{"id":21005,"date":"2013-12-18T22:55:50","date_gmt":"2013-12-18T21:55:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/?p=21005"},"modified":"2013-12-20T09:51:32","modified_gmt":"2013-12-20T08:51:32","slug":"the-celebration-of-infamy-a-rebuttal-of-gen-olusegun-obasanjos-before-it-is-too-late","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/articles-opinions\/the-celebration-of-infamy-a-rebuttal-of-gen-olusegun-obasanjos-before-it-is-too-late\/","title":{"rendered":"The Celebration of Infamy: A Rebuttal of Gen Olusegun Obasanjo\u2019s \u201cBefore it is Too Late\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

BY HON DALONG KWASA TAROK<\/strong><\/em>
\n(former member , Plateau State House of Assembly, 1979-1983)<\/strong><\/em>
\nIn Rebutting Gen Olusegun Obasanjo\u2019s 18-page letter to President Goodluck
\nJonathan titled \u201cBefore it is Too Late\u201d, it is not my intention to rise to
\nthe cause of a defamed leader; he has more than enough aides who are
\ncapable of setting the records straight. Yet, as a Nigerian patriot, I
\nfervently believe that Gen Obasanjo\u2019s latest outing is one act of infamy
\ntoo many. Gen Obasanjo is right in stressing his immunity against
\nconstructive criticism, because in all material and spiritual particulars
\nhe has long crossed the threshold of humanity into that occult zone of
\nexistential perdition. For example, Gen Obasanjo walks the earth with an
\nungainly swagger apparently having survived what my Igbo compatriots
\nclassify as ALU (abomination) and NSO ANI (that act which the earth
\nforbids); to wit, the well publicised series of conjugal relations he had
\nwith his son, Gbenga\u2019s wife. If he could escape (for now) the wrath of his
\nancestors for such a sacrilegious act, is it any surprise that he holds
\nthe whole nation, including its elected President, in utter contempt and
\ninsolent disregard?<\/p>\n

2. Having studied his letter to President Jonathan very closely; having
\nexcavated his long career in the military and politics; and having
\nsubjected his social psychology to close analytic test, I came to the
\ninescapable conclusion that two motive forces drove him to overreach
\nhimself in his amoral posturing and sanctimonious self-justification.
\nFirst, he wanted to demean the person and office of President Jonathan,
\ntarnish his reputation, hold him up to public ridicule and scorn and
\ndestroy his legacy. On this score, he has already failed tragically for
\nthe simple reason that a moral crusading force must repose three crucial
\nattributes: plausibility, credibility and believability. Nigerians have
\nalready rejected Gen Obasanjo\u2019s thesis on President Jonathan for they have
\nseen through his \u2018fear of God\u2019 and \u2018for the good of the country\u2019 sermon as
\na camouflage against his persistent neo-messianic hallucinations,
\nirredeemable lack of credibility and an outright sense of permanent
\nspiritual asphyxiation.<\/p>\n

3. Two, Gen Obasanjo is well aware that time is no longer on his side and
\nthat of the members of his conclave (examine closely the names mentioned
\nin the last page of his immoral epistle, with the exception of that of Dr
\nAlex Ekwueme) who bent the arc of Nigerian history on 29th July, 1975 and
\nhave superintended Nigeria\u2019s political transition from that date till now,
\nincluding determining who becomes President, when, how, and why. Now, well
\nin their 80s and 70s 2015 has become their political home call, their last
\nact of individual and collective bravery; indeed their last stand. The
\n2015 succession politics is too good an opportunity to miss; thereafter
\nnature may naturally begin to take its measured toll and run its eternal
\ncourse. To pave way for his anointed President (a choice he and he alone
\nhas already made ) President Jonathan must be dehumanized, diminished and
\nrendered politically impotent and helpless. With that done, the portals,
\npathways and apian ways of power will be drawn open for the anointed one
\nwhose political birthing Gen Obasanjo will procreate on our collective
\nbehalf.<\/p>\n

