For sometime not long ago, Obasanjo’s name dropped out of public discourse because of what a person described as criticism fatigue over his poor leadership style during his rule from 1999-2007.

But come November 11, 2008 there was a resurgence of the mention of his name once more after Oshiomhole’s decisive victory over Osunbor at the Court of Appeal. Then, Obasanjo once more came up for whipping over his ignominious role in rigging Edo’s April 14, 2007 gubernatorial election. But for Obasanjo, observed a critic, Oshiomhole would have been sworn in on May 29, 2007 not 17 months later on November 10, 2008, after the Court of Appeal nullified the victory of Osunbor.

Obasanjo re-emergences
Apparently, the Oshiomhole episode is raking up Obasanjo for discussion in beer parlours, markets, newspapers stands, club houses, and staff rooms, just name the place. At such discussion serial mentions are made of his puerile moral grandstanding, his abuse of law and due process, his juvenile anger, his exuberance and indiscretion, his pharasaical disposition, his narcissistic tendencies, and his contempt for his friends even though he demands 101% loyalty from them.

A discussion, with dramatic relish told WEEKEND OBSERVER that Obasanjo is someone that should never be trusted at all. His words: “It is better people keep away from Obasanjo. Borrow ten legs and flee if you see him. To avoid his toxic personality. And avoid his handshake. But if you cannot do so, then don’t celebrate after a handshake with him. Count your fingers first. Who knows, two of your fingers may be missing!! He may have rigged them off your hand to add to his. Indeed, he is one person no Nigerian should ever trust given his dismal role in office from 1999-2007. When in power there was nothing he didn’t rig. He rigged elections. He rigged party nominations. He rigged policies. He rigged official programmes. He rigged government actions. Everything. Hence Nigeria is in the mess it is, today.

Now, who is the man Obasanjo? Why do most Nigerians vilify him? Why is his legacies falling apart? Why are they crumbing fast? WEEKEND OBSERVER digs up the answers to these questions in this explosive magazine.

Flippant tongue
Sources close to Obasanjo say he is a compulsive talker. He often loses control of his words. Put simply, he is said to be flippant. This explains why as president he once said that social science is an irrelevant course in modern times. Of course, this misguided statement was a slap on the faces of scholarship, rationality, graduates of social science, as well as institutions offering the course. A head of state ought not to have made such a remark. But he did unapologetically. Given this, he got a lot of people angry.

But, soon after he left office, Obasanjo-who doesn’t even boast of a university degree –enrolled at Nigeria’s open university. There, he registered for theology, not for a course in engineering, medicine, architecture, mathematics or statistics. And, so, he ended up reading an art course which shares intellectual consanguinity with social science, he had earlier on presidentially disapproved of. This isn’t all. People argue that as a president, Obasanjo ought to display moral candour in all his pronouncements. Also, he should only associate with legitimate progressive forces of democracy. However, the contrary was the case. A public commentator George Obiaka Observes, for instance, that Obasanjo was not only a classical exponent of immoral, perverted politics, he lent his support to those practicing it. One of such people was late Chief Lamidi Adedibu a rubunctious strong man of Ibadan politics imagine, to the embarrassment of decent patriotic Nigerians, Obasanjo was fond of referring to Adedibu as “Father Of PDP”. Such Nigerians see Adedibu as a political thug whom. Obasanjo should not even give footnote or mention in public discourse. Yet he is someone that Obasanjo glorifies as a leader of his party.

So, when he raised Adedibu’s hand and gleefully called him “Father Of PDP” during the burial ceremony of late Chief Adisa Akinloye, in Ibadan not many Nigerians were pleased. To add salt to injury, Obasanjo later stormed Adedibu’s home, also in Ibadan, in a show of solidarity for him. A man who commandeered INEC officials and registration machines for illegal use in his Molete home. A man referred to as “Garrison Commander” of Ibadan politics by Ahmadu Ali, former PDP national chairman which implies Adedibu is an undemocratic brute.

Well, President Yar’ Adua-successor of Obasanjo read the script well. He knew the bad and immoral politics of Adedibu, including his unpatriotic credentials. To put them on hold, Adedibu was reined by his administration before an Abuja Chief Magistrate Court where he was bond over to be of good conduct for a year. He was arraigned for allegedly planning a breach of peace in Abuja, Lagos and Ibadan, as well as for his nuisance value to NAFDAC. Alas, Yhar’Adua tried to sanitize Adedibu while Obasanjo during his rule celebrated him.
Friends today, enemies tomorrow

Obasanjo makes friends and loses them fast, claims a PDP top shot. This is because he demands 101% loyalty from friends but offers little or zero loyalty to them. It is also due to the fact he is master of double speech, adult indiscretion, exuberance and introspective arrogance, the PDP top shot affirms.

