Olusegun Osoba

The three-part autobiography of former President Olusegun Obasanjo, My Watch, has continued to evoke anger and criticisms as the book was described by a former Governor of Ogun State, Olusegun Osoba, as a distortion of history.

Osoba, who promised to write his own book to set the record straight, said Obasanjo lied blatantly when he said that the third term agenda was foisted on him in 2007.

The former governor spoke in Lagos on Monday at the public presentation of a book, titled, “Watching the Watcher: A book of remembrance of the Obasanjo years,” where he was the chairman of the occasion.

The book, which is a rejoinder to Obasanjo’s book, was authored by the Publicity Secretary of the Afenifere, Yinka Odumakin.

Osoba said though he had not read Obasanjo’s book, he was appalled by the aspect of the book where Obasanjo said he did not initiate the relationship between the disbanded Alliance for Democracy and the Peoples Democratic Party.

He said he recalled how Obasanjo approached the AD governors “virtually on his knees, begging us to come and rescue him and support his second term agenda.”

He said that contrary to Obasanjo’s claim that his vice, Atiku Abubakar, was at the forefront of the relationship with Afenifere, Obasanjo was always flying down at the shortest notice from Abuja to meet with the late leader of the Afenifere, Abraham Adesanya, who always chose the venue of their meetings.

Osoba said, “I haven’t read the book but I am of the profession of the watchdog. And when you have somebody watching the watcher, who thought he could be all-in-all in Nigeria… That was why I was interested in coming to honour Yinka. The watcher wrote something important in his book, which Wole Soyinka has given his own verdict about.

“I am going to give my own verdict in my own book. An aspect of it was the mention of 2003, where Gen. Obasanjo denied the relationship between the AD and the PDP. He said it was the idea of the Vice President, the Turaki of Adamawa, Atiku Abubakar. I think the story is far from the fact. Well, we are age mate. So, I can say that it is far from the truth.”

Also speaking at the occasion, a chieftain of the Afenifere, Chief Ayo Adebanjo, described Obasanjo as a man who did not deserve to be listened to.

Adebanjo said he was shocked that Obasanjo could muster the courage to accuse others of corruption.

He said, “A man who says he is clean…, the Yorubas have a saying that if you want to know who you are, speak to the people around you. Your wife says you are bad, your son says you are of no use, your daughter says you are a miscreant, and you still say you have done well… You know the type of people they are.”

According to Adebanjo, Obasanjo’s biggest undoing was his not giving credit to the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo in his book.

“Here is a man. Those who had been fighting for the independence of this country, he has no good word for them. All his predecessors – the late Nnamdi Azikwe, the late Sardauna of Sokoto, Awolowo and all. And even the greatest opponent of Awolowo would declare that he was a man who made Nigeria great.

“You all remember (the late Chief Emeka) Ojukwu after the death of Chief Awolowo, even with all the controversies that they had, Ojukwu had to remark after Awolowo’s death that he was the greatest and the best President that Nigeria never had. Nobody has contradicted that statement. But to Obasanjo, Nigeria never existed before he came into office, Nigeria cannot exist until he is in office. He has only one adviser: Olusegun Okikiola Aremu Obasanjo, that is his adviser,” Adebanjo said.

Adebanjo said he was surprised when he (Obasanjo) said somebody had unclean hands.

He said he recalled that Obasanjo doubled as the Minister of Petroleum Resources throughout his eight years in office as the President and allegedly perpetrated a lot of untoward actions.

He said, “I also don’t know whether the author remembered the interview that Danjuma gave some time ago that if you audit the account of the NNPC, you would not hesitate to send Obasanjo back to Yola prison. I didn’t say so, but Danjuma said so. And you know how credible that man is. He (Obasanjo) has not refuted the statement.”

Describing Obasanjo as a manipulator, Adebanjo said the former President ensured that the PDP constitution was altered so that he could become the chairman of the party’s Board of Trustees after leaving office.

Adebanjo said Nigerians should be grateful to Odumakin for taking on the responsibility of setting the record straight for the sake of posterity.

The author, Odumakin, said he picked Osoba as the chairman of the book’s public presentation because he rescued him when Obasanjo ordered his detention at the State Criminal Investigations Department, Panti, in 2005.

The reviewer of the book, Prof. G.G. Dara, from the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, described the book as “a provocative and polemical book of memoirs and reflections by Yinka Odumakin about Gen, Olusegun Obasanjo.”

He added that the author intended to challenge “the exaggerated claims of heroic grandeur and accomplishments made by the former President.”

Dara said, “He (Odumakin) hopes that the book will add to the collective memory card of Nigerians, so that they would not suffer the disease of amnesia, which encourages unworthy public men and women to act with impunity.”