obasanjo

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What Obasanjo And Yar’Adua Told Me ~ Soludo

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A central issue in the quest for Nigeria’s greatness is leadership selection. Some 2,400 years ago, the great philosopher, Plato, argued that “As a just and healthy person is governed by knowledge and reason, a just society must be under the control of society’s most cultivated and best-informed minds, its ‘lovers of wisdom’…” I have chosen to share the thoughts of our two presidents to encourage a debate on the matter, especially given the pervasive indifference or downright loathsomeness to matters of politics and governance by the so-called ‘lovers of wisdom’. I served Nigeria under two presidents. This piece is not part of ‘the book’ on presidential governance. The date was Friday, March 17, 2006. At the morning prayer session with President Olusegun Obasanjo at the ‘red carpet’ in the villa, I raised a special prayer point and asked the congregation to pray for the new governor of my state Anambra, Peter Obi (who was on his way from Abuja to Awka to be sworn in same day), as well as for Anambra State so that Obi’s regime may mark an end to the brigandage and misrule in the state. We were all upstanding. The president cut in, and pointing in my direction remarked: “We shall pray as you have requested but the problem with you people from Anambra is that those of you who have something to offer shy away from politics and hooligans have taken over your state”. To the best of my recollection, that was the only prayer point during the four years of daily devotion that received a commentary.  ‘Baba’, as we fondly call him was basically telling us to ‘get involved or stop complaining’.  Periodically, the three of us from Anambra who were regular members of the prayer group (Oby Ezekwesili, Rev.William Okoye and I) had cause to brainstorm on the challenges and limitations of participation in politics especially by those of us who were ‘technocrats’. While we were obsessed with ‘good governance’, we had little interest in the process of acquiring power. After leaving office as governor of the central bank, I was in London when twice in June 2009 I received calls from Alhaji Mangal to the effect that President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua wanted to see me anytime I was in Nigeria. I returned with my family late July and on Sunday, July 26, I received a call that the president wanted to see me by 9:30pm. After a few banter, he asked what I was doing abroad. As I explained the three offers I was considering, he was shaking his head. “Well”, he started, “it is not because you are here, but I have said this several times to you. Given your age, skills, and your accomplishments for our economy and financial system, it would be a waste for you not to continue to be involved in Nigeria’s public service… For example, there is going to be an election in your state early next year and I want to strongly urge you to show interest… You know that your state has been unfortunate with leadership, and our party has been in crisis there…” At that point, my heartbeat was racing. Before I left office, many people from Anambra had suggested that I should run for governor but it did not make any sense to me and my family. As I began my response, Yar’Adua cut in and suggested that I did not need to respond immediately but instead that I should go home and ‘consult’ with some of the political leaders in the state. He then raised his two thumbs and assured that “if you accept to do this, I will come out fully to make sure that you get there”. If he had allowed me to respond immediately, the answer would have been an unambiguous ‘NO’.  I thanked him and left. On getting home, my wife was curious. I summarized what the president said, and she asked: ‘so what was your response?’ I told her the president would not let me respond but asked that I go and ‘consult’. “Then go back tomorrow and tell him that you have finished consulting and that the answer is No”, she ruled. I pleaded with her that we should at least give some time, out of respect, before reporting our decision. I confided in a few people and sought their advice. Within a week, the ‘rumours’ were everywhere. In the meantime, Yar’Adua also told a few people of his plans for Anambra and how he wanted to ‘use Soludo to make Anambra a model state’. He specifically requested Chief Tony Anenih to help him make it happen. My wife and I came under inestimable pressure — ‘to go and serve our people’. Some even said it was a ‘divine call to serve’, etc. My wife loathes politics and can’t stand it. On August 12, 2009, I gave Yar’Adua the ‘preliminary report’ on my consultations. To enable me take a decision, I presented the challenges and threats to his proposal to which he laid out solutions. I told him that after three offices at the Federal Government (as chief economic adviser, de facto Minister of National Planning; and governor of the central bank) I believed I had had my day on duty as far as government was concerned and wanted to return to the international community, academia and private sector. The only reason another public office would make sense to me in the circumstance was if I believed I could really make a fundamental difference. If I would contest, my vision was to transform Anambra’s economy such that after eight years, it would no longer need federation account allocation for recurrent expenditures but would devote 100% of it to capital budget. Consequently, I requested eight things the Federal Government would do to enable me quickly transform the state into an international city, including: an airport; modern seaport for Onitsha and dredging of River Niger to enable medium-sized ship to come to Onitsha; dualisation of

Blog, Essays, Monishots

A requiem for the remnants of the old brigade.

