7th June, 2010
When an old man consciously burst into tears in the rain, his tears are naturally covered by the droplets of the rain.
But when he does so on a sunny day his tears would no doubt draw questions as to what might have forced an old man who had passed through diverse experiences to burst into such tears.
The above scenario aptly summarises the continuous outburst of Chief Mathew Aremu Obasanjo as far as the tragic consequences of PDPâ€
Baba Iyabo has no doubt been under the hypertensive pressure of his fraudulent, eccentric and “flawed†elections, apologies to the late President Umaru Yarâ€
If a wife could describe her new husband as a eunuch, what else is there to say? And precisely what else is there to say about the last election after the major beneficiary, the late Yarâ€
If it were to be in advanced democracies, the most honorable thing for Yarâ€
The Oracle and shameless midwife of do or die politics, whose every pronouncement is a ridicule on our national and political psyche at the usual cash and carry PDP rally in Akure continued in his usual unguarded vituperations and jackal lamentation and shamelessly told his confused crowd that he was surprised to see the emergence of Dr. Olusegun Mimiko as a governor.
Obasanjo could be so surprised because throughout his eight years of Presidential pestilence during which he ruled without regard for the rule of law and respect for the constitution of the land, he left no one in doubt that he was a lawless president and that every other structure within the polity could go to hell.
If in doubt take a retrospective look at his naked disregard for the Supreme Court judgment on the seized Lagos Local Government funds and a host of other court rulings that were flagrantly disregarded by Obasanjo and his band of lawless cabinet members and political cats. Comparatively, Obasanjoâ€
That Obasanjo could express surprise at Mimiko emerging governor, should not come as a surprise to followers of events under Obasanjoâ€
Having pursued Mimiko out of the PDP, the man sought umbrage under the Labour Party and laboured hard to win the governorship only for him to be denied his victory, no thanks to Obasanjoâ€
If he is surprised at Mimikoâ€
Were those tribunal decisions not indictments of the way and manner elections were conducted under Baba Iyaboâ€
Was it also not an indictment of his administration that three years into the succeeding administrationâ€
It is sad, it is disgusting, it is nauseating and an embarrassing insult on the sensibilities of the citizens and residents of the South-West that a man who could not fix their roads, hospitals, schools, give them uninterrupted power supply and raise their standard of living in eight years could still be nursing the ambition of still “Capturing†their votes in the 2011 elections.
It is an open secret that Obasanjo left our roads in 2007 worse off than he met them in 1999, not to talk of electricity. The man inherited over 4,000megawatts in 1999 and left a little over 1,000megawatts in 2007 after spending almost a trillion naira on imaginary power stations, no thanks to the House of Representatives Panel on Power where the details of the scandalous contracts on power under the Obasanjo adminisatratrion were revealed.
Today, the Lagos–Ibadan expressway is a clear testimony to the prodigal profligacy of Obasanjoâ€
Sadly enough, Obasanjo could also not fix the road leading from the Lagos Airport road to his Ota Farm. Today, the people of Ota regularly rain curses on him because of the harrowing experience they endlessly pass through on the abandoned road project.
As a repressive and retrogressive president, Obasanjo frustrated the power project of the visionary and people oriented initiative of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubuâ€
The award of contracts for such abandoned Independent Power Project Contracts only succeeded in throwing up a new generation of private Jet owners and a scandalous set of nouveau riche while at the same time bequeathing total darkness to the Nigerian people.
What in deed can Obasanjo point to as his achievement that would sway Nigerians especially from Western Nigeria to the side of his crises ridden PDP? But does the party rely on the votes of the Nigerian people? They donâ€
Did the PDP Federal Government not promise Nigerians 6000 megawatts by December 2009? What we got instead was a constant call for national prayers for the “speedy†recovery of the nationâ€s ailing President. Nigerians almost sustained knee bruises in their almost endless hours of remaining on their knees in prayers.
Yes, Nigerians continued to pray while at the same time continuing to suffer in perennial darkness and thousands continued to die needless deaths on our roads while the federal governmentâ€
The PDP continues to rule us with a legless seven point agenda. Three years into its rudderless administration it cannot point to one of the seven point agenda it has successfully prosecuted. Yet the partyâ€
While some Nigerians may say that those who left the elephantiasis ridden PDP are returning to the party, there are questions begging to be answered. Which faction of the PDP are they returning to? Is it to the Reform Forum or to the at crossroads group?
Most importantly is this question: Are the factors that led to their exit in the first instance out of the way? The answer is not far fetched since the self imposed Chairman of its Board of Trustees, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo whose actions led to their running away from the proverbial moving train, is still very much around and waxing stronger. Apart from his being the B.O.T. Chairman of the of the PDP, the man is also the compass behind the Jonathan administration.
If so, how are the returnees sure that they would get the desired rehabilitation? And would they not run out again the way they ran back into the party? As they return to the party, they should always remember that this Tiger called Obasanjo that chased them out of the party in the first instance is still very much around.
A party that cannot guarantee security of life and property in the country and yet continues to ask the people to embrace its leaking umbrella needs to be re-examined. Is it the over 1000 lives that had been lost to civil strife in Jos or the endless crisis in Ota inspired by Obasanjoâ€
•Odufuwa wrote in from Lagos.