Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, in a media chat during his 80th birthday, referred to himself as an accidental achiever, and that is a level of sincere acknowledgement that is expected of an elderly man.
His life journey actually depicted it. From a village boy who never sees himself achieving anything better than a local farmer, a life ambition that was shared by his father, which was why the first attempt by his uncle-in-law to give him a Western education in Abeokuta was halted because, just two days afterwards, his father came to Abeokuta with ridiculous reasons of fear that Western education will turn him to a lazy lad. So he was returned to the farmland.
Accidentally, a second chance came when a headmaster in his village’s school wanted to appreciate the hospitality of Obasanjo’s father and convinced the father to allow him to go to school.
After primary school, he got into Baptist Day School in his village, and accidentally again, it was at the time students from the Owu (his village) school were transferred to Baptist High School, Abeokuta, so fate took him back to Abeokuta for secondary education in the city that is known as the cradle of western education.
His ultimate plan, after secondary school, was to take up and remain a teacher at the primary school level because he was conscious of his family’s financial capacity, which could not take him further in his education.
Accidentally, still, he stumbled on a publication about the military recruitment programme that brought him into the Nigerian Army in 1959.
His military career also had lots of accidental encounters that always ended up in higher positioning for him; for example, from records, OBJ was a close friend of Chukwuma Nzogwu, who planned the January 1966 coup. This means there is a possibility that he could have been invited to be part of the coup plans, but he was not in the country until January 13th (two days before the coup’s execution).
Another accidental involvement that lifted him higher was the Nigerian civil war that started in 1967. Obasanjo was only posted to take over the command of the 3rd Marine Command Division in May 1969 from Col Benjamin Adekunle, who has been the one who had faced the brunt of the war from the inception in 1967, but Obasanjo took the victory glory for being the commander during the period the war ended. More strange is that Obasanjo was of the engineering corps of the army and did not have any business going to war, yet, he was not just posted to the battlefield but was given a leadership position. Another accidental elevation was the way he became the Nigerian Military Head of State. He was not even a major figure in the Muritala coup that sent Gowon packing, unlike Theophilus Danjuma, Shehu Yar’adua, and their boys like Babangida, Abacha, and Co., but he became the Deputy Head of State, reasons being, partly, the unmerited honour that was bestowed on him in connection to the civil war and partly for ethnic/religious balancing in the Muritala government. He eventually became the Military Head of State after the demise of Muritala due to the Dimka coup.
The last in this role was the accidental achievement of becoming a civilian president of Nigeria in 1999, straight away from the gallows of death prepared for him by Abacha
Call it grace, favour or whatever, but what I call it is “accidental” because that is what Obasanjo himself called it nine years ago.
Happy 89th birthday to the uncommonly energetic Baba Olusegun Aremu Obasanjo, omo won ni’Owu oduro.
Have a great weekend.
Ademola Omidiji