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A prince or general who knows exactly how to organise his war according to his object and means, who does neither too little nor too much, gives by that the greatest proof of his genius. But the effects of this talent are exhibited not so much by the invention of new modes of action, which might strike the eye immediately, as in the successful final result of the whole. It is the exact fulfilment of silent suppositions, it is the noiseless harmony of the whole action which we should admire, and which only makes itself known in the total result.~ Carl von Clausewitz If we are to go with the saying that “politics is war by other means” then it would be fair to say that the Prussian General who theorised the above quote in his book On War III could have had a vision of President Muhammadu Buhari. The 19th-century military theorist renowned for his intellectual texts on the political and psychological aspects of war succinctly captured Buhari’s approach since he took charge. This strategy could ultimately determine the result of the war of attrition between him and the retired generals as we approach the 2019 presidential elections. A keen observer of Nigerian politics will agree that our politics is not yet organic, especially at the national level. Dating back to the second republic the leadership choices available to the hoi polloi have often been decided by political power blocs controlled by the military class. They determine most of the elected and appointed political office holders that gather in Abuja to superintend over the affairs of the nation. In their thinking and should I say justification, they have this mephistophelean dogma that having fought and shed blood for the country they have earned the epaulettes to maintain a perpetual stranglehold on our collective patrimony. They want to dictate who gets what, when and how much. Former presidents Obasanjo and Babangida have publicly echoed this severally. And to achieve this they had long cornered a huge chunk of the nation’s resources for themselves and their cronies especially in the sleazy and opaque oil sector of our mono-product economy. When TY Danjuma arrogantly informed an impoverished nation of his dilemma on how to spend the $500 million profit raked in from the sale of one oil block, I wondered if Bill Gates, then the world’s richest man had any single business entity he could sell at such an incredulous markup. Alongside Danjuma and the prominent ex-heads of state, there are others like General Aliyu Gusau, the unassuming but dangerous veteran of military intelligence who was indicted for corruption by the Rafindadi led NSO in 1985 before he was let off the hook after Buhari’s government was toppled. These men are stupendously rich, powerful and ruthless. They have a concentric modus operandi and there is almost always a fallback option. There is hardly a worthy boardroom in the corporate sector without their bagmen and they ensure that whoever sits on the throne will often do their bidding. They are responsible for many great and ignoble deeds. Look around you and almost every major infrastructure built across the country is traceable to them. From the airports to the refineries, the power stations, Abuja and the third mainland bridge in Lagos. They have killed friends, soldiers and civilians, truncated our democratic progress many times and looted the nation blind. A friend succinctly described them as the “Godless men who do not fear any God”, and together they form the nucleus of the ‘Nigerian Establishment’. However, Buhari who is also a member of the so-called ‘class of 66’ and equally a former Head Of State had been persistently knocking on the door of Aso Rock since 2003. Not as an outsider so to say but as an insider with a somewhat different ideology. He is not known for the wealth and affluence of the rest, and this made him a darling of the poor masses especially in the northern region that is riddled with ubiquitous poverty. He was rebuffed and his efforts thwarted thrice by this Obasanjo until he was forced to make some compromise in an effervescent alliance with Bola Tinubu. Then aided by former President Jonathan’s naivety, the North’s determination to take back power and the sheer momentum of the APC coalition the generals were lobbied into lending support, albeit reluctantly for their colleague to realise his long-standing ambition. Today, after almost four years in power Buhari is back in the trenches in a portentous battle to retain power against the wishes of the same mates who supported him in 2015. At face value, the outcome of the clash will appear to be a no-brainer. President Buhari will receive the Tyson treatment, knocked out before the end of round one by the group of disgruntled generals led by the indefatigable rabble-rouser himself former President Obasanjo. All they need do is to approve and a crisis that will bring Buhari to his knees will erupt. And make no mistake about it these men have the resources to destabilise Africa let alone Nigeria. However, this kind of battle is rarely fought in a linear manner. There are other asymmetries to be considered and of particular interest would be the loyalty of the security forces who wield enormous powers during elections. The partisan forces are also in the reckoning. They form a large section of the foot soldiers that disseminate truths, half-truths and fallacies to influence the masses who will troop to the polls. And lastly the leverage of western powers. Together this combination often determines the outcome of an election in my country. Nevertheless, these generals are not particularly concerned about national development, I mean they have contributed their bit and are mostly octogenarians now. They are more concerned about their vested interest and this perhaps explains why they threw their weight behind Atiku Abubakar who best represents an agglomeration of those interests. Having had direct and indirect dealings in the business of ripping off

