PMB Vs OBJ: When The Hunter Becomes The Hunted

After months of maintaining pin-drop silence, President Muhammadu Buhari on Tuesday, returned the battle to former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s doorsteps when he challenged him to account for the $16 billion expended on power during his administration.

As the power play betweenthe duo unfolds, JONATHAN NDA- ISAIAH delves into the intrigues.

“I don’t care what your opinion is about Abacha. I agreed to work with him and we constructed roads from Abuja to Port Harcourt, Benin to Onitsha and so on. We also touched education and health institutions. One of the former Heads of State was bragging that he spent more than $15 billion on power in Nigeria. Where is the power?’’

These were the words of President Muhammadu Buhari on Tuesday when he received members of the Buhari Support Organisations led by Comptroller General of the Nigeria Customs Service, Hammed Ali. Soon after the president dropped this bombshell, political observers jumped into the arena to make something out of it. To them, it is apparent that the gloves are off with this comment from the president. It is an indication that Buhari’s patience is now at an end and he is not ready to swallow the constant criticism and attacks from Obasanjo anymore.

Olusegun Obasanjo, Nigeria’s president between 1999 and 2007, had been the most ardent critic of the Buhari administration which he describes as inept and abysmal failure. The former president had, in a special release earlier this year, advised the president to not seek reelection in 2019. He cited nepotism, clannishness and lack of capacity on the part of Buhari to govern Nigeria as his reason. He is also currently engaged in a nationwide mobilisation of political forces to stop Buhari’s second term bid, come 2019.

In all these, the president has maintained a graveyard silence, leaving only the minister of information, Lai Mohammed, to respond to the former president’s allegations. Perhaps, President Buhari might have borrowed a leaf from Sun Tzu Quotes contained in his book, ‘The Art of War’, which states: “If your enemy is secure at all points, be prepared for him. If he is in superior strength, evade him. If your opponent is temperamental, seek to irritate him. Pretend to be weak, that he may grow arrogant. If he is taking his ease, give him no rest. If his forces are united, separate them. If sovereign and subject are in accord, put division between them. Attack him where he is unprepared, appear where you are not expected”.

No doubt, the president, who is an ex-general in the army should be conversant with Sun Tzu’s tactics and methods. This probably explains why he chose the appropriate time to take the war to Obasanjo and hit him where it hurts – the power sector probe.

Analysts have also posited that the political feud between the two senior citizens is now at a stage where the hunter has suddenly become the hunted. The view is that when Obasanjo started out with Buhari, he didn’t take into cognizance, the fact that he who comes to equity must do so with clean hands. It is always found when a hunter tracks down his game with much accuracy and consumate exactitude, but sometimes it becomes horrible when terror is unleashed in the reverse just because the hunter has suddenly become the hunted.