OBJ: The maverick takes centrestage again(1) GARBA MUHAMMAD As a habit, the only virtue former President Olusegun Obasajo’s critics will grudgingly concede to him is his matchless love for his country, his obsessive patriotism that set him apart from all his peers, in war and in peace. Once while serving as Chief of Staff Supreme Headquarters, the military equivalent of Vice President to General Murtala Muhammed, Obasanjo was about to enter a crucial State meeting when he received a message that his two-year old son Dayo, had just died. Obasanjo went into the meeting and participated actively. Afterwards he informed his colleagues that he had lost his son just before the meeting. Appalled, his colleagues wondered why he didn’t rush home in the light of something so serious. His response was perhaps the best definition of his robust, vigorous, sometimes turbulent but always passionate relationship with his country. He said, as narrated by one of his biographers Adinoyi Ojo Onukaba: “My son is dead, I cannot bring him back. This country is waiting and I cannot keep her waiting”. Even in that period of nationalistic fervor, it is hard to imagine any act that could beat that. Later in life he was to reaffirm this passionate love for country in different guises, including when he was called upon to be the head of state after the assassination of General Murtala Muhammed. Obasanjo refused, declaring that he was through with the army and everything associated with government since the nation is so unappreciative. He refused to budge despite pleas from powerful colleagues. Again according to Onukaba, it was only after an inspired General Abisoye had pointedly suggested that if Obasanjo would not accept, then they might as well invite leader of the failed coup that claimed Muhammed’s life, Col. Dimka to take over, that Obasanjo felt sufficiently moved to accept the challenge. Not many people would also give Baba the credit he rightly deserved over what he did when he took over. He lived up to his promises, following in Muhammed’s footsteps to the letter: from the pan-African thrust of their foreign policy which weakened Apartheid and helped to liberate some Southern African countries, to the courageous nationalists policies which revived national pride among Nigerians; to the all-important midwifing of the first ever successful transition from military to civilian rule in 1979. And yet despite all the sacrifices that OBJ has made for his country, his critics still prefer to judge him from their jaundiced perspective. But that is changing, ipso facto. Nowadays, former President Obasanjo’s critics are either relapsing into silence, or sheepishly shifting ground, reluctantly, grudgingly admitting that they had been wrong about him all along. When Baba’s son Lt. Col. Adeboye was shot in combat while fighting insurgents in Adamawa, one of his ardent critics, Col. Dangiwa Umar called me to admit that if Baba could allow his own son to be in the line of fire even though he could shield him with a single phone call, he (Umar) sends his best salute; admitting, finally that Baba is genuine. Not that it ever matters to Baba who is applauding. Then there was the funny issue of a so called Third Term. Baba is possibly the only one of the 170 million Nigerians that is being judged, convicted and sentenced for an offense he never committed! Some people have shockingly and stubbornly insisted that Baba was the sponsor of the advocacy for a tenure elongation campaign which sought to grant him a third term in office. On his part he had consistently insisted that he had nothing to do with it, and had challenged anybody with clear evidence to the contrary to come forward. Nobody has so far been able to provide such evidence (former FCT minister Nasir el-Rufai’s attempt in his book was no more than an unsubstantiated claim). And, in spite of himself, el-Rufai was indeed among the earliest callers to the Abeokuta residence of Obasanjo to seek his face in his political adventures. That in itself is enough to counteract whatever allegations are contained in the former minister’s book of disputed recollections. Even those who ask the logical question of why Baba did not stop the advocates of tenure elongation are merely being mischievous. The former president has maintained that he did not stop them because he was convinced the best way to kill the project once and for all was to allow it to exhaust itself; reasoning, correctly, that if those who pushed for it tried and failed, then no one would ever try it again. Which was exactly what happened.The infamous project ran its course, got burnt out and died at the cradle of all democracies–the Legislature; and our democracy was the richer for it. And that is why, thank God, Baba now has the moral authority to tell Mr. Jonathan, who is himself toying with a similar idea, “Don’t do it”. After 2007, OBJ had kept a respectable distance from Aso Rock. Untill the need arose when then President Yar’Adua’s terminal illness presented a political crisis that required a commanding voice to intervene. Again Baba stepped forward and advised Yar’Adua to “take the part of hounour” by relinquishing power since he was apparently too sick to carry on. That remark set in motion the series of events that enabled Dr. Jonathan to assume power as Acting President. This stabilized the polity and prevented what could have been a protracted political stalemate. After helping to install Mr. Jonathan as elected President in 2011, Obasanjo retreated to his farm, playing the international statesman, gradually supplanting the ailing Nelson Mandela as Africa’s pre-eminent political compass.
Posted on: Tue, 14 Oct 2014 04:35:44 +0000
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