January 29, 2010
“If you take up an appointment, a job, elected, appointed, whatever it is and then your health starts saying ‘I will not be able to deliver’, to satisfy yourself and the people that you are supposed to serve, then there is the path of honour and the path of morality. And if you don’t know that, then you don’t know anything”- Olusegun Obasanjo, Nigeria’s former president. Some of the most startling aspects of the Obasanjo persona that I have studied very closely in the past decade include the near-total absence of refinement along with a very philistine attitude to the small and big matters of the life process.
Those who think they are being fair to the man often say that he is down-to-earth; but in truth, lurking within the split personality which Obasanjo has inflicted upon the Nigerian public space, is that total disrespect for the honourable as well as the absence of an expression of morality! It is therefore the height of incredulity, that Obasanjo chose an appearance at the 7th Trust Annual Dialogue, last Thursday to launch a preachment about honour or lack of it and morality and its absence!
Obasanjo is obviously sad at the turn of events since his disgraceful exit from power. The elaborate script to take Nigeria hostage through Yar’adua were actually because of two related issues, namely the defeat of the Third Term Agenda and Yar’adua’s health challenge, contrary to the public posturing by Obasanjo, last Thursday. It is curious that the man did not even mention the Third Term bid, but he had put all his eggs in that dubious basket, without a Plan B; so sure was he that he had a sufficiently compromised National Assembly to achieve the objective. But a combination of circumstances led to the failure of Third Term and Obasanjo was so devastated that he chose to visit a vicious revenge on Nigeria, in the shape of a very sick Yar’adua! There were two sides to the coin. Yar’adua was not expected to last the rigour of a punishing campaign, and he almost did not, when he fell sick; Obasanjo remembered the histrionic of “Umoru are you dead”? But he omitted the fact that the script was really for the poor man to actually be dead, so that Third Term would have been achieved willy-nilly! That did not happen so the old dictator had to vacate power, but Nigeria’s political health had been damaged with the rigging into power of a president who would be a liability on an incremental basis into the future. That future is what we are dealing with today.
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When Obasanjo listed his three check items for president of Nigeria, namely intellectual capacity, sufficient personal integrity and broadmindedness in knowledge, religiously, socially and politically, after saying he was convinced a Southerner should not be president after himself, he also did not tell the whole truth. Obasanjo had encouraged the formation of a forum of Southerners to grandstand against the North, as part of the Third Term strategy, which met in Enugu where they issued a bellicose anti-North communiqué! He re-discovered the toga of ultra-patriotism, only after the defeat of his tenure elongation project, because the truth was that he would have gladly handed over to only one Southerner: a man called Olusegun Obasanjo! The re-statement of love for Nigeria, in peace and war, was also hogwash, because Obasanjo forgot that there is NO OTHER Nigerian that this country has been as good to as Obasanjo! He ruled our country for ELEVEN years, starting from 1976, when General Danjuma got soldiers to pluck him out from under a bed in the late Chief S.B. Bakare’s house, in Ikoyi, Lagos, where he was hiding, during the coup that killed General Murtala Muhammed!
Last Thursday’s revelation underlined a few points. Obasanjo’s relationship with Yar’adua was at the lowest, largely because the puppet did not obey the puppeteer, and the man was very angry! But Obasanjo was deluded, that he would earn a puppet in Yar’adua, when he refused to be the puppet of those who sprung him out of jail, pardoned the ex-convict, organized his entry into the PDP and then rigged him into power! So why should it be different with President Umaru Yar’adua? There was also the defeat he suffered in the BOT meeting of the PDP the previous week that he had not overcome. Taken together, Obasanjo went to town against his poor successor who is fighting for his life in a hospital far away in Saudi Arabia. There is honour even among thieves, but Obasanjo betrayed that code last week, despite the rubbish he mouthed about honour and morality! With Obasanjo, Nigerians do not look for honour and morality, because a long time ago, we all realized that he is not a man of honour and his moral strength is, well, not existent at best! Wasn’t Obasanjo the man accused by a certain Gbenga Obasanjo of having slept with his (Gbenga’s) wife? Case closed!
Obasanjo deliberately imposed a sick Yar’adua on Nigeria, in revenge for rejection of tenure elongation. Yar’adua was greedy for power, not minding ill-heath. In that respect, he was a willing accomplice of Obasanjo’s scheme; but he had his own agenda contrary to Obasanjo’s hope to play puppeteer of the wily man from Katsina. As the old saying goes, the strong man strongly; the weak man by caprice; each has the same intention: seize power and hold on to it! Yar’adua was a loyal supporter of Third Term Agenda, and so open was that support, that he was the only governor who killed people opposed to Third Term! He fitted the frame of the type who might allow himself to be used by proxy by a power-drunk Obasanjo. But Yar’adua wrong-footed Obasanjo and on inheriting power ditched the old dictator. Obasanjo has been smarting from being left out of the loop of a carefully constructed power-through-the-backdoor scheme, and this is the cause of the vituperations against Yar’adua. Obasanjo did not reckon with Turai, the presidential spouse! The only success that Obasanjo achieved is that Nigeria has remained on life support with a sick, ineffectual and grossly incompetent Yar’adua as president. That is because the political elite are an irresponsible group collectively, to have allowed Obasanjo to subvert the political process in the first place while they only wanted to cream the spoils of power. Like Humpty Dumpty, the entire edifice has fallen off the wall with nobody knowing how to put things together with a modicum of political acumen. Honour and morality have never been ingredients of Nigerian ruling class politics!
IBRAHIM YAKUBU LAME AND ISRAELI POLICING METHODS
Who is this Ibrahim Yakubu Lame character? He went to Israel, acknowledged “the high competence of the Israeli police” and wants that adopted by Nigeria. Wonderful! We have seen on television how the Zionist police break the limbs of Palestinians and kill women and children if they are not taking over olive groves or grabbing land! Israeli policing methods are racist and constructed to make life very difficult for Palestinians! Such methods are not welcome in our country!
