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In life, one may choose to be famous, notorious or both, except that notoriety put one on the blue side of lonesome.
Nigeria has moved from partisan arrangee politics to loose cannon realpolitik.
If you have acquainted yourself with the political thought of Joseph Stalin, Garibaldi or Machiavelli, you may be near to unmasking the political behavior of Olusegun Obasanjo.
It is not his fault that he acts the way he does. Life’s circumstances have ensnared him in a web of circumstance, from which he cannot easily extricate his mental intelligence, which can be acute, intense and outlandish.
He has been lionized by his experiences, some near death encounters. I can count six.
His command during the Nigerian civil war, if the coup against Gowon had failed, if he been gunned down by the anti-Muritala coalition, who mistook him for Colonel Dumuje, if he had not thwarted the eight general’s mutiny, if the plane he took to Paris had crashed, if Abacha’s dirty tricks had succeeded and other such encounters with death.
His attitude had long been shaped by his command.
As a General in the army, he belonged to the group of men, who, in war situation can decide to throw in twenty men to hold that bridge of defend that depot until the last man, he always being the last man.
Such a psychological disposition is not given to niceties.
Perhaps, Jonathan should have been made to do more than his youth corps drills. The permanent smile would have long disappeared from his face.
He would have understood why Adolf Hitler said that German youth s should be as tough as leather and strong as Krupp-stahl.
Let us start with the name Obasanjo.
I do not seem to know anyone with the same name. The Oba in the name suggests that he rules over anything he comes across without looking at nice- cities, but at the goal.
Anyone, who has studied military science, will appreciate his uncanny approach to material life. He does not care for material things but with power.
He has been in league with the centers of manipulation and control of Nigeria’s political life since 1977.
I led him and eight African leaders into the National Stadium during FESTAC 77. I was close enough to see the faint facial marks that adorned his face although they have faded a bit, as I saw when he invited me to Ota to deliberate about his 1999 presidential bid.
His daughter gave a vivid insight into the inner self of her father, in a cruel but apt unmasking.
I salute her frankness and her near genius exposition on the Nigerian psyche.
She called her father names, which I will not repeat here. She, however, characterized her father as “One of those petty people, who think that the progress and success of another takes from you.” You try to overshadow everyone around you, before you and after you.” She said that her father was fond of surrounding himself with idiots, who would always agree with him. Beni! We know these idiots, fortune and favour-seekers especially from the South West, who are malleable and ductile, who grovel shamelessly for recognition. Obasanjo often damns them.
One thing he does better than anyone I know is that when people, who want to ingratiate themselves by running others down go to him, he would call the person to confront the tale-bearer.
The ingenuity of Iyabo showed, in her cutting edge denunciation of clowns, power-grabbers, who only think about themselves by replacing their own interest with national interest.
They belong to the PDP group that swore Oath of Allegiance to the party; they are now fleeing from, to their detriment.
INEC must set a high standard for politicians, so that corrupt, treasury loot do not infest the next political dispensation.
The docility, idiocy, non-chalance, recklessness of the Nigerian populace, who praise politicians that have stolen public wealth, was well-depicted by Iyabo.
I blame academics, who kow-toe to political half-wits with political appointments to offer.
Knowing Obasanjo’ strategic calculations, the old fox has read the hand-writing on the wall. He sees that APC will overcome. He dares not antagonize them because there are many issues they might want to re-open if he shows any hostility towards them.
He discerns that PDP is fractionally close to shipwreck.
I can hear him singing “ PDP falling, falling, falling, PDP falling to rise no more.”
We, of the AZATA/NEPU party do apprehend the trend in Nigerian politics as we move from arrangee politics to loose-cannon realpolitik.
God is on the side of the upright and He will overturn, overturn and overturn. Amen, HALLELUJAH!!!