Chief Areoye Oyebola, an AD chieftain and former home affairs and information commissioner in old Oyo State didn’t know this character trait of Obasanjo. So, he joined Chief Segun Osoba, former governor of Ogun State, to seal an electoral deal with Obasanjo. The deal?

AD party would mobilize the electorate to vote for Obasanjo during his presidential election in 2003 while he would mobilize votes for AD’s gubernatorial candidates. AD party kept its own pledge. Obasanjo didn’t. And, so, the AD party lost out in all its five states in the South West.
When in May 2008 Pa Adesanya passed on, Chief Areoye Oyebola was at his home, still nursing the pain of Obasanjo deceit. After signing the condolence register, he told media men that one reason he visted late Pa Adesanya’s home is to apologies to him for advising him to support Obasanjo in 2003 during the presidential election

Isaac Ani, who says he is a forensic political analyst, observes: “Obasanjo’s indiscretion and exuberance is proverbial. They have made a lot of people to suffer embarrassment. Take the case of retired Major-General Oluleye. While Obasanjo was military head of State in 1976, Oluleye told him in confidence that Obasanjo should use his new office to re-organise the officer cadre of the military then dominated by the North. But to Oluleye’s chagrin, Obasanjo invited to his office some army officers which included those from the North and asked him to repeat in public what he had told him. Challenged and betrayed by a kinsman Oluleye repeated his advice. This event led to his early retirement from the army. A senior Yoruba officer was sacrificed by another senior Yoruba officer.!!”

Ani revealed that Obasanjo behaved in a similar way towards Major Ademoyega , one of the five majors who played a crucial role in Nzeogwu’s coup in 1996. When Obasanjo was military Head of State, Ademoyega paid him a friendly visit one day. However Obasanjo turned the visit into a public ridicule for Ademoyega. After spending sometime with Obasanjo inside his office, he walked Ademoyega into his full waiting room. There he said something like this: “Here you meet Major Ademoyega, one of Nigerian’s rebellious soldiers. He joined Nzeogwu to overthrow the government of Abubakar Tafawa Balewa in Nigeria’s first coup. Because of them Nigerian has never had things going well for her again. ….”

According to Ani, who shook his head as he spoke, Obasanjo was acting out his rehearsed role of a patriotic, democratic puritan. Yet, he was then a beneficiary of Murtala Mohammed-led coup of July 29, 1975. Much more, in condemning Nzeogwu’s coup, he was inadvertently rubbishing his bosom friend Nzeogwu. Even then, did anyone in the waiting room ask for Major Ademoyega’s identity and biography from him? So, why did he go on to introduce him?. Also, if he decided to do so, why the bad compliments calculated to paint Major Ademoyega black with the evil brush of unpatriotism? Ani asked.

Creating crises as a pastime
Between 1999-2007 while in office as a civilian head of state, Obasanjo’s other hobby could be said to be creating crises. Because he had a small misunderstanding with a members of Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), he let loose his short temper on the entire body. He screamed: “CAN, my foot.

In politics, he married godsons at dawn but before dusk he divorced them. Enter Gov. Ayo Fayose. During one of his visit to Ekiti State where Fayose held sway Obasanjo sang in Yoruba: “Omo Ko le jo baba kamaa binu Omo.” In English it means a father cannot fail to love a son who has a striking resemblance of him. However, soon, Obasanjo fell out with Fayose in 2006 and he swept him out of office, using his proxies in a crisis still reverberating today.

Gov. Rasheed Ladoja, equally got a piece of Obasanjo’s poli- crisis. He was swept of way from office by Adebibu while Obasanjo, his supposed friend and elder brother , cheered on though he knew Adedibu was not employing due process to achieve his plot.

It was not only Fayose and Ladoja that got Obasanjo’s whiplash . Others like Ibori, Alamieyeslegha, Dariye, Turaki and several politicians who ran out his favour suffered, too, in Obasanjo’s hand. He used the EFCC, ICPC, Code of Conduct Bureau and other government outfits to create crises for them.

