the illicit stealing of a huge $16 billionin
the name of investment in the power sector and he and his beneficiaries
mustbe made to vomit such booty. That unfortunate answer amounted to an
aggravatedinsult to all Nigerians. Obasanjo, in his well-known personal
limitations, hisawesome limitations, age-old guile and negative wits, is
known for suchcontempt for Nigerians but he will not be allowed to walk
away with this one.
All said,Obasanjo’s ill-advised desire to sell his vaulting predilection
to ego massageand idiosyncratic satiation may assist us to strike a break
in desiring to knowhow our resources were blatantly stolen by past leaders
and their cronies. Hispresent trajectory may lead us to break the grounds
in holding our past andpresent leaders accountable to their sins which
wrecked the country anddevoured its future and potentials. But the most
critical question today remains;Where is the power Obasanjo claimed he
procured with $16 billion dollars forthe eight years he was here? To
answer this question, Obasanjo needs to beclear, cadent and convincing.
His evasive efforts will rather deepen thesuspicion Nigerians have of him
that he solidified corruption and stealing inNigeria as he ruled. He needs
to either show us the power or our money. Thereshould be no equivocation,
no drama, no dancing around the issue here.Obasanjo, where is the power?
Peter ClaverOparah
Ikeja,Lagos.
E-mail: peterclaver2000@yahoo.com