Obasanjo confronts Eniola Bello over ‘third term agenda’ in essay collection

Eniola Bello, celebrated columnist and the managing director of THISDAY, has narrated a recent encounter with former President Olusegun Obasanjo.

Bello’s two-volume publication of more than 900 pages titled, ‘SHADOWS: Protest Essays on Africa’s Most Consequential Country (1999–2023)’, chronicles Nigeria’s political and democratic evolution between 1999 and 2023.

The books, published by Cable Books — an imprint of Cable Media & Publishing Ltd, publishers of TheCable, will be launched on July 23, 2026 at the Shehu Musa Yar’Adua Centre, Abuja.

The essays explore themes like godfatherism, internal democracy of political parties, electoral malpractice, the use of religion in politics, elite hypocrisy, ethnic mobilisation and the influence of money in Nigeria’s political landscape.

ENCOUNTER WITH OBASANJO

In his THISDAY column of July 15, Bello narrated how his visit to Obasanjo at the Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library (OOPL) in Abeokuta, Ogun state, panned out.

He was at the library to present a copy of his two-volume book.

The author said Volume 2 of the book has two or three essays on the third term agenda that “negatively defined” the Obasanjo administration.

When Bello presented the book to the ex-president, Obasanjo flipped through the pages, stopping at intervals to skim through one or two sentences before moving to the next.

After repeatedly rippling through the pages of Volume 1, the former head of state went through similar motions on Volume 2.

The author noticed that Obasanjo settled on a particular page while reclining on the sofa.

His gaze became fixated on an essay titled, ‘Burying the Third Term Bogey’ on Volume 2.

Seconds later, Obasanjo flew into a rage, “turning the book into a missile of sort”.

“You wrote here the evidence is touchable. So, show me the evidence of how I asked for a third term,” the former president said as he picked up the book from the floor and hurled the copy on the table.

“I didn’t write that you asked for a third term,” the author pushed back.

“But you mentioned my name as having a third term agenda,” Obasanjo retorted.

“Of course, the third term campaign was about you, executed by some of your aides and political associates. It’s impossible to talk about it without mentioning your name. And you have not even read the essay except for one or two sentences. I did not write anywhere that you asked for a third term,” the author said.

Displeased with Bello’s response, Obasanjo ordered him out of his office.

A man who was among those waiting to see Obasanjo told the author that he should not have argued with the ex-president in the heat of the moment.

“I didn’t ask for a third term. If I wanted a third term, I would have gotten it. If I could travel round the world to ask for debt forgiveness and got it, was it a third term I wouldn’t have been able to get if I wanted it? Get out of my house,” Obasanjo bellowed while hurtling angrily towards the author.

THE ESSAY THAT ENRAGED OBASANJO

The author said the essay in question was written at the time of the third term agenda saga as a response to the press statement issued by Onyema Ugochuckwu, a former chairman of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC).

Ugochuckwu had described the third term agenda as a hoax created by the media to serve some vested interests.

He blamed journalists for unfairly accusing Obasanjo of a third term agenda without evidence.

Bello had written the essay to counter Ugochuckwu’s claim that the third term agenda was a media invention.

“What credible evidence did the media have in accusing Obasanjo of nursing a third term ambition? The evidence is touchable even by the politically blind,” an excerpt from the essay reads.

“The evidence is there in the way the proposal for a three four-year term was smuggled into the document for public hearing.

“It is there in the Southwest PDP leaders’ public declaration of support for another term for Obasanjo. It is there in the serial endorsement by some state governors (Enugu’s Chimaroke Nnamani, Rivers’ Peter Odili and Ondo’s Segun Agagu) of the president for another term.”

Obasanjo was Nigeria’s civilian president from 1999 to 2007. (TheCable)