Former President Olusegun Obasanjo is a troubled soul. What better way to
\nshow hisrestless nature than that at a time he would have been in
\nretirement, the oldman is hustling on the streets. At a time he was
\nsupposed to sit back and thankGod for his bountiful favours on him,
\nObasanjo is trudging on the roads,swearing, lying and scheming for power.
\nYes, at over eighty years, this fellowwho is among the few that have been
\nhugely favored by the inchoate Nigerianstate and who has made very
\nbountiful, corrupt harvest from that fling offortune, is still coveting
\npolitical fortunes. He is still recruiting eunuchson whose back he wants
\nto wield power after 11 years of direct control of power.He is still
\ndesirous of coming back to power through the backdoor. Nigerians
\nunderstandObasanjo\u2019s trajectory better than his futile but desperate
\nefforts to stay inpower through the infamous third term when he completed
\nhis mandatory two termsas civilian President after another three years as
\nmilitary head of state!<\/p>\n
Havingrealized the fatal blunder he made in writing President Buhari and
\nthreateningto remove him from power from very selfish and egoistic
\nconsiderations and withthe very rude way Nigerians reacted to his insipid
\nletter, Obasanjo has calledhis old, ancient pride to action and instead of
\neating the humble pie, goinghome to rest, has decided to march the
\nirrevocable road to destruction by goingforward with his unpopular task.
\nLet us remember that Obasanjo vowed that hehad quit politics and would
\ndisembark from the coalition he threatened to formin his infamous letter,
\nshould it decide to transform into a political party. Yes,he has tried to
\ngive action to his threat but his effort at forming a coalitionhas met
\nwith humiliating disappointment as only a few grumpy, tired
\npoliticallightweights and his traditional hirelings and courtiers have
\nsigned on to hisjaundiced coalition. That should be added warning to
\nObasanjo that he isthreading the paths of self-destruct but with a
\ncharacter like Obasanjo, whohas a bloated impression of himself, drowning
\nin the cesspool of hubris and egothan dismount a high horse of pride will
\nalways be a better option.\u00a0 It is obvious that Obasanjo, fired by thedeep
\nwound of Buhari\u2019s snubbing of his letter, doesn\u2019t pretend any furtherabout
\nrespect and honour as he had proceeded further to not only turn
\nhisso-called coalition into a political party but gallivants all over the
\ncountrywith sour, bitter tales about President Buhari\u2019s government and a
\nthreat toremove him from power come next year.\u00a0This report however, is not
\nabout Obasanjo\u2019s multi-faced personality butabout his years in power,
\nwhich many Nigerians swear, was riddled with sordidacts of corruption that
\nmade his reign so ineffective and scandal ridden. Indeciding to revoke his
\nvow of quitting politics and re-engaging himself in theart of politicking,
\nwith a prurient penchant to haul muck at others, Obasanjo\u2019smessy steward
\nmust be called to question and he must be ever ready to defendwhatever
\ntook place under his watch.<\/p>\n
Whilereceiving members of Buhari Support Group in Abuja last week,
\nPresident Buharireminded them of the kind of putrid mess those who are now
\nflatteringthemselves as redeemers of the people made here in Nigeria. He
\nreminded themthat a past leader (mind you he didn\u2019t mention Obasanjo)
\nclaimed to have spenta whopping $16 billion in the power sector and asked
\nwhere the power is. Thatwas enough to set afire the mounting fury of
\nObasanjo and his supporters whowere still hurting badly from Buhari\u2019s snub
\nof the many vile means they hadbeen trying to call him out for a shouting
\nmatch. They fawned, they threatenedand they wailed but yet refused to tell
\nNigerians what they did with the huge$16 billion they claimed to have
\nexpended on power. Particularly miserable wasObasanjo\u2019s sorry reply,
\nthrough his spokesman, to the effect that Buhari shouldgo and read
\nObasanjo\u2019s book, My Watch, if he needs a reply to the poser hethrew. That
\nsingular reply rebounded so badly that Obasanjo was left naked,soiled and
\nbruised among an angry populace who couldn\u2019t believe that a man thatwas in
\npower for eleven years could give that kind of specious and
\noutlandishanswer on an issue that requires very clear and lucid reply.
