On December 12, 2013, I woke up to Olusegun Obasanjo’s
‘Before it is too late’; a caustic letter to former President Goodluck
Jonathan. In the 18-page missive, Ebora Owu diced Jonathan like a sushi chef.
Obasanjo delineated 10 reasons he chose to drag Jonathan
before the public square for some good spanking. He said the former president
‘’must move away from advertently or inadvertently dividing the country along
weak seams of north-south and Christian-Muslim’’, and that ‘’nothing should be
done to allow the country to degenerate into economic dormancy, stagnation or
retrogression’’.
He also said,‘’some of our international friends and
development partners are genuinely worried about signs and signals that are
coming out of Nigeria’’.
Really, Obasanjo said something profound in the letter –
profound for its appositeness in the current administration.
He said:‘’Those who advise you to go hard on those who
oppose you are your worst enemies. Democratic politics admits and is permissive
of supporters and opponents. When the consequences come, those who have wrongly
advised you will not be there to help carry the can. Egypt must teach some
lesson.’’
Arguably, that mordant letter to Jonathan sealed the coffin
of the administration nail by nail for it handed the opposition the mortar for
combat and mobilised mass consciences against the government.
However, I have observed that Ebora Owu may be losing
prolificacy, or perhaps, he has cowered to intimidation by the Buhari
administration. Could this Orisa be afraid?
Although he wrote a less virulent open letter to President
Buhari on the parlous state of security in the past and did not dither in
bellowing the president’s incompetence, he suspended the pastime, and even
stopped making critical comments on the administration after agents of the
regime went for Atiku Abubakar’s in-law.
Obasanjo supported Atiku, who was the presidential candidate
of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), in the last election.
In August, the EFCC arraigned Abdullahi Babalele, Atiku’s
son-in-law, for allegedly laundering $140,000 in the build-up to the election.
Obviously, Obasanjo is the target of this case.
Now, here is the story.
On November 12, Bashir Mohammed, an associate of Babalele,
told a federal high court in Lagos that Atiku’s son-in-law gave Obasanjo the
naira equivalent of $140,000.
Mohammed, who was the first witness of the EFCC, described
himself as a “close friend” of the accused.
While being led in evidence by Rotimi Oyedepo, EFCC
prosecutor, Mohammed detailed how he delivered the money to the former
president at his residence in Ogun state.
He said Babalele called him sometime in February, asking him
to deliver a message to “an elder statesman”.
He said on Babalele’s request he supplied two bank accounts,
which were credited with the said sum.
“When I got to the gate, somebody came and took me inside
where I met former President Olusegun Obasanjo and delivered the message.”
If my hunch is right, this case and other devices of the
regime are what is obstructing the voice of the Orisa from rebuking the evil in
the land.
I believe, Obasanjo now has an assuring experience of how
lethal and ruthless the Buhari administration can be. In fact, Buhari once
vowed to investigate the ‘’$16 billion’’ Obasanjo allegedly spent on power.
He said:“The previous government mentioned on their own that
they spent $16bn on power but you are better witnesses than myself. Where is
the power? Where is the money? We will follow them; eventually God willing, we
will catch them and get our money back.”
The government was reported to have spent $16 billion on
power projects between 1999 and 2007 when Obasanjo was president.
The Buhari administration brooks no opposition. It employs
scare artifices and threats to win submission, and most times, it dispatches
violence to coerce surrender.
Strong critics of the government are either held in DSS
custody against an order of the court or they are threatened, scandalised and
harassed. More vigorous voices are needed in the face of this relentless
assault on the collective hull.
But really, it now appears the ‘’wailing’’ days of Obasanjo
are over; the few comments he has made on the Buhari administration recently
are complimentary.
In Yoruba cosmology, the Orisas are a fount of power,
justice, order and balance. I do not think Sango will run away from a fight.
Obasanjo should not be an Orisa that whimpers.
Fredrick Nwabufo is a journalist and writer
@FredrickNwabufo
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