January 20, 2010
“When in [the] year 2006, the idea came up as to succession; I was convinced in my mind that a Southerner succeeding me will not augur well for Nigeria… I was convinced in my mind. Now, [I] was looking for those who will succeed me who has (sic) three important qualities… I know he has kidney problem and was under dialysis… When the idea was for him to contest, I asked him and he gave me a medical report… I asked experts who then told me… Now, who am I … I remember at one day of the campaign, he was run down.
“When in [the] year 2006, the idea came up as to succession; I was convinced in my mind that a Southerner succeeding me will not augur well for Nigeria… I was convinced in my mind. Now, [I] was looking for those who will succeed me who has (sic) three important qualities… I know he has kidney problem and was under dialysis… When the idea was for him to contest, I asked him and he gave me a medical report… I asked experts who then told me… Now, who am I … I remember at one day of the campaign, he was run down.
Chairman of our party then, Ahmadu Ali was also run down. Ahmadu Ali didn’t go abroad to check up, but he went abroad to check up and the rumour was that he was dead. And I called him and I put the telephone on speaker and I said, Are you dead? And we continued with the campaign…To the best of my knowledge… I, Olusegun Obasanjo... how can I… I will begin… If you have fear of God, you will not make that statement… If I did that, God will punish me...
--Olusegun Obasanjo in Abuja, January 21, 2010
Have you ever pondered what the fate of everyone in the geographical space that became Nigeria would have come to if providence had bestowed on this character, Mr. Olusegun Obasanjo the role that Nelson Mandela played in South Africa? God and our ancestors forbid! Here’s an individual to whom we owe next to nothing, yet he consistently believes—and even acts and voices it out—that he owns us, the land of our birth and of course the contrived polity under which we’re subjected by the British.
The sad aspect of the brigandage that the man inflicts on us is that almost everyone seems at peace with him in spite of it. I’m beside myself in anger when I read this enormous splash of ego evident in his attempt today in Abuja to explain away how he single-handedly prescribed the criteria that guided his arrogant selection, vetting and enthronement of sickly Mr Umaru Yar’Adua on a country. He still had the effrontery to invoke the name of God even as he revealed his treasonable violation of what was meant to be a democratic process.
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I still cannot see why Mr. Obasanjo should not be made to account for the eight years he spent in power this last time. Perhaps he believes he’s being magnanimous to his subjects by calling on Yar’Adua to resign. He must have sensed that the tide is turning; hence his effusive outburst in response to a questioner as has been reported. My reading of the indicators is that he’s a little late on that: Yar’Adua and all that he represents—those include Mr. Obasanjo, the PDP, and all—are history. I wouldn’t see why people of goodwill amongst us must hold back this time around from seizing the opportunity that the tide of events has brought around the corner to resolve the inherent problems in the Nigeria project once and for all. The process is already underway. If you doubt it take another look out the window and you’d see that the ranks of the clergy that joined hands with him singing halleluiah previously are now marching with the people and chanting: ‘Let the people go!’ The world has out-lived the anachronism that Mr. Obasanjo is. We must consign him off our back, because we are also the world. It was only yesterday that people found it difficult to ask him the kind of question he was asked in Abuja today. He could have bristled like the bully he is if it were yesterday. We all witnessed how cowed he seemed today, invoking the name of God instead.
Obasanjo does not own Nigeria. He’s in deed one of the problems with Nigeria. There’s every need and urgency to use proper legitimate repertoires and solve him decisively alongside the rest of the other problems that plague the Nigeria project.
● E. C. Ejiogu, PhD is a political sociologist.
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Chairman of our party then, Ahmadu Ali was also run down. Ahmadu Ali didn’t go abroad to check up, but he went abroad to check up and the rumour was that he was dead. And I called him and I put the telephone on speaker and I said, Are you dead? And we continued with the campaign…To the best of my knowledge… I, Olusegun Obasanjo... how can I… I will begin… If you have fear of God, you will not make that statement… If I did that, God will punish me...
--Olusegun Obasanjo in Abuja, January 21, 2010
Have you ever pondered what the fate of everyone in the geographical space that became Nigeria would have come to if providence had bestowed on this character, Mr. Olusegun Obasanjo the role that Nelson Mandela played in South Africa? God and our ancestors forbid! Here’s an individual to whom we owe next to nothing, yet he consistently believes—and even acts and voices it out—that he owns us, the land of our birth and of course the contrived polity under which we’re subjected by the British.
The sad aspect of the brigandage that the man inflicts on us is that almost everyone seems at peace with him in spite of it. I’m beside myself in anger when I read this enormous splash of ego evident in his attempt today in Abuja to explain away how he single-handedly prescribed the criteria that guided his arrogant selection, vetting and enthronement of sickly Mr Umaru Yar’Adua on a country. He still had the effrontery to invoke the name of God even as he revealed his treasonable violation of what was meant to be a democratic process.
articleadslinks
I still cannot see why Mr. Obasanjo should not be made to account for the eight years he spent in power this last time. Perhaps he believes he’s being magnanimous to his subjects by calling on Yar’Adua to resign. He must have sensed that the tide is turning; hence his effusive outburst in response to a questioner as has been reported. My reading of the indicators is that he’s a little late on that: Yar’Adua and all that he represents—those include Mr. Obasanjo, the PDP, and all—are history. I wouldn’t see why people of goodwill amongst us must hold back this time around from seizing the opportunity that the tide of events has brought around the corner to resolve the inherent problems in the Nigeria project once and for all. The process is already underway. If you doubt it take another look out the window and you’d see that the ranks of the clergy that joined hands with him singing halleluiah previously are now marching with the people and chanting: ‘Let the people go!’ The world has out-lived the anachronism that Mr. Obasanjo is. We must consign him off our back, because we are also the world. It was only yesterday that people found it difficult to ask him the kind of question he was asked in Abuja today. He could have bristled like the bully he is if it were yesterday. We all witnessed how cowed he seemed today, invoking the name of God instead.
Obasanjo does not own Nigeria. He’s in deed one of the problems with Nigeria. There’s every need and urgency to use proper legitimate repertoires and solve him decisively alongside the rest of the other problems that plague the Nigeria project.
● E. C. Ejiogu, PhD is a political sociologist.
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