Obasanjo Has Finally Met His Match In Buhari, By Maiwada Dammallam

Probably the luckiest Nigerian alive today is former President Olusegun Obasanjo. Despite his numerous documented atrocities and inadequacies he still remain a force to reckon with in Nigeria’s political permutations. Thanks to Nigeria’s reversed understanding of patriotism and service to fatherland, people like Obasanjo could afford to remain a recurring decimal in political affairs when they should only appear in the chapter dealing with ignominy in our history books.
To political observers it was not a matter of if but when he will go after President Buhari. No Nigerian President has ever escaped Obasanjo’s mischievous onslaughts except perhaps, Shonekan who outwitted him by moving out of the villa before his bags where unloaded. No Nigerian President is good enough for Obasanjo because he is set and determined to remain the best. You may roll Clinton, Obama, Mandela and Gandhi in one and donate to Nigeria still, the result will not be good enough for the prolific dancer. President Buhari’s impeccable quality made him a serious threat and a default target of Obasanjo’s acerbic attacks as I will explain shortly. So, who is Obasanjo?
Obasanjo is a megalomaniac operating with a nauseous sense of self-importance which could be picked from his regular outbursts each time elections are around the corner or when he feels his large reserve of consuming ego depleting. Far from the false signals of nationalism and patriotism these outbursts were meant to send to the public, the usually lengthy and carefully scripted sermons are developed to cunningly captivate and hypnotize readers with the specific motive to manipulate them and ensure the sustainability of Obasanjo’s alpha role in Nigeria’s political landscape and his place in history.
So far, President Buhari is the only threat to Obasanjo’s claim to political “perfection” in the context of Nigeria’s politics. He is the only contender to Obasanjo’s exclusive throne of honour given to him by fate which blessed him with the singular honour of leading Nigeria twice under different political arrangements. That Obasanjo schemed to remain the life Chairman of the PDP Board of Trustees by making the position to be exclusively preserved for former Presidents made this theory plausible. At the time he did so, the only possible threat to his selfish ambition to pocket the PDP for life was the meek Jonathan – if that’s a threat. I doubt if I need to explain that the motive of Obasanjo was to secure and guarantee a permanent role in the processes of leadership selection in Nigeria.
Of course, Obasanjo didn’t anticipate an upset from Buhari. The calculation back then was that PDP would rule for 60 years and despite his popularity and grassroot appeal, Buhari was effectively contained using the cumbersome and fully commercialised judicial system. Somehow, Buhari pulled a rabbit out of a hat. Against all odds he managed to organise a formidable force that sent PDP into an early grave along with Obasanjo’s dreams of eternal relevance.
To understand the OBJ/PDP arithmetic viz-a-viz Buhari/APC, one need to understand the two men and their political and moral identities. The two accidentally share some similarities. Both men led Nigeria while they were relatively young and later went into political hibernation only to return to power and prominence decades later and against seemingly insurmountable odds. Both men were traded and sold as non-negotiable democratic solutions despite their military backgrounds. However, the two are just as dissimilar. Whereas Obasanjo made his name and fortune by accident, Buhari worked and sweated for it. Obasanjo is a power monger while Buhari abhors it. Against Obasanjo’s magnetic attraction to scandal, Buhari is a levelheaded gentleman very sensitive and protective of his name and dignity.
One cannot make sense of Obasanjo’s latest attack to defend his alpha role without connecting his tantrums to those of Farooq Kperogi, a well known cyber-snipper that has been shooting aimlessly at President Buhari without hitting his target. I find it absurd that despite a large collection of assorted local critics, Obasanjo could only rely on Kperogi to inject credibility into his tantrums. It’s neither accidental nor coincidental that Kperogi featured in Obasanjo’s sermon as a credible and reliable base for intelligent argument. I have always suspected Kperogi’s relentless albeit, misguided and clearly needless attacks against President Buhari. Now I know the source of his inspiration. With his record arrogance, Obasanjo would mention Kperogi in this assault only if there’s an established connection between the two for the purpose of painting President Buhari in bad colours. Now that the cat is out of the bag, Kperogi may save us the pretence and concentrate on his ‘consultancy’ services to OBJ who is determined to always have a first timer in the villa; somebody he could easily keep in perpetual fear of a second term to be easy to manipulate.
Let’s analyse Obasanjo’s funny allegations. He accused Buhari of nepotism yet, he failed to provide a single provable case of nepotism beside the garbage concocted and fed gullible Nigerians via social media through people like Farooq Kperogi – the consultant he accidentally exposed in his tirade. Of course, he mentioned Maina. How could the manner in which Maina’s case was dealt with be described as nepotism. If it was such a mental exercise for OBJ to make sense of the legal and administrative aspects of Maina’s case, then we can easily understand why he expect President Buhari to turn the farmers/herdsmen imbroglio into a theatre for another Odi and Zaki Biam. Sure, Obasanjo would love to have President Buhari send the army to kill and maim communities wherever there is a clash between herdsmen and farmers just so his record of illegal deadly response to a similar situation in Odi and Zaki biam could be beaten.
On the economy, it’s repulsive listening to Obasanjo who supervised a colossal waste of $16bn under the pretext of revamping and upgrading generation, transmission and distribution of electricity yet, failed to make significant improvement in the sector, talking about Buhari not doing it well. Obasanjo should have dedicated a chapter in his message to ask President Buhari how he managed to be magical with the electricity situation by spending less and getting more than him. By the way, why shouldn’t President Buhari constantly remind Nigerians about the rot he inherited when the predators that left the rot are still prowling around searching for opportunities to scavenge on the remains?
The most laughable was Obasanjo’s call for President Buhari not to go for a second term on the account of his age. Obasanjo should have told Nigerians how old and fit he was when he dubiously attempted to secure a third term before he reluctantly left office as President. The question of whether President Buhari should contest or not is a question for Nigerian masses not for Obasanjo. Nigerian masses were there for Buhari before and they will be around for him to face whatever coalition Obasanjo have in his kitty.
Sure, this is a battle that would definitely demystify one of the two giants. I’m very excited and happy that Obasanjo has finally met his match.[myad]