March 6, 2010
First Published on Face Book on Sunday, 24 January 2010.
Olusegun Obasanjo (born March 5, 1937) was President of Nigeria from 1999- 2007. A born-again Christian of Yoruba extraction, Obasanjo was a career soldier before serving twice as his nation's head of state, once as a military ruler, between 13 February 1976 and 1 October 1979 and again, 1999 - 2007 elected president of Nigeria.I cannot fail to pay tribute to a professional, whom have served so long, a people, a nation he loves so well,as it fills me with an emotion I cannot express. But this Tribute is not intended primarily to honor a personality, but to symbolize a great moral code -- the code of conduct and chivalry of a man whom have guarded this beloved land of culture and ancient descent Nigeria. That is the animation of this Tribute. For all eyes and for all time, it is an expression of the ethics of a Nigerian soldier, statesman and diplomat.
Obasanjo was handily re-elected in 2003 in a tumultuous election that had ethnic and religious overtones, his main opponent (fellow former military ruler General Muhammadu Buhari) being a Muslim who drew his support mainly from the north. Capturing 61.8 percent of the vote, Obasanjo defeated Buhari by more than 11 million votes. Buhari and other defeated candidates (including Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, the former Biafran leader of the 1960s), claimed that the election was fraudulent. International observers from the Commonwealth of Nations were more nuanced in their judgement. They concluded that while there had been incidents of fraud on both sides, Obasanjo's margin of victory was so huge that electoral malpractice would not have changed the result. Much more worrying was the increasing polarization of Nigeria along geographic and religious lines. Obasanjo made a spectacular sweep of the South, including the south-west where he had lost four years earlier, but lost considerable ground in the North. For a nation in which ethnicity and religion ties in strongly to geography, such a trend was seen by many as particularly disturbing. Other commentators might simply note that in 2003, unlike 1999, Obasanjo was running against a Northerner and could therefore expect his support to erode in the North. Olusegun Obasanjo is no doubt a political Colossos and an Enigma whose foot prints will remain forever in the sands of time. He will best be remembered for his non- tribal sentimental views and his great passionate love for his country Nigeria. Obasanjo spent most of his first term travelling abroad visiting mostly western countries. He claimed this was to polish the country image and re-establish the country to international scene after being battered and stained by the regime of Gen. Abacha. He succeeded in winning at least some Western support for strengthening Nigeria's nascent democracy. Britain and the United States, in particular, were glad to have an African ally who was openly critical of abuses committed in Robert Mugabe's Zimbabwe at a time when many other African nations (including South Africa) were taking a softer stance. Obasanjo also won international praise for Nigeria's role in crucial regional peacekeeping missions in Sierra Leone and Liberia. The international community was guided in its approach to Obasanjo in part by Nigeria's status as one of the world's 10 biggest oil exporters as well as by fears that, as the continent's most populous nation, Nigerian internal divisions risked negatively affecting the entire continent. His party, PDP, was established without him, as when he was called to contest the presidency he was languishing in prison. Thus he was not able to control the party in the direction he wanted. The party became its own opposition with various infighting.Although Obasanjo made fighting corruption the stated aim of his first term and managed to pass some anti-corruption laws, critics both at home and abroad accused him of doing too little to reign in the excesses, particularly among federal government ministers and state governors, many of which were widely publicized in the domestic and international press.Some of the public officials like the National Assembly speaker and Senate president were involved in conflicts with the president, who had to battle many impeachment. Since leading a public campaign against corruption and implementing economic reforms in his country, he has been widely seen abroad as an African statesman championing debt relief and democratic institutions (three times rejecting government change by coups d'état in Africa as the chairperson of the African Union). Obasanjo's second term was more effective than the first. He had been able to control the party and got effective support from the National Assembly. Many governors, mostly from his party, were either exposed or prosecuted for corruption. Some ministers and state officials were also dismissed or prosecuted for corruption. Also, the Senate President was removed at Obasanjo's insistence, after he had been exposed for receiving cash for budget approval from a minister. The country witnessed the trial and dismisal of senior Naval officers for corruption and similar faith for