Obasanjo are you God?

ARE YOU GREATER THAN GOD?

Recently one of the thin gods of Nigeria passed a “sentence” on the South-South Zone of the geo-political sector of Nigeria. He said “the Performance of the immediate past president, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan While in office, whether positive or negative, will haunt the people
of the South-South region for a long time to come” This same man who ruled Nigeria for close to 11 years is also quoted, immediately after the results of the presidential election that “a minority from that region can never be Nigerian President again” While this writer is not
finding an axe to grind with Former President Olusegun Obasanjo, but I make bold to defile assassin’s bullet and question the moral rights the retired General has to pass a “sentence” on my people. And suffice it to say that such as his utterances against my people of the
South-South, because of his hatred for an individual, smack of tribalism, nepotism and marginalization. To stand on the soil of Edo in particular and South-South in general, and utter such uncomplimentary vitriol is an affront on the whole people of my
geo-political zone.

The question that begs for answers here is, did Chief Obasanjo speak his personal opinion or did he speak from the depth of the agenda the “ruling class” of Nigeria has for the South-South? But from the categorical pronouncement of the “sentence”, one is tempted to assume correctly or incorrectly, that the chief may not have only spoken his mind. It is no gain-saying that there is a ‘cabal of sacred cows’ in Nigeria, those that get away from anything impure; who put themselves above the laws of the land; those that cover their sores and point at other’s; those that determine who gets what in Nigeria; and the chief’s military career availed him membership of that cabal. As of today, Nigeria is back in the hands of that cabal or how else the chief found it palatable to go to a geo-political zone and passed "sentence” on its people. The chief’s show in Benin was a feat no ordinary Nigerian leader from any zone can marshal – you have to be sure of some protection from the angst of the people. And in short, no leader in or outside the cabal can go to anywhere in South-West
geo-political zone, pass a “sentence” on the people and leaves that land a complete whole.
The implications of Obasanjo’s vitriolic “sentencing” of the South-South for the “sins” of Former President Jonathan are grave; it is either that a decision must have been made by Nigeria’s kingmakers to never allow an aspirant from the South-South zone to become
President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, in the near and distant future, or that the newly found political romance between the North and South-West would be sustained by slaughtering the South-South zone on the altar of hatred and subjugation. And in that case the South-South is condemned to slavery by which even the unborn generation may and can never benefit from aspirations to the highest office of the land.  In the fore-going therefore, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo needs to clarify the stake of the people of South-South zone
in the Nigeria’s project. He needs to tell us the limitations of South-South political aspirations. And indeed he needs to confirm to us if we, as Nigerians have equal rights with people of his geo-political zone and other zones of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

Come to think of it, what are the abominable crimes of Former President Goodluck Jonathan that his South-South people should be perpetually hunted for? What is Former President Jonathan guilty of that other past presidents, civil or military were not? And how much
have the people from the geo-political zones of guilty past presidents suffered for the poor performances of their kinsmen? Nigerians know the performances of their past presidents, including the “righteous one” General Obasanjo but no one had been stigmatized or haunted for their poor performances. Then why is Former President Jonathan’s zonal people, isn’t because they are not members of the cabal? Haunting people of a geo-political zone because of the positive or negative performances of any of their wards is politics of annihilation,
victimization, divisiveness and zonal chauvinism. Politicians like the Owu chief are the best at this manner of politics. It is not morally and humanly right to punish a person for the wrong-doings of another. Even our Almighty God says in Ezekiel 18:20 “The soul that sinneth, it
shall die. The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son: the righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him” Is Chief Olusegun Obasanjo greater than God?

At this juncture, the Owu chief needs to be reminded of the opinions and findings of some eminent Nigerians, amongst who are members of his family, of his antecedents in office and personality traits:

Erstwhile Principal General Staff Officer of the Nigerian Army and Chief of Staff of 3 Marine Commando Division during the Civil War, Brig.-Gen. Godwin Alabi-Isama (rtd.), claimed that Obasanjo was behind the many problems currently tearing the nation apart. In response to
the lies in Olusegun Obasanjo’s My Watch,’ Isama stated that Obasanjo was not in the best position to criticise anyone, warning that the ex-leader should stop lying before he dies. Gen. Isama’s close friend, General Alani Akinrinade gave him two copies of General Olusegun
Obasanjo's books to read and remarked that the books would turn his belly. It surely did. General Alabi-Isama discovered that there were so many distortions of fact in the books, and he immediately dismissed them as tapestries of inaccuracies. Gen. Isama added that “the tragedy of our civil war is painful, but that Obasanjo is publishing fiction about it is so outrageous. We should not allow this liar to get away with his self-serving lies. He is an elder and a former ruler who, ordinarily, should be treated with utmost respect. But how can one
genuinely respect an old man who tells lies like a badly raised child? I’m alive to stand up to him on the lies he has told on the war because I was a major participant in it.  I kept records.  With facts and figures at my finger tips, I have debunked Obasanjo’s lies in part
three of my book, consisting of one hundred and sixty five pages,sixty nine pictures, thirteen military strategies and tactics, maps and documents”.

