There is no straightjacket definition of a statesman. But there are notable attributes ingrained in every statesman. For the sake of lexical convenience, we might just adopt the Encarta Dictionary definition of a statesman. It describes a statesman as “a senior politician, especially a man, who is widely respected for integrity and impartial concern for the public good”. Note that the dictionary did not say ‘every senior politician”. It qualifies this type of senior person. Two things stand out in the definition: ‘Integrity’ and ‘impartial concern for the public good’.

Now, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, the Ota chicken farmer and former Head of State and President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, has announced to the world that he was quitting politics and dumping his party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to remain a statesman, both ‘internally and externally’. We have seen Nigerian politicians do this often. Former President of the Senate, Anyim Pius Anyim, in his valedictory message to the Senate in May 2003 announced he was quitting politics and the PDP. He did this without fanfare, pump or political ballyhoo. He was sober on the day, but he has since returned to the fold of his party and to the turf of politics. Today, courtesy of his party, he is Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF).

Compare this with the drama that preceded Obasanjo’s dumping of his party and politics. Before Monday, February 16, when he red-carded his party, he was everything but a statesman. He was all over town attacking his party, attacking President Goodluck Jonathan and even endorsing the presidential candidate of the main opposition party, the All Progressives Congress (APC), General Muhammadu Buhari. He called Jonathan a thief and a friend of thieves. He by himself convicted the president of thievery and tagged him a candidate for jail. He even called the election giving victory to Buhari. Nothing, absolutely, wrong with a man expressing his opinion. But in the case of Obasanjo, he was manic about it. He was full of vengeful spirit; he raged, raved and ranted like a wild bull. Many thought the Ota farmer had gone the way of lunacy. Many even feared for his life, wondering if he was high on something beyond him.

But he is not high on anything. He is just egocentric, bullish even to his own shadow. Obasanjo is power-drunk and like a masochist always steeped in self-flagellation. He has an overrated ego of himself. He sees himself as the oxygen of Nigeria, without him the nation flats out, dead. In office and out of office, he likes to command the horde and steer the lever of power. He is intolerant of the foibles of men yet himself full of the frailties of mortal man. But this will never bother him because he is immortal. He is god, somewhat. He sees himself as one who has transcended the realm of mortality. He belongs to higher species of creation of the celestial order, a man who can do no wrong, always right and accounts to nobody but himself.

His thespian character knows no bounds. He sees himself always on stage and the rest of the people as bloody spectators. He is at the very best a clown, always fawning for media attention. He is not a statesman. A statesman is a man of integrity and decorum. No statesman would gleefully supervise the tearing of his party’s membership card and make a public show of it. There are more decent ways to quit your party and bid bye-bye to politics. Not when you were once a president on the platform of that party; not even when you were once the leader of that party, no matter the provocation. Where is temperament, decorum, dignity and political correctness? All statesmen exhibit these traits, Obasanjo does not.

Obasanjo is a man on the roll, an incorrigible deity who must be obeyed. As a deity he accounts to nobody but himself. His eight years reign was fraught with tales and gory incidents of mindless looting of the national till. Under his watch, the nation witnessed a neo-culture of corruption where naira notes were ferried in Ghana-Must-Go bags into the National Assembly; under him the National Independent Power Project (NIPP) guzzled $16 billion just to generate darkness. Contractors collected payment upfront for jobs not done, some were paid mobilisation fees without as little as clearing the bush proposed as sites for the plants. Then, there was the violent violation of the accounts of the Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF). Under Obasanjo, public accounts turned to personal pockets. He and his then deputy, Atiku Abubakar, regaled a tormented nation with stories of how they plundered the PTDF account.

Yet, in all of this Obasanjo did not account to the people. He is a man above the law. Now, Obasanjo has crowned himself with the diadem of a statesman. He needs nobody’s validation to wear this badge. But a statesman is a man of dignity not a comic muse, he is one who at all times seeks and acts for the public good not a conceited egomaniac. The Obasanjo that preaches to everybody but himself has manifested all the character traits of a successful clown but certainly not those of a statesman. Somebody should please enroll him in the school of decorum and good manners.

Author: Ken Ugbechie