This Day
19 May 2011
Chief Olusegun Obasanjo came naked into politics in 1999 and is leaving naked in 2011, sort of. His party did not win any state in the South-west 12 years ago when he was elected president, and while he managed to wrest control of five of the six states when he was in power, he is leaving the political scene with PDP virtually wiped out of the geo-political zone. Imam Imam writes
When former President Olusegun Obasanjo left office May 29, 2007, not many expected the general to remain in the news for as long as now. The first six of his eight years in office passed with manageable controversies, but as he faced the home stretch, his idea of extending his tenure to third term failed.
As it later turned out, the controversial move, though defeated by the National Assembly, became one of the lasting memories of the Obasanjo presidency among Nigerians. It eventually set the tune for the much of the publicity he has generated since he left power four years ago.
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Though he may not admit it publicly, Obasanjo has seen his political empire which he laboured hard to build in the last 12 years crumble on his face. In 2003, he led the PDP to win five of the six South-west states. Today, all the states are out of the control of the party.
As an elder statesman, he has seen his decisions challenged by younger party men and women. The latest being the decision of members of the House of Representatives to go contrary to his directive on who to elect as the Speaker of the House of Representatives in the next dispensation. Such brazen attacks on his authority may have hastened his decision to retire from active politics at this point in time.
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