The devil is called Obasanjo

When men are caught in wrongdoing, or are overwhelmed with troubles, they often lay the blame at the door of the devil. Poor chap. And so it is that former Delta State Governor, James Ibori, woke up with a start to discover that at the root of all his legal troubles has been none other than that old vengeance-seeker, former President Olusegun Obasanjo.

Verdicts are still some way off in the many cases against Ibori, but I hazard that if in the end the courts find against him, he may yet come up with something novel like ‘Obasanjo made me do it.’ Why not? After all he has blamed him for virtually every other thing.

I am not sure what the man expected when he called that press conference to inveigh against the former president and ex-EFCC boss, Nuhu Ribadu.

If he thought we would all whip out our handkerchiefs and start weeping in collective sympathy over his sudden troubles, then he was badly advised.

He would have been better served to keep his head below the parapet, given that the indefatigable Attorney-General of the Federation, Michael Aondoakaa, was already doing a good job battling Ribadu and the British on his behalf.

The trouble with press conferences is that your utterances cause those you accuse to activate their right to reply. I believe that Ribadu has done that to devastating effect. I am not sure how to interpret Obasanjo’s dismissive silence. Could that be read as contempt for his accuser? May be.

The former Delta State governor wants Nigerians to believe that his present prosecution is politically motivated because of his initial opposition to Obasanjo’s second term bid. If we accept Ibori’s recollection of events there were 15 likeminded governors, so how come he’s the only one being persecuted?

Much has been made of the fact that Obasanjo has the memory of an elephant, is unforgiving and vindictive. Still the man is no longer in office and has little or no say in who gets persecuted or prosecuted. Depending on who you talk to, it is even said that ties between Ota and Aso Rock could use some defrosting.

If anything it is the likes of Ibori who are the current influence peddlers in the court of President Umaru Yar’Adua. Political lore has it that he and a few others provided the financial magic carpet that swept the current incumbent into office.

For his troubles Ibori was rewarded with the installation of his loyalist and former Delta Finance commissioner, David Edevbie, as the President’s gate keeper in his position as Principal Secretary to the President.

This whole business of Ibori blaming Obasanjo for his woes gets more laughable by the minute. In the eight years in which both men were in power, they always found ways to use each other when it was convenient. Obasanjo deployed Ibori as one of his foot soldiers to force Yar’Adua down the throat of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), and ultimately the rest of Nigeria.

Ijaw leader and former Information Minister, Chief Edwin Clark, has also in response to the press conference, claimed that the former governor and president worked together to install the current Delta State governor – who just happens to be Ibori’s cousin. At that point Ibori also claimed to be at daggers drawn with Obasanjo!

Just as unconvincing is the motivation that Ibori imputes to Ribadu. If the former anti-graft czar turned political refugee is gunning for him it certainly cannot be over this nonsense about not being appointed Inspector-General of Police.

Any one truly determined to get into such high office in Nigeria would not put all his lobbying efforts into just one basket. So if Ribadu really wanted to be top cop, he would also have had some other people making the case for him, as well as a couple of others who would have declined to do so. Again, how come poor James Ibori is the only being picked on?

The truth is that from the onset officials of this administration charged with prosecuting former governors have been less than enthusiastic about doing the job. Their body language and utterances said it all.

Rather than carry on from where the Obasanjo regime stopped, their overriding priority appeared to be decapitating the pesky leadership then in control of the EFCC, and exposing its supposed shortcomings rather than going after corruption targets.

The only thing keeping Ibori’s prosecution alive is public interest. Secondly, some of the cases are outside Nigerian jurisdiction - otherwise our great defenders of the rule of law in the Ministry of Justice would have pulled the plug long ago.

I think that going forward the former governor would himself greatly by staying away from press conferences, until all the awkward questions swirling around his head are answered.

For years he has battled claims that he was either an ex-convict or corrupt. In one instance he was discharged by an Abuja court. Ribadu claims that while in office as EFCC boss he had established two such cases against Ibori. Unfortunately, he did not give further details.

Aside the cases in court, there is the other matter of 820 million units of shares of Oceanic Bank International Plc belonging to the Delta State Government, being used to secure a loan facility in favour of a private firm – Ascot Offshore Nigeria Limited – with Intercontinental Bank Plc. This was done in January 2007 while Ibori was still in office.

Mr. Ibori must understand that he’s in a bit of jam here. He has questions to answer and needs to come up with a better performance than what he delivered at the press conference. Unfortunately for him the court of public opinion is irrelevant in his current travails. Only the court of law can determine now whether he winds up in jail; and they work with facts not sentiments.