It’s not just a yuletide season for Nigerian’s, but
also a season of open letters.
Following the much ado of Nigeria Ex-President “Olusegun
Obasanjo” letter which he wrote to President
“Goodluck Jonathan” accusing him of lying, destroying Nigeria and promoting corruption. The letter which is causing chaos in Nigeria, the daughter of former President Olusegun
Obasanjo, Iyabo, has ruled out further communication with her father till
death, describing him as a liar, manipulator, two-faced hypocrite determined to
foist on President Goodluck Jonathan what no one would contemplate with him as
president.
According to report form Vanguardngr, Senator Iyabo
Obasanjo, first child of the former president, in a letter to her father with a 4th century Chinese proverb by Mencius “The great man is he who does not lose his child’s heart” accused him of having an egoistic craving
for power and living a life where only men of low esteem and intellect thrive. Also, accused him of orchestrating a third term for himself as president, cruelty to family
members, abandonment of children and grandchildren, and also, a legendary
reputation of maltreatment of women.
Iyabo who forswore further political engagements in
Nigeria denied any political motive for her missive, and described Nigeria as a
country where her father and his ilk have helped to create a situation where
smart, capable people bend down to imbeciles to survive. She particularly noted
her experience as chairman of the Senate Committee on Health when she led the
committee on a retreat appropriated for in the budget only for her to be
prosecuted for it.
She write:
“It brings me no joy to have to write this but
since you started this trend of open letters I thought I would follow suit
since you don’t listen to anyone anyway. The only way to reach you may be to
make the public aware of some things. As a child well brought up by my
long-suffering mother in Yoruba tradition, I have been reluctant to tell the
truth about you but as it seems you still continue to delude yourself about the
kind of person you are and I think for posterity’s sake it is time to set the
records straight.
“I will return to the issue of my long-suffering
mother later in this letter.
“Like most Nigerians, I believe there are very
enormous issues currently plaguing the country but I was surely surprised that
you will be the one to publish such a treatise. I remember clearly as if it was
yesterday the day I came over to Abuja from Abeokuta when I was Commissioner of
Health in OgunState, specifically to ask you not to continue to pursue the
third term issue.
“I had tried to bring it up when your sycophantic
aides were present and they brushed my comments aside and as usual you listened
to their self-serving counsel. For you to accuse someone else of what you so
obviously practiced yourself tells of your narcissistic megalomaniac
personality. Everyone around for even a few minutes knows that the only
thing you respond to is praise and worship of you. People have learnt how to
manipulate you by giving you what you crave. The only ones that can’t and will
not stroke your ego are family members who you universally treat like shit
(sic) apart from the few who have learned to manipulate you like others.
“Before I continue, Nigerians are people who see
conspiracy and self-service in everything because I think they believe everyone
is like them. This letter is not in support of President Jonathan or APC or any
other group or person, but an outpouring from my soul to God. I don’t blame you
for the many atrocities you have been able to get away with, Nigerians were
your enablers every step of the way. People ultimately get leaders that reflect
them.
“Getting back to the story, I made sure your aides
were not around and brought up the issue, trying to deliver the presentation of
the issue as I had practiced it in my head. I started with the fact that we
copied the US constitution which has term limits of two terms for a President.
As is your usual manner, you didn’t allow me to finish my thought process and
listen to my point of view. Once I broached the subject you sat up and said
that the US had no term limits in the past but that it had been introduced in
the 1940s after the death of President Roosevelt, which is true.
I wanted to say to you: when you copy something you
also copy the modifications based on the learning from the original; only a
fool starts from scratch and does not base his decisions on the learning of
others. In science, we use the modifications found by others long ago to the
most recent, as the basis of new findings; not going back to discover and learn
what others have learnt. Human knowledge and development and civilization will
not have progressed if each new generation and society did not build on the
knowledge of others before them.
The American constitution itself is based on
several theories and philosophies of governance available in the 18th century.
Democracy itself is a governance method started by the ancient Greeks.
America’s founding fathers used it with modifications based on what hadn’t
worked well for the ancient Greeks and on new theories since then.
“As usual in our conversations, I kept quiet
because I know you well. You weren’t going to change your mind based on
my intervention as you had already made up your mind on the persuasion of the
minions working for you who were ripping the country blind. When I spoke to
you, your outward attitude to the people of the country was that you were not
interested in the third term and that it was others pushing it. Your statement to
me that day proved to me that you were the brain behind the third term debacle.
It is therefore outrageous that you accuse the current President of a similar
two-facedness that you yourself used against the people of the country.
“I was on a plane trip between Abuja and Lagos
around the time of the third term issue and I sat next to one of your
sycophants on the plane. He told me: “Only Obasanjo can rule
Nigeria”. I replied: “God has not created a country where only one person
can rule. If only one person can rule Nigeria then the whole Nigeria project is
not a viable one, as it will be a non-sustainable project”
“I don’t know how you came about Yar’Adua as the
candidate for your party as it was not my priority or job. Unlike you, I focus
on the issues I have been given responsibility over and not on the jobs of
others. It was the day of the PDP Presidential Campaign in Abeokuta during the
state-by-state tour of 2007 that Yar’Adua got sick and had to be flown abroad.
