Obasanjo , Obi and the endless letters
Nigeria’s former president Chief Olusegun Obasanjo was at it again. In an open letter reminiscence of past episodes of succumbing to hysterical style of stirring controversies, he romantically canvassed support for the Labour Party’s Peter Obi in next month’s presidential election.
Already, Obasanjo’s new political passion has succeeded in accelerating brooding reactions in the political terrain. Acting like a political god to enhance his self-esteem, the anointment of Mr. Obi by Obasanjo was unamazing if measured in terms of political friction that had occurred between him and the two heavyweight contestants, Bola Tinubu and Atiku Abubakar. For obvious reasons, Chief Obasanjo will never vouch for the duo to actualise their political goals.
Recall that a flame of fiercely political disharmony engulfed Obasanjo and Tinubu when the latter was the Lagos state governor and the former as the president. The crux of their political confrontation was on the starvation of funds by Obasanjo’s government for local governments in Lagos state in 2005 amounting to billions of naira. For Atiku, his major sin was the phenomenal role he acted to murder Obasanjo’s unborn political child aka the third term project.
Other fundamental factors may come into active play as well for his demonstrated irking for the two gladiators. For example, in the South-west political space, the growing relevance of Tinubu is a demonstration of Obasanjo’s socio-political demystification even though he served eight years as a president. Also, Tinubu’s candidature is an alarming danger to Obasanjo’s self-perceived political intensity. In other words, it is an intensive battling for the control of the soul of Yoruba politics.
Obviously, Obasanjo will never forgive Atiku for truncating his dangerous trip to the third term station. It is this historical resonation that will persist to define Obasanjo’s relationship with Atiku. Obasanjo will never back Atiku’s political aspirations having perpetually enmashed at loggerheads as president and vice president.To confess that Obasanjo is on a vengeance mission to block Atiku’s chances the way Atiku foiled and subverted his ill-fated third term conspiracy needs no emphasis. But how he will achieve this remains mysterious.
Obasanjo will be a great loser if either Tinubu or Atiku triumphs. It will be a personal and political loss that cannot be reconstituted or remedied afterwards. It is this woefully political dismantling that Obasanjo is afraid of and resolved to align with Mr. Peter Obi of the Labour Party. Mr. Obi may not be more qualified than the other two, but Obasanjo will want to adopt him to sacrifice and retire them politically. However, Obasanjo’s political essence is turning archaic and the medium of communication he resorted to is assuming stereotype and very feeble for boosting Obi’s electoral potentialities.
Whether Obasanjo’s political affection for Obi will result in added political value remains to be seen. But it is very likely that the overwhelming impact will not be positive owing to the fact that it will not have numerical strength in terms of voting pattern. The thematic paradox is that Obasanjo’s political character negates the realities surrounding him at many levels. At his personal level, Obasanjo has been an endless critic of all times, ignoring his past misdeeds as a leader.
The Obi he dearly loves today will be the same he will dislike tomorrow especially when he becomes our president as he must find him wanting at all cost. This assertion is culled from previous experiences. Since his retirement from the army, he has been casting aspersions on every government with its leader as the focal point. Erroneously, he has proved himself as the perfect and timeless leader who does not err. At the level of national politics, the aborted third term plan immensely discredited his political worth and integrity. These are two of the political inconsistencies that bar him from attaining a sound political base.
Though there are great and inspirational wisdoms in most of his comments on the state of the nation, when politics counts, it is either you succumb to his belief or you are crucified. The third term agenda readily comes to mind here. In political thinking and conscience, therefore, Obasanjo always wants to reign supreme and indefatigable. His political choice is always the choice of the time and that of deepened reason. To tamper and overshadow this reason is what he detests most.
Through his recent letter which may not be the last, Obasanjo wants us to view and understand politics from his inner feelings that must overshadow the mood of the time. His choice for Obi may probably not be laden with sincerity of purpose. In a realistic way, he is far from exemplifying political attributes or popularity in contemporary Nigeria that will generate him large followership, but rather commands personality trend and status in contexts outside politics. Unfortunately, Obasanjo uses the letter backdrop without committing himself to the codes that usually govern political representations as he belongs to no political party formally. With this spontaneously political romance with Obi however, we may assume that he has enlisted himself in the Labour Party, at least for Obi’s cause.
On a general assessment, therefore, Obasanjo’s blatant flaw in the relationship between his agitation for Mr. Peter Obi and the maintainance of political order to stabilise his political philosophy will continue to chase him like a hawk. He is a victim of his own political monopoly. In a way, his conventional ethic of despatching political messages through letter writings has so far not fetched him the desired results. His letters to Jonathan, Buhari, third force advocacy, etc. have all been fruitless and frustrated battlings to cement his political ego. His latest memo will definitely suffer the same rate.
For Obi in particular, he is not a stranger to the country and Obasanjo’s wevering politics. Obi should go beyond Obasanjo’s letter to reflect its impacts or otherwise on his electoral chances. He should not be driven by distraction because Obasanjo’s support is not the people’s support. Obasanjo’s single vote for Obi is not equivalent to thousands votes. Obasanjo is now a retired power broker who cannot fix Obi the same manner he single handedly deployed to enthrone Yaradua and Jonathan.
Hate him or like him, Chief Obasanjo is a patriotic compatriot but defined by self-glorification. Nevertheless, his recurrent letters on national politics have always ended up in reaching compromise with the existing realities instead of articulating an overriding resolution.
