A SEASON OF SATANIC LETTERS BY DELE MOMODU

Fellow Nigerians, I hope we have all realised that pestilence has entered our land. What is going on at the moment is akin to what happened towards the end of 1988 when Salman Rushdie wrote his controversial novel, The Satanic Verses. By early 1989, the raging inferno had engulfed everywhere and everyone was searching for any available copy.

I remember then as a Staff Writer at the Weekend Concord, how we combed everywhere looking for this book that had caused so much anger and anguish in the Islamic world such that a fatwa had to be pronounced on the author.


When our Editor, Mike Awoyinfa eventually got hold of a copy, some of us had to photocopy the entire book as it became pertinent to own and read a work everyone was talking about. It brought home the reality that nothing sells like controversy.

When President Olusegun Obasanjo wrote his now controversial letter to President Goodluck Jonathan, I doubt if he fully envisaged the trouble that would soon follow. And if he did, it is unlikely that he anticipated the direction the dart and dirt would fly from.

It is not that Obasanjo was a stranger to fishing in dangerous waters. He was usually a master of the game. His voluble character had always attracted opprobrium to him. If trouble did not find him, he would go looking for it. He had barely survived General Sani Abacha’s gulag by the whiskers.

Others were not so lucky. As a cat with nine lives, Obasanjo came back from the shadows of death and became the first Nigerian military Head of State to transfigure to an elected President. He holds that enviable record till this day.

What he got on a platter of gold has been the elusive dreams of other Army Generals. Obasanjo completed his eight years of two terms and nearly added another one term of four years to boot but for the twist of fate that conspired against him and torpedoed that extraordinary ambition. If Obasanjo could not get his third term, he ensured he handpicked and coroneted his successor.

It remains a mystery how he arrived at his decision to choose the most unlikely candidates. But he did, according to his own judgment, and Nigerians are yet to recover from the repercussions of such a selfish act. Today, the most rabid of Obasanjo’s supporters totally agree that he brought the current plague on a country he proclaims to love at every opportunity.

This probably explains his current frustrations and overbearing reactions. There is no doubt that Obasanjo is regretting his action and in a desperate bid to make amends, he has created more problems for himself and our beleaguered nation. His recent letter was the climax to a frosty relationship between him and his erstwhile godson.

The wordings were those of a man who’s willing and ready to throw the baby away with the bathwater. But for the new trend in the democratic world, Obasanjo’s letter was a call to arms and very capable of terminating an elected regime. It is not that the content of the statement was untrue but most of the accusations were precisely what Obasanjo had done at a higher level when he was in power.

Had he adhered to the tenets of his own preaching, Nigeria would not have been in the peculiar mess he and his goons fostered on our country today. If anyone had predicted the coming of a day like this, such a person would have been called a prophet of doom. We have witnessed many battles in this land before but nothing compares to what broke out in Nigeria these past weeks.

The men at the centre of it all were ones chummy, in fact too close for comfort. The relationship was that of a father and his beloved son. It remains one of the biggest mysteries of life, probably a close parallel to being one of the seven wonders of the world, how President Obasanjo arrived at his choice of Dr Umaru Musa Yar’Adua and Dr Jonathan as President and Vice President respectively.

For any avoidance of doubts, there were many capable guys in President Obasanjo’s inner and outer caucus. Nothing prepared us for the shock generated by Obasanjo’s decision to field a man who was ostensibly sick and a deputy who was never considered among the contenders. But the ways of God are not the ways of man. He does not operate by human permutations.

Whatever it was, Dr Jonathan became the President of Africa’s most populous nation by default and things have never been the same. He had been successfully sold to us in a blistering campaign that projected him as the Fresh Air Nigeria desperately needed to stay alive. For the first time, an Ijawman, from the Region that lays our golden eggs, was in the saddle of power at the highest level of government.

The incurable optimists that Nigerians are, many fell for the spin and have been stunned ever since. That’s the sweetest part of the story. Now the tune has changed. The love between father and his son has gone sour. It is uncertain if it is on account of lack of performance and accountability as alleged. When did that become an issue in Nigeria?

Many of President Obasanjo’s complaints against President Jonathan were the same bad manners witnessed under his own high-handed regime. Let’s go down memory lane and examine a few of them. President Obasanjo did not tolerate opposition. Governors Bola Tinubu and Orji Uzor Kalu are very much alive to show us the scars of their endless battles with Obasanjo.

The case of Lagos State was particularly terrible. Obasanjo stopped the statutory allocations to a State that is the heartbeat of Nigeria. Many Governors were hounded only because of their association with supposed enemy camps. They became corrupt only when they hobnobbed with those Obasanjo did not want to succeed him. Bigger thieves were studiously ignored.

The seed of rascality that was planted at that time has now germinated and fully grown into oak trees. The strategy of vindictiveness being employed and deployed by President Jonathan is strait out of Obasanjo’s manuscript. The template is available for today, tomorrow and all times.

If Obasanjo’s latest godson, Governor Sule Lamido, is not yet with his fellow-rebels in APC, it is because President Jonathan has learnt how to deal with recalcitrant Governors from Obasanjo’s scripture. Jonathan did exactly what Obasanjo did when President Ibrahim Babangida attempted to stage a comeback to power. His son, Mohammed, was promptly arrested and thrown into detention.

