By Mogaji Wole Arisekola
Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has absolutely no locus standi to criticise any government in Nigeria — it is the perfect case of the frying pan calling the kettle black. This is a man who spent eight uninterrupted years in Aso Rock, holding the keys to the nation’s future, yet squandered the chance to fix what was broken. Instead of uniting his team to deliver on promises, he turned his tenure into a battlefield, constantly at war with his Vice President while Nigeria bled from neglect.
Take the Lagos–Ibadan Expressway — one of the most critical highways in our economy. For eight years, Obasanjo left it in ruins, without a single meaningful intervention. But today, with this current administration barely 25 months old, some people are acting as if the world is ending. Even former Transport Minister Rotimi Amaechi confessed on live television that a political gang began plotting against the government 18 months ago — all because they were locked out of the sharing table.
The inglorious removal of Senator, now Kabiyesi, Adewolu Ladoja was rubber-stamped by this same man called Obasanjo. That singular act has set Ibadan and Oyo State back politically for the next hundred years.
Those of us who have been in the oil and gas business will never pray for a return to the NNPC of Obasanjo’s era. Let me put it bluntly: before you could lift Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) from the NNPC terminal, you were forced to pay an obscene $350,000 “facilitation fee.” Call it what it really was — extortion at the highest level. Today, that wicked practice is dead and buried.
And who can forget the disgraceful dual exchange rate — a system that turned a handful of connected individuals into billionaires without lifting a finger? That scam has now been dismantled — and good riddance to it.
Here’s the bitter truth: many so-called Nigerian elites do not criticise a government because it is failing. No — their anger comes when they are not part of the system, or when the man in charge is not from their ethnic group. This tribal and selfish mentality has crippled our progress for decades.
We must begin to speak truth to power based on facts, not personal grudges. No leader is perfect — but Obasanjo, the same man who infamously bribed members of the National Assembly in a shameful bid to secure a third term, has no moral right to lecture anyone about governance.
Nigeria deserves constructive criticism born out of patriotism, not selective outrage from political hypocrites. And until we start calling out such double standards, we will keep going in circles while pretenders parade themselves as statesmen.
History will not be rewritten by the loudest liar.
Nigeria’s future will not be dictated by yesterday’s failures.
Mogaji Wole Arisekola writes from Ibadan.
