OBASANJO'S FRUSTRATIONS

Source: thewillnigeria.com

Once again, Gen. Olusegun Obasanjo has inauspiciously taken advantage of his 'untouchable' status to heat the polity and cause political pandemonium in an otherwise serene and politically stable nation. This is not the first time Obasanjo is seeking political relevance and a boisterous attention. Nigeria's former military cum civilian ruler for 11½ years, Gen. Matthew Oluseegun, Aremu Okikiola Obasanjo is at it again. The self acclaimed fearless General who touts his 'tigritude' as a weapon of oppression and intimidation has again stirred the hornet's nest. The so-called Elder Statesman who had previously called for a Nigerian Arab Spring on Monday 5th of dec 2012at the June 12 Cultural Centre in Abeokuta also shocked his audience in Dakar, Senegal last year when he openly called for an en mass revolution in Nigeria, because of a 72% high rate of youth unemployment. If the audience in Dakar was shocked, the audience in Warri also last year was flabbergasted when the same Obasanjo openly called for a massive revolution to topple president Goodluck  Ebele Jonathans weak leadership. Nigerians should not overlook Gen Obasanjo's damning and treasonable letter published by most Nigerian media on Thursday, 12th Dec 2013. Gen Obasanjos letter is a very clever way of settling some political scores with President Jonathan in a self serving, unpartriotic and treasonable act to stir the masses against the President and either impeach him or overthrow him in a bloody coup Some have written off OBJ's latest frustrations as the ranting of an amnesia 'with a brief viral spell touching on alzheimer's condition. This group believe that OBJ has joined the Senile Elders Forum that are always a burden on the family and the nation. Others argue that OBJ still 'dey kampe' but that age has not reduced his blood thirstiness hence his incessant bonding with the Minna Generals to overthrow the GEJ regime with their fragile argument of GEJ's weak leadership. Nigerians still remember the Odi genocide in Bayelsa and Zakibiam massacre in Benue States. Nigerians should be security conscious enough to ask OBJ to name the 1000 Nigerians on the watch list of President Jonathan's Strike Force and show us their training depots. I weep for those Nigerians who believe these cock and bull stories The root cause and core of Obasanjo's grievances is fueled by GEJ's transformational Agenda which is smoking out the deep seated cabals benefiting from Nigerias woes. For instance diesel is no more imported by a single monopolist in Nigeria and all Nigerians know this Nigerian who is Obasanjo's front to bleed this country through economic haemorrhage. Nigerians still remember the $620MN bribe scandal which Obasanjo tried to cover up. We all still remember the unrestrained atrocities of the single importer syndrome where 2000 litres of petroleum products imported become 200,000 litres in the payment vouchers. OBJ is also annoyed with GEJ's transformational program in the power sector as a result of governments privatization program of the power sector on November 1st 2013. With functional electricity, Nigerians will not patronize the cabal's twin industries of imported diesel and the giant generator industry. Nigerians should remember that we lost Chief Bola Ige because of his determination and resolve to fix electricity in Nigeria. Assisting criminals to evade justice, bunkering, stealing, drug baron (Buruji Kashamu) were some of the charges against GEJ. To say the least, Obasanjo's letter was remotely primed to cause chaos, instant popular reaction to pounce on the president, and slaughter him to satisfy Obasanjo's northern candidate to become president in 2005. After all one good turn deserves another. General Musa Yar'Adua prevailed on OBJ to become Military Head of State on 13/2/1976 after General Murtala Mohammed's suspicious assassination which was then blamed on LT. Col.  Bukar Sukar Dimka. But Nigerians know better now. Again in 1998 after Gen. Abacha was mysteriously poisoned and Gen. Obasanjo was released from his earned prison term in Yola, Gen. Babangida flew into Otta Farm with a loaded jet to convince-the ex convict to become Nigeria's next president.  