Re: Gbenga Obasanjo: Game of politics or Distress call
Frisky,
Hmmm, I don't know how to start. Well, shameful as
it is that a son could go public to divorce his wife based on the
saxual escapades of the woman with his own father, ex president or not,
i think that cry was one of an oppressed, helpless and depressed
person.
I do not believe that man did not seek some relief
from the core members of his family and the traditional way. What
relief of any kind would a son get from members of a family against his
father when the accused is the numero uno cum commander supremo of the
same family? After all, who is Gbenga?
Which father, except confronted by undeniable
evidence would be so conscience beaten as to admit that his son's wife
is or was his bed mate?
Common, there's some truth in that allegation.
Against Nigeria's No 1 political strategist, that boy, Gbenga stands no
chance whatsoever, hence that out -cry.
Still one of your No 1 fans. Hope you will not kill
us with your vocabs? Keep up the good work.
Jeff Ukhun
Re: Gbenga Obasanjo: Game of politics or Distress
call
Mr Larr,
I have been an ardent reader of your column for
sometimes now from Sydney, Nova Scotia, Canada. I am one of the few who
have consistently shared your view as demonstrated in your columns
towards Obasanjo and his govt while it lasted. I have nothing personal
against the man whatsoever. While i have always maintained that
Obasanjo is not the best the SouthWest people of Nigeria can produce
for the governance of the country, i remain adamantly opposed to my
colleagues who have nothing good to say about the man and his
administration. But your last column on the above subject leaves much
to be desired. In my opinion, it borders on crass and obsessive support
of a man that is not in any way justified by the sense you are
attempting to project, particularly in this very case.
I do not know the principles by which you live. I
live by the principle of " first testing myself with what i will like
to apply to others before proceeding with such deeds". To me, the
bottom-line is that whatever you will not like to experience, do not
apply it to others.
Your last column appears to have totally defined
Obasanjo persona en statu exclusively as politician around which every
activity should be interpreted in political terms albeit the Nigerian
sense. One fallibility of this type of personality projection is the
total discountenance of other peoples' views and feelings. In this wise
your column has totally sacrifice the pain and the feeling of even
Obasanjo's son for the sake of defending the father, whatever that is
meant to achieve.
For a moment, i want you to pause and imagine that
your father (if you are fortunate to still have him alive) slept with
your wife ( if you have one and you really love her). I will like you
to imagine the feelings that you will most likely go through and then
imagine what you think your response will be. Mr Larr, if you go
through the processes i just stated sincerely, you will discover that
issues of this nature goes beyond politics. It goes beyond being a
sitting or former president - whoever says sitting or former occupants
of presidential posts should no longer be challenged for the sake of
deifying the position.
Issues of this nature touches the very soul and in
many instances, nothing can easily pacify such wounds except God
Himself.
That some people might want to take advantage of
this for their own selfish interest is just a political convenience
created by Obasanjo's role in politics. They are the small pests and
deseases that take advantage of a bigger ailment. This, in any way does
not subtract anything from the expression of the true feeling and pain
of a man who has been sorely wounded. That your column even attempts to
question the sanity of this man is the height of unfairness. Suddenly,
Gbenga Obasanjo whose family history does not indicate any psychatric
problems; who was well educated; once happily married with two kids; a
successful businessman ( leverage or no leverage) now has a doubtful
mental status. Haba!! You are unfair to this young man. Perhaps it is
the sense of fairness and mental accuity of this young man that has
made him to live with this pain until after the tenure of his father in
office just so not to create added problems for him while in office.
Mr Larr, if you cannot imagine yourself in the
position of this young man or his state of mind, it is better not to do
any column on him or this subject. The choice of Gbenga Obasanjo's
reaction in this case is entirely his and he's justified to react the
way he deemed appropriate. A man with the history of Gbenga Obasanjo (
who is obviously sane) does not just wake up one day and accuse his
father of adultery with his wife without a sound proof of what he is
talking about. Not when he knows very well his father's status and
capacity politically and traditionally. It takes a man who has totally
damned the consequences to take on his own father the way he's doing.
And you do not damn the consequences of a response to a deed that
was never committed.
As i said earlier, Gbenga Obasanjo's reaction in
this case is entirely his and he's justified to react the way he deemed
appropriate. And i sympathise with him. Beyond the glamour of position,
status and influence , i can imagine a man who has never really
experienced the joy of living in a settled home. While still young his
mother was separated from his father, perhaps because of the deeds of
this same man who called himself his father. Now he will not enjoy the
joy of his own nuclear family again, simply because of the same man.
What kind of man is he that will not foster peace in God's own devine
institution and claims to be a christian and a leader of men? What kind
of man will sleep with his own daughter-in-law? Just what kind of man
is he?
For a man like Gbenga Obasanjo in his present state
of mind to put his father's deeds in the public arena has reached the
end of the rope. He has been wounded to the marrow.He is apparently
tired of all the shenanigans going on around him in his own family. He
has damned all consequences, including what people like yourself ( Mr
Larr) would write or say and prepared to dare the reverred lion at the
expense of his own life. A man like Gbenga Obasanjo cannot make up such
stories as this one that has broken his family, not for political
expediency nor for any expediency whatsoever. A man like Gbenga
Obasanjo cannot be telling a lie.
Folabi Oluwasuyi
wrote from Sydney, Nova Scotia, Canada.
Frisky's Reply
Dear Mr. Oluwasuyi,
Thanks a lot for your comments and many thanks for
reading my column. The message in your response is precisely the crux
of my vehement disagreement with the court of public opinion. Your
sympathy for Gbenga Obasanjo is based on the presumption that what he
claimed in his affidavit is true. Unfortunately however, he does not
have to be lying for this precise content of his affidavit to be untrue
sir. On issues like this, one usually deals on suspicion. Mind you, the
gentleman is not claiming to have caught his dad and his wife redhanded.
I guess we have to guide against excessive emotion sir. If you believe,
I was defending Obasanjo and being unfair to his son, the reverse would
apply to you. If we are to be fair and neutral on the issue, we should
enjoy the story with a big conditional clause of "if it was true" and
not presume it to be wholly true, without knowing anything about
motives.
Finally, please read my article over and over again
and you will probably understand that I have chastised Gbenga Obasanjo
for his approach and did not and cannot defend his dad in any way. This
sordid revelation is not doing Gbenga any good at all. He seems to be
an impulsive character with some deep-rooted problem with his own dad.
You, my brother, would not come out in the open to tell the world that
your father has declared a false age, when you were not even the one
who gave birth to your own dad. We are all Nigerians. Today's Nigeria
is such that the worst enemies are usually within the family. All we
need is just fairness sir.
