Chxta's World

I placing this article uneditted so you can make your own judgements. I'd have said something, but time is not my friend at the moment, so I'll not. I'll be back to normal service (I hope) by tomorrow. To my Arse-nal and ManScum friends, may the bestman win. To my Liverpool friends: I hope you kick butt today.

The article is below:

I DID not know the full implications of Blind Fury until a bungling phenomenon called OBJ came along the other day. I had thought that blind fury only comes about when the matador shows the red handkerchief to the bull who gets real blind fury and lays itself easily for the matador’s deft sword. And I warned in many articles back that we were being prepared for a political drama that was about to open. And we would not have to buy tickets even for the ring side.

Obasanjo was the bull in the ring and Abubakar Atiku was the deft matador. What would have been responsible for Obasanjo losing his composure so badly as to trip so typically? The difference was so clear between an administrator and a man who has been nothing more than a soldier.

When Obasanjo thought he had dropped the bomb on Abubakar like the H-Bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, these are the thoughts that came to my mind: (a) Shigidi nr’oko ete bo (The voodoo clay figurine is trying to disgrace itself). (b) Bi shigidi ba maa te aa ni ki won gbe on s’ojo (when the clay voodoo figurine wants disgrace, it requests to be put in the rain). (c) shago nb’ugo (the kettle is calling the pot black). (d) ibinu ko me pe oluwa on ko lese nle
And to sum up my expectation of justice in the matter: Bika ba r’ojo, ika ko lo ma da (if the malevolent presents this evil evidence, he would not deliver the judgement). Two episodes in my own life immediately came to mind: Adebayo Bankole is my first cousin. A normally reticent boy at the time. He was younger and I took advantage of anytime he committed a little offence. I whacked him, he would whine, retreat from my walloping and cried. I got used to it that I made it a regular attitude. Then on a day I did not expect, he faced me and fought back and nearly floored me. Then I knew I had overstepped my bounds; I had stretched my luck too far. From then on, I stopped hitting him. Of course, he still respected me but I knew how far I could go.

Salisu Yakubu, General Gowon would remember him, was my counsellor at the Embassy in Stockholm. He was from Zaria, married to Sikira from Ibadan. There was this my colleague, a career diplomat, who thought I was too full of myself and did everything to cut me to size. I tried to avoid confrontation with him, but the more I avoided him, the more relentlessly he pursued me. I related my dilemma to Alhaji Yakubu. He told me the solution was not to avoid confronting an adversary, the thing to do was take him head-on. He told me the adversary would think twice. And the man did! That was what Obasanjo asked for and would get. Perhaps, one is jumping to conclusions. What are the facts?

First obvious facts: Atiku Abubakar was on the same ticket with Obasanjo - first and second terms. Atiku on Obasanjo’s ticket boosted his chance, this well-oiled PDM machine substantially powered the electoral victory. Obasanjo’s reluctance to name Atiku as running mate nearly cost him the second term. Obasanjo’s fortune turned when he acknowledged the grandmaster.

Atiku’s ambition to come into Obasanjo’s shoes at the expiration of his term polarised the union. Third term opposed by Atiku finished off the relationship. Since then, the centre ceased to hold. Atiku has an immunity which he waived to show he is bona fide. The administrative inquiry set up to look into allegations by the President comprised nominees and yesmen of the President: Attorney-General; EFCC chairman, Nuhu Ribadu, Nasir El-Rufai, Oby Ezekwesili.etc etc.

Just as the FEC comprises men and women who the President hired and can fire. Because jobs are hard to find, most would rather keep what they have. We are saying the inevitability of bias has been established ab initio. Even then, it is a simple and clear-cut case: The insinuation or allegation that Atiku abused his office by taking bribe from an American congressman, Jefferson The misuse or abuse of PTDF fund and, which I can here call sundries. My layman’s understanding of court trials has been that no judge would give ruling or judgement on what is not pleaded. That was not the case with the so-called Administrative Inquiry. It went beyond its brief (Jefferson) and pronounced on the lodgement of PTDF Fund.

Atiku was generous with his refutations. The alleged so-called bribe money $100,000, was not found with Atiku but in the home of the man who allegedly gave the bribe to influence the vice-president. As for the PTDF fund, the vice-president indicated the advantage of placing the funds with the banks after due advice from the accountant-general. Not only that, it was with the approval of the president! The man they did not want to see with Atiku - Mike Adenuga - has himself corroborated what the vice-president said: that Mike had paid for his acquisition of telecoms licence months before money was lodged in his (Mike’s) ETB Bank.

Under sundries came the allegation of misapplication of PDP campaign funds. The V-P was unequivocal. The account, he said, was jointly run by him and Obasanjo which makes both of them culpable in the case of fraudulent manipulation which is what the president seems to be alleging. Otherwise called The Marine Floating Account, both ran it through Johnson Fashawe, a mutual friend of the president and the VP. He directed our attention to the fact that Chief Emeka Ofor and the late Waziri K. Muhammad ran two similar accounts. In fact, there is rumour the accounts ran into billions.

