OBASANJO: At the Road-Bend of History By Joseph Dangme Rinyom
Some people are born lucky, some become lucky and some have luck thrust on them. Whatever class you choose to pigeon-hole OBJ, luck has been his companion. From the unsung birth to the sublime realm of world power, OBJ qualifies as one of the luckiest people alive or dead. The history of Nigeria shall yet be written without his name. To friends OBJ represents all that Nigeria ever needed, the dose of sanity that had eluded the fatherland. To foes, OBJ is the quintessence of a leadership that typifies African failure to attain greatness and the ‘anti-Christ’ of the democratic aspirations of a beleaguered country, Nigeria. Depending on which side of the aisle one places his/herself, OBJ represents many things to many people, a ‘sign of contradiction’ not only to Nigerians but to himself and the world. Nevertheless, his luck has held on since it started its marathon 70 years ago. How much longer will it last?
OBJ is yet to be credited with an exceptional personal military or non-military achievement outside the fortunes of fate that had earmarked him very early in life to play roles assigned to kings in Nigeria. In January 1966 a crop of inexperienced and young army officers, led by the charismatic Major Nzeogwu, took it upon their slender shoulders to change the course of Nigeria’s history, for better or worse, in the bloodiest coup yet. Fortunately or unfortunately, the coup failed and the coupists were presented with a fait accompli: to willingly surrender or be forced by martial superiority. Negotiations were set in motion between Ironsi, the General Officer Commading the Nigeria Armed Forces based in Lagos and Nzeogwu, the perceived leader of the coup, based in Kaduna. Two camps pitched themselves against each other and a third party was in demand to broker an agreement. The mantle fell on a young indistinguishable officer, Major Olusegun Matthew Aremu Okikiola Obasanjo. This young officer had not participated in the coup. His major credentials for the historic job were his very close friendship with Nzeogwu and allegiance to Ironsi. To both parties, he was an acceptable compromise as ‘third party.’ And to this day, he has filled that role adequately- almost always a compromise.
The man was once again in the limelight almost five years to the day. Col. Olusegun Matthew Aremu Okikiola Obasanjo was handed the command of the Third Marine Commando at sunset in 1969 after the civil war had been almost all fought and won. The Black Scorpion, Col. Adekunle had led the Third Marine Commando through the fiercest battles of the civil war and had effectively taken control of Biafra. In fact it has been suggested that the walls had been all but torn down and that Biafra had, effectively, ceased to exist when Col Obasanjo took command of the marines. He launched the counter-attack in December of 1969 to retake an already devastated and war-weary Owerri, the last stronghold that had fallen back to Biafra a few months earlier. In fact, OBJ only had to sing the requiem and preside over Biafra’s supposed funeral, a few days after. As the commander of the victorious battalion, Col. Obasanjo was mandated by his superior, the Supreme Military Commander, General Gowon, to accept the surrender of Biafra on behalf of the Federal Government of Nigeria. For this singular honor, arguably deserved, he had his name etched in Nigeria’s history. He was later rewarded with the Ministry of Works portfolio where he was in hibernation until Gowon’s ouster in 1975.
Once again, five years after the historic surrender, Brigadier Obasanjo was beckoned by fate to assume a ‘compromise’ position as the Chief of Staff; effectively the second in command after Murtala succeeded Gowon as Head of State. Six months later, Brigadier Obasanjo was ‘forced’ to accept the leadership of the nation when Murtala was assassinated in a failed coup attempt in February, 1976. It was a reluctant Obasanjo that took over the mantle of military reign to lead a regime that was largely a child of circumstance. Three years later, in October 1979, Lt. General Obasanjo handed over power to President Shehu Shagari and went on to his farm at Otta, Ogun state to assume the role of a respected African statesman.
