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In defence of Obasanjo’s letter

By Debo Adesina
01 February 2016   |   1:55 am
FORMER President Olusegun Obasanjo’s letter to members of both chambers of the National Assembly to show sensitivity to Nigeria’s dire financial situation by banishing the idea of a multi-billion-naira scheme of buying cars for themselves is very engaging. Once again, the old man has chosen to play the nation’s moral monitor, deservedly or not. The…

Debo

FORMER President Olusegun Obasanjo’s letter to members of both chambers of the National Assembly to show sensitivity to Nigeria’s dire financial situation by banishing the idea of a multi-billion-naira scheme of buying cars for themselves is very engaging. Once again, the old man has chosen to play the nation’s moral monitor, deservedly or not.

The legislature’s response, of course, has also been just as engaging. Senate President Bukola Saraki’s has been measured, promising to take the ex-president’s observations into account, while the House of Representatives’ response has been largely cautious.

Then, Senator Dino Melaye, rambunctious as ever, weighed in with a combative rebuttal, subtly reminding the former president that it was him, who introduced bribery to legislators in the first place. Indeed, he pointedly let it be known that Obasanjo is most unqualified for preaching about decency in public office, given his fabled abortive third term bid and how the polity was fouled up with the alleged inducements that accompanied the bid.

While that case against Obasanjo may be strong, he certainly has a much stronger moral case in his letter to the National Assembly. And call it opportunism or whatever, the moral monitor role is one he has always assigned himself with aplomb.

Indeed, the former President loves to position himself as something of a conscience of the nation. And for a man who proclaimed himself a statesman, that urge has been given greater impetus with responses like Melaye’s. As a journalist, I have been witness to some of his battles and I know going public with his observations as he did must be the beginning of what he has deemed a fight to take anywhere, including the gutters if necessary. Anyone willing to engage him must be ready for a fight of his or her life. Obasanjo would not be deterred by such reminders as Melaye and the like have obliged Nigerians, however truthful.

Moreso, what he has said is what almost every Nigerian feels. He has picked a good cause. And the timing is perfect.
I tell a story here.

When General Ibrahim Babangida began his dodgy tricks over the transition to democracy programme, the whole nation got fed up with a Maradona who dribbled and dribbled at the goal post but refused to score the goal just the match could be prolonged. Obasanjo, sensing that frustration of Nigerians played his usual card, positioned himself in the forefront of those yearning for democracy by going to the trenches in his own peculiar way.

One day, the late Senator Mahmud Waziri, my uncle, father-figure, mentor, news source, partner and all things rolled into one (may God rest his affectionate soul), who had been very vocal against the military government, quietly informed me that something big was cooking on Olusegun Obasanjo’s farm. Not that the man, renowned for his tight fist, a trait which would later earn him the tag ‘managing director of Araldite Merchant Bank’ from the comedian, Ali Baba, in tribute to his ‘generosity’, was about to change tack. No! No free feast on the nation’s most famous chicken farmer’s ticket.

Rather, he was putting together what he named Association for Democracy and Good Governance in Nigeria, ADGN, and had called a meeting of some of the nation’s leading lights to begin some kind of pressure group for the military to hand over. With Waziri’s help, I was one of the few if not the only journalist, who knew this movement was being formed to counter obvious machinations to perpetuate a regime in office.

The venue was supposed to be a room in the Gateway Hotel, Ota in Ogun State. And I had arranged with Senator Mahmud Waziri to be at the gate of that hotel so he could ‘smuggle’ me in his car into the venue. By the time I got to Gateway, however, plans had changed. The military government had barred the conferees from holding any meeting in that hotel.

Determined, Obasanjo simply moved the meeting to his farm.

My patron, Waziri, had also gone ahead to the Ota farmhouse and, stranded in the lobby of Gateway Hotel, I was still contemplating how to make it to that meeting when a white Toyota 4-Runner sports utility vehicle drove in. An orderly jumped out, made some enquiries about the supposed meeting and, told it had been barred, scurried back to the car to inform his boss.

The window of the car rolled down and I saw Lieutenant General Theophilus Yakubu Danjuma. On learning of what happened, I overheard him exclaim “what!’ Moving closer, I greeted him and also informed him the meeting had been moved to the farm, a gesture that made us temporary friends. He allowed my car to follow his and that smoothened my passage into the farm.

I was not allowed into the hall, of course, but from my berth, I observed as some of the attendees arrived. A high-powered gathering, it was Nigeria, past, present and, as it would turn out, the future too. After some time, Waziri came out and made it possible for me to sit outside the door of the room where the real session took place, having introduced me as anything but a journalist.

