Obviously, all men shall go, the brooks shall remain, but posterity will never forget the goose that laid the golden or the rotten eggs.That is the summary of my piece today on the man called *Olusegun Okikiola Aremu Obasanjo!*
Of course, he does not need too much introduction as his several ugly and otherwise precedences speaks volume for him.
Obasanjo is an undiluted Owu man that lives without any need to separate him from the true practice of his ancestral *genealogical praise (oriki)* that says;
*The Owus hardly revenge but would never stop referring to the past deeds done for or against him/her forever! (Awon Owu kii ranro, awi menu kuro niti Owu.*
Simply put, an Owu person, though hardly go on direct revenge, but so long as he lives would forever talk about the deeds of others against him/her. Then, I asked; is it not better to revenge and forget the past misdemeanours of others than to continuously opening the past wounds, which is the same as seeking revenge?
From his younger days, records have it that Obasanjo never forgets nor forgives, not only his critics but whoever he perseves would better his records. Typical of him, he would seize any opportunity to disparage his perceived equals or someone he thinks that is proving to be better than him. To him, he is the only best amongst equals despite his many private and public flaws. Obasanjo never forgives nor forgets the critism of others against him and would stop at nothing to take a pound of flesh. Unfortunately, people like him are always in a rush to rubish others, albeit, publicly. His likes are always quick to forgets their own evil deeds and that posterity always embedded in history, records of their own misdeeds too on the sand of time.
For example, in 1979, as many may recall, during the presidential campaign in 1979, when the late Sage, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, pledged to investigate the loss of #2 billion oil reserve fund in the Nigeria World Bank account, which disappeared into the thin air when Obasanjo was the Head of State. For that singular pronouncement, Obasanjo ensured that *the best President Nigeria never had,* according to late Chief Odumegwu Ojukwu, in his condolence message written after the demise of Chief Awolowo, Obasanjo ensured that Awolowo was rigged out as the winner of the 1979 election.
Well, not long after handing over power to his preferred candidate, the reverend late Alh. Shehu Shagari, Obasanjo was the first to publicly castigate the man when he said that the austerity measures introduced by the late President's administration *did not have a human face.* Nigerians never forgot that statement and it is still very fresh in the memories of people like us any way.
Then came the Buhari/Idiagbon regime. Obasanjo was also in the forefront of those who criticized the administration as been too harsh and non-responsive.
Of course, General Ibrahim Babangida was not equally spared and he was even threatened with a probe on the N$12 billion oil windfall purportedly said to be missing under IBB when the man staged a come-back to power under democratic dispensation, which OBJ saw as an affront to challenge him in electoral contest in 2003.
Before then, Obasanjo lampooned late Chief Abiola in an interview in South Africa shortly after the man's mandate was annuled in 1993 and Abiola was incarcerated for attempting to reclaim his mandate, saying that Abiola was not the Messaiah the country needed at that time to safe it from its economic and other woes. Indeed, Obasanjo did everything within his powers to ensure that every memory about Chief Abiola and his free and fair mandate was rubisshed into the dusbin of history. But *God pass man* as we say in local pallance and today, June 12th has become the country's democracy day, whether the likes of Obasanjo likes it or not. Ooh-bii (😭)
Not long after, he took his luck too far when he berated Gen. Sanni Abacha with his usual criticism and was jailed though he was lucky to come out alive thereafter.
Yet, Obasanjo is a leopard that can never change its skin. He later took on Umar Yar'Adua, whom he single-handedly picked and installed as President and publicly named him *Baba Go-slow.*
Obasanjo then became a letter writer. He wrote several letters publicly criticising the then President Goodluck Jonathan. Ditto was his action against President Mohammadu Buhari who took over from Jonathan. Indeed, while Buhari was in power, Obasanjo never attended any meeting of National Economic Council (NEC), where past Presidents and other very top office holders like him could offer advice to government. Rather, he always preferred to criticize his successors publicly to achieve cheap popularity for which he is known for.
Shamelessly, even his own Party - PDP that made and gave him the leverage to rule Nigeria for another 8 years after his 4 years' misadventure as the country's military Head of State was never spared of his senseless public manoeuvring and backstabbing. He even went as far as to publicly set his PDP membership card ablaze because the Party failed to succumb to his advice by throwing up the late Kasamu as the senatorial candidate in Obasanjo's Constituency in Ogun State. Obasanjo tagged Kasamu a drug barron to back his opposition to the man's candidature and nomination. I hope he was satisfied after the man's death?
