There is a new Obasanjo (OBJ) in town.
Don’t get me wrong. As far as I know, the former military Head of State and two-term elected President has not sired another offspring lately in or outside the curriculum. To be sure, his born-againism is not all encompassing, as he once, with a mirthful wink, cautioned a friend who expressed surprise that he had not reined in his roving eye. But, to be fair to OBJ, he has been minding his own business.
If you can get close enough to ask how he is doing, he is unlikely to respond, “I dey like I no dey.” On a good day, he will rejoin rather expansively, “I dey kampe.” On a different kind of day, he will still give the same response, but perhaps with a hint of impatience. But all in all, what you will get is the unvarnished OBJ.
Much to the relief of Aso Rock, he may not have fired off any missives lately. But that doesn’t mean that he has given up that line of penmanship entirely. Get him worked up, and you will get a dose of what he gave President Goodluck Jonathan the other day.
Meanwhile, even as he rests that bracing pen, he has found other ways of registering his disdain. He never misses an opportunity to excoriate a certain person in high public office whose solemn word, given not once but twice, counts for nothing. The OBJ who is as blunt as a punch to the nose has not changed a whit.
He rarely introduces himself these days in a self-deprecatory tone as a chicken farmer. Nor are you likely to find him holding court at his sprawling Ota Farm. But he still takes great pride in farming.
True, he has stayed away from leadership selection and recruitment in the PDP. Having single-handedly made and un-made six party chairmen, he has earned his rest. Still whenever he sneezes, they catch cold at Wadata Plaza, all the way to Aso Rock. So, this is not about OBJ without clout.
Nor has there been any indication of a change in his approach to conflict resolution. At one point, the chimurenga, or war of resistance, against the racist white minority regime, was not going well because of personality and ideological differences between the two protagonists, Robert Mugabe and Joshua Nkomo. This conflict stood in the way of the support that Obasanjo was eager to provide, in keeping with Nigeria’s Afrocentric foreign policy.
So, the story goes, Obasanjo invited them to Lagos, put them in a room, gave each of them a loaded pistol and said he would be back in 30 minutes to embrace whoever survives the shootout and mobilise Nigeria’s support behind him. Whereupon, he locked the door and departed.
Thus was born the uneasy collaboration between Mugabe and Nkomo that led to the Lancaster House talks, and ultimately to Zimbabwe’s independence.
Obasanjo has not changed to the point that you could count on him not to try that formula or a variation thereof between Salva Kiir Mayardit and his estranged vice president Riek Machar during his coming assignment as Africa Union Mediator in the South Sudan conflict.
Nor is there any indication that the new OBJ will flinch from giving any person the Savimbi treatment if that is what the situation calls for. Savimbi, you will recall, was until his death in combat the leader of the South Africa-backed rebel UNITA army in Angola. I will never forget how, at a chance meeting over lunch with Togolese President Gnasssingbe Eyadema in Lomé, Obasanjo rounded on him.
“Jonas,” Obasanjo said, calling the guerrilla chieftain by his first name, “I proceed from the principle that my enemy’s friend is my enemy. South Africa is Africa’s enemy. You are South Africa’s friend. Therefore, you are Africa’s enemy.”
That Obasanjo is alive and well.
What then does Obasanjo’s newness consist in?
The newness is to be found in his wardrobe. To finally come right out with it, I am here calling attention to the new, sartorially improved Obasanjo.
Time was when he went all over the place in nondescript clothes that seemed to have been made by a journeyman carpenter. Never crumpled, to be sure, but seldom remarkable. He would never have won a prize for excellent grooming even if he was the only candidate.
That is no hyperbole, believe me. I was myself once sole candidate several decades ago for a technical position at a Lagos brewery, and had been assured that the job was mine for the taking. The interview was a formality, conducted to fulfill all righteousness. Yet I did not get the job.
To return to Obasanjo: He cared passionately about policy and programmes and national unity and how to make Nigeria great, and still does. But about his tailoring, his personal grooming, he did not give a damn. Not even the stylish and delectable Stella Obasanjo, of fond memory, could move him to mend his unprepossessing tailoring.
And he expected his children to be just as indifferent to matters sartorial. He was genuinely surprised that I was not scandalised when he told me of how one of his young sons had asked him in the time of structural adjustment for all of N25 to buy just a pair of underpants. “On what waist was he going to wear such finery?” he asked in astonishment.
He was even more astonished when I told him that his son was probably settling for the cheapest stuff in the market and that the young man would be lucky it held together for three months.
Today, going by his official age of 77years, Obasanjo has got rank among be the best-groomed men of his generation. If you add five years to that official age, as I have reason to do, you would have to bracket him with the venerable pioneer merchant banker Otunba Subomi Balogun and the senior attorney Lateef Olufemi Okunnu as leading exemplars of sartorial elegance in the ranks of the nation’s octogenarians.
These days, you have to look very closely not to mistake Obasanjo for the younger, unfailingly dapper Aremo Olusegun Osoba. Gone from his wardrobe for the most part are the colourful adire ensembles with the perfunctory embroidery, the nondescript cap that sat jauntily on his head, and the reading glasses that seem to have been purchased from a street vendor at Anthony Bus Stop in Lagos.
Now, you are more likely to see him decked out in fetching, made-to-measure, tastefully embroidered ensembles cut from the finest fabrics, matching caps that have character and designer eye-wear, all colour-coordinated to produce a visual delight. Everything about the new OBJ bespeaks superior grooming
Look no farther than any of his recent pictures for the new, sartorially improved OBJ. See how he stands out resplendent in all his new elegance in the picture of former heads of state as they were being presented with the Nigeria Centenary Medal in Abuja the other day.
The credit for this stunning turn-around belongs unquestionably to his consort Bola, herself a lady of great chic. How did she get Obasanjo who never gave a damn about such matters to submit to her Transformation Agenda?