4. Before examining closely the disconnected ramblings, ominous
\ninnuendoes, disjointed narrative sequences of improbable ideas, hearsays,
\ntwisted facts and outright lies that litter an epistolary exercise where
\nhis dissociation of sensibility, cognitive dissonance and split
\npersonality syndrome were all in full display, it may be necessary to
\nexcavate some of the highlights of Gen Obasanjo\u2019s recent history. In
\n1988, Gen Obasanjo wrote a book titled Constitution for National
\nIntegration and Development in which he riled against multi-party
\ndemocracy while insisting that a one-party hegemony is the best political
\noption open to Nigeria in her search for strategies for sustainable
\nnational development. As an elected President in 1999, Gen Obasanjo saw
\nthrough this warped political vision to its logical conclusion. He
\nfrustrated every effort to register additional political parties to make
\nmore competitive the nation\u2019s political space until the victory the late
\nChief Gani Fawehinmi recorded at the Supreme Court paved the way for new
\nparties to be registered.<\/p>\n

5. Gen Obasanjo also set about the task of destroying the two opposition
\nparties- the AD and APP as they were then called- with devious enthusiasm
\nand insensate passion. He bribed the national leadership of the AD not to
\nfield a Presidential candidate in the 2003 Presidential election and duped
\nthe South West leadership of the party in a sham electoral alliance that
\nexhausted the possibility of the party as a potent political force. He
\nachieved this by corrupting the electoral system and unleashing the
\ncoercive apparatus of the state that muzzled the party\u2019s voice during the
\nelections. Thereafter, the AD imploded, never to recover. He next set his
\nsights on destroying the APP, a feat he achieved between 2003 and 2007
\nduring which time he used the party\u2019s National Chairman, the late Chief
\nEdwin Ume-Ezeoke, and some APP Governors like Sani Yerima of Zamfara
\nState, to unhinge its corporate standing and administrative cohesiveness.
\nAPP soon imploded with a substantial rump of it fleeing with Gen Buhari to
\nform the then CPC. More on his spirited attempts to destroy the PDP
\nthrough his politics of impunity, garrison command mentality, insufferable
\narrogance and unconstitutional and arbitrary acts later in this rebuttal.<\/p>\n

6. Gen Obasanjo disliked the late Chief MKO Abiola with scorching
\nintensity and loathed the symbolism of June 12, 1993 in Nigeria\u2019s
\ndemocratic recovery. He never acknowledged Chief Abiola\u2019s contributions to
\nNigeria\u2019s democratic renewal in just one instance throughout his 8 years
\nin office as President. Contrary to the popular fable peddled by him and
\nhis goons and lackeys he never went to jail because he fought for the
\nde-annulment of the June 12 Presidential election. Gen Obasanjo was in
\nclose collaborative contact and strategic engagement with the Late Gen
\nAbacha between late 1993 and late 1994. Rather than battle with the rest
\nof the nation\u2019s human rights and prodemocracy community for the full
\nrestoration of stolen electoral mandates Gen Obasanjo was heavily involved
\nin negotiations for the formation of AN INTERIM GOVERNMENT WITH GEN ABACHA
\nAS THE HEAD OF STATE AND HIMSELF AS PRIME MINISTER. It was when Gen Abacha
\nturned down his numerous position papers, proposals and overtures on this
\narrangement and went ahead to consolidate his power base that Gen Obasanjo
\nrebelled and became an emergency democrat, a tag that perfectly fits him
\nfrom start to finish. I dare him to refute the above assertions and
\nNigerians will feast themselves on extant documents that support my case.<\/p>\n

