Mathew Okikiola Aremu Olusegun Obasanjo, simply abbreviated as OBJ, has always amused me whenever he speaks, especially on national issues.
What many people may not understand about this man, who had had the privilege of riding this country’s military and political tides, is that one: he is very patriotic; two, he often, in a more cunning way, ties such patriotism to the popularity he always find opportunity to gather and, of course, with a price which may not be pronounced and three; he has this ability of displaying what one would call ‘an act of god’ at every critical moment of this nation’s life.
Obasanjo, as usual, just as the nation prepares for the next crucial election in 2019, has exploded on the present government led by Muhammadu Buhari. The same thing happened in 2014 when he exploded on the then President Goodluck Jonathan, who he virtually brought from Bayelsa, dusted, made to be ‘elected’ and installed as Nigeria’s President.
In fact, I doubt if anybody remembers now, his boast in 2007, when he was leaving office after two-term of a total of eight years, that Nigerians would long for him or beg him to come back to lead them, long after he would have left office, having lost the dogged fight to break the constitutional provision by canvassing for third-term.
And, when today, Tuesday, January 23, Obasanjo did his usual act, of assessing and condemning the reigning government, I wasn’t surprised. As a matter of fact, I would have surprised if he had not come out the way he did, the trade-mark with which he had long been identified.
When I received the text of Obasanjo’s press conference, I read it with a great deal of concentration, so much that I clashed with my wife (in the other room), who had expected me to eat the food she kept for me on the dining table, as the food was getting cold.
Why did I have to engage in concentrating on the text of Obasanjo’s latest release?
It was not his deconstruction of President Muhammadu Buhari and his government that attracted me, as he (Obasanjo) did in the case of Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, when he deconstructed the same Jonathan in favour of Buhari in 2015.
As I read the text of his press conference, I was eager to know what alternative to Buhari he offered for the rapid development of the country of his dream, or who the giant political gladiators he named as an alternative to Buhari in 2019.
Even though, the title of the text of the press conference suggested the direction of his long assessment, but I wanted to know how he put it for my understanding.
The totality of Obasanjo’s long ‘grammar’ was his suggestion that all citizens of the country should come together and form Coalition of Nigerians movement (CN), with headquarters in Abuja, the nation’s capital territory.
Two issues which he raised in the press conference transparently pointed the direction to which he wanted Nigeria go: one: he refreshed our memory that Nigeria was in the same precarious socio economic and political as well as security situations before 1999 when he came in as President, implying that it was his government that resolved the logjams. And two; that he will not be party to using the proposed Coalition to search for Presidential candidate for the country. These two points put together, show the desperation of Obasanjo to become the leader of the country once more: one, that it is only him that can lead the country to Eldorado as he did between 1999 and 2007 and two, that he will lead the Coalition for Nigeria and eventually the country.
Forget about all the good things he rolled out to justify the formation of Coalition of Nigeria movement, the question is: what type of system will the government under CN called, especially, when he ruled out further existence of all the political parties that were registered constitutionally? What will happen to the nation’s constitution? What will happen to INEC and elections? What will become of National Assembly and State Houses of Assembly? It is not very clear whether what Obasanjo is advocating is not an interim government or a military form of government. Indeed, until he explains the concept and practice of CN, as he abbreviated it, it will be very hard to describe the system in which political parties and elections, the constitution, as well as perhaps, the lawmaking bodies are cancelled.
As a matter of fact, one has never argued that things are in bad shapes in this country, but no one has provided an answer to the way to go from here: to name one or two political giants that will be able to perform better than President Buhari, in terms of providing security for the citizenry wherever they are, in terms of stopping herdsmen/farmers clashes and killings, in terms of eliminating Boko Haram in a jiffy, in terms of providing abundant employment for millions of jobless Nigerians, in terms of making items cheap in the markets, in terms of stopping the Niger Delta militancy, in terms of bringing dollar down against naira, in terms of stopping seasonal queues in petrol stations across the country, in terms of bringing the price of fuel down to N50 per litre and so on.
The options which Obasanjo has just announced: the option of CN government or the conglomerate is certainly self-serving, and a third-term agenda being dusted for implementation.
And it is obviously his own way of justifying the fact that it is only him that can right all the wrongs of Nigeria; a prediction he made before bowing out of office reluctantly in 2007.
To me, Obasanjo had said practically nothing!
Can I eat my food now? [myad]
