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OBJ IN THE CUSPS OF TUMULTUOUS HALLUCINATIONS (II) By Dr. Paul Mamza
This, he did when General Murtala Ramat Muhammed was assassinated, he did same Post-Abacha era. Never, can a man be so selfish, so egocentric and so perpendicularly mischievous. Apart from OBJ’s specialty in native intelligence, nobody can ascertain his special talents. It is now apparent that the masquerade has been disrobed at the market square, it is time to go home. Public sympathy is the greatest asset in politics world – over and OBJ has lost it massively in Nigeria. No matter what magic wand anybody will use to revive OBJ, the levers of sensibilities and sensation has expose OBJ’s unrelenting and unlimiting rapacious and subtle disregard for communal peace, mutual respect for each other and overbearing desire for self-preservation at the expense of nationhood of patriotism. Even, Senator Iyabo Obasanjo-Bello, his eldest daughter had this to say of her father’s abrasiveness. She calls OBJ a liar, manipulator and hypocrite. Said Iyabo “ I had told you I wasn’t going to run in 2011 but you manipulated me to run, that was my mistake. Losing was a blessing. As usual you wanted me to run for your self-serving purpose to perpetuate your name in the political realm and as a liar that you are, you later denied that it was you who wanted me to run in 2011”. If Senator Iyabo Obasanjo-Bello could write this about her father, being his eldest daughter, who else can know OBJ more than his eldest daughter?. The late Bashorun Moshood Abiola was once quoted in the Media that “with a friend like Obasanjo, one doesn’t need an enemy”. What is amusing about OBJ’s recent tearing of his membership card of the PDP is that, must he (OBJ) be humiliated out of the PDP for him to declare for a statesmanship status?. His ward that supervised the recent monumental show of shame, did not vote for him in 1999, and 2003 when he was the Presidential candidate of the PDP. OBJ introduced the concept of “do or die” in Nigeria politics. OBJ’s recent action is aimed at disrupting public peace, crafted to for a diversionary tactics and anchored to lure Nigerians to sympathize with his ignoble delirium of conquest by some impenetrable hawks in the PDP. Unfortunately for him, Nigerians are not bothered because he is not discussing the right issues at the right time. Ego-driven trip cannot bring food to the table of Nigerians, it is not a measure to curtail our challenging insecurity-related problems, infrastructural developments can never be achieved by these inglorious motivations. Diplomacy is incongruent to a self-serving posture. So is the general progress and posterity of Nigeria. OBJ’s glaring macabre dance can only cast a picture of a comedian than a statesman. OBJ should provoke a new thinking of making more friends than creating many enemies. Many Nigerians see the voice of Jacob and the hands of Esau in many challenges we are presently witnessing in Nigeria today. The body-language of most politicians in the present Nigeria is unbecoming, desperate and myopic. They are always thinking of their pockets, egos and personal interests even if Nigeria is victim of their malfeasance and insatiable thirst for mischief. To them it must be business as usual. This is not the sacrifice, patriots are dreaming of. Patriotism is a fire-power that consumes the lethal instruments of self-preservation at the expense of national interest.
Sacrifices, patience, commitment and diligence are basic ingredients that fuel the vehicle of patriotic ideals. Nigeria is bigger than any individual or group of individuals.
It is now clear that the man who, claims to known it all, has exhibited his ignorance in the public sphere, to the utter-disgust of all right thanking Nigerians. If OBJ was to be the President today, he would not have allowed any contest of ideas, no matter the constructiveness and the progressive flavours of it. His temper and obstructing cascade of broad minded views is well known. When he is bereft of ideas on how to handle the affairs of the nation, he often crafts a scapegoat to come and carry the crime of his incompetence and deliberate actions which is always repugnant.
The wiping away of Odi communities in Rivers state and that of Zaki-biam in Benue state under a very slight provocation is still fresh in our memories. These people are still yearning for Justice. With the exit of OBJ as the President, Nigerians were able to experience a semblance of a free, fair and credible elections. The freedom of expression which was denied by OBJ, is fully guaranteed and protected. For a man who is reputed for foisting his puppets and himself against the will of the electorates, this moment is not the best of times. OBJ’s regimes were corruption–personified, one can vividly remember the corruption index rating during OBJ’s eight years of mismanagement and open bullying of opponents with bribe even at floor of the National Assembly. But shamelessly, OBJ is today decrying corruption. Hear him “corruption must not remain part of our national life” he continued “Recklessness and impunity must not continue to be our part of lives, whether recklessness and impurity in the management of our economic affairs, in the running of our finances and even in political affairs”. This is OBJ saying the contrary of all he stood for, during is years of leadership. In a swift to OBJ’s recent outburst and slanderous infamy, the venerate Oba of Lagos, Oba Rilwan Akiolu has stated that Olusegun Obasanjo has been hypocritical in his accusations of President Goodluck Jonathan.
Akiolu said Obasanjo illegally withheld the Lagos state’s allocation for several months and refused to release it even after Supreme Court ordered him to do so. He said “ If I want to do something, I don’t pretend. God given many people longlife so that they can get enough punishment. Let me tell you something; all the injustice they committed against Lagos state from 1999 to 2007; God Almighty is punishing them now”. The Oba continued “All the accusations former President Obasanjo is making now, he masterminded them, nurtured them and master minded them and now he is complaining”. “God has a way of doing something. More are still coming”, he concluded. Nothing can be more descriptive of OBJ’s vainglorious and erratic debacle. What recklessness, impunity and dictatorship has the nation not seen during the ravaging eight wasted years that OBJ marshaled on the citizens of Nigeria?
Is he really saying that it is only the sin (s) committed by others not by him that will be taken as truly a sin?
When did OBJ become the barometer and model for fashioning good leadership in Nigeria?
A glossary look at the OBJ’s recent book “My watch” is no less than a verbiage of gabbages, full of fury of a gnashing and grief-infested man, narrating his talents of gridlocked mischief and tasteless infamy coupled as an adventure, only good for the dustin of history. That book is full of fury, half-truths and deliberate lies. No good student of history will ever use ‘My watch’ as a viable reference material. It is a spurious hoodwink on the nation’s psyche, a bundle of lies, contraries and contradictions. It is a compendium of self-adulation and debilitating vile, showing the exact mark of the extinction of a dying political dictator.
The recent happenings is a watershed in political development of Nigeria and a turning point of relief from the grip of a dictator. Let us all bid OBJ Goodbye.
Even, the current Chairman of Board of Trustees of the PDP, OBJ’s erstwhile ‘Mr Fix it’ was quoted as saying “PDP will not Miss OBJ”. If I may ask, who else will?, definitely and obliviously, nobody is the answer.
Dr. Paul Mamza is a member, National Executive committee of the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) and an Associate Professor at the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria. |