By Louis Odion, FNGE
“Ogboju” is no ordinary term in Yoruba speak. It describes a
false bravado by the daring in pursuit of often dubious end. It happens when
the marauder is, for instance, audacious enough to turn around and blame the
very crime on their supposed victim.
More and more, we are witnessing the “Ogboju” syndrome in
the simmering Buhari/Obasanjo tiff. With the president suddenly
breaking his own custom of silence last week by insinuating hanky panky in the
multi-billion dollars power projects executed under Chief Olusegun Obasanjo’s
watch as president, it became clear the infantry General from Daura is simply
no longer willing to turn the proverbial other cheek under relentless assault
by his senior professional colleague.
Since drawing the first blood with the “letter bomb” of January,
OBJ has characteristically not allowed any opportunity or platform pass without
peppering PMB further with invectives least expected of a statesman of his
pedigree and stature.
But PMB’s own fireworks would appear to have commenced in
earnest. Not only has the anti-graft agency responded by dusting up the reports
of earlier probe of the $16b power deal, the Presidency further
stirred things up weekend with a detailed reminder of how public institutions
like the police and DSS were dragooned by OBJ to “topple” elected governors in
pursuit of political vendetta. We were reminded how, in many instances, subdued
state lawmakers were herded from EFCC detention camp to the assembly and made
at gunpoint to impeach governors, even without a quorum.
Added to the foregoing is the whispering campaign in town
linking OBJ to an alleged multi-billion dollars contract proposal involving the
Mambilia power project said to have been scuttled by Buhari.
But for once, usually prolific OBJ is yet to find his fountain
pen to confirm or deny this. Rather, he has since been on the back-foot,
seeking portions of his latest memoirs, My Watch, as enough
defence on the $16b power charge. Now, the wily witch-doctor is being force-fed
generous portion of own bitter portion.
While PMB may not have fully lived up to the promise of 2015, let
it however be stated that that is not sufficient alibi for OBJ to now seek to
indulge his habitual narcissism by resorting to some “Ogboju” and, in the
process, inflict the most brazen assault on national memory. For, as they
say, that the deer suffers adversity of having its visage disfigured
by a boil isn’t enough reason for the domestic fowl to appropriate the toga of
the tale-bearer.
True, Buhari’s albatross in the past three years would
undoubtedly include the issue of lopsidedness in appointments that have seen
the South-East and South-South virtually alienated and the fact that the
nation’s space remains haunted by the restless ghosts of the innocent
slaughtered by genocidal herdsmen.
But each time they read or hear OBJ lampooning Buhari, I
am quite sure most - if not all - of those old enough to understand things
while the two-term President held sway must find themselves choked by the
stench of hypocrisy, unnerved by the sheer sanctimony of OBJ’s guttural
chord.
Suddenly, OBJ and his people now, for instance, want us to
believe Buhari had many skeletons locked up in the PTF closet. But speaking on
the same issue in January 2015, these were OBJ’s reactions to speculations
against then candidate Buhari:
“When we looked into it (PTF), there was really
nothing amiss except that that organisation went from road-building to
mosquito-net buying and all sort of things. Although there was an
investigation, its report was not of any material importance. I thought that I
should say it... (hoping) people will face issues rather than triviliaties.”
Add caption |
Suddenly, the free-flowing eulogy of yesterday has turned bitter
jeremiad today.
While now dismissing both APC and PDP as “wrecked vehicles”, OBJ
speaks as though the rest of us are the proverbial Bourbons afflicted by
incurable amnesia. If nothing at all, he should, at least, accept
responsibility for nourishing the umbrella party on the diet of impunity
in its first eight formative years.
When his last-ditch desperation to grab power after Third
Term came to grief in 2006, he orchestrated the rigging of the party’s
constitution to proclaim himself “Life Leader” and “Head of the Legislative
Agenda” in a poor imitation of the ANC model in South Africa.
As imperial president, the party leadership was made
to grovel and worship at his feet.
Those who rebelled soon met sour ending. When Audu Ogbeh as
national chair summoned courage to publicly disagree with him on some state
policies, the then imperial majesty at the Villa personally penned a philippic.
Thereafter, the resignation letter of the insolent chair was allegedly
extracted at gun-point behind closed doors!
We also see OBJ’s “Ogboju” in continued denial of third term,
despite overwhelming exhibits.
The same mindset is also on display whenever and wherever
presented a platform to pontificate on corruption. Apparently, his guiding
philosophy is: do as I say, not as I do. Who, for instance, will forget the
abominable spectacle of dirty undergarments exposed over PTDF when OBJ and his
deputy Atiku Abubakar chose to fight dirty.
Through the public hearing conducted, we heard how funds meant
to develop the oil sector were converted to purchasing SUVs for OBJ’s
concubines.
Yet, Saint OBJ continues to sermonize on morality in public
office. But when he ruled, his own queer lithurgy did not see any iniquity in
auctioning prized national assets and allocating oil blocs to newly
incorporated Transcorp where he had personal interest euphemistically
classified as “blind trust”.
When poor varsity teachers downed tools in protest of poor pay
and underdevelopment of tertiary education in the country back then,
sharp-tongued OBJ soon descended on them as saboteurs and hypocrites who would
send their own kids abroad while shutting the school gates against the children
of the poor at home. His own solution: he hastened the setting up of his own
“world-class” university in Ota, obviously as alternative to those denied by
ASUU.
We also saw OBJ’s “Ogboju” in commandeering industry captains
and state governors to raise a whopping N7b for his personal presidential
library in Abeokuta on the eve of his exit. Meanwhile, the National Library
mooted in 2002 amid national fanfare never really got off the ground.
Asked recently by the Yoruba service of the BBC about
the prospects of enlisting in OBJ’s political movement, Nobel laureate,
Professor Wole Soyinka, was unsparing. Thumping his temple in a supreme gesture
of denunciation, he retorted jocularly: “Then, I should have my head examined
by a psychiatrist.”
So, when they say millions have enlisted behind OBJ today, the
big puzzle is whether the queue passes through the street sheltering the
psychiatrist’s studio Soyinka insinuated.
For Ajibade @ 60
Kunle Ajibade |
Sani Abacha’s gun-toting goons came for TheNews lead writer Dapo
Olorunyomi. But in an extraordinary show of leadership by responsibility,
editor Kunle Ajibade volunteered himself to be taken away instead, following a
scathing cover story the magazine published on what would become known as the
phantom coup of 1995.
Of course, that self-sacrifice marked the beginning of Ajibade’s
journey to Abacha’s gulag for three harrowing years in defence of truth and
liberty. He chose not to keep cowardly silence in the face of tyranny.
Indeed, the chronicle of popular resistance of Nigeria’s
military despotism of the 80s and 90s is incomplete without acknowledging the
likes of Ajibade who showed courage under fire.
As he turns 60s, here is saying happy birthday to one of
Nigeria’s journalism icons.
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