OPINION BY SIMON KOLAWOLE: Much ado about Obasanjo’s endorsement | TheCable NigeriaDecides2023 2023Elections
endorsement mean?” he asked. I smiled to myself and replied: “It means he is bored!” Like him or hate him, Obasanjo is a headline maker any day. With him, downtimes are rare. He has consistently inserted himself into public consciousness since he left power as military head of state in 1979. He is not one former leader who waits for things to happen. He makes things happen.
I have heard people dismiss Obasanjo’s endorsement as not carrying any political weight because he is not an electoral asset. Well, that is one line of argument. If you are going to enjoy the endorsement of anybody, it should be able to bring votes. However, Obasanjo has never really been a vote machine. Before he was elected president in 1999, he was a political lightweight, heavily propped by northern elements and supported in the south-east and south-south.
That Obasanjo desperately wanted Tinubu out in 2003 was not hidden. The rumour was that Atiku undermined Obasanjo’s moves to displace Tinubu, and Tinubu paid Atiku back by supporting him in the “Wuse market” fight with Obasanjo. Tinubu would give the presidential ticket of the Action Congress to Atiku in 2007 after Obasanjo had successfully blocked him in the PDP. We should also recall that Obasanjo seized Lagos council funds over the creation of local council development areas .
Obasanjo was solidly behind the Ubas. Ngige was just a few weeks into his tenure as governor when he was kidnapped, falsely imprisoned and forced to sign his resignation by some Anambra gangsters because they said he failed to do their bidding. He managed to survive the coup. But Obasanjo refused to recognise him as governor of Anambra thereafter, even withdrawing his security protection. Ngige started using what looked like Man O’ War as security.
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