The ‘Pharisee’ in Ota

He is very brilliant and audacious, but his holier-than-thou posturing angers many Nigerians who see him as a man that is at home with fault-finding, even in iniquities he is a cheerleader. In fact, many people see him in the mould of the Pharisees whose characteristics were featured in the Holy Bible.

When Christ was physically present on earth, he saw through the shenanigan of the religious sect called the Pharisees. These people were prominent in society; they were feared and adored in equal measure. But their double-standard lifestyle irked Christ to no end and He confronted them openly a number of times.

Since 2007 when he vacated the power stool, President Olusegun Obasanjo has arrogated to himself the conscience of the Nigerian nation. His observations even where and when his views are not sought irritate many Nigerians. His pontifications, critics say, are rather nauseating. Many critics believe that if there’s anybody who should run commentary on the goings-on in the country, it shouldn’t be Obasanjo.

Last week, the former president was in his element when he used the occasion of his 79th birthday bash to engage in his pastime – self-adulation. He had, among other ego-trip comments, said that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has become a “toothless bulldog”. He claimed that when Nuhu Ribadu called the shots at the commission, evil men who had something to hide dreaded him, and that the fear of Ribadu was the beginning of wisdom.

“Honestly, when Nuhu was handling EFCC, he handled it in such a way that people coined the saying that ‘the fear of Nuhu Ribadu is the beginning of wisdom’, and then the thing you will ask is, how did we go down? How did we lose that?” Obasanjo said.

“Nuhu Ribadu is still here, he is still alive, the institution we started together is still there, but what made the institution to become a toothless bulldog? What? And that’s the matter we have to keep looking at, so that we don’t take two steps forward, one step aside and three steps back,” he said.

But the Ota farmer was, indeed, economical with truth and his views were at variance with those of many Nigerians who saw the EFCC in his days as a machinery to whip political foes into line and Ribadu as an agent of persecution in the hands of Obasanjo.

Those who hold this view say that despite the numerous names Ribadu reeled out to Nigerians as the enemies of the people who had stolen the nation dry, none of the so-called suspects were either successfully prosecuted or jailed as a result.

A few weeks ago, BDSUNDAY reported that the EFCC did not go beyond mentioning the names of 13 governors as all the supposed suspects have not been prosecuted 13 years after Ribadu’s grandstanding.

The other day, Obasanjo, under whose watch corruption became an octopus and Nigeria’s nemesis, took a front seat to lecture Nigerians on the immorality of graft in the system. He wrote to the National Assembly, accusing the federal legislators of fanning the embers of graft and denying Nigerians of their well-deserved dividends of democracy. But the NASS respectfully responded, reminding him that men should be honourable enough to own up to their iniquities.

Obasanjo, critics say, has also mastered the art and science of treachery. He dumps political associates at will when he must have used them to achieve his aim. When he was stepping out of office, he handed Nigeria over to a team that majority of the populace never expected.

At the demise of Umaru Musa Yar’Adua from the North West, he quickly endorsed Goodluck Jonathan, who hails from the oil-rich South-South, as the successor. Critics say he had determined to operate under cover, using Jonathan as a stooge, but when he failed to have his way, he began to see Jonathan as his arch-enemy. And finding it hard to recover from the shock of the relegation, he teamed up with enemies of the PDP to make nonsense of the party.

First, he began to shop for a replacement. He saw a capable hand in Sule Lamido, then governor of Jigawa State. He told the world that Jonathan has failed to deliver, hence the need to find a replacement as it were.

“You know you can help somebody to get a job but you cannot help him to do it. If somebody cannot do the job, we have Sule Lamido who is competent to do the job. Some people are saying one person can’t make changes. This is rubbish; if you have a competent person who knows where he is going to, he can make changes along with his team that would impact the lives of people as we have seen it in Jigawa State,” Obasanjo had said.

To show how disappointed he was in Jonathan and in the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), he made an open show of his resignation from the party by tearing his membership card. He followed up to announce, rather gleefully, that he was quitting party politics to play a statesman role. But those who saw beyond the razzmatazz said he was being smart by half, having his eyes somewhere.

