By Ochereome Nnanna
A FRIEND of mine who has read Brigadier General Godwin Isama-Alabi’s book: The Tragedy of Victory: On-The-Spot Account of The Nigeria – Biafra War In The Atlantic Theatre, has a mischievous way of calling or sending me text messages any time General Olusegun Obasanjo dances in the public square. Isama-Alabi, the Chief of Staff, 3rd Marine Commando of the Nigerian Army during the Biafra War, completely dunks the self-praising accounts tabled by Obasanjo in his book: My Command and other autobiographical reads.

Isama-Alabi describes Obasanjo as “clueless”, “coward”; a commander whose incompetence led to the loss of 1,400 Nigerian soldiers on his first day as the reluctant Commander of the 3rd Marine Commando at the Owerri front. The author sensationally disclosed that Obasanjo once got shot in the buttocks while running away from the battlefield near Port Harcourt. Observes Isama-Alabi: “A general will be shot in the chest, not on the buttocks”.

Now, because of this, my friend recently text me thus: “Any time the Biafran bullets in Obasanjo’s buttocks begin to disturb him, no one needs to tell you!” How else would you describe the antics of a man who has led his country twice and, at 79 (though he confessed recently that he does not know his real age) has made himself a regular object of ridicule both at his home front and the open arena? This is a man whose son, Dr Gbenga Obasanjo, once publicly accused him of sleeping with his wife and demanded a DNA test to determine the real father of his (Gbenga’s) children! Rather than opt for the test to clear his name, Obasanjo conveniently allowed elders to intervene and sweep the matter under the carpet. Just a little over a year ago, his daughter, Senator Iyabo Obasanjo-Bello, wrote an open letter, accusing him of frequently beating and abusing their mother. She publicly disowned him.

From left: Former Presidents, Alhaji Shehu Shagari; Chief Olusegun Obasanjo and former Head of State, Gen. Yakubu Gowon, at the Centenary Dinner and Awards in Abuja on Friday (28/2/14).

Senator Iyabo was responding to the first of Obasanjo’s public stinkers directed at President Goodluck Jonathan. One of the accusations he laid against GEJ was that he had 1,000 “political enemies” under close security watch, and was training snipers to go after them. When this letter made its explosive public outing, President Jonathan directed the Attorney General of the Federation, Alhaji Mohammed Adoke, to have the allegations investigated. Later on, the National Human Rights Commission, NHRC, waded into the matter to unravel it. Just a week ago, its Chairman, Professor Chidi Odinkalu, disclosed that Obasanjo refused to respond to entreaties on him to provide evidence to support his allegations.

The public destruction of his Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, card again got tongues wagging. People were aghast that a man who presided over the affairs of this country on the platform of PDP would invite a crowd of onlookers and perform a comic show that is totally unbecoming of a man of his age and status.

As a close watcher of this Obasanjo phenomenon, that event was significant but not because he tore PDP’s card. Obasanjo has the right to belong to any political party. He is entitled to withdraw his membership without apologies to anyone. If he chooses to do so in the public, it is a matter of personal style. After all, some people willfully defecate in the market square, not minding the onlookers. There are people who are beyond shame.

The tearing of the PDP membership card amounts to a surrender by Obasanjo; a public acknowledgement that his carefully planned schemes to lead the PDP for life and control the Presidency from his stupendously opulent home is dead. Obasanjo has now publicly given up his claims to political power.

When Obasanjo won his second term in 2003 he immediately made a bid for third term. When his convoluted plots were routed on the floor of the Senate on May 16, 2006, he resorted to Plans “B” and “C”, which would enable him to control the Presidency from his bedroom. For President, he brought out an ailing and soft-spoken Governor Umaru Yar’ Adua of Katsina State, who was the younger brother of his trusted late Deputy, General Shehu Yar’ Adua. Knowing that President Yar’ Adua was terminally ill, Obasanjo paired him with Governor Goodluck Jonathan of Bayelsa State, whom he saw as a humble and easily controllable substitute when Yar’ Adua was no more.

But Yar’ Adua, during his short reign, refused to knuckle under his oppressive demands. In fact, Yar’ Adua cancelled many of the public assets sold by Obasanjo and quashed some of the questionable contracts he awarded. Yar’ Adua understood power, and when Obasanjo noticed this, he kept a low profile. But as soon as the President died, Obasanjo jumped into the fray to demand, not only Jonathan’s full presidential empowerment but also his election in 2011 as President. Obasanjo found out, soon enough, that even Jonathan would not give up his powers to a man he openly acknowledges as “father and mentor”.

When Obasanjo wrote his first public stinker in January 2013, GEJ went on to disclose, in his own reply, that Obasanjo was behaving like a “goat seller who after selling his goat refuses to release the rope”. Obasanjo declared war and started lobbying some of the governors he supported into office to become rebellious against the Party and the President. He was the brain behind the break-away five PDP governors who have now teamed up with the opposition All Progressives Congress, APC. He also mobilised his former ministers who could not get jobs under Jonathan (such as Nasir el Rufai, Oby Ezekwesili and Charles Soludo) to fight the President. His recent endorsement of General Muhammadu Buhari, the presidential candidate of the APC was one of his final acts of surrender, after his push for interim government was resoundingly rejected. He has finally given up trying to rule Nigeria again.

Obasanjo says he now wants to be a “statesman”.Hmm. Mr Ibu also wants to be a statesman.