OPINION: Obasanjo’s Open Apology Letter to Nigerians

Imagine the former President Olusegun Obasanjo may want to apologize one day for all his actions. He would definitely compose a letter close to these one:


    Fellow Nigerians,

    This letter of mine is going to contain a lot of apologies. I have sinned against God and against you all. I have transgressed. I apologize. I apologize for pissing down the many opportunities you gave me to be the greatest Nigerian ever. I apologize for a lot of things. I apologize.

    I apologize because I had some of the rarest opportunities in public service anybody could get anywhere, which in other climes should have been a stepping stone to greater things if I was a man with an iota of humanity or decency. For you my countrymen allowed me a total of eleven years as the head of state and President of Nigeria.

    I apologize for being a disappointment. I apologize for being a tyrant masquerading as a democrat. I apologize for being self-centred, obnoxious, vindictive and a crude man. I apologize for all the times I sought at all cost to always impose my will on the nation, even where it was detrimental to the laws of morality, decency, common sense and of national interest.

    I apologize for the killing of Nigerian university students in cold blood and the invasion and razing of the home and business premises of Fela Kuti who was my number one critic as military head of state. I know now that he was never my enemy even though I treated him as my enemy and an enemy of the Nigerian state.

    I apologize for supporting the annulment of the election of a democratically elected president, Chief MKO Abiola and colluding with my military colleagues and setting up all sorts of anti-democratic political contraptions to negate the mandate of the people in an election widely acclaimed to be free and fair.

    I apologize to Jesus Christ for claiming to be born again when I came out of jail and to you my countrymen and women for playing on your intelligence that I had seen some light when my soul was still much engulfed in the spirit of darkness.

    I apologize for asking my soldiers to burn Odi to the ground and kill everyone in sight. I know I am a murderer and a war criminal. I apologize for asking my army to massacre more people in Choba, Igwuruta, Biogbolo and other places in the Niger-Delta. I apologize for being evil, heartless and tyrannical. I apologize to the families of the people my army massacred. I apologize to the orphans whose parents my army killed, to the widows whose husbands were killed. I apologize for everything. I apologize.

    I apologize for sowing the seeds that led to the Niger-Delta crisis. That transformed a non-violent struggle for justice, equity and fairness in the Niger-Delta into a full-blown war. I take responsibility for causing the crisis in the Niger-Delta today that has made heroes out of oil thieves and cultists like Asari Dokubo and other militants that the Nigerian government has to pay billions of naira to every month to keep from going back to the creeks.

By Segun Dada



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