Questioning moral rectitude in Obasanjo’s letter to Buhari

“The lice of poor performance in government – poverty, insecurity, poor economic management, nepotism, gross dereliction of duty, condonation of misdeed – if not outright encouragement of it, lack of progress and hope for the future, lack of national cohesion and poor management of internal political dynamics and widening inequality – are very much with us today. With such lice of general and specific poor performance and crying poverty with us, our fingers will not be dry of ‘blood’”.

-          Former President Olusegun Obasanjo in his Tuesday, January 23, 2018 special press statement on President Muhammadu Buhari’s government.

The dust raised by the missive of ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo asking the incumbent President Muhammadu Buhari not to run in 2019 is yet to settle. The former president who recently made history as one of the five octogenarians in history to earn a Doctor of Philosophy had last week x-rayed the administration of PMB and characterised it with the above cited opening quote.  Since the publication of that statement, I have had the privilege of analysing it on some electronic media platforms. I have discussed it on ’Majelisa’ on  Kiss 99.9 FM, ‘Nigeria Today’ on  Nigerian Television Authority  and ‘Burgami’  on Vision 92.1 FM,  all in Abuja.

While the opinion expressed in the letter resonated with many Nigerians including myself, it did not go down well with many other compatriots particularly members of President Buhari’s party, the All Progressives Congress and many people from northern Nigeria. Does Dr. Obasanjo have a right to air his opinion on the president? The answer is in the affirmative. Section 39 (1) of Nigeria’s 1999 Constitution, as amended in 2010 says “Every person shall be entitled to freedom of expression including freedom to hold opinions and to receive and import ideas and information without interference.” What Obasanjo expressed was his personal opinion. In fact, he called it brotherly advice. Hear him “I only appeal to brother Buhari to consider a deserved rest at this point in time and at this age. I continue to wish him robust health to enjoy his retirement from active public service. President Buhari does not necessarily need to heed my advice.”  I am one of those who think the former president does not have to make a public show of his advice to the incumbent president. The truth is that he has unfettered access to him and has actually met with him on more than one occasion since he came to power on May 29, 2015.

Among those who are critical of the opinion expressed by Obasanjo, also known as OBJ are those who aligned their thoughts with the position expressed by Simon Kolawole, a renowned newspaper columnist and publisher of the news medium known as The Cable. Simon had in an article entitled “Obasanjo as Nigeria’s Moral Compass”  published in Thisday newspaper of January 18, 2015 articulated the former president’s poor human rights records, bad governance and lack of moral rectitude.  Assuming without conceding that Simon was right in his referenced article, does that stop Obasanjo from pointing out the pitfalls of his successors? Many people believe that Obasanjo is a megalomania who likes to pontificate on the weaknesses of others while ignoring his own shortcomings.

He is a typical ‘aritenimowi, a fi apaadi jaanran bo tie mole’ (Yoruba proverb that translates as one who likes to criticize others while covering up his or her own inadequacies). In the very opening paragraph of his letter to Buhari, Obasanjo offered insight into his motive for writing the letter, According to the octogenarian, there is a Yoruba saying that ‘when lice abound in your clothes, your fingernails will never be dried of blood’.  Therefore, to ensure you do not have blood on your fingernails, you have to ensure that lice are not harboured anywhere within your vicinity. There is also another Yoruba adage that says “agba kii wa loja ki ori omo tuntun wo” that is, while the elder is in a marketplace the head of a baby will not be allowed to bend.

 Perhaps OBJ’s intent is genuine as he said “Some may ask, what does Obasanjo want again? Obasanjo has wanted nothing other than the best for Nigeria and Nigerians and he will continue to want nothing less. And if we have the best, we will be contented whether where we live is described as palaces or huts by others and we will always give thanks to God.”  There are also those who think OBJ is being opportunistic and was cashing in on the popular discontent in the polity. They said he is just rehashing many thoughts of Nigerians who felt the Buhari administration has failed to deliver on many of its campaign promises. They pointed out the existence of Third Force such as the National Intervention Movement established by Olisa Agbakoba, SAN and others since November 29, 2017 and the ‘Red Card Movement being spearheaded by Dr. Oby Ezekwesili since January 4, 2018. According to his critics, Obasanjo is not saying anything new and is just trying to reinvent the will by calling for the establishment of Coalition for Nigeria. Incidentally, Dr. Yunusa Tanko, who is the national chairman of National Conscience Party, addressed a press conference on Thursday, January 25, 2018 announcing that about 30 political parties have agreed to form a working alliance under the auspices of an umbrella organisation to be known as Coalition for New Nigeria (CNN).