This is because it had became highly scandalous as the North had ruled Nigeria for 38 years then and the North wanted OBJ to rule Nigeria on behalf of the South West but with Northern interest. OBJ who came out of jail a pauper and heavily indebted quickly grabbed this opportunity which turned him into a dollar multi trillionaire today. Obasanjo accused President Goodluck Jonathan of high 'corruption which seems to stink all around you and your government'. This is not the case of pot calling the kettle black as some people have suggested but a case of Lucifer calling angel Gabriel a sinner. OBJ with his litany of corruption cases is the least qualified Nigerian to pronounce another guilty of corruption. OBJ is a moral derelict and destitute. The corruption-to-high heavens cases involving Halliburton and Siemens are today yet unresolved and unburied because the legs are still protruding out of the coffin. Obasanjo built a private library in Abeokuta worth N7BN and coerced his opulent Nigerian business partners to bank roll the shameful project which he dupliciously called Presidential Library Project. Obasanjo built a modern world class university with federal funds just like his Vice President also did. Obasanjo's Bells University which gulped over $50BN of Nigeria's hard earned foreign currency is still there for all to see. What about Obasanjo's undistinguished purchase of Transcorp Hotel in Abuja. He did not hide the ownership of all these millions of dollar yielding possessions all of which he acquired as a sitting President. Obasanjo's privatization exercise was purely motivated by personal greed, profit and a dare-me-if-you-can impunity. And this was the beginning of the rift that created a deep chasm between him and his Vice President who wanted some of the action too. Obasanjo allegedly spend $16BN to generate electricity and at the end of the day-we had more darkness. The Nigerian Senate has long recommended the revocation of Obasanjo's corrupt and fraudulent privatization. The House of Representatives has also indicted the Obasanjo regime over the $16BN electricity fraud. In the area of corruption there is no basis of comparison between former President Obasanjo and President Goodluck Jonathan. I am sure Obasanjo still remembers the billions of dollars with which he bribed delegates of his political Reform Conference to rubber stamp his insatiable greed to perpetuate himself in office through his 3rd term misadventure. Boko Haram On boko haram and National Security the former president believes that the genesis of boko haram can be traced to drugs, indoctrination, fundamentalism, gun trafficking, hate culture, human trafficking, money laundering, religion, poverty, unemployment, poor education, revenge and international terrorism. It is the height of stark hypocrisy for the well informed former president to pretend and try to hoodwink a credulous public that boko haram was caused by the reasons above. Is there any region of this country that is not affected by all the above factors. Is there no poverty or unemployment in the South West. If you are talking about poor education, go to the riparian coasts of the Niger Delta especially in Edo and Ebijaw ward in Odigbo Local Government Area of Ondo State where over 250,000 Ijaws do not have a single secondary school in the whole ward. The metamorphosis of boko haram from a provincial machete-wielding, bare-footed, bow and arrow rag-tag army to a sophisticated bomb throwing modern hi-tech military force did not surprise those who observe Nigeria's political panorama with a microscope. In 2002 boko haram founding fathers, Yussuf Mohammed and Buji Foi never imagined that their pet dream would assume such national and international status as it has today. Those who vowed to make Nigeria ungovernable did not express themselves through secret wikileak documents. It was an open declaration of war against President Goodluck Jonathan if he dared to win the PDP presidential primaries of January 13th 2011. And winning the presidential election in April 2011 would be calamitous they declared. Making Nigeria ungovernable for President Jonathan is an agenda of the northern elite which transformed boko haram to a willing tool of vendetta, oppression and national and international terrorism. I therefore feel very pained and melancholy when some boko haram supporters insinuate the pedestrian argument of infrastructural decay in the North. We all saw the indiscriminate and unabated influx of hi-tech arms and amunitions into Nigeria through our air and seaports especially from Iran and other Islamic Countries. After all about 90% of the top management of our customs, Immigration, Police etc are of Northern extraction. And how many Northerners have really come out openly to criticize boko haram apart from the Sardauna of Sokoto, Dr. David Mark and Mrs Sarah Jibril. Obasanjo should stop pretending with his stick and carrot solution. How much carrot did he give to the north in his 11½ years in Dodan Barracks