Chief General Mathew Aremu Okikiola Olusegun Obasanjo, Balogun of Owu, Generalissimo of PDP Political Deception of ‘Do or Die’ chapter, my very own, BABA IYABO, is a contentious, inexorable, man of the year. The man who could slapdash about Mandela accolade at his death; a man I would personally describe as ‘Unavoidable Political Devil‘, like a man cannot do without a woman, regardless. Obasanjo publicly spoke out like Fela, one of Obasanjo’s nemeses, who would open his mouth like a basket as no one dare stop him, same for Ebora Owu. Iyabo rightly put it straight to her father “you don’t listen to anyone anyway.”
Obasanjo contentious allegations against Nigerian President, Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, were centered on security, corruption, and democracy. When Obasanjo labeled the National Assembly as Incubator of Corruption, members made noise of inviting him to the floor of the House; astoundingly, Farouk-Otedola video tape closed their lousy orifice.
Jonathan’s aides need some lessons on treasonable offences.
Barely 24 hours of Obasanjo’s public letter to Jonathan, had he made a madcap breakfast with him in Kenya. Nigerians must learn to live with Obasanjo in his manifold persona, as his strong professional Military training would not let go his personality.
Issues raised by Obasanjo are of concern to an average Nigerian as the country is drifting towards the prediction of the country breaking up in 2015: The Security, Economy, Jobless Nigerian Youths, Crumbled Institutions, the Labor Unions, ASUU, NMA, SSANU, Oil Workers dare their shameless brain dead employers at the helm of Nigerian affairs. A country that could not proud of decent road network for its population movement; a place where an average Nigerian leader snatches available resources at his reach, what a reprehensible and hopeless country called Nigeria, where nothing works.
Obasanjo REFUSED to acknowledge that his public letter could bring up some termites looking for some food remnants to feed on. Ironically, APC, Obasanjo’s new Bride, is clamouring for Jonathan impeachment. His daughter, Iyabo Obasanjo, has revealed his secret romance with APC, as published in Vanguard Newspaper, December 18, 2013 that; “You called me after your vengeful letter as usual, looking out for yourself and thinking you will bribe me by saying the APC will use me for the Senate. Do you really know me and what I want out of life?” What a barefaced former President, PDP BOT Chair, with his anti-party activities.
According to Vanguard of December 19, 2013, Iyabo Obasanjo described her father as a liar, manipulator, megalomaniac, narcissistic, two-faced hypocrite determined to foist on President Goodluck Jonathan what no one would contemplate with him as president. Ironically, Iyabo ruled out further communication with her father till death, which is serious.
Likes Obasanjo’s personalities, found in all facets of our life, are the community agents of constructive destruction, which needs special handling, preventing them from igniting the evil thoughts that occupy most of their life. Iyabo described her biological father as; “You are the prototypical “Mr. Know it all”. You’ve never said “I don’t know” on any topic, ever. Of course this means you surround yourself with idiots who will agree with you on anything and need you for financial gain and you need them for your insatiable ego.”
Iyabo re-emphasized that “You are one of those petty people who think the progress and success of another takes from you.”
Obasanjo does not want to waste time in making the letter public, as he was not sure when the ‘door closes’. Which door is closing when God does His wonders? He claimed that he has not succeeded in his four letters sent to Jonathan earlier. While Jonathan was tired of his illusive ‘order’; Obasanjo abnormally equate the Nigeria current situation to that of Abacha; as most Nigerian Clerics have prayed against such era in Nigeria again. Obasanjo is making himself the Napoleon of Nigeria politics, defending the new democracy; deepening the North-South dichotomy, elongating the religious divide; encouraging the economic dormancy created by an average Nigerian leader. No one would invest or visit a troubled environment as some Nigerians residing Abroad are petrified to visit their country of birth. Nigeria has lost so many opportunities and the leaders are refusing to acknowledge the fact that God loves Nigeria. How many of Nigerian leaders can boast of any positive legacy during their terms?
