From Olusegun Obasanjo – In His Best Element!

Fellow compatriots,

Warm greetings to you all. It gives me joy to send across this missive. I should have written long before now but for two principal reasons which I am going to elucidate hereunder.

Firstly the untimely death of the father of our ruling party, the PDP, Chief Lamidi Adedibu sent me and many others into mourning. The shock of the reality of his demise has not yet fully disappeared from my system. Adedibu the elephant has fallen leaving many of us, his disciples, as political orphans! We mourn him from Ibadan to Ota and ask God to accept his soul in His bossom! I cannot forget in a hurry the spiritual guidance and unqualified help and advice I received from the ‘Alaafin Molete’ when I was in command in Aso Rock Villa.

Secondly my long silence was precipitated by the Nigerian media and their ceaseless attacks on my honourable personality. I cannot pretend here that I am a fan of the Nigerian media; of course I detest their audacity and recklessness. Because I refused to sign into law the Freedom of Information bill for reasons best known to me I have been subjected to all kinds of excoriation and embarrassment. For once I now see reason with Ibrahim Babangida for mercilessly letter-bombing Dele Giwa into the great beyond. The pressmen provoke and push one to take hard actions whose consequencies could only be imagined.

The Nigerian press could be categorised into three groups: the jolly mercenaries, that is those who practise ‘khaki envelope’ journalism; this group is the most dangerous among the three. They collect money from highly-placed individuals and do their biddings. The second category are those ‘settled’ or bought over by desperate politicians to run down or ruin the political career of fellow politicians. These two powerful groups make it difficult if not impossible for me to read the Nigerian newspapers. And the third are the core professionals; this group comprises of real trained journalists with conscience. This latter group are vociferously just, patriotic and nationalistic. I hold them in high esteem.

The late MKO Abiola even wrote in the other day from “heaven” heaping insults on me. For daring to say that he was never the messiah Nigerians were craving for he said the “dirt in his fingernails was infinitely greater than the entirety of Olusegun Obasanjo”. But come to think of it how could a serial womaniser who went about coveting other people’s wives and someone implicated in the ITT scam had ever thought of himself as the messiah? Being a messiah is definitely more than such freakish and unpatriotic behaviours.

I am not in any popularity contest with Abiola but the world recognises me as an international statesman who has ruled my people in two different glorious epochs. Abiola claimed he won June 12 controversial presidential election and quite against the great ‘Aare Ona Kakanfo’ title he bore he ran away as a coward only to come back to be vanquished by the Abacha military armada.

The on-going OBJ-bashing, a favorite pastime for mercenary journalists and internet faceless minions, was anticipated before I reluctantly vacated Aso Villa. That is the major reason why I had sought a third term, let me confess that for the first time. Though the masked bid failed I am happy because now I’m more or less enjoying a third term even on a presidential sabbatical in Ota. Whoever doubts my presidential influence should ask the Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga and the Zimbabwean opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai why they left Abuja and visited me in Ota instead.

Fellow ‘Wazobians’ at home and abroad my son Gbenga was instigated by my many enemies to go public with an ‘incest’ allegation against me, his distinguished father. Well, he seems to have come to his manipulated senses now. Orji Uzor Kalu and many others who wish me bad played a son against his father but I have no regrets whatsoever. Kalu should sort himself out with the EFCC in the graft case still pending in court. Even though my libido is still ‘sharp’ like that of a teenager I could not have condescended so low morally as to sleep with my son’s wife! In Yorubaland that is a taboo and as a high Owu Chief I know the traditional implications.

Dr Ahmadu Ali, the ex-PDP Chair, was reported to have written President Yar’Adua complaining of the high-handedness of my administration leading up to the demolition of his house in Abuja. Ali is a remarkable praise-singer, the typical Nigerian apostle of AGIP: All Government In Power. He is the metaphor for everything politically wrong with our fatherland. I worked very closely with our own ‘Chemical’ Ali, so I know what I am talking about. If third term had succeeded according to our plans I wonder if he would have had the temerity to complain of any ‘injustice’ he claimed to have been meted out to him.