and Aso Rock. Why did he not use his carrot and stick theory in Odi or in Zakibiam. Especially in Odi which was thereafter leveled. Those who killed the 19 soldiers were also terrorists and so they deserved some carrot too and not all stick. President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan is not a trained military officer. He is just a very humane and merciful man (to a fault) who has used these virtues to manage the bh crisis. OPEN CALL FOR A COUP Obasanjos frequent reference to bloodshed is an open invitation to the military to overthrow GEJ'S government. He openly confessed the involvement of his two evil Generals with whom he has concluded arrangement with the military. According to Obasanjo 'God never sleeps. He is watching, waiting and bidding His time to dispense justice' against GEJ. But Obasanjo should remember that God is not man and He does not think as man does. As the heavens are higher that the earth, so are His ways higher than ours and His thoughts than our thoughts'. God will surely dispense justice against Obasanjo-Jeremiah 30 v 23 refers. Obasanjo also tried to placate the National Assembly and prod members and senators to impeach President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan. This is the same national assembly that Obasanjo even recently described as irretrievably corrupt during the $620MN bribe case between Rep, Lawan Farouk and Obasanjo's business partner. Obasanjo is by all means resolved to make the whole country rise against President Jonathan. OBASANJO'S ROLE AS NIGERIA'S KINGMAKER 'On two occasions, I have had opportunity to work for my successors to the government of Nigeria I worked for both presidents Shagari and Yar Adua to succeed me' The above confession by Gen. Olusegun Obasanjo finally lays to rest the speculations of political scientists who ventured to speculate  in 1979 that Obasanjo finally truncated the ambition of Chief Obafemi Awolowo to rule Nigeria because of his wish to probe the military if he became President. Gen. Obasanjo who is an apostle of 'do or die' politics massively rigged the 1979 presidential elections in  favour of President Shehu Shagari to deny Chief Obafemi Awolowo, who was then one of the most qualified Nigerians to lead  this country into political, social and economic freedom. Apart from massively rigging the elections to favour President Shehu Shagari, Obasanjo will one day also confess how he forced the judiciary to give victory to Shagari with the very obnoxious and controversial verdict of 122/3 ¬ of a state. But Obasanjo did not tell us the truth when he said he deprived Chief Awolowo of the presidency to strengthen Nigerian Unity. The best way to strengthen Nigerian Unity was to uphold and defend the constitution, to uphold justice and be fair to all. Obasanjo imposed Alhaji Shehu Shagari on Nigerians and since then he and the Minna Mafia have always decided who became President in Nigeria. And so Obasanjo installed a weak Shehu Shagari on Nigeria as President not because he loves Nigeria as he claims but because former President Olusegun Obasanjo is the head of Nigeria's 'power cabal' which ensures that the cabal never for a second lose grip on power so as to protect their wealth and possessions. This phobia for free and fair elections which could throw up an 'untrusted and untrustworthy' President is Obasanjo's driving force in this political and leadership chess game. Cabals are a universal phenomenon, a deep-rooted and well entrenched clique of Mephistophelian manipulators who use their tremendous power and wealth to control government and para-governmental agencies. They hold sway and force governments to enact policies that would favour them and their enormous wealth. Cabals are formed by the most powerful, the wealthiest and the most influential members of society. These selfish sociopaths and scoundrels who are top shots in society form these cabals with the sole aim of protecting their wealth and interest with a forceful determinism to maintain the status quo. Especially in Nigeria and a few other countries where cabals have a vicious strangle-hold on elected governments, such cabals are referred to as 'parallel government'. One of the greatest attributes of cabals is their ability to exploit weakness in governments and strengthen their own domination and influence on such governments. Cabals operate by a networking system which though beam attention on the leaders but work through a myriad of faceless rank-and-file foot soldiers who infiltrate and permeate the government-in-power for proactive information to checkmate and stifle government