Blog, Essays

Why President Buhari’s case is different by Joe Igbokwe

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First was former President Obasanjo’s letter asking PMB not to contest in 2019 citing many reasons why he has to leave the exalted office. It was quickly followed by another letter from former dictator Ibrahim Babangida asking PMB to step aside In 2019 for a younger president. This was followed by the hate and weeping from the losers of 2015 elections who are yet to come to terms with the situations they found themselves since the feeding bottles were forcefully taken away from their rapacious greedy mouths. It was quickly followed by the cries from those who for years had been stealing our crude oil, selling it and pocketing the dollars, those who stole billions of Pension Funds and Salaries of workers, those who stole trillions of Naira in the name of subsidy, those who stole the federal Government to bones with thousands of fictitious accounts, the banks who raked billions every month as charges, those who stole billions of dollars meant for the purchase of arms to fight insurgents. What of those in JAMB office, FIRS, NIMASA, CUSTOMS who stole billions meant for government coffers? They are not left out in the era of pains and tears. What about the experts in Budget padding found in the National Assembly? They are still weeping and gnashing their teeth. Then followed another gnashing of teeth and weeping from the importers of rice from Thailand that cost the country more than 3 billion dollars every year? What about the tragic stories and tales of woes from those whose ill-gotten houses, hard currencies, and cars were confiscated by EFCC? They wished and still wish that PMB must die. Even those found to have stolen billions from the coffers of the Police, Army, Navy, Air Force had to cough out and vomit the money and they are not left out in the weeping contest. Even those found in the media (both electronic and print) who got billions of stolen money to help sell rotten eggs in 2015 are still crying without consolation for years now.They sobbed and sobbed and are still sobbing today with no end in sight. What about the billions confiscated from the coffers of the former first lady? The woman and her followers have been weeping and cursing the day PMB was born. What about the religious leaders who got billions from GEJ in the days of the locust? Oh, they are weeping without control and wish that PMB will die immediately. How come all those who are being accused of stealing money are now feigning sickness? What went wrong? I can go on and on but there is no need to continue to do so. You cannot continue to box a man lying prostrate on the ground who has no strength to fight back. Now, their biggest pain is that PMB is doing what they failed to do in 16 years. PMB is building massive infrastructure across Nigeria. PMB has been growing our internal revenue which is now overtaking crude oil revenue, the first in 45 years. PMB has brought about the unprecedented revolution in Agriculture in Nigeria and has particularly reduced Rice importation by 60% and employing millions. PMB has added serious values to Power generation (7000+ MW), the highest so far. PMB has given corruption a bloody nose and no Nigerian head of state living or dead has matched his record. PMB has grown the Nigerian Stock Exchange volume of business to 15.75 trillion naira, the highest so far. In their own very eyes, PMB is now the Anti-Corruption Champion in Africa. This is the principal reason the idiots want him out. They cannot withstand another four years. They may all die. Cheap money is no longer flowing. Looted money is no longer available. They talk about National security, the herdsmen and the killings in Benue, Tarawa, Adamawa. I have been seeing cattle rearers since I was young. Because PMB is a Fulani, the bigots think he is arming them to kill other Nigerians and Islamize them. Yeye people all! PMB’s case is very different. He had a mission and vision of what he wants to do and he is doing it. The gang up cannot fly and it will not work.A friend once educated me on the meaning of stupid. He says it is knowing the truth, seeing the truth but still believing lies. Being honest may not fetch you many friends but it will fetch you the right ones. PMB friends and committed followers are the ordinary Nigerians who fight for him even with empty stomachs because they believe he is fighting for them. They can feel it, they see it and they know the man is not corrupt. I am told that the loudest person in the room is not always the strongest. OBJ and IBB’s letter may not fly this time because PMB’s case is different. PMB is doing what OBJ and IBB did not do. IBB corrupted our democracy and democratized corruption. Former President Obasanjo wasted eight years of South West presidency and even wanted a third term. He could not find the killers of Bola Ige, Harry Marshall, Ogbonnaya Uche, Dikibo, Funsho Williams, Daramola etc. Those who destroyed our yesterday cannot be the ones that will control tomorrow’s potentials. This is why PMB’s case is different. Joe Igbokwe wrote on his facebook page

