When the story hit the headlines, Nigerians were taken aback despite the fact that sexual perversion does not seem to bother those that rule Nigeria. In screaming headlines, the newspapers had reported the court affidavit, sworn to by Gbenga, the most prominent and famous son of General Olusegun Matthew Obasanjo, the former Nigerian ruler, that his father had slept with his wife.
Gbenga, according to the story, had filed the affidavit in support of his case in a messy divorce suit before the law courts. He was, some of the reports said, trying to do DNA tests to ascertain the paternity of his children. ( Click here to see affidavit)
General Olusegun Obasanjo was, characteristically, very dismissive of his son€„¢s claims. He said that his son had problems and should be prayed for. Strange response indeed.
Should his son, have simply kept quiet since his father assisted him in siring his children? That is assuming that the claims of Gbenga are true. Or when did these problems of Gbenga start € before, or after his vitriolic attacks on former Vice President Abubakar Atiku? Or when, Gbenga came out openly to speak against the third term gamble that failed? (The attempt of General Obasanjo to amend the Constitution of Nigeria to enable him enjoy an unprecedented third tenure in office).
Obasanjo€„¢s defilement of his son€„¢s bed is a milder form of incestuous relationship which the rich, powerful and officeholders in Nigeria have been engaged in. Though some of the home video scripts portraying incest may be too graphic, let€„¢s face the truth. Since 1999, Nigeria has been awash with stories of incestuous relations. These incestuous relations, we are told, are made to help perpetrators gain access to power, and or make money. On the streets of Nigeria, we see several raving mad women, going about completely naked, who get pregnant € by who? They get delivered of the children, and soon enough, get pregnant again. In the period before the 2003 elections, we heard incredible stories of governors romancing with giant snakes € and of governors sleeping with their daughters. At least, one governor publicly announced that contrary to stories that had been told about him, he had not killed and bathed with the blood of any virgin damsel!! Waoh!!! So, a story like that was making round!! Yes, of course, some young girls have complained to their boyfriends that their fathers have been molesting them.
And so, even if Gbenga is right, then Obasanjo is still a shed cleaner than all those who are believed to have slept with their daughters. But is there a small incest and a big incest? Ins crime not simply a crime?
However, it is to the credit of how far we have sunk morally, that the only response from Obasanjo is that, his son should be prayed for.
Nobody with that level of allegation against him € not from a foe, but from a sibling € should even show himself him public, not to talk of heading the board of trustees of a political party, the ruling party.
Except, of course, if what Obasanjo is alleged by his son to have done is:
Common place within the party
Morally acceptable
Good enough for other people to copy
Good enough for us to be proud of.
In other climes, simple indiscretion with mistresses leads to collapse of governments and political empires. Here, allegations, serious enough to have merited sworn court affidavits get swept under the carpet.
If the acts were committed in Abuja, they are certainly punishable. Why has the Police Command in Abuja kept quiet? Are some people above the law? Have investigations commenced into this allegations of adultery and incest? If the investigations have not commenced, then what are the police authorities telling the hapless people of Nigeria who have no access to power? Is the police not sending the wrong signals, that the rich and powerful can just wake up to seize people€„¢s wives right here in our Abuja and go scot free?
I do know that even though adultery is not a crime under the criminal code, assuming that the incest was committed in Lagos or Ogun states, then Obasanjo can sit pretty. If the acts were committed in Abuja, then, they are criminal acts under the penal code and every Nigerian must rise up and ensure that Obasanjo faces the full force of the law.
In his interview with the Leadership magazine said, Ahmadu Ali Obasanjos education minister in 1978 during which period several students were killed by the Police said in defence of his boss: “I’m sorry, whatever scandal you call it is his personal problem. We have to differentiate it from a party or institution which he voluntarily joined. If you go to a clubhouse, you don’t know what everybody is doing outside the clubhouse. It is not your job to bring back to the club for discussion what members are doing. And I think that matter should be left in that particular department.”
This says a lot about how Nigeria has been ruled. As matter of fact, for people like Ali, public resources and trusts are personal assets to be treated any how. As far as he is concerned you can kill your son, after all, your son is a product of your sperm!!!. For Ali not to know that a crime is not a personal matter shows the level of crimes that are being committed by people in Power.
For Ali to say ‘We are a club and we don’t know what everybody of over 27 million people we have registered, we don’t know what they all do in their privacy’ is indeed a big shame. The PDP is guided by rules and members are required by law to be law abiding. Its now clear to the public that armed robbers, ritualists and murderers can take refuge in the PDP.
Incest that has led to such a bloody contest in court cannot by any stretch of imagination be personal.
The response to Ali by the Christian Association of Nigeria is apt for the moment: €˜Obasanjo sleeping with his son’s wife is not a family affair as some people want us to believe now. It is disastrous. And God said we should not commit adultery, and that is why I am talking like this.”