During my second command I was able to understand better the mischievious minds of our politicians. During those eventful eight years I was able to gather more knowledge about the treachery, the mischief, the betrayal, the prostitution and deception of those we call politicians practising a polluted profession. I am more of a retired General, a military man who found the favour of gods. When I say ‘gods’ I mean the powerful cabal who determine who gets what in our polity.

The deepening institutionalisation of the cankerworm of corruption in every facet of our national life was appreciated from close quarters during my reign. From the gateman up to the high echelon of power corruption was the ‘bride’ everyone wooed and groomed! That principally led to the emergence of anti-graft agencies like EFCC and others whose roles were well defined.

Those who are parroting about that I never achieved anything should for once appreciate the courage and patriotism behind the EFCC establishment. For the first time in our chequered history a leader stood up to crime and criminals making our lives miserable.

The solution to the lingering Niger Delta deep-rooted problem lies in the proposed summit. Though sometimes I tend to believe that the so-called militants, crude oil terrorists and criminals making the Niger Delta unsafe for oil exploration and exploitation should rather be given the Odi or Zaki Biam treatment. If another Ken Saro-Wiwa in Henry Okah is ‘MENDed’ by way of hanging I believe the oil bunkerers and petty thieves masquerading as militants would think twice before embarking on another Bonga episode. Let the jaw-jaw by the Ijaws and other stakeholders in the tensed region go ahead and whoever refuses to partake in it should be considered a terrorist and dealt with.

Fellow ‘Wazobians’ politics here is not for the faint-hearted and the meek. It is a game for mean men like us. You can see that Gbenga Daniel, the Governor of my home state of Ogun, could no longer tolerate the impeachment blues of the state house of assembly. He had therefore allegedly sent his Chief of Staff to go after the Speaker of the house with thugs in broad daylight to snuff life out of him. Politics in Nigeria, you’ll agree with me, is for the brave and courageous. If I were not the brave and courageous type I assure you all that I would have been history by now!

President Umoru Musa Yar’Adua is doing his best under a difficult circumstance Nigerian. While Nigerians remain the happiest people on earth Nigeria, as a heteregenous complex society, presents a sorry picture of ungovernability. The harder one tries to confront the mounting problems head-on the more enemies and economic criminals programme failure one way or the other for the efforts. In the power sector for instance you have a powerful generator-importation mafia and those within the PHCN out to sabotage whatever government wants to do to rescucitate the comatose sector. Declaring an emergency in the troubled sector as proposed by the President may be the only hard way out. It has my unflinching support.

The on-going probes into certain ministries and about individuals and contractors that were involved illustrate what I am saying. You have the political will and patriotic determination to excel deploying resources to improve the lot of the masses but one entrenched faceless mafia group or blood thirsty cult springs up from nowhere and jeopardises the efforts. I had a running battle with some of them and I stepped on toes yet I am being crucified today by the vocal enemy press for my boldness, thick skin and unforgiving spirit. I regret nothing and I owe no apology to no one.

A hardworking man deserves his wages, right or wrong? Like late General Sani Abacha I never stole anything including money. Whatever I got while in power I deserved or do you, my countrymen, expect me to go cap-in-hand begging after leaving Aso Rock? Or be like former President Shehu Shagari whose house was built for him by a good Samaritan after retirement for lack of cash? My administration succeeded in many areas and I leave my stewardship to history to score me, commend me or condemn me.

Allow me to wish you all well as I try to end this missive. This is Olusegun Okikiolakin Aremu Mutiu Obasanjo, OBJ, in my best element — unbowed, unconquered, unmoved, unbended and unbroken. Despite a year-long baseless attacks and character assassination against my person the sun still shines in Ota. I will only give up upon the superior decision of the Higher Master that my time is up here on earth. And that decision cannot come now or in the next decade.

Those who think evil of me or think otherwise — wishing that I join my ancestors sooner — shall be disappointed in the end. Longevity runs in my Owu blood! That is why I will continue to exist and live among mortals. I ‘dey kampe’! Goodbye everyone