Obasanjo
Hannatu Musawa
THERE has been much
hullabaloo over former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s autobiography,
titled ‘My Watch’. The exhaustive autobiographical three-volume book,
contains several national issues from past to present, chronicling the
life of the former president from birth till date. The book has
presently aroused political interest, by its unflattering portrait of
the current president. The former president via the book accused the
current president of surrounding himself with aides and political
associates with corrupt tendencies; dedicating several parts in the book
to pointing out some of President Jonathan’s actions and inactions
Obasanjo considers ill-advised or disastrous for Nigeria and several
instances of policy somersaults by Mr. Jonathan as well as deliberate
actions by the incumbent president that have imperiled Nigeria’s
progress. The book also took swipes at former President Umaru Yar’Adua,
former Vice President Abubakar Atiku, Bukola Saraki, among other
political foes.
In the book, the former president also
stated that he was never interested in pursuing a third term while in
office. The book has undoubtedly attracted a lot of acclaim and
criticisms respectively, the latest being a court order for copies of
the book to be confiscated by the police, DSS and the customs; also
restraining media houses from publishing excerpts from the book.
As a citizen of this great nation of
ours, the former president has every right to air his views in a verbal
or written form, or whatever means available at his disposal. Under
Chapter IV of the Nigerian constitution, every citizen has the “right to
freedom of expression and the press”. As a former president and an
elder statesman, Obasanjo has every right and is entitled to his own
views, pointing out certain anomalies within the polity which he feels
should be addressed. As a two-time president, he has an obligation to
speak out when and if he feels the nation’s present leadership is erring
in its policies, actions or inactions. However, this is increasingly
becoming the norm with Nigerian leaders, in that, as soon as they vacate
office, they castigate, find faults and point accusing fingers at their
successors.
In most cases, these former leaders have
ample opportunities in creating a positive and vibrant long-lasting
legacy while in office, but mostly fail to do so; consequently blaming
their woes on their successors. Another appalling norm widely practiced
in our clime is “godfatherism”. As soon as incumbents cease to dance to
the tunes of their godfathers or cease to be puppets in the hands of
their puppeteers, all hell is let loose; the godfathers and puppeteers
begin finding faults and become vociferous, chastising their successors
at every available opportunity.
In his book, the former president
supposedly “revealed” how late president Yar’Adua deceived him about the
gravity of his illness, which he never recovered from till he died in
office. Obasanjo maintained that the late Yar’Adua gave him the
impression that he had overcome his health challenges. Needless to say,
this sounds preposterous, as it was a well-known fact that President
Yar’Adua was periodically ill while he was governor of Katsina state.
It is also a widely known fact that
Obasanjo was instrumental to late Yar’Adua ascension to the presidency.
From all the other capable and fit candidates for the presidency in
2007, President Obasanjo took it upon his merry self to choose who would
rule after him. There were 35 other governors and so many other capable
Nigerians, which the former president could have chosen from. But he
made his choice and opted for an ailing candidate. The former president
erred in his action of single-handedly making the choice that was the
fundamental right of 170- million Nigerians. He deliberately imposed the
Yar’Adua candidacy on Nigerians, evident in the highly controversial
2007 general elections which saw the emergence of Yar’Adua as president,
viewed by local and foreign observers as one of the worst elections
they had ever seen anywhere in the world, with “rampant vote rigging,
violence, theft of ballot boxes and intimidation”. This was also
acknowledged by the Late Yar’Adua on assumption of office. Honestly, it
beggars belief that President Obasanjo is now crying over the tank of
milk that he spilt himself. Not then, nor now does President Obasanjo
have any moral right to play the victim, accusing the late president of
deceiving him about his health, when he failed to oversee a free, fair
and credible election which brought the ailing president into office.
Just when one though that President
Obasanjo’s bellowing couldn’t get any worse, one is confronted with the
his alarming declaration of who was responsible for the third term
agenda. With regards to that infamous agenda bid in the twilight of his
presidency and in a manner reminiscent and common with African leaders
who never want to quit office, the former president in a curious twist
in his book stated that “selfish PDP governors were behind the
third-term agenda”. He accused the former governors of masterminding the
plot to extending his tenure in office. This is indeed a laughable
excuse and a pathetic attempt at absolving himself of blame. It would be
difficult and almost impossible to convince anyone that the former
president played no part in seeking tenure elongation while in office.
The same unashamedly ploy has and is still paying out in different
African countries. The former president should indeed own up and accept
responsibility for the state the nation is currently in today. The death
of President Yar’Adua in 2010 (Obasanjo’s anointed candidate), paved
the way for current President Goodluck Jonathan who was then
vice-president to become acting president and now president.
Ultimately, the former president cannot
extricate himself from the responsibility of inadvertently sponsoring
President Jonathan’s rise to political prominence and the Presidency.
Why crying foul now when you had an invincible but efficacious hand in
the current’s president’s rise to power? As a former president for
8-years, while his administration had its merits, amongst the demerits
includes the legacy of “do or die” political atmosphere and the failure
to adequately tackle corruption; salient national issues still plaguing
our nation hitherto. There are few challenges that this nation is going
through presently which do not have a direct link to choices that
President Obasanjo single handedly made for all of us. So instead of
huffing and puffing, sulking & throwing out the bath water, while he
continues to spill secrets of the Obasanjogate era, I’m respectfully
going to ask President Obasanjo to take responsibility or…. Take a seat!
Ref: http://thenationonlineng.net/president-obasanjo-take-responsibility-take-seat/
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