Obasanjo & daughter, Iyabo |
In what is turning out to be a season of open letters, 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.
Senator
Iyabo Obasanjo in a letter to her father accused him of having an egoistic
craving for power and living a life where only men of low esteem and intellect
thrive.
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.
Iyabo,
first child of the former president, started the letter titled, Open Letter to my Father with a 4th
century Chinese proverb by Mencius which states: “The great man is he who does
not lose his child’s heart.”
Her
letter:
“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.
A snake will always give birth to something with a long tail
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