W hoever causes the upright to go astray in an evil way, he himself will fall into his own pit; but the blameless will inherit good: Proverbs 28; 10.
As the days of 2007 unfolded to weeks and weeks to months ushering in a new year, it is appropriate to use this medium to tell Nigerians: welcome to 2008. Definitely, it’s going to be a Year of Verdict and Fulfillment for all Nigerians.

Even as Nigerians hope for a better year, the fact that a people get the kind of leadership they deserve cannot be overemphasized. The year 2008 cannot be discussed without a cursory look at 2007. Owing to the fact that there’s no today without a yesterday, Nigerians reserve the right to know why so much hopes had been dashed after eight years of the much- talked about democracy and it’s dividends.

However, the truth cannot be far- fetched. As the adage goes, when the head of the body is bad, it would no doubt affect the whole body. Today, when issues of corruption by the former President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, or any member of his family make news headlines, I earnestly marvel. Yes, I marvel because it’s no news. Our elites and even the journalists who feign ignorance of the fact that our former president, Olusegun Obasanjo was a master of the game and the father of all corrupt leaders, both past and present, would not be telling themselves the truth.

Today, some uninformed Nigerians regard I, Orji Uzor Kalu, as one of the most corrupt persons to occupy public office. And their reason is simple: I had been so branded by President Olusegun Obasanjo. I have also been dragged to court by the EFCC on charges of corruption.
But I take solace in the fact that my case is before a proper court - not the ‘court’ of EFCC, where the commission is both judge and prosecutor, but in a proper court that pressumes the accused person innocent until proven guilty.

I take solace in the fact that very soon, the truth will unravel and the courts will determine how very corrupt (or otherwise) I was as governor of Abia State. Very soon too, we would separate genuine economic and constitutional breaches from the load of vindictive politics in which my case has been encased.
But like I said, I leave the court of competent jurisdiction to determine whether I’m guilty or not.

Scholars would agree with me that the nature and characteristics of corruption can be categorized into political, bureaucratic and electoral corruption, amongst others. However, with all sense of honesty our former president no doubt in his eight years reign epitomized these three forms of corruption mentioned.
However, during the eight-year tenure of Emperor Olusegun Obasanjo only Nigerians can bear witness if they were not witnesses to bribery, fraud, embezzlement, extortion, favouritism, nepotism and constitutional distortion for tenure elongation.

Political corruption takes place at the highest levels of authority, ipso facto, the Federal Government which was formerly headed by Obasanjo, which expended unaccounted trillions of naira and billions of dollars for the construction of roads and provision of steady water and power supply which today is an illusion.
Bureaucratic corruption in a similar vein occurs in the public administration. It can be deduced more when Nigerians became abreast of a new language in their political lexicon called “Ghana Must Go Bags”. These bags were used in fast-tracking legislations or avoiding been impeached by the legislature. Olusegun Obasanjo introduced and perfected this strategy of paving his way in the former National Assembly and in the polity.

Electoral corruption similarly includes the exchanging nay, purchasing of mandates and votes with money, and promises of special appointments (offices). It equally deployed coercion, intimidation, and interference with the franchise and freedom of electoral process. Any doubting Thomas should critically study history of all the elections held in Nigeria, compare and deduce from the major elections which Olusegun Obasanjo presided over as C-in-C both in 1979, 2003 and 2007.
During the reign of Emperor Olusegun Obasanjo, few of my colleagues, former elected State Governors dared challenge his opinions, nor could they muster the courage to argue when the need arose during Council of State meetings.

I believe inundating Nigerians with such news of Obasanjo’s corruption or that of his offspring or relations and friends is counter productive and would tantamount to taking us back to Egypt. Yes it would be taking us back to an open secret which most of us pretended not to have seen but existed. When I screamed, the beneficiaries called me names, they felt I was been “unfair” to the president, they said I disrespected his “Office” and his person but today the papers are awash with different criticisms and revelations.

