The Iyabo Exoneration

By Clarius Ugwuoha

I feel constrained to defend OBJ and stoutly, from the misrepresentation of one of his own. The attempt by Iyabo Obasanjo-Bello, distinguished senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, to vindicate the former first family from allegations against them in the media, only raised more questions than answers.

First no one is afraid of Iyabo. She is a respectable and responsible Nigerian, has not been convicted by any court or tribunal and is not known to be a militant, fundamentalist, or have Alqueda links. Her recent travails in the hands of the apex anti corruption agency, the EFCC, not only drew our sympathies – we shed tears and followed her every effort to obtain justice - but were also testimony of the transience of power. Iyabo was entitled to her tithe of an unspent fund, but even then, she was most considerate, taking only a paltry helping from what was in fact a vestige of her father’s unfathomable assets. The EFCC, motivated by jealousy erroneously felt she had a case to answer.

For once Iyabo took our side, drawing indirect flak on her father, who had the proclivity to not giving her and siblings prominence while in power. Which prominence did Iyabo mean?  We know she won Abeokuta South senatorial district with a landslide and OBJ did not foist her off on them against their wishes. She had the credentials and pedigree, and the good will of her constituency. Did she then aspire to be first lady, vice president or what under OBJ? Should OBJ have had to parade her and siblings as his at every turn of the road? Which other scion of a former head of state rode to power on the back of her father’s administration? Perhaps memory fails us. Was it Yakubu Gowon’s, Sanni Abacha’s, Abdulsalami Abubakar’s? The Nigerian publics do not even know!

Next was the swearing in ceremony; Abdulsalami Abubakar being credited with picking her out from the crowd. Which crowd was that – the VIP podium or the streets? To have been spotted by the former head of state, Iyabo must have been in a vantage position. Perhaps, her grouse was that the Protocols did not usher her and siblings before the Chief Justice of the Federation to take their turns at oath taking after OBJ.

Not giving her and siblings favours was another poser. We are aware of this understanding of Government as a family affair. In this regard, OBJ was heavily culpable even though there had been allegations of questionable acquisitions against Iyabo’s siblings in the past.

It takes the courage of an Amazon to take public side in this war of calumny against one’s own family and interests. Iyabo’s brother expatriating himself in the toilet wing of an aircraft to unknown destination, following witch-hunt by the entire Nigerian nation, was quite condescending and patriotic of the victim. We will certainly forget in our amnesia that several prominent Nigerians lost their lives in the hey days of military dictatorship in Nigeria, including the late business mogul, Chief MKO Abiola. We will also forget that OBJ was spirited away from the gulag into power as the ultimate beneficiary of our nascent democratic experience, following high scale political chicanery by a tiny but powerful cabal.

Iyabo Obasanjo-Bello, the Senate Health Committee chairman, should not be distracted from her onerous duties by banalities, by the ranting of disgruntled Nigerians. Our distinguished senator should concentrate on the enormous challenges of Health care delivery, so that when next a president of, or other Nigerian government functionaries are ill, they would not be flown to Saudi Arabia or Germany with a wave of wild conjectures in the media on their health condition. With world class Health facilities in Abeokuta, Egbema or Gombe, we would be in a better position to understand the reasons for a retreat to Obudu Ranch, visit to Ghanaian Parliament, estacode and all other such arcane-terminologies. At then not even a hundred Waziris, a million Lamorde or Ribadu would dare your unsullied records. You, Iyabo, are the only Obasanjo in position of public trust now and as a distinguished senator, for that matter. Your achievements in the Health sector would go to re-orientate Nigerians on how not to harangue the former first family; it would also go to underline the trust we repose in you as someone of rare and impeccable probity. When next you approach the press, it would be pertinent to concentrate on areas of accomplishment in your capacity as a distinguished senator on the one hand and the chairman senate Health committee on the other. Such trite issues as unspent fund, public view of ex-president Obasanjo and your family’s sacrifices for the Nigerian state, would certainly prove counter-productive. You are someone of high intellectual caliber with clout and charisma and should know better than a war of attrition with Nigerian rabble-rousers and sentimentalists. Do not be so disconcerted or distracted by the past that you forget the future. We are all behind you in your travails.

Clarius Ugwuoha writes from the Ezeali palace in Egbema.