In his book, “Watch the Watcher: A Book of Remembrance of Obasanjo’s Years” Yinka Odumakin’s  offers additional iron cages of morality with which the victims of President Obasanjo’s politics would want to tame and cage him. It is expected that the book will provoke more polemical debates and disclosures that will empower Nigerians to expose and cage all their oppressors in shame and silence. He wrote: “what is most damning charge is the bloodchilling list of victims of “high profile politically motivated killings under Obasanjo’s regime”. Some of the most horrendous cases are those of Chief Bola Ige (President
Obasanjo’s Attorney General and Minister of Justice), Dr. Marshall Harry of Rivers State, Victor Nwankwo, Barnabas Igwe, Professor Chimere Ikoku (former Vice-Chancellor of the University of Maiduguri),Dele Arojo, and Alhaji Ahmed Pategi. There are a few names left out in the list such as those of Chief Dikibo of Rivers State and Engineer Funso Williams of Lagos, both front liners of the PDP. None of these deaths has been investigated with satisfactory results”. Odumakin’s litany of Obasanjo’s failures is extensive. Odumakin further stated: “Readers who seek further verification of President Obasanjo’s authorship of the “third term” gambit are advised to read the interview by Senator Adophous Wabara at pages 195-197. The title is “I Was Offered N250m for Obasanjo’s Third Term”. Let us take the final
verdict of these supporting documents from Chief Ayo Opadokun and Chief Segun Osoba. First, Chief Opadokun, a veteran of the June 12 struggle: “The exposure of his mental gaffe and debilitation through self-glorification, in classifying himself as one of the greats from
Ogun State, while Chief Obafemi Awolowo could not count as one of them, is a further exposure of Obasanjo’s moral personality”. Here is the judgement by Chief Segun Osoba, former Governor of Ogun State: “He (Obasanjo) has not only been tamed in Ogun State, he has been caged in the entire country. The 2011 elections have put him where he belongs.
It has put him in an iron cage where he cannot escape. He should now go and live the rest of his life in peace and learn to keep his mouth shut. No more grand standing and I have my reasons for saying so…I pity him that in his life time his fraudulent political activities are
being exposed…”.

Professor Niyi Osundare was no less ruthless in his letters to Obasanjo. Part of them reads: “President Obasanjo, Nigeria is dying in your hands. But like some strange figure from another planet, you seem absolutely unaware of the enormity of the problem. Every act of yours demonstrates your lack of respect for the people you rule, and your gross underestimation of the level of political consciousness they have attained in the past eight years of “nascent democracy”, the degree of experience they have gained from their suffering under your yoke and the yokes of your equally oppressive predecessors in power.
Everywhere you have turned in the past four years (sometime in the future, you would wish you hadn’t had a second term), your feet have fallen on thorns and pebbles: the fomenting of wasteful political disaffection in Anambra, and Oyo States, the cunning manoeuvring that
has turned you into an absolute monarch of your great Party, the PDP, your routine disrespect for legitimate court injunctions and well-deliberated laws from the Legislature, your back-handed attempt to extend your presidential tenure, and your embarrassing showdown with your Vice President over how BOTH of you have mismanaged and squandered the resources of the Petroleum Trust Fund Development (PTDF). As scandalized Nigerians watched their so-called Number One and Number Two citizens dancing so abominably naked in the streets despite their lavish robes, we all wondered: what manner of rulers are these that have absolutely no sense of shame?! Your Excellency, you remind me of the proverbial king that has shat on the throne. Your nose may be too far from the message of you discharge, but the country is surely choking from the stench”.

 And Gani Fawehinmi, the late stormy petrel of human rights, said “Obasanjo’s rule by 2007 was “eight years of self-centred disposition, eight years of wayo, eight years of deception, eight years of creating a few rich people….eight years of dictatorship…” Odumakin agrees with
Fawehinmi in his angst against President Obasanjo’s economic mismanagement, especially as he pauperised millions of Nigerians by increasing the prices of petroleum products about eleven times in eight years.