Not wanting to be totally left in the cold, he offered himself to be courted by the All Progressives Congress (APC) that desperately needed some endorsement by public figures. Obasanjo quickly mended fences with Bola Ahmed Tinubu, an arrow-head of the APC, who was his mortal political foe when he (Tinubu) called the shots in Lagos as governor.

When Obasanjo saw the possibility of a power shift from PDP, he began to openly identify with the APC and began a massive de-marketing campaign against Jonathan who kept on calling him ‘Baba’, even when he knew the relationship between him and the poultry farmer had broken down irretrievably.

Whether or not he voted for the APC during the presidential election is only known to him, but Obasanjo believed he would have an unfettered access to the Buhari government. However, it appears that’s not the case. Sources say Aso Rock has since fenced him off, knowing that “a leopard does not change its spot”.

Is Obasanjo totally on the same page with Buhari on the anti-graft war? Critics allege that his recent condemnation of the EFCC may have been occasioned by government indication to reopen the Halliburton scandal, in which the former president is alleged to be a principal actor.

Recently also, Obasanjo had verbally bombed the president when he pointedly said that anybody promising to rescue the abducted Chibok girls who have been in Boko Haram captivity for close to two years now, could be telling lies.

“Seventy-two hours after the Chibok girls were adopted was too late for their rescue, talk less of getting to two years by April this year. So, if any leader is promising to bring back Chibok girls now, he is lying,” Obasanjo had said.

Critics say that the likes of Obasanjo left Nigeria in the sorry state it has found itself and wonder why people should continue to listen to his pontifications on national issues.

Olisa Agbakoba, a former national president of Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), recently wondered why the Nigerian media have not deemed it fit to blacklist the likes of Obasanjo.

In the wake of Obasanjo’s allegation of corruption against the National Assembly, Agbakoba said: “When Obasanjo made the allegation, I took it as a joke. Obasanjo is aware that nobody is taking him seriously. Obasanjo himself was accused of corruption. Nigerians are tired of stories and allegations of corruption. The truth of the matter is that Nigeria has remained a laughing stock as one of the most corrupt nations in the world because of the government’s failure to take corruption seriously.”

Edwin Clark, a First Republic information minister, had said that Obasanjo lacked the moral high stool to call anyone corrupt.

“In this country, Obasanjo accused the federal legislators, labelling some of them as armed robbers. He is not the person to make that statement because he too has not given a good example to Nigerians,” Clark said.

Analysts believe that the nation’s past leaders lack the conscience to make comments on leadership, let alone trying to proffer solutions to Nigeria’s malady, as they are jointly responsible for why Nigeria has remained a laughing stock 56 years after independence.

The tragedy of it all is that Nigerian leaders have mastered the art of deceit; they paint a picture of hardship whereas they line their pockets with the common wealth. When they dish out the lies, they tend to put all Nigerians in the same basket as having no sense of memory. They prey on the gullibility of weary Nigerians to get away with their lies and hypocrisy.

It is against this backdrop that many people see ex-President Obasanjo’s grandstanding out of office as a monumental insult on the psyche of right-thinking Nigerians which is tantamount to dancing on the graves of fellow citizens who died as a result of sheer wickedness of the so-called Nigerian leaders.

Nigeria’s former and present leaders are responsible for the assault citizens receive within and outside the shores of the country.

Donald Trump, a Republican presidential aspirant in the forth-coming American election, has continued to taunt Nigerians on account of bad leadership.

Imagine this: “We need to get the Africans out. Not the blacks, the Africans, especially the Nigerians. They’re everywhere. I went for a rally in Alaska and met just one African in the entire state. Where was he from? Nigeria! He’s in Alaska taking our jobs. They’re in Houston taking our jobs. Why can’t they stay in their own country? Why? I’ll tell you why. Because they are corrupt. Their governments are so corrupt; they rob the people blind and bring it all here to spend. And their people run away and come down here and take our jobs! We can’t have that! If I become president, we’ll send them all home. We’ll build a wall at the Atlantic Shore. Then maybe we’ll re-colonise them because obviously they did not learn a damn thing from the British!”