New Telegraph

President Obasanjo’s last card on Nigeria

President Olusegun Obasanjo’s life is intertwined with the formation and development of Nigeria as a country, and for this reason both (country and citizen) share similarities and dissimilarities or divergence which are easily cognizable. Britain formed Nigeria out of “tears, sorrows and blood.”

The instrument used to achieve the conquest and formation of Nigeria was the “armed forces” provided by the Britain directly and indirectly by public and private military resources as epitomized by British monarch’s regiments and Goldie’s Royal Niger Company’s constabulary transformed into West African Frontier Force from which the Nigerian Armed Forces originated.

Obasanjo as a general of the Nigerian Armed Forces was recruited under colonial rule to sustain the colonial rule and maintain the existence of Nigeria as a British creation both as a country and a British neocolonial facility. President Obasanjo as a citizen and soldier fulfilled those British intentions for Nigeria when he alongside the faction of the Nigerian armed forces from 1966-1970 played pivotal roles to preserve the idea of a country and invariably sustained British intention of having Nigeria as a neocolonial state amenable to it’s influence/control.

President Obasanjo, of all the Generals that have bestridden Nigeria is unarguably the most educated, most intelligent, and most patriotic and possessed of uncanny ability to manage politics and statesmanship. Wole Soyinka testifying to Obasanjo’s greatness at the height of his travails under General Abacha declared that whatever Abacha was could not be greater than the “dirt” in Obasanjo’s fingernail. As a patriot, President Obasanjo has paid his dues having fought in the Biafra War, first as the commanding officer in Western State that frustrated Col. Victor Banjo’s blitzkrieg to seize Western Region and overthrow both Generals Gowon and Ojukwu and restore Nigeria according to Banjo’s group’s desires.

Second, when Brigadier-General Benjamin Adekunle grew tired of the Biafra War, after visiting Lagos and perceiving that certain class of Nigerians soldiers was living big and dreaming dreams of having unquestionable control of Nigeria during and after the war, he (Adekunle) grumbled and got disillusioned which earned him a sack to be replaced with Obasanjo who took command of the 3rd Marine Command and concluded the war. Obasanjo took the instrument of surrender from the Republic of Biafra.

So, those excoriating Obasanjo over his exercise of right to choice of political options should know from which angle he is coming and going. General Obasanjo as a soldier/politician/statesman has ruled Nigeria as a Military Head of State and as a democratically elected President and his statesmanship transcends the world beyond Nigeria and Africa.

So, who are these politicians questioning the right of this great man to guide his nation to the right path? President Obasanjo’s Letter (My Appeal to All Nigerians Particularly Young Nigerians) delivered on New Year (01/01/2023) was like his previous letters a bombshell and it shattered many vested interests’ expectations.

Recall that the frontrunners in the 2023 presidential election have visited him soliciting support for their ambitions. Most dramatic of the visitations were those of Asiwaju Bola Tinubu who went with a strong delegation of Yoruba Elder’s and Obasanjo led him by hand into his parlour like a kid and after the visit; Femi Gbajabiamila boasted that Obasanjo had endorsed Tinubu which claim drew a sharp rebuttal. PDP’s Atiku/Okowa delegation visited Obasanjo but instead of endorsement was allegedly slammed with a stamp of “betrayal” of national cause.

Why do these political principalities rage and imagine vain things over the innocuous message this great statesman has made to his fellow compatriots? Have these politicians taken time to read the message and appreciate the verities? This Obasanjo’s letter ranks as one of the best so far written as it can best be described as his last card on Nigeria nudging it to steer a course leading to life instead of death. Every sincere Nigerian knows that all the problems besetting Nigeria are throes of revolutionary pressure or social change or even pangs of death.

But Nigerian politicians are ignorant of this situation hence their blustering dismissal of Nigerians’ difficult conditions and boasts of retaining and continuing with the decadent system. Knowing of the consequence of this politicians’ dance of death, Obasanjo has intervened to guide Nigerians especially young Nigerians who have been leaving Nigeria (“japa”) in droves to escape the envisaged Armageddon or National Catastrophe that lurks after 2023, to stay back, fight with their votes to reclaim Nigeria and make it a desired polity for their inheritance.