Despite Obasanjo’s justifications for the public letter to the President, a school of thought considers it tactless, for a former President, an International man of repute to stoop to that level. Obasanjo has access to him 24/7, as he walked to him in Kenya without any obstruction.
One thing with Obasanjo is that once ‘your chicken spilled his coffee he would break the chicken eggs’. He would ensure that he brought the individual down like a drop of potato bag from the high-rise of 21 floors; as only God would deliver such an individual from Obasanjo’s moral fibre. Iyabo put her father moral fibre that, “I was surely surprised that you will be the one to publish such a treatise …that the only thing you respond to is praise and worship of you…”
It is to Obasanjo’s credit to be the first Military Head of State to handover to a Civilian administration; and the first to hand over from Civilian to another Civilian. In his ethnic blindness demonstrated between Shagari and Awolowo, with Akinjide’s twelve two-thirds formula and religious divide in the country, Jonathan has the Constitutional right to contest for any office, as the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, for the second term, win or loose, and fulfills his Constitutional rights as he desires.
Ironically, the community is making the Minorities issue as if they are outcasts when it comes to attaining some positions in the country. Awolowo, who Obasanjo REFUSED to respect, predicted in one of his books, that one day an Ijaw man would be the President of Nigeria. This issue of Jonathan emanating from the Minority is the act of God, not Obasanjo, as no one is taking Obama as a Blackman, who won the US President twice. Potentially Africans, or Black are not cursed as the Black race have the same brain as an average White, Green, Pink, or Yellow. All reacts to their immediate environment.
What is wrong with the ambitious Jonathan body language towards contesting in 2015? An average Nigerian, regardless where they come from in any part of Nigeria, should aspire to the highest position in their motherland, as Amaechi wants to be the VP of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Either Jonathan told Obasanjo to be a one term President or not, is irrelevant; he has the right to aspire to the second term; as Obasanjo wanted the third term.
What informs Obasanjo as the comptroller of political yardstick for an individual is one of the ‘termites’ that needs riddance from the Nigerian political yardstick. We wished the proposed one-term-six-year, for President and Governors found its way to the Nigerian Constitution; to minimize a serving elected official from spending half of his term canvassing for votes instead of delivering services to his people.
Whatever is happening within the ruling party, PDP, should not be of any surprise to any student of Nigerian politics as the make-up of the PDP from inception had been defective. Whatever the G7 or G5 turned out to be, was allegedly that of Obasanjo. How would PDP produce good leaders if not the corrupt, desperate, deceitful individuals? PDP is pathetic.
The most damaging allegation against Jonathan in Obasanjo’s letter, which Jonathan has to address immediately is that “of keeping over 1000 people on political watch list rather than criminal or security watch list and training snipers and other armed personnel secretly and clandestinely acquiring weapons to match for political purposes like Abacha and training them where Abacha trained his own killers, if it is true, it cannot augur well for the initiator, the government and the people of Nigeria.” Could that be true?
The issue of political violence and hooliganism, under the auspices of ‘do or die’ PDP styled democracy, is one of the defects of the Nigerian Judicial system that Obasanjo established and REFUSED to correct, or at least establish the foundation for its future growth. His administration turned away from the flaw which witnessed the assassination of Nigerian Attorney General in his Ibadan home without a trace of the killer. The Nigerian President, Commander-in-Chief, the Chief Security Officer, Head of the ruling Political party, wasted Bola Ige under his watch.
Obasanjo ought to have prosecuted Al-Mustapha while in office, which he described as “a murderer” in his letter. However, he kept his case in the deep freezer for his successor. That notwithstanding, the release of Al-Mustapha is a cursor to the porosity of the Nigerian legal system.
Regardless, Jonathan administration should address his administration training ‘Snipers’ as the custodian of Nigeria intelligent information. Nigerians would hold him answerable if certainly, he is actually training the Niger Delta Militants towards the 2015 elections. This is beyond treason threats against Baba Iyabo; however, Jonathan must prove to the whole world that the allegation is false.
We believe Obasanjo has some level of intelligent report on Nigeria.
