Olusegun Obasanjo Becomes A Newspaper Columnist!

August 19, 2011 35 Views 1 Comment

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo

It must have sounded like a wonderful idea to somebody: a two-time national leader writing a newspaper column. Chief Obasanjo, whose sense of shopping must be worse than his sense of grammar, bought the proposal.

The result: the bombastically called “Global Connection,” a weekly commentary which is now two months old. It appears on the back page of the Saturday Mirror, a newspaper owned by controversial businessman, Jimoh Ibrahim. Ibrahim was one of the recipients of choice national assets disposed off for peanuts on Obasanjo’s watch.

For a man who, as President, told anyone who would listen he did not read the Nigerian press, Obasanjo seems to be hoping someone would read him.

His current comment, dated August 6, 2011, is entitled “The shame of Africa and the Arab world.” In it, Chief Obasanjo, reflecting on the experience of former Egyptian leader Hosni Mubarak appearing in court in a cage, begs for kindness for erring former leaders. He writes, among others:

“…I am not saying that Mubarak has not made a mistake in his almost thirty years in running the affairs of Egypt or that he has not committed any misdemeanour or offence, but decency demands that in bringing him to judgment, the good he has done should be brought side by side with the mistakes he has made and if this is done objectively, I am of the mind that the good will outweigh the mistakes. And even then, if he has to be slaughtered, he will not be cut in pieces; he will only have his neck slashed…”