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By Chukwudi Nweje
The fuss generated by former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s New Year’s Day endorsement of Labour Party’s presidential candidate, Mr Peter Obi as his preferred candidate to succeed President Muhammadu Buhari on May 29, this year 2023, is interesting and surprising, even as it exposes the mindset of the average Nigeria politician.
To many critical observers, the endorsement which is the most discussed topic in Nigeria today is unnecessary because it is an accepted political practice everywhere in the world. Even in the United States (U.S.), the bastion of modern democracy, organised groups and individuals endorse their preferred candidates, hence many wonder why Nigeria should be different.
Again, this is not the first time Obasanjo would endorse a candidate for the office of the President of Nigeria.
Obasanjo’s open endorsement of his preferences dates to 2007 when he was about to leave office and openly endorsed then Governor of Katsina State, Alhaji Umaru Musa Yar’Adua to succeed him over his sitting Vice President for eight years, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, the current presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP.
What is surprising to many is that the political camp now calling Obasanjo names because his endorsement did not favour them had years ago praised him and called him “a statesman with the interest of the country at heart and whose endorsement carried weight”.
Obviously, the people criticising Obasanjo today for publicly disclosing his political preference do so because the endorsement is not in their favour.
In the present case, Obasanjo is not the first individual to endorse Peter Obi but his carries weight because most of the 18 presidential candidates had also gone to Ota, Ogun State to seek support and endorsement of the former president.
But from Obasanjo’s letter, he pitched with Obi after he had weighed all the options and arguments presented to him by the other presidential candidates.
The New Year’s Day letter titled ‘My Appeal to All Nigerians Particularly Young Nigerians’ read in part, “I have interacted with the major contestants, and I find it interesting that, in one form or the other, each of them claims to want to do what I did during my Presidency and to take Nigeria back to where it was at the height of my Presidency and immediately after. I was pained that most of them do not realise that the Nigeria of today had been dragged down well below Nigeria of the beginning of my Presidency in June 1999. Although at that time, Nigeria was in very bad shape and was tottering on the verge of collapse and break-up. Even then, Nigeria was not faced with the level of pervasive and mind-numbing insecurity, rudderless leadership, buoyed by mismanagement of diversity and pervasive corruption, bad economic policies resulting in extremes of poverty and massive unemployment and galloping inflation. For these reasons, I kept pointing out to them that the instruments used in 1999 to 2007 and methodology used will grossly be inadequate for the perilous situation we now find ourselves.
“Without prejudice but with greatest respect to each individual, and with utmost regard for the best for Nigeria and all Nigerians and from my personal experience, all the major contestants claim to be my mentees; I will not deny such positions since I have worked with all of them directly and indirectly in government. I have come to realise a number of factors in character, attributes and attitude that are necessary in the job of directing the affairs of Nigeria successfully and at a time like this…
“We can only continue to play politics of ethnicity, religion, region, and money bags at the peril of our country and to self- destruction. We need selfless, courageous, honest, patriotic, in short, outstanding leadership with character and fear of God beyond what we have had in recent past…
“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 personally had, Peter Obi as a mentee has an edge…”
The Mecca at Ota
Without prejudice to Obasanjo’s record as a good leader or otherwise, he is rightly or wrongly considered ‘father’ of Nigeria, and his views on National issues make headlines.
His Ota Farm has been a Mecca of some sort, since he left office in 2007 for politicians seeking relevance, especially those who want to contest for the President. Virtually every presidential candidate since 2023 had the endorsement of Obasanjo, who is one of the only two Nigerians to have ruled the country as a military Head of State and as a democratically elected president. He is also the only one to rule the country as a youth and as an elder and perhaps has seen the good, the bad and the ugly sides of Nigeria.
Obasanjo became Head of State in 1975 at the age of 38, ruled for almost four years and 24 years after he first came to power, he was again elected president in 1999 at age 62.
The other person to lead Nigeria as military Head of state and elected president is incumbent President Muhammadu Buhari.
Buhari was Head of State in 1983 at age 41, and 32 years later was elected president in 2015 at age 73. But even he had to go to Ota to seek endorsement after three failed attempts in 2003, 2007, and 2011 before Obasanjo endorsed him for the 2015 presidential election.
In 2007, he endorsed the choice of then Governors of Katsina and Bayelsa States, Umaru Musa Yar’Adua and Goodluck Jonathan as president and vice president respectively and backed them to victory. He also endorsed Jonathan to run for the presidency in 2011 after he completed the tenure of Yar’Adua who died in office on May 5, 2010.
But in 2014, Obasanjo declared his support for the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Muhammadu Buhari over his own party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
Obasanjo had during an interview with Financial Times at the launch of his autobiography, ‘My Watch’, in Nairobi, Kenya described Buhari as fully capable of ruling the country, and expressed confidence that Buhari, if elected, would effectively tackle insecurity and corruption, and added that Buhari had the ability to restore the morale of the military to fight the insurgency in the North-East and other parts of the country. He later in February 2015 openly tore his PDP membership card.
