Obasanjo, you can’t just wish him away! By Bolaji Tunji

I have decided to write on former President Olusegun Obasanjo, believing if I do, it would help me unravel what really makes Baba Iyabo,as he is at times called, really tick.

In fact, I want to know who he is, without sounding disrespectful. Why he is what he is and why he gets away with things others would dare not even try. I have to sound a note of warning that I am not that confident that the task I have set myself would hit the bull’s eye.

I do not need to talk about the fact of his having been head of the Nigerian state twice. First as a military leader in1976 till 1979 when he handed over the reign of governance to Alhaji Shehu Shagari.

Like a cat with nine lives, he came back from prison where he had been sentenced for a coup plot believed to have been orchestrated by the late Gen Sani Abacha military junta, to again assume the mantle of leadership of the country when there were serious suspicion and acrimony in the land with the death of Gen Abacha and the acclaimed winner of the June 12, 1993 elections, Bashorun MKO Abiola who had been clamped into detention by the junta for claiming his mandate and proclaiming himself the president of Nigeria.

Need we talk of the fact that the election that ushered him into the highest office in the land in 1999 did not have the support of his kinsmen in the southwest. Other parts of the country voted for him, but not his people. One can go on and on about Baba Iyabo. There would always be one tale or the other to tell.  Someone once said that if a man achieved what Obasanjo has achieved in life, then such a person deserves to be the father of the nation and thus would be at liberty to do anything. Is that really what makes Baba tick? I do not know whether this is why Baba courts controversy or why controversy continues to trail him?  And the controversies have been many. Whether in his public or private lives, controversies have always been on the look out for Baba or is it the other way round?

The bombshell by Gbenga, son of the former president that his father had amorous relationship with his wife sent the whole nation reeling in shock. It sounded far fetched.  But the son had gone to court to swear to an affidavit that his wife actually had an amorous relationship with his father in order to curry favour from Obasanjo who was the country’s president at the time. And she was adequately compensated, “for her adulterous acts with several oil contracts with the NNPC amongst which was the NNPC consultancy training in supply chain management and project management awarded to her company, Bowen and Brown,” was how Gbenga puts it. Next was the turn of his favorite daughter, Iyabo, who was appointed Commissioner for health in Ogun state by the Gbenga Daniel administration. Years later, the chummy relationship between Obasanjo and Daniel broke down and ever since there had been no love lost between the duo.

Iyabo, in a letter widely publicised by newspapers, had accused her father of being a liar, manipulator, two-faced hypocrite, “determined to foist on President Goodluck Jonathan what no one would contemplate with him as president”. Among several others, Iyabo accused her father of cruelty, abandonment of his children and a legendary reputation of maltreatment of women, and so on and on. When the letter initially came to the public domain, it sounded unbelievable and a lot of people initially viewed it with disbelieve, that a letter of that nature could come from Baba’s favorite daughter. But Iyabo never came out to refute the letter. Thus lending authenticity to her claims. Who else would know a father more than the daughter?

As an author, Obasanjo has equally stirred controversy. First was the accusation of  Brigadier-General Godwin Alabi-Isama that Obasanjo’s earlier book, My Command was a tapestry of inaccuracies. It was the same controversy with his latest book, My Watch. One can go on and on about controversies that have trailed the former President.

More recently and in the build up to the February election, Baba has made it clear that President Jonathan would not be getting his support. A letter by the ex-president in late 2013 to President Jonathan, entitled, ‘ Before it is too late’, gave indication that it had not been smooth between the duo. It was this letter that brought out the anger in Iyabo who accused her father of playing God.

More recently, the ex president had accused the president of having failed Nigeria. He stopped short of accusing the president of incompetence for having depleted the foreign reserve left behind by him and his successor,  late President Umar Yar’Adua and squandering the crude oil savings of $35billion.“We left what we call excess crude, let’s build it for rainy day, up to $35 billion; within three years, the $35 billion disappeared. Whether the money disappeared or it was shared, the fact remains that $35 billion disappeared from the foreign reserve I left behind in office. When we left that money, we thought we were leaving it for the rainy day…” It was that same week that he attended the wedding of the President’s daughter. And that is the Obasanjo enigma.He had  criticized the president publicly and had no compulsion in attending the president’s  daughter’s wedding.  Since his 18-page letter to the president, he had not hidden the fact that he would not want Jonathan to continue, but stand down as the country’s president.He is said to have always said he would support any candidate except Jonathan. Although Obasanjo had not come out to deny ever saying this, his body language and his consort with the opposition party is indicative of his stance.Is Obasanjo really playing God? To many people he is indeed doing so. People are also quick to point out that when Obasanjo takes on anybody, the person had better be careful. Recall his quarrel with his deputy, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar. Atiku had never hidden his desire to govern the country, but the quarrel with Obasanjo scuttled that ambition. The tar of corruption painted the former Vice President has refused to go away, in spite of the fact that the courts found no evidence to sustain that claim.

In Ogun State, his home state, the ex president is at loggerhead with so many people in his party. Apart from former governor Daniel, he has refused to accept Prince Buruji Kashamu who he tagged as a wanted criminal in the United States. And if Obasanjo is playing God, is his position not a reflection of the feeling of the generality of Nigerians? How would his stance affect the outcome of next month’s election. Is it this fear that has gripped President Jonathan, which led to an emissary of PDP governors to the hilltop mansion of the former President to beg and more recently, a meeting between the duo in the presence of two topmost religious leaders in the country, Pastor Enoch Adeboye and Bishop Oyedepo?

Whichever way one views Obasanjo, though many would say it matters not, it is always better to be in his good books, those who had been on his less than positive side would say.

Bola Tunji wrote via [email protected], 0805 423 8905 SMS ONLY