by
Lanre Banjo
It is evident that the skewed thinking of Mathew Aremu Olusegun Obasanjo is that all Nigerians are morons. Our collective intelligence is daily being corrosively insulted. Obasanjo believes that Nigerians should panic anytime he announces that the destructive and dictatorial democracy his cohorts in the National Assembly and he practice will be scuttled as a result of the criticism of a Nigerian. Col. Abubakar Dangiwa Umar’s letter expressed the crushing injuries constantly being inflicted on the voiceless Nigerians. He was not evasive; he was concise as to the stifling inflictions of Obasanjo on Nigerians, many of whom are deserving of his desolating policies.
Col. Umar spoke about the most corrupt and ineffective police headed by Tafa Balogun and against whom several corrupt allegations have been made and he is still serving the devilish regime of Obasanjo uninvestigated. Obasanjo himself has wished he had a country without police and custom. In other words, Obasanjo by his utterances and act agreed that Nigeria has the most inept and corrupt police and custom in the world. One of his former Attorney Generals, the late Chief Bola Ige, once had a reason to curse the Nigerian police in somewhat bitter manner. In this regard, it is indubitably clear that Col. Umar was not alone in pointing out the ineptitude of the Nigerian police.
Col. Umar addressed the issue of accountability, which Obasanjo abhorred and his profound disrespect for budget compliance. Specifically, he spoke about N3.5 trillion that were spent between May 1999 and May 2003 and how there is “ample evidence to show that most of it has found its way out of the economy.” The refusal of the western world to forgive our loan, given the evidence of money stacked away by ministers, former presidents or head of states, the relatives of seating president or the president himself, and the bribes that plunged Afolabi into trouble, corroborated Umar’s statement. I would remind Nigerians of the comment of one of the Obasanjo’s closest friends, General Theophilus Danjuma in 1999. Danjuma said that if Obasanjo did not become the president of Nigeria, he would run out of the country. In 2003, Danjuma announced to the world why he cannot continue to serve the country alongside Obasanjo. He gave Obasanjo’s lack of respect for budget as one of the reasons. Thus, he ran out of Obasanjo’s government. Again, Col. Umar was right on the money on the issue of accountability.
Col. Umar went further with the following assertions: “Over N300 billion was supposedly spent on road maintenance, yet there is not a single road that has been rehabilitated, including the one leading to Otta. Over 2 billion US dollars has been spent on NEPA, yet power outages have worsened nationwide except perhaps in Abuja. The refineries remain shut in spite of the billions spent for their rehabilitation. This poor infrastructure has necessitated the closure of many of our industries. … Most tertiary institutions here remain closed for well over two years of your first term. Our hospitals have since declined from their consultancy status to mortuaries. Nigerians, you must be told, have never experienced this level of social distress and dislocation. Over 70 percent of Nigerians have fallen below the poverty line, thanks to your inhuman polices. Due to mismanagement, your government is always short of funds even though the price of oil has consistently been well above the budgeted figures. Your response has always been to devise an easy way out by further taxing an already over burdened citizenry. Mr. President, ….. Although, you claim to have deployed weapons of mass destruction against corruption, Nigeria has sunk to the position of second most corrupt nation in the world for two years running. It was 27th under Abacha.” Col. Umar’s list of specific conscious and deliberate deeds of Obasanjo to dehumanize, depreciate, economically deflate and debase the Nigerian people whose mandate he rigged to himself goes on and on.
