Obasanjo, the press and all that jazz 

By Levi Obijiofor 

Friday, 24 August 2007 

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo walked over from his Abeokuta residence to the Ogun State Government House last Sunday to receive an award entitled “Life Achievement Award”. It was at that ceremony that Obasanjo decided it would be a good idea to fire his verbal slingshots against the Nigerian press. Obasanjo fired his shots anyway but, rather than hit the press, the shots veered direction and returned to the sender. It was a bad decision driven by an appetite for vengeance. What Obasanjo said against the Nigerian press exposed his character flaws – a vengeful man who likes to project himself as the founder of modern Nigeria and the pre-eminent source of leadership knowledge across the country.      

As reported widely in the press this week, Obasanjo told his audience in Abeokuta: “I don’t read Nigerian newspapers. When people ask me, ‘have you read the papers today?’ I reply by asking them ‘for what?’” If Obasanjo thought his comments would diminish the quality of Nigerian newspapers, if he expects newspaper editors to shed tears in public because he (Obasanjo) does not patronise the newspapers, he must be living in a fairyland. Why should editors be bothered because Obasanjo, a former president, has shut newspapers out of his literary world?  

If Obasanjo says he does not read Nigerian newspapers, it is simply because he does not like to confront on the pages of newspapers lucid accounts of his government’s failures. A former president who ruled like a despot has no reason to read newspapers that consistently expose his government’s policy blunders. I am not aware of any country in the world where a single newspaper reader can determine the circulation figure or the sales performance of any newspaper. The willingness to read or ignore the contents of Nigerian newspaper is not by any means a standard for measuring the quality of the editorial contents of newspapers.  

Obasanjo further told his audience: “If they don’t write about me, they will not sell.” This is a deliberate attempt by Obasanjo to exaggerate his relevance. Obasanjo’s comment is indicative of a self-centred man who can’t quite handle the reality of his new situation. Powerlessness is a form of social ailment. It is easy to understand why Obasanjo, as a former president, still craves the respect and popularity he enjoyed when he occupied the presidential villa. Unfortunately, good things don’t last forever. Obasanjo must accept this bald fact: if he wanted to remain relevant and to be remembered in a positive way long after he had left office, Obasanjo should have listened to good advice; he should have attended to the basic needs of ordinary people; he should have set up projects designed to make a difference in the lives of the common man and woman.  

Obasanjo did not accomplish much because he was obsessed with power. Unfortunately, he forgot that political power is transient. A president should always be judged by his accomplishments. Obasanjo’s achievement record in the past eight years remains solidly on the deficit side of his political ledger. The Ogun State government can confer all manner of awards and titles on Obasanjo at taxpayers’ expense but those synthetic awards will not delete from the history books the failures that Obasanjo recorded in eight years of virtual shadow chasing.  

It is not the Nigerian press that vilifies Obasanjo’s name. Rather, Obasanjo’s image problem has to do with his failures in government, including his tyrannical, almost imperious style of leadership, his arrogant and egotistical mode of management, his constant use of inelegant language in public places, his assumption that the nation belonged to him alone, his appropriation of public discussion, as well as his constant, irritating and conceited reference to God’s name.  

The press has become Obasanjo’s shooting target for reporting on news stories that reflect adversely on Obasanjo’s public image. Obasanjo must wake up to the basic facts. And here are some of those facts. Was it the press that convinced the Oba of Benin, Omo N’Oba Erediauwa, two weeks ago to criticise the dreadful state in which the Benin-Ore-Sagamu expressway had remained for the past eight years? The Oba of Benin recalled vividly his personal appeals to Obasanjo’s ministers to fix the dilapidated expressway. Here are the words of the Oba, as reported in the Punch of August 10, 2007: “In the last Federal Government, there was no Federal Minister of Works that I did not exchange correspondence with over the poor condition of this road. I even sent emissaries to deliver my letters of appeal to Mr. President himself. Of all of them, it was only one Minister that answered my letter, and promised that as soon as money was released, he would put the contractors on the job. Until that government left office, money was not released.” 

Was it also the press that lobbied the Olubadan of Ibadan two weeks ago to accuse Obasanjo of destabilising the traditional institutions in Ibadan? These are elder statesmen expressing their discontent publicly about how Obasanjo and his government failed to serve the nation effectively and meaningfully, or, as in the case of the Olubadan, how Obasanjo undermined the chieftaincy institutions in Ibadan. If Obasanjo has issues with these respected traditional leaders, he should contact them to resolve the problems. Obasanjo must not demonise the press in its service role as the messenger of public information.  

In every society, the press functions as the official channel for conveying news and information to the public. Some of the news and information could be bitter; some others might be terrific. It is not the responsibility of the press to publish only good news about former political leaders. Should the Nigerian press hail a former president whose major contribution to national politics (when he was in charge of national affairs) was to shut his eyes against acts of brigandage perpetrated in Anambra State by the president’s acolyte? Should the Nigerian press elevate a former president who refused, against wise counsel, to discipline a political thug who confessed to manipulating the governorship election outcome in Anambra State in 2003? 

When Obasanjo queried why newspapers wouldn’t leave him alone after he had served the nation for eight years, he struck me as a man who is in serious denial of his own personality flaws. He should be reminded that eight years is a significant period in anyone’s life. For eight years, Obasanjo initiated policies and implemented decisions that impacted unfavourably on the lives of a majority of the population. It is also important to mention that Obasanjo is not the only former president to be subjected to regular press scrutiny. Before Obasanjo’s conversion from a military dictator to a weird democrat, Ibrahim Babangida had ruled as military president for eight years. Since Babangida was forced out of office in late 1993, he has remained constantly in the news not only because he single-handedly cancelled the presidential elections of 1993 but also because of the policy flip flops of his government. Take a look at his endless and nonsensical political transition programmes. Babangida took the nation on a merry-go-round disingenuous adventure and pretended to be genuinely committed to installing an enduring and peaceful political transition program.  

The message for Obasanjo should be: when you preside over a nation’s social, political and economic affairs for eight years, and you make a mess of the extraordinary powers you wielded, you must expect to face regular inquisitions on the actions of your government. Accountability should not end when a president vacates his residence in Aso Rock. It is the social responsibility of the Nigerian press to continue to probe, examine and question former and current leaders.    

The Nigerian press is not set up to monitor the mood of a former president. Many political leaders maintain a double face, particularly in regard to their relationship with the press. When the press gives politicians positive publicity, the press is proclaimed as a wonderful institution of state. When the press makes adverse commentary on politicians, the press is described as a horrible monster that should be checked or eliminated. Obasanjo’s commentary on the Nigerian press reconfirms the uneasy relationship between the press and political leaders.