Writing in his memoirs, Not My Will, a book that became as controversial as his biography of his bosom friend, Chukwuma Nzeogwu, ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo leaves no one in doubt that he is a man that gloats over his exploits. Just as My Command is an account of his exploits as war commander during the Nigerian Civil War, in Not My Will, he attempts to chronicle events and situate issues that underpinned his tenure from February 13 1976 to October 1, 1979 when he handed over to ex-President Shehu Shagari.
He derides two of Nigeria’s greatest legends, Zik and Awo. He writes that Nnamdi Azikiwe, generally acknowledged as the father of modern Nigeria, started his political career on a continental platform as Zik of Africa but descended from that height to become Owelle of Onitsha.
But on Obafemi Awolowo, he goes to the cleaners. As a student at Baptist High School, Abeokuta, he writes that he and his fellow students trooped out barefooted to watch and listen to Awo in awe as he visited the school. It was at a time Awo was at the apex of his political career as premier of the defunct Western Nigeria. Obasanjo says in the book that what Awo struggled all his life to get, he (Obasanjo), got on a platter of gold. Everybody knows that Awolowo very much wanted to rule Nigeria and some people still believe that but for Obasanjo, Awolowo would have become Nigeria’s president in 1979.
Anybody who has keenly followed Obasanjo’s trajectory will agree that he has a very lucky man. Some say Benjamin Adekunle popularly known as the Black Scorpion had almost concluded the war on the Nigerian side but was shoved aside while Olusegun Obasanjo was called in and in no time, the Biafrans surrendered on January 13, 1970, signaling the end of the war. Obasanjo took the glory.
On July 29, 1975, middle level officers of the Nigerian Army had gotten fed up with General Yakubu Gowon and moved against him while he had gone to Kampala, Uganda for a summit of the defunct OAU. Murtala Muhammed became head of state. For geo-political balancing, Obasanjo was chosen as second in command. He was not part of the coup, did not know about it and had nothing to do with it. When Murtala was gunned down six months later in an abortive coup attempt, Obasanjo became the major beneficiary as he emerged head of state.
After the death of Sani Abacha in June 1998, Obasanjo, who had been jailed by the Abacha government on trumped-up charges of wanting to overthrow Abacha was pardoned and released. While he was in jail a group of courageous Nigerian under the aegis of G-34 led by second republic vice president, Alex Ekwueme, confronted Abacha and eventually started a political movement that became known as the People’s Democratic Party (PDP).
While Ekwueme was assured of picking the presidential ticket of PDP for the 1999 election, the military regime of Abdulsalami Abubakar felt more comfortable with Obasanjo as successor. In no time, the table had turned in favour of a man who was just been released from prison, a man who never fought for democracy, a man who did not know when and how the likes of Ekwueme, Solomon Lar, Bola Ige, Jerry Gana, and Adamu Ciroma toiled to establish a political party. He became the machinery and since the military regime had anointed him, it came to pass.
Leaving office after eight years as civilian president, the first Nigerian to rule the country twice, the best Obasanjo could have done would have been to take a deserved rest, become a statesman that he is and leave partisan politics to others. Instead, the same thing he accused Zik of, he has plunged himself into. Shortly after leaving office in 2007 he waded into Owu chieftaincy tussle and imposed a monarch on the people using his traditional position as the Balogun of Owu.
Today, the tussle is between him and Gbenga Daniel, the governor of Ogun State. He is bent oon seeing that his daughter, Iyabo, return to the Senate even if that is against the democratic aspiration of the people. He had managed to get her into the Senate in 2007 when he was president. But beyond Iyabo, Obasanjo also wants to rail-road Tunji Olurin into the Government House, Abeokuta whether he wins the PDP gubernatorial primary or not. It has been reported that he went to President Goodluck Jonathan to plead that Iyabo and Olurin should be given governorship and senatorial tickets respectively, a request Jonathan was said to have refused.
Like his inordinate quest for third term towards the end of his second term as civilian president, this current attempt to subvert the democracy within the Ogun State chapter of PDP belittles Obasanjo in the eyes of Nigerians and foreigners who have great admiration and respect for him. If Olusola Saraki and Bola Tinubu are imposing their scions on their parties, Obasanjo should show better example of what statesmanship is, by resisting such a temptation so that he does not stand to destroy all the goodwill and legacy he has built over the years.
Though he has a messiah complex and in self glorification allowed sycophants during his administration to continuously refer to him as ‘father of modern Nigeria’, nothing could be farther from the truth. No one can deny Obasanjo his place in Nigeria’s history. He is a man that has shown that he loves Nigeria but he should not destroy all that he has managed to build.
