Egba’s history is littered with conquests. Her valiance has not stopped or waned. It is seen in industry, politics, arts, and sundries in the land. When aroused, the echo vibrates far and wide. Now in Ogun, two grand elephants embrace in a duel while the grasses watch, cheer, and jeer. When two elephants fight, the grasses suffer. It is different in this case. I have in mind the scuffle between Aremo Olusegun Osoba and Chief Olusegun Obasanjo. It is an old scuffle between the Seguns. But this one is linked to the ongoing tussles in Oke-Mosan and beyond. As it is with Yayi and Iyabo, so it is with Aremo and Ebora Owu. The two Iroko trees in the forest.
It started as an altercation between Senator Solomon Adeola (alias Yayi) and Iyabo Obasanjo-Bello. Both had been in the All Progressives Congress; then Iyabo crossed to the PDP. She lost the governorship ticket and extended her congratulatory wishes. Shortly after, she left. That loss was at the heart of the recent salvos.
Yayi is Aremo’s choice. But no one knows if Obasanjo endorses him.
At an interfaith gathering at the governor’s office sometime in February, Obasanjo had said: “It is easy to run to Ogun State when you steal in Lagos State because of the proximity.” On the surface, this remark sounded like a quip about cross-border criminals exploiting the geographical proximity between Lagos and Ogun states. For many observers, it was a swipe at Yayi, who was present. OBJ is known for his directness in speech; this may be an exception.
The recent bombast between the two kinsmen began last week when some excerpts from Aremo Olusegun Osoba’s 2018 memoir, Battlelines: Adventures in Journalism and Politics, were republished. Osoba accused Obasanjo of deceiving Alliance for Democracy (AD) governors and Afenifere leaders ahead of the 2003 polls.
For a man whose penmanship and fondness for letter writing to power is public knowledge and was acknowledged by Wole Soyinka with the conferment of the honorary appellation “the letterman”, many expected his reply. And reply he did. Obasanjo, in his rejoinder titled Reply to Your Inaccurate Posture: ‘How Obasanjo Deceived Us in 2003′, rejected the deceit charge and called Osoba’s account far-fetched and incomplete. The Ebora of Owu insisted he never practised tribal politics. He believed the AD governors’ losses were largely genuine.
Talking about the two principal characters here, they belong to the Egba sub-tribes, comprising Ake, Gbagura, Oke-Ona, and Owu. Obasanjo is from Owu—a people believed to be more obstinate than the calmer Egba. By temperament, both men are fighters, perhaps warriors. Aremo’s valiance was evident in his days as a journalist. It was he who discovered and photographed the decomposing bodies of Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa and Chief Festus Okotie-Eboh, dropped on the Abeokuta-Ifo road after they were abducted during the January 1966 coup when the nation was clueless about their whereabouts for days. It was also he who braved the military presence, defied a strict curfew that paralysed Lagos, and rushed down to the Daily Times of Nigeria head office to single-handedly work with the managing director to ensure the newspaper went to press when General Yakubu Gowon was toppled in 1975. These two events, among many, testify to Aremo’s confidence, resilience, and ruggedness—qualities ancient Egba fighters like Sodeke exhibited.
Ebora is not new to that terrain; his war exploits, both in the Nigerian Civil War and in ECOWAS peacekeeping functions in Africa, are well known. His detractors do not always acknowledge this. But outside the military terrain, very few dispute his militancy in crushing his enemies politically. Obasanjo is one who gave his host, a national chairman of his party, a resignation letter after having a bellyful of pounded yam in a relaxed gusto that only he could pull off.
He is fearless and fierce as a critic towards every Nigerian president after him; not even the military dictator Sani Abacha was spared during his lifetime. Asiwaju has been lucky, or so far spared.
So why the latest outings from Aremo?
The remote cause being an unrealised ambition like other Southwest governors ‘robbed’ of victories in the 2003 election—a poll reported locally and internationally to be widely marred by irregularities. Osoba considered Obasanjo a prominent obstructor or blocker to that goal, as implied in his letter. Aremo was elected as governor in the failed 1992–1993 Third Republic and was later re-elected in 1999–2003. That second-term effort never materialised again. The octogenarian brings the matter to the fore to set the record straight and re-nail the blocker before history.
Perhaps this latest outing is a staged battle upfront, knowing that his enemy is known for his “military ambush” in politics. Perhaps it is to draw the battle line even as they slug it out together at the polls for their candidates at both state and federal levels. Perhaps Aremo recognises that Iyabo’s recent outing with Yayi was not another spur-of-the-moment event, but a hint from his former ‘obstructor’. The exact reason is difficult to say.
But there is an intention at the heart of this beyond Aremo’s unrealised ambition or his former party, the AD.
One theme runs through his piece that is significant here. Aremo accused his subject of deceit. I am almost tempted to raise an objection while reading it.
Subterfuge. Intrigues. Deceptions. These describe Nigerian politics.
Though Obasanjo did not agree with him, it is a rule here. Says Machiavelli, “Since a ruler has to be able to act the beast, he should take on the traits of the fox and the lion.” Not done yet, he went further: “A ruler who just plays the lion and forgets the fox doesn’t know what he’s doing.” That is exactly the stuff Obasanjo is made of.
Another way to look at Aremo’s motive is to examine the potential damage of that piece.
This is a season of consultation, alliance, and consolidation of political bases for politicians. Such a piece could frustrate Obasanjo’s political strongholds and statewide consultations. Perhaps it was targeted at discrediting his consultations and dialogues. Perhaps it was to warn the unsuspecting of the nature of the man they are dealing with. It was a political discredit, no doubt. Perhaps. Perhaps.
How do I know this? I turn to Law 5 from The 48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene: “Always be alert to potential attacks and thwart them before they happen.” But you don’t stop there. “Learn to destroy your enemies by opening holes in their own reputations. Then stand aside and let public opinion hang them.” This is what Aremo has done by his letter.
Yet Egba is a solid rock. It towers high to the heavens like an iroko tree, immovable and resolute. When her sons fight, it is for power, for influence, and for dominance. We may not know the reason for this fight—not so easily. Yet, this is just the kesekese (tip); the kasakasa (iceberg) might just be on the way. Meanwhile, kasakasa is the grandfather of kesekese.
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