Where specific allegations are made against a government, you expect a government peopled by sane jolly good fellows to respond point by point and let her citizens be the judge. Did Obasanjo do that? One expects Obasanjo administration to have records of how much spent on roads so that they can thrash Col. Umar’s letter point by point since they consider his words to be influential enough to truncate their economically incapacitating democracy. Since Aso Rock is sure that Nigerian democracy is so fragile that the criticism of a Nigerian can scatter it, you expect the response from the presidency to address the issues raised in Umar’s letter with execution of programs to humiliate Umar. Here is the Presidency’s response in an impotent statement entitled “Our Response to Abubakar Umar” through Femi Fani-Kayode:
“There should be a distinction between constructive criticism on one hand and lies, disinformation and fabrication on the other hand. Whether Umar and those he represents likes it or not, Mr. President has been given a mandate by the Nigerian people till 2007 and no amount of blackmail, incitement, disinformation, destabilization, recourse to religious politics and sentiment, lies and deceit can take that mandate away. We will not sit by idly and allow the likes of Abubakar Umar to truncate or destroy this democratic dispensation or to continue to attempt to rubbish the noble efforts of Mr. President. We will not allow him or anyone else to destabilize this government or this country. A word is enough for the wise. Finally, let it be noted once again, Mr. President refutes every single allegation that Umar has leveled against him, his government, his tenure, his policies, his Christian faith, conviction and testimony and now even his officials at the presidency. It has become obvious to Mr. President that Abubakar Umar was not only a malevolent and divisive influence in presidency. “ The statement observed that Umar and his “small group” and the group they represent “will never smell power in Nigeria again. The difficulty with the company that Umar introduced was that he did not want its application for {oil} contracts to go through due process. He was quite insistent on this and of course, Mr. President refused to have anything to do with such an arrangement or such a company.”
Nothing in this response addressed the issue of N300 b claimed to have been spent on Nigerian roads or N3.5 trillion spent in his first time in office. Obasanjo could not respond to this because he is protecting Tony Anenih, who can fix elections with his brother, Abel Guobadia, but cannot fix our roads. Absolutely nothing in Obasanjo’s response addresses the issue of his policies that are deliberately designed to impoverish Nigerians, which he once publicly admitted knowledge of. It is a matter of records that he made a public statement that he is aware of tormenting sufferings of our people and he turned around to further tax Nigerians with his unreasonable increase on fuel price without commensurate increase in wages. Obasanjo is simply deriving sadistic fun from the destruction of Nigerians. Instead of him to respond to Umar’s letter if he thinks it is worth responding to by presenting his sides to the citizenry, Obasanjo resorted to threat and blackmailing. What constitutes disinformation and fabrication in what is obvious and excruciatingly being felt by all Nigerians and expressed by Dangiwa is cloudy to me. For the President who is a beneficiary of those Umar represents to distance himself from them showcases an ingrate human being and it is treachery of the highest order. Who is Obasanjo to tell Nigerians who will never taste power again in Nigeria? The same people Umar represents shined him from prison, flew him to Abeokuta and imposed him on us regardless of the votes of Nigerians. We told them then that they could not shine “shit.” They tried; now the smell of the “shit” in Aso Rock is killing everybody.
People Umar represents would never taste power in Nigeria again! What structure has he put in place to ensure that anyone who will further debase our lives will never get to power? Instead, Obasanjo has continued to make our people destitute thus programming them to sell their votes, to be corrupt and to self destroy. Given the way he has programmed our people, if the people Umar represents dangle money in their faces, they would sell Obasanjo himself. So, what is the difference between him and the people that Umar represents? They are both corrupt. Each time I am in Nigeria, I practice abstinence. I keep my stuff under strong lock with the understanding of my wife because I am constantly afraid that any pregnancy conceived in that country under Obasanjo will be a pregnancy of corruption. Even if the child is not born and bred in the country, once conceived in Nigeria, a sagacious person would still have to spiritually exorcise the child of corruption later before it becomes cankerworm. Can we then imagine those whose pregnancies were conceived, born and bred in Nigeria under Obasanjo? The people Umar represents hate education. Obasanjo destroyed the education we were once proud of in the Southwestern part of Nigeria because of his hatred for education. A slave is a slave whether you call him Obasanjo or Diya. There is therefore no variance between the people Umar represents and Obasanjo.
For those who are not old enough to know the political records of Aremu, I would list a few of them here. For those who know but allow money to buy their conscience and support Obasanjo to continue the destruction of Nigeria, which he started in 1976, I would also remind them of his records so that their children would see that their parents are instrumental to their desolation. Here are few examples all of which constitute TREASON and for which Obasanjo should have been thrown into gaol forever or stripped naked and taken to the coldest city in Europe.
