By Garba Deen Muhammad
As a habit, the only virtue former President Olusegun Obasajo’s critics will grudgingly concede to him is his matchless love for his country, his obsessive patriotism that set him apart from all his peers, in war and in peace. Once while serving as Chief of Staff Supreme Headquarters, the military equivalent of Vice President to General Murtala Muhammed, Obasanjo was about to enter a crucial State meeting when he received a message that his two-year old son Dayo, had just died. Obasanjo went into the meeting and participated actively. Afterwards he informed his colleagues that he had lost his son just before the meeting. Appalled, his colleagues wondered why he didn’t rush home in the light of something so serious. His response was perhaps the best definition of his robust, vigorous, sometimes turbulent but always passionate relationship with his country. He said, as narrated by one of his biographers Adinoyi Ojo Onukaba: “My son is dead, I cannot bring him back. This country is waiting and I cannot keep her waiting”. Even in that period of nationalistic fervor, it is hard to imagine any act that could beat that. Later in life he was to reaffirm this passionate love for country in different guises, including when he was called upon to be the head of state after the assassination of General Murtala Muhammed. Obasanjo refused, declaring that he was through with the army and everything associated with government since the nation is so unappreciative. He refused to budge despite pleas from powerful colleagues.
Again according to Onukaba, it was only after an inspired General Abisoye had pointedly suggested that if Obasanjo would not accept, then they might as well invite leader of the failed coup that claimed Muhammed’s life, Col. Dimka to take over, that Obasanjo felt sufficiently moved to accept the challenge. Not many people would also give Baba the credit he rightly deserved over what he did when he took over. He lived up to his promises, following in Muhammed’s footsteps to the letter: from the pan-African thrust of their foreign policy which weakened Apartheid and helped to liberate some Southern African countries, to the courageous nationalists policies which revived national pride among Nigerians; to the all-important midwifing of the first ever successful transition from military to civilian rule in 1979. And yet despite all the many sacrifices that Baba had done for his country, his critics still prefer to judge him from their jaundiced perspective.
But that is changing, ipso facto. Nowadays former President Obasanjo’s critics are either relapsing into silence, or sheepishly shifting ground, reluctantly, grudgingly admitting that they had been wrong about him all along. When Baba’s son Lt. Col. Adeboye was shot in combat while fighting insurgents in Adamawa, one of his ardent critics, Col. Dangiwa Umar called me to admit that if Baba could allow his own son to be in the line of fire even though he could shield him with a single phone call, he (Umar) sends his best salute; admitting, finally that Baba is genuine. Not that it ever matters to Baba who is applauding.
Then there was the funny issue of a so called Third Term. Baba is possibly the only one of the 170 million Nigerians that is being judged, convicted and sentenced for an offense he never committed! Some people have shockingly and stubbornly insisted that Baba was the sponsor of the advocacy for a tenure elongation campaign which sought to grant him a third term in office. On his part he had consistently insisted that he had nothing to do with it, and had challenged anybody with clear evidence to the contrary to come forward. Nobody has so far been able to provide such evidence (former FCT minister Nasir el-Rufai’s attempt in his book was no more than an unsubstantiated claim). And, in spite of himself, el-Rufai was indeed among the earliest callers to the Abeokuta residence of Baba to seek his countenance in his (el-Rufai’s) political adventures. That in itself is enough to counteract whatever allegations are contained in the former minister’s book of disputed recollections.
Even those who ask the logical question of why Baba did not stop the advocates of tenure elongation are merely being mischievous. The former president has maintained that he did not stop them because he was convinced the best way to kill the project once and for all was to allow it to exhaust itself; reasoning, correctly, that if those who pushed for it tried and failed, then no one would ever try it again.
Which was exactly what happened.
The infamous project ran its course, got burnt out and died at the cradle of all democracies–the Legislature; and our democracy was the richer for it. And that is why, thank God, Baba now has the moral authority to tell Mr. Jonathan, who is himself toying with a similar idea, “Don’t do it”.
After 2007, Baba had kept a respectable distance from Aso Rock. Untill the need arose when then President Yar’Adua’s terminal illness presented a political crisis that required a commanding voice to intervene. Again Baba stepped forward and advised Yar’Adua to “take the part of hounour” by relinquishing power since he was apparently too sick to carry on. That remark set in motion the series of events that enabled Mr. Jonathan to assume power as Acting President. This stabilized the polity and prevented what could have been a protracted political stalemate. After helping to install Mr. Jonathan as elected President in 2011, Baba again retreated to his farm, playing the international statesman, gradually supplanting the ailing Nelson Mandela as Africa’s pre-eminent political compas.
