Nigerians Boo Obasanjo On Emirates Flight

Former Nigerian three-term president, Olusegun Obasanjo was booed on an Emirates flight 783 from Dubai to Lagos on 14 November 2013.

Obasanjo was returning from a business trip in Dubai when his countrymen gave him an unfriendly welcome on the flight with boos and invective.

The Nigerians had been waiting on the cue to board when they were asked to make way for the First Class premium passenger. Eager to board “sharp sharp” (hurriedly) the Nigerian way, the Economy class passengers protested that after Obasanjo took them hostage for over 10 years as President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, they were not so ready to step aside to make way for him, to control them from the “passenger seat”.

Obasanjo first came to power in Nigeria through a military Coup d'Etat on 13 February 1976. He handed over power to Shehu Shagari on 1 October 1979 following democratic elections after two years in power. He went into private life as a farmer and traditional chief in Ogun State. He came back from retirement and contested elections winning twice to become civilian President from 29 May 1999 to 29 May 2007.

Nigerians blame him for most of their woes as they claim he is the Godfather of all Nigerian Presidents since the 1980s. They see his weight behind most past and present presidents of Nigeria. They have not also forgiven him for raiding and burning down the house of Fela Kuti, the late popular highlife musician. Fela and his family were beaten and raped and his mother, political activist Funmilayo Ransome Kuti was thrown out of a window to her death.

Ikechuku, one of the passengers from Enugu, returning from a business trip to India, said Nigeria needed to fight a war before democracy; human rights and governance would come to the country. He said the three regional divide of the country represented in a Y is a bane that could only be corrected by a war. Merit will only be respected in Nigeria when that happens.

Nkechi, another passenger on the Emirates flight touted him that Nigeria has been undergoing a perennial warfare since the Biafra war. Ikechuku waived her aside and said that was a political war with just one region, Biafra fighting the rest of the country.

Obasanjo did not settle on his seat in the First Class. He stood up and went round the plane as if to test his popularity.

Nobody stood up to challenge the political juggernaut of Nigerian politics, nor did they try to stop him.

I asked Obasanjo, from my seat, if he was not afraid of being assaulted by an irate passenger. He was leaning over me screening my face as if looking for a lost friend.

He showed me a Rastafarian walking behind him saying, “He takes care of me.” He also added that he is a survivor of many attempts on his life and was not scared of a few boos.

Obasanjo escaped death on 13 February 1976 when Army Colonel Dimka targeted him and General Murtala Muhammed in a Coup d'Etat. Murtala was killed but Obasanjo and Theophilus Danjuma, chief of army staff survived. Obasanjo was appointed Head of State by the Supreme Military Council.

Obasanjo spoke out against human rights abuses during the dictatorship of Sani Abacha between 1993 and 1998. He was arrested and imprisoned for his participation in an aborted coup. He was only released when Abacha died suddenly on 8 June 1998.

Obasanjo believed since he became a born-again Christian in prison, no weapon fashioned against him shall prosper. The bodyguard with the looks of a joker was a resolute buffer between the former President and any attacker. A middle aged man stood up to follow the former president and he was promptly barred from getting too close.

Former African presidents usually feel uneasy going around on commercial carriers. Some retired with private jets, and if allowed the luxury of a retirement flew on them. For most, contemplating retirement and returning to civilian life was unnerving. Such presidents will prefer to die in power than deprive themselves of the luxuries attached to the presidency.

Probably conscious of the uneasiness of a former president in retirement, Obasanjo provoked a controversy when he planned to revise the constitution to allow him to run for a third and fourth term. Obasanjo is credited to have ushered in democracy with the 1979 Constitution of the Second Republic styled after the Constitution of the United States of America. Yet the trappings of absolute power blinded this visionary of Nigerian politics to want more than two terms in office and probably a life presidency.

Nkechi intimated that if Obasanjo had appeared like that in an airport in Nigeria, he would have been pelted with rotten eggs.

Emirates flight 783 from Dubai landed at Murtala Mohammed airport in Lagos Nigeria at 12:15 p.m. Obasanjo checked out without any further booing or pelting with rotten eggs as Nkechi had suggested will happen on the Nigerian soil.

Fon Christopher Achobang
Senior Translator,
English-French-English
Expertise; International Business Translation; Literary Translation,

Medical Translation; Legal Translation, Editing; Proofreading; Translation lecturer.

Social Commentator, Human rights activist
The Cameroons
Tel, (237) 99365954
(237) 74211066