It would appear that George Walker Bush, immediate past president of the United States, had General Olusegun Obasanjo in mind when he counseled against former presidents, running down their successors. But he did not. He only spoke as a statesman, who knows what it means to live above board.

Bush was quoted as saying: “I don’t think it is good for the country to have a former president undermine a current president. I think it is bad for the Presi­dency for that matter.” Bush noted further that if he wanted to generate publicity, he would either attack the Republican Party or attack the president, saying, however, he would not do either of these because “I’m perfectly content to be out of limelight”.

It is evident from the situation we have before us in Nigeria at moment that Bush’s prognosis is alien to Obasanjo, Nigeria’s former president, who has made a fetish of demonising President Goodluck Jonathan and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on whose platform he reigned as president of Nigeria for eight years. Unlike Bush who has allowed Barack Obama, his suc­cessor, to run the affairs of America to the best of his abilities, Obasanjo wants Jona­than to be his alter ego. He does not want Jonathan to be his own man and be judged according to his abilities. Obasanjo does not also think that the PDP should have a life of its own without his prescriptions and proscriptions.

Obasanjo’s anti-Jonathan exhibitions started as mere theatrics played to a recep­tive audience of a few, who were interested in presidential muscle-flexing. But it was soon to metamorphose into an out of stage concert enacted with the full accompani­ment of sound and fury. That is how best to package the criticism of President Good­luck Jonathan by Obasanjo. Until Obasanjo went public with what was supposed to be his personal letter to Jonathan, the Cold War between them was muted. They had a quiet resentment for each other. The issue, whatever it was, was hardly known to members of the public. In fact, it was even thought that the relationship between both men would never go sour because of the role Obasanjo played in the emergence of Jonathan as president. This impression was reinforced by the personality of President Jonathan. The president, from what we know of him, is good- spirited. He is not a trouble-monger. He has a spirit of accom­modation and level-headedness that men of power like him hardly exhibit. For this and related reasons, it was thought that there would never be cause for Jonathan and his benefactor to disagree, let alone engage in a bitter quarrel.

In spite of these impressions, the antago­nism between them continued to simmer. Many were unsure of the true state of affairs until Obasanjo resigned his chair­manship of the PDP Board of Trustees very unceremoniously. With that development, it became evident that all was not well between Obasanjo and President Jonathan. Yet, the real state of affairs remained hazy. Their points of departure remained a well guarded secret. It was partly so because Obasanjo was still, at that material time, trying to manage his relationship with the leadership of the PDP. He did not want to be seen to be work­ing against the party that made him president for eight uninterrupted years. So, he masked his misgivings against the president.

But matters were to come to a head at some point. The pretenses could no longer hold. Then in a fit of fury, Obasanjo wrote what he called an open letter to President Jonathan and made it available to the public. The press went wild with it. That was in December 2013.

In the letter, Obasanjo painted a very ugly picture of the state of the nation under Jonathan. He expressed worry that Nigeria, under Jonathan, was not working. He said that he was disappointed that Jonathan was planning to run for election in 2015 when he (Jonathan) had told him that he would leave office on May 29, 2015. He said further that Jonathan, in order to achieve that objective, was training snipers to deal with anybody who may be planning to stand in his way. The letter was, in every sense, a total indict­ment of Jonathan and all that he stood for. It was an unbecoming intervention coming from a former president. It was worse that it was directed at his successor. Many agreed that the letter was in bad taste. It was thought that a former president, especially one who belongs to the same party as his successor, would not do that level of damage to a presi­dent he helped to install. Of course Jonathan had a responsibility to make clarifications on the grave allegations that issued forth from the former president. And he did just that for purposes of clarification and elucidation. That was as far as it went. He did not taunt Obasanjo or say anything uncomplimentary about him.

Regardless of that vicious attack from Obasanjo, President Jonathan carried on without malice. He continued to show respect for Obasanjo.

Given the president’s disposition, Ni­gerians began to ask questions about what Obasanjo wanted. They could not imagine why the ex- president was bitter with a man who has shown him so much love and respect.

But Obasanjo would not be deterred by Jonathan’s olive branch. The old war horse was not sobered by the fact that he was fight­ing a man who was not interested in fighting back. From time to time , Obasanjo con­tinued to release scurrilous missiles against Jonathan. His actions were shocking to say the least. They amounted to a slap on the face of the party which Obasanjo was pretending to belong to.

Then, the antagonism for Jonathan was to take a different turn when the All Progres­sives Congress (APC) was formed. With the advent of the new party, Obasanjo began to cavort with it. From time to time, the leader­ship of the APC would visit him in Abeokuta and Obasanjo would speak tongue-in-cheek. But the message of his association with the APC was not lost on discerning Nigerians.

But if Obasanjo had anything to hide, or if he was pretending before, he could no longer do so the moment Jonathan emerged as the presidential candidate of the PDP. Obasanjo could not come to terms with that reality. And so, he intensified his vicious campaigns against Jonathan. One of the most damag­ing was the one in Abeokuta sometime last month. On that occasion, Obasanjo gathered market women in Ogun State and addressed them in Yoruba and English. At the gather­ing, he lampooned Jonathan to no end. He told them how Jonathan had frittered away the nation’s foreign reserve. He told them that the Nigerian economy had gone bananas under Jonathan. In fact, he said so many uncomplimentary things about President Jonathan and finally charged them not to waste their votes by voting for a man like Jonathan.

But it would appear that the more Obasanjo tried to diminish and demonise Jonathan, the stronger the president’s support base became. Obasanjo has been ill at ease with all this. So, he has continued to shoot from all flanks. Recently, Obasanjo was in London to launch his latest book, My Watch. It was another opportunity for him to bring down Jonathan. He called Jonathan a mediocre president. He also told the international community that the certificate issue being raised against Buhari was a clever attempt to stop him so as to pave way for Jonathan’s return.

After all of this, Obasanjo zeroed in on the postponed elections. He said Jonathan was out to perpetuate himself in office. He said the postponement was an attempt by Jonathan to elongate his stay in office and create crisis in Nigeria. He also went ahead to say Jonathan wants to reenact the Laurent Gbagbo scenario in Côte d’Ivoire. According to Obasanjo, Jonathan was waiting for the time the odds will favour him before he can order that the elections be held.

This was Obasanjo on Jonathan. But the former president took the most condemnable step against Jonathan and the PDP when he directed that his PDP membership card be torn publicly. It was such an embarrassment. It was such a show of shame. By that action, Obasanjo must have thought that he has discredited Jonathan and the PDP in the forthcom­ing elections. But the joke is on him. By that shameful action, Obasanjo simply betrayed his pettiness and bitterness. His anger with Jonathan and PDP had reached breaking point. As a mature citizen, who has had the privilege of presiding over the affairs of NIGERIA, it was thought that Obasanjo would restrain himself or control his temper. But he disappointed. He allowed his emotions to take the better part of him. Imagine a former president of the United States or a former Prime Min­ister of Britain doing what Obasanjo had done. No. It is unimaginable. Yet, when distinguished citizens of the world step out to be counted as statesmen, Obasanjo will also strut out. The mismatch is there for all to see. So, how can Obasanjo retire as a statesman when his actions are diametri­cally opposed to statesmanship? Perhaps, someone should remind Obasanjo that statesmen are not crowned or made. They emerge. Your legacies mark you out as a statesman. That fact that you were once a president does not qualify you as one. Obasanjo is, therefore, not a statesman and he cannot become one with the unstates­manly attitude that he just displayed. He is simply everything a statesman is not. He has, through his latest action, crashed from Olympian heights to an abysmal chasm.