Osoba As Obasanjo’s Haunting Shadow

By Mobolaji Sanusi

“Every man carries with him through life a mirror, as unique and impossible to get rid of as his shadow.”
— W.H. Auden (1907-1973), The Dyer’s Hand and Other Essays

Out of the blue, from beneath his armour of mischief, Olusegun Obasanjo, the nation’s former leader and living letter-writing legend, recently fired an unprovoked, belated missive. The recipient of his misguided salvo, this time around, is Akinrogun Olusegun Osoba, former governor of Ogun State. The crux of his missive is an aspect of Osoba’s book, “BATTLELINES, Adventures in Journalism and Politics,” published in 2018.

Osoba, a reflective statesman, realising that Obasanjo is being haunted by what Gillian Flynn describes as the haunting consequences of “living in the shadow of a shadow,” has maintained a dignified, statesmanly equanimity. After all, his reportorial description of Obasanjo’s misdeeds in his book is guided by the legal maxim res ipsa loquitur. By this, the Akinrogun of Egbaland is leaving the public to judge the needless rants of a man with the uncommon grace of national service as the first Nigerian military and civilian ruler at different times in our history. This is the grace of God indeed, as no one can question the Almighty for blessing a man who erroneously sees himself as the best in all things. In Obasanjo’s utopia, dissenting views are not condoned.

Obasanjo lives a life of delusions of grandeur, unchallenged, even when old age is quickly revealing to him that the verdict of history, and not his whims and caprices, takes precedence over the public’s cumulative assessment of his character. Now in the twilight of his life, Obasanjo’s shadow is haunting him so harshly that he stops at nothing to rewrite his many misdeeds as a ruler. His unprovoked battle for documented self-correction with Osoba is meant to serve this goal.

Yet, the more he attempts damage control over the several anomalies that dotted his opportunistic existence, the more his misdeeds become exposed for all to see. Rather than remain silent over what he believes is Osoba’s misjudgment of his image in the book, his unwarranted epistle further exposed him as the most hypocritical leader that has ever ruled this country. Obasanjo is the antithesis of everything he ever espoused. He remains, by an undeserved divine benevolence, a revered living leader of the black man’s continent. His life affirms the Yoruba saying: Eni ti Oluwa Oba fe, ni ngbe ola fun. Obasanjo’s life trajectory correctly fits this Yoruba narrative.

The life of the Balogun of Owu-Abeokuta reminds one of the Yoruba refrain of the “Keni ma ni” spirit. He evidently displayed his embodiment of this spirit against President Bola Tinubu, GCFR, when he was aspiring to contest for the presidency in 2023. He did not want another Yoruba man to become president in his lifetime. But he failed. His envious machinations against Chief Obafemi Awolowo denied the late sage the coveted presidential seat. He was also against MKO Abiola’s most cherished election as president on June 12, 1993. Yet, he rode on Abiola’s Yoruba ethnic crest and the annulled election to become a civilian president. Yet, he continues to deny the Abiola/tribal element in his 1999 presidential mandate.

As a civilian president, he unabashedly weakened democratic values in his bid to become the nation’s political colossus. Through Maurice Iwu, the then INEC chairman, the presidency under Obasanjo declared the most controversial and unbelievable election results under the current democratic dispensation. No wonder the late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, a recipient of his electoral rigmarole, publicly confessed that the election through which Obasanjo made him president was flawed. Prior to that election, Obasanjo’s Third Term Agenda was in full swing, even though he is currently doing everything to extricate himself from that tyrannically unconstitutional agenda. This is unfortunately the leadership hypocrite in Obasanjo that some people erroneously celebrate as a model today.

Obasanjo spoke against corruption at different fora, but his tenure elongation agenda witnessed the alleged doling out of money to lawmakers of that era as reported by the media before the flame of the Third Term Agenda was extinguished. Yet, his sustained denial of the Third Term Agenda continues to attract more public scorn.

Even the credibility, governance ethics/probity and sanctity of how his presidential library came into being have been pooh-poohed by some living former governors who served during that time, including Orji Uzor Kalu of Abia and Ayodele Fayose of Ekiti. To date, his presidential library fundraising ceremony still reeks of perceived outright extortion of public officials who toed the line just to avoid the petty sting of a repressive president in Obasanjo.

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo, in that letter to Osoba dated July 23, 2026, and titled “Reply to your inaccurate posture: How Obasanjo deceived us in 2003,” took serious exception to Osoba’s accusing him in his eight-year-old book of deceiving the Alliance for Democracy (AD) governors except Tinubu in 2003.

