₦airaland Forum

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo knelt down for then Vice President Atiku Abubakar in his desperate bid to secure the ticket of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for the 2003 poll, according to Professor Wole Soyinka.

The revelation came yesterday as the Nobel laureate gave a rare insight into the high-stake lobbying and negotiations that preceded the PDP’s presidential primaries in which Atiku was highly favoured to win at the expense of his then boss Obasanjo.

Besides, Soyinka spoke on how genuine efforts by Chief Bola Ige to reposition the energy sector as Power Minister between 1999 and 2000 were sabotaged by Obasanjo.

Soyinka was replying a question at a special reading session to mark the presentation of his latest book, “Quis Custodiet Ipsos Custodes?: Gani’s Unfinished Business”, at the Freedom Park, Lagos.

Speaking at the event, Mr. Louis Odion, one-time Edo State Information Commissioner and The Nation columnist, asked the literary giant whether he believed a sensational claim last year by Ekiti State Governor Ayodele Fayose of witnessing Obasanjo going down on his knees in Tripoli before the late President Muamar Ghaddafi in his desperate bid to secure the Libyan strongman’s support for an extension of his chairmanship of the African Union (AU), since the former Nigerian President has neither denied nor confirmed the account.

Fayose’s account was published by an Abuja-based monthly magazine, The Interview.

Ghaddafi was younger than Obasanjo. Libya is smaller in size and population compared to Nigeria.

Responding, Soyinka said he had no cause to doubt Fayose, given his knowledge of how Obasanjo did the “unthinkable” when his aspiration for a second term in office was similarly threatened in 2003.

Said he: “Before the PDP primaries in January 2003, Obasanjo got everyone he knew could reach me on the surface on the earth including Yemi Ogunbiyi and my son, to get me to help him intercede when it was clear that (Abubakar) Atiku was in a position to take his job. He knew Atiku had a lot of regard for me and calls me ‘Uncle’.”

In the now famous BBC interview few days to PDP’s 2003 primaries, Atiku had declared that he was under tremendous pressure from his supporters to contest the ticket against Obasanjo but was yet to make up his mind in what triggered panic in Obasanjo’s camp.

“The pressure was intense,” the literary giant recounted. “Of course, I could not have knelt before Atiku not to embark on a course of action that would lead to his boss’ disgrace. But I can confirm to you that Obasanjo as President knelt down before Atiku so that he would not lose his job.

“But I warned Atiku that for making Obasanjo to kneel down for you, be sure you would have to pay heavily for that. I guess my warning came to pass if you remember Atiku’s dramatic change of fortune once Obasanjo was sworn in for a second term of office.”

As expected, yesterday’s book reading turned out a day of reminiscences of many bizarre dramas and unsavory episodes that characterised Obasanjo’s reign as two-term president betweeen 1999 and 2007. The panel of disscussants included frontline rights activist-lawyer Femi Falana (SAN) and Mr. Sam Omatseye, author and Chairman of “The Nation” Editorial Board, and was moderated by Mr. Kunle Ajibade, award-winning author and Executive Director of “TheNews/Tempo”.

The roll-call at the event included literary colossus Prof. J. P. Clark, Colonel Tony Nyiam (retd) and Mr. Jahman Anikulapo.

Dispelling the notion that the long-running disagreement he has with Obasanjo is personal, Soyinka said his motivation is the desire that those he described as cause of the nation’s problems do not continue to recycle themselves as the solution.

He also dismissed Obasanjo as a hypocrite for denying that he did not have a hand in the third term agenda in 2006.

Said the playwright: “I remember I was invited to a conference in Germany around the time the third term game was unfolding in Nigeria. Then, I received this frantic call from officials at the Nigerian embassy who confided in me that they had been told to prepare for Obasanjo’s third term in office. They expressed fears that should it succeed, the country might be plunged into a serious crisis. They were of the view that I could use my leverage to talk to him or help mobilise public opinions to dissuade him.

“At the conference proper, I made sure I continually made poignant innuendos in the direction Obasanjo sat that day. But, typically, he kept shrugging his shoulders and looking the other way.