Blog, Essays

I am satisfied with Buhari: Duro Onabule

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Veteran journalist Duro Onabule dissects Obasanjo’s missive to President Buhari in this piece originally published by NAN..read on.. —————————————————————————————————————————————- It was always predictable that, given his notoriety on that score, it was a matter of time for former President Olusegun Obasanjo to resume his pastime of undermining his military and civilian successors, by making President Muhammadu Buhari his latest victim. Amusingly, the rabble Obasanjo rouses on such occasions has dignified his deplorable tactics as a sort of distinction. If only they could critically dissect the man. There is this latent personality complex of striving never to be outshone or exceeded by any Nigerian living or dead. Hence, at the slightest prospect of being threatened, Obasanjo comes charging. Obasanjo’s dismissal of Buhari’s performance is a vivid example. On the alert that African Union was to honour the Nigerian President as the Champion of Anti-Corruption in Africa the following day, Obasanjo came out with his diatribe in the mistaken belief that the great honour for Buhari and, indeed, Nigeria would be diminished if not rubbished by his comments. Unfortunately for him, African Union sustained its honour on Nigeria, much to the credit of  Muhammadu Buhari as the President under whose tenure Nigeria became rebranded, to the envy of Obasanjo. Every timing and content of Obasanjo’s verbal assault on his military and civilian successors is noteworthy for exposing Obasanjo’s self-exaggeration and case study in hypocrisy. He is on record in some of his books as rating himself above every Nigerian (civilian or military), who ever served at high level  – Nnamdi Azikiwe, Obafemi Awolowo, Aminu Kano, Waziri Ibrahim, General Yakubu Gowon, Brigadier Benjamin Adekunle, General Alani Akinrinade, General Alabi Isama, General Buhari, General Ibrahim Babangida (IBB), General Sani Abacha (as military rulers), former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, President Umaru Yar’Adua, President Goodluck Jonathan and, now, President Buhari. General Abdulsalami Abubakar escaped Obasanjo’s bad tongue only because he released him (Obasanjo) from jail and heeded northern Generals who imposed Obasanjo on Nigeria as an elected President. Obasanjo kept off IBB since the day the former military President, in a rejoinder to Obasanjo, openly served him notice that “Henceforth, it will be fire for fire.” Obasanjo got the coded message. Very disturbingly and unknown to Nigerians is the fact that, contrary to the impression that Obasanjo, in his criticisms, is motivated by public service or altruism, he goes to town specifically when he fails to run the show from outside for an incumbent head of government or get appointments for his cronies. Former President Jonathan conceded, almost virtual running of his government to Obasanjo up to the time a memo written by Obasanjo recommending removal of six appointees from federal boards, to be replaced by six of his cronies, got leaked to Nigerian Tribune newspaper. Obasanjo initially denied authorship of the memo. Somehow, Nigeria Police foolishly arraigned Nigeria Tribune and its reporter for alleged sedition. Nigerian Tribune then had to republish