Ex-president Olusegun Obasanjo sure knows how to have a laugh. When it
\ncomes to making bare faced innuendos, challenging people on issues he
\nloathed to be challenged on in the past, he sure takes the cake. His
\nbeautiful tribute to Mandela the other day read like an ironic tale with
\noxymoronic twists. His take on Mandela\u2019s forgiving spirit and how he
\ndecided to stay one term brought memories of his past indiscretions to the
\nfore. But this may be a story for another day.
\nI am one of many Nigerians who were concerned when OBJ\u2019s letter to
\npresident Jonathan was brought to light some days ago. That letter must
\nrank as the most direct and brazen ever written to a sitting president
\nanywhere in Africa. It was frontal, it was straight and if this were a
\nletter written to OBJ when he was president, it would have been considered
\nand treated as provoking, confrontational and challenging. Indeed it was.
\nOBJ\u2019s allegations of corruption in the country are not new so I will not
\nbe dwelling on that. Enough has been said and written on corruption in
\nNigeria that what surprises me is that people are still surprised or act
\nsurprised when this is mentioned. Now, corruption and its tendencies are a
\ndeeply important issue, one that I take seriously and which I feel is the
\nsingle most important factor plaguing the country today. However, having
\ngone through OBJ\u2019s letter, there is not enough in it to persuade even the
\nmost gullible of readers that this was the main crux of the matter.
\nAllegations of the training of snipers, while grave and alarming only
\nreminds one of the same allegations made against former governor Gbenga
\nDaniel while he was Governor and still a pal of OBJ. These alongside his
\nbroadside against Kashamu are mere appendages, an afterthought rather than
\nmain grouses. OBJ\u2019s main grouse against president Goodluck Jonathan is
\nbased on the 2015 elections. And rightly so.
\nI had written an article in 2010 and published in several Nigerian
\ndailies. It was titled \u2018zoning And 2011: A Test for Patriots and
\nCompatriots.\u2019 In it, I had warned of the grave consequences of discarding
\nthe zoning principle of the ruling party on the altar of convenience and
\nexpediency. I further warned that \u2018while zoning may seem retrogressive and
\nbackward, it is the only way to go if we are to sustain trust and
\neliminate suspicion among Nigerians on differing sides and on the grounds
\nof morality and honour, credibility, integrity and egalitarianism\u2019. When
\nthere is an agreement, whether gentlemanly or not, it should be obeyed to
\nthe letter except when those in agreement agree to annul same. My
\nreasoning remains the same. Agreements are sacrosanct, be it agreements
\nbetween individuals, within political parties or between politicians and
\nthe electorate. It needs to be that simple.The only way of sustaining as
\none a multi-ethnic, multi-cultural and religious country as ours is to
\nallow power rotate between or amongst the zones.
\nOBJ was one of the main champions of temporarily discarding the zoning
\nagreement on the basis of convenience. His decision to support Jonathan
\nwent clearly against an agreement he had signed on to and which he always
\nsupported. That he is going back to that same agreement now points to
\nmultiple facts. He knows that it was a mistake to jettison the agreement
\nin the first place. He wants to make amends. He is in denial about his
\nrole in the current impasse.
\nI do not think that OBJ in writing this letter and making this argument is
\nmaking it for primary political purposes. While there may be secondary
\npolitical promptings especially with his bizarre references to Buruji
\nKashamu, my take is that he has the nation\u2019s interest at heart. Make no
\nmistake about this: the country is in grave political danger and you do
\nnot write the nation\u2019s number one citizen such an acerbic letter simply to
\ngain personal political advantages; that in itself will be tantamount to
\nplaying poor and pedestrian politics, which is not worthy of one regarded
\nby many as one of the craftiest politicians in the nation\u2019s history. OBJ\u2019s
\nprimary motive is to atone for mistakes of the past and in so doing
\npreserve the unity of the country. The country\u2019s existence can only be
\npersevered when all regions feel able to trust and watch each other\u2019s
\nback, when various interest groups feel able to enter into agreements with
\nassurances that such will be kept and made sacrosanct.
\nThe president should be very disturbed even though he does not appear so.
\nI see a president who has made up his mind to ride his ambition roughshod
\nover the nation. I see a president who feels assured that he has the
\napparatus to have his way even while others may have their say. I see a
\npresident who feels pretty comfortable and certain that heavens will not
\nfall if he rams his way through. For these reasons, I do not expect the
\npresident to respond directly to OBJ like his advisers have said he will.
\nIf he does, it will not be as vibrant as his advisers\u2019 say it will. I see
\na president whose body language is that of \u2018let them say…..\u2019
\nThe lesson for all Nigerians is that we need to speak up even in the face
\nof torment. We are today paying for mistakes of the past, mistakes made by
\nmen of brittle character, men with no principles or character, men of
\nlittle minds who short-sightedly pillaged today for yesterday and tomorrow
\nfor today. Truth is that most of us have only been passers-by in the
\naffairs of our country. We need to begin to demand and ask. How is it that
\nwe have earned so much from resources across the country but still have no
\nelectricity? How is it that we don\u2019t have water? How is it that a greater
\npart of us live in abject poverty? How can elections be so brazenly
\nrigged? How can government officials be so lax? How can they own so much?
\nHow has life become so cheap but food prices the opposite? How can the
\ncourts give judgments so bizarre? How could government officials have so
\nmuch? How come there are no good roads? How are we so powerless? How much
\nhas the country earned over the last decade? How have this been spent?
\nWhere is all the money? How did we become a country of bombs and
\nindiscriminate killings?
\nIn the end, a letter is what it is, a letter. The writer in putting words
\non paper situates his opinions and judgements not necessarily as they
\nreflect through him but through the subject of his letter. A good reader
\nmust understand this. Obasanjo\u2019s letter should be examined for its merits
\nand intrinsic worth. The message therein should be digested as one being
\nmade by a concerned citizen who wants the best for the country. It should
\nbe seen as one written by the man who fought in the civil war, went to
\nprison for confronting Abacha when he had his paws on Nigeria\u2019s throat,
\nthe OBJ who as Co-Chairman of the Commonwealth Eminent Persons Group on
\nSouthern Africa stood on the right side of history by fighting for the end
\nof apartheid. I will agree with many a Nigerian who might say that writing
\nsuch a letter requires a very high moral octane for which the OBJ who
\nruled between 1999 \u2013 2007 lacks. However, what matters as we struggle to
\nnavigate what might be a very tricky passage in our nation\u2019s history are
\nthe core messages therein. Without any equivocation, it was a thought
\nprovoking letter with an honest core. We need to disregard the messenger,
\nmany of the peripheral messages therein and rather look at the hub of the
\nmessage. Please also do ignore the \u2018the Ebora Owu has spoken\u2019 nonsense by
\nan ex-minister. What does that even mean?<\/p>\n
Wole Ameyan Jr, MD, MPH. He can be reached at: sketchon@yahoo.com;
\nwoleameyanjr@yahoo.c<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Ex-president Olusegun Obasanjo sure knows how to have a laugh. When it comes to making bare faced innuendos, challenging people on issues he loathed to be challenged on in the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21061,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21060","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles-opinions"],"yoast_head":"\n