“But when the opportunity came for a closer interaction at the dinner, I pointedly told him that ‘Obasanjo, you know you cannot try third term’. Suddenly, he charged back at me, saying, ‘Wole, you only have one vote!’ I remember the Nigerian envoy then to Germany, Prof. Tunde Adeniran, jovially remarked that, ‘Ah, Mr. President, Wole Soyinka has more than one vote o. You know when he says anything, people listen across the world.’

“As soon as Obasanjo left the venue, I told Adeniran that ‘with what you’ve just said, be sure you’ve lost your job’. True, soon afterwards, Adeniran lost his job.”

Corroborating Soyinka, Falana said contrary to Obasanjo’s continued denial, the former US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice alluded in her book to how the former Nigerian leader prevailed on George Bush to support his third term bid. This, Falana said, Obasanjo never refuted.

On the parlous energy situation in the country, Soyinka recalled that Obasanjo did not only frustrate Ige but also humiliated him.

He said: “This was a man who said after Bola Ige died that we put somebody there, Bola Ige who did not know his left from right. He owes Bola Ige for maligning him, after humiliating him after sabotaging his genuine efforts to transform the power sector. It was sabotage and nothing less than a terrorist act against the electricity supply of the country.

“Bola Ige was frustrated and his works sabotaged. In fact, he had done his homework before he took office. He summoned a group of experts and mapped out the transformation of the sector. But, he was sabotaged from the inside. Bola Ige asked Obasanjo to remove one Suleman Bello, who was the managing director of the corporation then. The consequences we are suffering today. Obasanjo collaborated and protected the system headed by Mr. Suleman Bello. I dare Obasanjo to meet me one on one on any podium to debate the power project.”

iammo:
Yoruba destroying yorubas since the days of awolowo and akintola , Yoruba ronu, its funny how tinubu an ally of MKO is teaming up with same Buhari that got the juiciest apointement under abacha, while throwing jabs at obasanjo. Same obasanjo that gave back power to shagari a man from sokoto through democracy and Buhari and co(abacha and Ibb) dethroned through coup de tat, same obasanjo that came back home to confront abacha on MKO's denial to power when Buhari conveniently choose to keep quiet and become PTDF chairman, same obasanjo that was imprisoned while wole Soyinka was in exile. Professor Soyinka, northern youth are mocking you, they see you as someone who disrespect his own to promote others, no matter what they never disrespect their own, they may disagree but never ridicule their own

iammo:
Yoruba destroying yorubas since the days of awolowo and akintola , Yoruba ronu, its funny how tinubu an ally of MKO is teaming up with same Buhari that got the juiciest apointement under abacha, while throwing jabs at obasanjo. Same obasanjo that gave back power to shagari a man from sokoto through democracy and Buhari and co(abacha and Ibb) dethroned through coup de tat, same obasanjo that came back home to confront abacha on MKO's denial to power when Buhari conveniently choose to keep quiet and become PTDF chairman, same obasanjo that was imprisoned while wole Soyinka was in exile. Professor Soyinka, northern youth are mocking you, they see you as someone who disrespect his own to promote others, no matter what they never disrespect their own, they may disagree but never ridicule their own

dPriv:
Sensible comment.

sarrki:
Omo Ibo shut up

iammo:
Yoruba destroying yorubas since the days of awolowo and akintola , Yoruba ronu, its funny how tinubu an ally of MKO is teaming up with same Buhari that got the juiciest apointement under abacha, while throwing jabs at obasanjo. Same obasanjo that gave back power to shagari a man from sokoto through democracy and Buhari and co(abacha and Ibb) dethroned through coup de tat, same obasanjo that came back home to confront abacha on MKO's denial to power when Buhari conveniently choose to keep quiet and become PTDF chairman, same obasanjo that was imprisoned while wole Soyinka was in exile. Professor Soyinka, northern youth are mocking you, they see you as someone who disrespect his own to promote others, no matter what they never disrespect their own, they may disagree but never ridicule their own

iammo:
Yoruba destroying yorubas since the days of awolowo and akintola , Yoruba ronu, its funny how tinubu an ally of MKO is teaming up with same Buhari that got the juiciest apointement under abacha, while throwing jabs at obasanjo. Same obasanjo that gave back power to shagari a man from sokoto through democracy and Buhari and co(abacha and Ibb) dethroned through coup de tat, same obasanjo that came back home to confront abacha on MKO's denial to power when Buhari conveniently choose to keep quiet and become PTDF chairman, same obasanjo that was imprisoned while wole Soyinka was in exile. Professor Soyinka, northern youth are mocking you, they see you as someone who disrespect his own to promote others, no matter what they never disrespect their own, they may disagree but never ridicule their own

