Senator Babafemi Ojudu has told former President Olusegun Obasanjo that he is not in a moral position to lecture anyone on loyalty, as he fired back at the ex-President’s recent attack on Alhaji Atiku Abubakar.
Senator Ojudu, a former Special Adviser to the President on Political Matters and respected journalist, in post shared on his social media account on Saturday, described Obasanjo’s sanctimonious posture on loyalty as troubling, insisting that history holds uncomfortable questions about the former military ruler’s own record.
“Public figures who invoke loyalty as a moral test must themselves be prepared to have their own record on loyalty examined,” Senator Ojudu stated.
The senator’s intervention comes amid a fresh war of words between Obasanjo and Atiku, after the former President described his decision to pick Atiku as his running mate in the 1999 presidential election as the greatest mistake of his presidency.
Atiku has since fired back, declaring that he had no apology for frustrating Obasanjo’s alleged third-term agenda and insisting that history cannot be rewritten.
In his response, Senator Ojudu raised critical questions about Obasanjo’s own loyalty, particularly regarding the circumstances surrounding General Murtala Mohammed, whose assassination in 1976 brought Obasanjo to power. He recalled that Murtala had at one point contemplated removing Obasanjo from office and relieving him of his military commission.
According to Senator Ojudu, Obasanjo was saved only through the intervention of distinguished public servants such as Philip Asiodu, Allison Ayida, and Chief Awoniyi of Mopa, who pleaded his case.
The senator then posed a haunting question: “What became of those senior permanent secretaries after they had successfully persuaded Murtala not to dismiss him? How did Obasanjo treat them when he eventually became Head of State?”
Senator Ojudu recommended two books for Nigerians seeking answers about this tumultuous period in the nation’s history. The first is Murtala Muhammed: A Betrayed Revolutionary by veteran journalist Sidi H. Ali, first published in 1982. The second is Allison Ayida’s autobiography, Nigeria’s Quintessential Public Servant, which contains accounts that complicate the simplistic moral image Obasanjo has often projected of himself.
Senator Ojudu disclosed that he had personally travelled to Mopa to interview the late Chief Awoniyi and was astonished by the stories shared about Obasanjo and the events of that period. “Years later, when Chief Awoniyi became Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, I had several opportunities to revisit those conversations. On each occasion, he spoke candidly and at length about the man behind the carefully cultivated public image,” he recounted.
The senator accused Obasanjo of consistently presenting himself as the sole custodian of virtue while portraying virtually every other political actor as deeply flawed. “What we are witnessing today is politics dressed up as moral outrage,” Senator Ojudu stated. “Obasanjo has often presented himself as the sole custodian of virtue while portraying virtually every other political actor as deeply flawed. It is a familiar pattern: he is the saint; everyone else, the sinner.”
Senator Ojudu also pointed to the candid portrait contained in the memoir written by Obasanjo’s first wife, Remi Obasanjo, as further evidence that the former President’s record is far more complex than his carefully cultivated image suggests. “History deserves honesty, not selective memory,” he declared.
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