“The only vice that cannot be forgiven is
hypocrisy. The repentance of a hypocrite is
itself hypocrisy.”
~ William Hazlitt
It arrived like a bolt out of the blue.
When a former president writes an eighteen
page letter to a sitting president, the world
must sit up and take note. After reading the
letter written by the former president of
Nigeria, General Aremu Olusegun Obasanjo
to the incumbent president, Mr. Goodluck
Ebele Jonathan, only an unpatriotic and a
self serving Nigerian would deny that most
of what was contained therein is the truth. I
have personally read that letter five times
and my conclusion is, what is new? There
was nothing that General Obasanjo wrote
that is new, unheard of or that has not been
said by many other patriotic Nigerians. The
only difference this time is that those same
truths have now been openly said by the
man who foisted an incompetent Jonathan
on Nigerians.
I will not dwell on the contents of the letter
as many other writers have done justice to
it. I would rather take our letter writing
former president down memory lane. Don’t
get it twisted, we are not going down an old
memory lane, rather we will look at the
recent 8 year tenure of our former president
turned scribe.
Now, Dear General–Your letter started with
your party and how the current president’s
action is destabilizing your rag tag but
organized agglomeration of rent seeking
leeches called the PDP. Recall sir, how you
dealt with dissents and those whose faces
you no longer wanted in the PDP?
Remember Audu Ogbeh? Remember
Barnabas Gemade? Do not forget how you
foisted your garrison politics on Oyo state
using an illiterate and uneducated thug, the
late Lamidi Adedibu. You must have
forgotten how 8 out of twenty five members
of the Plateau State house of Assembly tried
to Impeach Governor Joshua Dariye in
October 2006.
Let me jog your
fading memory, sir. I
understand that with
age, people tend
towards senility and
forgetfulness. On the
10th July, 2003, a
sitting governor was
kidnapped, after you
tacitly gave your
blessings for his
police orderly to be
withdrawn. Oh yes!
Dr. Chris Ngige was
the governor of
Anambra state who
was kidnapped by
thugs under the
watchful eyes of the
younger brother of
Chris Ubah, the
uneducated,
unschooled and brash
younger brother of your Man Friday, Andy
Ubah. The state house was torched and
razed down and violence was unleashed on
that State. You chose to look the other way,
didn’t you? Meanwhile the governor was a
member of your party, wasn’t he? Isn’t it
obvious that you truly love your party, dear
General Olusegun Obasanjo?! You eventually
made Anambra State ungovernable and you
were only too happy to cede the state to the
opposition APGA.
In your “private” letter to your now
recalcitrant successor, you were
unequivocally against his contesting for a
second term because “he made a promise”.
Well, generality of Nigerians aren’t privy to
secrets within your cult-like band of national
plunderers, the PDP. But may I remind you
sir, that you actively pursued a third term
option, using a kangaroo constitutional
amendment? You were only displaced by the
courageous act of some prominent people
within and outside your government. You
want to speak about ‘honour’? How
‘honourable’ were you when you planned to
remain in office beyond your tenure,
spending billions in bribing senators to
amend the constitution, just so that your
selfish interests be served?
You also berated the fedora hatted nitwit
you helped foist on Nigerians for working
with opposition political parties against the
good of his party. Like I said, few people
tend to get senile and forgetful as they grow
older, especially if they don’t know their true
biological age. But may I remind you of your
pact with the southwest governors of the
now defunct AD? Haha! Now you
remember… You were intent on gaining
political relevance which you never had and
you never will have in your geopolitical
region. Well the rest as they say is history.
You outfoxed most of those governors
because of their political naivety except the
indefatigable Bola Tinubu who saw through
your cunning and deceit.
Let me remind you sir, that the ‘Jagaban’ of
a man beat you at your own game because
he had a tango with another of your ilk and
he saw through your plans. Tinubu was the
arrowhead of NADECO, a coalition of
democrats who stood against the most
tyrannical despot that ever lived in the
history of Nigeria, General Sani Abacha, to
the detriment of their lives, businesses,
families and other interests. I am sure you
underrated the man because you were
mostly incarcerated, while at the risk of his
life, he was crossing swords with your
conqueror. I am therefore at a loss as to
why you are angry at your anointed for
cavorting with opposition political parties.