the memo with Obasanjo’s full signature. That was the end of the matter, as the police had to withdraw the charges till today. In the current anti-Buhari misadventure by Obasanjo, how many Nigerians took notice that, amid the euphoria on Buhari’s victory, Obasanjo, in his arrogance of Mr. Know All, dispatched two volumes of policies President Buhari must implement during his current tenure? Who was elected President of Nigeria in 2015? Buhari or Obasanjo? Obasanjo’s major weakness of feeling superior to everybody is the cause of his running down contemporaries. Apparently, Buhari kept Obasanjo’s policies in the shelf, a derision, which embittered Obasanjo. Hence his frustration. “I said it from the beginning that Buhari is not strong on economy.” Who then displays his Ph.D in Economics? Obasanjo. Here was a man, so arrogant and power-drunk that he openly dismissed the advisers he had just sworn in that as much as they might advise, he, President Obasanjo, was not bound to take their advice. The same man imposing total policy directive on a President yet to be sworn in. The same deplorable tactics by Obasanjo did not work on late President Yar’Adua, not the least because he rejected Obasanjo’s attempt to run the government for him, but he also cancelled Obasanjo’s hurried investment of a whopping half a billion dollars in African Finance Corporation a fortnight before handing over to Yar’Adua. That investment was without the approval of the National Assembly. The late President Yar’Adua also queried an expenditure of $16 billion by Obasanjo’s administration purportedly on power supply with, according to Yar’Adua, “…nothing to show for it.” It is a question of character and hypocrisy. Who ever ran Obasanjo’s administrations for him? Who ever nominated public office holders for Obasanjo throughout his tenure? Who imposed policies on Obasanjo? Indeed, on his first day in office in 1999, Obasanjo expressed thanks to all those who helped him but instantly requested all of them to keep away. If so, why must he aim to run government for others? Former President Obasanjo is the cheapest critic in Nigeria as he merely echoes claims of the innocent public. Obasanjo was not bold enough to specify Lawal Musa Daura (DG, Department of State Services) and Mamman Daura, a veteran journalist, as the major focus of the charge of nepotism against Buhari. Admittedly, Mamman Daura is a nephew, but Lawal Daura (DG, DSS), might just be Buhari’s townsman. Is that, therefore, peculiar to President Buhari or Nigeria or even Africa? What, anyway, was the record under Obasanjo or former President Goodluck Jonathan? During Obasanjo’s tenure, his daughter, Iyabo Obasanjo Bello, was Ogun State commissioner for health. Iyabo was also elected senator from Ogun Central, her father’s constituency. Above all, only the collapse of Obasanjo’s third term agenda cost his daughter the governorship of Ogun State for which she specially formed the Iyaniwura Foundation. Most remarkably, Obasanjo removed the serving Director-General of DSS to make way for Ogun State and fellow Egba, Colonel Kayode Are (retd). Obasanjo, therefore, owes Nigerians the difference between him and President Buhari, a task which should have

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Obasanjo’s love letter to Buhari by Femi Fani Kayode