Rising dislike for Obasanjo’s ways
All of them see him, till date, as an enemy. So, do Babangida and Lt. Gen. Danjuma (rtd) once his pals, Babangida, whose presidential ambition Obasanjo truncated in 2007 camouflages his hatred for him. But not Danjuma who, in anger, had once said that if Obasanjo had attended his birthday in 2007 he would have thrown him out. Well, WEEKEND OBSERVER can authoritatively report that Danjuma didn’t even invite him to the event. He is angry with Obasanjo because of his maneuvers to truncate his foray into the profitable business world of oil prospecting and production. Another sources of Danjuma’s anger is the way Obasanjo killed his wife’s senatorial ambition to do a second term in the upper house.

Now, hear what Chief Richard Akinjide, a sponsor of Obasanjo in 1999 and 2003, say of him in an interview with Saturday Sun of November 22, 2008: “If you have Obasanjo as a friend, you don’t need an enemy, anymore.”

Most other Yoruba’s also hate Obasanjo. Their reason? They claim that Obasanjo during his tenure as civilian president neglected five major roads, passing through Yoruba land. Namely, they are: Shagamu-Benin expressway form the East .. Lagos-Ibadan expressway .. Abeokuta-Lagos expressway leading to even Obasanjo’s house …and…. Ilorin….. Oyo.. Ibadan highway.

Senator Ahmadu Ali, as PDP national chairman, sued to be Obasanjo’s right hand man. Obasanjo recruited him for the top job, he went a step further to impose him on the party in 2005 with the words ALI MUST STAY. Later, however, he turned against him and his wife, notes a PDP official. Hence, the Alis dislike him, viscerally.

He said: “Obasanjo thwarted Alis wife Senatorial ambition. Angry, she abused him on phone. Because of this, Obasanjo decided to punish the Alis. He used El Rufai of FCT to demolish their house in Asokoro claiming it was built on a water line. The immediate past FCT minister DR. Modebbo has refuted this claim. According to him, the Demolition of Alis’ home was a deliberate error. He tendered apology to them. A compensation of N68m was later paid to them in 2008 for the demolition.

If you think Obasanjo only has public enemies, you are mistaken. He also has enemies within his family. Early in 2008, His eldest son Gbenga accused him of having incestous sex with his wife during a divorce suit instituted against her. This month Obasanjo’s first ex-wife Oluremi and Gbenga’s mother publicly presented an autobiography capturing her marriage with Obasanjo. The book is titled BITTER SWEET: MY LIFE WITH OBASANJO. In the book, she paints the character portrait of Obasanjo as a wife basher, a serial bigamist, a divorce arrange, and a cerebral philanderer with a fixation for adultery. In the preface of the Tsunami book, she took Obasanjo to the cleaners for his pharisaical religiosity. This is what she wrote:

“A moral people pontificate on morality….Across the land, men and women with feet of clay try to play God unleashing sorrow on the lives of the people they are expected to give succour.”

After reading the book Femi Adesina, one of Nigeria’s best journalists, remarked that even giving Obasanjo an opportunity to rule Nigeria for one single day would have been the greatest mistake the country would make. But then Obasanjo ruled Nigeria for 12 years both as military and civilian head of state.

A season of crumbling legacies
Only a few of the legacies Obasanjo left behind as president are standing today. Yar’ Adua has either cancelled reversed or revised them. For instance, Yar’Adua has revoked Obasanjo decision to sell off Nigeria’s unity schools. Ibeto cement factory has been re-opened. NNPC has been broken up while Kopolukun has been sacked. The army has apologized to Zaki Biam for the military attack in 2001 authorized by Obasanjo. Patricia Etteh, imposed by him as representatives speaker, has been removed. Planned sale of the refineries have been cancelled. They have been rehabilitated. Two new ones are to be built and would become operational in 2011. Osunbor, his gubernatorial imposition in Edo has fallen by the way side. Oshiomhole is now in office.

Is this all? No!! Obasanjo’s touted moral righteousness and transparency in office is today seen as a tale told by an idiot, signifying nothing He is afterall yet to explain to Nigerians why there is darkness in the country inspite of spending 13.6 billion dollars on power projects.
Achebe to the rescue

In summing up Obasanjo’s continuing demystification, so far, Cletus Ordia took refuge in Chinua Achebe His words: “The trouble with Nigeria is that Obasanjo’s legacies are falling apart. Their centre cannot hold He is no longer at ease, because he is no more a man of the people. He is now Nigeria’s most hated leader alive sitting isolated on the anthill of the savannah.”