THESE cannot be the best of times for President Goodluck Jonathan. It is just not raining for the helmsman, it is pouring big time! Whichever of his retinue of priests also doubles as his fortuneteller must also be sweating in his regalia at the moment. He could not have predicted a moment like this.

FOR THE RECORD: Read Full text of Iyabo’s letter to OBJ

IT was a kind of love letter, a labour of love the writer titled ‘Before it is too late’ but which has been variously renamed by commentators. I’m talking here of former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s letter to his political protégé, President Goodluck Jonathan. It was, or meant to be, a private letter which eventually found its way into the public space.

When I was elected secretary-general of the students union at the University of Benin in 1987, I headed a secretarial named after Mandela. I do not know when the decision was taken to make Mandela the tutelary patron of our union whose struggles were mundane by comparison to the race-wide, all-of-humanity-embracing, cause that kept him underground for several years and eventually in prison for twenty-seven more.

PRESIDENT Obasanjo’s poison letter to President Jonathan laid everything bare, except the full intent behind its title, “Before it is too late.” On the face of it, the title suggests that Obasanjo’s blistering survey of all the ills of Jonathan’s personality and administration holds out the hope that the President can fix himself and his administration in a manner that will save the nation from a looming disaster.