policies and programs. Apart from installing friendly governments to protect his stupendous wealth, Gen. Obasanjo also has a psychological inferiority complex which he has fought throughout his life. Obasanjo in terms of education is the least of them all and he flaunts his 'double' presidential profile on the faces of would-be presidential candidates from the South West. Its like saying 'I did not obtain a formal university degree, but see what I have achieved' He denied Chief Awolowo the presidency because Chief Awolowo had an impeccable antecedent  and performance record in the then Western Region with so many firsts-in-Africa in the spheres of education, heath, sports, media, communication, agriculture, poverty alleviation etc. Obasanjo ensured that Chief Obafemi Awolowo never fulfilled his ambition of ruling Nigeria because of personal and egotistic considerations. This wicked 'stroke' from Obasanjo accelerated the demise of Nigeria's first avatar and icon who Chief Odunmegwu Ojukwu satirically referred to as the 'best president Nigeria never had' And even when Chief MKO Abiola with a landslide victory won the June 12, 1993 Presidential election, it was Obasanjo and his partner in crime, Gen. Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida that controversially cancelled the freest and fairest election in Nigeria's political history. And when MKO Abiola walked up to claim his presidential mandate, he was immediately arrested and killed - the military way. Gen. Obasanjo pooh poohed Chief Moshood Kashimawo Olawale Abiola and threw him into the dustbin of history with these immorally regrettable words, 'Abiola is not the Messiah we are expecting' Gen. Obasanjo will never support a South Western President  in his life time. Its like repeating our traditional cliché of saying 'over my dead body'. Ethnic Factionalism OBJ also accused President Jonathan of ethnic factionalism and of being propped up by the Ijaw Nation. If anybody is imbued and guilty of ethnic factionalism Gen. Olusegun Obasanjo is the most likely candidate in Nigeria of today. When Gen. Obasanjo became president in May 1999, he was like a man possessed with a mission to straighten some crooked paths, to right so many wrongs. He came with a burning desire to amend certain institutions that were structurally, politically and socially skewed. OBJ's first port of call was the Nigeria Police Force which has never had an Inspector General from the south west. All Police Inspectors General have always come from the North including Adewusi from Kwara State. Before then Louis Edet was the only non-Northerner. OBJ was rightly infuriated with this monopoly and replaced it with another South West monopoly. Immediately starting with his brother-in-law Musiliu Smith, the baton of exchange ran through Tafa Balogun to Ehindero at the end of his Presidency in 2007. But as at today the Nigeria Police Force has reverted to the status quo but this time with the I.G and about 90% of the police top hierarchy coming from the North. This situation applies to the Nigeria Customs Service also. Gen. Obasanjo has no moral justification whatsoever to accuse President Goodluck Jonathan of ethnic factionalism because GEJ is so far the only non-tribalist leader Nigeria has ever had. OBJ introduced aristocratic democracy in Nigeria by picking his ministers, ambassadors and Aides, from well established and bourgeois political families from the South Western states. The Awolowo, Akintola, Adesanya, Fani-Kayode families were all favoured in this elitist and bourgeois form of democracy. As for Ms Tokunboh Awolowo's choice, it was like killing the father and sparing the child. In contrast to Obasanjo's selective justice I do not know of any Ijaw minister presently in the Jonathan cabinet apart from Mrs. Dieziani and Mr Nysom Wike who is acting minister of education. President Jonathan's Chief of Staff is a Bini man from Edo State and his media men including those of the first lady are all from the South West. His ADC is from Kogi State. When OBJ was President his kitchen cabinet and personal Aids were mostly members of the Egbe Omo Oduduwa clan. But with President Jonathan I am told it will be easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for an Ijaw man to enter Aso Rock. Obasanjo's reference to the Ijaw nation in inverted comas is to say the least derogatory, supercilious and in bad faith. Do the Ijaws not qualify to be referred to as a nation? Just like the Yoruba nation, the Ijaws also qualify to be called an ethnic nationality because the Ijaws also are a group of people sharing the same culture, language and