[email protected]
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Those who think they are being fair to the man often say that he is down-to-earth; but in truth, lurking within the split personality which Obasanjo has inflicted upon the Nigerian public space, is that total disrespect for the honourable as well as the absence of an expression of morality! It is therefore the height of incredulity, that Obasanjo chose an appearance at the 7th Trust Annual Dialogue, last Thursday to launch a preachment about honour or lack of it and morality and its absence!
Obasanjo is obviously sad at the turn of events since his disgraceful exit from power. The elaborate script to take Nigeria hostage through Yar’adua were actually because of two related issues, namely the defeat of the Third Term Agenda and Yar’adua’s health challenge, contrary to the public posturing by Obasanjo, last Thursday. It is curious that the man did not even mention the Third Term bid, but he had put all his eggs in that dubious basket, without a Plan B; so sure was he that he had a sufficiently compromised National Assembly to achieve the objective. But a combination of circumstances led to the failure of Third Term and Obasanjo was so devastated that he chose to visit a vicious revenge on Nigeria, in the shape of a very sick Yar’adua! There were two sides to the coin. Yar’adua was not expected to last the rigour of a punishing campaign, and he almost did not, when he fell sick; Obasanjo remembered the histrionic of “Umoru are you dead”? But he omitted the fact that the script was really for the poor man to actually be dead, so that Third Term would have been achieved willy-nilly! That did not happen so the old dictator had to vacate power, but Nigeria’s political health had been damaged with the rigging into power of a president who would be a liability on an incremental basis into the future. That future is what we are dealing with today.
articleadslinks
When Obasanjo listed his three check items for president of Nigeria, namely intellectual capacity, sufficient personal integrity and broadmindedness in knowledge, religiously, socially and politically, after saying he was convinced a Southerner should not be president after himself, he also did not tell the whole truth. Obasanjo had encouraged the formation of a forum of Southerners to grandstand against the North, as part of the Third Term strategy, which met in Enugu where they issued a bellicose anti-North communiqué! He re-discovered the toga of ultra-patriotism, only after the defeat of his tenure elongation project, because the truth was that he would have gladly handed over to only one Southerner: a man called Olusegun Obasanjo! The re-statement of love for Nigeria, in peace and war, was also hogwash, because Obasanjo forgot that there is NO OTHER Nigerian that this country has been as good to as Obasanjo! He ruled our country for ELEVEN years, starting from 1976, when General Danjuma got soldiers to pluck him out from under a bed in the late Chief S.B. Bakare’s house, in Ikoyi, Lagos, where he was hiding, during the coup that killed General Murtala Muhammed!
Last Thursday’s revelation underlined a few points. Obasanjo’s relationship with Yar’adua was at the lowest, largely because the puppet did not obey the puppeteer, and the man was very angry! But Obasanjo was deluded, that he would earn a puppet in Yar’adua, when he refused to be the puppet of those who sprung him out of jail, pardoned the ex-convict, organized his entry into the PDP and then rigged him into power! So why should it be different with President Umaru Yar’adua? There was also the defeat he suffered in the BOT meeting of the PDP the previous week that he had not overcome. Taken together, Obasanjo went to town against his poor successor who is fighting for his life in a hospital far away in Saudi Arabia. There is honour even among thieves, but Obasanjo betrayed that code last week, despite the rubbish he mouthed about honour and morality! With Obasanjo, Nigerians do not look for honour and morality, because a long time ago, we all realized that he is not a man of honour and his moral strength is, well, not existent at best! Wasn’t Obasanjo the man accused by a certain Gbenga Obasanjo of having slept with his (Gbenga’s) wife? Case closed!
Obasanjo deliberately imposed a sick Yar’adua on Nigeria, in revenge for rejection of tenure elongation. Yar’adua was greedy for power, not minding ill-heath. In that respect, he was a willing accomplice of Obasanjo’s scheme; but he had his own agenda contrary to Obasanjo’s hope to play puppeteer of the wily man from Katsina. As the old saying goes, the strong man strongly; the weak man by caprice; each has the same intention: seize power and hold on to it! Yar’adua was a loyal supporter of Third Term Agenda, and so open was that support, that he was the only governor who killed people opposed to Third Term! He fitted the frame of the type who might allow himself to be used by proxy by a power-drunk Obasanjo. But Yar’adua wrong-footed Obasanjo and on inheriting power ditched the old dictator. Obasanjo has been smarting from being left out of the loop of a carefully constructed power-through-the-backdoor scheme, and this is the cause of the vituperations against Yar’adua. Obasanjo did not reckon with Turai, the presidential spouse! The only success that Obasanjo achieved is that Nigeria has remained on life support with a sick, ineffectual and grossly incompetent Yar’adua as president. That is because the political elite are an irresponsible group collectively, to have allowed Obasanjo to subvert the political process in the first place while they only wanted to cream the spoils of power. Like Humpty Dumpty, the entire edifice has fallen off the wall with nobody knowing how to put things together with a modicum of political acumen. Honour and morality have never been ingredients of Nigerian ruling class politics!
IBRAHIM YAKUBU LAME AND ISRAELI POLICING METHODS
Who is this Ibrahim Yakubu Lame character? He went to Israel, acknowledged “the high competence of the Israeli police” and wants that adopted by Nigeria. Wonderful! We have seen on television how the Zionist police break the limbs of Palestinians and kill women and children if they are not taking over olive groves or grabbing land! Israeli policing methods are racist and constructed to make life very difficult for Palestinians! Such methods are not welcome in our country!
[email protected]
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