President Obasanjo, take responsibility… or take a seat

Obasanjo

THERE has been much hullabaloo over former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s autobiography, titled ‘My Watch’. The exhaustive autobiographical three-volume book, contains several national issues from past to present, chronicling the life of the former president from birth till date. The book has presently aroused political interest, by its unflattering portrait of the current president. The former president via the book accused the current president of surrounding himself with aides and political associates with corrupt tendencies; dedicating several parts in the book to pointing out some of President Jonathan’s actions and inactions Obasanjo considers ill-advised or disastrous for Nigeria and several instances of policy somersaults by Mr. Jonathan as well as deliberate actions by the incumbent president that have imperiled Nigeria’s progress. The book also took swipes at former President Umaru Yar’Adua, former Vice President Abubakar Atiku, Bukola Saraki, among other political foes.

In the book, the former president also stated that he was never interested in pursuing a third term while in office. The book has undoubtedly attracted a lot of acclaim and criticisms respectively, the latest being a court order for copies of the book to be confiscated by the police, DSS and the customs; also restraining media houses from publishing excerpts from the book.

As a citizen of this great nation of ours, the former president has every right to air his views in a verbal or written form, or whatever means available at his disposal. Under Chapter IV of the Nigerian constitution, every citizen has the “right to freedom of expression and the press”. As a former president and an elder statesman, Obasanjo has every right and is entitled to his own views, pointing out certain anomalies within the polity which he feels should be addressed. As a two-time president, he has an obligation to speak out when and if he feels the nation’s present leadership is erring in its policies, actions or inactions. However, this is increasingly becoming the norm with Nigerian leaders, in that, as soon as they vacate office, they castigate, find faults and point accusing fingers at their successors.

In most cases, these former leaders have ample opportunities in creating a positive and vibrant long-lasting legacy while in office, but mostly fail to do so; consequently blaming their woes on their successors. Another appalling norm widely practiced in our clime is “godfatherism”. As soon as incumbents cease to dance to the tunes of their godfathers or cease to be puppets in the hands of their puppeteers, all hell is let loose; the godfathers and puppeteers begin finding faults and become vociferous, chastising their successors at every available opportunity.

In his book, the former president supposedly “revealed” how late president Yar’Adua deceived him about the gravity of his illness, which he never recovered from till he died in office. Obasanjo maintained that the late Yar’Adua gave him the impression that he had overcome his health challenges. Needless to say, this sounds preposterous, as it was a well-known fact that President Yar’Adua was periodically ill while he was governor of Katsina state.

It is also a widely known fact that Obasanjo was instrumental to late Yar’Adua ascension to the presidency. From all the other capable and fit candidates for the presidency in 2007, President Obasanjo took it upon his merry self to choose who would rule after him. There were 35 other governors and so many other capable Nigerians, which the former president could have chosen from. But he made his choice and opted for an ailing candidate. The former president erred in his action of single-handedly making the choice that was the fundamental right of 170- million Nigerians. He deliberately imposed the Yar’Adua candidacy on Nigerians, evident in the highly controversial 2007 general elections which saw the emergence of Yar’Adua as president, viewed by local and foreign observers as one of the worst elections they had ever seen anywhere in the world, with “rampant vote rigging, violence, theft of ballot boxes and intimidation”. This was also acknowledged by the Late Yar’Adua on assumption of office. Honestly, it beggars belief that President Obasanjo is now crying over the tank of milk that he spilt himself. Not then, nor now does President Obasanjo have any moral right to play the victim, accusing the late president of deceiving him about his health, when he failed to oversee a free, fair and credible election which brought the ailing president into office.

Just when one though that President Obasanjo’s bellowing couldn’t get any worse, one is confronted with the his alarming declaration of who was responsible for the third term agenda. With regards to that infamous agenda bid in the twilight of his presidency and in a manner reminiscent and common with African leaders who never want to quit office, the former president in a curious twist in his book stated that “selfish PDP governors were behind the third-term agenda”. He accused the former governors of masterminding the plot to extending his tenure in office. This is indeed a laughable excuse and a pathetic attempt at absolving himself of blame. It would be difficult and almost impossible to convince anyone that the former president played no part in seeking tenure elongation while in office. The same unashamedly ploy has and is still paying out in different African countries. The former president should indeed own up and accept responsibility for the state the nation is currently in today. The death of President Yar’Adua in 2010 (Obasanjo’s anointed candidate), paved the way for current President Goodluck Jonathan who was then vice-president to become acting president and now president.

Ultimately, the former president cannot extricate himself from the responsibility of inadvertently sponsoring President Jonathan’s rise to political prominence and the Presidency. Why crying foul now when you had an invincible but efficacious hand in the current’s president’s rise to power? As a former president for 8-years, while his administration had its merits, amongst the demerits includes the legacy of “do or die” political atmosphere and the failure to adequately tackle corruption; salient national issues still plaguing our nation hitherto. There are few challenges that this nation is going through presently which do not have a direct link to choices that President Obasanjo single handedly made for all of us. So instead of huffing and puffing, sulking & throwing out the bath water, while he continues to spill secrets of the Obasanjogate era, I’m respectfully going to ask President Obasanjo to take responsibility or…. Take a seat!

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