the chief of police. Some governors too were removed for corruption, though, some judges reversed some decision.He was able to attract technocrats and Nigerian expatriates to his administration. They were able to plan various reforms in the country administration. They made effective contribution to the country economic planning and development. Before Obasanjo's administration Nigeria's GDP growth had been painfully slow since 1987, and only managed 3% between 1999/2000. However, under Obasanjo the growth rate doubled to 6% until he left office, helped in part by higher oil prices. Nigeria's foreign reserves rose from $2 billion in 1999 to $43 billion on leaving office in 2007. He was able to secure debt pardons from the Paris and London club amounting to some $18 billion and paid another $18 Billion to be debt free. Most of these loans were secured and spent by past corrupt officials. In 2005 the international community gave Nigeria's government its first pass mark for its anti-corruption efforts. However, a growing number of critics within Nigeria have accused Obasanjo's government of selectively targeting his anti-corruption drive against political opponents and ethnic militants, ignoring growing concerns about wide-scale corruption within his own inner political circle. He has become chairman of the board of trustees of the PDP, from which position he can control nominations for governmental positions and even policy and strategy. In late April 2009, he drew public censure for comments made in Dutse, Jigawa State, to the effect that he had not been elected President for the purposes of expanding Nigeria's ailing infrastructure; his goal, rather, was to rescue her from the deep socio-political crisis into which she had plunged (which goal, he said, had been realised): "In 1999, Nigeria was not looking for a president that will build roads, fix poweror provide water; Nigeria was looking for a president that will hold Nigerians together. He also recalled that, on his ascension to power, someone told him that "I would be the last president of Nigeria. I asked him what did he mean by that, and he said there would not be Nigeria for which anybody will be a president again after me. That was how bad things were. We thank God that today those that are predicting human failure are proved to be wrong.This assertions were backed up by Sule Lamido, among others. Obasanjo is a member of the Africa Progress Panel (APP), an independent authority on Africa launched in April 2007 to focus world leaders' attention on delivering their commitments to the continent. Obasanjo was recently appointed Special Envoy by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon to the war-torn Democratic Republic of the Congo. He has held separate meetings with DRC President Joseph Kabila and rebel leader Laurent Nkunda. President Obasanjo hasnt failed to build courage when courage seems to fail, to regain faith when there seems to be little cause for faith, to create hope when hope becomes forlorn as in his recent call on his protege and successeor Umaru Yar' Dua to resign on moral grounds. Unhappily ,Obasanjo dosen't possess neither that eloquence of diction, that poetry of imagination, nor that brilliance of metaphor to tell all his good intentions for Nigeria ,coupled with his is very blunt and direct attitude to issues and his resolve to take Nigeria to the promise land without minding whose oarse is gored as his only bane. His lack of diplomatic finess and leaving entirely the control of the entire press to his opponents has contributed very greatly to Obasanjo's low public rating. The unbelievers will say My personal tributes are but words, but a slogan, but a flamboyant phrase. Every pedant, every demagogue, every cynic, every hypocrite, every Obasanjo critic and I am sorry to say, some others of an entirely different character, will try to downgrade this tribute, even to the extent of mockery and ridicule. Olusegun is proud and unbending in honest failure, but humble and gentle in success; not to substitute words for actions, not to seek the path of comfort, but to face the stress and spur of difficulty and challenge.Obasanjo stands up in the storm and also have compassion on those whom has fallen, as he has mastererd,himself before seeking to master others; he posses a heart that is clean, a goal that is high, has learnt to laugh, yet never forget how to weep,to reach into the future yet never neglected the past.Obasanjo is serious yet never takes himself too seriously, he is modest so that he wil be remembererd for the simplicity of true greatness, the open mind of his true wisdom, the meekness of his true strength which gives Obasanjo a temper of the will, a quality of his imagination, the vigor of his emotions, a freshness of the deep springs of his life, a temperamental predominance of courage over timidity, of an appetite for adventure over love of ease. These created in my heart and other Nigerians alike the sense of wonder, the unfailing hope of what next, and the joy and inspiration of life. Obasanjo's life attributes teaches us in this way to be an officer and a gentleman.He needs no eulogy from me or from any other man. He has