Obasanjo was the first ruler in Nigerian history to increase the price of fuel and borrow money when Nigeria did not need it from the roguish International Monetary Fund. For him to accomplish that, he sacrificed Nigerian children's right to tertiary education, and instituted tuition fees in our universities. When the Nigerian students embarked on a peaceful demonstration to make their case, he asked his police to shoot them. Nigerian students were shot and killed. That era was known in the Nigerian lexicon of infamy as "Ali Must Go" crisis. Thus by giving up Nigerian interest for that of the IMF and its foreign backers, Obasanjo committed TREASON. Just as it was then, it is now and it would ever be until Obasanjo’s exist from Nigeria. He takes care of the foreign interest, and cares less of the interest of Nigerians.
When Major Buka Dimka who led the assassination of General Murtala Mohammed was tried, Obasanjo reportedly arm-twisted General Theophelus Yakubu Danjuma not to try Ibrahim Babangida for his treachery against the nation. It is part of our history that IBB allowed Major Dimka to escape from the Radio Station. He achieved heroism from this treasonable act. This displayed Obasanjo’s love for those who hate Nigeria. He demonstrated it then, and he is demonstrating now. He surrounds himself today with zany like Femi Fani-Kayode whose family political history has been treacherous against the State of Nigeria.
Prior to the elections of the 2nd republic - Obasanjo told Nigerians that the best man couldn’t win the presidential elections in a contemptuous reference to Chief Obafemi Awolowo. Though he did not mention Awo by name, but every Nigerian knew whom he referred to. One would think that any patriotic Nigerian would want the best for his or her country, but not Obasanjo. He wanted the worst in Shehu Shagari, imposed him on Nigeria and Nigeria has never been the same since then. This is TREASON. Obasanjo simply hates talents, and the wicked man has the nerve to compare the budget of New York to Nigeria, if New Yorkers did not want the best to be at the helms of the their affairs or use the services of the best, New York would not be what it is today.
In 1979 Obasanjo changed the rules in the middle of the game, without recourse to the people or any institution, removed a clause from the constitution that prescribed ELECTORAL COLLEGE to determine a winner if none of the candidates meet the constitutional requirements in the first ballot. This subversion of the Nigerian constitution and law is an act of TREASON. This he did then for the people whose interest Abubakar Umar represents. So whom is Obasanjo fooling now?
Kalakuta nko? Obasanjo as a member of the same clique that Umar represents, burned down Kalakuta with the famous Steve Wonder there. His zombies threw Fela’s mother out of the window and shattered one of the brilliants musicians in the world. The motherless Obasanjo did not condemn the barbaric act of the unknown soldiers. Like leopard that never change its spot, Obasanjo ordered Odi to be destroyed in the same manner almost 20 years later. Old Soldier never dies!
If you lead a people supposedly, you look after their interests, preserve and protect them. Old Soldier has refused to do this for the people of Nigeria in general and the Niger Delta in particular. He refused to meet them. He refused to listen to them. He refused to consider their pains and pangs. He sides with foreign interests represented by Shell, Chevron/Texaco and others against that of Nigerians in Niger Delta. When they complain, he sends soldiers to go and shoot them on sight. When he felt the soldiers were not killing them enough, the born-again Christian wanted to bring in the American marines to come and suck life out of the images of God. This is TREASON.
During the 2003 elections, Obasanjo knowingly crippled us with scarcity of fuel so that we would not hold rallies that would enlighten the voters. The destruction of the Alliance for Democracy (AD) was engineered by him for ability to have in-road into the South West. Whichever faction of the AD that he supports is what INEC would recognize, yet, it is called Independent National Electoral Commission. Although, I agree that AD leadership is unserious and harebrained, it is not in the place of government to openly intervene in the affairs of another political party with a view to destroy. The impeachment of Richard Nixon stemmed from acts less serious than the ones committed against the AD.
Under Obasanjo, one “were (asinwin) an oyinora or oyinoshi,” (a mad man) was arrested on the street to cover up the assassination of Chief Bola Ige and finally murdered in prison. It was bad enough for the man to go insane without adequate medical care in Nigeria. It is an unpardonable sin to now arrest him, confine him and then ensure that he died in prison.
