In a letter dated September 22, former president Goodluck Jonathan had informed former president Olusegun Obasanjo that he would be setting up the Goodluck Jonathan Foundation in the third quarter of 2016. Through the Foundation, said Dr Jonathan, according to Premium Times, “I will be devoting the rest of my life and energy to making the world a better place. I am currently finalizing efforts to set up The Goodluck Jonathan Foundation…As I start this new phase of my life of renewed service to humanity, I look forward to your continuous support, counsel and cooperation.”
Unimpressed, and rather than give good-natured counsel and statesmanlike admonition, Chief Obasanjo offered a condescending reply to Dr Jonathan in October. “I hope you also had time to reflect and see what lessons you have learned and what you can bequeath to others…Maybe seeking how to be better and more serviceable to the nation and humanity is also a form of penitence and soul-searching to give conscience a relief and to show remorse.”
It is not only the sanctimoniousness of Chief Obasanjo that is offensive, even his English is sometimes either convoluted or wounding, never quite as accessible and agreeable as that of Dr Jonathan whom he has made relentless effort to disparage since he publicly fell out with him sometime in 2013. There is no pleasing Chief Obasanjo. His enemies, if they are wise, should either fight him to the last, or never fight him at all. Dr Jonathan should have learnt that lesson after relating with this gruff and surly ex-president for nearly eight years.
In his scornful reply, Chief Obasanjo asks Dr Jonathan to do soul-searching and exhibit remorse. For 11 years Chief Obasanjo ruled Nigeria, a period broken into two undistinguished eras. After many books, however, there is not one instance and no record, private or public, where he showed remorse or did soul-searching. In his own conceited and self-satisfied view, Chief Obasanjo is a repository of all knowledge, and he is both infallible and incomparable. Yet he ruled Nigeria so badly for more than a decade, fibbed and blustered his way to questionable prominence, fouled and weakened the country’s foundations, dislocated its bureaucracy, and distorted its future and destiny. And the same man is mocking another ex-president for public failure.
Chief Obasanjo may have lied about his third term ambition, and has shown none of the remorse he is casually recommending to Dr Jonathan; but he is not alone in this annoying display of self-righteousness. No Nigerian ruler since independence has done any reflection capable of engendering remorse. They all have the bad company of one another to keep, reinforce and be inspired by.