Obasanjo takes “serious objection” to Osoba calling him “a deceit” because, according to him, he “deceived nobody.” He also described former Governor Osoba as “too little in Afenifere affairs” at the time to comprehend the “issues” he “pointed out” in his book, saying that they were “above” his head. This, according to him, is because they “were handled by Osoba’s elders in the Alliance for Democracy (AD) party and Afenifere.” Apart from the fact that the age difference between the duo is not so much, it smacks of uncouth arrogance for a general in the military to talk down to a journalism generalissimo of Osoba’s stature. If Osoba had served in the military, he would have retired a general as well.

Obasanjo regaled us with distorted versions of events regarding how his presidential aspiration began. His palpable self-glorification, lies and avaricious desire to take others’ credit were noticeable for all to see. He mentioned group leaders, including Lawan Kaita, Chief S.M. Awoniyi, Jubril Martins-Kuye and others who met and persuaded him to vie for the presidency. What he failed to tell the reading public is that but for the death of Abiola, who was Yoruba and, more than Obasanjo, a truly pan-Nigerian patriot in every sense of the word, the issue of his presidential aspiration in 1999 would not have arisen.

More importantly, he clinched the presidency not on merit but because of his Yoruba ancestry and because he was largely perceived as a northern feudal stooge. What Obasanjo does not have the courage to divulge is that the day retired Generals Ibrahim Babangida and Aliyu Gusau visited him in his Ita-Eko, Abeokuta residence in 1999 was the day his presidential aspiration was signed, sealed and delivered. Babangida at the time was considered a persona non grata in the Southwest because of his satanic annulment of the June 12, 1993 presidential election that was resoundingly won by Abiola with a genuine pan-Nigerian mandate.

So, to these two powerful men of power (Babangida and Aliyu Gusau) and other northern men of clout, Obasanjo is the only Yoruba man ‘trusted’ enough to protect their “interests.” So, Obasanjo’s self-proclamation of moving around to broaden his tentacles beyond the groups that met him was beyond his political capacity and an overestimation of his political importance. His boast that Osoba never knew he had “these approaches, contacts or invitations” was sheer self-glorification by a then broke man who voluntarily confessed in his letter that his concern at the time was how to raise money for his children’s school fees. The northern powerful figures behind Obasanjo’s presidential idea were Osoba’s close buddies as well since his active days in journalism.

And contrary to Obasanjo’s untrue claims that he took interest in studying the evolution of the political parties of that epoch, he was actually directed by his military promoters who were behind his presidential aspiration to join their newly formed Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). Thus, Obasanjo did not say the truth when he stated that PDP attracted his “attention and interest.” This is a lie carried too far.

Furthermore, how can Obasanjo think anyone will believe his view that in politics, there should be “no personal bitterness or acrimony”? An empirical review of his political profile reveals that he promoted politics of “do or die” in Lagos and other parts of the country. His touted visits to Vice-President Alex Ekwueme and Chief Abraham Adesanya in the letter were just in tandem with Obasanjo’s long-known philosophy of drawing his enemies closer before unleashing his trademark offensive against them.

His reference to President Jimmy Carter’s visit to Nigeria in 1999 lacks substance since that year’s presidential election winner in Obasanjo had been predetermined by his military promoters. The election, when it held, was a mere showpiece. Again, his reference to his encounter with Bola Ige regarding a fence-mending mission he confessed was spurned by the Cicero of Esa-Oke remains an effort in futile self-glorification.

The vainglorious Obasanjo also regaled us with how “PDP won 21 state governorships in other parts of the country excluding Yorubaland,” enunciating that he had “almost 63 percent of the votes” while “not many votes” came from Yorubaland. Isn’t this shameful, coming from a beneficiary of an arranged presidency by the military, his primary constituency? Obasanjo should note that no reasonable Nigerian ever regards the election that brought him to power as credible. The reality is that Obasanjo has no political base or goodwill of even his Owu-Abeokuta community, which manifested when they voted against him in his Ita-Eko/Sokori ward and the polling booth where he voted. Based on this premise, his spurious boasts of scoring an “allotted” “63 percent” of votes cast in the 1999 presidential election remain forever laughable.

