By ONU JOHN ONWE

President Olusegun Obasanjo’s life is intertwined with the formation and development of Nigeria as a country, and for this reason both (country and citizen) share similarities and dissimilarities or divergence, which are easily cognizable to even a casual onlooker. Britain formed Nigeria out of diverse mass of conquered peoples marked by a humongous violence, which Fela Anikulapo Kuti has characterized as “tears, sorrows and blood.” The instrument used to achieve the conquest and formation of Nigeria was the “armed forces” provided by the Britain directly and indirectly by public and private military resources as epitomized by British monarch’s regiments and that of commercial concerns like Sir. Taubman Goldie’s Royal Niger Company’s constabulary force commanded by Captain Fredrick Lugard, a soldier-of-fortune later knighted by Britain for his ruthless conquest and formation of Nigeria.

These military forces were later organised by Lord Lugard as the West African Frontier Force from which the Nigerian Armed Forces originated. So you can see from which angle Obasanjo as a general of the Nigerian Armed Forces has special relationship with Nigeria. First, as a soldier recruited under colonial rule to sustain the colonial rule and maintain the existence of Nigeria as a British creation both as a country and a British neocolonial facility. President Obasanjo as a citizen and soldier fulfilled those British intentions for Nigeria when he alongside the faction of the Nigerian armed forces from 1966-1970 played pivotal roles to preserve the idea of a country and invariably sustain British intention of having Nigeria as a neocolonial state amenable to it’s influence/control.

President Obasanjo, of all the thousands of General that have bestridden Nigeria is unarguably the most educated, most intelligent, and most patriotic and possessed of uncanny ability to manage politics and statesmanship. A testimony of this characterization is best attested by no less a person than his kinsman but a “foe” of a kind, Wole Soyinka who at the height of President Obasanjo’s travails under General Sani Abacha declared that General Obasanjo should not be rubbished as General Abacha despite his headship of Nigeria was not of greater value than the “dirt” in Obasanjo’s fingernail.

Obasanjo’s emergence as a shining star in Nigeria’s military and political firmament was bolstered by the ethnic cleansing that July 29, 1966 Araba Coupists carried out of the Igbo military officer corps, and those that escaped the pogroms pledged their alliance to the Biafra cause which after the war disabled them in the system. Thus cleansed out of Nigerian armed forces, General Obasanjo cannot but shine like a lodestar out of the geophysical firmament of mediocrity foisted on Nigeria. What unfurled out of this situation was a vicious cult of mediocrity that hijacked Nigeria, turning it as a private estate as testified by General Mohammed Chris Ali, former Chief of Army Staff in his memoir.

As a patriot, President Obasanjo has paid his dues having fought in the Biafra War, first as the Commanding Officer in Western State that frustrated Col. Victor Banjo’s blitzkrieg to seize Western Region and overthrow both Generals Gowon and Ojukwu and restore Nigeria according to Banjo’s group’s desires. Second, when Brigadier-General Benjamin Adekunle grew tired of the Biafra War, after visiting Lagos and perceiving that certain class of Nigerian soldiers was living big and dreaming dreams of having unquestionable control of Nigeria during and after the war, he (Adekunle) got disillusioned which earned him a sack to be replaced with General Obasanjo who took command of the 3rd Marine Command and concluded the war. Are all these not written in the chronicles of the Biafra War? General Obasanjo took the instrument of surrender from Republic of Biafra headed by General Effiong and so helped to preserve Nigeria as a country. In all his chronicles of Nigeria, General Obasanjo made it clear that without foreign interference (read Britain and allied neocolonial interests) the Nigeria’s crises would have been sorted out peaceably without the civil war that we fought to preserve British intentions about Nigeria and Africa. So, those excoriating President Obasanjo over his exercise of right to choice of political options should know from which angle he is coming and going. General Obasanjo as a soldier/politician/statesman has ruled Nigeria as a Military Head of State and as a democratically elected President and his statesmanship transcends beyond Nigeria and Africa spilling over to the World. So, who are these politicians questioning the right of this great man to guide his nation to the right path?

President Obasanjo’s Letter (My Appeal to All Nigerians Particularly Young Nigerians) delivered on New Year (01-01-2023) was like his previous letters a bombshell and it shattered many vested interests’ expectations. Recall that the four frontrunners in the 2023 presidential election have visited him soliciting support for their ambitions. Most dramatic of the visitations were those of Asiwaju Bola Tinubu who went with a strong delegation of Yoruba Elder’s and Obasanjo led him by hand into his parlour like a kid and after the visit, Tinubu’s delegation represented by Speaker Femi Gbajabiamila boasted that Obasanjo had endorsed Tinubu, which claim drew a sharp rebuttal. PDP’s Atiku represented by Governor Okowa visited Obasanjo but instead of endorsement was allegedly slammed with a stamp of “betrayal” of national cause.

