Farotimi, Nwaokobia react to Obasanjo’s endorsement of Obi

When former president Olusegun Obasanjo gave up his seat for Labour Party presidential candidate, Mr Peter Obi, at an event last October, declaring, “My job is done”, most Nigerians read the handwriting on the wall. And speculations kept growing wide about who might be his preferred presidential candidate in next month’s general elections, until on new year day.

Fact is that Chief Obasanjo’s formal endorsement of Obi in an open letter to young Nigerians on Sunday January 1st, 2023, though has been the talk of town, didn’t come as a surprise to many. As expected, the ex-president’s announcement of his choice presidential candidate, has elicited so much debates and as well, left the camps of Peter Obi’s opponents who are not favoured by the endorsement, in open vituperation. As for Gen Obasanjo’s choice, the Labour Party is grateful for what it regarded as best new year gift ever.

The former president raised quite a number of crucial issues in the letter, but the place that catches the fancy of many, is where Obi’s endorsement was mentioned.

“None of the contestants is a saint but when one compares their character, antecedent, their understanding, knowledge, discipline and vitality that they can bring to bear and the great efforts required to stay focused on the job particularly looking at where the country is today and with the experience on the job that I personally had, Peter Obi as a mentee has an edge. Others like all of us have what they can contribute to the new dispensation to liberation, restoration and salvaging of Nigeria collectively.

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“One other important point to make about Peter is that he is a needle with thread attached to it from North and South and he may not get lost. In other words, he has people who can pull his ears, if and when necessary. Needless to say, that he has a young and able running mate with clean track record of achievement both in public and private life,” he wrote.

While commenting on the value of Obasanjo’s endorsement, legal practitioner and human rights activist, Dele Farotimi, was full of commendation for him but first, noted that, “I had on several occasions, quarreled with the person of Gen Obasanjo. And whether I like it or not and whether anyone else likes it or not, he is a three-time president of this country; how he performed or did not perform is subject of history.

“I would say that for the first time in my life; note that Gen Obasanjo has occupied the bulk of my life time, so for the first time in my life, I agree with him. And I believe that he has taken a decision rooted in reason that cannot be faulted.

“Yes, written copiously as he has written in the past, but for the first time, I agree with him. And for the first time as well, he took responsibility for the things he himself might have done wrong”. Farotimi further noted that “Gen Obasanjo has one vote but he has considerable influence within and outside Nigeria and people listen to him, that is the weight of his words and he spoke those words in favour of Mr Gregory Peter Obi and endorsed him for the onerous task ahead”, adding that “I have been saying it that Nigeria has been destroyed, it has to be rebuilt. You have to imagine it and convince the people of the need to do so. So, believe it when you hear a man like Gen Obasanjo who has had his time and has admitted to past failings, coming up to say this is the person I’m endorsing”.

Social media users who are angry with those against the endorsement have begun since January 1st, to flood the internet with photos of President Buhari with the APC presidential standard bearer, Bola Tinubu and their entourage when they visited Gen Obasanjo to solicit for his endorsement of Buhari in 2015. They believe that if Obasanjo had endorsed their own candidate, the ex-president’s electoral value would have been announced to the ends of the world. Also they opine that if that visit paid off for Buhari in 2015, nothing says the ex-president’s endorsement of Obi wouldn’t this time.

Dele Farotimi who was on Arise TV show during the week, says more in this regard. According to him, “If Gen Obasanjo’s endorsement is as worthless as they would have you believe, with the bitter grapes they’ve been spitting since, why did they go all the way to Ota and Abeokuta with their entourage? I was looking at the video of Emilokan almost prostrating for Obasanjo in his house. Nigerians know better. Gen Obasanjo is one person but he is an important person in the country, he has had his say and the people will still have their way. I pray that Nigerians will be sufficiently awakened to the need for drastic changes that this country demands. Gen Obasanjo has rightly said his mind and I completely agree with him for the very first time in my life”.

