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Perspectives of OBJ letter to Jonathan
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On Dec 12, 2013, at 7:35 AM, Odenigbo . wrote:
















Comrade,




If you would countenance street, urban lingo, then, allow my summary reaction to this intriguingly delightful piece to be captured in the congenial expression, 'word', drawn out as 'worrrrd' For I am in total agreement. It's a piece unassailable in content, unrivaled in candor, unmatched in sagacity; yet, totally besmirched in motive and spirit. The timing of this letter makes me want to call it the Mandela effect.




Obviously, the canonization and deification of Nelson Mandela, and, by implication, the demonization of his moral opposites, littered allover Africa, especially Nigeria, must have induced this epiphanic contrition on a glory and redemption-seeking penitent like Obasanjo. When the world stood still on Tuesday, as intergalactic space motions, defying the angry roars of a mourning morning rain, dropped in Johannesburg a global assemblage of diverse and disparate hues, all united in their claim of common cause heritage and moral inspiration in Nelson Mandela, even Obasanjo was there.




Watching his mien as he entered the VIP podium, unheralded, unsung, and unannounced, I sensed an atypical gait of subduedness and a certain mood of internal melancholy in Obasanjo. Gathering the frills of his traditional three-piece agbada, and holding together the ends of the fringes to his lower abdomen, Obasanjo narrowed his physical being to a modest space; perhaps, in subconscious submission to inevitable mortality.




Of course, Obasanjo might have come to South Africa to pay deserving homage to Africa's greatest son and humanist, but on some arcane level, this rain rendezvous had a design of penitential absolution for all upon whom it dropped. But, as is central to both Roman Catholic and Protestant theologies, remission of sins must be preceded by the confessionary. Even Mandela's Truth and Reconciliation Commission, that strategic genius that has held together a post-apartheid South Africa, contains the precondition of confession as a fundamental.




If he gulped from the literary chalice of Christopher Okigbo, Obasanjo's trip to South Africa could very well be "The Passage" for him. With everything we know and testify about Mandela's saintly attributes, that Johannesburg stadium on Tuesday couldn't be any less Okigbo's idealized "Heavens-gate". For the few hours that Obasanjo sat in solemnity in that stadium, it must have felt like a cleansing and redemption worship at Mandela's shrine.




And like Okigbo standing naked before "Mother Idoto" a prodigal, Matthew Olusegun Obasanjo, by far a worse profligate, having squandered the fortune, and mortgaged the future, of God's 180,000,000 people, must before Mandela's presence "wait on barefoot, watchman for the watchword...out of the depths my cry: give ear and harken...dark waters of the beginning... Rainbow on far side, arched like a boa bent to kill, foreshadows the rain that is dreamed of...solitude invites...on one leg standing, in silence at the passage, the young bird at the passage...silent faces at crossroads..."




That, my friends, must have been the burden of Obasanjo's mind at the funeral.




Poor him! Mandela's death was his own death, too. Mortality was in generous display in the Johannesburg stadium. For Obasanjo, the comparing and the contrasting is heavily embarrassing. He and Mandela may have been nineteen years apart in biological age, but Obasanjo has lived a longer free life than did Mandela. Here is the math: Mandela lived a total of 95 years, 27 of which was spent in Robin Island prison, leaving him a total of 68 free years. Obasanjo is 76. If you take away the three years of inmateship under Sani Abacha, he has lived 73 years of freedom. So, in practical terms, Obasanjo is older than Mandela.




Also, both men presided over the destinies of their peoples - Mandela led South Africa; Obasanjo ruled Nigeria. Mandela led South Africa for one term of five years, refusing the popular clamor for a second term. Obasanjo ruled Nigeria for over eleven years, having previously been head of state between March 1976 and September 1978. In 2007, he was infamously forced out of office by a popular resistance to his criminal and unconstitutional quest for a third four-year term. While Mandela punished corruption, Obasanjo personifies it. Mandela loathed power; Obasanjo gloats it.