There are at least three categories of people who are against President Muhammadu Buhari’s reelection bid. They will rather not have him on the ballot come 2019. The first are those who believe he pledged to do only one term in office as president. Although many Nigerians are not privy to this pact or gentleman’s agreement, however in September 2017, Hajia Aisha Alhassan who is the incumbent Minister of Women Affairs and Social Development granted interview to British Broadcasting Corporation Hausa Radio where she stated inter alia that “In 2015 prior to the election, when Buhari decided to contest following intense pressure, he declared that he was going to serve one tenure, that is four years. And to date no-one can claim Buhari has expressed any desire to stand for re-election in 2019.” Alhassan’s political ‘godfather’ and former Vice President Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, perhaps seeing that the president is being egged on to contest for second term, left the APC back to Peoples Democratic Party in December 2017.

The second group of antagonists is those who believe the president is not in a good state of health and is too old to govern for an extended period of eight years given the fact that he was in and out of a London hospital for over hundred days last year. However, the third category of people are those who feel he has failed to deliver on his 2015 campaign promises and as such is undeserving of being return to power in 2019. Many Nigerians are in this fold. Just like Obasanjo did, they cited the growing unemployment, poverty, insecurity, infrastructural deficit, lopsided appointments, tardiness in decision making, rising commodity prices and high cost of living as some of their reasons.  

Centre for Democracy and Development in 2015 set up a monitoring mechanism to track the performance of the 222 campaign promises of the president (see www.buharimeter.ng ). Out of the lot, as at last Friday when this piece was written, only six had been achieved, 112 is ongoing while 102 is not rated, meaning work are yet to start on them. Yet the administration is getting to three years in office and many feared that with the election timetable out and the next general polls scheduled for February / March 2019, many of the ongoing projects may not be completed due to politicking for mandate renewal. Many Nigerians believe that the Buhari government is not only slow but underperforming.

What really are the implications of Obasanjo’s last week’s epistle to Buhari? For me it is ominous. In military parlance, there is something called ‘espirit de corps’. Obasanjo and Buhari belong to the military elite and are the two most fortunate who have had the privilege to serve as Head of State and civilian presidents. Obasanjo was senior to Buhari in the military and actually endorsed him for president in the lead up to the 2015 General Elections. It will seem that after some private consultations without the desired change, Obasanjo decided to go public and put issues on record for posterity. Remember the saying by Franz Fanon that  “The future will have no pity for those men who, possessing the exceptional privilege of being able to speak words of truth to their oppressors, have instead, taken refuge in an attitude of passivity, of mute indifference, and sometimes, of cold complicity.” Of all the past presidents and Heads of State  alive  - Gen. Yakubu Gowon, General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida, Gen. Abdusalami Abubakar, Alhaji Shehu Sagari, Chief Earnest Sonekan and Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, it is only Chief Olusegun Obasanjo who has openly come out to criticise the incumbent. To me, it is a bold, courageous and patriotic move.

Another implication is that it is a clarion call on the PMB administration to redouble its effort and deliver on its campaign promises. Speaking truth to power is a commodity in short supply in Nigeria as many members of the elite class like Obasanjo will rather prefer not to rock the boat and allow maintenance of status quo. However, OBJ’s open criticism is tantamount to holding the government’s feet to fire to ensure that it delivers on the party’s and candidates pledges. This is good for our democracy as it will help to deepen it.

It is heartwarming and commendable that both the APC and President Buhari took Obasanjo’s criticism in good faith and responded in measured and civil tone. In time past, even under Obasanjo’s administration, his media aides and Minister of Information would have taken anyone bold enough to openly criticise their principal to cleaners. They would have engaged in vitriolic attacks and even ordered the arrest and detention of such person no matter how highly placed. Rather, in this instance, the president’s media aides kept mute and allowed the Minister of Information, Alhaji Lai Mohammed to respond. The response was very apt and straight to the point. The Minister appreciated OBJ and even called him a patriot. He thereafter countered the non-performance claim on the administration in the area of economy with facts and figures. He talked about the giant strides in the reduction of inflation, improvement in the ‘ease of doing business’, agriculture, sold minerals, weeding out of ghost workers and savings from the operations of Treasury Single Account among other highlights.  In a rare admittance of truth, the Minster observed that “These positive indices may not have immediately impacted positively on Nigerians, but Nigerians will definitely get a new lease of life a short while from now.”

Jide is the Executive Director of OJA Development Consult. Follow me on twitter @jideojong

 N.B: This article was first published on Page 12 of the LAWYER pullout in Thisday newspaper of today January 30, 2018.