Knowing now that his former antics of writing letter of criticism had become outdated, inconsequential and no longer fancied by Nigerians, he has upped his game by going to international fora hence his recent outburst at a university event in United States of America, despite the fact that he has all the links and channels to the same Presidency he criticized openly and in a global arena.
To the uninitiated, Obasanjo was not criticising everyone and everything that were not from or of him for nothing. Not because he love the country but because of his myopic egocentrism. He sees himself as *Mr Knowall and someone whose records must not be surpassed by anyone.* He is never comfortable seeing others doing better than him. It is amazing that Obasanjo who was rigged into office and equally rigged his candidate to be President now have the affontary to call for the removal of INEC Chairman and disbandment of the same institution he once benefitted from and which he once had all the powers to exercise over its performance, from 1999 to 2007. Clearly, there is no illusion that Obasanjo is not only an hypocrite but someone with persistent self-serving intention!
Regrettably, he has forgotten his own admonition to Mallam Nasir El-Rufai at a point when El-Rufai was ready to tender his resignation letter as the pioneer Director General of the Bureau of Public Enterprise (BPE), when the man was fed up with the dubious antics of Alh. Atiku, Obasanjo's Vice and the then Chairman of the Governing Board of BPE. From El-Rufai's records in his book; *The Accidental Public Servant,* Obasanjo was quoted to have admonished El-Rufai to learn to work with both the saints and sinners and remain the captain of his own soul, just as Obasanjo admitted then that he was not the best Nigerian to be president of the country. But talk is cheap and it is always very easy to admonish others even when the adviser cannot abide with the same admonition he gives.
For those who truly want to know Obasanjo for whom he truly is, they should endeavour to check his antecedents. From Madam Funmilayo Ransome Kuti who was killed during Obasanjo's military regime because late Fela Ransome Kuti was a pain on the neck of Obasanjo military government due to Olufela's persistent criticisms.
The late Chief Bola Ige was assasinated as a serving Minister under Obasanjo's watch likewise his former Deputy as Governor of old Oyo State, Chief Afolabi, a known friend and Associate of Obasanjo and one of his cabinet Ministers. Afolabi died in jail under Obasanjo as the President of the country and no report of any investigation leading to the death of the duo has been made public till today. However, as had been reasoned in some quarters, Bola Ige signed his own death warrant the day he referred Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as a Party with 10 leprosy fingers, while still serving under a government being controlled by the same Party, and which Obasanjo was the national leader.
The removal under duress of Chief Audu Ogbe as Chairman of PDP by Obasanjo for pointing out Obasanjo's missteps is well known in the public dormain and so also was the denial of federal allocations to Lagos State because of Tinubu's disagreement with Obasanjo as the President at that time on the justification for the lopsidedness regarding the creation of local government in the country, which Tinubu and his progressive allies considered an injustice.
The removal through hand-winking action of late Governor Alamesia of Balyesa State and Ayodele Fayose, then Governor of Ekiti State are also yet to be forgotten as part of Obasanjo's vindictiveness. Even those who served Obasanjo with all they got were never spared of the same atrocious mannerism of a man that always want to play God in the affairs of other people and that of the country as a whole.
People like Dr. Okonjo Iwealla, Chief Bode George, etc. will never forget their experiences in a hurry in the hands Obasanjo in order to have his way as he always wanted.
In all, the list of his *bad-belle kind of statesmanship* and mischievousness is inexhaustible and that is the main reason why Obasanjo should no longer be taken seriously for any public outcry he makes forthwith. He cries only for hypocritical preservation of his less than noble self-esteem, which thankfully, is gradually losing steam even when he has refused to understand that he is already in the departure lounge to meet his Maker. QED!
So far as some of us are concerned, as long as the history of Nigeria would continue to be written and rewritten, the whole tales about Obasanjo's dirty antics would forever be remembered. That is my candid summary and although I am just thinking aloud as usual, I am still opened to be corrected, any way.
Wishing all of us the best in the new week and beyond.
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