The difference between both men is simply daylight. They were different men in life and they will be different men in death. And that scars the hell out of Matthew Obasanjo. He realizes that history may not be kind to him. He recognizes that while history will record Mandela in glowing encomiums, he will be painted in cartoons in patchy canvass. While history will record Mandela in bold fonts, Obasanjo will be side-noted and foot-noted in italics as a reminder of what not to be. That is the reality that Matthew Obasanjo is dealing with at 76. At that age, what matters is legacy, and he is scared stiff that he may be lean on legacy. But he also realizes that legacy can be fixed.




This letter to Jonathan should be seen as Obasanjo's attempt to revisit and rewrite his own history, and redeem himself. It is an effort to gain admission into the pantheons of Africa's greats. The Mandela effect. Well, I don't know the prospect of being successful at it. One thing is clear, though: Obasanjo's death will not summon to Nigeria one-tenth of the world leaders that descended on Johannesburg on Tuesday. That genie is out of the bottle.




However, he could take steps to make peace with himself. He created the mess that Nigeria is today dealing with. He imposed Umaru Yar'Adua on Nigeria, knowing he was in bad health. He was instrumental to the selection of Goodluck Jonathan as Yar'Adua's runningmate, knowing that upon the death of the president the vice president becomes president. He laid the structural foundation for systemic corruption in Nigeria. He is a visionless dictator, an inebriated power addict, and an arrogant man. Worst of all, Matthew Obasanjo does not take responsibility for his screw-ups. He is always looking for scapegoats.




Like I said in the beginning, the letter, content-wise, is gospel. Obasanjo is right on the money in his assessment of the rot that is Jonathan's administration. The corruption under Jonathan makes Obasanjo a saint. And I guess that is what gives Obasanjo the moral chutzpah to take it to his own protege.




History is in a dynamic flux. If Obasanjo succeeds in helping to rein in this national ship, cut adrift, without compass, in the shark infested waters of unprecedented corruption, history may have a rewrite. But if Obasanjo's goal in this scathing epistle is to share the same moral space with Madiba Mandela, then, he is even more naive than I thought he was. That ship has sailed, leaving him behind.




Way behind...




/Odenigbo

As always, a very impressive analysis from Odenigbo. I expect a comparable write up from Oracle. Obananjo in my opinion is the least qualified person to criticize anybody on the matter of corruption in Nigeria. He is also one of the most tribalistic and most corrupt ruler in the history of Nigeria. His regime was very murderous and perhaps ranks second only to Abacha's regime. He probably believes that PDP equates to Nigerian populace. Does anybody believe that he is thrilled about the elevation of Akanu Ibiam airport to international status? The problem with GEJ is that he has respect for human life, and thus has given us some freedom of speech and of the press. OBJ was a brute who ruled by terror.



After eight years of governance, one would have expected the rehabilitation of the East to West road. He did not even care to rehabilitate the road from Lagos to Abeokuta (his home town). He used the Igbos for exploitation, and dumped them afterward. I personally regard his statement that he cannot be intimidated, bought, and not afraid of death as subtle warning to GEJ that he OBJ is still a capable threat to human life.



The fact is that corruption has permeated every aspect of Nigerian life. How many of us in the diaspora can trust a relative or friend at home to handle a project for him or her in Nigeria? A one way airline ticket from Lagos to Enugu costs more than a round trip airfare from Cleveland to Baltimore. It costs more to book a hotel accommodation at a rat infested hotel in Nigeria than it costs to stay at Embassy Suites Hotel. Amazingly, people can afford all these inflated prices. I wonder if all these gullible customers have actually earned all these monies they throw around. Who are buying up all these outrageously priced properties at Lekki and other similar areas?



Having made these statements, I give OBJ a strong credit for decentralizing the military armories. GEJ will survive all these onslaughts. Right now, I don't see any non-Igbo candidate who will be better than him in giving hope to the Igbo agenda. For now we should learn how to speak softly and walk softly. We will all be judged by what we do or failed to do. Perhaps, OBJ is salivating on the good he has done for Nigeria. After all, he wants to accept the credit that he was instrumental in keeping Nigeria one.




Onwudiwe Azubuike Onuora, M.D.,FACOG, FICS

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