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“If you have integrity, nothing else matters. If you don’t have integrity, nothing else matters.”
—Alan K. Simpson
By Cosmas Omegoh
Perhaps former President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, is the most talked about Nigerian at the moment. At the dawn of the New Year, Chief Obasanjo launched himself deep into the media space where he is currently enjoying the klieg light.
Obasanjo is on every lip right now. Everyone is talking about him and his New Year letter to Nigerians. Both he and his letter are being extensively and intensively discussed.
But Chief Obasanjo is not perturbed; he does not care a hoot about what is being said about him and his letter. Everyone knows the former General for having his mind – a mind seemingly so solid, so cerebral, so certain, so sure of itself.
So, each time Chief Obasanjo exercises the power of his mind, he hardly entertains whatever anyone might have against that, let alone allow what is being said to diminish him. He will not squirm; he soldiers on.
Anytime Obasanjo steps into the ring, he delivers his punches and walks away. Anytime he chooses to cast a pebble into the lake, the ripples so generated are characteristically seismic, and volcanic. That is vintage Chief Obasanjo for you – a man who sometimes threads the path the gods dare not.
But on account of his characteristic bluntness, Obasanjo is not loved by many. He is regularly accused of being pompous, and over-bearing. His traducers insist he often pretends to be a saint even when he knows he is a mere sinner.
But all that does not deter him. Give it to him; he does not shy away from the big issues. Each time he speaks to such issues, his emotion gets free rein. He often uses his pen. So letter writing is one chunk of the Owu chief. And that underlines the claim that he is the most cerebral of all the presidents Nigeria has had between 1999 and now. Since he left office in 2007, he has written countless letters addressing varied and variegated issues.
Therefore, the letter Obasanjo pened on New Year Day followed his tradition. Entitled: “My appeal to all Nigerians particularly young Nigerians,” it spoke in part to the state of the nation, particularly admonishing the youths on the way to go during the forthcoming elections that is a touching distance away.
Then turning to President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration, Obasanjo delivered an uppercut. And here is it: “The last seven and a half years have no doubt been eventful and stressful years for many Nigerians. We have moved from frying pan to fire and from mountain top to the valley.
“Our leaders have done their best, but their best had turned out to be not the best for Nigeria and Nigerians at home and abroad. For most Nigerians, it was hell on earth.”
He was unsparing of some of presidential aspirants and here are what he said: “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.”
Then wait for this. While ending his treatise with a sweeping endorsement of one of the presidential aspirants: Mr Peter Obi of the Labour Party, he invited a deluge of anger from some political parties.
Indeed, Chief Obasanjo’s letter has been too many things to too many people. Some say it is a hate-filled commentary coming from an interloper, and an irritant. Some call it an honest and patriotic submission from a statesman with penchant for speaking truth to power.
Till now, the Obasanjo letter is still shaking the table. Not one person who read it has taken their minds off its content. One can see why it is eliciting an outpouring of emotions – call it an avalanche of condemnations and commendations – all of that cascading from Obasanjo’s admirers and foes alike.
To some analysts, Chief Obasanjo simply stirred the hornet’s nest and touched the raw nerves. And now, he is helmed in, besieged and buffeted on all fronts by the Presidency, aggrieved and elated political parties, individuals and groups.
While returning the Obasanjo fire, for instance, the Presidency characterised his tirade as one borne out of “frustration,” insisting that “Obasanjo’s vengeful attitude towards President Buhari is the height of selfishness, and little short of moral squalor.”
To APC and PDP, Obasanjo has helped them to find a tangent; both of them are separately out in the open smoking, describing him in like terms as “paper weight,” and his endorsement of Obi as “worthless.”
The Deputy Director, Public Affairs of the APC Presidential Campaign Council, Kehinde Bamigbetan while howling at Obasanjo, and his Obi endorsement declared “… has no electoral value. We know it is a project that he (Obasanjo) has been working on for the past two, three years, and it will soon blow up in his face.” Then a PDP Presidential Campaign Council spokesman, Anthony Ehilebo, growled: “Nobody is going to know what Obasanjo says; his opinion would not even be heard in my village. It’s not going to sway any votes.”
Onetime, Minister of External Affairs, Bolaji Akinyemi, also fired a salvo at Obasanjo: “One of the things I had said is: once you have occupied the post of president and served your term, go home, be like General Gowon, General Abdulsalami. Just be quiet, you have had your term; you have had your innings, to use a cricket language. Let others get on.” Then he added: “But for you to create problems for us and then you come back and present yourself as a problem solver, I find it difficult to swallow.
“I know there are people who say, ignore the messenger, focus on the message. I’m sorry, I’m a political scientist. That doesn’t rub with me ….”
From the flip side came the spokesman for the Labour Party Presidential Campaign Council, Yunusa Tanko. “If Obasanjo has no electoral value, why are they all running after him? Why did ‘Emi lo kan’ and Atiku, who have always been accused of corruption, visit him?
“The truth is that Obasanjo appeals a lot to the largest demography in our electoral system, which is the Nigerian youth. The former president also said it clearly that the letter he wrote to the Nigerian people was specifically directed to the youth, saying it is their time now to decide. He wanted them to take the bull by the horn and fight for their survival as a people.”
There are several others like Tanko who do not have easy media access to voice their support for Obasanjo’s submission. Their charge is “let’s forget about Obasanjo the messenger and listen to his message.”
But does Obasanjo feel fazed about any of the attacks coming his way? Probably no!
At 85, the Ota farmer is going about his business, minding his lane; he is as fit as fiddle, felling “hearty and chatty.” He remains mentally and emotionally stable 16 years after he left office as president, and would challenge any aggrieved person to bring it on. The Obasanjo many know is getting on with his life, sometimes playing the game of football to the shock and admiration of many.
Confident that he has done his part and pleased his conscience with his New Year letter, Obasanjo continues to be a man of many hues hard to understand. He too, probably does not even understand what manner of man he is either.
He was once quoted as saying that God has been partial to him. Perhaps one of the rare traits which many have not understood about him is his character of standing alone away from the crowd.