Pioneer chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu allegedly described corruption under President Olusegun Obasanjo as worse than that of late General Sani Abacha, according to United States cable obtained by Wikileaks. The
report released by Wikileaks stated that a meeting which the former US Ambassador to Nigeria, Robin Sanders had with Mallam Ribadu to discuss his removal from the EFCC, Ribadu told the US ambassador that Obasanjo was good at covering his tracks while admitting that corruption was worse under Obasanjo. Ribadu was quoted as saying that former President Obasanjo knew how to play the game. “Although he created the EFCC and understood its importance for him with the international community, Ribadu explained, that by far and even more than the Abacha days, corruption under Obasanjo’s eight years was far worse. (SOURCE: Vanguard of September 04, 2011)

A political scientist and speaker at the 39th public lecture on “Bullet versus Ballot: Interrogating Nigeria’s 4th Republic Electoral’s Consultations,” Prof. Adekunle Amuwo, said former President Olusegun Obasanjo failed Nigeria during his tenure. The lecture was organised by the Covenant University, Ota, Ogun State. Amuwo, who claimed he had full knowledge of how Obasanjo emerged the President of the country in 1999, said that the former President’s rule was the genesis of the level of corruption currently being
experienced in the country. While saying the Peoples Democratic Partyhad not moved Nigeria forward for an inch, he described Jonathan’s rule as the legacy Obasanjo left behind. (SOURCE: Punch of January 31, 2015)

Adekoya Boladale, a renowned Nigerian columnist, socio-political commentator and consultant focused his attention on the former Nigeria’s leader Olusegun Obasanjo. Here is what he exposed:

“Under his watch, corruption, graft and nepotism were knighted into the nucleus of democratic institutions. Nigeria, a nation with every needed elements to grow and develop, was dragged back to the primordial days. He corrupted key institutions and processes – the
INEC, the police, civil service, and legislature, among others. To say the Obasanjo’s administration didn’t have some pluses would be unfair. The privatizations of the telecom industry and bank recapitalization were strong and needed policies his government implemented. But his bad overweighs his goods.

In the report of the infamous Halliburton fraud, President (as he then was) Obasanjo supervised the sharing of the $74 million bribe by Halliburton to influence the award of the liquefied natural gas (LNG) contract in Nigeria. He was reported to have given his aide, Bodunde Adeyanju, a whooping $21 million of the bribe. This is less the Siemens and Wilbros oil scams.

The $16 billion allocated for the National Integrated Power Project developed magical legs while additional N16 billion was paid to 34 ghost companies to execute project under the same scheme.

Obasanjo directed the sale of the Kaduna and Port Harcourt refineries to friends at a giveaway price of $750 million.

In his promise to revive the railway sector, President Obasanjo removed N8.3 billion from the nation’s treasury, but this money miraculously didn’t get to the rails.

On February 5, 2009, the Daily Sun reported that President Obasanjo has allegedly single-handedly withdrawn N232 billion from the Federation Account without any approval from the National Assembly.

The bilateral air transport agreement (BASA) fund of $86 million felt the touch of the former President, as $68.8 million “suddenly disappeared” via an order from Obasanjo.

Transcorp, believed to be directly linked to Obasanjo Holdings Limited, suddenly got acquisition of four major oil blocs (namely, OPL218, 219, 209 and 220) allocated to it on 21 July 2005 by President Obasanjo; it also acquired NITEL and Nicon-Hilton.

At the twilight of his administration, President Olusegun Obasanjo awarded some contracts totalling N850bn in the following tranches: N70 billion to revive textile industry; N58.6bn for the second Niger Bridge and maintenance of same for N42bn; N16.53bn for reconstruction
of the Lagos port harbours; N20bn for expansion of the Lagos airport; N4.8bn to build permanent accommodation for the Security and Exchange Commission (SEC); N1.39bn for construction of the Ministry of Defence’s permanent residence; N1.4bn for conversion of steam and head for power plant; N47.4bn for conversion of the Alaoji power plant to
double circuit; N3.5bn for procurement and repair of two boilers at the Egbin power station; N233 million to fix the Agege-Lagos road. All these funds were stolen!

In his infamous third-term move, the former President was reported to have bribed members of the National Assembly with a total sum of N10 billion, a report former Senate President, Ken Nnamani and Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila corroborated.

