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Olusegun Obasanjo: The Wrong Man, At The Wrong Place, At The Wrong Time By Jide Ayobolu
Chief Olusegun Obasanjo who until some few weeks ago was the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and commander in chief of the armed forces of Nigeria. He was an individual who came, saw and failed woefully. He failed to govern Nigeria according to democratic dictates and tenets; instead he foisted on the country the iron law of oligarchy and unprecedented reign of terror. He constantly disobeyed court rulings; he has scant regard for the judiciary and legislature. He is always at loggerhead with the National Assembly because of over-bearing and autocratic nature. Because of his military mentality he left the country more divided and fragile than he met it. He successfully turned the PDP into a military garrison unit; he violently introduced garrison politics into Nigerian politics. Some of the legacies for which Obasanjo will be remembered for are; massive rigging of periodic elections, implementation of Washington Consensus or Bretton Wood institutions programmes without the due consultation with stakeholders and electorates, killing of eminent politicians without trace, mass retrenchment, demolition of houses, pursuance of misanthropic economic policies, appointment of cronies in to political offices, sale of the collective patrimony of the Nigeria people to business at give-away prices, using the war against corruption to even up with perceived political enemies to score cheap political goals, tried to extend the tenure of his political office illegally through the backward door, constant and unreasonable increase in the prices of petroleum products, non-maintenance of roads across the length and breadth of the country, infrastructural decay and underdevelopment in all sectors of the national economy, systematic encouragement of political violence and thuggery, paid lip-service to the issue of Niger-Delta development, Freedom of Information Bill, Corruption in high places etc. The fact of the matter is that President Obasanjo was the wrong person to have taken over the reins of power in 1999. This is because he lacks all the democratic credentials to do so; he was and remains an iron-cast, dye in the wool soldier. So, for most part, he succeeded in over-heating the polity un-necessarily for selfish political reasons. Throughout his stay he behaved like a bull-in –the-china-shop. Constantly upsetting the apple cart for inordinate political ambition. He failed to preside over the affairs of the country as the father of the nation, instead, he behaved as a Youngman, who has no proper home training, and does not care a hoot about what really befalls the country. He used the army to intimidate innocent citizens across the country as was demonstrated in Zaki Biam, Odi and several parts of the Niger Delta. Besides, Obasanjo is a very rude character, who does not know how to talk politely to his aides, government officials and fellow countrymen and women. He insulted people at will, and gets angry over very trivial matters, his language was very uncouth, in fact, his speeches are very unpresidential, and he talks extemporaneously. Obasanjo was soldier of fortune, this was a person who could not boost of N20, 000 in his bank account in 1998, but today, he is one of the richest Presidents on the planet earth. The legacies are in a deplorable state of disrepair of the roads in the country, the health and education sectors are in very bad shape, and the whole country is in perpetual darkness, and nothing seems to be working in the country, Obasanjo, came, he saw and destroyed. He has not added value in any way to the Nigerian state. Rather, he has devalued the Nigerian State; he has mortgaged the future and destiny of the country. He has created a large army of poverty-stricken individual across the country; over 70 per cent of the entire Nigerian population lives on less than $1 a day. It is therefore an insult for people to refer to Obasanjo as the founder and leader of modern Nigeria; he has succeeded in destroying Nigeria, and caused a lot misfortune for the country. He entrenched Gandhiji’s seven evil in the country, namely, wealth without work, pleasure without conscience, politics without principles, knowledge without character, commerce without morals, science without humanity and worship without sacrifice. The Obasanjo era is the worst in Nigeria’s political history, and history will not go down well with Obasanjo, may Nigeria never have this kind of leader again.
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