Olusegun Obasanjo: From Your Watch, Please Take A Good Look At Your Time
“Son
of man, I have
made you a watchman
for the people
of Israel, so hear
the word I
speak and give
them warning for
me. When I say
to the wicked, ’You
wicked person, you will
surely die,’ and you do
not speak out
to dissuade them
from their ways, that
wicked person will
die for their
sin and I will
hold you accountable
for their blood. But if
you do warn the wicked
person to turn
from their ways
and they do
not do so, they
will die for
their sin, though you
yourself will be
saved.” – Ezekiel 33: 7 – 9(New International Version)
In Nigeria, 2013’s yuletide was
a season of open letters. Last
year, rather than tow
the all too
familiar road, our letter
writer–in–chief,
President Olusegun Obasanjo, outdid himself
by launching a
three–volume memoir
titled; My Watch.With renewed
vigor and bravura, he
sentenced a court
injunction restraining him
from proceeding with
the publication of
his book to
damnation with his
fist clenched and
raised for all
to see and his middle
finger protruding towards
the sky.
In a manner
reminiscent of a
nasty storm in
a teacup, this doing
of his stirred
up a hornet’s nest.I
wouldn’t
know if it
was due to
the jibes he
threw at almost
everybody, except himself,
or the
issues his scribbling
bordered on or his well
calculated timing, I sure
know It led to
a motley of reactions from
Nigeria and Nigerians.It
served as fuel
to bickers championed by
anonymous hecklers and
social sycophants on
and off social
media spaces. It earned
him condemnation from
those who claim
to have experienced
a legendary case
of maladministration under
his watch, hence, believes
he lacks
the moral clout
to blow a
shofar or vuvuzela
at anybody’s failings, worse still, the
seeming cluelessness of
a candidate he
surreptitiously foisted on us,
and admiration from
those who claim
to admire his
bravery and courage.It
has prompted counter
publications and many
more are keenly
anticipated. Trust our social
commentators – those who
have risen above
the dictates of
their conscience and
dedicated their time
and resource to
public intellection – they spared no
second in diving
into the undulating
waves Baba Iyabo’s publication
initiated.
For the benefit
of those who
do not know, his
choice of coinage – My Watch – is rather
biblically inspired.
According to Ebora
Owu, as he is
fondly called by
his acolytes, his work
is a chronological
and detailed account
of his stewardship
to man and
to the God who made
him a watchman
over us; a claim
he further substantiated
with the scriptural
verses that served
as a prologue
to this piece
and appeared in all of
his three volumes.
and one volumes
of hisautobiography, a campaign
to situate his
place in history.Whether someone, somewhere adjudged
his book a
compendium of exaggerated
claims of his
heroic grandeur or
a reader who
couldn’t
hide his disgust
after reading excerpts
of his book
tags him a
disgruntled, confused and vindictive
politician, is not necessarily
our position to
justify. But asides the
titillations of reading
his perceptions on his role
and place as
the father of modern Nigeria, the
sentience of civics
behooves on us
to raise a brow when
our history is
being distorted, right in
our very before. The
onus falls on
us to cry
foul, remind our leaders
of their failings
and never fail to be
generous with the
truth, whenever they are
being thrifty with
it. For this cause, some
reminders shall be
poised under three
salient themes. So let
the recall begin.
Theme Number One: Impunity. Odi, a village
in present day
Bayelsa state, still lies
in shambles. What transpired
in this town, under
the command of
our former president
remains a classic
case of how
liberty can be
endangered by the
abuse of power. A
small group of
youths took law
into their hands
by killing some
police officers. Rather than
adopt a civil
conflict resolution approach, the
small town was
ravaged by soldiers
in their armored
vehicles and trucks. The
town was leveled. Lives were
lost. Only a church
building and a
bank survived the
operation. President
Goodluck Ebele Jonathan
has tried to
spruce up the
place by being
a respecter of the rule
of law – by paying 15
billion out of
the 37.6 billion naira
ordered as compensation
to victims of
the holocaust. Yet, the scars
the incident came
with still abides. The
stench and toxins
and empty, uninhabited landscapes
still remains.
Just as in
Odi, the violence that
was let lose
at Zaki Biam
and her neighboring
communities, as of now, amounts
to one of
the worst violations
of human rights
in Nigeria, since we
embraced democracy.The animalism
of the military
was brought to
bear in full
glare by an
inter-ethnic crisis which
led to the
death of 19
soldiers between the
Tivs and their
Junkun neighbors.As a
reprisal, their houses and
shops were burned
down, cement walls crushed, walls poked
with bullet holesand
their fresh air
bartered with the
odium of the
putrid smell of
amputated body parts, while
blood coursed the
perimeters of their
streets.
Theme Number Two: Third
Term Agenda. “Dictators who rule
by the force
of power, oppression, and intimidation
seldom relinquish power
and control voluntarily
to others,” were the words
of President Obasanjo
in his book, This
Animal Called Man.It
is difficult, if not
impossible for someone
who made such
an assertion to
allude to complicity
in passing atenure
elongation bill into
law. Hence, the blame gaming
and serial denials.But
at this point
in time, it is
appalling our former
president haven’t come to
terms with the
fact that blame
gaming serves no
utility.
If you remember, amidst the
tripe and bric-a-brac
raised by the
failure of this
bill, some shocking truths
were revealed. First,
Senator Ken Nnamani, the
senate president who
presided over its
passage assented to
money changing hands – over 8
billion naira doled
out to national
assembly membersby the
presidency to see
to the bill
becoming law.Second, Condoleezza Rice, the
former Secretary to the Government
of the United
States of America, wrote in
her autobiography how
president Obasanjo told
former American President, George Bush, how
he intends to
amend the constitution
so he could
stay beyond May
29, 2007, but was sternly
rebuked. If his current
claims of having
nothing to do
with the bill
should be taken
seriously, how come he
never opposed the
bill, at least, not in
public?
Theme Number Three: Electricity. It is
rather unsettling that
someone who presided
over an administration thatgrossly
failed on its
promiseto fix our
epileptic state of
Power in its
first 6 months, through our
very first Minister
of Power, Late Chief
Bola Ige, could muster
the courage to
call this current
administration“inept
and a colossal
failure.”That
such a statement
was ever made
by a former
president whose tenure is
hallmarked by failed
promises, is laughable, to say
the least.Let’s assume 6
months was too
short a time. Was
8 years and
the billions of
dollars pumped into
theIndependent Power Project(IPP)
too short and
the sums too
small?
E.B. White said it
best when he asserted that “no one
can write decently
who is distrustful
of the readers
intelligence or whose
attitude is patronizing.”Painting everybody, except you, black, makes your memoir
susceptible to folklore. Even at
that, for pretending to
be a hero, insulting our
collective sense of
reasoning and making
of yourself a
giant and Nigeria
a land of
dwarfs,it is at
best, a crass work
of fiction.As a
former president, there is
absolutely nothing wrong
in critiquing the
administration of your
predecessors. But sir, from your
watch, please take a
good look at
your time.
Joel Pereyi, a freelance
copywriter, writes from Lagos, Nigeria.
Phone: 234 703 300 1376
Jpereyi@gmail.com 
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