Today, the same Obasanjo parades himself as a nationalist and a statesman. In his book titled ‘My Watch’, Obasanjo amplified himself as a saint who was surrounded by criminals, but, above all, a saint. The book illustrates the fiction of what Obasanjo would have loved to
be and represent. Just like he demonstrated in ‘My Command’, his personal memoir on the civil war, he centers himself as a Marvel superhero against everyone. Today, he stands up tall to blast the administration of Goodluck Jonathan, as he did against the late Umaru Yar’adua and Gbenga Daniel. The sin of the trio was that they didn’t give him the privilege to run via proxy. Most of the attacks on the Jonathan administration were based on the flaws and frauds of the Obasanjo’s administration. (SOURCE: Naij.com)

Adding his voice in corroboration, the traditional ruler of Lagos, His Majesty Oba Rilwan Akiolu, said that Obasanjo’s government was the most corrupt in the history of Nigeria. The respected monarch cannot be more correct. Amidst Obasanjo’s catalogue of anti-corruption verbal interventions, the question that now begs for an urgent answer is: Is Obasanjo among the Saints?

“Due largely to our lamentable short memory, it seems as though we have forgotten so soon about the person of Chief Olusegun Obasanjo and his recent past. But the poor boy from Owu Village in Ogun State was led by fortuitous and opportunistic circumstances to have a rendezvous with history and destiny. Against his will and command, Obasanjo became head of state after the assassination of his boss, General Murtala Muhammed. He was said to have been the man who launched Nigeria into the estranged comity of heavily indebted nations when he took the first ever N1 billion International Monetary Fund, IMF, loan in 1978 when the Nigerian currency was 75 kobo to the United States dollar.Moments after Obasanjo left office in 1979, his regime’s pet project, Operation Feed the Nation, OFN, ceased to exist. It was succeeded by the Obasanjo Farms Nigeria. (OFN ‘national’ metamorphosed to OFN
‘personal’) Today, the Ota Farms which was allegedly reduced to zero level by the regime of the late General Sani Abacha, is reputed to be one of the richest privately owned farms in the world”, the monarch insisted.

In her book titled ‘Bitter-Sweet: My life with Obasanjo’ by the first and senior wife of the Former President, Mrs Oluremi Obasanjo claims: “the former president is a "master in the art of deception", an "exploiter," a "violent and unrepentant wife-basher" and lacking sexual discipline as he unrepentantly engaged in a string of affairs with single and married women (she names several of them in the book), siring several children out of wedlock.

And his eldest or second son, Gbenga Obasanjo bomb shelled when he exposed an abominable and ugly side of his father, titled: “HOW MY FATHER MADE LOVE TO MY WIFE” – GBENGA OBASANJO “This son of the former President and head of state, President Olusegun Obasanjo finally opens can of worms about his frosty relationship with his alleged randy
father. In what appears to be a messy divorce between Gbenga Obasanjo, and his estranged wife, Mojisola Olayemisi Amope, he ropped a bombshell on his father’s alleged sexual intimacy with his wife, Moji. Gbenga accused his own father and Nigeria’s former president of having
sex with his (Gbenga’s) wife before awarding contracts to her. This shocking revelation is contained in an affidavit he submitted to the court in response to a messy divorce case already in court. Even the estranged wife, Moji actually called “Baba” an “animal.” (SOURCE: Vibe Nigeria)

The season of open letters must be fresh in the minds of Nigerians when the senior daughter of the Former President Olusegun Obasanjo, Senator Iyabo Obasanjo wrote a letter titled “Your Madness is Part of Societal Madness” to her father to rule out further communication with him till death, describing him as a liar, manipulator, two-faced hypocrite determined to foist on President Goodluck Jonathan what no one would contemplate with him as president. She further described him in that letter of having an egoistic craving for power and living a
life where only men of low esteem and intellect thrive.

Part of Chief Edwin Kiagbodo Clark’s letter of January 7, 2014 and titled “Let the Truth Be Told Before It Is Too Late” reads: “How dare you point accusing fingers at others when you have a cupboard filled with skeletons? You have forgotten the saying that ‘A man who lives in
a glass house should not throw stones’,” “You are today one of the richest men in Nigeria if not in Africa. In 1999, it was widely reported in the media that you came out of Gasua Prison very broke. As a matter of fact, it was stated that you had N20,000 in your bank account as declared in your Code of Conduct Bureau Form. In just 8 years, as President of Nigeria, you metamorphosed from a struggling ex-head of state, into a life of opulence. You must tell Nigerians the magic behind the sudden affluence. When corruption is mentioned, informed Nigerians know those that foisted the malady on our nation. (SOURCE: Naij.com)

