Former President Olusegun Obasanjo, in his usual form, stirred the polity with a letter to President Mohammadu Buhari not to run for 2019 because his tenure has been a major disappointment.

PMB did not meet the expectation of many people who had hoped on a renewal and rebirth of the country under his watch. The letter from the former president should not have come as a surprise to anybody. It has always been his style to speak to power. He had been extremely outspoken during the Gen Ibrahim Babangida administration when he condemned that government’s Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP) which he said did not have a human face. He likewise took on late Sani Abacha’s military regime. Abacha had sought to become a civilian president by coercing the five political parties described by former Attorney General and leader of Afenifere, late Chief Bola Ige as five fingers of a leprous hand, to adopt him as its candidate. There was tension in the land. Nigeria had become a pariah nation with Chief Tom Ikimi as foreign minister.

The situation of ostracism was further compounded with the judicial murder of late Ogoni environmental activist and writer, Kenule Saro Wiwa. Obasanjo was only saved from the gallows by the death of the late dictator.Obasanjo had done the same thing with his successors in office. He installed late Umar Yar’Adua and had advised the then sick president to relinquish his hold on power when no one was sure of the Yar’Adua’s health status and the country was adrift. He also did an 18-pager to former President Goodluck Jonathan. The letter which he entitled, ‘Before it is too late’ marked a turning point in Jonathan’s bid for another term. He accused Jonathan of driving the country to the edge and allowing corruption and mutual distrust to tear at the fabric of the nation, apart from which he was allowing his second term aspiration to decimate the PDP. Obasanjo said he decided to make the Jonathan letter public because his earlier letters were not acted upon neither were they acknowledged.

A master of the dramatics, he publicly tore his Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) membership card to indicate his parting of ways with the party. Today, the rest is history.

His new letter was not without drama before its release to the public. Someone had drawn my attention to a video of Obasanjo dancing with his wife at the celebration of his PhD from the National Open University (NOUN). His dancing was unusual in the video clip that went viral. He would waltz his way towards one direction and abruptly turn towards another direction. With benefit of hindsight, one would conclude that he was trying to pass a message. One recalls that Obasanjo was a frequent visitor to the Aso rock villa in the early days of the Buhari administration, but those visits eventually dwindled, giving indications that all was no longer cordial.

With his latest letter, it is obvious that President Buhari’s second term bid would definitely not be smooth sailing. Prior to the letter, most Nigerians had started coming to the realization that Buhari was not really the messiah, to use President Obasanjo’s words that Nigerians were looking for. He is guilty of most of what the former president had accused him of. He had been described as clannish, surrounding himself with people from his immediate constituency. The obvious examples are the headship of all the security organizations in the country. They are peopled by members of one ethnic group, without respect to the delicate ethnic balancing in the country.  Someone had described the action of the president as obvious arrogance.  He never felt it was necessary to create a level platform for the entire country. His is the only exception in the history of the Nigerian presidency. None among former presidents had been so brazen as to surround themselves with people from one ethnic group or more precisely, their ethnic group. Obasanjo did not do it. Late President Umar Yar’Adua never did it. His immediate predecessor in office, President Jonathan never did it.

Most galling about the President Buhari’s behaviour is his inability to take action when accusations are leveled against those close to him. Minister of State for Petroleum, Ibe Kachikwu had raised issues concerning the running of the nation’s cash cow, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, (NNPC). He claimed to have written memos which never got to the president. His attempts to also see the president were equally stonewalled. The people responsible are still in government.

Related News

Prior to that, issues had been raised about the lopsided appointment in NNPC in favour of the president’s section of the country; the status quo has not changed.

It took the public outcry and media condemnation before the president eventually acted on the corruption accusation leveled against former Secretary to the Government (SGF), Babachir Lawal. The report submitted by the Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo committee on the matter was gathering dust before the president had no choice than to act.

What really have been the gains for Nigerians since Buhari came to power? Have we fared well under him? The indices are negative. Unemployment rate in the country increased to 18.80 percent in the third quarter of 2017 from 16.20 percent in the second quarter. Meaning that more Nigerians lost their job within that period. Poverty has increased to unimaginable level. Families have found it difficult to meet their obligations. People can no longer feed. It was under Buhari that Nigeria had an unprecedented level of suicide. Suicide cases had never been that high in the country. Nigerians have always been the happy -go -lucky- type. They hardly demand too much of their leaders. They mind their business so long as their job is secured, they are able to feed and meet some of their basic needs. But all these worsened under the Buhari administration. Jobs were lost, thriving companies closed shop. Crime, especially kidnapping went haywire because people had lost legitimate means of livelihood.

To compound the inefficient running of government, the administration found it difficult to take responsibility for its actions and inactions. When the economy went into recession, it was attributed to the profligacy of the Jonathan administration. While not exonerating that administration from its intransigencies, Nigerians voted a new government in order to correct the glaring deficiencies of the Jonathan administration. Nigerians were growing tired of the excuses.  It became obvious that the excuses were being given to cover the deficiencies of government.

Thus Obasanjo’s letter is a reflection of the mood of the country. Nigerians have come to the unpalatable realization that the administration has been deficient in fulfilling its promise. The administration’s economic or more precisely, (no economic) policy has failed. It became obvious too that Buhari is not the president that would take us out of the present situation on account of his provincial and sectional bent. Indeed, Obasanjo’s letter brings a biblical passage involving Prophet Samuel and Saul, Israel’s first king to mind.

Anyone interested should read 1Samuel 15: 1-28. For those interested in analogies, they should look at verses 27-28.