\nPoor Obasanjo, hethought this time around he will muddle his way through
\nsuch huge poser byapplying his well known guile and puerile antics but he
\nseems trapped this timearound.<\/p>\n
Nigeriansare asking if \u00a0Obasanjo spent $16 billionon a power that exists
\nin the pages of his book? So Nigerians that have beenyearning for constant
\npower supply or neon years should buy Obasanjo\u2019s book tosatiate their
\ncravings for more power supply? Did Obasanjo and his mediocrespokesman
\nmean that Nigerians will see power, real megawatts of electricity
\ninObasanjo\u2019s book? Did Obasanjo use a whopping $16 billion to
\ngenerateelectricity that could only be accessed from his book? Was the $16
\nbillionObasanjo said he spent to power meant to be for power in his book
\nonly? You canimagine the audacity of corruption. You can imagine the
\ndaftness of thecorrupt. You can imagine the porousness that undergirds
\ncorruption. Yes, it iseasier to steal than to acquire and this shows a
\ndemeaning limitation thatrules the mind of the corrupt.<\/p>\n
Let us notforget that the $16 billion sleaze in the power sector had
\ngenerated a hugelycontroversial legislative probe when the House of
\nRepresentatives set up aprobe panel headed by Ndid Elumelu to unravel the
\nmystery of investing $16billion in the power sector and having our power
\nfortune worse than it wasbefore the investment. Let us not forget some of
\nthe sordid fallouts of theprobe where many of the so-called power plants
\nObasanjo claimed he was buildingwere found by the house investigative
\npanels to be fenced open lands overgrownby weeds and nothing more.\u00a0 Let us
\nrecallthat like in any other high net worth corruption case, the
\nlegislative probehad been muddled in controversies, blackmail, threats,
\ncounter smear and allmanners of efforts to suppress it. Let us recall that
\nthe probe was stalematedbecause those that probed and those that were
\nbeing probed were caught in the matrixof compromise and Nigerians were
\nleft guessing what the outcome of the probewould have been. The present
\ninquest of where the power that spewed forth froma $16 billion investment
\nwill open vistas for more transparent probe of thishowling scandal that
\nObasanjo presided over.<\/p>\n
But probe orno probe, the question \u2018Where is the power\u2019 remains unanswered
\nand had almostbeen swept under the huge carpet where mountainous official
\nmalfeasances havebeen buried for ages now. What we get are trillions of
\nmegawatts of angryoutpourings and curses and abuses from Obasanjo\u2019s
\nfawners and courtiers and no cogentanswer as to where our $16 billion
\npower is! In fact, in one of such diseasedreactions, one of Obasanjo\u2019s
\nfavored maidservants, and his former EducationMinister, Oby Ezekwesili ran
\nmad on twitter as he abused President Buhari as an\u2018incomplete President\u2019
\nand threatened that she and her cohorts will deal withhim in the 2019
\nelection. Going by the humiliating and totally deprecatingreactions she
\ngot from her followers, what is not obvious is who will join herand her
\nhaggard train of Obasanjo lovers to execute her 2019 threat. Can
\nyouimagine the audacity and shamelessness of corruption? But she got far
\nmore thanshe bargained in that voyage she undertook when what is required
\nof her and herboss is a very clear and convincing answer to a clear
\nquestion.<\/p>\n
. Before PresidentBuhari asked that question last week, those who were
\nbehind that elephantinerot were stomping all over the country,
\npontificating and sermonizing abouttheir saintliness and the question
\nitself will dog Obasanjo in hisself-consuming messianic pretensions in the
\nNigerian political space. In amoment of sheer audacity of the corrupt,
\nthose who brought the country to itsknees were threatening to come back by
\nevery means possible and among them wasan Obasanjo whose every pores drips
\nwith corruption. That question will tagwith such other monumental heists
\nlike the Halliburton case, Siemens contractcase, the controversial