7. Dr ALEX Ekwueme\u2019s leadership of the G-34, a coalition of liberal
\npoliticians who opposed Gen Sani Abacha from April 1998, placed him in an
\nadvantageous position to emerge the Presidential candidate of the PDP when
\nthe ban on political activities was lifted by Gen Abdulsalam Abubakar
\nabout July 1998. He was favoured by the nation\u2019s dominant liberal
\npolitical establishment as Nigeria\u2019s next President but the Generals who
\noverthrew their boss, Gen Gowon, in July 1975 were having none of it.
\nThese same Generals who helped nurture the Alhaji Shehu Shagari Presidency
\n(Gen Obasanjo said as much in his letter), who overthrew him when fancy
\npossessed them, who helped Gen Buhari become Head of State and humiliated
\nand detained him after he was overthrown by them and who, of course, paved
\nGen Babangida\u2019s path to power, moved very quickly. They secured Gen
\nObasanjo\u2019s release from jail, procured a State pardon for him, cleaned him
\nup, empowered him financially and packaged him as the next Big Thing.
\nThere are clear indications that Gen Obasanjo subscribed to a Mandela
\none-term Presidency arrangement with the members of his conclave but
\nreneged on his commitment when he attained power in 1999. Nigerians would
\nlike more light shed on this matter by the likes of Gen Babangida, Gen
\nAbubakar, Gen TY Danjuma and Gen Aliyu Gusau.<\/p>\n

8.Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar may also have a lot to say on how
\nand why he became a victim of the politics of succession in 2003 on the
\nstrength of tales told him about Gen Obasanjo\u2019s one-term pact with his
\npolitical handlers. Gen Obasanjo not only destroyed the businesses and
\npolitical careers of all those who opposed him in 2003 but unleashed a
\ntorrent of demonizing and criminalizing political and financial attacks on
\nall those perceived to be against his THIRD TERM NEO-MESSIANIC PROJECT,
\nthe lowest point of political infamy and moral ataraxia in modern Nigerian
\nhistory. While President Jonathan, a leader so insolently vilified and
\ndemeaned by him, is yet to complete his first term in office, Gen Obasanjo
\nwill go down in history as one accidental president whose excess of
\npolitical ambition, lust for power and unbridled egoism nearly destroyed
\nthe foundation of the Nigerian state.<\/p>\n

9. I will now turn my attention to a close consideration of some of the
\nissues Gen Obasanjo raised in his letter to President Jonathan. Gen
\nObasanjo accused President Jonathan of NON-SPECIFIC acts of political
\nimpunity that has torn the PDP apart. He told tales of bitterness, anger,
\nfear, suspicion, etc, the reasons adduced by HIS POLITICAL GODSONS in
\ndecamping from the party without one factual illustration. It is either
\n\u2018he was told\u2019, \u2018he heard\u2019, or \u2018it was mentioned or revealed to him\u2019 the
\nacts of President Jonathan that caused the rebellion in the first place.
\nYet, Gen Obasanjo\u2019s political score card in the PDP is factually
\nrevealing. He humiliated the late Chief Sunday Awoniyi when the latter
\nwanted to contest for the post of the National Chairman of the party. He
\nliterally put a gun over the head of Chief Audu Ogbe and forced him to
\nresign as the National Chairman of the party for voicing opposition to Gen
\nObasanjo\u2019s protection of political rascals, scallywags, touts and occult
\nworshippers who made Anambra State ungovernable between 2003 and 3006.<\/p>\n

10. He didn\u2019t stop at this. He corrupted the Senate into impeaching the
\nvery popular and charismatic late Dr Chuba Okadigbo as its President. He
\nwent further to DE-REGISTER EVERY SINGLE MEMBER OF THE PDP and planted his
\ngoons and political enforcers at all re-registration centres to physically
\nstop all those in his black book from being re-absorbed into the party. He
\ndeclared the Office of his Vice President vacant, sacked all his staff,
\nstopped him from entering his office and virtually evicted him from his
\nofficial quarters. Just recently, a book was launched in Abuja detailing
\nAtiku Abubakar\u2019s harrowing political torment in the hands of Gen Obasanjo
\nand his spirited and courageous legal struggles to expand Nigeria\u2019s
\njurisprudential space in landmark legal judgments he obtained against Gen
\nObasanjo\u2019s culture of impunity, unconstitutional conducts and even
\noutright criminal political acts. I advise Nigerians to get copies of that
\nbook to really begin to understand the devious and dangerous human
\nspecimen that Gen Obasanjo is.<\/p>\n

