Obasanjo: Hero or Villain?

Published on 22nd June 2012

Olusegun  Obasanjo                 Photo courtesy
Some commentators are heaping praises on Nigeria's former President (1999-2003) retired General Olusegun Obasanjo  for his recent outburst and attacks on the judiciary, members of state houses of assembly and the National Assembly of Nigeria. Obasanjo who spoke in Lagos at the fourth Academy for Entrepreneurial Studies, Nigeria Annual Conference reportedly said: “Today, rogues, armed robbers are in the state houses of assembly and the National Assembly. What sort of laws will they make?”

“The judiciary is also corrupt. During my tenure, many of the corrupt judges were removed, some are still there. If the Judiciary becomes corrupt, where is the hope for the nation? Justice, no doubt, will go to the highest bidder. The judiciary did not see anything wrong with a former governor but the same set of evidence was used to sentence him in the United Kingdom…"

In my view and assessment of his own record, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo is hardly the person to point fingers on corruption. Substance lacks in his utterances. Chief Olusegun Obasanjo is an alarmist when not in office but a pretender when in office. During  his 1999-2003 tenure, Obasanjo sat in council and witnessed without action, state governor being kidnapped in Anambra State, those that sought to challenge office holders he did not like disappear and  governors steal  in open stare without care or concern. The EFCC was formed, thanks to him, but he provided them no teeth or tools to be effective. It became a witch hunting commission to target and frighten anyone not in the good graces of Chief Olusegun Obasanjo. Today, EFCC finds it hard to shake off such early starts. Is Chief Olusegun Obasanjo the man Uche Igwe, wants us to believe is wise and seasoned?

Were Nigeria a country that really takes time to review and vet those that seek public office, Obasanjo by now would have joined a pile and heap of those forgotten. His civil war role, to say the least, was laced with abuses that he should never have emerged to serve in any capacity. The heroic applaud accorded him because of the war, is because Nigerians do not know how to dig deep and expose those that abuse her. Even what appears as apparent often, is couched and swept under the rug to appease.

Fast forward to then General Olusegun Obasanjo's takeover after Nigeria's military dictator General Murtala Mohammed’s  assassination in February 1976. His role in FESTAC left many gasping for air as Chief Olusegun Obasanjo was one of early top officials to order and accept used buses when new ones were ordered and paid for. He introduced Land Use Act 1978/79, an instrument that has allowed corruption to this day, and his first order of business was acquisition of Otta Farm. A trumpeter also wipes his mouth, says an Igbo proverb about helping oneself through some work.

Obasanjo’s  complicated role in ITT, Ajaokuta Steel and others, when reviewed properly and objectively would indicate a man who has had deep hands in the cookie jars of Nigeria. When he left office in 1979, he sought to be a statesman placing himself in line to seek UN Secretary Generalship because his friend Andrew Young, US former Ambassador to the United Nations, saw who I considered a naive man whom he could impress and make money offering non-collateral consulting services and advice.

Obasanjo, to further elevate himself, joined Transparency International as a facade to be seen as fighting corruption. It went no way. His frustration at garnering international reputation, saw him depressed and such mental condition led to his alleged involvement and complication in a coup that afforded Abacha regime opportunity to grab and nail him.

When that happened, Andrew Young was placed yet in another role as Obasanjo's  consultant, tried with resounding failure to seek Obasanjo's release by the late General Sani Abacha, it fell on deaf ears and most international players and referees, shunned all attempts and appeal to join in freeing Chief Olusegun Obasanjo. Here is a man who served in a high capacity role in Transparency International, but was shunned when he was implicated in a coup. It is a million tales.

Skip to late 1990s and Chief Olusegun Obasanjo again was elevated to a role as president by hijacked system of election rigging and fraud, because General Ibrahim Babangida (IBB) was seeking redemption for having denied Chief Olusegun Obasanjo's fellow Yoruba man --the late MKO -- a deserving election mandate on June 12, 1993. The June 12, 1993 presidential elections were assessed by most observers to be Nigeria's fairest. Obasanjo dismissed MKO Abiola. Obasanjo was a reluctant candidate seeking assurance before he could jump in. Same was his reluctance when Murtala was killed and he was reluctant taking over except when he secured support that a northerner from a ruling family could be his second in command, which led to Col. Shehu Yar'Adua’s  unusual ascendancy. In military circle, Yar'Adua was not the next in line.

One of the things Chief Olusegun Obasanjo did when he came to office in 1999, was seek the list of all top NNPC officers, consultants and contractors and replaced most of them with his cronies and mainly his fellow Yoruba folks. During Chief Olusegun Obasanjo's second presidency as a politician under the PDP (1999-2003), he was de facto oil minister, first time in Nigeria. Of late, there is no substantive minister in such ministry. Why? Inquiry minds want to know. Nigerians need to know the list of allocations and who got what?

If former Senate President of Nigeria, Ken Nnamani had not stood up to frustrate  Obasanjo's aggressive quest for a third term, If that occurred,  those  who are praising Obasanjo as some kind of seasoned and wise man, would have been singing a different tune. Obasanjo would have remained in office and who knows, he would have sought a life time presidency. 

Nigerians of today, should shun men of the past who are hanging on to remain and appear relevant. If there is any lesson to copy and paste, Nigeria may look to what South Korea did in the late 80s and early 90s; they sought trial of all its former heads of state/presidents, to cleanse the system. They did and that move unleashed South Korea to where it is today. But in a toothless bull dog culture and barking without biting of Nigeria, sing songs and dances in the public square are taken in place of serious, concerted efforts to improve the world most populous black nation.

One of my contacts, an investment banker reflected on meeting Chief Olusegun Obasanjo in early 2000 over obtaining capital for development, said: "the man was over his head." Well, I replied, we already knew that. Obasanjo just appears to be smart and intelligent in a mostly naive and poorly informed country and populace.

By Ejike Okpa II
Dallas, Texas.


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