Jonathan is merely taking a cue from your
political playbook of garrison and jungle
politics, where nothing is sacred as long as
you are able to get what you want, at
whatever cost.
In your highly “secret” letter, you were also
cross with your protégé for denying the
people of Port Harcourt (Rivers State) a
massive water project due to them. That is
very patriotic coming from you, sir. But let
me quickly remind you how you denied the
same people of Rivers State their authentic
Governor. Have you forgotten your famous
‘K-leg’ speech? It was until the Supreme
Court overruled your despotic action, that
the same Amaechi got what rightly belongs
to him.
Also talking about using presidential fiat to
deny federating states their due, have you
forgotten how you illegally denied Lagos
State the funds due to the State? Not even
the Supreme Court judgment that deemed
your action illegal could change your
waspish mindset. Those allocations were
held until your successor released them,
several years after.
General sir, you also advised your protégé
against seeing critics as enemies! I know
you have always fancied yourself a (failed)
comedian, but I didn’t know you could also
double as a clownish jester whenever you
wished. Such advise coming from you is not
only bizarre, but I consider it a very silly
thing to do. At the Ikeja cantonment, after
several Lagosians had lost their lives due to
a chain of bomb blasts, you must have
forgotten your retort. Let me remind you
once more. When a few of the mourners
wailed beside you, your riposte was: “shut
up…..I didn’t even need to be here”. Those
were Nigerians, real human beings. Some of
them actually voted for you. Indeed you
loved and accepted criticisms during your
tenure! If I hear!!!
I could go on and on, but unlike you, I am
not an old retired general with billions
siphoned away, having all the time to write
an eighteen page epistle. I must move on
now to earn my daily bread under such
unbearable circumstances as created by you
and your bunch of incompetent successors.
But let me close by saying, when you create
a monster, there is a likelihood of such a
monster outgrowing you and possibly
annihilating you.
You were so angry that you couldn’t get a
third presidential term in office, you decided
to force an infirm and a nincompoop on
Nigerians. Your plan was to exploit their
weaknesses so as to enable you continue to
wield power, albeit behind the scenes. What
you failed to realise is that history is replete
with such actions and that it ALWAYS
backfires on whoever set it in motion.
Maybe you never thought the infirm will
eventually die, because it is glaring that the
nincompoop you handpicked to become his
deputy is not only inept and incompetent, he
is also very corrupt. He had been indicted in
2006 by a panel you set up and which was
headed by the then head of EFCC, Mallam
Nuhu Ribadu. But in your usually vengeful
and dubious manner, you made him the Vice
President against all known wisdom and
judgment.
Like William Hazlitt quoted at the beginning
of this thesis, ”The only vice that cannot be
forgiven is hypocrisy. The repentance of a
hypocrite is itself hypocrisy.”
What you failed to realise sir, is that when a
man is promoted beyond his level of
competence, not even God can help him.
Isn’t that why Jonathan is so clannish and
defensive? Accuse Jonathan with facts and
figures and the next thing you hear is, “oh!
they are persecuting me because I am an
Ijaw man from a minority tribe”. How does
being a minority excuse incompetence and
blatant pillaging of the national treasury?
Like I earlier averred, Jonathan your protégé
is taking his cue from your copybook and
having surrounded himself with other men
of despicable character and shady
intentions, he has not only out-performed
you in ignominy, he has obliterated every
record know to man in thievery, stealing and
official scam. There is a yourba saying that
goes: “Eni a la jo, la ju” (when we take after
a man, the tendency is to outperform him in
all ramifications)
But president Jonathan should remember
that history also teaches us that men like
him not only end up badly, they are forever
a byword in the footnote of obnoxious and
unwanted history.
A word is enough for the wise.
I am Ayo Oyalowo.