history, living together in designated areas! Prince Buruji Kashamu Your heinous and damning decimation of the PDP National Vice chairman, Prince Buruji Kashamu is not only very unfortunate but very regrettable. I will not dwell much on this because Prince Kashamu himself has spoken. And this is what the Prince said 'I was one of his (Obasanjo) foot soldiers and partners. We planned and executed many things together. When it was convenient for him, I was his right hand. I teamed up with him against former Gov. Gbenga Daniel; fought the latter to a stand still'. You can not deny the fact that Prince Kashamu was your political son who did so many things for you including odd and unprintable assignments. Prince Kashamu also confirmed that your breakfast trips to Aso Rock were always for one favour or the other especially for GEJ's intervention to breach the Rule of Law which GEJ always turned down. Good Father In your letter to GEJ you said, 'but like a good father, all I seek is peaceful and amicable solution'. By now the whole world knows that you are not a good father as copiously demonstrated by your satanic wickedness to your son Gebnga whose wife you lured away. And your beautiful daughter Iyabo who called you such names as stupid, your madness, great pretender, petty, liar, imbecile has summed up all I have to say about your being a good father. You are neither a good father nor a good husband, not even a good human being. Your daughter who knows you so well has said it all. After reading through all Prince Buruji Kashamu and your daughter, Dr.Iyabo Obasanjo said about you, I decided to end my letter because there is not much to say again. Let Nigerians believe what they will but I know that all your accusations of 1000 names of politicians on a watch list, A federal government killer strike force, a bleeding nation, national bloodshed, A nation adrift, ethnic factionalism, drug baron, etc are all a figment of your heat-oppressed brain which is consistently creating evil which will eventually engulf you and your demonic machinators. The National Assembly should call Obasanjo to substantiate his claims or face the music. If you were the sitting President and you got such a letter from a former ruler, you would have done so many things to him even before the letter got published. Nigeria will surely survive without the services of a National Kingmaker, a CEO, a Mr. Nigeria as no single Nigerian or group of military generals have the right to stop President Goodluck Jonathan from doing his constitutionally guaranteed 2nd term. Political Killings OBJ's 8 years tenure was an era of duplicitous impunity, trampling on the Fundamental Human Rights of Nigerians and subjecting governance to malleable parameters and idiosyncracies. Obasanjo ruled like the Roman Emperor and Europe's benevolent despots of the 19th century and overtly told his ministers and Aides that they could advise him but he was not obliged to take their advice. Unlike OBJ, President Goodluck Jonathan does not have that killer instinct which has been rightly identified with OBJ's military background. GEJ has said it several times that his election as president was not worth the 'spilling the blood of any Nigerian'. President Jonathan's antecedents and natural humility have catapulted him far away from the bloody hands of Shakespeare's Macbeth. GEJ's tenure has not recorded any political killing as against unresolved major political murders during OBJ's tenure. Chief Abiye Sekibo, Marshal Harry and our former Minister for power-Chief Bola Ige were among the high profile and other political murders recorded during OBJ's tenure. In my yet unpublished book 'Goodluck Jonathan: The challenges of a minority president,' I paid glowing tributes to OBJ actualizing the unimaginable dream of a South South president beyond the manipulations and contemplations of Nigeria founding fathers. But OBJ shot himself in the foot by playing God, by his narcissism and by his regular Oliver Twist trips to Aso Rock always asking for the impossible. OBJ's perfectly sanctimonious and self righteousness is an attempt to hoodwink unsuspecting Nigerians and to incite them into spontaneous mob action against GEJ. But 'God, who never sleeps' has raised someone from Obasanjo's bowel to destroy him spiritually, psychologically, socially and politically so that President Goodluck Jonathan can carry on with his God-sent assignment despite boko haram and despite all the military cabals who want Nigeria to flounder because it pays them so. Written By Ben Nanaghan [email protected]

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