Olusegun Obasanjo, a retired General and former president of Nigeria, is not yet through with President Goodluck Jonathan. He is still spitting fire. It is not clear what Obasanjo’s intentions are.
After describing Jonathan as incompetent a few weeks ago, the war-tested General still has a bag-load of mischief. In his latest outburst, Obasanjo is calling the man he brought to national politics a failure.
He has written a book, something he loves doing, and which I appreciate, but this time, to formally document, for posterity, his hatred for and condemnation of the Bayelsa-born politician.
Jonathan had sailed through a questionable Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governorship primary for Bayelsa State in 2007 when Obasanjo pulled him over to Abuja as running mate to the late President Umaru Yar’Adua.
When Yar’Adua died before completing his tenure, Jonathan stepped into the dead man’s shoes. Just then, the leadership of the PDP said Jonathan would not be allowed to contest the presidency.
Obasanjo moved in with a bag of tricks. He did what only Obasanjo could do. He protected his “boy” against humiliation. Suddenly, those against Jonathan had court orders dangling over their heads. Jonathan contested and won.
It is difficult for outsiders like us to understand what really happened between the two politicians. All we know is that they fell out. Obasanjo says the longest time he has ever spent with Jonathan since the election is about 70 minutes. No comments.
Some of the statements in the book are disgusting, humiliating and very unbecoming. The book has simply stripped Jonathan; and has almost completely demystified the presidency.
Obasanjo has carefully picked his words to tell the story, which, from all indications, is meant to present him as the best thing to happen to Nigeria. Just this past week, he picked the right moment to present the book to the public despite a court order to the contrary.
One of the issues raised by Obasanjo in his book, My Watch, is that Jonathan is morally disqualified from contesting the presidency in 2015 because of what he calls “the position” agreed to by Jonathan in 2011 to be a one-term president.
This issue has been overbeaten by politicians from both sides of the divide who said they were privy to the agreement, and those who insist that there was no such agreement or understanding.
It is difficult to know who to believe; not even Obasanjo can be believed because of his personal quarrel with Jonathan, neither can Jonathan be believed because of his personal interest in the matter.
I am not one of Jonathan’s fans; although I can’t but accept the fact that he is my president. If I have any reason to condemn his performance since assuming power, or to condemn him as president, I’ll hold Obasanjo responsible.
I have stated this before. Jonathan is slow; and sometimes undecided when action is needed urgently. In addition, he has surrounded himself with people who do not even allow him access to the dailies.
Until recently, he knew little or nothing about the exercise of presidential powers. This made it possible for his opponents to deal him wicked but avoidable political blows and walk away unruffled.
This is one of Obasanjo’s description of Jonathan: “Although he might wish to do well, he does not know how, nor does he have the capacity to. To compound his problem, he has not surrounded himself with aides imbued with the qualities and abilities to help him out. Most of them are greedy hangers-on or hungry lacklustre characters interested only in their mouths and in their pockets.”
Though I’m persuaded to agree with him here, the description sounds like the type of people Obasanjo used to execute his third term project: political jobbers and spin doctors.
Then this: “After watching, reaching out to, studying, talking to, and listening to the president himself and the people around him, I came sadly to a number of conclusions that mark Jonathan out as a man of adequate intelligence to run the affairs of Nigeria…”
His concern, however, is that Jonathan is a president “…lacking in broad vision, knowledge, confidence, understanding, concentration, capacity, sense of security, courage, moral and ethical principles, character and passion to move the nation forward in a fast trajectory.”
In other words, Jonathan, the president of Nigeria, brought by Obasanjo from the obscurity of Bayelsa politics, is empty and completely bereft of any progressive ideas.
When did the former president discover all these shortcomings in Jonathan? What were Jonathan’s Unique Selling Points (USPs) in 2007 when he was brought as presidential running mate? Or did Obasanjo discover Jonathan’s inadequacies after he made him president, only for both of them to disagree over power-sharing? We need the details.
It is so unfortunate that a presumed leader of Obasanjo’s status could come this low just to win public sympathy over his personal disagreement with Jonathan. I wish he had come clean. I wish we could believe him.
Whatever may be the reason behind the sickening consistent attack by Obasanjo against Jonathan, the nation will eventually be the loser. There is something both of them are not telling us.
Obasanjo is a senior citizen of the world; and people of his status talk with caution. He does his with reckless abandon. Can somebody out there call him to order? Or are we all enjoying this show of shame?