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Few can dispute the fact that President Olusegun Obasanjo, the Ebora Owu, was one of those that brought President Muhammadu Buhari to power in 2015. Without Obasanjo’s wholesale and comprehensive endorsement Buhari would have failed woefully at the polls three years ago. Yet, in my view, today the Ebora Owu has absolved himself of this grave and monumental error by standing up to speak truth to power at great risk to his safety, fortunes and welfare and by sending our President an explosive, damning and much-awaited missive telling him that he has failed woefully, admonishing him to get off his “high horse of leadership” and advising him not to attempt to run again in 2019. I am delighted and indeed proud of what the Ebora has done and I commend and congratulate him for finding the courage to say what those of us that have been at the forefront of the struggle against President Buhari have been saying for the last three years. My friend and brother Governor Peter ‘The Rock’ Ayodele Fayose gallantly led the charge and said it. Pastor Reno Omokri said it. Dr. Reuben Abati said it. Professor Abubakar Sulaiman said it. Col. Abubakar ‘Dangiwa’ Umar said it. Governor Nyesom Wike said it. Senator Ben Murray-Bruce said it. Mujaheed Asari Dokubo said it. Mazi Nnamdi Kanu said it. Yours truly said it. And a number of others said it. And each and every one of us that did, in varying degrees, have faced all manner of insults and threats and have paid a heavy price for doing so. Yet we have no regrets because no matter what happens tomorrow posterity will judge us kindly and history will recall that, when it mattered the most, we stood for the people, for the truth, for justice and for equity and we resisted and opposed racism, ethnic hegemony, religious bigotry, naked tyranny, oppression, mass murder, genocide, ethnic cleansing and the relentless attempt to subjugate and enslave our compatriots and our nation. We welcome President Obasanjo and others to the honorable and noble ranks of conscientious dissenters, non-conformists and men of courage. Yet as refreshing and inspiring as his letter was I respectfully disagree with just one aspect of it. I believe that his categorisation and condemnation of the main opposition party was unnecessarily harsh, misplaced and regrettable. And neither do I accept the assertion that the PDP “procured” a judgement at the Supreme Court. The continuous attempt to demystify, demonise, demean and destroy the PDP, which the APC and the Buhari government set in motion as one of its cardinal policies three years ago, is certainly not the way forward. If anything those that got it wrong three years ago and that supported Buhari should be thanking the PDP for having the insight and fortitude to recognise the insincerity of purpose and glaring incompetence in Buhari and his APC at a very early stage when they stubbornly refused to do so. They should also be thanking a few of us for providing a viable, strong and virile opposition to a man that can best be described as a vicious and vindictive maximum dictator who has no respect for the rule of law or the tenets of democracy and a party that was contrived and conjured up from the pit of hell. Yet outside of that faux paux I believe that the Ebora Owu’s intervention was not only welcome but also timely. His counsel has removed whatever little was left of the spiritual foundation of the APC and the Buhari government and it has stripped them naked before the civilised world. Today they are nothing but a sorry bunch of castrated and weakened renegades who are living on the fading glory and diminishing power of an “all-conquering” ethnic hegemonist and religious bigot. Simply put, they are nothing but a shell of their former selves. Baba Obasanjo’s intervention also creates the potential for a new beginning and a massive and purposeful realignment of political forces that may end up saving Nigeria. Let us hope that thousands of others that have hitherto been hiding under their beds out of fear of Buhari will follow the Ebora’s lead and find their voice. Yet if we really want to ensure that Buhari does not return in 2019 we need to go much further than offering wise counsel or letter-writing. The truth of the matter is that this whole issue goes far beyond party politics: it is a struggle between the forces of light and the forces of darkness. I say this because what we are faced with is pure tyranny and unadulterated evil. As a matter of fact it is probably the greatest evil that we have ever known in our entire history. Quite apart from the sheer duplicity, double-speak, greed, mendacities, double-standards, nepotism, ethnic and religious motivations, clanishness, cruelty, incompetence and monumental corruption of the Buhari administration, under their watch more people have been slaughtered by the security forces and by state-supported and protected ethnic militias like the Fulani terrorists and herdsmen than at ANY other time in our history outside the civil war. Too much blood has been shed. Too much suffering and devastation has been wrought and inflicted. Too much has gone wrong. The very root of our foundation and our source of strength and unity has been tampered with and damaged almost irreversibly over the last three years. Worse still is the fact that the neo-fascist forces that Buhari and those that are still with him represent will not let go of power without a hard and bloody fight. Those forces are far more entrenched, determined, bloody-minded, dangerous and devastating than anything we have ever known or that we have ever been confronted with in our entire history. They are not only ruthless but they are also relentless. If anyone doubts that they should read the words of the Minister of Defence when he attempted to defend, justify and rationalise the activities of the Fulani herdsmen. I said this during

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Memory lane: Iyabo Vs Obasanjo