With these intentional and contrived acts of perfidy for which Obasanjo should have been impeached and prosecuted in Nigeria, how can he claim to be Godly? How could any one allow him to lead Holy Ghost night if the pastors of today are not solely about money and love of affiliation with people in power regardless of their eyesore records? How could someone who knew that he rigged the elections – both primary and general, claim the mandate he never got, presented himself to be a follower of Jesus? Mathew is irreligious. Aremu is atheistic, and he is sacrilegious, unholy, and ungodly. Obasanjo was supposed to be at Ikeja cantonment at the time the bombs exploded. He was probably informed by Mamas; those Fela Anikulapo-Kuti called Iya Alaje to stay away. He called Governor Bola Tinubu to change the time to 12.30pm. So, he escaped death and sacrificed thousands of Nigerians. If Iyabo were to have been among the causalities, hell would have broken loose. No one was punished for that act. When he went back there later to commiserate with the wailing and crying Nigerians, he removed his shoes so that he could vamoose and find himself in Ota if any bomb further exploded. Based on the story in the bible, Jesus knew he was going to be killed, he did not sacrifice his disciples, and he faced it so that Old Soldier could be free. Here Obasanjo saw death, he ducked and allowed thousands of Nigerians to die in bomb explosion and in the canal. So which Christian faith is he talking about?
Obasanjo should stop deluding us that there is democracy in Nigeria. He knew he is not doing well by the masses of our people. That explains why he is imposing fear on the people that constructive criticism such as Abubakar’s could truncate the fragile democracy. In any democracy the people are supposed to count. Their welfare is supposed to be important. Their needs are supposed to inform the policy. Their concern is supposed to be considered. But under Obasanjo the contrary is the case. Laws mean nothing. Order is for the dogs. Justice is an anathema. Fairness is a curse. Obasanjo and his henchmen have turned Nigeria into a jungle where nicety, compassion, considerateness have become debilitating impediments. Everywhere in the country there are hungry wolves in human skin. Everyone you meet is a potential vampire desperate to suck your blood and move on to the next victim. So where people do not count, and you cannot change government through ballot, then something has to give. Let’s convoke a Conference, Obasanjo said no. Let’s review the Constitution, he said no. The sovereignty belongs to him, he said, when the Constitution states that the sovereignty belongs to the people. Can we all blame Obasanjo? Visualize a mad man with a hoe in sand filled area and watch if he would not dig the sand to his corner, and yet when you ask, because he is insane, he would tell you he has the mandate of the hoe and the sovereignty of the hoe belongs to him and to him alone. Nigerians often insult God when they opine that out of over 100 million Nigerians only Obasanjo can deal with the Hausa elite and the military. Well, is he dealing with them alone, or is he dealing with all and sundry? Many Nigerians took money for votes. Their Kings and Chiefs took Schnapps on their behalf. E jeun soke, E jeun sisale, now you must deal with Obasanjo and his desolating policies.
I am strongly convinced that there is no difference between the employees and inhabitants of Aso Rock and the inhabitants of Yaba Apa osi or the Aro Mental Institute in Abeokuta. In fact, Obasanjo as the leader of the members of the institute has carefully picked candidates he is nurturing to further destroy the country. If this is not so, how can one explain the immediate response of unpatriotic and jackass called Femi Fani-Kayode to constructive criticism of Dangiwa? How can one explain the statement made by Obasanjo on the brutal assassination of the South-South Vice-Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Chief A. K Dikibo that it was an act of robbery? Obasanjo did not even ask the kind of protection the police who was in the vehicle was offering to the late Dikibo. He did not ask why a single fire was not shot by his escort. To cover up, they ordered the driver and the police to be locked up and not to be interviewed even by the Governor who is the Chief Executive Officer of the State. When our ship of state is being piloted by crews who belong to Aro institute, we know we are doomed.
Dangiwa, I thank you for voicing out the excruciating pains of the voiceless masses. I commend you for standing up after you have knelt down for four years to adore Obasanjo. You adored him when Nigerians suffered for four years. I salute you for realizing that you were loyal to evil in 1999. But Umar, you cannot tell Nigerians in all honesty that you are not aware of the pre-1999 terrible and despicable records of Oba, as we call him in the military circle. Umar, you cannot deny knowledge of Oba’s deeds listed above and many more. We appreciate your stand on June 12, but you helped to bury the June 12 in the most unfair and ungodly manner with your support for Oba in 1999. You, in collusion with the group you represent, imposed a devil on Nigerians; you now must help us to chase him out through impeachment. You must join with progressive to chase people like him away from our lives through open campaign for reconstitution of INEC, and you must be seen supporting honest Nigerians to take charge of our affairs, not Nigerians with criminal records. All of you in the same clique share the same pagan beliefs, and you cannot run away now. It is too late in the day. Fredrick Fasehun is your product. When he said “our sons”, he was referring to the son of the clique all of you belong to. Like members of your clique, he does not mean well for Nigerians.
