The rapprochement last Sunday between former president Olusegun Obasanjo and former president Goodluck Jonathan clearly underscored the saying that in politics there is no permanent foe or friend but permanent interest.
The reconciliation was made at a luncheon in Jonathan’s country home in Ogbia, Bayelsa State. Obasanjo had said that without reconciliation, peace and unity would continue to elude the nation.
Recall that Jonathan had visited the Ota, Ogun State home of Obasanjo once after his defeat in 2015, the return visit by Obasanjo, analysts say may have indicated that the rapprochement was now complete.
At a church service at the Anglican Church, Ogbia Diocese, they both urged Nigerians to draw a lesson of tolerance from both the homily by the Vicar, Bishop Aye Oruwori and the dance performance by a group of youngsters bordering on unity in diversity.
Obasanjo said: “God who knows the end from the beginning knew that this day will come to pass. What touches me most in this service is the children dressing in the attire of different cultures, tribes and tongues in Nigeria. That underpins the homily he (the Bishop) gave to us: reconciliation.”
The two leaders parted ways in 2014 before the 2015 presidential election. Obasanjo had on December 11, 2013 written an 18-page letter to Jonathan, accusing him of lying, destroying Nigeria, promoting corruption, among others. He detailed his grounds of disappointment with Jonathan.
In response also, Jonathan had expressed surprise that his political godfather, so to speak, could write such a scathing open letter to him.
At the time of the letter, Obasanjo had begun to make statements alluding to the fact that he would not help him, Jonathan, to do his job having secured him a job. He had claimed that Sule Lamido, a former governor of Jigawa State had the necessary qualities and capabilities to lead the country, giving an indication that he was rooting for Lamido.
In May 2014, Obasanjo had given an indication that he was completely withdrawing his support from the Jonathan administration and PDP government when he made himself conspicuously absent at a mid-term report event of the then administration; he instead travelled to Jigawa State for an Economic Summit in Dutse.
While delivering his keynote address at the opening ceremony of a three-day event, Obasanjo said: “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 further said of Lamido: “Given his background, performance and credibility, he is competent. With his exposure, he can stand shoulder to shoulder with anybody.
“If it is the wish of the people, it is okay. He did not tell me he is wishing but being the wish of the people let’s wait and see. Based on his track record, would you say he is not competent?”
“Our hope is to produce future leaders who would grow up with one Nigeria in their subconscious, committed and patriotic, those who understand that self is not good enough.”
The lambasting of Jonathan on one hand and endorsement of Lamido on the other had riled Jonathan and some other chieftains of the party. They consequently accused Obasanjo of being the brain behind the crisis within the party.
The strained relationship came to a head when Obasanjo decided to dump the PDP, making a show of it with the public shredding of his membership card.
After his clean exit from the PDP, the APC decided to seek his support and got it, although Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the arrowhead of the broom party, was once Obasanjo’s political foe when the former was governor of Lagos State. Obasanjo had withheld the federal allocations due for Lagos because of Tinubu’s decision not to go back on the motley local councils he created that were not recognised by the Federal Government.
In a move pundits interpreted to mean an attempt to rub in his dislike for Jonathan’s style, Obasanjo adopted Tinubu and his party wholesale and gave his tacit support for President Muhammadu Buhari, even though he was not a card-carrying member of the APC.
It would be recalled that Jonathan was the creation of Obasanjo as the latter drafted the Bayelsa-born politician to pair with the later Yar’Adua in the 2007 presidential election. Jonathan, it would be recalled lost to Buhari in 2015.
Today, observers say that the romance between Obasanjo and the APC/Buhari may have ended, hence the move by Obasanjo to seek reconciliation.
“Obasanjo is a typical politician that knows how to play the game to feather his own nest. When a system does not favour him he finds a way to incite the masses against such a regime. Why did he dump Jonathan? It is simply because Jonathan did not surrender the instrument of power to him. He has now moved against APC and President Buhari; he is looking for a replacement. He does not have a lasting attraction. He just uses them as cannon fodder. Mark it, whoever he is rooting for now will soon become an enemy,” an analyst who craved anonymity said.
Since 2015, Nigerians have been gnashing their teeth over perceived maladministration by the APC-led government. 2019 presents an ample opportunity to make the much-awaited change, by simply choosing to vote correctly.
Timothy Attim, a grassroots politician in one of the South-south states, expressed sadness at the selection process of leaders in Nigeria, which he said was responsible for the too many political godfathers in the country.
“In a better run democracy where government is voted in by the electorate and not by a few individual’s endorsement, you don’t see anybody carrying himself as a tin-god. A situation where a cabal anoints someone and presents such a person for election is not democracy. That’s why the likes of former president Obasanjo can throw their weight around,” Attim said.
According to him, “We would have less problem with leadership if we learn to reject bad leaders at the polls; by not voting them at all. That’s what Tom (Thomas Kennedy) Wolfe, a former American journalist and novelist, prescribed when said: ‘It is very comforting to believe that leaders who do terrible things are, in fact, mad. That way, all we have to do is make sure we don’t just put psychotics in high places and we’ve got the problem solved.’”
“I have followed Obasanjo’s method of operation. Once he begins to nurse a hatred for a government or a leader, he becomes paranoid. He puts all his efforts into removing such leader or toppling such an administration. He begins to compile the failings of that leader and he does not stop at that, he suggests a replacement. When he was tired of Jonathan, he went for Lamido.
“Along the line, he settled for Buhari and the APC. Now he seems to be tired with the APC and Buhari, he has turned his searchlight on a ‘Third Force’ and younger person to take over leadership from the geriatrics. He is a master strategist. Now, he has gone back to make peace with Jonathan. Perhaps, he thrives on the gullibility of Nigerians,” Attim, who is an anthropologist, said.
Pundits say that the lesson in the fence-mending between the two men must not be lost on political aides and cronies to politicians who unnecessarily attract enmity to themselves by lack of tact in handling their briefs.
“I think, it is a lesson for over-ego political aides and jobbers who hurl insults at political foes of their principals without being tactful. Most times, when these politicians settle their differences such aides are not usually there. It is a big lesson,” Lawson Ikem, a public affairs analyst, said.
Zebulon Agomuo