Like a story in a book, Obasanjo was the first President in the world to have issued himself the license to own a private university while still a sitting President. He is the proud owner of Bell University of Technology, Ota. As you read this piece, Obasanjo is the owner of the
N12.7 billion Obasanjo Presidential Library at Ota in Ogun State. There is also the Five Star hotel he allegedly completed upon leaving office in 2007. His hilltop mansion a section of which was gutted by fire early last year was built while he was President. Obasanjo was
alleged to have bought substantial shares in Transcorp, meaning he is into hospitality, airlines, insurance, agriculture, construction, oil and gas, etc. It was during his administration that a whopping $16 billion was spent to generate darkness for Nigerians for eight miserable years. It is as though Nigerians have forgotten so soon the ikoyi land deals scandal, the National Poverty Alleviation scandal, the N10 billion presidential jet scandal, the Halliburton bribery scandal and the rest of the jaw-breaking, mind-boggling corruption allegations that coloured Obasanjo’s dull Presidency. Here, we are not talking about the N36 trillion generated between 1999 and 2007 under Obasanjo who doubled as Petroleum Minister for seven and a half years. (SOURCE: NewsWirengr.com)

The lists of Chief Olusegun Obasanjo’s atrocities in office are inexhaustible. Under these areas of unethical deals fall the cases of the military invasion and destruction of Odi in Bayelsa State in November 1999 and Zaki Biam in Benue State in 2001. The massacres that
took place caused grave embarrassment to Nigeria under a civilian dispensation but the people of Bayelsa and Benue States did not hold these massacres against the people of the geo-political zone of Obasanjo and neither did any past leader passed a ‘sentence’ on that
zone. Why should the people of my zone be haunted for a long time to come because of Former President Jonathan?

An article attributed to Daniel Wesley and published in the Visual Economics.CreditLoan.com ranks Chief Olusegun Obasanjo among the wealthiest leaders in the world. In summary: “Presidents of many nations are millionaires and even billionaires. Sometimes this is from
the wealth needed to obtain the position, and sometimes it is the result of taking a high percentage of the wealth in the country as personal assets. In many countries, simply doing business in that country requires payments to officials in order to keep the process
moving. Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi is worth $9.4 billion. Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo is worth $1.3 billion. President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe is worth $3 billion.

And in his comment on this publication, Wale Odusola asks “Why is Obasanjo accusing President Jonathan of shielding corrupt politicians, when he knows that he himself is corrupt?? Nigerians should join Wale and I to ask Obasanjo why he is casting aspersions on our people in South-South geo-political zone? We should demand from the randy former
president why he is biting more than he can chew by extending his hatred for one man to the whole people of a geo-political zone? Above all let all fair-minded Nigerians put all the atrocities of Obasanjo, as exposed and the imaginary atrocities of Jonathan on the balancing
scoops of a scale and let’s see which out-weighs the other. While this writer is not soliciting for Former President Jonathan as 100% clean, it is obvious that Chief Olusegun Obasanjo’s bottled up anger against his erstwhile “political godson” is becoming sinister, particularly
when he has now extended it to the people of the South-South. And if you ask me, I can identify 3 reasons for the chief’s anguish:

It became his stock-in-trade since 2012 to attack Former President Jonathan when it became obvious to him that Jonathan would not allow him to have his scuttled third term agenda through the back door – converting him (Jonathan) to his political stooge. This
contributed to the chief’s resignation as chairman of PDP’s Board of Trustees (BOT).

The obvious facts that in true comparison, former President Jonathan’s 6 years achievements in office outweigh the chief’s 8 years in office. I challenge anyone who disputes this to put his/her analysis on the public table for ordinary Nigerians.

The Bayelsa born former President has won international acclaim over his display of the highest form of civility by conceding victory to his opponent even when the actual result was still evolving. An international award the chief did not earn in office, not even when he ceded Bakassi to the Republic of Cameroon.

I firmly agree with Dan Amor in his conclusion of his write-up “Why Obasanjo Must Leave Jonathan Alone” that his current support for President Muhammadu Buhari is hypocritical, not from his heart. He is just playing to the gallery to avoid being probed for his reckless
plundering of our national patrimony into his private pockets. Jonathan should come out of his shell and tell Obasanjo the home truth. That he lost election does not mean he should allow Obasanjo reduce him to an ant in his moral tea cup.

LONG LIVE THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF NIGERIA.