₦airaland Forum

Background to the recent Nigerian elections
General Obasanjo more than just a "friend" of the Americans
By Elizabeth Liagin
17 March 1999
Elizabeth Liagin is an independent journalist who has done extensive research into General Olusegan Obasanjo, who won the recent presidential election in Nigeria. She submitted the following commentary in response to the 5 March article "Nigerian election fraud leaves elite in control" by Chris Talbot

The 13 February 1976 assassination of Murtala Muhammad, which brought Olusegan Obasanjo to power the first time, was widely believed at the time to be the linked to the CIA. Perhaps the same might be said for the 27 February 1999 "coup" as well.

Obasanjo is more than just a "friend" of the Americans. He is an operative. And his involvement with America's foreign policy elite is a long, sometimes complicated, but delightfully interesting story.

There are several key persons and institutions that appear over and over in the Obasanjo files. One is Donald B. Easum, who was the United States Ambassador to Nigeria at the time of the 1976 assassination. Another is the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, where Henry Kissinger, who was Secretary of State at the time of the same assassination, serves as a "counsellor." Then we have Robert S. McNamara, a former World Bank president and the Secretary of Defense who carried much of the blame for the Vietnam War. More recently, McNamara embarked on an excursion to Haiti in the aftermath of the election that brought Jean Bertrand Aristide to office. Upon his return, McNamara pronounced Aristide "vehemently" anti-US, implying that the United States would be in for another round of whatever it was that Fidel Castro stirred up in people after his revolution more than two decades before. Within a year of McNamara's assessment, Aristide was ousted by thugs on the CIA's payroll.

Back to the seventies: At the time of the coup that installed Obasanjo, the US was still reeling from the OPEC oil embargo. That action would have been all the more devastating were it not for the fact that Nigeria, under Yakubu Gowon's leadership, had opted to breach the embargo and ship oil to the West. Because of the inflated price petroleum commanded at the time, Nigeria experienced unprecedented economic growth. When Murtala took over, the US immediately became concerned, not knowing if Nigeria could be relied upon as a supplier under a new regime. In an attempt to soften up the anti-Western ideology associated with Murtala, Secretary of State Kissinger proposed a state visit. Murtala told him to stay home--something interpreted in Washington as a "ten" on the scale by which political insults are ranked.

Irunmole:
Fellow Nigerians, I have sat, thought and pondered over our current crop of leaders that are still alive and wondered who to recognize, and bestow the singular honour of being called the greatest living Nigerian but found no one worthy of it other than, Retired General Olusegun Aremu Okikiola Obasanjo. Crude and controversial his ways and idiosyncrasies might be to some; his patriotic love, vision, unity and the achievement of greater things for our beloved country Nigeria is unwavering.

Right, before anyone start posting insults and such unsavory words, I neither work for nor have any connections with the person of the retired general, just sheer observation of his achievements in trying to foster all that is good for the country and Africa, so far, till date, I believe qualify him as the greatest living Nigerian.

aurenflani:
To be honest i agree with you. But nigerians are already blinded without cure. tribalism and religious chauvinism plus the evils of poverty has blinded nigerians coupled with the west's superior propaganda and indirect blackmail. did you listen to news today? The current leadership under their new pm a well known cia agent in libyan, is contemplating going to the IMF.a body gaddafi of blessed memory despises, and helping to divorce africa away from. southerners i pity u.

RoadStar:
This is y I laughed when I saw people celebrate libya.
Nigeria did not starve Biafran kids.
Neither was it Gowon, Awo or the Nigerian soldiers.
It was the British and their allies in the UN.
Their instiable taste for blood just to satisfy the diplomatic and economic policies.

zolzlolz:
Denial, the first stage of grief, six more to go.

violent:
Can i infer from your post that all those peaceful protesters who were shot during the initial stages of the civil war are "dissidents" who dared to demand an end to a 42 year dictatorship or were they all just a product of western media fabrication?

So the death of my friend's 6 year old relative who was shot by assassins while walking along with his mum can be counted as an acceptable loss but when his relatives get angry and they, along with several other angry others, take up arms, fight tooth and claw, shed their tears, blood and sweat, till they see the last of the dictator, it becomes cruel?

those who lost loved ones to Ghaddafi's cruelty, knows where the shoe truly hurts, and they were they ones who wouldn't have stopped at anything till they saw the end of the pig!


here's a video for you too, since you will have us believe that Ghaddafi's death was unfair!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Ywb5Fedv5O0

and no, those people from the video aren't Nollywood actors!