My view on Obasanjo’s letter

 Former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s letter to President Muhammadu Buhari has generated reactions from Nigerians. Based on this, I will also avail myself of this opportunity to add my voice.

In the letter, Obasanjo advised the president not to contest in the 2019 general elections; that he should go home and rest for underperformance.

In the first place, if this man is advising Buhari on medical grounds, we don’t know Obasanjo as a medical personnel. If he is talking from economic view point, that PMB is unable to extricate the country from the recession, then for his information, we are now out of it based on international assessment, and even if it is so, it was his protégé who plunged the country into the situation.

Nigerians should not be surprised by Obasanjo’s letter: he is fond of writing letters. It seems he derives pleasure from such behaviour. He wrote such letters to almost all the heads of state in this country since 1974. He had been yearning and longing to rule this country since then, but he was not opportuned until 1976 when General Murtala Ramat Mohammed was assassinated.

He wrote to Shehu Shagari, Muhammadu Buhari, Ibrahim Babangida and even Ernest Shonekan who spent only six months in power. He wrote to Sani Abacha, but Abacha did not take it lightly. He cautioned him. Abacha found him guilty of a conspiracy to topple the government. He was imprisoned for an offence which was supposed to carry the supreme punishment. When he became president between in 1999, he continued with his work of writing such letters. After his tenure in 1997 he wrote to President Umaru Yar’dua despite the fact that he was the one who brought him. Yar’adua died in his presidency and was succeeded by Goodluck Jonathan, another of his protégés. He wrote to Jonathan and now he has written to Buhari again.

Obasanjo seems to be addicted to power. He tried this with the third term project but failed. He feels he is the only appropriate person to rule Nigeria. If Obasanjo were like Buhari who held many exalted positions in this country and came out free of any mismanagement, how would he see himself?

Ironically, even with the dust of the letter yet to settle, President Muhammadu Buhari was honoured with a precious and noble award by the African Union (AU) on January 27, 2018, in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, in the presence of Obasanjo.

Obasanjo assumed office as military head of state in 1976, his first assignment was to reduce the range of coverage of Radio Kaduna which was established by Sir Ahmadu Bello (Sardauna) then Premier of Northern Nigeria.  That action prompted some prominent northern leaders like Malam Aminu Kano to react. Captain Usman Jibrin, the then military Governor of Kaduna State resigned and retired. It was also during his time that the nasty and awful event of ‘Ali Must Go’ occurred. That was when police killed many students of ABU Zaria and some were expelled.

Obasanjo’s salary and allowances cannot give him Ota farm. Therefore, he should explain to Nigerians how he came about it. This controversial person, one time called the members of the National Assembly a cabal.

At this juncture I will pose the following questions to Chief Obasanjo. Who started bribing National Assembly members with Ghana Must Go? Who made them a cabal? Nigeria started borrowing money from IMF during his era in the 70’s. When he came to power in 1999, he retired many men from the Nigerian army under the pretext that they were like politicians because they had held political positions.

However, this exercise affected one part of the country more than the other. During his tenure a lot of weapons were moved from some parts to other parts of the country. Up to now, we don’t know the reason.

Some people glorify Obasanjo because he handed over power to Shagari voluntarily. If this is the case, others also had done so before him in Africa: Julius Nyerere of Tanzania, Keneth Kaunda of Zambia, Jerry Rawlings of Ghana, Nelson Mandela of South Africa and our own General Abdulsalami. Then what is special in Obasanjo? To my knowledge he did nothing extraordinary. What are his achievements which others do not have? Little wonder when Obama became the President of USA, he invited only Buhari and Mandela from Africa.

It is pertinent to mention that no Nigerian ever wrote to Obasanjo throughout his tenures as a military or civilian head of state.

In conclusion, it is not Obasanjo’s right to ask Buhari to go home, but it is Nigerians’ for they are those who brought him to power by the wish of Allah. Obasanjo retrenched and laid off great number of workers during his tenure, who are still suffering, despite the fact that during that time the price of oil was very high. Obasanjo always finds fault and defect in others while he thinks he is the only perfect one.

Therefore, all the options provided by Obasanjo are not the solution to our problems. The vicious plague or pestilence that is bedevilling Nigeria is corruption. As such, we should all support PMB to succeed in his anti-corruption crusade.

I urge Nigerians to read the letter written by Iyabo, Obasanjo’s daughter, to her father, to know who Obasanjo is.

Prof.  Nguru is the Chief Executive of Nigeria Arabic Village, Ngala 08066163910