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Author: Okah Ewah Edede
Posted to the web: 2/21/2006 6:35:13 AM

WHY   DO   WE   HATE   HIM ? 
I am not a third term advocate, neither am I a doomsayer. I just comment on issue the way I perceive them. I endeavour to be analytical in my disputations because I appreciate the onerous and critical burden placed upon the lean shoulder of writers. It is this pursuit for that which is sacrosanct that motivates me to fight those sanctimonious politicians who have abrogated to themselves the deceptive appellation of 'democrat messiahs.'  My fellow Nigerians, please accompany me on an escapade down memory lane. Personally, I have nothing to gain by embarking on this adventurous odyssey. Rather, I'm sticking out my tiny neck to hang on the hangman's noose just for the sake of soothing the peoples pang. A worthy task.
      I hate Obasanjo. Though many Nigerians dislike him, I hate him. Why do I hate him? I cannot tell. Maybe, I hate his face, but I cannot accurately pinpoint the bases of my hate. I know many Nigerians also share this predicament. They dislike their president, but do not know why! Like me, they dislike his face. Some even despise his name! But none have concrete bases for their disdain. WHY do we HATE this man? I think it is because of all the media hype. The media have made us to hate and morbidly dislike this man. The media, unfortunately mostly under the control of the south, have made us to passionately dislike a man who has good intentions for us, and to idolize and venerate sinisterly hideous characters who have perpetually hypnotized the masses into eternal privation through their voodoo politics and voodoo elections.
       Let's take a cursory retrospective flight to the tortured past. I just hope the collective amnesia, which we as a people have freeze our brain and memories, in the fragile, futile and frantic bid to forget the acute pains of the past will allow us to be bold enough to resurrect the ghoulish phantom of the dark era of the mafia-so reign. Nigerians, please, I implore you to take courage and attempt this poignant retrospective odyssey with me. We just have to endure this painful journey to the past to appreciate the present, and plan for the future, or else...may GOD help us...those paunchy voodoo(ist) who are cavalier in manner, will use their monopolistic control of our collective wealth to perform a resurrection of the dark era of silhouette activities and governance.       Before, I continue, I must state at this junction, that writers are the barometer of the society. What we write points at the direction of the wind blowing across the land. Yes, indeed, writers are the barometer of the people. Secondly, the resolution of fear is the writers greatest reason for being. I have taken the fearless resolution of being UN-bias in my critical evaluation of our socio-political and economic psychosis as a nation. My meticulous investigation, I pray earnestly, will, even in the face of traumatic anxiety, allow Nigerians to make a diagnosis and prognosis based on their perception.
       In 1960, the colonial lords granted Nigeria her independence. Before then, in 1914, the amalgamation of the north and southern protectorate heralded the birth of a nation. By the time we got our independence from our mother's breast, the baby nation was already forty-six years old. Though in the life span of nations, which differs from that of human, a forty-six years old nation was still an infant, but not necessarily a suckling baby. Our independence from mother's milk was hailed as the harbinger of greatness. A match toward adolescence.
      By the time we became fifty-two, this promising infant nation at the threshold of adolescence, was already having perennial problems. And by the time we became fifty-three, a bitter civil war has broken out. A war of survival. The cause of this war was because the Igbos wanted to secede. but, we should remember that after the January coup of 1966, which the Northerners were fully in support of, in fact, after the coup failed, the Northern command was the last to capitulate. But by April of the same year, the North was already feeling cheated and they wanted to draw their own blood and then secede. but after the success of the counter coup, mother Britain, and Big Uncle Sam, were able to convince the North that if they should secede, the North will suffer the problems of a landlocked state. since political power was already in their hands, the North rethink their stance and plunged Nigeria into an interlude of apocalyptic pogrom aimed against their relatives from the East. The East seceded, and a bloody war was activated. By this time, the infant Nation was fifty-three years old and counting.       Then GOD brought out a very stubborn and fearless man to end the carnage. He did. And Nigeria remained one. By the time the country became sixty-two, that stubborn man of destiny became military head of state. He came into power through Divine manipulation. And on Nigeria's sixty-five birth year, he willingly relinquished power to a civilian government. Then five years later, the sinister mafia-so Northern oligarchy struck. And the doomsayers returned. Mind you, this Northern mafia-so oligarchy though made up mostly of Northerners, still have members from the other regions of Nigeria. From our seventy years, to when the nation became eighty-four years old, the mafia-so produced one sinister regime or the other. To be truthful and unbiased, I must confess that the North had men of honour, and still have them, but these men of honour from the North weren't allowed close to power because they weren't members of the sinister syndicate. Gen. Abdulsalem Abubakar is the only exception to this parade of hideous Mafias.
      Then Nigeria turned eighty-five. After certain debilitating political turmoils, the mafia-so oligarchy then prompted Abdulsalame to hand-over to a southern whom they saw as one of their own, though not a member of their cartel. Please, Nigerians of all ethnic group, please remember and discern that from the time we were seventy, to the time we became eighty-five years old, the Machiavellian mafia-so syndicate which have been ruling us destroyed the Nigerian economy. They bequeathed upon us and, in their sinister plot, future generations of Nigerians yet unborn a heavy burden of foreign debt. But, Obasanjo, came back from prison and cleared these debt. Yet, we hate him with a passion without knowing why!
       Obasanjo, came to change the status-quo. He came to champion the cause of the common man. He came to fight the mega-rich through economic reforms aimed at safe-guarding the investment of the poor from the ungodly antics of the super-corrupt. He also came to safe-guard their health. NAFDAC, EFCC, ICPC, SOLUDO, DUE PROCCESS etc are pointers to this fact, yet, we hate Obasanjo without actually Knowing WHY! I hate him too. And I may perpetually hate him. Though, I mortally hate him, I must speak the truth as a budding writer or else, I'm doomed to the dust-bin for eternity.      Obasanjo, is a product of a bad system. He got into power through a voodoo election orchestrated by the likes of democrat ,Ogbeh, Awoniyi, IBB, and warlord, Atiku. Though he is a product of the mafia-so and their evil system, he surprised them all by failing to act out their script, and for these, they want him out of the way by ant means possible. This is why they are championing ethnic and religious opposition against him under the charade of fighting for the cause of democracy. They all know he will relinquish power come 2007, in a transparent election devoid of voodooism, and for these, they are insinuating a fiendish scheme of perpetuation in power against him. Those canvasing for a third tenure are also allowing themselves to fall prey to the silhouette antics of silhouette Mafias. I weep for this country if they succeed.
      Though I hate, Obasanjo, I will always speak the truth because I can still hear the voices of the oppressed crying out from the shadows and asking an all encompassing 'WHY?' Why did our progenitors bequeath upon us an evil system? A system which destroys innocent lives. and now succour have come, and they want to take that away too.
       I'll always speak the truth so that the dark era will never return.
OBASANJO,  MAY  GOD  BE  WITH  YOU,  BECAUSE  YOU  ARE  A  MAN  OF  DESTINY.