Obasanjo, Jonathan, Membership Cards, Endorsements and all those irrelevant stuff that dont concern you....

No other president or Head of State of Nigeria presently alive is as vocal as Chief Olusegun Obasanjo (GCFR). Check it out in the order of succession; General Olusegun Obasanjo, President Shehu Shagari, General Muhammadu Buhari, General Ibrahim Babangida, Chief Ernest Shonekan & General Abdulsalami Abubakar all are still alive (that is, except for General Abacha & President YarAdua). You rarely hear a word from them, so people go seeking news about their lives. Infact, your more likely to find people snooping around to see where President Shagari lives or who is the daughter of General Buhari and what she's upto on Instagram or perhaps whats the health status  of the Nigerian Maradona, General Babangida.

Meanwhile, the regal stateman figures of General Abdulsalami Abubakar or Ernest Shonekan can be seen rarely in public but mostly during small private sector-led events. You get my drift I guess. Its almost like they all swore an oath of secrecy or signed a Confidentiality Agreement to keep their opinions away from the public on any national issue. Everyone except for Obasanjo.

If he is not in the news for issues in his family, he is facing the President (YarAdua & Jonathan) and most especially Jonathan. Writing letters, making public statements on the Boko Haram/Chibok issue or better still he is interested in who becomes the Speaker of the House of Representatives, PDP National Chairman or PDP Board of Trustee Chairman. Obasanjo leads them all. The same man who left Presidency only because the purported third term agenda didnt pan out as planned?

That same Obasanjo. And many other events we cannot forget from 1999-2007. Just when we thought he had learned his lesson and lie low for the new generation run the scene, he came out with a book or Memoir, an act usually undertaken by Presidents all over the world immediately after their tenures expired. Obasanjo waited 7 years to release My Watch even though his watch had ended nearly a decade and currently it was someone elses watch! He starts off with a decision to pull off being the PDP BOT Chair, then pulling off PDP politics and then Obasanjo pulls another stunt when he waits for President Jonathan to come to his home state for campaign to tell him infront of two men of God that he will not support him for the Presidential Elections.

Since when did Obasanjo's support translate to 20million votes? Now he tears his paper Membership Card (Even in an era where plastic ID cards are used by even Touts Associations) and says he is no more a member of the PDP! How come he didnt tear it after he left power in 2007? Or the many times the Senate tried impeaching him during his tenure? What relevance does the card tearing act in public have to do with the current Naira-Dollar exchange rate? Or does it make Boko Haram return the Chibok girls in sympathy to the torn card? What I figure of all this is that the former President is tired of being in the backroom, not taking the spotlight, not being the head honcho. Obasanjo is seeking attention and doing that desperately. He has become an irritating distraction to the Federal Government and it is sad.

Someone should ask the whereabouts of George Bush Snr & Jnr, Jimmy Carter or Bill Clinton? You rarely see them except at a few public functions or at the DNC or GOP Conventions where they come out to give speeches in support of the candidate of their parties (Whoever they may be! Black Man, White Woman or Former War Heros or Governors). But Obasanjo who happens to be the only surviving former PDP President would rather jump on his own bandwagon and cry foul like a child ignored. Now he wants to be called a Statesman.Who is really a statesman?

We are all to blame for this, we have given Obasanjo prime places in the stories of our newsprint and our social media or the news on TV or Radio. What if we devoted that time to something more important?

#IdontCareImsayingIt