Most Nigerians are eagerly yearning for democracy dividends from their present leaders and are very hopeful, not the news of loots or misappropriation by former President Olusegun Obasanjo or any member of his family should be in the national discourse. Good governance anywhere in the world is not about individuals but the collective future of our kids.

As I recently told the Progressive Peoples Alliance (PPA) supporters who came to visit me at my country home during the Yuletide period, I can easily forgive the former president for everything he had personally done to me in the course of his rule as “emperor” but that I pray that Nigerians would forgive him. I said so because of the saying that whatever you sow you must reap. The former president had and still has a natural unforgiving tendency.
Historians will agree with me, that our former president as a military man served under General Murtala Mohammed as second- in- command, yet Obasanjo described General Mohammed in his memoirs as “an undisciplined officer”. He might have been right but it was degrading to have used such description for somebody whom you had worked closely with for years in the military.

Obasanjo never forgave the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo for denying him a scholarship, which Abiola got. No doubt that was why there was no love lost between Obasanjo and Awolowo on the one hand and between Obasanjo and Abiola on the other.

Furthermore in his biography, “Not My Will”, Obasanjo narrated how he was able to attain the political leadership of Nigeria without much stress, whereas the acclaimed leader of the Yoruba, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, laboured consistently for more than 35 years to attain the same level in the Nigerian polity, but to no avail. To buttress his points, he displayed his picture to show what he was like in the years since Awolowo had toiled and embarked on this elusive ambition of ruling Nigeria. The picture shows Obasanjo as a barefooted primary school pupil when Awolowo came to inspect his school as Head of Government, in the then old Western Region.

In the same book, “Not My Will”, General Obasanjo narrated to us the total decadence and indiscipline he inherited from Brigadier Benjamin Adekunle and the personnel of the 3rd Marine Commando during the civil war when he assumed the leadership of the Command. No mention was made of acts of gallantry recorded by Brigadier Benjamin Adekunle and his colleagues.

Obasanjo was being himself: showcasing his pettiness and contempt for Adekunle and the other commanders who fought in the war before he was drafted to the warfront. He would have preferred his ego being massaged with praises like first to do “this” or “that” by his army of praise singers.
Most Nigerians would agree with me that in the 1993 annulled election which was widely believed to have been won by M.K.O Abiola, in his characteristic manner Olusegun Obasanjo told Nigerians that “Abiola might not be the messiah we need”. Obasanjo refused to pay the children of the late Chief M.K.O Abiola, the debt government owed their father when he was in a position to do so, which no doubt should have helped them to resuscitate the companies established by their late father but which today have all folded up.

There are Nigerians who are yet to talk but whom I know are bidding their time to speak up. God help Nigeria should any of his former allies who had incurred his wrath and survived his vindictiveness open the cans of worms of Obasanjo and his family. It was so funny that most people believed him, when he was quoted to have said he does not read newspapers. Chief Olusegun Obasanjo reads newspapers and he even prefers reading The Sun Newspapers, the authentic voice of the nation. It would equally be surprising to know he’s always the first to read any of my articles in The Sun or in any Nigerian and foreign tabloids.

I wonder why most Nigerian leaders don’t have shame. Today the truth is staring everybody in the face, but the Owu Chief (Obasanjo) still goes about shamelessly. I recall with admiration how long after the demise of the great Zik of Africa, Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, sociologists, psychologists, political scientists and historians etc still found his persona an interesting subject of study. But who would want to study or emulate Obasanjo?

It’s appropriate to commend the incumbent president, Alhaji Umaru Musa Yar’Adua for having started excellently in the governance of the nation. However, the introduction of transparency and accountability in government parastatals should be taking a step further by the signing to law the freedom of information bill. The declaration of assets should be made mandatory for all political office holders from the local government to the federal government. The Code of Conduct Bureau should be empowered to unveil the secret of their personal worth, whenever it’s called upon to do so.

Insertion of anti-corruption clauses to all major government deals, locally and internationally, would equally help in the crusade against corruption. African and Nigerian leaders should see it as a point of duty to see power as a temporary opportunity to carve a positive niche for posterity, thereby shunning greed and the arrogance of power.