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NEW HELMSMAN

Olusegun Obasanjo
Olusegun Obasanjo
Olusegun Obasanjo, the retired army general engineer was chosen as presidential candidate of Nigeria People's Democratic Party at the party's national convention in the northern mining city of Jos 14 February, 1999. Obasanjo has been described as a man of unique destiny.

It was 23 years ago in 1976 that as second in command, Obasanjo succeeded Nigeria's legendary Gen. Murtala Mohammed, who was assassinated in a military coup 13 February. As he marks his 62nd birth day 5 March, the soldier-turned-poultry farmer is back in the state house for the second time in two decades. But this time as an elected leader.

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Born in Abeokuta in south-western Nigeria in 1937, Obasanjo belongs to the Yoruba stock, one of the three major groups in the country, although like the proverbial prophet, he is not recognised or loved at home.

Obasanjo enlisted in the Nigerian Army in 1958 and rose to be Head of State and Commander in Chief on the Armed Forces of Nigeria in 1976 - 1979. He has become one of the most prominent of Africa’s former Heads of State. He made his name because among other wartime and post civil war achievements, Obasanjo and his colleagues, then in government, ensured that the transition to civilian democratic rule started under his predecessor, General Murtala Mohammed, was successfully completed. Nigeria also stood for African Liberation during his tenure of office, 1976 - 1979. This was demonstrated by the leadership role Nigeria played in the liberation struggle and which earned her a place as one of the Front-line States confronting South Africa.

The peak of this African patriotism was demonstrated when his government nationalised assets of British Petroleum, because of the commitment British government and the company to the white settler regimes in Southern Africa. The General Obasanjo government renamed BP, African Petroleum. At the same time, the Federal State and Local governments closed all their accounts with British owned Barclays Bank, in protest against their links with the apartheid regime. The Nigerian Government mounted an effective campaign against Barclays Bank to the extent that the bank was compelled to change its name to Union Bank.

Since he left office in 1979, general Obasanjo has remained very active an influential in government circles. His influence was to such an extent that in the past when he publicly denounced a government, it was a signal for its overthrow. He did this with the civilian government of Alhaji Shehu Shagari, to whom he handed over power in 1979. He did so with the military governments of general Buhari and general Babangida. It is therefore not a matter of coincidence that general Obasanjo is always among the first to bless the new military regimes that come to power since he left office. However, his actual role in the demise or fall of previous governments by coup d’etat was never subjected to public scrutiny.

His kinsmen accuse him of betrayal and ''awarding'' the presidency to an Hausa-Fulani when he handed over power in 1979 to elected President Shehu Shagari.
Even with his massive support from other parts of the country and clinching the presidency at the 27 February polls, not a few Yoruba people blame Obasanjo for denying their late political leader, Obafemi Awolowo, the presidency in favour of the north, accused by the south of dominating political power since the country's independence from Britain in 1960.

Obasanjo was also criticised for saying in the heat of recent pro-democracy agitation for the validation of the military annulled 1993 presidential election that the presidential claimant, the late Moshood Abiola, was not ''the messiah'' that would save Nigeria.

Noted for his wisecracks, Obasanjo's physical robustness belies appearance of a distinguished army engineer.

Trained in Nigeria, India, Britain and the United States, some high points of his 21-year military career included serving in the UN peace-keeping mission in the former Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of Congo), as well as several command appointments. He was commander of the famous 3rd Marine Commando Division during Nigeria's 30-month civil war triggered by the botched secession rebellion by the eastern region.

It was to Obasanjo as that division's commander that the rebels surrendered to the federal side to end the Biafra war in January 1970.

He was appointed works and housing commissioner (minister) in 1975 and later become chief of staff, supreme headquarters, until February 1976 when he succeeded the slain Mohammed as head of state.

Apart from his poultry farming Obasanjo, who also finds time to play table tennis and squash, has been living an otherwise active life in retirement.

He was co-chairman of the Commonwealth Eminent Persons Group on South Africa and he founded in 1988 the African Leadership Forum, based in his Otta farm, near Lagos.

Obasanjo, who failed in his bid to win the post of the UN secretary general in 1991, was sentenced to jail for alleged coup plotting against the late Gen. Sani Abacha in 1995. He was released in July 1998 and delved into politics soon afterwards.

He has ventured into writing with famous publications such as ''Africa Embattled'' in 1988, and ''My Command'' in 1979, an account of the Nigerian civil war.
But as Obasanjo took another shot at the presidency, this time through the ballot box.

In apparent response to critics who saw his possible presidency as continuation of military rule in the country, he pledged in his acceptance speech of his party's presidential ticket that his leadership would end the ''illogical polarisation of the nation into soldier and non-soldier.''

But it remains to be seen how Obasanjo can lift Africa's slumbering giant from the trauma of military dictatorships that have impoverished the oil-rich nation.

He initially said he would not run for the country's top office but in November last year announced he had changed his mind after consultations with friends and supporters.

But although he spent three years in jail under General Abacha, after being accused of a coup plot, he's still widely seen as favoured candidate of the military. Hence, critics accuse him of being too close to the generals and ex-generals who've ruled Nigeria for the past fifteen years.

His supporters, though, maintain he is the best man to hold together a complex nation driven by ethnic rivalries.