OBJ: Knowing when to write and how to read a letter
Ex-president Olusegun Obasanjo sure knows how to have a laugh. When it
comes to making bare faced innuendos, challenging people on issues he
loathed to be challenged on in the past, he sure takes the cake. His
beautiful tribute to Mandela the other day read like an ironic tale with
oxymoronic twists. His take on Mandela's forgiving spirit and how he
decided to stay one term brought memories of his past indiscretions to the
fore. But this may be a story for another day.
I am one of many Nigerians who were concerned when OBJ's letter to
president Jonathan was brought to light some days ago. That letter must
rank as the most direct and brazen ever written to a sitting president
anywhere in Africa. It was frontal, it was straight and if this were a
letter written to OBJ when he was president, it would have been considered
and treated as provoking, confrontational and challenging. Indeed it was.
OBJ's allegations of corruption in the country are not new so I will not
be dwelling on that. Enough has been said and written on corruption in
Nigeria that what surprises me is that people are still surprised or act
surprised when this is mentioned. Now, corruption and its tendencies are a
deeply important issue, one that I take seriously and which I feel is the
single most important factor plaguing the country today. However, having
gone through OBJ's letter, there is not enough in it to persuade even the
most gullible of readers that this was the main crux of the matter.
Allegations of the training of snipers, while grave and alarming only
reminds one of the same allegations made against former governor Gbenga
Daniel while he was Governor and still a pal of OBJ. These alongside his
broadside against Kashamu are mere appendages, an afterthought rather than
main grouses. OBJ's main grouse against president Goodluck Jonathan is
based on the 2015 elections. And rightly so.
I had written an article in 2010 and published in several Nigerian
dailies. It was titled 'zoning And 2011: A Test for Patriots and
Compatriots.' In it, I had warned of the grave consequences of discarding
the zoning principle of the ruling party on the altar of convenience and
expediency. I further warned that 'while zoning may seem retrogressive and
backward, it is the only way to go if we are to sustain trust and
eliminate suspicion among Nigerians on differing sides and on the grounds
of morality and honour, credibility, integrity and egalitarianism'. When
there is an agreement, whether gentlemanly or not, it should be obeyed to
the letter except when those in agreement agree to annul same. My
reasoning remains the same. Agreements are sacrosanct, be it agreements
between individuals, within political parties or between politicians and
the electorate. It needs to be that simple.The only way of sustaining as
one a multi-ethnic, multi-cultural and religious country as ours is to
allow power rotate between or amongst the zones.
OBJ was one of the main champions of temporarily discarding the zoning
agreement on the basis of convenience. His decision to support Jonathan
went clearly against an agreement he had signed on to and which he always
supported. That he is going back to that same agreement now points to
multiple facts. He knows that it was a mistake to jettison the agreement
in the first place. He wants to make amends. He is in denial about his
role in the current impasse.
I do not think that OBJ in writing this letter and making this argument is
making it for primary political purposes. While there may be secondary
political promptings especially with his bizarre references to Buruji
Kashamu, my take is that he has the nation's interest at heart. Make no
mistake about this: the country is in grave political danger and you do
not write the nation's number one citizen such an acerbic letter simply to
gain personal political advantages; that in itself will be tantamount to
playing poor and pedestrian politics, which is not worthy of one regarded
by many as one of the craftiest politicians in the nation's history. OBJ's
primary motive is to atone for mistakes of the past and in so doing
preserve the unity of the country. The country's existence can only be
persevered when all regions feel able to trust and watch each other's
back, when various interest groups feel able to enter into agreements with
assurances that such will be kept and made sacrosanct.
The president should be very disturbed even though he does not appear so.
I see a president who has made up his mind to ride his ambition roughshod
over the nation. I see a president who feels assured that he has the
apparatus to have his way even while others may have their say. I see a
president who feels pretty comfortable and certain that heavens will not
fall if he rams his way through. For these reasons, I do not expect the
president to respond directly to OBJ like his advisers have said he will.
If he does, it will not be as vibrant as his advisers' say it will. I see
a president whose body language is that of 'let them say…..'
The lesson for all Nigerians is that we need to speak up even in the face
of torment. We are today paying for mistakes of the past, mistakes made by
men of brittle character, men with no principles or character, men of
little minds who short-sightedly pillaged today for yesterday and tomorrow
for today. Truth is that most of us have only been passers-by in the
affairs of our country. We need to begin to demand and ask. How is it that
we have earned so much from resources across the country but still have no
electricity? How is it that we don't have water? How is it that a greater
part of us live in abject poverty? How can elections be so brazenly
rigged? How can government officials be so lax? How can they own so much?
How has life become so cheap but food prices the opposite? How can the
courts give judgments so bizarre? How could government officials have so
much? How come there are no good roads? How are we so powerless? How much
has the country earned over the last decade? How have this been spent?
Where is all the money? How did we become a country of bombs and
indiscriminate killings?
In the end, a letter is what it is, a letter. The writer in putting words
on paper situates his opinions and judgements not necessarily as they
reflect through him but through the subject of his letter. A good reader
must understand this. Obasanjo's letter should be examined for its merits
and intrinsic worth. The message therein should be digested as one being
made by a concerned citizen who wants the best for the country. It should
be seen as one written by the man who fought in the civil war, went to
prison for confronting Abacha when he had his paws on Nigeria's throat,
the OBJ who as Co-Chairman of the Commonwealth Eminent Persons Group on
Southern Africa stood on the right side of history by fighting for the end
of apartheid. I will agree with many a Nigerian who might say that writing
such a letter requires a very high moral octane for which the OBJ who
ruled between 1999 – 2007 lacks. However, what matters as we struggle to
navigate what might be a very tricky passage in our nation's history are
the core messages therein. Without any equivocation, it was a thought
provoking letter with an honest core. We need to disregard the messenger,
many of the peripheral messages therein and rather look at the hub of the
message. Please also do ignore the 'the Ebora Owu has spoken' nonsense by
an ex-minister. What does that even mean?
Wole Ameyan Jr, MD, MPH. He can be reached at: [email protected];