iammo:
Yoruba destroying yorubas since the days of awolowo and akintola , Yoruba ronu, its funny how tinubu an ally of MKO is teaming up with same Buhari that got the juiciest apointement under abacha, while throwing jabs at obasanjo. Same obasanjo that gave back power to shagari a man from sokoto through democracy and Buhari and co(abacha and Ibb) dethroned through coup de tat, same obasanjo that came back home to confront abacha on MKO's denial to power when Buhari conveniently choose to keep quiet and become PTDF chairman, same obasanjo that was imprisoned while wole Soyinka was in exile. Professor Soyinka, northern youth are mocking you, they see you as someone who disrespect his own to promote others, no matter what they never disrespect their own, they may disagree but never ridicule their own

iammo:
[s]Yoruba destroying yorubas since the days of awolowo and akintola , Yoruba ronu, its funny how tinubu an ally of MKO is teaming up with same Buhari that got the juiciest apointement under abacha, while throwing jabs at obasanjo. Same obasanjo that gave back power to shagari a man from sokoto through democracy and Buhari and co(abacha and Ibb) dethroned through coup de tat, same obasanjo that came back home to confront abacha on MKO's denial to power when Buhari conveniently choose to keep quiet and become PTDF chairman, same obasanjo that was imprisoned while wole Soyinka was in exile. Professor Soyinka, northern youth are mocking you, they see you as someone who disrespect his own to promote others, no matter what they never disrespect their own, they may disagree but never ridicule their own[/s]

iammo:
Ibadan mo ti wa padi mi, I know my agbole very well, counter my arguement don't shut me up sir

SarakiBukola:

Only a mentally handicapped person would support his tribesmen even when they commit crime.

Yoruba are more intelligent than that. That's why they are high achievers

Keep your advice for your people with their caste system.

Chemcrown:
one thing you should acknowledge the Yoruba for is their ability to speak the truth irrespective of whose horse is gorge. I believe your mother or father as a respective Yoruba/Ibadan man will not spare you for stealing instead of protecting you under the concept of "omo wa ni". If WOLE SOYINKA is saying the truth, he is a typical Yoruba man and kudos to him, otherwise, he is agbaya.

SarakiBukola:

Keep your advise to your own people.

Let me remind what Ojo Maduekwe said when Alex Ekwueme wanted to contest vs OBJ for PDP Presidential primaries :

"Any Igbo who wants to be President is out of his mind".

Nnamdi Kanu : "99% of all Igbo women are prostitutes"

Ralph Uwazurike : "Igbo tribe is the most foolish in the world"


These are real quotes that can be verified online. Any yeye MOD that deletes this is a bigot.

Cc Seun -you have some biased staff

iammo:
Mr saraki wanna be, speak the truth always but never use your "truth" as a weapon to destroy others. In case you don't know, tarnishing obasanjo's person would not reduce anything to him, he still has his foreign contact intact, if the north and south still want to fudge a deal he might still be among the delegates, why can't wole soyinka contact him directly or through egba kings and elders to thrash out differences. They would still use a Yoruba man to cut tinubu to size, but I believe we can do better

BlueRayDick:
Which kind yeye talk be this now?

Are u for real? So u think Obasanjo achieved more for the country by being in prison than the great prof Wọlé Soyinka did with his radio Kudirat?....smh...

Which kind yeye Yoruba ronú? Wọlé Has always called Obasanjo out for failing Nigeria when he could've United us all and the only thing u can come up with is Yoruba ronú....

They are giving you fact of how Condoleezza rice and others attest to his selfishness of wanting to endanger by contesting for a third term not entrenched in the constitution and the only thing we should tell them is Yoruba ronú...Abi?

SarakiBukola:

Calling a thief a "barawo" or "ole" is destroying him?

No wonder Africa is so backwards when we have people like you as the majority

iammo:
You convict a thief with solid evidence, only babaric African call an unconvicted person a criminal

SarakiBukola:

Only a mentally handicapped person would support his tribesmen even when they commit crime.

Yoruba are more intelligent than that. That's why they are high achievers

Keep your advice for your people with their caste system.