Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has stirred the hornets net again, this time with his endorsement of Peter Obi as his preferred President in the next dispensation just around the corner. Obasanjo is not a stranger to controversies. We are used to it now that whenever he makes a pronouncement there can be no sitting on the fence. Over the years he himself has developed a thick skin to the attendant uproar and argumentation when he makes pronouncement on national issues. It does not matter if he stands alone in the din that follows his position, thus putting the courage of his convictions on display. He cannot be right all the time; indeed the timing could be awkward, but he stands by how he sees things. One of the reasons he is backing Peter Obi is Obi’s appeal to the youths on the one hand and Obj’s wish on the other to wrest the country from what he sees and seemingly generally seen as the choking old order.
The youths are in the age of idealism, beautiful to behold and experience. They are driven by what is revealed in higher knowledge as melancholic temperament. The temperament ensues when a human soul slips into a stage of blood change. There are four stages of blood change everyone undergoes. For the youths, it is the age of dreams; they see the world upside down and they want to write wrongs and straighten it. They hit the air with their fists, jump up and chorus “We no dey gree! We no dey gree!! Aluta continua.” They take risks. Their lifestyle is bohemian! It is the time a young girl looks at her mother straight in the face and says, “Mom, that was your time, not mine.” It is youths who have the accustomed energy, enthusiasm and dynamism at their command. How wonderful it would be if the dreams and idealism could be sustained. They could effect changes! But the display of these attributes soon peters out and they join the rest of the society mostly promoting and living in rot. Some of our state governors whether military or civilians, commissioners and State Assembly legislators may not strictly be classified as youths but adults who cannot be said to be that old and far from youthfulness, driven by the blood change that powers choleric temperament.
What matters most at all times, however, is the degree of inner maturity with concommittant radiance manifesting character and wisdom, the latter also drawn from hidden connections through the instrumentality of maturity of spirit. Regional contestation in the hustings, the hustle and bustle before us, cannot be ruled out given the degree of general maturity of our inner beings as a people, no matter how subtle it may be and our efforts to play it down as a factor. Obasanjo would like to be counted as above that level given his roles and posture in national and international affairs. He has demonstrated this that he is gone past regional contestation, arguably closely matched by Archbishop Matthew Kukah. They denounced vigorously Buhari’s provincialism in what Obasanjo called Fulanisation and Islamisation of Nigeria. Obasanjo would like to see his spirit roam far and wide and not caught in a web of that nature nauseating to him. We do not have to agree with him, after all, we all have our choices but we should not seek to diminish him on that account. Coarse language has been used against him; it smacks of bad manners.
Surprisingly, and I dare say, embarrassingly, Dr. Iyabo Obasanjo’s letter slamming her father, has resurfaced. The letter was given very wide publicity in 2013. It was in response to one former President Obasanjo fired to President Goodluck Jonathan, in which he accused him of two-facedness in some of his steps and what may be described as his body language. Senator Iyabo Obasanjo’s letter came from the blues, giving a catalogue of what she believed were her father’s own peccadilloes. She accused him of egoistic lust for power, describing him as a hypocrite. She accused him of cruelty to his family and of abandonment of children and grandchildren. She said he had a legendary reputation for maltreatment of women.
They were bottled grievances, dripping with disappointment and deep hurt. It would appear the grievances were shared by her siblings for none of them raised a finger excusing himself or herself from the charges against their father. The language of the letter is distasteful, to say the least, indeed awful. A language in which a daughter portrays her father as suffering from narcissistic megalomania must be considered an unusual letter, alien to African culture; indeed, the culture of the people of South West Nigeria in particular where it is an abomination to drag a father to the public square for humiliation—no matter what the supposed transgressions against the family may have been.
It is gladdening that Gen. Obasanjo has kept dignified silence of a father. Predictably, political opposition and adversaries have reissued the letter and are making mileage of it in the social media. In the Nigerian tradition, there are mechanisms to resolve family conflicts. Where such serious conflicts cannot be settled within the nuclear and extended family as in this case, respectable and iconic personalities are called to wade in. Three people come to mind as of now: Chief Emeka Anyoku, Dr. Christopher Kolade and the Archbishop of Sokoto, the Most Rev. Bishop Matthew Kukah. Akin Osuntokun, Professor Olatunji Dare and Dare Babarinsa can be left to see to the arrangements, with the Alake of Egbaland assisted by the Olowu of Owu playing host to a strictly private family meeting.
The letter has played into the hands of some of our unscrupulous politicians, to whom nothing is high and sublime any more. How many among those brandishing and clapping, saying with glee, it’s good for him (Obj), will accept a daughter taking them to the cleaners in the market place? Senator Iyabo’s 10-year-old letter has been exhumed and life driven into it following Obasanjo throwing his weight behind Obi, the presidential candidate of the Labour Party. In the atmosphere of political heatwaves sweeping through the country, Obasanjo’s accustomed declaration of support and choice has pitched him against traducers. I am not wading into the controversy exhaustively nor will the column get into conversations on marriage as well as children and their claim on their parents. They are subjects for some other days. What is urgent for now is the resolution of the conflicts in Obasanjo family and getting members to eschew bitterness and hate. They should be persuaded to cultivate love among and for themselves—for their own sake. The consequences of failure to do so could be unspeakably calamitous in future.
We must all be wary of where our paths lead us after this earthly sojourn. What will be the nature and experiences for the Obasanjos and all of us in the next earthlife if permitted to have yet another go at it, especially as the cycle is closing under the pressure of the special Star heading towards the earth in a straight line which I hinted at last week. It is the Great Comet! It is the return of the Star of Bethlehem that accompanied the Lord Jesus Christ to this earth to bear witness to Him. At that time the Star came with Love. The Star of Bethlehem is returning with a different mandate under the Wings of the Holy Spirit, the Justice Arm of the Almighty Father. It is coming at this time of the Age of the Holy Spirit with Justice, the Sword of which is already beaming with purification Rays sweeping through all lands. The chaos and confusion engulfing the earth are the effects of the Rays. In years to come, it will be relentless.
As it has been pointed out in this column a few times, we human beings do many things out of ignorance of the Laws and beyond-the-earthly weavings and higher correlations of life and existence. Dr. Iyabo Obasanjo has vowed that her letter was the last communication with her father for life. She must be persuaded to reconsider her stance. In the way Creation Laws work, if the conflict is not settled, it cannot be farfetched to conceive of the paths of the principal actors in the family bitter disagreements crossing in another earthlife. The conflict will be carried over into another earthlife in the future and with intensified hate and bitterness. We can then consider this frightening scenario of Iyabo being Olusegun Obasanjo’s mother which may likely be the case. The possibility of her abandoning him on a refuse dump is not inconceivable! The laws governing Creation are incorruptible, perfect and self-enforcing. All those who may be brought together to vent their anger resulting from a carry-over bitterness will not be released until there is full atonement. Are we not told, “Ye shall not get out thence until thou hath paid the last farthing”?