The sooner Nigerians get that information, and correction, the better for the country as it approaches the end of Lugardist-Structure of uncommon marriage between North and South, as polished by the Western World for its demise in 2015 after the Centurion 1914-2014.
Without mincing words, an average Nigerian leader is corrupt, with their direct access to the public resources. They are bluntly raw, hysterical, despite the major bull dog created by Obasanjo to checkmate them on corruption, nothing changes. We credit him for his guts on for putting a system in place to fight corruption.
Obasanjo was in Jigawa State as guest of Governor Sule Lamido recently making a case for Lamido as the next President of Nigeria; the same Lamido whose sons have been indicted by EFCC for laundering billions of Jigawa State fund through companies owned by the governor. That is the type of corrupt morale that governs Obasanjo’s life. We believe that Obasanjo lost his moral standing to criticize corruption of Nigerian leaders which he nurtured.
Obasanjo came out from the Presidency with a University to his name, The Bell University, worth billions of dollars; immorally raised funds, as a sitting President, for a cushioned multi-billion Naira Library to his benefit; and his Ota farm blossomed, worth billions of dollars, largely expanded, during his administration. Nigerians want to know how he got this money. His biological daughter bluntly put it that, “For you {Obasanjo} to accuse someone else of what you so obviously practiced yourself tells of your narcissistic megalomaniac personality.”
What happened with the Okiro panel, submitted to President Umaru Yar’Adua in May 2012 which alleged that Obasanjo shared $74 million Halliburton bribe between 2000 and 2001 with his Vice-President, Atiku Abubakar, as well as Funsho Kupolokun and Gaius Obaseki, who were successive heads of the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation during the government’s early years? In addition, Okiro interim report alleged also that Obasanjo also pocketed $5m from the Halliburton slush funds. Get the report from this site: http://www.hopefornigeriaonline.com/obj-shared-74million-halliburton-bribe-okiro-panel/.
We should note that Obasanjo was both the President and the Petroleum Minister in his eight years administration, 1999-2007.
Corruption should be what Obasanjo should fight with his last breadth or blood, and possibly WILL his investments, to NIGERIA. Fortunately, Iyabo described his wealth in relation to his family as, “… your family, have borne the brunt of your direct cruelty and also suffered the consequences of your stupidity but got none of the benefits of your successes. … I still remember your beating her {Iyabo’s Mother} up continually when we were kids. Your maltreatment of women is legendary. While you were military head of state and lived in Dodan Barracks, we stayed either with our mum in the two-bedroom apartment provided for her by General Murtala Mohammed or with your relatives, Bose, Yemisi, and your sisters’ kids in the Boys Quarters of Dodan Barracks.”
Iyabo concluded that “This is the end of my communication with you for life.” Therefore, it is right for Nigeria to inherit his properties.
Both Gbenga, the first son of Obasanjo, and Oluremi, one of his wives, also spoke ill of Obasanjo as father and husband. Gbenga in his a 50-paragraph affidavit, before a Lagos Court alleged his father’s affairs with his estranged wife, Mojisola. Oluremi also made some unpleasant remarks about her malicious experience with Obasanjo as his wife.
Baba Iyabo would respond to his daughter’s question on how he got the Abuja house she kept her properties: “The only thing I was using that was yours was the house in Abuja where I left my things when I left the country. I eventually rented it out so that the place would not fall apart but as usual, you want to take that as well. You can’t have it without explaining to Nigerians how you came about the house.”
How did you get that Abuja House?
Corruption is endemic as the country runs a corrupt system, where there is no accountability. Please watch Obasanjo BBC interview with Steve on Halliburton bribery case, and see how an average Nigerian leader would react to the issue of corruption. You be the judge. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9VsD_xs-fmw
We might heed to Obasanjo’s statement in The Guardian of London, June 27, 2012, that “In my part of the world, we have a saying that the man who carries a pot of palm oil from the ceiling is not the only thief. He has an accomplice in the man who helps him to bring it down. The giver and the taker are criminals, and they should be treated as such.”