written his own history and written it in red on his enemy's breast. But when I think of his patience under adversity, of his courage under fire, and of his modesty in victory, I am filled with an emotion of admiration I cannot put into words. Olusegun obasanjo, belongs to history as furnishing one of the greatest examples of successful patriotism. He belongs to posterity as the instructor of future generations in the principles of liberty and freedom. He belongs to the present, to us, by his virtues and by his achievements. In 3 succesive terms as Head of state and president,campaigns, on the battlefields, around a thousand campfires, Obasanjo has arousen that enduring fortitude, that patriotic self-abnegation, and that invincible determination which have carved his statue in the hearts of his people Nigeria. From one end of the world to the other he has drained deep the chalice of courage.The soldier in Obasanjo, above all other men, is required to practice the greatest act of religious training -- sacrifice.In battle and political field,and in the face of danger and death, he discloses those divine attributes which his Maker gave when he created man in his own image. No physical courage and no brute instinct can take the place of the Divine help which alone has sustained him. Others will debate the controversial issues, national and international, which divide men's minds; but serene, calm, aloof, Obasanjo stands as the Nation's war-guardian and lone voice, as its lifeguard from the raging tides of local and international conflict, as its gladiator in the arena of battle. For Two decades and a half , Obasanjo has defended, guarded, and protected Nigeria's hallowed traditions of liberty and freedom, of right and justice. Let the peoples voices argue the merits or demerits of your processes of government; whether our strength is being sapped by deficit financing, indulged in too long, by federal paternalism grown too mighty, by power groups grown too arrogant, by politics grown too corrupt, by crime grown too rampant, by morals grown too low, by taxes grown too high, by extremists grown too violent; whether our personal liberties are as thorough and complete as they should be. These great national problems have seen your professional touch and solutions. Your guidepost stands out like a ten-fold beacon in the night: Duty, Honor, Country.This you have achieved. I salute you great leader of men, I salute you man of war and peace, I salute you child of the motherland. May you continue to grow from good to great.
Garrick Kehinde Osemwengie. Politician/Public Analyst /Commentator.
Olusegun Obasanjo (born March 5, 1937) was President of Nigeria from 1999- 2007. A born-again Christian of Yoruba extraction, Obasanjo was a career soldier before serving twice as his nation's head of state, once as a military ruler, between 13 February 1976 and 1 October 1979 and again, 1999 - 2007 elected president of Nigeria.I cannot fail to pay tribute to a professional, whom have served so long, a people, a nation he loves so well,as it fills me with an emotion I cannot express. But this Tribute is not intended primarily to honor a personality, but to symbolize a great moral code -- the code of conduct and chivalry of a man whom have guarded this beloved land of culture and ancient descent Nigeria. That is the animation of this Tribute. For all eyes and for all time, it is an expression of the ethics of a Nigerian soldier, statesman and diplomat.
Obasanjo was born in Abeokuta, Ogun State, and he enlisted into the army at the age of 18. He trained at Aldershot and was commissioned as an officer. Although he did not directly participate in the military coup of July 29, 1975, led by Murtala Ramat Mohammed, he was named Murtala's deputy in the new government. When Mohammed was assassinated in an attempted coup in February 13 1976, Obasanjo replaced him as head of state. He served until October 1 1979, when he handed power to Shehu Shagari, a democratically elected civilian president, becoming the first leader in Nigerian history to surrender power willingly. In late 1983, however, the military seized power again. Obasanjo, being in retirement, did not participate in that coup, and did not approve of it.During the dictatorship of Sani Abacha (1993–1998), Obasanjo spoke out against the human rights abuses of the regime, and was imprisoned. He was released only after Abacha's sudden death on 8 June 1998. It was after his release from prison that Obasanjo announced that he was now a born-again Christian.In the 1999 elections, the first for sixteen years, he decided to run for the presidency as the candidate of the People's Democratic Party. Obasanjo won with 62.6 percent of the vote, sweeping the strongly Christian South-East and the predominantly Muslim north, but decisively lost his home region, the south-west, to his fellow-Yoruba and fellow-Christian, Olu Falae, the only other candidate. It is thought that lingering resentment among his fellow-Yorubas about his previous administration of 1976 to 1979, after which he handed power over to a government dominated by northerners rather than by Yorubas, contributed to his poor showing among his own people.
