They are both retired military generals and septuagenarians. They are both Grand Commanders of the Federal Republic. They both enjoyed the rare privilege of ruling the Giant of Africa for as many years as the greatest and best achieving American president ever had no privilege to surpass.
They are the most talked-about former leaders the country has had. They are the most active controversy generators in the land. Uncle Sege and Uncle Ibro! They are the best presidents Nigeria ever had.
Going by what each of them thinks of himself in comparison to the other (and others), that is, Olusegun Obasanjo became a General in the Nigerian Army a decade before Ibrahim Babangida attained that rank. The former also tasted the goody-goody of the State House about that same length of time before the latter. That, by secondary school tradition, should normally make IBB address OBJ as Senior Segun. IBB, on the other hand, became president (executive or self-proclaimed) a whopping 14 years before OBJ. Senior Ibrahim!
That may not necessarily be a basis for any supremacy battle between the duo, though. Actually, they have so many things in common that they perfectly complement each other. More than a few commentators both within and outside our shores would insist that IBB institutionalised corruption in the country while the canker flexed its deadliest muscles under OBJ.
If Senior Ibrahim had the $16 billion OBJ “wasted” on PHCN that never really stagger beyond the stalling point of NEPA, he would have created a nuclear and power Utopia in Nigeria. And if Senior Segun had the $12b Gulf War oil windfall, Americans would by now be falling over one another in desperate attempts to win immigrant visa lottery to Nigeria. On two occasions, the right leader at the wrong time! Nigeria, o ma se o (what a pity)!
What OBJ flaunts in the Ebora Owu in him, IBB more than makes up for with the Maradona that he was. OBJ conducted, in 2007, the most fraudulent general elections Nigeria has had the misfortune to witness as attested to by all, home and abroad. IBB ‘midwife-d’ but, with the same delivery gloves, curiously aborted the nation’s freest and most credible elections to date, in 1993.
The former justified his action by insinuating that even the Lord Jesus Christ couldn’t have done better in Nigeria. The latter rationalized his misdeed by lecturing a ‘dullards’ nation on the difference between “annulment” and “cancellation”. Only the worst and weak presidents admit wrong-doings and make apologies. OBJ and IBB never admit and make apologies for wrong-doings; they only take responsibility.
In one accord, they also bear the burden of shared responsibility over the abortion of June 12, which IBB himself described as a “watershed” in the political history of the nation. Almost everyone expected OBJ, as a statesman, to condemn the unspeakable act that was a coup against the people. But he stunned a bewildered nation with his characteristic show of contempt, virtually describing Nigerians as idiots for electing one MKO Abiola who, by his kill-and-go proclamation, was “not the messiah”.
That, by Al-Mustapha Theorem, made him technically privy to the annulment, and consequently made both gladiators to be technically guilty of the eventual death of the late president-elect.
OBJ has been massively accused of serially betraying loyal friend, IBB who, in spite of Nigerians, cleared the path to his installation as Nigerian leader on two occasions. IBB’s sympathizers never cease to knock OBJ for standing, more than twice, in the way of his friend’s scheme to stage a dramatic come-back “to correct the mistakes of the past”.
But here is the manner the chief occupant of the Hill-Top Villa, Minna himself rewarded loyal friendship: “When I was broke, I picked up my phone and called him and he came to my aid, even as President. Sometimes, when he travelled and he didn’t plan it, it may be too late in the night, sometimes 2 a.m.; he would tell me he was passing through.
I would share whatever I had with him”. That was IBB talking about MKO Abiola, the same man whose popular election he annulled, leading to his death. A similar visa to the land of no return he granted to the one of whom he said, “Vatsa was my best friend”.
Mr. Dele Akinola, an analyst, wrote from Ikorodu, Lagos.
They are the most talked-about former leaders the country has had. They are the most active controversy generators in the land. Uncle Sege and Uncle Ibro! They are the best presidents Nigeria ever had.
Going by what each of them thinks of himself in comparison to the other (and others), that is, Olusegun Obasanjo became a General in the Nigerian Army a decade before Ibrahim Babangida attained that rank. The former also tasted the goody-goody of the State House about that same length of time before the latter. That, by secondary school tradition, should normally make IBB address OBJ as Senior Segun. IBB, on the other hand, became president (executive or self-proclaimed) a whopping 14 years before OBJ. Senior Ibrahim!
That may not necessarily be a basis for any supremacy battle between the duo, though. Actually, they have so many things in common that they perfectly complement each other. More than a few commentators both within and outside our shores would insist that IBB institutionalised corruption in the country while the canker flexed its deadliest muscles under OBJ.
If Senior Ibrahim had the $16 billion OBJ “wasted” on PHCN that never really stagger beyond the stalling point of NEPA, he would have created a nuclear and power Utopia in Nigeria. And if Senior Segun had the $12b Gulf War oil windfall, Americans would by now be falling over one another in desperate attempts to win immigrant visa lottery to Nigeria. On two occasions, the right leader at the wrong time! Nigeria, o ma se o (what a pity)!
What OBJ flaunts in the Ebora Owu in him, IBB more than makes up for with the Maradona that he was. OBJ conducted, in 2007, the most fraudulent general elections Nigeria has had the misfortune to witness as attested to by all, home and abroad. IBB ‘midwife-d’ but, with the same delivery gloves, curiously aborted the nation’s freest and most credible elections to date, in 1993.
The former justified his action by insinuating that even the Lord Jesus Christ couldn’t have done better in Nigeria. The latter rationalized his misdeed by lecturing a ‘dullards’ nation on the difference between “annulment” and “cancellation”. Only the worst and weak presidents admit wrong-doings and make apologies. OBJ and IBB never admit and make apologies for wrong-doings; they only take responsibility.
In one accord, they also bear the burden of shared responsibility over the abortion of June 12, which IBB himself described as a “watershed” in the political history of the nation. Almost everyone expected OBJ, as a statesman, to condemn the unspeakable act that was a coup against the people. But he stunned a bewildered nation with his characteristic show of contempt, virtually describing Nigerians as idiots for electing one MKO Abiola who, by his kill-and-go proclamation, was “not the messiah”.
That, by Al-Mustapha Theorem, made him technically privy to the annulment, and consequently made both gladiators to be technically guilty of the eventual death of the late president-elect.
OBJ has been massively accused of serially betraying loyal friend, IBB who, in spite of Nigerians, cleared the path to his installation as Nigerian leader on two occasions. IBB’s sympathizers never cease to knock OBJ for standing, more than twice, in the way of his friend’s scheme to stage a dramatic come-back “to correct the mistakes of the past”.
But here is the manner the chief occupant of the Hill-Top Villa, Minna himself rewarded loyal friendship: “When I was broke, I picked up my phone and called him and he came to my aid, even as President. Sometimes, when he travelled and he didn’t plan it, it may be too late in the night, sometimes 2 a.m.; he would tell me he was passing through.
I would share whatever I had with him”. That was IBB talking about MKO Abiola, the same man whose popular election he annulled, leading to his death. A similar visa to the land of no return he granted to the one of whom he said, “Vatsa was my best friend”.
Mr. Dele Akinola, an analyst, wrote from Ikorodu, Lagos.
http://www.vanguardngr.com/2011/09/the-best-presidents-nigeria-ever-had/
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