The message to Babangida was clear, simple and effective; kill your ambition or make your son a veritable scapegoat. Babangida understood the language loud and clear and promptly bid a tactical retreat. Since then, Mohammed’s case-file has disappeared, closed or torn to shreds. In Nigeria, nothing happens to those who obey the Al Capones of power. Obasanjo in his tirade against Jonathan said the President lacks honour because he promised to serve only one term but has changed his mind.

Probably true but Obasanjo did worse when he wasted billions of Naira while trying to change the Nigerian Constitution to favour his ambition. It is now Jonathan’s turn to waste his own billions if not trillions. And why not? Power is a matter of life and death game in our clime. Whoever attains power controls life and the loser faces imminent death.

Jonathan has a right to change his mind. The only way we can stop him is by Constitutional means. Those who wish to punish him for changing his mind must be prepared to vote him out whenever the next Presidential election comes. It is unfair to harass the man for doing what they all did wrong in the past.

Obasanjo has also forgotten how he murdered all semblance of integrity by refusing to honour his promise to Babangida to do one term or the contradictory promise to Abubakar Atiku his Vice-President to make him President after both his first and second terms. Clearly the General believes that promises are made to be broken! Obasanjo said Jonathan is harbouring criminals who killed under the Abacha regime.

When did Obasanjo become a NADECO chieftain? Did he not change the landmark date of Democracy from June 12 to May 19, a day Democracy was finally crucified? What did Obasanjo do to honour those so-called victims of cold-blooded murders? Did Obasanjo not block all attempts to recognise the symbol of our struggle, Chief MKO Abiola?

It is strange how a man who did everything to obliterate the memory of our heroes has now become a born-again preacher. And is it not curious that it was this same Obasanjo who elevated the self-confessed murderer of all the slain heroes, Sergeant Barnabas Rogers to Sainthood, even flying him in Presidential jets to and from Court in Lagos.

 What did the General plan to do with Sergeant Rogers, and come to think of it, what did he do with the infamous Sergeant? Obasanjo says some Ijaw people have been talking down on fellow Nigerians. Very true indeed but Obasanjo is the world champion when it comes to the use of abrasive and uncouth language. Expletives are never far from his Lexicon.

It is therefore surprising that others cannot enjoy the same privilege. I do not subscribe to the friends and relations of President Jonathan raining curses on those who think the President is not performing but it is within their rights of freedom of speech. It is also within our rights to reply them in kind when they decide to disrespect us.

There is no doubt that Obasanjo said some home truths in his extraordinary missive to Jonathan but what spoiled the stew was the chef himself. Only Obasanjo could have situated the problems facing Nigeria so succinctly. I’ve always said Obasanjo is one of the best materials in Nigeria but his large ego was usually the obstacle to full execution and glory.

He understands Nigeria more than most of us. He has incredible courage. His voice is extremely loud. Loathe him or love him, you cannot ignore him on a good day. He loves Nigeria with a passion and fought to defend the nation when it mattered most. He has the rare honour of leading the country both as military and civilian head. No other soul has been that lucky.

He is a pious Christian who quotes the Bible and pontificates more than the Pope. But despite all these qualifications, Obasanjo could not lead Nigeria out of the doldrums. His tragic flaw was his decision to play God by not allowing Nigerians to choose their leaders without undue interference.

 He did this successfully but unceremoniously and ignominiously on two occasions It has also been argued that if he truly loves Nigeria, he would have worked harder to support the best candidates that litter the landscape of Nigeria. It is bewildering how he failed to support any of his accomplished Ministers or Governors.

His attack against Jonathan is therefore considered an afterthought and medicine after death. Obasanjo looks like a guilty man who wishes to atone for his sins. I do not believe this is the case and in any event I doubt if it is not too late. The purported letter from Iyabo, Obasanjo’s eldest child and daughter has thrown more spanners in the works. But I think it has been blown out of proportion.

There is nothing expressed in that letter that is worse than what Obasanjo’s own son, Gbenga publicly said about his dad. Anyone who has read Bitter-Sweet: My Life with Obasanjo, a biography written by his estranged and embittered first wife, Oluremi Obasanjo, would agree with me that Iyabo’s letter is a mere scratch on Obasanjo’s skin.

We should therefore not be distracted from the main issue which is how Obasanjo, and his Mafia gang, hopes to rescue Nigeria from the jaws of the hyena in which they’ve thrown us. But something tells me that despite the groundswell of opposition against Jonathan by his fellow PDP members who have now synchronised with the opposition, nothing is impossible.

When tomorrow comes, the godfather may forgive his prodigal godson. There is already a cast-iron excuse in the story and legacy of Mandela. The word, compromise, would play a key role. I will not be shocked if for this reason, Jonathan trades off his party Chairman, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur, as well as his Vice President, Architect Namadi Sambo in a classic display of political horse-trading.

When that happens, there would be loads of Biblical passages to quote from very copiously. The sinners of today will suddenly become the Saints of tomorrow and everything would continue as normal. We have seen it all before. Op-ed pieces and contributions are the opinions of the writers only and do not represent the opinions of VIEW POINT.