Obasanjo’s unsolicited attempt at bringing PDP and AD together to form a sort of national government was his decoy to dislodge the progressives and foist a one-party state agenda on the country. It wasn’t any altruistic love for the unity and progress of the country. How can Obasanjo’s arbitrarily jettisoning the wishes of the Southwest electorate for PDP dominance be altruistic?

To date, Obasanjo, the self-professed ‘democrat’, is yet to explain the 615,873-vote differential between his 1,360,170 votes and Gbenga Daniel’s 449,335 votes scored during the presidential and gubernatorial elections that were held simultaneously in Ogun State in 2003.
The Court of Appeal not only queried the “indefensible yawning gap” of votes cast but the learned Justice Niki Tobi’s lead judgment sums up the ‘integrity’ of one of the state elections with which Obasanjo brought the Southwest to mainstream politics thus: “…all allegations in Ogun State were criminal in nature. They ranged from violence, fingerprinting, official intimidation, bias and falsification of results.” Obasanjo should tell the whole world how Senator Ibikunle Amosun, whom Ogun people believably voted for as governor in 2007, was denied his sweet victory simply because he as president wanted to retain Daniel as governor of the gateway state at any cost.

Obasanjo’s presidency goaded the creation of the Yoruba Council of Elders to neutralize the influence of Afenifere, which is why that group never sustained itself beyond the tenure of his deceitful government. From the experiences in Ogun State under Otunba Gbenga Daniel and Ondo under Olusegun Agagu, mainstream politics under Obasanjo’s presidency inflicted on the Southwest people the kind of political torture the region had never witnessed.

Obasanjo’s assertion of cultivating governors from his political party and other parties could not have been completely true. He was so draconian in approach that he preferred a master-servant relationship with governors of that era, and any of them that challenged him would have himself to blame because he would unleash the state’s instruments of coercion against such governors. Yours sincerely was informed by a credible source almost two decade ago of how, during a Council of State meeting presided over by Obasanjo, the then Bayelsa State governor, Diepreye Alamieyeseigha, rebuffed his attempt at talking down on governors.

From that moment, Obasanjo, the vindictive president, marked him, and we all know how DSP’s reign as governor abruptly ended. Further to this, his touted visits to Osoba at home in his letter were also not because he loved him but because he wanted to lure him into dropping his guard, and this he achieved. Rather than campaign for himself in 2003, Osoba made the gaffe of campaigning for Obasanjo with the popular refrain: “Segun loke, Segun ni sale.” So, Obasanjo’s stating that “eniti ko kini kuule, o padanu e kaabo” is actually a distraction from the fact in issue of his pretentious personality.

On Na’Abba’s impeachment saga and the N5m bribery allegation against Atiku, Obasanjo would have done well to raise the issue while the former House of Representatives Speaker was alive. Whatever problem Obasanjo had with Atiku should be resolved between them. His “stooping to conquer” was how he cajoled Atiku and the PDP governors who were hell-bent on throwing him under the bus before the 2003 election party primaries.

All his empty boasts in his letter of having 21 PDP governors, 9 APP governors, an Executive Council, a National Assembly, and a virile political party would have come to naught if Atiku, Ibori, Kalu and others had gone ahead with their plans. But for the rethinking of these people, his taunt describing AD’s requests put before him as ridiculous and quite demeaning to him today would be needless.

Obasanjo’s appreciation of Osoba for giving him land to build the Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library (OOPL) and his residence on the Hilltop is comical. The doling out of such large, precious state resources to an individual could only have been justified on the grounds of public good. But it is apparent for all to see that the OOPL is currently serving personal rather than collective or public good.

Regrettably too, the OOPL itself is not renowned for any inspiring intellectual or developmental initiatives. The place is known more for its commercial hospitality and entertainment facilities, which is clearly a derogation of the primary purpose for which Nigerian public officials were reportedly compelled to ‘donate’ funds from across the country. No wonder its grounds have become a haven for lodging by fraudsters, as was busted by the nation’s financial crimes institution.

Obasanjo’s hypocritical stand in all spheres of human endeavour has caused more harm to his brand than he can ever imagine. One can respectfully ask him to take a cue from the Yoruba refrain: “Ti eyan ba ti da agba, o ma nye ogun ja ni…” To the Balogun of Owu-Abeokuta, the time for self-respect and restraint cannot be any other time but now. Please take things easy, henceforth, sir.

• Sanusi, former MD/CEO of Lagos State Signage & Advertisement Agency, is currently Managing Partner at AMS Reliable Solicitors. (WhatsApp Only – 07011117777