Obasanjo: When A Statesman Has No Shame

L-R: Buhari and Obasanjo at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, recently.

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo was the democratically elected president of Nigeria between 1999 and 2007. Within the period the former head of state, General Muhammadu Buhari never visited Obasanjo at the Aso Rock Villa, the official residence and office of Nigeria’s president, for even a thirty minutes discussion for either private or official visits. As a matter of fact Buhari treated both Obasanjo and the office he occupied with contempt. Not even the Council of State meetings which former heads of state by the constitution are supposed to attend could make Buhari to visit the Villa. Buhari had treated Obasanjo’s successors at the Villa including President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua and President Goodluck Jonathan with similar disdain. He disregarded any invite by them to attend council of state meetings. It was apparently as a result of his long absence from the Villa that made Buhari to tell BBC in an interview shortly after Jonathan took him round the Villa, that it was a ‘huge palace’ which must ‘cost a lot to maintain.’

 Does it mean that Nigeria had no national challenges that Buhari’s input at the time was needed? Buhari allowed them to sail or sink with the ship they were captaining. Today Buhari can confidently talk about ’16 years rot’ of the PDP, because he was never part of it remotely, either as a former PDP member or by virtue of being part of decision making at the council of state meetings.

Now take a look at the way Obasanjo is embarrassing himself by constantly paying all manners of private and ‘official’ visits to President Muhammadu Buhari.

Between May 29, 2015 that Buhari was sworn in as democratically elected president to date, Obasanjo has visited Buhari over five times. What new ideas does Obasanjo have to give Buhari that he (Obasanjo) could not implement when he had eight solid years as president of Nigeria unchallenged by the then National Assembly until he began to challenge his ‘Chi’ by surreptitiously working for Third Term. Although he denied it when the project failed, but former United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in her memoir confirmed that Obasanjo approached President George Bush to support his Third Term bid which Bush flatly rejected insisting that the constitution of Nigeria must not be violated. Rice has no reason to lie against Obasanjo.

This same Obasanjo that has had his time does not want to give Buhari, a breather. Tomorrow he would claim that it was because of his advice that Buhari succeeded. And he can write! Both letters and books to claim credits for anything good in Nigeria. And when the government of Buhari fails (God forbid, because it is not in Nigeria’s interest for him to fail) Obasanjo would be the first to start condemning him. Today Jonathan was ‘corrupt’ while Yar’Adua was ‘ not good enough’ yet both were products of Obasanjo’s Machiavellian machination as the leader of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). Buhari should be mindful of the advice he takes from this former despot!