Obi’s endorsement cuts across Nigeria
Obasanjo’s endorsement of Obi is a booster, but he is not the first individual or organisation to pass such confidence vote on Obi.
Obi’s first endorsement came from the Prof Pat Utomi-led National Consultative Front (NCFront) and Labour Party alliance that handed him the presidential ticket of the party on May 30, 2022, barely 48 hours after he resigned from the PDP. NCFront/ Labour Party settled for Obi after about four other presidential candidates of the party, including Prof Utomi stepped down for him. Other people who have also endorsed Obi include the leader of Pan-Niger Delta Forum, (PANDEF), elder statesman Chief Edwin Clark, who doubles as leader of the Southern and Middle Belt Leaders Forum (SMBLF), the Middle Belt Forum (MBF), pan Yoruba socio-political organisation, Afenifere, and founder and Chancellor of Afe Babalola University, Ado Ekiti, Afe Babalola (SAN) among others.
A shared vision
Obasanjo’s endorsement of Obi is not a coincidence. In his letter, Obasanjo listed some qualities expended in the next president in what he captured in the acronym ‘TVCP’ “Track record of ability and performance; Vision that is authentic, honest and realistic; Character and attributes of a lady and a gentleman who are children of God and obedient to God; and Physical and mental capability with soundness of mind as it is a very taxing and tasking assignment at the best of times and more so it is at the most difficult time that we are in divided crisis-riven country.” Obi’s campaign has been along the same line long before Obasanjo endorsed him.
Obasanjo notes in his letter, “Let me say straight away that ‘Emi Lokan’ (My turn) and ‘I have paid my dues’ are one and the same thing and are wrong attitude and mentality for the leadership of Nigeria now. They cannot form the new pedestal to reinvent and to invest in a new Nigeria based on an All-Nigeria Government for the liberation and restoration of Nigeria. Such a government must have representation from all sectors of our national life — public, private, civil society, professional, labour, employers, and the diaspora. The solution should be in ‘we’ and ’us’ and not in ‘me’ and ‘I’.”
Obi has also made it a point to tell the electorate not to vote for him because he is Igbo or Christian, but because of his competence.
According to him, the Presidential election in February “must not be based on tribe or religion, but on competence and character. I assure that we will build better Nigeria together.”
It is the same principles that NCFront preached during its over one year of consultation with eminent Nigerians to birth a 3rd Force political party that will challenge the APC and the PDP in 2023 to the NCFront adoption of Labour Party, and emergence of Obi as the presidential candidate for 2023.
The individuals and groups, including the founder and Chancellor of Afe Babalola University, Ado Ekiti, Chief Afe Babalola (SAN) also agree with the vision.
Babalola argued that those opposing Obi are the people that plunged Nigeria into underdevelopment.
He said, “Unless you are part of the old system that has brought us to where we are, there is no way you will oppose a young man like Mr Peter Obi, an untainted, young, educated man with ideas from being the president of Nigeria.
“We have a common ground, and that common ground is that he will give education a rightful place in his administration…”
Opposition dissent
Expectedly, the political camps that Obasanjo did not endorse have disagreed with his postulation.
For instance, in a statement titled “Morally Squalid Obasanjo attacks leaders out of frustration” on Monday, January 2, 2023, the Senior Special Assistant to President Buhari, Garba Shehu, said Obasanjo is not morally upright and that he attacks President Buhari because he beat him to a new record in the nation’s development process.
He said, Obasanjo’s administration between 1999 and 2007 represented “the dark days of Nigeria’s democracy due to a slew of assaults on the constitution…
“Obasanjo deployed federal machinery to remove governors Joshua Dariye, Rashidi Ladoja, Peter Obi, Chris Ngige and Ayo Fayose from office. They were the then governors of Plateau, Oyo, Anambra and Ekiti, respectively, unjustly removed using the police and secret service under his control,” Garba said.
APC’s Presidential Campaign Committee (APC-PCC) spokesman, Niyi Akinsiju said the APC will not lose sleep over Obasanjo’s action and described him as meddlesome.
He said, “We are not bothered by this endorsement. To us it is so much of wind, so much of violence of wind because to our mind the exact precedence, the exact background to the person of Obasanjo in terms of performance in office does not sell him to us as a credible individual that we should seek his endorsement. And since 2019, he has gone his way, and we are not bothered.”
But the current stance of Buhari and the APC is in contrast with the position in 2015 when Buhari told the CNN after Obasanjo endorsed him that it would boost his chances of winning the election because Obasanjo “is highly respected and as far as Nigeria nation is concerned, there is no serious issue that can be discussed without people seeking his opinion and listening to it.”
PDP spokesman, Daniel Bwala accused Obasanjo of looking for a proxy in Obi to fulfill his failed third term ambition and added that Obasanjo is meddlesome and lacks the moral capital to become the father of the nation.
“What he (Obasanjo) is saying is that Peter Obi is a puppet, and that is why he should be voted for. Obasanjo believes that he has the celestial powers to predict the future of Nigeria and the leadership of Nigeria unfortunately for him, that attitude is unethical for democratic ideals and governance,” he said.