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For the convener of County First Movement, Chris Nwaokobia who was on same programme with Farotimi, “What is important is the merits of that letter. He did talk about the need for us to reinvent Nigeria, the need for us to re-fix, reshape and rework Nigeria for our collective goals and I think that’s what is fundamentally important here.

“With respect to what my brother and friend Dele has said, the reason he considers this as one of the most patriotic efforts is because largely, every paragraph of Obasanjo’s letter speaks to the issues of where we are as a nation and what must be done to fix our country”.

Nwaokobia agrees with Fasoranti that Obasanjo’s endorsement of Obi is commendable.”Is the endorsement laudable? yes it is. Remember that few months ago, the APC delegation with cap in hands, hands akimbo if you like, was begging for the support of former president Olusegun Obasanjo; from Ota farms, to Abeokuta. In one of the optics that we saw, the former president was leading the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress by the hand like a school boy. Now, because they are losers… remember it happened with the Afenifere; there was nothing they didn’t do to polarise and mess up Afenifere but it didn’t work because the Elder Statesman stood to their guns, saying that never has Nigeria been polarized. Nigeria is even worse off than it was during the Civil War in terms of our unity as a nation”.

While maintaining that the value of Obasanjo’s endorsement is monumental, Nwaokobia stated that Gen Obasanjo “has been at the core of our politics and politricks”. He recalled that the former president’s public endorsement of a candidate was when he openly endorsed and campaigned for Muhammadu Buhari in 2014/2015. “In 2019, he wrote a letter, about 13 pages regarding the lacklustre watch of Muhammadu Buhari. I think to most people, that was an endorsement of Atiku Abubakar. But what is important here is that he has mobilized the class of former heads of states.”For those who are apprehensive or worried, Obasanjo is over 84 years; it comes to a point where you want to leave a legacy if that’s your last moment, to do what is right and he is saying simply that the time to take back our country is now. He has spoken clear truth to power and he is writing to the youth, challenging them to take back their country; for the time is now. It shouldn’t be Emilokan, it shouldn’t be about entitlement, it is about us. And I think that that letter passes as one of the most patriotic letters ever written by president Olusegun Obasanjo,” he intoned.

Reacting to other political parties which have dismissed the endorsement, declaring that it’s no guarantee that Peter Obi will win the presidential election, Farotimi said that it’s unfortunate that many people have reduced the important issues raised in the detailed letter to just two paragraphs containing the endorsement.

His words, “The importance of the letter I believe is that it gives a short history of the feelings and failure of the state and then offers hope for perhaps a rejuvenation of that same country. I would prefer we look at it as a call to action, than an endorsement. There is a class called the owners of Nigeria and there are Nigerians. Generally, these are the people who would evaluate the value of the words spoken by Gen Obasanjo; has he outlined the truth of our circumstances, if he has, has he made the right call even in the endorsement of Mr Peter Obi. These are value judgements to be made by the people of Nigeria.

“The summary given by Gen Obasanjo is an admission of generational failure. Even in the face of that feeling, there is the recognition of the fact that it belongs to the youth and it is up to us. So, the man is not suggesting that by his endorsement he has somehow acquired the capacity to decree into existence, a president in Aso Rock.”

He however noted that if people had refused to listen to Gen Obasanjo in the past, “it is demonstrative of the fact that the people thought better at that time; pain is a concentrating agent. We have had seven and half years of being buffeted and afflicted by the current government.

“The value of Obasanjo’s endorsement will be determined at the poll. I have no crystal ball but it might very well be that just as his words had resonated in me who had rebelled against his existence all my life, I’m sure it will resonate in a lot of Nigerians as well because he spoke the truth; the truth, you can’t argue with, that’s why nobody has argued with what he has said. All they have argued is the value of endorsement. Has he lied about a recap of history? they should talk to that…we thank him for his endorsement but we thank him more for the truth that he spoke”.