IN a statement entitled “Points for Concern and Action”, released last Sunday by former president Olsuegun Obasanjo, Nigerians were once again roused to fury over their political condition. The main target was of course President Muhammadu Buhari. Chief Obasanjo is not only incorrigible, he is also characteristically undeterred by abuse, persuasion, or any range of human emotions and feelings. This may explain why he has once again viciously taken on President Buhari, the main target of his fulminations. This time, like he did in January 2018, the former president avoided his usual epistolary. Perhaps he sees letter writing as unduly restrictive. His open statement style may not be elegant, with many of his paragraphs turgid and winding, but he manages very importantly to get his message through, particularly to his target audience. That is probably all that matters to him as he snickers behind the door at the anger his conclusions have triggered.
His latest statement has undoubtedly not been well received. In fact, this time, critics have been terribly unsparing and unrelenting. Few have reached for his principal arguments. Indeed, most have deployed his words mercilessly against his lifestyle and leadership. Whatever abuse and counsel he deployed against President Buhari, critics suggest he is even guiltier. But they misunderstand the man. Except for a few narcissistic moments, Chief Obasanjo does not recommend his life as a model of political or social rectitude. Though he professes religion with the affected dogmatism of a convent habitué, he however prefers to hide behind the joyous secularism of his bohemian years, years when his taste in luxury and women found unnatural symphony. He counsels on great leadership, having studied and imbibed a few lessons on the subject, but his irresistible bucolic passion finds accommodation in earthy, eclectic and undisciplined approach to governance.
Such a man will not be incommoded by critics who lambast him for preaching what he does not believe and never hopes to put into practice. It is his nature, his split personality, his eternal anchor in the midst of terrible storms. When he raged against President Buhari in January 2018, he did not receive a great welcome, for he wrote with poignancy on the mounting failings of a lethargic president. But when he roared again last week, critics were even less tolerant. If his presumptuous sermons resonated a little last year, his homilies this year have grated badly on the stretched nerves of an electorate infuriated by the absence of alternatives. Unable to settle the precedence between President Buhari and former vice president Atiku Abubakar, those who hope to vote in February, or whenever the elections would hold, are sickened to their bones, feeling damned if they vote and damned if they don’t.
Substantially, Chief Obasanjo addresses five or six issues in his considerably wordy press statement. Of the six or so, maybe two or three deserve any attention. But regardless of his foibles, it is important to pay attention to his denunciations, if by any means a few lessons could be learned, and a few warnings heeded in order to avoid the pitfalls and tragedies poor choices have sentenced Nigerians for decades. Last year, this column joined the few who insisted that the country must learn to disentangle Chief Obasanjo’s person from his sometimes convoluted wise counsel, an apparent misfit as a leader from the rich experiences and personal tragedies of his own making. The same approach must be adopted in tackling his recent admonitions, an tedious task certain to generate controversy.
Chief Obasanjo speaks about his concerns for free and fair elections, President Buhari’s incompetence, the government’s economic policies, particularly the tradermoni deal, and finally a deconstruction of President Buhari as a person and leader. The vice president’s office, which oversees what some people called the tradermoni boondoggle, has been impatient with the former president, describing him as ignorant and grossly mistaken. However, even if he is painfully short on panaceas, Chief Obasanjo is not hyperbolic in describing the president as a virtual illiterate in economic matters.
The former president is lampooned also for his gratuitous advice on democracy. “This is a time for vigilance to fight to safeguard our votes and defend our democracy,” he sermonises. “The price of liberty and sustenance of our democracy is eternal vigilance and appropriate reaction to ward off iniquities. We must all be ready to pay that price and not relying on hollow words of callousness. The derailment of Nigerian democracy will be a monumental disaster comparable to the disaster of the Nigerian first military coup.” Critics remind him of his own appalling record in that department. They are right. But he is also right to alert Nigerians to the dangers their democracy faces, despite his reluctance to profit from his own counsel.
Aides of the president will blanch at Chief Obasanjo’s description of their man as full of contradictions and archaisms. The words the former president uses are truly wounding. Hear him: “It is no use, at this juncture, to keep lamenting about the failure, incompetence, divisiveness, nepotism, encouragement and condonation of corruption by Buhari administration, as there is neither redeeming feature nor personality to salvage the situation within that hierarchy. You cannot give what you don’t have.” But the self-righteous Chief Obasanjo is just a tad better. However, his dismissive characterisation of President Buhari is dead on target.
It is impossible not to admire Chief Obasanjo for anticipating President Buhari on the judiciary, the third arm of government that has left the government befuddled. Says Chief Obasanjo: “President Buhari and his hatchet men in the coming election think that the judiciary must be primed in their favour. Hence, the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Walter Samuel Nkanu Onnoghen, has been harassed and prosecuted for non-declaration of his assets without following the Constitution and the law, just to make him conform or set him aside for a Buhari man to take over or act, since President Buhari and his people believe no stone should be left unturned to rig Buhari in. It seems to be a ploy to intimidate the judiciary as a whole in preparation for all election cases that will go before them. Where and how will all these stop?…” It beggars belief how President Buhari always proves Chief Obasanjo right.
Finally, Chief Obasanjo psychoanalyses the president. Quoting former associates of the president, he suggests that President Buhari is “inflexible, insincere, dubious, intolerant, never accepts responsibility when things go wrong, and impervious to reason and advice for change…Even when figures, facts and statistics are made clear to Buhari, he keeps repeating what is untrue, either because he cannot understand or for mischief purposes and that places him on the level of a pathological liar”. Quoting another former associate, Chief Obasanjo also agrees that the president “brazenly displays incompetence, insensitivity and irresponsiveness by delusional party, CPC, leadership at all levels”.
And then this sensational summary where he likens President Buhari to the late military dictator, Sani Abacha. “What is happening under Buhari’s watch can be likened to what we witnessed under Gen. Sani Abacha in many ways…Buhari’s scheme bears eloquent testimony to this road similar to Abacha whom he has praised to high heavens…It is clear from all indications that Buhari is putting into practice the lessons he learned from Abacha. Buhari has intimidated and harassed the private sector, attacked the National Assembly, and now unconstitutionally and recklessly attacked and intimidated the Judiciary to cow them to submission…Today, another Abacha era is here. The security institutions are being misused to fight all critics and opponents of Buhari and to derail our fledgling democracy. EFCC, Police and Code of Conduct Tribunal are also being equally misused to deal with those Buhari sees as enemies for criticising him or those who may not do his bidding in manipulating election results. Criticism, choice and being different are inherent trademark of democracy. If democracy is derailed or aborted, anarchy and authoritarianism will automatically follow.”
You may not like Chief Obasanjo, and indeed he is truly execrable in so many aspects. But it cannot be denied that he spoke some powerful truths. Let the Buhari presidency not deceive itself that Chief Obasanjo’s execrableness absolves it of blame for the many horrendous actions it has taken against democracy.
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