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Many have reacted and responded to Obasanjo’s latest letter, some like Simon Kolawole instantly dismissed the messenger and the message with a string of sarcastic queries on why the man whom he once labeled the “indefatigable rabble-rouser” should be our moral compass. Others like Abati applauded Baba and described his missive as timely albeit with a reminder that the Ebora Owu should have apologised to Nigerians for foisting the ‘change’ on us. Lai’s response was equally good as he enumerated some notable achievements of the administration, he, however, failed to address the core issues of nepotism, the president’s health status and the recent rampage by the herdsmen. As we watch the unfolding events that will surely trail the letter yours truly decided to republish Iyabo Obasanjo’s letter in the wake of the one her daddy wrote to former President Goodluck Jonathan in 2013 to rejig our memory because of our collective and often detrimental amnesia. Nevertheless, Baba’s letter is a very welcome development for our democracy. Read on…   Open Letter to Olusegun Obasanjo It brings me no joy to have to write this but since you started this trend of open letters I thought I would follow suit since you don’t listen to anyone anyway. The only way to reach you may be to make the public aware of some things. As a child well brought up by my long-suffering mother in Yoruba tradition, I have been reluctant to tell the truth about you but as it seems you still continue to delude yourself about the kind of person you are and I think for posterity’s sake it is time to set the records straight. I will return to the issue of my long-suffering mother later in this letter. Like most Nigerians, I believe there are very enormous issues currently plaguing the country but I was surely surprised that you will be the one to publish such a treatise. I remember clearly as if it was yesterday the day I came over to Abuja from Abeokuta when I was Commissioner of Health in Ogun State, specifically to ask you not to continue to pursue the third term issue. I had tried to bring it up when your sycophantic aides were present and they brushed my comments aside and as usual, you listened to their self-serving counsel. For you to accuse someone else of what you so obviously practiced yourself tells of your narcissistic megalomaniac personality. Everyone around for even a few minutes knows that the only thing you respond to is praise and worship of you. People have learnt how to manipulate you by giving you what you crave. The only ones that can’t and will not stroke your ego are family members who you universally treat like shit (sic) apart from the few who have learned to manipulate you like others. Before I continue, Nigerians are people who see conspiracy and self-service in everything because I think they believe everyone is like them. This letter is not in support of President Jonathan or APC or any other group or person, but an outpouring from my soul to God. I don’t blame you for the many atrocities you have been able to get away with, Nigerians were your enablers every step of the way. People ultimately get leaders that reflect them. Getting back to the story, I made sure your aides were not around and brought up the issue, trying to deliver the presentation of the issue as I had practiced it in my head. I started with the fact that we copied the US constitution which has term limits of two terms for a President. As is your usual manner, you didn’t allow me to finish my thought process and listen to my point of view. Once I broached the subject you sat up and said that the US had no term limits in the past but that it had been introduced in the 1940s after the death of President Roosevelt, which is true. I wanted to say to you: when you copy something you also copy the modifications based on the learning from the original; only a fool starts from scratch and does not base his decisions on the learning of others. In science, we use the modifications found by others long ago to the most recent, as the basis of new findings; not going back to discover and learn what others have learnt. Human knowledge and development and civilization will not have progressed if each new generation and society did not build on the knowledge of others before them. The American constitution itself is based on several theories and philosophies of governance available in the 18th century. Democracy itself is a governance method started by the ancient Greeks. America’s founding fathers used it with modifications based on what hadn’t worked well for the ancient Greeks and on new theories since then. As usual in our conversations, I kept quiet because I know you well. You weren’t going to change your mind based on my intervention as you had already made up your mind on the persuasion of the minions working for you who were ripping the country blind. When I spoke to you, your outward attitude to the people of the country was that you were not interested in the third term and that it was others pushing it. Your statement to me that day proved to me that you were the brain behind the third term debacle. It is therefore outrageous that you accuse the current President of a similar two-facedness that you yourself used against the people of the country. I was on a plane trip between Abuja and Lagos around the time of the third term issue and I sat next to one of your sycophants on the plane. He told me: “Only Obasanjo can rule Nigeria”. I replied: “God has not created a country where only one person can rule. If only one person can rule Nigeria then the whole Nigeria

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