OBASANJO'S JOURNEY THROUGH NIGERIA

Chief Olusegun Obasanjo

Unlike Colin Power, now late, the first black man to head America's, Joint Chiefs of Staff and first black Secretary of State, whose parents migrated from Jamaica to America and made the most of it, Mathew Okikiola Olusegun Obasanjo was born and breed in Abeokuta, Ogun State, Nigeria. But like Colin Powell who coined the above as title for a book he wrote on his American story, the headline of this story is perhaps apt to describe the adventurous sojourn of Olusegun Obasanjo through the labyrinth that is Nigeria. Obasanjo was born on a farm in a remote village, Ibogun in Ogun state. Obasanjo was so enamoured of his rural background that he received America's Jimmy Carter there when President Carter visited him in Nigeria.

Say whatever you want about Obasanjo, of all who has had the privilege of ruling Nigeria since 1960 none has done so well like him; none is well and widely read like him; none is well committed to project Nigeria as him, none has managed the economy of Nigeria better than him, none is as hard working as him.

A retired permanent secretary, Mr Olusegun Olujimi Ogunkua, who served in Obasanjo's secretariat during his government told me he did not know "where Obasanjo gets his boundless energy from. Give him a voluminous report in the night and by the following morning he has read it and returned it". But there is no magic to Obasanjo's strength; it is borne out of regular excersise and commitment to whatever he’s doing. Those close to him talk of his love for the game of squash and aerobics. Obasanjo's success is a combination of divine providence and hard work. He told of what Ifa oracle told his parents when they consulted it. It was said that he would be known worldwide but that would not have fulfilled if Obasanjo is lazy. Now we have a leader who is complaining of having to sit in office for six hours daily.

I have met Obasanjo twice so far, one at a distance, the other up close in his Hill Top mansion in Abeokuta. When I first saw him in flesh and blood, it was in the 70s at the Federal Ministry of Internal Affairs where he had come to see the Permanent Secretary, Mr. Sunday Awoniyi, now late. Then Obasanjo was Federal Commissioner for Works. I was a clerk in that ministry. He drove in his personal metallic gold Mercedes 200. No driver, no escort nothing, all by himself. That is Obasanjo, simplicity personified. He wore the military uniform with the shirt tucked painstakingly in the trouser to accommodate the protuding stomach. I reminded him of that meeting and he said with humour, "that was when I was a boy about town".

That second meeting was through Dare Babarinsa, his friend. Dare, top-rated journalist and my university classmate has the ability for making friends across all ages, from the very young to the very old. We met at Obasanjo's expansive waiting room at his new Hill Top mansion, Abeokuta. The mansion was graced with a tall painting of Obasanjo with the headline, Obasanjo, the father of modern Nigeria. When I saw it, I recognized what damage flatterers could do and have done to leaders in Nigeria.

In my mind, I said whoever gave him that must be one of those who goaded him to the third term misadventure. Though Obasanjo denied that he never sought a third term, I remember vividly reading a Punch story where he said, there was pressure on him to run for a third term. I felt then that he was flying a kite. Obasanjo's denial was not believed by many Nigerians. That it failed was again by divine providence that will not allow his good works to be soiled by the quest.

At the meeting, I had told Dare not to introduce me as a pastor. I know the quarell between him and my pastor, Tunde Bakare and I was not prepared to engage in that. It was Obasanjo, however, that asked what I do for a living. I told him I was a consultant to Dare's Gaskia Media which was true. Obasanjo's response was another humour. He told me he was unemployed. Yet he had just finished his second term as president. We all laughed. But one thing struck me especially. All the time he spoke with me, he had his two hands deliberately behind his back. Why did he do that? I asked in my mind. He was quite older and in Yorubaland we respect age and he was more accomplished. As we left him, I asked Dare whether he noticed that and why he did that. Dare said it was his usual style. I left the Hill Top mansion with the impression of a man who at the same time is both tough and humble. I have since found that quality in many senior military offices I have met.

Obasanjo has written more about his stewardship to Nigeria more that any of his contemporaries. More has also been written about him from all over the world more than any of his contemporaries. Many find it easy to blame him for many ills of Nigeria. Not John Illifeh who was commissioned by the Oxford University to write about Obasanjo in the eyes of the World. Illifeh wrote his masterpiece of history without the benefit of an interview with Obasanjo. But he wrote so excellently and factually through library research that the former president himself said he missed only one point, that he did not get where Obasanjo went after he left power.

Some think he should have restructured Nigeria. They forget that there are few Nigerians that are truly committed to the unity of Nigeria as Obasanjo. It was only the nepotistic tendency of President Muhammadu Buhari that made Obasanjo shift a little bit from a united Nigeria when he said in one of his usual letters that Nigeria had better go apart than for one ethnic group dominate others. His critics forget that the command structure of the army has forged in Obasanjo like his other military colleagues an orientation for a unitary kind of government and so when they accuse Obasanjo of not taking Nigeria back to 1963 constitution, they forget that he couldn't because he didn't believe it was better for Nigeria.

Odi where Obasanjo sent soldiers to avenge the killing of policemen who went to arrest those who vandalize oil pipelines also has come for mention; so also is Zaki Biam in Benue State. A close associate explain these issues as follows; "Obasanjo won a democratic election but he is not a democrat". And you ask, does Obasanjo have to be a democrat at the level of our development in Nigeria?

Can we afford the western style democracy at this level of our development? Is America honest in her self-appointed role as defender of democracy. Haven't democracy been used to divide the peoples of Africa. Is America itself democratic? I believe we have to develop our own home-grown democracy. Russia and China say they are democratic in their own fashion and America can cry itself hoarse, the countries are making good progress. It was American style democracy that made some big oil conglomerates to take some of our senators for a conference in Ghana but in real terms to bribe them so that they can scuttle the oil bill before them. Do we need that kind of divide and rule system?

Sometimes a growing nation needs strong men and women to drive a nation's development and such men and women would have to take tough actions. Obasanjo was brought in to stop the drift of the nation to disaster and collapse following General Ibrahim Babangida's annulment of June 12, 1993 presidential elections, presumably won by Chief MKO Abiola. He was to stablize the country. Indeed, he helped stabilize democracy. I think he did a good job of that. When he refused to stop the sharia move in the North which was more political than Islamic as admitted recently by Sheikh Ahmad Gumi, stabilization was the goal of Obasanjo. Now the North is reaping the fruit of political sharia in Boko Haram and banditry.

In my opinion, Obasanjo score high on many indices of performance but one area where his critics may have gotten him is in his alleged relationship with women. But as he told one of his associates, God will have to forgive him on that score. Obasanjo should know how God forgives. It is never lost on him that God has given what he didn't deserve, he has been humble to admit that.

Now he has degrees in theology. He pastors a church in his Obasanjo library. Every 5am meets him in his chapel praying. God does forgive but requires the forgiven not to go back to that sin. That will be between Obasanjo and his God. Nigerians have every reason to thank God that he gave them Obasanjo. For me, I'm yet to see his equal, not even among the crop of politicians and leaders that parade themselves in the corridor of power now. So congratulations as Chief Obasanjo marks 85 today.

Guest Writer:

Tunde Akande is both a journalist and pastor. He earned a Master’s degree in Mass Communication from the University of Lagos.