11. Gen Obasanjo claimed, without any substantiation, that Alhaji Bamanga
\nTukur is merely doing the biddings of the paymaster, meaning President
\nJonathan, without adducing any single proof of such unbecoming acts or
\nproviding factual evidence of such occurrences. He also regaled Nigerians
\nwith tales about President Jonathan\u2019s avowal of a one term Presidency
\nwithout a tissue of truth in his pathetic lamentations. It is either that
\nhe heard it from Governor Suswan, or that President Jonathan\u2019s 6-year
\nsingle term proposition is an indication that he wants to serve for one
\nterm only. He spoke inelegantly about a pact President Jonathan entered
\ninto with faceless and unmanned persons and even his long quotation from
\nhis campaign speech only implicated the press as the source of President
\nJonathan\u2019s one-term decision. These indeed are the \u2018acts\u2019 capable of
\nplunging Nigerians into disaster; acts that Gen Obasanjo wants stopped
\nforthwith BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE.<\/p>\n

12. One begins to wonder why it was not too late for the nation when
\nPresident Obasanjo illegally removed Governor Joshua Dariye from office
\nand appointed a MILITARY ADMINISTRATOR to govern the hapless state under
\nthe cover of a state of emergency declaration, the true, legal and
\nconstitutional nature of which President Jonathan has revealed in Borno,
\nYobe and Adamawa states. Nigerians will also want to know why it was never
\ntoo late for the country when Gen Obasanjo purchased the conscience of a
\nfew legislators and illegally removed Governors Ladoja and Fayose from
\noffice in Oyo and Ekiti states respectively. Nigerian will also love to
\nknow why it never was too late for the polity to radically unravel when
\nGen Obasanjo turned the INEC into his private rigging machine and
\nsubsequently declared that politics is A DO OR DIE AFFAIR.<\/p>\n

13. It is strange that Gen Obasanjo adopted two personas in his letter to
\nPresident Jonathan; the private communicator and the public pseudo-oracle.
\nOn the one hand, he gave 10 reasons why he adopted the public medium (open
\nletter) in communicating to President Jonathan but strangely solicits him
\nto share the content with only a very select audience, implying that he
\nwrote the President a confidential letter away from the prying eyes of the
\nuninitiated public! This dubious narrative mode is meant to cover his
\ntracks, especially when he makes outrageous remarks or regales his
\naudience with tales by the moonlight which he struggles to pass off as
\nhard facts. He talked about over 1000 persons under political watch list,
\nkiller squads, snipers and trained assassins waiting to devour all
\nPresident Jonathan\u2019s opponents. He wrote about a murderer being released
\nfrom prison to continue his killing spree.<\/p>\n

14. Yet NOT IN ONE SINGLE INSTANCE did he provide any evidence to
\nsubstantiate his wild, outrageous, frivolous, defamatory and libellous
\naccusations. However, what cannot be wished away is the fact that Nobel
\nLaureate, Prof Wole Soyinka spoke passionately and unceasingly about the
\nnest of killers in Gen Obasanjo\u2019s Presidency; a nest that may well have
\nbred the murderers of Chief Bola Ige, Chief Harry Marshall, Chief Dikibo
\nand Engr Funsho Williams. None of the killers of these eminent Nigerians
\nwas ever brought to justice throughout Gen Obasanjo\u2019s 8 years in office.
\nApparently, the nest is still very much alive and well, nurturing new
\nkiller-birds. So when next we hear of killer squads, trained assassins and
\nsnipers Nigerians should know where to begin their search.<\/p>\n