It was while at Otta that OBJ gained a notoriety for scathing criticism of Nigeria’s leaders, past and present, which in retrospect have all turned out to be, painfully, only self-serving. He became an instant headliner when he told Nigerians, inter alia, to glance at their watches for a second opinion should IBB greet them with a ‘good morning.’ His ‘human face’ economic philosophy gained an unprecedented followership in the face of the hardship that SAP imposed on Nigerians during the heydays of IBB’s failed economic transformation bid. His popularity gained currency when he asked Gowon, rhetorically of course, what he, Gowon, might have forgotten in Government House to have wanted a comeback during the, once again, failed transition programme of the IBB administration. Though his ‘Abiola is not the messiah Nigeria needs’ sermon met with a mixed reaction, the Nigeria comeback-kid regained his position of a respected statesman once more with his open criticisms of Abacha’s policies, especially his self-perpetuation attempt. To many people in the opposition then, OBJ was a rallying point, and his Otta farm became a conference center of sort. Politicians, military officers, market women and even ASUU sought his intervention in national affairs. That was what drew the ire of Abacha and landed OBJ in prison. But he was not forgotten as the Nigerian civil society community rallied the world in opposing Abacha and demanded freedom for OBJ and his ‘co-political’ prisoners. And then Abacha died and Abdulsalam rose to power. OBJ was a free man.
If Lt. General Ishaya Bamaiyi spoke the truth at the Oputa panel, then OBJ was already ordained a President in prison before any transition program was set in place. IBB was named as the archpriest that consecrated OBJ as a ‘compromise’ candidate to appease the West for the inglorious annulment of June 12, the mandate that Abiola won, fought and died for and which OBJ never supported. In 1999, after vehement refutations to any ambitions to contest OBJ won the Presidential election in a new dispensation, which for all intents and purposes was a ‘child of necessity.’ In 2003, OBJ was once again re-mandated, largely by ‘absentee or non-existent voters’, for another four years which ‘was’ to end in 2007.
Of all his post-Head of State and pre-President political rhetoric, none has survived the crucible-of-fire test. In 1999, he remembered that he forgot several bags of belongings in the Government house which he vacated in 1979. His economic philosophy, which of course has no human face, is a demand of sacrifice from poor Nigerians; economic development, he now realizes, can only be earned from tough, non-compromising economic measures worse than SAP. The messiah Nigeria had long awaited had now arrived, self-proclaimed and clothed in the garbs of OBJ, consequently, the march for perpetual continuity must begin. His advisers, afraid that he may forget some other stuff in Aso Rock and come back 20 years later to haunt the place have asked him to just stay kampe, ‘until death do them apart.’ On his part, he is said to have volunteered to rather commit suicide than leave. With only 8 more months to 2007, the politics of third term that threatens to eclipse the hope of Nigerians to witness the first ever civilian to civilian change of leadership baton has reared its head. The Constitution needed to be changed to accommodate the new power fever and professional yea-sayers like Mantu were commissioned to see to it. In case brigandage may present itself as an option past inglorious military rulers with antecedents of bloody hands like Ahmadu Ali have been exhumed from the dead to haunt Nigerians. The drama, written, orchestrated and made popular by Abacha, is being replayed act for act, scene for scene and word for word. The hunting dogs have been set loose and the slave-drivers have assumed their once seized seats. The icing is the almost complete silence of OBJ, reminiscent of Abacha’s stone-cold face of seeming inapproachability. Words not spoken cannot be used against you as present-day Abacha acolytes continually remind us and the OBJ disciples in the moulds of Nasarawa governor, Abdullahi Adamu never give up the opportunity to point out this similarity between Abacha’s and OBJ’s pregnant silence. OBJ seems to have learned fast. For a man never known to keep his mouth shut on any issue at all, his silence is a complete betrayal of his thoughts. Or so his nay-sayers say.
Now, Nigeria is at a cross-road and so is OBJ’s place in history. Here is OBJ, a man of fate who was destined to rise to the high heavens of military opportunism, brought down hard into the reality of human commonality in prison, raised back into the privileged class of political fortune and world powerbrokers. The verdict of history? Here was OBJ, an acolyte of Mobutuism, a silent admirer of ‘Abachism’ who despite all the tremendous luck of fortune squandered his goodwill capital, descended into the hall of personal greed, relapsed into historical amnesia, sacrificed on the tree of self-perpetuation and, therefore, relegated into the footnote of history as a lesson of ‘how not to be’; Or, here was OBJ, man of fate destined as a headline in history, a true lover of Nigeria and a world elder statesman, a conscience of African leadership and only a footstep away from the ever-perpetual Mandela, the conscience of the world. Either ways, OBJ has been a child of destiny. Time shall tell.
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