Ugochukwu Ejinkeonye, an influential commentator on public issues states reasons why he will not read former president Olusegun Obasanjo's book.
By Ugochukwu Ejinkeonye
I must congratulate myself for successfully avoiding virtually all of Gen Olusegun Obasanjo's usually ego-massaging and attention-craving books. I have NOT read, for instance, My Command, Not My Will, Nzeogwu, and his other little-known titles. But when his first wife, Mrs. Oluremi Obasanjo, published her book, Bitter-Sweet: My Life With Obasanjo, I went through a lot of stress to purchase a copy. I read and reviewed it. Obasanjo had been talking about other people and cutting them down with self-righteous zeal, so I wanted to hear what somebody who had intimately shared a greater part of his life had to say about him. Indeed, this is one book Obasanjo would not like to be in circulation. But most people who have read the book would readily recommend it as a background study to anyone interested in reading Obasanjo's books where he usually presents himself as one of the world's most righteous human beings and competent leaders. Like one reviewer said and I agree, in societies where the law is alive and active and treats everyone equally, "the allegations against Obasanjo [in that book], if proven in a court of law, would have earned him a long stay in jail."
Now, Obasanjo has published another book which he called My Watch and I seriously doubt that I would want to read it. There are several wonderful books lying in my study and begging for my attention, so I would consider it a waste of my time to read Obasanjo's new book, which judging from the snippets published in the media is nothing more than unappetizing potpourri of cassava-market gossips, careless hawking of vicious, libelous allegations, and further attempt at self-canonization. His aim, it appears, is to settle some scores, undermine President Jonathan's chances in the February 2016 elections and raise an ear-deafening controversy that would turn the book into an instant best-seller.
But sadly, things appeared to have turned out differently. Apart from Brigadier-General Godwin Alabi-Isama who has published a rebuttal of his portrayal in the book, I am not aware that any other notable personality mentioned in the book, like Wole Soyinka, Atiku Abubakar, Bola Tinubu etc., has given the slightest hint that he is aware that Obasanjo has just published a book where he said very unflattering things about him. Even Jonathan who is, reportedly, the worst hit in the book, has chosen to completely ignore Obasanjo and his book. And despite the former president's well-reported problem with an Abuja High Court whose order halting the publication and circulation of the book he scornfully ignored and went ahead to hold his very poorly attended book launch, majority of Nigerians have clearly turned their attention to more edifying matters. In fact, articles on the book which Obasanjo probably thought would have been the greatest bombshell this season, have already disappeared from the pages of newspapers, and, perhaps, also, the minds of Nigerians. I would suggest that he urgently acquires a large warehouse to dump the huge piles of unsold copies because "soft-sell" magazine addicts do not need a very costly book to know who is sleeping with whose wife. They readily get that from the cheap stuff abundantly available at the newsstands.
This book is, however, not without some history. In October 2004, when Nigeria was reportedly slipping into anarchy due to inept, morally bankrupt leadership, overwhelming corrupt politics and naked abuse of power inspired from the highest point of power, Professor Chinua Achebe wrote Obasanjo a very touching letter.
"I write this letter with a very heavy heart," Achebe said."For some time now I have watched events in Nigeria with alarm and dismay. I have watched particularly the chaos in my own state of Anambra where a small clique of renegades, openly boasting its connections in high places, seems determined to turn my homeland into a bankrupt and lawless fiefdom. I am appalled by the brazenness of this clique and the silence, if not connivance, of the Presidency... Nigeria's condition today under your watch is, however, too dangerous for silence." he lamented.
A decade after, Obasanjo has chosen to write "My Watch,"apparently to respond to Achebe's 2004 charge: "Nigeria's condition today under your watch is, however, too dangerous for silence."
I was a columnist and member of the Editorial Board for this newspaper throughout the duration of the Obasanjo regime and wrote several columns and editorials on the largely dismal performance of his regime. What I find difficult to comprehend is where Obasanjo derives the moral strength to harshly criticize the present administration, which, despite its failings and limitations, is, in the view of many people, far better than anything the Obasanjo regime could have aspired to become even if it got another eight years! Despite the unprecedented earnings that poured into Nigeria's purse from crude oil sales at that time, Obasanjo still worked hard to leave Nigeria far worse and poorer than he found it.
Most Nigerians will not read Obasanjo's book because he has chosen to ignore the issues they had expected him to address. Indeed, it is easy to say all that is wrong with the present government, but Nigerians would want Obasanjo to tell them how he did it better during his own time. Responding to the stinker written to him by his first daughter, Iyabo, Obasanjo, in this book alleged that Jonathan hired his daughter to attack him. Now assuming this was true, if he was able to manage his home well, why would anyone be able to hire his own daughter to write him such a very horrible and damaging open letter? Again, his own son, swore to affidavit accusing him of sleeping with his wife, why did he not address such a weighty allegation of incest in his new book? Now, a House of Reps probe revealed that about $16 billion dollars were spent on the power sector, yet Nigeria under his watch was plunged into more horrible darkness, when will Obasanjo address this? Why was his regime cluttered with several cases of unsolved high-profile assassinations? I think that by refusing to rush his book as he had hoped, Nigerians are sending one clear message to Obasanjo: Physician Heal Thyself!