A Season Of Open Letters? This time last year, the political air waves of Nigeria was filled with different versions of Open Letter which was activated by former Head of State, President Olusegun Obasanjo, who in his 18 page controversial letter took President Goodluck Jonathan (GEJ) -his enstranged political son- to the cleaners as he attacked his personality, his administration, his physical and spiritual life in that letter. He described (and rightly so in my opinion) GEJ as a weak leader who has polarized this country across ethnic and religion divides as well as training snipers and assasins for the sole purpose of hunting down his percieved political foes. And when Baba as he is fondly referred to by many signed that letter, which went viral, to signify the end of his epistle, he set in motion the wheel of Open Letters in the tale end of last year. First it was OBJs daughter, Iyabo Obasanjo who got down into the muds with his father by denigrating his father in the open (as a mercenary Id like to concede as no reasonable child would under normal circumstance tonguelash his/her father like that), then the presidency and then Edwin Clark. It would be safe to say Baba got a dose of what he dished out in multiple portions. Since then, OBJ and GEJ have been at loggerheads as far as policies and decisions that concern this country is concerned, and who would blame them. Those two letters from either party dug up some very dirty pasts that they would rather they remain buried which changed the public perception of both men. With well over twelve months since the Open Letter fiasco, when the issues raised in those letters are still yet to be solved, when the players in those letters thought they have seen the last of the series of swipe-taking and political gimmicks involved in public accosting, we are now in another season of public rantings and vituperations. This time around, it is more that letter writing as that has been left for the Olevel students. It is a season of Memoir and Autobiographies. And as usual, the Balogun of Owu Kingdom, Olusegun Obasanjo Baba has dropped the first hit titled MY WATCH! This one makes light of the Open Letter he wrote last year as the three-volume book takes on many players in the polity of this nation, from the good to the bad and then to the ugly. Baba talked about who was sleeping with whos wife(ves) in the FCT when Nasir El-Rufai was Minister of Federal Capital Territory, tore his ernstwhile deputy, Atiku Abubakar (who he has never hidden his distate for anyway) to shreds, shot at former president, Late Yaradua from the grave and gave him his share of the spoils. This he did by sending his spokesman, Olusegun Adeniyi to his boss by criticizing Adeniyis book about his late boss. Mallam Ribadu was not spared either in this very controversial book. Controversial? Yes. Because the ogas at the top tried to stop the lunching cum sales of the book, perhaps they must have seen the manuscripts beforehand. They even got a judge of a Federal High Court in Abuja to confiscate the book only for them to learn that the book had already been in circulation for sales three months before the lunching proper. They learnt the wrong way that the lunching was just a mere formality. Perhaps they underrated the strength of Babas ability to continually out-think them in all situations. Anyway, the book is out and copies have been sold and bought (me neva buy sha so, if you see make u buy two, one for me one for yourself). It surely will set pens stooling as those who got mentioned for the wrong reasons will seek to absolve themselves of any wrong doing just like Segun Adeniyi has done already. I am sure Atiku Abubakar, Nuhu Ribadu, Babgana Kingibe, Goodluck Jonathan, Bola Ahmed Tinubu (who Baba described as the worst case), Ken Nnamani e.t.c. will follow suit by coming out to wash themselves off the dirts. What we cannot really say is whether the presidency in its ever efficient manner can hurriedly publish its own memoir as it did the Open Letter last year. And whether they would still be able to prevail on Babas daughter or wife or son (Gbenga, who once reportedly accused Baba of sleeping with his wife, gosh!) to come up with their own scathing memoir as well. Anyhow it plays out, the wheel has been set in motion and the players are already at work. Baba should service or change his reading spectacle and clean up his library as he prepares to read responses from all concerned. The issues raised should however be dealt with by all concerned and action (appropriate ones) should be taken without fear of favour when wrongs are spotted. The letter couldnt have come in a better moment than now when next years election is in view which was why the presidency pleaded that Baba should postpone it till after the election. But, Baba as we all know get agidi (is strong willed)!!! Welcome to the season of memoirs!!! HighBishop Gcon
Posted on: Sat, 13 Dec 2014 15:05:03 +0000
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