15. Gen Obasanjo does not need to remind President Jonathan and Nigerians
\nabout the critical security challenges the nation faces. These are well
\ndocumented. Yes, some more work need to be done to improve security, stop
\nthe theft of Nigeria\u2019s oil resources and deal squarely with the Boko Haram
\nterrorism. But I believe that as deep as these challenges are they do not
\nrequire the ODI and ZAKI BIAM approach where Gen Obasanjo authorized the
\nmass annihilation of the citizens of the country and the comprehensive
\ndestruction of their means of livelihood in a scorched earth war strategy.
\nAgain, if he is as knowledgeable about the Boko Haram phenomenon and the
\ninterface between political and economic exclusion, poverty, arms
\ntrafficking and drugs as foundational causes of that extremist insurgency
\nas he claims he does in his meaningless pontificating on the subject, he
\nwould have realized that the Nigerian security forces have defeated Boko
\nHaram\u2019s domestic franchise. What is at play is the mutation of that
\nforce into a regional and international terror network. The Americans know
\nthis and took a well thought-out decision in naming it a foreign terrorist
\norganization. It is like blindly arguing that the Syrian government is not
\ndoing enough to secure its country when in actuality the spirit of the
\npopular resistance to the Assad regime has long gone. Just as over 80
\npercent of the armed insurgents in Syria are foreign terrorists and
\nradical Islamists, over 80 percent of the remnants of Boko Haram in
\nNigeria are terrorists and radical Islamists from the Maghreb region and
\nelsewhere.<\/p>\n

16. Gen Obasanjo wrote passionately about corruption attaining a level of
\nimpunity in Nigeria under President Jonathan\u2019s watch. The responsibility
\nof providing data on this and the robust efforts being made to stem this
\nepidemic is not his alone. This much is granted. The Office of the
\nAttorney-General of the Federation\/Minister of Justice, the EFCC, ICPC,
\nthe Police anti-fraud unit and the law courts should do more in providing
\ndetails about on-going high profile corruption related cases and in
\ndisseminating information on the strides and steps taken by government to
\nachieve better prosecutorial results. Having said this, it is imperative
\nthat Nigerians still ask Gen Obasanjo searching questions about the over
\n$14 billion appropriated for the power sector under his watch and the
\nsource of the hundreds of billions of Naira deployed to procure his THIRD
\nTERM agenda. He should also be questioned about the source of the over N3
\ntrillion declared by one of his domestic aides as his well-earned money.
\nNigerians also need to know how come he is currently touted as one of
\nAfrica\u2019s richest sons while, in actuality, he came out from jail in 1998
\nas a ragged ex-convict with hardly a dime to his name. Yet he is now the
\nproud owner of a private university, a multi-billion Presidential library
\nand several blue chip companies (acquired when he dashed Nigeria\u2019s
\ncorporate patrimony to his cronies), all under Obasanjo Holdings.<\/p>\n

17. I did state at the beginning of this piece that my intention is not to
\nhold brief for President Jonathan as his ministers and other special aides
\nare more than capable of defending his legacy-in-the-making. Nigerians
\nalso know that it look tremendous political will, vision and foresight to
\nunbundle and privatize significant portfolios in the power sector value
\nchain, a situation Gen Obasanjo shuddered at and fled from for 8 whole
\nyears, his tail between his legs. Nigerians also know who is revamping the
\nrail transport sector; a national enterprise that died over three decades,
\nyet Gen Obasanjo was President for 8 years without lifting a finger in
\nthat direction. A lot have been written about the quiet revolution going
\non in the agricultural sector, Nigeria\u2019s expanding GDP, sustainable growth
\nrate and macroeconomic stability. Currently, the most comprehensive
\ninstitutional and strategic reform of the oil and gas sector is with the
\nNational Assembly in the form of the PIB awaiting passage.<\/p>\n

18. However, assuming that the catalogue of Nigeria\u2019s economic woes is as
\nreal as Gen Obasanjo painted them from oil theft to a negative investment
\nclimate, Nigerians are entitled to know WHAT GEN OBASANJO DID IN 8 YEARS
\nTHAT PRESIDENT JONATHAN IS NOW BEING CALLED UPON TO DO SO MUCH MORE FROM
\nTHE SCRATCH. Were Gen Obasanjo to be just another regular folk Nigerians
\nmay take his ranting very serious, but he was an Executive President for 8
\nyears and yet is writing as if President Jonathan is indeed Nigeria\u2019s
\nfirst political leader with no 50 years of political governance before him
\nout of which Gen Obasanjo accounts for 11 years. It is not President
\nJonathan who is living in a world of denial and passing the bulk; it is
\nthe likes of Gen Obasanjo who wasted and squandered opportunities in
\noffice but now turn around to blackmail their successors into covering
\ntheir tracks of incompetence, ineffectual leadership and monumental
\nfailure of governance. Had Gen Obasanjo did his bit while in office the
\nburden on President Jonathan and Nigerians would have been lighter but he
\nfailed to perform therefore saddling a President in his first term in
\noffice with responsibilities he could not shoulder in 8 +3 years.<\/p>\n

