The rather combative riposte by the Presidency, to former President Olusegun Obasanjo, after he criticized President Muhammadu Buhari of running the country aground and making Nigeria a basket case and a failed state, once again advertises in dramatic fashion, the absence of grace in the highest realms of governance; and this certainly cannot be in the national interest. With his petulance, foul temperament and imprudent conduct, Obasanjo impoverished the dignity of his status as a former president in ways that calls to question his public standing as an elder statesman. However, the puerile responses of presidential spokesman, Garba Shehu, Information and Culture Minister, Lai Muhammed, and APC attack dogs; were equally imprudent, in a way that speaks directly to pettiness at the highest level of the country’s leadership. For, after all is considered, OBJ’s incendiary outbursts may have served its political purpose but the banal aspersions cast on Obasanjo by the president and his handlers neither served Nigeria’s purpose, nor that of graceful purposeful leadership, which Nigeria stands in dire need of, at the present moment.
Specifically, Obasanjo had last Thursday said Nigeria was slowly becoming a failed state and a basket case that urgently needed to be pulled from the brink of collapse. Delivering a speech titled: “Moving Nigeria away from tipping over,” at a consultative dialogue attended by various socio-cultural groups, including Afenifere, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Middle Belt Forum, Northern Elders Forum, and Pan Niger Delta Forum in Abuja, the former president said he had never seen Nigeria so divided, suggesting many of the problems bedeviling the country today were due to Buhari’s recent mismanagement of Nigeria’s diversity. “I do appreciate that you all feel sad and embarrassed as most of us feel as Nigerians with the situation we find ourselves in. Today, Nigeria is fast drifting to a failed and badly divided state. Economically, our country is becoming a basket case and poverty capital of the world, and socially, we are firming up as an unwholesome and insecure country,” Baba charged.
But reacting, Shehu urged Obasanjo to sheath his sword and rest the “pretentiousness about the messiah that has led him to pronounce often wrongly, as he disastrously did in the 2019 elections, about the life and death of Nigerian governments.” Shehu in a statement ornamented with bile, vitriol and insultive grandiloquence, called Obasanjo a lowlife and Nigeria’s divider-in-chief. “From the lofty height of Commander-in-Chief, General Obasanjo has descended to the lowly level of Divider-in-Chief.” Shehu insisted that OBJ’s criticisms of PMB were devoid of good intentions, claiming OBJ is jealous of Buhari’s achievements. “Chief Obasanjo should, in accordance with his mantra as a statesman, get involved with problems solving, when and where they exist instead of helping the mushrooming of a poisonous atmosphere of ethnic and religious nationalism,” Shehu said.
Also in response, Information and Culture Minister, Lai Mohammed, in a statement, said Nigeria was drifting after 16 years of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) rule before Buhari took power and brought the country back from the brink. The ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) also joined the shouting match, saying it was ironic that political actors that institutionalized corruption, impunity and eroded the country’s value systems are now offering lessons on good governance. Reacting to criticisms by OBJ, PDP and former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, APC deputy national publicity secretary, Yekini Nabena, in a statement, dismissed them as lacking the antecedents and moral credentials to guide Nigeria, saying Nigerians have stopped taking them seriously. Nabena said: “It is baffling that the same political actors that midwifed and institutionalized the national rot, corruption, impunity and eroding of our value systems are the same characters posing as voices on the way forward in our national life. How ironic!”
It was not the first time Obasanjo was making these disturbing accusations and probably will not be the last. Like any other Nigerian, Obasanjo’s right to comment on any issue of public interest, is not in question. What is contestable is the justification for some of his comments in certain situations, given the forum and the occasion when he makes them. It is indeed unfortunate that in the name of public engagement, Obasanjo has made it a point of duty to transform his position as former president; into a platform for casting banal aspersions, vituperative invectives and disparaging utterances against past and present presidents and fomenting flashpoints of conflict to undermine and disrespect constituted authority. To the extent that such discourteous remarks expose the president and the institution of the presidency to ridicule and public contempt, this must not be allowed to continue. Nevertheless, coming from the one man who history and providence conspired to allow him rule Nigeria twice; first as military leader and later as civilian president; OBJ’s assessment of the state of the nation are weighty from someone who knows better, and so must be taken seriously.
The unsavory exchange, of course, made sensational headlines but it certainly will not resolve the life and death challenges facing the country, not the least of which is insecurity and the insurgency. In point of fact though, Buhari administration officials should be hiding their heads in shame, for failing to live up to the primary purpose of government; which is to protect the lives and welfare of the Nigerian people. For all the noise and self-eulogizing sermons about fighting corruption, one just needs to look at the NDDC to know that under Buhari, corruption has grown bolder and more ravenous. The air is rank with tension, there is disenchantment everywhere. In short, what is currently on display after the removal of the subsidy regime is a groundswell of anger, occasioned by poverty and public distrust for government and this has fueled insecurity into a time-bomb.
Obasanjo’s admonition is an expression of concern, if not worry, of someone who has seen the good, the bad and ugly of Nigeria. As a former president, he has attained a statesmanlike height and pedestal of influence and experience whereby the roadmap for national reconstruction could be crafted from his public utterances. Therefore, if at all OBJ’s comments warranted a response, the Presidency should have given a measured one; a point-by-point rebuttal that would indicate seriousness commensurate to the weighty allegations, acerbic and discomforting as OBJ’s remarks may have been. Decorum demands a finesse of language, exemplified by civility – knowing what to say, where to say it and how to say it. The vituperative outbursts and banal attacks on OBJ was bad politics, even more so, as the language was very unedifying. And while the insecurity and bloodletting continues, the recriminations and blame game by high officials is distracting from a focused and concerted effort to fight the raging inferno. It is indeed pathetic and unconscionable that the frightening state of insecurity; a very serious threat to the is being politicized, if not trivialized, and reduced to pedestrian verbal altercation and political point-scoring by the very persons entrusted with the mandate to secure and protect life and property.
Leadership has been the bane of Nigeria. More than ever, Nigeria needs leaders and statesmen who embody the unity of the country with their presence alone; and render admonitions that edify the public space, instead of the barrage of indecorous verbiage coming from the presidency. Time is fast running out and desperate as the situation might be, it is not beyond redemption. These difficult times should spur national grandeur and bring out the best in every Nigerian instead of the current hype in ethnic nationalism and religious bigotry that seek to promote self-destructive cleavages. Nigerian leaders must unite and confront the clear and present danger and give meaning to the creed: “though tribe and tongue may differ; in brotherhood we stand.”
