How Obasanjo ruined Peter Obi’s chances, By Rudolf Okonkwo

… the day after the 2023 presidential election, when Obasanjo came out to make a press statement denying the conduct of the exercise, we from Anambra State have a difference with the words that came out of his mouth. To us, Obasanjo sounds like someone who has forgotten what happened in the past. But actually he didn’t do it.

This is the story of how Olusegun Obasanjo’s support of the criminal structures destroyed Peter Obi’s chances, transformed Anambra State and produced the current Peter Obi on the national stage. It is also the story of how Obasanjo tried to make amends in the last hours of his life, hoping to make heaven.

During the 2004 World Igbo Congress Convention in New Jersey, Chekwas Okorie, chairman of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), told some of us inside the hotel room what happened between him and Olusegun Obasanjo during the 2003 elections in Nigeria. The story of Chekwas Okorie illustrates who Bola Tinubu, the governor of Lagos State, is and how he differs from Peter Obi.

According to Chekwas Okorie, in 2003, APGA won the elections in four of the five South East states. But the PDP rigging machine, now known as the structure, rigged the APGA gubernatorial candidate out. On that day the unholy alliance between President Olusegun Obasanjo and INEC Chairman, Maurice Iwu, wasted no time with sophisticated rigging methods. They just wrote down the results they wanted and handed it to INEC officials to declare.

When INEC announced the results of the 2003 election, Chekwas Okorie went to Olusegun Obasanjo to complain. Obasanjo admitted the rigging and promised to hand over two or three states back to APGA. He asked Chekwas Okorie to go and consult with the party stating that he wants Obasanjo to hand over APGA.

During the same election, the PDP had plans to rig the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) out of the South West. According to the results published online on the INEC website, all the South-West states were PDP. When the governor of Lagos State, Bola Tinubu, saw what was happening, he called President Obasanjo. He told Obasanjo that he has 10,000 area men with gallons of petrol ready to burn federal government properties in Lagos if INEC declares that he has lost to PDP.

In the words of Chekwas Okorie, Obasanjo immediately called Maurice Iwu and asked him to leave Lagos State alone. Likewise, Lagos State was left alone, while other states in the south-west became PDP states.

Peter Obi has not surrendered to his stolen mandate, unlike APGA governorship candidates in other South East states. He fought in several courts for almost three years. It culminated in the court kicking Dr. Ngige to become governor in March 2006. It did not end there. The enforcement of Obasanjo’s criminal structure did not leave Peter Obi to rule the country alone.

Meanwhile, Chekwas Okorie returned to Obasanjo the day after the election. He has consulted with party people and he has chosen three states that Obasanjo wants to hand over to APGA. One such state is Anambra.

By this time, Obasanjo had noticed that all was calm in the south-east. People have accepted their fate and moved on. Obasanjo told Chekwas Okorie to die and asked him to go and do worse.

This act of condoning the structure of criminality on the part of Olusegun Obasanjo gave Anambra State governor Dr. Chris Ngige.

Another bomb dropped a day after Chekwas Okorie told the above story. At the same conference, Obasanjo’s boy, Chris Ubah, confessed in front of Governor Chris Ngige and indigenes of Anambra State that he was the person who wrote the results of the Anambra State governorship election and handed over the paper to INEC officials who read it. to the world. He pointed to Peter Obi, who was in the audience, and said, this is the man who won the election.

Peter Obi has not surrendered to his stolen mandate, unlike APGA governorship candidates in other South East states. He fought in several courts for almost three years. It culminated in the court kicking Dr. Ngige to become governor in March 2006. It did not end there. The enforcement of Obasanjo’s criminal structure did not leave Peter Obi to rule the country alone. The thugs who burnt down government offices and a radio station under governor Chris Ngige in November 2004 continue to attack. In October 2006, they burnt down the governor’s lodge in Onitsha. It was part of a well-orchestrated effort by hoodlums who were enjoying the cover of then President Olusegun Obasanjo to unleash mayhem in the country. His suit-and-tie-wearing colleagues in the State Assembly are running against the governor for the second time. Peter Obi survived all these attempts and came out strong in the end.

So, a few days after the 2023 presidential election, when Obasanjo came out to make a press statement decrying the conduct of the exercise, we from Anambra State had a difference with the words that came out of his mouth. To us, Obasanjo sounds like someone who has forgotten what happened in the past. But actually he didn’t do it.

Like most African politicians, Olusegun Obasanjo has used the first part of his life to destroy the last. Like fellow travelers on the odious road, Obasanjo’s last-minute attempts to cross over to the decent road almost always turn out to be roadblocks, remnants of criminal structures that are usually in bed. He can pretend to show relevance for his sin…

In a leaked audio which was initially denied by Charly Boy but later confirmed, Obasanjo wanted the musician to lead protests in Lagos and Abuja against INEC’s declaration of Bola Tinubu as president-elect. In Charly Boy’s version of the show, Obasanjo then called him and asked him not to continue the protest for fear that the Nigerian military would kill the protesters.

We can forgive young people who think Obasanjo is shy about protesting because of the EndSARS killings. Not. During Obasanjo’s eight years as president, he oversaw the Nigerian military’s massacre of unarmed civilians.

On the orders of Obasanjo, on November 20, 1999, the Nigerian military attacked Odi in Bayelsa State and killed more than 900 people. The military reason is that Niger Delta militant gangs killed twelve policemen the previous day. In a February 2013 judgment, the Federal High Court ordered the Federal Government to pay N37.6 billion in compensation to the people of Odi for the Nigerian military massacre and burning of their town. In May 2014, the Jonathan administration paid N15 billion as compensation.

Again on the orders of Obasanjo, the military attacked Zaki-Biam in Benue State in October 2001 and killed more than 200 people. The military gave the same reason to enforce order in the area of ​​Tiv village where militants killed 19 soldiers. Among those killed were women, children, and the elderly. The Nigerian government initially denied the killings. President Umaru Yar’Adua later apologized in 2007 while in Benue.

Like most African politicians, Olusegun Obasanjo has used the first part of his life to destroy the last. Like fellow travelers on the odious road, Obasanjo’s last-minute attempts to cross over to the decent road almost always turn out to be roadblocks, remnants of criminal structures that are usually in bed. He can pretend to show relevance for his sins, but as his power dwindles, he can only pray – for Buhari to do something, for people to step up, for the international community to intervene, for God in heaven to strike. But as we have seen time and time again, regret comes in the end.

Rudolf Ogoo Okonkwo teaches Post-Colonial African History at the School of Visual Arts in New York City. He also hosted “Dr. Show Damage.” His books include This is American Life Sef, Children of the Retired Gods, among others.