Why do these political principalities rage and imagine vainglories over the innocuous message this great statesman has made to his fellow compatriots? Have these politicians taken time to read the message and appreciate the verities of it? This letter by President Obasanjo ranks as one of the best so far written as it can best be described as his last card on Nigeria to steer a course leading to life instead of death. Every sincere Nigerian knows that all the problems besetting Nigeria are throes of revolutionary pressure or social change or even pangs of death. But Nigerian politicians are ignorant of this situation hence their blustering dismissal of Nigerians’ difficult conditions and boasts of retaining and continuing with the decadent system. Knowing of the consequence of this politicians’ dance of death, these statesman led by Obasanjo have intervened to guide Nigerians especially young Nigerians who have been leaving Nigeria (“japa”) in droves to escape the envisaged Armageddon or National Catastrophe that lurks after 2023, to stay back, fight with their votes to reclaim Nigeria and make it a desired polity for their inheritance. So, what offence has Obasanjo committed in making his political choices public? Were these politicians not the same APC people led by Tinubu in 2015 electoral season that applauded Obasanjo’s endorsement of General Buhari, their APC presidential candidate, and even boasted that Obasanjo and others make Presidents in Nigeria? So, what has changed between 2015 and now?

And when Obasanjo chose Atiku/Peter Obi in 2019, it was the same Tinubu that mounted the soapbox to dismiss Obasanjo as “useless” but scurried back to Obasanjo in 2022 for endorsement? As I said before; this letter by Obasanjo is perhaps the best so far, crafted tactically and logically. He acknowledged the difficult history of Nigeria of which he played a part but concluded that Buhari’s misgovernance plunged Nigeria from frying pan to fire. This irked Buhari Presidency and they reacted without reasoning, opining that Obasanjo was envious of Buhari.

Obasanjo did not claim innocence in the Nigerian conundrum. No he attributed it to all Nigerians but counsels Nigerians especially young Nigerians to seize the opportunity of 2023 electoral season to take over Nigeria and transform it into a “better future – future of liberation, restoration and great hope and expectation.” Obasanjo declared that each of the four leading candidates claims him as mentor and had told him that what they might do to solve Nigerians problem was employing his presidency (1999-2007) formula but that he told them that the time has changed thereby necessitating a new diagnosis and solutions. Obasanjo also attacked the sense of entitlement of Nigerian politicians whose claim of personal right to leadership through the false narrative of Tinubu’s ‘emilokan’ and others’ “I have paid my dues” were all misplaced attitude/mentality to leadership which cannot lead to a reinvention and rebuilding of Nigeria on egalitarian and democratic basis. To him that attitude to leadership is at best feudal and autocratic. The youths should rather assert their collective claim to Nigeria and its leadership on the basis of shared visions and praxis on the pedestal of “Awalokan.”

Many people may not appreciate that Obasanjo’s letter is suffused with patriotic postulates as he counsels the youth not to thread the mistaken path their parents took that landed Nigeria in the present mess. That trodden path was the path of ethnic religious and political intolerance that manifested in the Western Region Crises, Tiv Riots, 1966 Coups, Pogroms, Civil War which have engendered OPC, Egbesu, MASSOB, IPOB, Boko Haram, and Banditry. To Obasanjo, no Nigerian or group can claim innocence in the past problem and their present manifestations. This advice by Obasanjo is at the heart of Nigeria’s problem of achieving nationhood as a political tendency in Nigeria has taken it as its agenda to exclude the Igbo at the apex of Nigeria leadership organogram by touting the false claims that the Igbo cannot be trusted with leadership. But those that have been trusted with Nigerian leadership what did they do with it other than nepotistic and corrupt rulership that made Nigeria a turbulent, corrupt and poverty-stricken country, the ‘Sick Man of Africa’. The realisation of the fact that the Igbo is not the problem by great number of Nigerian youths led to their adoption of Peter Obi as its candidate for 2023 hence the Obedient Movement just as Nigerian youths in 1946 adopted Azikiwe as its leader against Britain’s colonialism.

Concluding his letter, President Obasanjo weighed in on certain parameters centred on “track record of ability and performance; vision that is authentic, honest and realistic; character and attributes of lady and gentleman who are children of God and obedient to God; physical and mental capability and soundness of mind …” as the job of a president is arduous especially given Nigerians’ present parlous condition, and knowing that no human being is perfect or can claim messiahship, and endorsed Mr. Peter Obi as his preferred choice for President. According to him, Mr. Obi compared to the contestants, has an “edge in character, antecedent, their understanding, knowledge, discipline and vitality” that can be brought to bear on the office of President. Above all, Obi has good mentors from North and South he can listen to without getting lost to the howling hordes of tribalists and religious bigots. Obasanjo’s endorsement of Peter Obi is not without empirical data. As Governor of diseased and distracted Anambra State after decades of misgovernance, Peter Obi reclaimed and governed the state on the template of Millennial Development Goals whereof emphasis was placed on education, health, water/sanitation, rural/urban infrastructure and economic resuscitation and Anambra State became the best governed state in Nigeria posting the best educational attainments in WAEC, etc. He has not been accused with any provable crime of corruption and he made investments/savings for his state before leaving office.

So, President Obasanjo is right in endorsing Peter Obi and I think he is doing this conscious of the fact that this national duty is his very last card on Nigeria. As he said, 2023 may be Nigerians’ last chance to repossess and steer Nigeria on the path of transformation into a modern nation-state founded on truth, justice, democracy and freedom.

Dr. Onu John Onwe is the Curator of Hopebay Library, Abakaliki, Ebonyi State (The Guardian)

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