Former President Olusegun Obasanjo is at it again, doing what only him knows how to do best. Running down others, and hailing himself as the best thing that ever happened to mankind. Obasanjo, aka Baba or OBJ, believes solely in Obasanjo. To him, he is the best leader to have ever come out of Nigeria, nay Africa. It is good to believe in oneself, but it should not be at the expense of rubbishing others.
Whether in open letters or public lectures just as the one he recently delivered in Yale, United States of America, Obasanjo speaks well of himself as a leader and ill of others that either came before or after him. He is never short of what to say about them. Was Obasanjo really a fantastic leader as head of state (1976-1979) and president (1999-2007)? Time will tell.
Come to think of it. What legacies did he bequeath to the nation following his exit from office in 2007, after his eight year tenure? He virtually left the nation in chaos following his botched attempt to elongate his tenure to enable him serve a third term, contrary to the provisions of the Constitution. Although, he vehemently denied nursing a third term ambition, his protracted battle with his deputy, Atiku Abubakar, because of the latter’s bid to succeed him indicated the extent he was ready to go to remain in office.
The refusal of the National Assembly to play ball nipped his plan in the bud. The failure of the project led to the making of his famous statement that if he actually wanted a third term, all he needed to do was to ask God, who had never refused him anything. Really? So, he is the only one who knows God like that out of the millions of people that populate the country. The thing is Obasanjo is full of himself and believes that he is better than any other person. Leadership is not cut that way.
Leadership is not about self, but the collective. It is the ability to rally others to get things done. A tree does not make a forest, it can only make a difference which others can key into to make things work for the betterment of the society. Obasanjo is a lucky person. From his military days as head of state to when he became president on the nation’s return to democracy in 1999, fate has always smiled on him. Not many men have such a destiny. Rather than appreciate the place of the providence in his life, he is carrying on as if it is of his own making that things have turned out the way they did for him.
I am not in anyway attacking the messenger and leaving the message, as some may want to say. No. The fact is one cannot look at the Obasanjo message which he delivered at Yale without looking at his person, the messenger. As the Yoruba would say, you first look at the apparel of the person who wishes to give you an attire. What was Obasanjo’s track record in office whether as military or civilian leader to warrant his trenchant criticisms of other leaders, especially his successors since he left office in 2007?
He did not even spare Umoru Yar’Adua who he singlehandedly installed in a flawed presidential election in 2007. Today, this same Obasanjo is pontificating on credible, free, fair and transparent elections conducted by a truly independent electoral umpire. If he knew this, why then did he not lead by example by laying the foundation for such elections and the composition of such an electoral body? Obasanjo appointed two chairmen for the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) during his tenure, without following the steps he is today outlining for the appointment of those electoral umpires.
The Obasanjo we all know would snub anybody that comes to him to tell him to follow the due process that he is now advocating for the appointment of INEC chairman. He would have told those people: ‘due process my foot’. There is no doubt that the appointment of INEC chiefs could be improved upon for the sake of our elections. But at what stage did Obasanjo know this? Is he now wiser after the fact of what he did while in office? If he had followed the steps he is outlining today in appointing Chief Abel Guobadia and Prof Maurice Iwu as INEC chiefs in 2000 and 2005, respectively, perhaps, people would have listened to him.
They would have commended him for practicing what he is preaching. His do what I say and not what I do approach is not helpful. By the provisions of the Constitution, a sitting President is entrusted with the responsibility of appointing the INEC chairman after briefing the Council of State (CoS), which is just an advisory organ on his intentions. Obasanjo cannot in his own time exercise this constitutional power and now seek to stop his successors from taking the same path in their own time.
His economic policies too were full of holes despite the killing the nation made from oil during his tenure. Of course the high oil price then had a concomitant effect on the economy, with our robust foreign reserves and impressive gross domestic products. But how well did he invest the oil earnings? If he and his economic team had initiated critical investments, the nation will not be where it is today. That he negotiated a debt forgiveness of $15 billion for the country from the London and Paris Club is not an investment. The debt relief came at a cost which the nation is still battling it with today.
The nation is neck-deep in debts again because of the bad planning and negotiations that went into that 2005 debt relief. Obasanjo is not a messenger of truth. Whenever he speaks, he embellishes it in order to create the impression that he has the nation’s love at heart. His fighting the civil war to keep Nigeria one, which he always refers to, does not make him a better Nigerian than any other Nigerian. He is not the only one that fought the civil war. He was just lucky to have collected the instrument of surrender from Biafra’s Philip Effiong.
Obasanjo reaped where he did not sow, as the war had been won and lost before he was posted to take over from Benjamin Adekunle at the Third Marine Commando. Obasanjo has a lot of baggage. He should take it easy so that he is not called out now and again whenever he speaks. He should first remove the beam in his own eyes before he sees the log in others’. If he continues to talk like this, people will always assess him, the messenger, and not his messages, because of his biases.
•Written by Lawal Ogienagbon