One of the shortcomings of Obasanjo as an Elder Statesman, especially in this public seditious letter to Jonathan, is his defective crude local politics, rubbishing the instruments he used to attain his vindictiveness against political enemies. He refused to learn from Mandela how to forgive those that have crossed his political pathway.
He discarded Kashamu as a drug dealer after using him for his political gains. He referred to Kashamu as “… a certified unashamed criminal wanted abroad to face justice and who has greatly contributed to corruption within the judiciary on a high profile of politics as you and your aides have done with the man you enthrone as PDP Zonal leader in the South West is the height of disservice to this country politically and height of insult to the people of South West in general and members of PDP in that zone in particular”.
We believe that South-West could rightly defend itself while Obasanjo’s statement is ridiculous, unambiguously lacks Elder Statesmanship status.
Kashamu’s issue could be one of the reasons Obasanjo is unhappy with Jonathan. It was a known fact that both Obasanjo and Kashamu were former partners, when things were good. Obasanjo was believed to have depended on Kashamu to fight the former Ogun State Governor, Otunba Gbenga Daniel. According to Kashamu “He {Obasanjo} used me to fight Gbenga Daniel and I spent over N3 billion to fight his cause and took the PDP structure from Daniel and handed it over to him.”
Daniel is looking unto God’s deliverance from Obasanjo-Kashamu conspiracy, as Obasanjo sense of forgiveness has gone with the wind. Obasanjo’s family Chief Justice, Iyabo, has endorsed one of Obasanjo’s traits as “Everybody trying to pull everybody else down with greed and selfishness – the only traits that gets you anywhere.”
Students of Nigerian politics would be convinced that Obasanjo’s politics “…goes with principles and morality…” not as a zonal PDP Chairman. He just realized that “Kashamu {is} wanted in the U.S. for drug trafficking and money laundering crimes…” Obasanjo hypocritically believes that “Sooner than later, drug barons will be in control of large real estates, banks and other seemingly legitimate businesses; in elections, they will buy candidates, parties and eventually buy power or be in power themselves”.
Obasanjo forgot that as a democrat, he changed PDP Constitution to become its BOT Chair; rigged all his elections using government apparatus; and turned PDP styled democracy into ‘do or die’ affair. Definitely, Kashamu would have his days in Court to defend or clear his name. http://www.thisdaylive.com/articles/i-spent-n3bn-to-help-obasanjo-defeat-daniel-says-kashamu/166748/
Chief Fani-Kayode thought about Obasanjo is not too far from that of Iyabo.
“A leader that takes his followers for granted and takes pleasure in the destruction, humiliation, travails, shame and political persecution of his own loyalists is not a real leader but something else. On the other hand, the leader that stands by his loyalists through thick and thin and that reciprocates the commitment, love, support, compassion and loyalty that he receives from them is a true leader. As far as I am concerned, that is the difference between Obasanjo and IBB. Babangida recognises these things and he is loyal to his own, whilst Obasanjo does not.”
…. Femi Fani-Kayode (ex-spokesman of General Obasanjo)
Jonathan is ripening from the seed of discord Obasanjo had sown in PDP. Political vindictiveness has been transferred to his new Owu partner, the current Ogun State Governor, Ibikunle Amosun, while the case between the Federal Government and Lagos State on Local Government remittances is still very fresh, but the State has moved pass that. He should not be pointing to Jonathan-Amaechi’s face-off. It is the monster Obasanjo created in his political castle.
On a serious note what is Obasanjo’s motive of requesting the President to share his letter with Babangida, Abdulsalam, and Danjuma?
Nigerians need more than what Dr. Reuben Abati published, considering Obasanjo’s letter as “…highly unbecoming, mischievous and provocative that a letter written by a former Head of State and respected elder statesman to President Jonathan…” These are serious matters Jonathan must address. Meanwhile Jonathan Aides must work on conflict management, not the political grammar of considering the letter as “… as self-serving, hypocritical, malicious, indecent, and very disrespectful of the highest office in the land…” Nigerians need some answers before the “Door Closes.”
Femi Ajayi is a Professor of Policy, Management & Conflict Resolution, at Babcock University, Ilishan-Remo, Ogun State
