Bythe third week of July 2026, the Egba hills are not merely vibrating; they are screaming. At the Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library, history has ceased to be a quiet archive of curated triumphs and has instead become a literal projectile.The report that the ‘Ebora Owu’, a nonagenarian of formidable, curdled vitriol, hurled Eniola Bello’s Shadows: Protest Essays on Africa’s Most Consequential Country (1999–2023) across the room because it dared to exhume the ‘Third Term’ bogeyman is perhaps the most perfect summation of our Fourth Republic.In the ‘Democrazy’ practised here, history is not a mirror for reflection; it is a brick to be lobbed at any chronicler who refuses to participate in the hagiography of the General.Yet, the book toss was merely the overture. The real theatre lies in the blistering, patronising letter Obasanjo fired off to Chief Olusegun Osoba, the Akinrogun of Egbaland, Aremo of Ijebuland and former governor of Ogun State.Don’t forget the “Ebora” himself is Jagunmolu of Egbaland, and people often pray not to receive any missive from the rotund four-star general and global statesman.What Osoba received is a document of staggering intellectual arrogance, deserving of its own wing in the library of narcissism. This is a clash of two Oluseguns: one who believes he is the state personified and another who realised, too late, that he was merely a footnote in his namesake’s quest for total capture.The betrayal of 2003 remains the fulcrum of this quarrel. In his memoir, Battlelines: Adventures in Journalism and Politics, Osoba recalls how Obasanjo wooed the Alliance for Democracy governors with eloquent pledges of restructuring the federation, fiscal federalism and a credible census.The seduction was so complete that even the veteran Chief Ayo Adebanjo exclaimed after one meeting: “I sincerely cannot believe that Obasanjo has become such a changed man. I am surprised but happy that he is ready to take fundamental actions to restructure Nigeria in his second term in office.”Yet, as Osoba narrates, this was a mirage. The AD governors were lured into a ‘Mainstream’ pact that turned out to be little more than a political slaughterhouse.“We agreed to support him for the 2003 presidential election,” Osoba laments. “It was later that we realised that we had been fooled. Obasanjo merely played along with us and ended up deceiving us by telling our leaders what he knew they wanted to hear, but which didn’t come from his heart.”The betrayal was not merely rhetorical; it was corroborated by the cold machinery of the law. The Appeal Court judgment on Ogun State’s results later declared: “All allegations in Ogun State were criminal in nature. They ranged from violence, fingerprinting, official intimidation, bias and falsification of results.” History itself, through judicial pronouncement, had signed the warrant for Osoba’s charge.Witnesses to this unfolding tragedy had tried to sound the alarm. Bishop Emmanuel Gbonigi famously challenged Obasanjo to his face: “We also hear that your people are in Ondo State training some people who are expected to wear fake police uniforms on the day of the election with a view to rigging the elections for the PDP.”Obasanjo’s response was a masterclass in pious denial: “I swear to God that the allegations are untrue and unfounded. I can never be part of such a betrayal.” Yet, the events that followed proved the Bishop’s prophecy and the General’s oath were irreconcilable.Obasanjo’s response on Thursday, nearly a quarter-century after the fact, is chillingly dismissive. He treats the AD’s struggle as a “tribal cul-de-sac” and mocks the intelligence of his peers.His verdict on Osoba is the ultimate condescension: “There were issues you did not know or understand… they were above your head.” He even revisits the late Bola Ige’s promise to “meet in the field,” mocking the ‘Cicero of Esa-Oke’ with a brutal punchline: “We never met in the field. That was above your head.” In the General’s lexicon, the ‘field’ is not a space for fair play; it is where one inters one’s rivals.But the General’s problem is not confined to Osoba; it is the chorus of men who knew him best, men whose words now hang over the nation like a shroud.These were the pillars of his own house, his own kinsmen. The late Awujale of Ijebuland, Oba Sikiru Adetona, a monarch of rare fortitude and a long-time confidant, once branded Obasanjo “a Judas” to his face, documenting the exchange in his autobiography.Chief Abraham Adesanya, the patriarch of Afenifere, warned that “he who betrays the earth would end up being swallowed by the earth.”Related NewsOsun 2026: Adeleke sails into stormy political watersAPC will win Osun gov poll – Oyetola’s wifeAl-Mustapha to ex-DSS officer: You lied on Abacha’s cause of deathThe ‘madness’ in our democracy reached its zenith with the Third Term bid. Eni B’s Shadows reminds us that, for Obasanjo, power is not a lease; it is a theology.His contemporary defence, “When did I ask for a third term? If I wanted it, I would have gotten it”, is the ‘God-complex’ distilled into a single sentence. It ignores the bribes that flooded the Senate, the machinations of Chief Tony Anenih (the PDP’s ‘Mr Fix-It’) and the desperate subversion of the Constitution.Orji Uzor Kalu, then governor of Abia State, declared he was approached with bribes and even reported the scheme to foreign leaders.Nuhu Ribadu, the then EFCC chairman, estimated that at least $300 million was spent, though other accounts put the figure closer to half a billion dollars, national wealth diverted into the service of personal ambition.The undercurrents of subversion were visible as early as the National Political Reform Conference of 2005, where a trial balloon for tenure extension