In the 8 years which Obasanjo spent as president, no Yoruba politician in his party, the PDP, saw their political fortunes on the ascendancy. There was no improvement for their careers. Only, as happened with the Attorney-General, Bola Ige, inexplicable death at the hands of “unknown gunmen”. Obasanjo promoted his Igbo kinsmen and Igbo kinswomen alone. Obasanjo was quick to truncate the political career of the political star from Lagos, Sarumi. Meanwhile, whenever these issues were raised, he mocked Yorubas by describing himself as “a detribalised Nigerian”. He then went to Anambra State and glibly announced to those who know that, “My son can be governor of this state.”

A few illustrations here. Though appointed as a Minister of State, as a result of the Minister’s long absence after a car accident, Otunba Jubril Martins-Kuye was the substantial Minister of Finance in Obasanjo’s first term. As far as the Igbo groups perpetually around Obasanjo in Aso Villa were concerned, Martins-Kuye, with who I spoke, could do nothing right until he was replaced by Obasanjo’s near-Anambra Igbo kinswoman, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala. Obasanjo’s Anambra State kinsman, his Chief of Staff, Andy Uba, was in reality, throughout those 8 years, the most powerful man in Nigeria, after Obasanjo himself. As far as the Igbo group around Obasanjo were concerned, CBN governor, Joseph Sanusi too, could do nothing right at the Central Bank until he was replaced by Obasanjo’s Anambra State kinsman, Soludo.

Obasanjo even had the law promptly changed to force Chukwuma Soludo onto the Central Bank etc.etc.

Obasanjo then laid a merciless siege against the most significant Yoruba state, Lagos State. He purposely withheld Lagos State’s allocation of revenue from the Federation account.

Obasanjo was the first person to make sure that Yoruba votes counted for nothing. Once he was elected, he made Yorubas look stupid, very, very stupid. Ẹ̀gba chiefs who complained and now frantically sought to remind everyone that Obasanjo is not Yoruba, were arrested, bussed to Abuja from Abẹokùta and threatened.

That is the first stage of the events which have brought us to this point.

So, for 8 years, Obasanjo effectively disenfranchised Yorubas. The Yoruba vote was as if it had not counted at all. The Yoruba vote was as if it had not counted at all in the election of 2011. Yar’Adua ruled for 2 years and naturally gave people from the North what he could. For 6 years after Obasanjo, Jonathan also effectively disenfranchised Yorubas. For 7 years, Buhari too, has effectively ignored Yoruba interests. Add Abacha’s 5 years to that and it is clear that Yorubas have been swindled in Nigeria’s national politics over and over and over again.

Singularly denied now for the past 28 straight years.

As was written earlier, when we do not tell our children our history, particularly our immediate history, we put them unwittingly, as presently, in the path of horrendous danger.

That is why it has been so easy for 61-year old Peter Onwubuasi Obi to tell gullible young Yorubas that he is the champion of Nigerian youth and knows better than all the persons who will eventually flock to an inclusive politician like Tinubu.

This is what happened after the Obasanjo debacle of 1999 to 2008.

When Yar’Adua died two years into his term, people in the North were up in arms. They knew they had been swindled. Obasanjo and everybody knew Yar’Adua was terminally ill before Obasanjo promoted him and championed his candidacy.

Now, when Yar’Adua died, Pastor Tunde Bakare and other Yorubas, only Yorubas, led public demonstrations to insist on Jonathan’s succession, as prescribed by the constitution. They were vocal and irrepressible. Insisting that, regardless of the suspected fraud against the North, the constitution must be complied with. That Jonathan, his vice-president, must succeed him.

Yorubas added their votes later to make Jonathan president for another 4 years.

As soon as he was elected, Igbos rallied around Jonathan to totally exclude Yorubas from Jonathan’s government, to humiliate Yorubas and to suffocate the Yoruba people. Jonathan’s betrayal was shockingly swift. His hatred, totally unexpected.

Yorubas did not know when they championed his cause, that Jonathan, thought of as Ijaw, was, in fact, not an Ijaw man. He is of the minority Ogbia tribe who live amongst the Ijaws.

Meanwhile, Obasanjo had spoken to Jonathan extensively when Obasanjo as president, was bent on crucifying Diepreye Alamieyeseigha, who started out in life as a Nigerian Air Force pilot. A good man, who was then the governor of Bayelsa State. Obasanjo realised that Jonathan is not Ijaw. More important, that Jonathan had been brought up entirely by his mother, who is Igbo, from Abia State.

To surreptitiously pass the baton to someone who was essentially another closet Igbo man, Obasanjo then personally selected Jonathan as Yar’Adua’s vice president. He had already selected Yar’Adua who he knew was terminally ill and expected to die in months, as the presidential candidate.

This is the upshot of what then happened. By the time Jonathan had spent 6 years in office, a Yoruba person did not exist in any of the 20 most important positions in Nigeria’s government. Yorubas were denied all government patronage, more or less denied anything and everything. Goodluck Ebele Azikiwe Jonathan and the political kinsmen of his Abia State mother just very frankly sought to suffocate and to destroy Yorubas.

Jonathan missed no opportunity to crucify and to disrespect Yorubas. In public, Jonathan himself carelessly mocked Yorubas, saying, “they are rascals”.

Jonathan and the Igbo then gave the leftovers of anything they did not want, to the North.

It was a devious policy from which Jonathan and political Igbo hoped the North will then, in return, vote for Jonathan in 2015 so that Jonathan will then be president for 10 years.

Some might say all this did not matter. They should take a look below at how Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Jonathan’s Minister of Finance, then thought it fit, to arrange Nigeria’s finance sector. –
1] Central Bank, Governor – Godwin Emefiele – Igbo
2] Central Bank, Deputy Governor – Okwu Nnana – Igbo
2] AMCON, DG – Chike Obi – Igbo
3] Securities & Exchange Commission, DG – Arunma Oteh – Igbo
4] Nigerian Stock Exchange, DG – Oscar Onyeama – Igbo
5] Securities and Investment Tribunal, DG – Ngozi Chianakwalam – Igbo
6] Sovereign Wealth Fund, DG – Uche Orji – Igbo
7] NAICOM – Chibudum Nwuche – Igbo
8] Chief Economic Adviser to the President, Nwanze Okidegbe – Igbo
9] Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria, CEO – Jim Obazee – Igbo
10] Pencom, DG – Chinelo Amazu – Igbo
11] Budget Office, DG – Bright Okogu – Igbo

Now unchallenged, Jonathan’s Igbo-centric government then planned a final humiliation for Yorubas.

A bill was introduced in the National Assembly essentially to carve an Igbo state with its own “governor”, land administration and courts, to be called the Nigeria International Financial Centre out of the Yoruba’s Lagos State”