Aremu and Peter Obi

When we see an old woman stop in her dance to point again and again in the same direction, we can be sure that somewhere there something happened long ago which touched the roots of her life – Chinua Achebe

Olusegun Aremu Obasanjo will go to his grave in peace. His sins are forgiven for now. He still will not make Heaven. But he will get a sip of water when he gets to Hell.

I have never been a fan of this dotard. I believe his unpardonable sins are the things he did not do as President of Nigeria. He had the golden opportunity to take us to Paradise. But he decided to keep us in purgatory. That is the reason why he will not make Heaven. The millions of lives lost to the millions of money he squandered, the sole reason why.

But at the young age of 85, Baba Iyabo became a man. He grew up and he is finally talking like an elder. The Yoruba proverb says that an elder should not sit in the market and allow the baby’s head on the back of his mother dangle dangerously.

The Owu god had offers from his tribesman Asiwaju Bola Tinubu for an endorsement. He turned it down. This time he deliberately shunned his former vice, Atiku Abukakar. He rose above tribal sentiment and personal relationship. He wants Nigerians to consider Peter Obi as the next President of Nigeria.

“The last seven-and-a-half years have no doubt been eventful and stressful years for many Nigerians. We have moved from frying pan to fire and from the mountain top to the valley. Our leaders have done their best but their best had turned out to be not the best for Nigeria and Nigerians at home and abroad. For most Nigerians, it was hell on earth”.

Obasanjo should know better. He is telling us that the way forward is to throw the baby and the dirty birth water away. Overhaul a system that has jailed nobody for looting with impunity a country with so much potential. Shame and guilt no longer regulate our behavior. Infamy is celebrated and pariahs are the champions of the people. We elevate shamelessness. Knowing he too will be subsume in the discussion, he is telling us how important this election will be for us as a country to move away. Start with Obi. He wants us to give a critical thought to the terrible consequences of four more years of the All Progressives Congress. Or the return of the disastrous Peoples Democratic Party. Like the Jagaban rightly put it, we do not want to continue the APPDP years. This discourse is what OBJ wants us all to have.

The pity is that the attention will be on killing the messenger; not the adequate attention that should be given to his message. We must not vote in people that we know will plunder. Our politicians have become high class criminals and partners in crime. They collude with the single ideology to make the rich richer and the poor to eat from the dustbin. We, the one percent inhibit a different world. Stolen loot like the Abacha loot do not build schools. They have not been used to build good public hospitals all over the country. Our moral fibre is rotten. Our mindset needs to change.

OBJ has spoken. Let the castigations begin as usual. But we should be reminded of the Yoruba proverb: the words of the elder. If it does not come to pass in the morning. It may take like forever. It will eventually come to pass.