The late Harold Dappa-Biriye and Mallam Lawan Danbazzau, stooped by old age, still exuded so much of the fire that made them tick in days gone by.

Tunde Idiagbon came in the company of his friend and boss, Muhammadu Buhari (Obasanjo called him ‘Mohammed’ throughout that day). Theophilus Danjuma, the late Yaya Abubakar, who was named secretary of the movement, Mahmud ‘Mahmudu’ Waziri himself, Sarah Jubril, who was at the receiving end of Obasanjo’s many jokes during a break, and Professor Adebayo Adedeji, former under-secretary-general of the United Nations and Asiwaju of Ijebuland, were some of those I had the opportunity to interact with. By the way, Adedeji, upon learning what my name was and where I hailed from, joked that he thought only Ijebu could father boys like me. I was, of course, glad to let him know the licence was exclusively granted the Oyo while the Ijebu application for a franchise was still under consideration.

obasanjo-thinkin

Obansanjo

Obasanjo proved a good host and sought to disprove his fabled parsimony. He served pounded yam and some palm wine, the aroma of which I only perceived from afar. But when Professor Adedeji pestered Ayo Aderinwale, Obasanjo’s loyal and hardworking personal assistant, for a bottle of beer, Obasanjo reverted to mould.

‘Ayo, I have told you and your boss to always keep a bottle of beer on this farm, at least for me! My doctor recommended it!’ Adedeji joked. And Obasanjo retorted: ‘Which native doctor gave you that prescription?’

Before delivering his opening address to the fairly large gathering, he had almost brought the roof down by bellowing ‘hello, hello, is that Aso Rock?’ into the microphone, a thinly-veiled insinuation that he knew the meeting might have been bugged by the powers that be! The hall, of course, exploded in laughter. Call it opportunism. But good cause. And good timing.

From then on, until Babangida stepped aside, having annulled the 1993 elections, and throughout the Sani Abacha years, Obasanjo harangued the military government, publicly and privately, until he was tried and jailed for that phantom coup. By the time President-elect Moshood K.O Abiola died in captivity and the consensus was for a Nigerian of Southwest origin to lead the country, it was not a surprise that the establishment settled on Olusegun Obasanjo, the ‘crusader’ for democracy.

Anyway, this is to illustrate the point that Obasanjo is not only old and wily in his self-assigned role of the conscience of the nation; he chooses his crusade and timing very well.
When he wrote his famous letter to President Goodluck Jonathan, he appeared to speak the minds of most Nigerians tired of an administration whose officials seemed mired in corruption, with a President seemingly incapable of purging his government of such odium by firing those who deserved to be fired at least. Good cause. Good timing.

Of course, more than a few people argue that Obasanjo has too little conscience himself to claim to speak as conscience of a nation and that he does not practice what he preaches.

Many point to the former president’s reaction to his party’s Chairman, Audu Ogbeh’s letter on the precarious state of the nation and his style of governance, which was to oust him from the party’s leadership as stark testimony to his legendary intolerance and haughtiness. Indeed, that episode remains yet another of those many question marks on his democratic credentials.

Nevertheless, his observations in the letter to the nation’s legislators are just simply in sync with the feelings of Nigerians.

Nigeria’s legislators over the years have successfully earned themselves the tag of sinecurists, locusts in power for whom personal comfort takes precedence over service.

To be sure, they have not been alone in living large at the expense of the nation and the sermon on perks of office should be for members of the executive branch too. So Obasanjo’s letter is incomplete without one to President Muhammadu Buhari to cut the cost of governance further.

The truth is that the culture of service must return in deed and in truth to public office. And this Eighth National Assembly has a chance to cement its place in history by setting a good example.

In any case, the country simply does not have the money for the ostentatious lifestyle of its public officers in all arms and at all levels of government, the only reason many of them seek the offices in the first place.

3 Comments

  • Author’s gravatar

    i thought two prophets have prophesied the end of obj this year…i would not worry about him if i were you…

  • Author’s gravatar

    Referring OBJ’s well documented effort to bribe his way into third-term “fabled abortive third term bid”, as well as all that you’ve been writing in high praise of the former president, takes much from you as an objective commentator. Please watch out before your fine pieces turn into OBJ’s mouthpiece, the voice of Jacob but the hand Essau.

    • Author’s gravatar

      That letter cannot be controverted by any stretch of imagination. Look out, its as if you have a rogue legislative system at your doorstep although i dont know yet whose interests you serve.. I am not holding brief for obj but i think he calls a spade a spade and thats good for nation building