Sonu ku, Dangiwa. Ya hu wa! How can you stand against Abacha and choose to go to bed with Oba who has records of treasonable felony? You greatly disappointed me when you mentioned in your letter that you supported Oba in 1999. You should be ashamed of that decision. If the interests of Nigerians are topmost in your heart, Dangiwa, you should not be found adoring Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida. Umar, you still love IBB given his disgraceful records – records of heartless assassinations, records of selling Nigerians to the highest bidder, records of criminal settlement, records of destruction of our economy, etc. If you love Nigeria, you must stay away from this clique, Umar. That is the only way you can convince sane and visionary Nigerians like me that you yourself do not need to seek proper understanding of the Lord, because your clique is the clique of Satan. By April 2004, Obasanjo would have succeeded to be the first ruler in the history of Nigeria to dole out Nigerian land and people in Bakassi to a foreign country. Sani Abacha, as deranged as he was would not have allowed that to happen. This is the product of your support in 1999. Obasanjo had the mandate of your clique in 1999 and he created his own mandate in 2003. If all of you love Nigerians, your hero, IBB and Abdusalami Abubakar would not have colluded under your masters in the Western world to send Abiola to early heaven, and brought disgrace called Obasanjo back to power. So everything you wrote in your letter to Obasanjo, you are equally guilty of as one of his sponsors in 1999, but we appreciate your speaking up. You action in 1999 was without vision, which has become a dilemma of today, and you must help chase Obasanjo out for forgiveness from God.
The day of reckoning is fast approaching. No prayer can stop it. I have a dream. I see a day of doom fast approaching for those who have destroyed the country. A day that those who go to Aso Rock for Holy Ghost would receive HOLY FIRE. You see them blowing their brains up and calling it robbery and arresting innocent people whose sprits would continue to torture Nigeria. I have a dream; I see a day when the band of bandits who are holding the Nigerian people and state hostage would begin to rig their lives out since they have rigged all of us out and nobody else to rig again. I have a dream. The days that TRAITORS and TREASONABLE FELONS would draw dagger against themselves are fast approaching. You would hear them calling their members devils and the ones called devils would say, “you would never taste power again.” I have a dream my brothers and sisters, when these days come, where elephants are battling themselves, the grass that they have eaten to bones and who of course allow them to eat it by selling its votes would be matched to marrow so that Nigeria could have a breathing space. Today, one could perceive their conviction that the Nigerian populace has been conquered and decimated beyond the point, from which they could organize to liberate themselves, is highly palpable. They have crossed the Rubicon of crude accumulation of capital to being cruel, wicked, mean-spirited and tyrannical. They engage in obvious but odious ostentation to flagrantly flaunt our stolen wealth in our faces as they marry their sons and daughters to each other and implant them in government. They are daring us to complain even with our breath to give them the opportunity to unleash their poorly paid and hungry policemen on our children and us. They are having a field day, and they appear formidable. But their days are definitely numbered because they are all on a quicksand. God is sending His own earthquake. Tafa Balogun, his men and the military would run for cover. No question in my mind that they are all poor students of history. It was Fani-Kayode senior a.k.a. Fani Power who was alleged to have led those who killed Samuel Oladoke Akintola to where he was hiding. The junior is back in Aso Rock by spiritual design. This Femi Fani-Kayode would have a role to play when the wrath of God descends in style. History may repeat itself; he may show them where Obasanjo is hiding on the d-day. That day, Iyabo would remain Bello and would delete Obasanjo’s name from her name. There will be no hidden place for the oppressors. I HAVE A DREAM!!!
Ogbeni Lanre Banjo, Ogun State Gubernatorial Candidate, 2003 elections. National Conscience Party, February 19, 2002