If all the major players in the Nigerian project had abided by their covenants, the stage was set for an orderly, progressive transition in 2015 when a general election would usher in a new government that was to consolidate the nation’s democracy and move it to the next level.
But by the end of 2012 dangerous flaws had began to emerge in the way Mr. Jonathan was running his government. It appeared he was president in name only, and that a provincial coterie of ethnic sycophants were inexorably determined to manipulate Mr.Jonathan’s soft demeanor to achieve personal objectives that are often in direct conflict with national interest.
Again, Baba, fearless, ageless and selfless stepped forward. After three discreet letters to the President which were not even acknowledged, Baba, in December 2013 released what turned out to be the most dispassionate and candid advice to his erstwhile mentee, in the form of an open letter entitled “Before it is too Late”
Although the letter was nuanced, candid, dignified and stately, it provoked the anger of the regime; and after a week, the government response was to ignore the issues that the letter highlighted concerning the fledgeling war on corruption, the deteriorating state of the economy, the decimation of the middle class which Baba had helped to revive, and worst of all the raging insurgency that was threatening the very foundation of the country, and instead lamely and depressingly concentrated on insisting that Baba lacked the moral right to say the obvious. Now, nearly one year after that letter, all the fears and concerns that Baba had raised in the letter were coming to pass. Unfortunately.
But characteristically, Baba remained undaunted. By August, when it emerged that Baba’s son had been injured in action while leading troops in the very dangerous battleground of the North East, the whole world, Nigerians in particular, put aside their prejudices and purged themselves of all sentiments and admitted that indeed the former President Olusegun Obasanjo towers head and shoulders above all his peers in his love, commitment and service to his country.
Thereafter the pilgrimage to Abeokuta started: The opposition All Progressives Congress leadership, the PDP leadership, the National Assembly leadership and dozens of other political significant others all started queuing up to get a chance to pay homage, declare loyalty, or simply flow with the tide as they jostle to be in the good books of this tireless soldier who is always one step ahead of everybody.
This is where we are: Once again former President Olusegun Obasanjo is poised to play a decisive role in the course of Nigeria’s checkered history. There is no prize though for guessing what he would do: He would put the nation first , second, and last. The puzzle is to guess how he would react to the avalanche of courtship that are pouring in.
So far Baba hasn’t responded, nor has he asked anyone to respond on his behalf. But we can speculate, especially since the stakes are so high that no one can possibly be immune to the consequences of whatever the present tragi-comedy situation eventual throws up.
Those who know former President Olusegun Obasanjo closely often smile benignly when an enthralled public expresses perplexity over what they perceive as Mr. Obasanjo’s increasingly intriguing behavioral swings. One moment he is cradling and nursing; the next he is ruthless and unrelenting. He is enigma itself.
Back in 2007 when Baba left office after successfully nurturing the first civilian to civilian transition, national public opinion about him was mixed. Those who never wavered in their criticism of him regardless of how many angels are swearing he is right, maintained their position and accused him of influencing the presidential election in favour of his party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). They gave the former president no credit for anything he might have done right leading to the swearing in of Umaru Yar’Adua as his successor. Those with moderate views took a more nuanced position and reluctantly admitted that warts and all, Obasanjo had once again steered the country though to another milestone.
But outside the country, it was praises from east to west, from China to America to Europe. His friends in Africa, notably Nelson Mandela, Thabo Mbeki, John Kufour and the younger crop of African leaders who see him as a father figure were effusive in their appreciation of his stewardship of Nigeria. The world felt, and indicated by its actions in the way it feted him, that there was hope yet for the Word’s largest, richest and most influential black nation. And in the estimation of the outside world it was all thanks to the man who had ruled the country twice, 20 years apart; first as a military head of state (1976-1979) and later as a democratically elected civilian president (1999-2007) for a cummulative period of 11 years.
As the nation waits and Nigerians speculate on what Baba would do next, here is wishing the Grand Patron of the Republic God’s continous guidance so that, as he had done many times in the past, he would be the catalyst to the solution of what is seen by many as our country’s most dangerous challenge ever. Equally important is also the hope and prayer that President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, would reflect deeply on his self confessed humble beginnings, the blessings that God has showered on him through no effort of his; consider his present circumstances and honestly search his soul; take an honest look at the dangerous egg shells that dot his future; and muster the courage to emulate his mentor by putting the country above any other considerations.
It is not yet too late. But time is running out.
Muhammad is an honorary media adviser to former President Obasanjo. deengarba@yahoo.com.
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