OBJ, Fayose and the Libyan idol By Louis Odion, FNGE

The Orisa (Idol) of Libya, Muamar Qaddafi

A humour bag of arguably
inexhaustible depth, former President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, would make even the most
consummate stand-up comic feel inadequate on a good day. From improvising the
risqué to trafficking the folksy, his creativity, as he himself once famously
put it in one such fit of self-deprecating humour, is fed
by a certain native resourcefulness, being “Omo ma lo le
gbesi
” (scion of he who is prodigiously adroit at tackling
single-handed any public loud-mouth without help from home). “Wait and get”, for
short. 
The reason it is therefore rather
surprising, if not troubling, that the witty general has kept a studied silence
to the avalanche of weighty revelations by Ayo
Fayose
, the feisty Ekiti
governor, in the current edition of wave-making The Interview. Since
release last Thursday, Fayose’s
wide-ranging expose on his one-time political godfather has been widely
reproduced by all leading national dailies with massive rebroadcast in the
social media.

At this writing, five uneasy days
had passed without as much as a whimper from Ota. More and more, the ensuing silence conveys an eloquence not
even a thousand words can possibly describe. 

Ekiti Governor Ayodele Fayose….Spilled Chief Olusegun Obasanjo’s beans in a very dirty manner

Whatever happened to the fabled
facility of “Wait and get”?
Hell hath no fury than a woman
scorned, Shakespeare tells us.
Now, with Fayose, we now know no venom is as lethal as an estranged godson on
rampage. For all his unalloyed loyalty and submission to be used for dirty
jobs, he regrets Obasanjo eventually
betrayed him by orchestrating his kangaroo
impeachment in October 2006. 

Baba Obasanjo with his idol? Late Muamar Qaddafi

Of course as a former OBJ enforcer, the “Oshoko” of Ekiti was
an insider. What seems to complicate matters is that he did not just
squeal; he named living witnesses in the series of infamies OBJ perpetrated as Nigeria’s
civilian emperor, particularly between 2004 and 2006. 

Azu Ishiekwene….Publisher, The Interview

The revelations surely stink. The
image of Obasanjo revealed is
pathetic indeed. They include how public funds were used to bribe
lawmakers to support Third Term Agenda
which OBJ has in the last decade
fought tooth and nail to deny. Going down memory lane, for instance, Fayose recalled that the day the
bill was shot down at the National
Assembly
, OBJ dozed off in
bitterness as they rode together from Akure
airport to Ado Ekiti. Midway, he
recalled, OBJ jerked up
from slumber, muttering, “Ah, (Ken)
Nnamani (then Senate president) willl not leave in
one piece”.

Late President Yar Adua….One of Fayose’s victims of mouth tirade to OBJ

We are also told how Umar Yar’Adua initially refused to
accept being drafted as PDP’s presidential candidate on the ground that his
health was too fragile to withstand the rigour of presidential office. But OBJ, according to Fayose, insisted on foisting him on the nation in the cold
calculation that infirmity would pre-dispose the Katsina political prince to being manipulated while the Ota farmer continued as Nigeria’s de
facto monarch.

Senator Danjuma Goje….Equally a dirty vessel?

Again, at this writing, none of the
political actors Fayose
“implicated” in the plot that drafted Yar’Adua including Senate President Bukola Saraki and Senator
Goje
has denied.
Perhaps the most jaw-dropping of all
Fayose’s revelations is the claim
that OBJ physically knelt down before
Libyan strongman, Moummar Ghaddafi
(presumably in January 2006)

Former Senate President Ken Nnamani….Obj cursed him on his way from Akure Airport after jerking off from slumber?

with a view to enlisting his support for the extension
of his chairmanship of African Union.

Again, to be sure, Fayose named then Attorney General (Bayo
Ojo, SAN) as part of the secret mission to Tripoli.
His recall of the comportment of a
kneeling and “desperate” OBJ
before Ghadaffi after being frisked
thoroughly at four gates in a most un-dignifying manner should fill any
self-respecting Nigerian with shame: “It was such a pathetic scenario, so
shameful. Obasanjo was speaking rapidly
like a parrot…
I never knew
Obasanjo
(could) be that humble. He was on one knee till the end of the
conversation”.
Put together,

Former Minister of Justice, Bayo Ojo….Followed Baba to meet late Idol Qaddafi

the picture Fayose painted is inconsistent with OBJ’s holier-than-thou posturing over
the years, this affectation of statesmanship and sagacity.

Good enough, according to reports,
the general is already pre-scheduled to, this Sunday (August 6, Today), mount
the podium at Archbishop Vining Memorial
Church Cathedral, Ikeja, Lagos to deliver a lecture
entitled “God in my life”.
Without taking anything away from
the message he might wish to communicate, it would certainly be therapeutic for
an apprehensive nation if OBJ first
came clean that day on what really transpired in Libya. In case he confirms visiting Ghadaffi, then the other critical question: did he actually bow
before the Libyan idol? 

Baba Obasanjo….Can he really beg Qaddafi?

To begin with, from the cultural
perspective, I can almost bet many would be heart-broken in Yoruba land at the suggestion at all
that OBJ, whose estimated birthday is
March 5, 1938, would openly kneel before younger Ghaddafi born in 1942. Again, Libya is a tiny country with a
population of less than 7 million compared to Nigeria’s 180m!

Author Louis Odion FNGE… Surprised at the vileness of men of power

So, this is one grave allegation OBJ cannot just wish away.
Otherwise, the nation will collapse
under the shame. Russia’s literary
immortal, Alexander Solzhenitsyn,
once attempted to speak to that sinking condition. One of the telltales
signs exhibited by a declining society, according the late Nobel laureate, is
the scarcity of true statesmen. 
Philosopher Khalil Gibran put it more starkly with this lamentation: pity the
nation whose heroes or statesmen are either impostors or con men.