So, what offence has Obasanjo committed in making his political choices public? Were these politicians not the same APC led by Tinubu in 2015 that applauded Obasanjo’s endorsement of General Buhari? So, what has changed between 2015 and now? Obasanjo’s endorsement of Atiku/Peter Obi in 2019, enraged Tinubu to mount soapbox to dismiss Obasanjo as “useless” but scurried back to Obasanjo in 2022 for endorsement.

This Obasanjo’s letter is perhaps the best so far, crafted tactically and logically. He acknowledged the difficult history of Nigeria of which he played a part but concluded that Buhari’s misgovernance plunged Nigeria from frying pan to fire. This irked Buhari Presidency to react angrily. Obasanjo did not claim innocence in the Nigerian conundrum.

No he attributed it to all Nigerians but counsels Nigerians especially young Nigerians to seize the opportunity of 2023 electoral season to take over Nigeria and transform it into a “better future – future of liberation, restoration and great hope and expectation.” Obasanjo also attacked the sense of entitlement of Nigerian politicians whose claim of personal right to leadership through the false narrative of Tinubu’s ‘emilokan’ and others’ “I have paid my dues” were all misplaced attitude/ mentality to leadership which cannot lead to a reinvention and rebuilding of Nigeria on egalitarian and democratic basis.

To him that attitude to leadership is at best feudal and autocratic. The youths should rather assert their collective claim to Nigeria and its leadership on the basis of shared visions and praxis on the pedestal of “Awalokan.” Many people may not appreciate that Obasanjo’s letter is suffused with patriotic postulates as he counsels the youth not to thread the mistaken path their parents took that landed Nigeria in the present mess. That trodden path was the path of ethnic, religious and political intolerance that manifested in the Western Region Crises, Tiv Riots, 1966 Coups, Pogroms, Civil War which have engendered OPC, Egbesu, MASSOB, IPOB, Boko Haram, and Banditry. To Obasanjo, no Nigerian or group can claim innocence in the past problem and their present manifestations.

This advice by Obasanjo is at the heart of Nigeria’s problem of achieving nationhood as a political tendency in Nigeria has taken it as its agenda to exclude the Igbo at the apex of Nigeria leadership organogram by touting the false claims that the Igbo cannot be trusted with leadership. But those that have been trusted with Nigerian leadership what did they do with it other than nepotistic and corrupt rulership that made Nigeria a turbulent, corrupt and povertystricken country, the ‘Sick Man of Africa’. Concluding his letter, Obasanjo declared that each of the four leading candidates claims him as mentor, and weighing in on certain parameters centred on “track record of ability and performance; vision that is authentic, honest and realistic; character and attributes of lady and gentleman who are children of God and obedient to God; physical and mental capability and soundness of mind …” as the job of a president is arduous especially given Nigerians present parlous condition, and knowing that no human being is perfect or can claim messiahship, and endorsed Mr. Peter Obi as his preferred choice for President.

According to him, Mr. Obi compared to the four contestants, has an “edge in character, antecedent, their understanding, knowledge, discipline and vitality” that can be brought to bear on the office of President. Above all, Obi has good mentors from North and South he can listen to without getting lost to the howling hordes of tribalists and religious bigots. Obasanjo’s endorsement of Peter Obi is not without empirical data. As Governor of diseased and distracted Anambra State after decades of misgovernance, Peter Obi reclaimed and governed the state on the template of Millennial Development Goals thereby making it the best governed state in Nigeria posting the best educational attainments in WAEC and verifiable socio-economic progress.

So, President Obasanjo is right in endorsing Peter Obi and I think he is doing this conscious of the fact that this national duty is his very last card on Nigeria. As he said, 2023 may be Nigerians’ last chance to repossess and steer Nigeria on the path of transformation into a modern nation-state founded on truth, justice, democracy and freedom.

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