19. It is unprofitable to dwell in Gen Obasanjo\u2019s meaningless moral
\nprattle about God, country, good conscience, life and death that covers
\nnearly 7 pages of his strange epistle as that will be wasting my readers\u2019
\nprecious time but his stupid remark about President Jonathan committing
\nanti-party activities by aiding opposition governorship candidates is
\nworth responding to. The logic behind this monstrous accusation is
\ndifficult to fathom out. I can only make the following observations. Is
\nGen Obasanjo saying that the PDP governorship candidates in those states
\nhe listed are all anti-Jonathan elements who must be stopped at all cost
\nto pave way for opposition candidates who are more inclined to supporting
\nhim? This is laughable. I suspect that what Gen Obasanjo cannot comprehend
\nis that the PDP is strong in some states and weak in others and unlike him
\nwho deployed his INEC rigging machine and played the politics of do or
\ndie, President Jonathan, as a true democrat and constitutionalist, allowed
\ndue, credible and transparent elections to take place.<\/p>\n

20. These elections ultimately affirmed the people\u2019s popular sovereignty
\nto the chagrin of Gen Obasanjo\u2019s revolting belief that electoral banditry
\nand stealing of people\u2019s mandate is a fair game in his spiritually sterile
\nschool of democracy. Regarding the Anambra State situation, Nigerians
\nshould read between the lines because what Gen Obasanjo wanted President
\nJonathan to do was to foist on the PDP his erstwhile domestic aide as the
\nparty\u2019s governorship candidate. The failure of that perfidious project to
\nfly naturally translated to President Jonathan playing anti-party politics
\nin Gen Obasanjo\u2019s warped mind and crude sense of illogic.<\/p>\n

21. One is tempted to go on and on but suffice it to stress that Gen
\nObasanjo clearly overreached himself with his latest act of infamy.
\nNigerians are plainly tired of Gen Obasanjo and his tricks and uncouth
\nantics. Having played God for so long Gen Obasanjo\u2019s de-robbing is
\nmanifestly self-inflicted. By not holding his peace Gen Obasanjo, like
\nMacbeth, has murdered sleep. I sincerely believe that he will sleep no
\nmore. In one breath he claimed that he adopted the public mode of
\ncommunication because his two previous letters were unacknowledged, yet in
\nthe same letter he made us understand that he has virtually unlimited
\naccess to President Jonathan and narrated several instances they met in
\nrecent time. Wise counsel should have dictated that he continued his quiet
\ndialogue with the President. By choosing foolishness over wisdom, the
\nnaked dance he has embarked upon now has since left the homestead. He is
\ncurrently dancing at the market square . And this is tragic, very tragic
\nfor a life so misused and opportunities for greatness so fragrantly and
\nscornfully discarded. Quite a pity.
\nHon Tarok was the Chairman, Plateau State House of Assembly Committee on
\nInter-Governmental Relations, between 1979 and 1983. He lives at N0. 86
\nYakubu Gowon Street, Jos, Plateau State and could be reached at
\ndakatarok@gmail.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BY HON DALONG KWASA TAROK (former member , Plateau State House of Assembly, 1979-1983) In Rebutting Gen Olusegun Obasanjo\u2019s 18-page letter to President Goodluck Jonathan titled \u201cBefore it is Too…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21006,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21005","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles-opinions"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Celebration of Infamy: A Rebuttal of Gen Olusegun Obasanjo\u2019s \u201cBefore it is Too Late\u201d - Pointblank News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/articles-opinions\/the-celebration-of-infamy-a-rebuttal-of-gen-olusegun-obasanjos-before-it-is-too-late\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Celebration of Infamy: A Rebuttal of Gen Olusegun Obasanjo\u2019s \u201cBefore it is Too Late\u201d - 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