Our attention has been drawn to the content of the speech delivered by Ogun State Governor, Prince Dapo Abiodun, when he led some prominent indigenes of the state on a thank you visit to President Muhammadu Buhari at the Aso Rock Villa, in Abuja on Tuesday.
According to the speech, the visit was to thank the President for conferring the highest honour of the Grand Commander of the Federal Republic (GCFR) on the late winner of the annulled June 12, 1993 presidential election, Chief MKO Abiola, a son of Ogun State.
Although we have no issue with the governor visiting the President with some distinguished and not so distinguished sons of Ogun State, intelligent watchers know that such a visit, at this point in time, was just a jamboree to waste state resources as well as Presidential time that ordinarily could have been devoted to other pressing national issues.
Aside from this hypocritical treatment of a settled national issue, a perusal of the speech Governor Abiodun delivered on the occasion revealed a serious error of omission with regard to the individuals and personalities from our dear state of Ogun, who have made immense contributions to the building and well-being of the country, as well as the continued corporate existence of the Nigerian nation.
It baffles us to note that a governor, who is still standing on one leg, could, even before finding his feet, allow his handlers to make him seem like an unserious child that cannot even remember the name of his father. Or how else can one explain the omission of the name of our father, former President Olusegun Obasanjo, from the list of Ogun State indigenes, who have made and have continued to make invaluable contributions and sacrifice for the Nigerian nation, by a man who says he is fit to lead a state as great as Ogun.
One cannot forget in a hurry that Obasanjo himself went to jail and even escaped death by a hair’s breadth in the hands of the goons of the late head of state, General Sani Abacha, over his attempt to find a way for the nation out of the logjam that resulted from the annulment of the June 12, 1993 presidential election. He still bears the scars of the inhuman treatment he was subjected to while in prison.
His deputy, when he was military head of state, General Shehu Musa Yar’Adua, did not survive the horrible prison experience both of them, along with some other Nigerians fighting for the de-annulment of the June 12 election, were subjected to. This is not to talk of his crucial role in ending the Nigerian civil war, and the fact that he still carries the tell-tale scars of the pogrom, having fought actively during the war. How then would anyone, who is not acting in bad taste to massage the egos of some benefactors, choose to side step the most eminent son of Africa, living. This, definitely, is the Governor’s first needless major goof.
We submit that this unwarranted omission was deliberate and would do our dear Ogun State, and the country at large, no good. As citizens of Ogun State, we reiterate that for anyone, especially in the mould of the governor to choose, on such an occasion, to discount or discountenance Obasanjo’s invaluable contributions to nation-building is, to say the least, to do a great disservice to the country itself, the current and future generations.
We, therefore, won’t just stand aloof while those who should know better attempt to rewrite or falsify Nigeria’s contemporary history because of pointless politics. Those who decided to be sycophantic in the presence of President Buhari last Tuesday at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, over an issue they should have been dispassionate and unbiased about, should have known that the President, who has always acknowledged Obasanjo as his boss, would be discerning enough to see, through their antics, that they are confirmed hypocrites that will do the same to him when the table turns. We are sure that posterity and history would not forgive them for this travesty of justice.
The incontrovertible fact, however, remains that Obasanjo is a statesman and an eminent international figure, whose image would remain larger than life in the arena of global politics, regardless of whatever negative picture of his anyone tries to paint locally, now and forever.
His prominent place in the history of the Nigerian nation, the struggle for freedom and peace in Africa cannot be denied or extirpated by anyone, no matter how hard they try.
He remains a living legend.
Olusegun Showunmi
On behalf of Ogun Concerned Progressives