The MKO Abiola Stadium was already filled with people by 9am when I drove by
(and) we had told people based on the campaign schedule that the rally would
start at noon.
At 11 am I headed for the stadium on foot; it was a
short walk as there were so many cars already parked in and out. As I walked on
with two other people, we saw crowds of people leaving the stadium. I
recognized some of them as politicians and I asked them why people were
leaving. They said the Presidential candidate had died. I was alarmed and
shocked. I walked back home and received a call from a friend in Lagos who said
the same and added that he had died in the plane carrying him abroad for
treatment and that the plane was on its way to Katsina to bury him.
I called you, and told you the information and that
the stadium was already half-empty. You told me to go to the stadium and tell
the people on the podium to announce that the Presidential candidate had taken
ill that morning but the rest of the team, including you and the
Vice-Presidential candidate would arrive shortly. I did as I was told,
but even the people on the podium at first didn’t make the announcement because
they thought it was true that Yar’Adua had died. I had to take the microphone
and make the announcement myself. It did little good. People kept trooping out
of the stadium. Your team didn’t arrive until 4pm and by this time we had just
a sprinkling of people left.
That evening after the disaster of a rally, you
said you had insisted that the Presidential candidate fly to Germany for a
check-up although you said he only had a cold. I asked why would anyone fly to
Germany to treat a cold? And you said “I would rather die than have the
man die at this time.” I thought of this profound statement as things
later unfolded against me. Then I thought it a stupid statement but as
usual I kept quiet, little did I know how your machinations for a person would
be used against me. When Yar’Adua eventually died, you stayed alive, I
would have expected you to jump into his grave.
I left Nigeria in 1989 right after youth service to
study in the US and I visited in 1994 for a week and didn’t visit again until
your inauguration in 1999. In between, you had been arrested by Abacha and
jailed. We, your children, had no one who stood with us. Stella famously went
around collecting money on your behalf but we had no one. We survived. I
was the only one of the children working then as a post-doctoral fellow when I
got the call from a friend informing me of your arrest.
A week before your arrest, you had called me from
Denmark and I had told you that you should be careful that the government was
very offended by some of your statements and actions and may be planning to
arrest or kill you as was occurring to many at the time. The source of my
information was my mother who, agitated, had called me, saying I should warn
you as this was the rumour in the country. As usual you brushed aside my
comments, shouting on the phone that they cannot try anything and you will do
and say as you please. The consequence of your bravado is history.
We, your family, have borne the brunt of your
direct cruelty and also suffered the consequences of your stupidity but got
none of the benefits of your successes. Of course, anyone around you knows how
little respect you have for your children.
You think our existence on earth is about you. By
the way, how many are we? 19, 20, 21? Do you even know? In the last five
years, how many of these children have you spoken to? How many grandchildren do
you have and when did you last see each of them? As President you would listen
to advice of people that never finished high school who would say anything to
keep having access to you so as to make money over your children who loved you
and genuinely wished you well.
“At your first inauguration in 1999, I and my brothers
and sisters told you we were coming from the US. As is usual with you, you made
no arrangements for our trip, instead our mom organized to meet each of us and
provided accommodation. At the actual swearing-in at Eagle Square, the others
decided to watch it on TV. Instead I went to the square and I was pushed and
tossed by the crowd.
I managed to get in front of the crowd where I
waved and shouted at you as you and General Abdulsalam Abubakar walked
past to go back to the VIP seating area. I saw you mouth ‘my daughter’ to
General Abdullahi who was the one who pulled me out of the crowd and gave me a
seat. As I looked around I saw Stella and Stella’s family prominently seated
but none of your children. I am sure General Abdullahi would remember this
incident and I am eternally grateful to him.
Iyabo writes calling him a liar, manipulator, hypocrite:
Getting back to my mother, I still remember your
beating her up continually when we were kids. What kids can forget that kind of
violence against their mother? Your maltreatment of women is
legendary. Many of your women have come out to denounce you in public but
since your madness is also part of the madness of the society, it is the women
that are usually ignored and mistreated. Of course, you are the great
pretender, making people believe you have a good family life and a good
relationship with your children but once in a while your pretence gets cracked.
When Gbenga gave a ride to help someone he didn’t
know but saw was in need and the person betrayed his trust by tapping his
candid response on the issues going on between you and your then
vice-president, Atiku Abubakar, you had your aides go on air and denounce the
boy before you even spoke to him to find out what happened. What kind of
father does that? Your atrocities to some of my other siblings I will let them
tell in their own due time or never if they choose.
Some
of the details of our life are public but the people choose to ignore it and
pretended we enjoyed some largesse when you were President.
Source:
Vanguardngr.com
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