Obasanjo was handily re-elected in 2003 in a tumultuous election that had ethnic and religious overtones, his main opponent (fellow former military ruler General Muhammadu Buhari) being a Muslim who drew his support mainly from the north. Capturing 61.8 percent of the vote, Obasanjo defeated Buhari by more than 11 million votes. Buhari and other defeated candidates (including Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, the former Biafran leader of the 1960s), claimed that the election was fraudulent. International observers from the Commonwealth of Nations were more nuanced in their judgement. They concluded that while there had been incidents of fraud on both sides, Obasanjo's margin of victory was so huge that electoral malpractice would not have changed the result. Much more worrying was the increasing polarization of Nigeria along geographic and religious lines. Obasanjo made a spectacular sweep of the South, including the south-west where he had lost four years earlier, but lost considerable ground in the North. For a nation in which ethnicity and religion ties in strongly to geography, such a trend was seen by many as particularly disturbing. Other commentators might simply note that in 2003, unlike 1999, Obasanjo was running against a Northerner and could therefore expect his support to erode in the North. Olusegun Obasanjo is no doubt a political Colossos and an Enigma whose foot prints will remain forever in the sands of time. He will best be remembered for his non- tribal sentimental views and his great passionate love for his country Nigeria. Obasanjo spent most of his first term travelling abroad visiting mostly western countries. He claimed this was to polish the country image and re-establish the country to international scene after being battered and stained by the regime of Gen. Abacha. He succeeded in winning at least some Western support for strengthening Nigeria's nascent democracy. Britain and the United States, in particular, were glad to have an African ally who was openly critical of abuses committed in Robert Mugabe's Zimbabwe at a time when many other African nations (including South Africa) were taking a softer stance. Obasanjo also won international praise for Nigeria's role in crucial regional peacekeeping missions in Sierra Leone and Liberia. The international community was guided in its approach to Obasanjo in part by Nigeria's status as one of the world's 10 biggest oil exporters as well as by fears that, as the continent's most populous nation, Nigerian internal divisions risked negatively affecting the entire continent. His party, PDP, was established without him, as when he was called to contest the presidency he was languishing in prison. Thus he was not able to control the party in the direction he wanted. The party became its own opposition with various infighting.Although Obasanjo made fighting corruption the stated aim of his first term and managed to pass some anti-corruption laws, critics both at home and abroad accused him of doing too little to reign in the excesses, particularly among federal government ministers and state governors, many of which were widely publicized in the domestic and international press.Some of the public officials like the National Assembly speaker and Senate president were involved in conflicts with the president, who had to battle many impeachment. Since leading a public campaign against corruption and implementing economic reforms in his country, he has been widely seen abroad as an African statesman championing debt relief and democratic institutions (three times rejecting government change by coups d'état in Africa as the chairperson of the African Union). Obasanjo's second term was more effective than the first. He had been able to control the party and got effective support from the National Assembly. Many governors, mostly from his party, were either exposed or prosecuted for corruption. Some ministers and state officials were also dismissed or prosecuted for corruption. Also, the Senate President was removed at Obasanjo's insistence, after he had been exposed for receiving cash for budget approval from a minister. The country witnessed the trial and dismisal of senior Naval officers for corruption and similar faith for the chief of police. Some governors too were removed for corruption, though, some judges reversed some decision.He was able to attract technocrats and Nigerian expatriates to his administration. They were able to plan various reforms in the country administration. They made effective contribution to the country economic planning and development. Before Obasanjo's administration Nigeria's GDP growth had been painfully slow since 1987, and only managed 3% between 1999/2000. However, under Obasanjo the growth rate doubled to 6% until he left office, helped in part by higher oil prices. Nigeria's foreign reserves rose from $2 billion in 1999 to $43 billion on leaving office in 2007. He was able to secure debt pardons from the Paris and London club amounting to some $18 billion and paid another $18 Billion to be debt free. Most of these loans were secured and spent by past corrupt officials. In 2005 the international community gave Nigeria's government its first pass mark for its anti-corruption efforts. However, a growing number of critics within Nigeria have accused Obasanjo's government of selectively targeting his anti-corruption drive against political opponents and ethnic militants, ignoring growing concerns about wide-scale corruption within his own inner political circle. He has become chairman of the board of trustees of the PDP, from which position he can control nominations for governmental positions and even policy and strategy. In late April 2009, he drew public censure for comments made in Dutse, Jigawa State, to the effect that he had not been elected President for the purposes of expanding Nigeria's ailing infrastructure; his goal, rather, was to rescue her from the deep socio-political crisis into which she had plunged (which goal, he said, had been realised): "In 