Of course, that posed a moral question for both men - president and VP. And one now understands the vehemence of the persecution of hitherto unknown so-called businessman, Fashawe, by the government (otherwise the president). Long time and far away, one had wondered what status of Johnson, entitled him to unhindered access to both men.

Now, with the mutual recriminations between the President and the VP, we know. The EFCC mentioned a house in ABTI; the VP spoke of one donated to Africa Leadership Forum, an NGO owned by Obasanjo. It has also been alleged that: Adenuga was building a N1 billion or so library at Bells. It simply means our leaders are trading with us.

For the Senate of the Republic, its role is clear ease these bulls out of the nation’s china shop or declare a no contest. It has shown its power before in the matter of the third term; it can acquit itself this time also. Of course, swinging Zwingina spoke of the options in the matter. It is my hope that he will not swing this one as he tried to do the last time around. I do not trust him as I used to do before June 12. Page 17 cartoon of The Nation of September 11, sums up our expectation of the National Assembly on the matter. In a beer parlour discussion between two patrons, one client shows a banner headline: "EFCC Report: Obasanjo Orders Atiku impeached. Second litmus test for the honourables."
Segun Obasanjo is bent on running our country as his personal estate. We must not allow him that pleasure. He should go.

I am thoroughly convinced that OBJ is as much a thief as Atiku.
For those unintelligent people who have asked Atiku to stop 'mud-slinging' and face the accusations against him, I ask the following:

1. If a friend / partner you committed an offense with turns around, because he can, to accuse you of this offense, why is a defense that infers that 'if it is an offense, we committed it together" not valid?

It begs belief for an accomplice to accuse his partner-in-crime of the same offense, without expecting to be charged also.

2. Why is the EFCC reluctant to release the names of all those who have been involved in any and all transactions of the MOFAS accounts?

3. With all the anti-corruption grandstanding of OBJ, why would he refund 50 million naira of the Dariye money - even after official denials that no such transaction took place?
If he was helping Atiku to refund the money, as he claims, then this in itself makes him an accomplice to the crime.

This is the third time our president has  knowingly 'let-off' professed criminals who confessed to him (recall OBJs statements on Chris Uba's confessed rigging of elections and the Lagos state 'cross-over' politicians confessed help in rigging elections for Tinubu).

What gives him the right to live above the law?

4. Does anyone believe the rubbish about a 'blind trust' in the Transcorp shares wahala? Ultimately, the beneficiary is OBJ and if not legally (which I am sure a competent lawyer can find a case here), it must be morally reprehensible for a sitting president to singularly benefit financially from his own policies.

5. Can OBJ deny the numerous accusations against his late wife (no disrespect to the dead intended) of corruptly enriching herself and immediate family members, the Abebes?

For the good of our nation, both men should be impeached, tried, and if found guilty, jailed.

this article is quite revealing.

Great points Ugwumba. We go yarn later, but I think both men are crooks. Talk more after. I just made it in time for the matches. . .

When you walk through a storm. . .

otokx:

this article is quite revealing.

yes ooooo!!

d problem with dis over-rated head master in aso-rock is dat he 4gets so easily that most famous of proverbs"THOSE WHO LIVE IN GLASS HOUSES DONT THROW STONES"

Buchi where have you been since?

I have said it numberless times that OBJ is worse, I am repeating it here OBJ is very very corrupt wait for the oncoming revelations. Its interesting that when Atiku accused Obasanjo that He collect money from the controversial account he didnt deny it, the only thing he could muster is that it was a donation? just imagine

Proverbs are kolanuts with which words are eaten, apology to Chinua Achebe. Kola Animashaun's penchant for using Yoruba proverbs to drive home his points and his peculiar way of writing have endeared him to me so much so that my Sunday is not complete without reading his "Voice of Reason" column in the Sunday Vanguard. Together with "Frankly Speaking" Dele Shobowale, they make an interesting and versatile journalistic combination at the Vanguard stable.

There is nothing more on the Atiku/OBJ debacle that have not been said or reported in the news media. Everything is available to the court of public opinion. It is natural that people will take sides in any contest. This one is not different. But as we pitch our support for either of the feuding sides, we need to analyze the issues involved critically and arrive at an objective and informed decision. Taking sides for partisan reasons will not help the country. The country is bigger than the two of them.

I think OBJ's chicken has finally come home to roost, and nemesis has caught up with him. Here is somebody that has been playing the script of a saint but he is no better than the devil. As the saying goes, you can fool some people some of the time, but you cannot fool the people all the time. That is why the present war between the President and his deputy is a God sent opportunity to expose their dark sides for all to see. It is hoped that the NASS will be courageous enough to finally use the impeachment weapon which they have been timid and reluctant to use in the past against the duo. They should both be thrown out of office. It will amount to good riddance to bad rubbish.