BY SHOLA OSHUNKEYE
The chicken may have come home to roost for former President Olusegun Obasanjo, who incidentally is a chicken farmer.
The former president, who recently raised an alarm that his life was in danger, and that the Muhammadu Buhari Administration was plotting to frame him up for some crimes, may yet have the biggest embarrassment of his entire life.
That is if Nobel Laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka, makes good the promised he made Friday night, during the Gala Dinner and Award Ceremony of the International Press Institute (IPI) World Congress held at the Transcorp Hilton Hotel, Abuja.
During the question-and-answer session of his conversation with the IPI’s Vice President, Woosuk Kenneth Choi, the Nobel Laureate said ex-President Obasanjo had crossed the red line and he would release a booklet at the Freedom Park on July 3, exposing the ex-President’s alleged crimes.
The title of the book, revealed Soyinka, is Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? It means: Who watches the watchman?
“Finally,” Soyinka told the global gathering of top journalists, “I believe Obasanjo has really crossed the red line because, he is trying to put himself at the head of a recovery process. He is trying to hijack a recovery process in this nation. And I say he is one of the least worthy of former Heads of State to lead that kind of movement.”
To prove that he will walk the talk, the Nobel Laureate disclosed: “I have brought out a publication about that (Obasanjo’s alleged crimes). The title is in Latin but it means: Who watches the watchman? Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?
“That publication is coming out simply because I will like to see new blood in government in this nation. I think these corrupt, hypocritical geriatrics should stop recycling themselves. They should stop trying to co-opt their former cronies to take over the reins of government in this country. And I’m inviting (people) on July 3rd, (to) Freedom Park, Lagos, when this little pamphlet will be published in which, finally, we confront Obasanjo with crimes of the past which, incidentally, are not being newly articulated.
“But this nation forgets very, very fast. No sooner does one come out with one kind of bravura, kind of criticism, than everybody starts hailing the messiah. So, I say again, very often, that people are their own greatest enemies. Obasanjo is one of the greatest hypocritical leaders this nation has ever produced.”
Soyinka dropped the bombshell when a man, who identified himself as a public analyst, accused Soyinka of unrelenting attack on the late dictator, General Sani Abacha, even in death. The questioner had observed that Soyinka had never been hard on Obasanjo who, he said, reportedly “committed a lot of injustice” first, as military Head of State (1976 to 1979), and later as two-term President in the Fourth Republic (1999-2007), and was less than transparent in the elaborate Privatisation Programme he executed.
The questioner then fired a salvo at the world acclaimed Professor: “Why Abacha all the time?”
“If I heard you correctly,” Soyinka began calmly, (you said) “I had been very, very hard on Abacha, almost to the exclusion of the other Heads of State. Haaa! Be patient.
“Again, you said I have been a critic all my life. That is part of the problem I have with this country, and elsewhere. You do, you’re damned. You don’t, you’re damned. And I have undertaken all kinds of (initiatives) including the Road Safety Corps, my invention, which I collaborated with government, and which I consider absolutely essential.
“I have worked with other Heads of State on very quiet ventures which I have not publicised. I have had one-on-one with Heads of State over issues. I asked for a meeting with this Head of State (President Buhari) on behalf of MEND on the problem in the Delta. I had meetings also with former Head of State, (president) Yar’Adua, simply because there were certain proposals from MEND which I felt the government should hear about. I have made suggestions numerous times.
“But you see, in the case of this character, called (Abacha)…, oh sorry, he’s dead now, if a government says it is fighting corruption, as you said I don’t leave Abacha alone, it’s not true. If I’m walking through the street and I see a structure raised in honour of a torturer, a murderer, a thief, so recognised by the entire world that we are still tracing his loot, his loot is still surfacing all over the world, and then, I’m driving along the street and I see a structure in honour of that person, I have a responsibility to tell this President, you cannot be serious about corruption if you leave monument in honour of that leader of misrule. I have nothing personal against Abacha. We met only a couple of times.
“Now, as for Obasanjo, I have news for him. And it’s been a progressive thing. You will see me and Obasanjo, fisticuffs today, the following morning, you might see us embracing each other. Circumstances are always important. Even when he was in power, if you remember, numerous times I had criticised him in which virtually the papers were picking up nothing but the acetic exchange between the two of us.”
The Crest will run the full conversation that the IPI Vice President had with Soyinka shortly.
The Global conference ended with the election of new board members on Saturday.