1999, Nigeria was not looking for a president that will build roads, fix poweror provide water; Nigeria was looking for a president that will hold Nigerians together. He also recalled that, on his ascension to power, someone told him that "I would be the last president of Nigeria. I asked him what did he mean by that, and he said there would not be Nigeria for which anybody will be a president again after me. That was how bad things were. We thank God that today those that are predicting human failure are proved to be wrong.This assertions were backed up by Sule Lamido, among others. Obasanjo is a member of the Africa Progress Panel (APP), an independent authority on Africa launched in April 2007 to focus world leaders' attention on delivering their commitments to the continent. Obasanjo was recently appointed Special Envoy by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon to the war-torn Democratic Republic of the Congo. He has held separate meetings with DRC President Joseph Kabila and rebel leader Laurent Nkunda. President Obasanjo hasnt failed to build courage when courage seems to fail, to regain faith when there seems to be little cause for faith, to create hope when hope becomes forlorn as in his recent call on his protege and successeor Umaru Yar' Dua to resign on moral grounds. Unhappily ,Obasanjo dosen't possess neither that eloquence of diction, that poetry of imagination, nor that brilliance of metaphor to tell all his good intentions for Nigeria ,coupled with his is very blunt and direct attitude to issues and his resolve to take Nigeria to the promise land without minding whose oarse is gored as his only bane. His lack of diplomatic finess and leaving entirely the control of the entire press to his opponents has contributed very greatly to Obasanjo's low public rating. The unbelievers will say My personal tributes are but words, but a slogan, but a flamboyant phrase. Every pedant, every demagogue, every cynic, every hypocrite, every Obasanjo critic and I am sorry to say, some others of an entirely different character, will try to downgrade this tribute, even to the extent of mockery and ridicule. Olusegun is proud and unbending in honest failure, but humble and gentle in success; not to substitute words for actions, not to seek the path of comfort, but to face the stress and spur of difficulty and challenge.Obasanjo stands up in the storm and also have compassion on those whom has fallen, as he has mastererd,himself before seeking to master others; he posses a heart that is clean, a goal that is high, has learnt to laugh, yet never forget how to weep,to reach into the future yet never neglected the past.Obasanjo is serious yet never takes himself too seriously, he is modest so that he wil be remembererd for the simplicity of true greatness, the open mind of his true wisdom, the meekness of his true strength which gives Obasanjo a temper of the will, a quality of his imagination, the vigor of his emotions, a freshness of the deep springs of his life, a temperamental predominance of courage over timidity, of an appetite for adventure over love of ease. These created in my heart and other Nigerians alike the sense of wonder, the unfailing hope of what next, and the joy and inspiration of life. Obasanjo's life attributes teaches us in this way to be an officer and a gentleman.He needs no eulogy from me or from any other man. He has written his own history and written it in red on his enemy's breast. But when I think of his patience under adversity, of his courage under fire, and of his modesty in victory, I am filled with an emotion of admiration I cannot put into words. Olusegun obasanjo, belongs to history as furnishing one of the greatest examples of successful patriotism. He belongs to posterity as the instructor of future generations in the principles of liberty and freedom. He belongs to the present, to us, by his virtues and by his achievements. In 3 succesive terms as Head of state and president,campaigns, on the battlefields, around a thousand campfires, Obasanjo has arousen that enduring fortitude, that patriotic self-abnegation, and that invincible determination which have carved his statue in the hearts of his people Nigeria. From one end of the world to the other he has drained deep the chalice of courage.The soldier in Obasanjo, above all other men, is required to practice the greatest act of religious training -- sacrifice.In battle and political field,and in the face of danger and death, he discloses those divine attributes which his Maker gave when he created man in his own image. No physical courage and no brute instinct can take the place of the Divine help which alone has sustained him. Others will debate the controversial issues, national and international, which divide men's minds; but serene, calm, aloof, Obasanjo stands as the Nation's war-guardian and lone voice, as its lifeguard from the raging tides of local and international conflict, as its gladiator in the arena of battle. For Two decades and a half , Obasanjo has defended, guarded, and protected Nigeria's hallowed traditions of liberty and freedom, of right and justice. Let the peoples voices argue the merits or demerits of your processes of government; whether our strength is being sapped by deficit financing, indulged in too long, by federal paternalism grown too mighty, by power groups grown too arrogant, by politics grown too corrupt, by crime grown too rampant, by morals grown too low, by taxes grown too high, by extremists grown too violent; whether our personal liberties are as thorough and complete as they should be. These great national problems have seen your professional touch and solutions. Your guidepost stands out like a ten-fold beacon in the night: Duty, Honor, Country.This you have achieved. I salute you great leader of men, I salute you man of war and peace, I salute you child of the motherland. May you continue to grow from good to great.
Garrick Kehinde Osemwengie. Politician/Public Analyst /Commentator.
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