Between Jonathan and Obasanjo

It’s been a wonderful time for journalists in the past few weeks, especially with verbal missiles coming from former President Olusegun Obasanjo. Suddenly, the Balogun of Owu is not only an ‘elder statesman’ but has taken a front row seat among human rights activists in the country. His outbursts have generated wonderful copies that even a newspaper played on the metaphor of bomb, a rather distasteful action considering what some of our compatriots are suffering in the hands of Boko Haram.

“I rate this administration below average,” said Obasanjo at the Ake Book festival in Abeokuta, Ogun State last month. This was in response to a question on President Goodluck Jonathan’s performance and Obasanjo went ahead claiming that he deserved credit for helping to install a president from a minority tribe. So Baba, as he is more known, want us to applaud him for helping Jonathan to become president but not ready to share in the blame of his performance.

First, a caveat. This is not an endorsement of President Jonathan’s performance as this column in a piece titled ‘This ship is sinking’ months back called his attention to anomalies in the country that deserved greater attention. That was written before insurgents took over Mubi and the latest bombing of Kano central mosque. Nearly all Nigerians, even among the motley crowd that surrounds Jonathan, will agree that our president could and should do more in leading the country.

But Obasanjo, whichever way one looks at it, is not well-positioned to throw barbs at Jonathan’s government. At least former Head of State, Muhammadu Buhari, has come out clearly in declaring his interest to take over from Jonathan so he should not be expected to play safe with the present government. You wonder what exactly Obasanjo wants. As a member of the Council of States, some of the issues he goes to town shouting about would have been discussed at the council’s meeting yet he would not be satisfied. For someone who resigned his position as chairman of PDP’s Board of Trustees, you wonder why he cannot leave the party alone. A PDP member told me a story of why he resigned from the board. He claimed Obasanjo was shocked that the board supported Jonathan’s approval of a loan from the Chinese government to construct a rail line from Lagos to Calabar. “This was even after he has raised the issue with the president before the meeting,” the PDP member added.

From the well-publicised letter he wrote to Jonathan last year to the two public statements within two weeks, one could be forgiven that Obasanjo has seen the light and he is now on the side of the people. A careful examination of Obasanjo’s politics, however, would reveal that he is bothered about himself and his interests alone; anybody useful to him in advancing his interests will be dropped after the aim has been achieved. He is a lone ranger who has no friends in the true sense of friendship. It is doubtful if he can win any election in his Ita Eko ward in Abeokuta.

In his speech at a book launch in honour of retired Justice Mustapha Akanbi, Obasanjo said, “Management of democracy without resorting to brute force and dictatorial tendencies must be cultivated.” Please pardon me if you did a somersault on reading that. Maybe he assumed that we have forgotten the massacre at Odi, Bayelsa State on November 20, 1999. The judgment of Justice Lamidi Akanbi of the Federal High Court in February last year is enough for us not to forget when he ordered the Federal Government to pay N37. 6 billion compensation to the people of Odi for a “brazen violation of the fundamental human rights of the victims to movement, life and to own property and live peacefully in their ancestral home.”

What of Zaki-Biam in 2001, too? Soldiers invaded Vasae, Anyiiri Iorja, Ugba, Sankera and Zaki-Biam all in two local government areas of Logo and Zaki-Biam in Benue State on October 22 in retaliation for Tiv militia action of October 12.

It is also instructive that Obasanjo lampooned the National Assembly members over constituency projects among other issues. It’s the beauty of democracy that a senator had responded to him that constituency projects commenced under his watch as president and it is doubtful if he tried to stop it then. One would have expected Obasanjo to deny or confirm the allegation that senators and representatives were induced with N50 million each to approve his third term bid in 2007.

It is the season of politics and as he said at Abeokuta, Obasanjo does not put all his eggs in one basket meaning that there would be more acerbic comments from him as February 15 election draw closer. Here is a man in the twilight of his life busy searching for relevance and who finds it difficult to accept that all things Nigeria do not revolve round him. No person, perhaps, has been more fortunate in leading this country for the number of years he did. History would judge him on the citizens’ terms, and not on his own term.