\npresidential library issue, the Otta Farm resurgenceand very many other
\nputrid and dirty cases to reveal the messy underbellies ofan Obasanjo that
\nhas constituted a national embarrassment in pursuance of hisself-propelled
\nvaunting ambition and self-serving ends.<\/p>\n
Fromwhichever angle you look at it, $16 billion is too huge to be swept
\nunder thesame carpet that has harbored the egregious acts of our past
\nleaders likeObasanjo. $16 billion can do wonders in the life of any
\nnation, even in theadvanced world. The money is too huge to be hidden
\ninside the pages of apejorative book that was aimed at self-praise and
\nself-canonizations for whichObasanjo is a class act. When you rightfully
\ninvest $16 billion into the powersector, you are bound to have three giant
\nMambila power plants; of the typeBuhari is building now. When you have $16
\nbillion thrown into the power sector,you would generate over 10,000
\nmegawatts of electricity and Nigeria would haveput its power problems
\nbehind it by now. When you throw $16 billion into thecountry\u2019s power
\nsector, the multiplier effects would have tremendously impactedon the
\ncountry\u2019s economy by now and not on a book. These are hard,
\nincontrovertiblestatistics that do not need the subjective narration of
\nObasanjo in aself-adulatory book to explain. These are raw facts that do
\nnot need fartherelucidation, fits of stammering or the kind of confusion
\nObasanjo and hislickspittle are trying to import into answering this
\nsimple poser.<\/p>\n
Nigerians,who have continually been frustrated in getting valid answers to
\nthe corruptacts committed by their former leaders see a ray of light in
\nthe $16 billionpower poser through a fresh and undiluted EFCC
\ninvestigations of what happenedto the $16 billion Obasanjo claimed to have
\ninvested on power without any proofof improvement. Obasanjo and his aides
\nmust be made to give us valid andincontrovertible answer to what happened
\nto such huge tranche of money whenthere is nothing on ground to show the
\nhuge money went into the epileptic powersector we had in Nigeria for the
\nentire eight woeful years Obasanjo was inpower. Truth is that it is either
\nthe huge money translates to verifiableinvestments that can be
\nascertained, located and valued or it is stilldomiciled as raw cash
\nsomewhere the country can access it and make meaningfuluse of it. Telling
\nus to read a book that has doubtful objectivity only showsnot only the
\nevasive intent of Obasanjo and his hirelings but also fuels thefear that
\nObasanjo merely supervised the illicit stealing of a huge $16 billionin
\nthe name of investment in the power sector and he and his beneficiaries
\nmustbe made to vomit such booty. That unfortunate answer amounted to an
\naggravatedinsult to all Nigerians. Obasanjo, in his well-known personal
\nlimitations, hisawesome limitations, age-old guile and negative wits, is
\nknown for suchcontempt for Nigerians but he will not be allowed to walk
\naway with this one.<\/p>\n
All said,Obasanjo\u2019s ill-advised desire to sell his vaulting predilection
\nto ego massageand idiosyncratic satiation may assist us to strike a break
\nin desiring to knowhow our resources were blatantly stolen by past leaders
\nand their cronies. Hispresent trajectory may lead us to break the grounds
\nin holding our past andpresent leaders accountable to their sins which
\nwrecked the country anddevoured its future and potentials. But the most
\ncritical question today remains;Where is the power Obasanjo claimed he
\nprocured with $16 billion dollars forthe eight years he was here? To
\nanswer this question, Obasanjo needs to beclear, cadent and convincing.
\nHis evasive efforts will rather deepen thesuspicion Nigerians have of him
\nthat he solidified corruption and stealing inNigeria as he ruled. He needs
\nto either show us the power or our money. Thereshould be no equivocation,
\nno drama, no dancing around the issue here.Obasanjo, where is the power?<\/p>\n
Peter ClaverOparah<\/p>\n
Ikeja,Lagos.<\/p>\n