was floated by the Presidency. Though voted down, its presence betrayed clear intent.The subsequent Senate campaign was a desperate assault on the Constitution itself until May 16, 2006, when the “nays” drowned out the “ayes” and the bill collapsed. That moment was the salvation of Nigeria’s fragile democracy.The General prides himself on being “unfairly” blessed by God with survival, weathering coups, both phantom and real, imprisonment and myriad political storms. But as Bello correctly chronicles, survival is not a licence for the brazen manipulation of figures or the destruction of the principled opposition the nation had left.To understand this clash, one must examine the mindset of Obasanjo, the soldier-statesman, and differentiate it from that of Osoba, the journalist-politician. Obasanjo’s worldview is shaped by the barracks: command, hierarchy and conquest. For him, politics is war by other means. Betrayal is not a moral failure but a tactical necessity.Osoba, by contrast, embodies the newsroom: dialogue, persuasion and accountability. He believes in the power of words and the sanctity of truth. Where Obasanjo sees a battlefield, Osoba sees a forum.And yet, let me be clear: I hold all these men, whose voices I have recalled here, in the highest regard. I love and respect Osoba and Obasanjo especially, mindful of the indelible mark each has left on the tapestry of our national history.However, we must acknowledge that even the grandest adventures often carry a tinge of misadventure. This piece is not intended as a slight against Obasanjo, nor is it meant simply to upscale Osoba; rather, it is a reflection on the season of life they have now entered. As both statesmen approach the “departure lounge” in the twilight of their long journeys on earth, they should perhaps seek reconciliation with those they may have wronged.True peace is found not in the fortress of self-denial, but in the quiet courage of making amends and speaking the truth in good conscience.As we watch these elders trade barbs, we are witnessing a final attempt to curate a legacy. Obasanjo wants to be remembered as the nationalist; Osoba as the chronicler who exposed betrayal. But the voices of the “Judas kiss” refuse to be silenced.The verdict of history on our Fourth Republic is that it was built on a mortar of strategic insincerity. We are living in a house constructed by a master builder who used “the starch in his agbada” anecdote to blind his brothers while he dismantled the scaffolding of their autonomy.As the sun sets on this, the General must realise that his missiles cannot stop the clock.In the fullness of time, as Abraham Adesanya warned, the earth remains. Before the final tribunal, where anecdotes of “fence-mending” will be dismissed as inadmissible, only sincerity of heart will stand.History is not written by the man who throws or doctors the book; it is written by the shadows that remain after the missile has fallen. And those shadows, General, are looking remarkably like the Judas you have spent twenty years trying to outrun. The report that the ‘Ebora Owu’, a nonagenarian of formidable, curdled vitriol, hurled Eniola Bello’s Shadows: Protest Essays on Africa’s Most Consequential Country (1999–2023) across the room because it dared to exhume the ‘Third Term’ bogeyman is perhaps the most perfect summation of our Fourth Republic.In the ‘Democrazy’ practised here, history is not a mirror for reflection; it is a brick to be lobbed at any chronicler who refuses to participate in the hagiography of the General.Yet, the book toss was merely the overture. The real theatre lies in the blistering, patronising letter Obasanjo fired off to Chief Olusegun Osoba, the Akinrogun of Egbaland, Aremo of Ijebuland and former governor of Ogun State.Don’t forget the “Ebora” himself is Jagunmolu of Egbaland, and people often pray not to receive any missive from the rotund four-star general and global statesman.What Osoba received is a document of staggering intellectual arrogance, deserving of its own wing in the library of narcissism. This is a clash of two Oluseguns: one who believes he is the state personified and another who realised, too late, that he was merely a footnote in his namesake’s quest for total capture.The betrayal of 2003 remains the fulcrum of this quarrel. In his memoir, Battlelines: Adventures in Journalism and Politics, Osoba recalls how Obasanjo wooed the Alliance for Democracy governors with eloquent pledges of restructuring the federation, fiscal federalism and a credible census.The seduction was so complete that even the veteran Chief Ayo Adebanjo exclaimed after one meeting: “I sincerely cannot believe that Obasanjo has become such a changed man. I am surprised but happy that he is ready to take fundamental actions to restructure Nigeria in his second term in office.”Yet, as Osoba narrates, this was a mirage. The AD governors were lured into a ‘Mainstream’ pact that turned out to be little more than a political slaughterhouse.“We agreed to support him for the 2003 presidential election,” Osoba laments. “It was later that we realised that we had been fooled. Obasanjo merely played along with us and ended up deceiving us by telling our leaders what he knew they wanted to hear, but which didn’t come from his heart.”The betrayal was not merely rhetorical; it was corroborated by the cold machinery of the law. The Appeal Court judgment on Ogun State’s results later declared: “All allegations in Ogun State were criminal in nature. They ranged from violence, fingerprinting, official intimidation, bias and falsification of results.” History itself, through judicial pronouncement, had signed the warrant for Osoba’s charge.Witnesses to this unfolding tragedy had tried to sound the alarm. Bishop Emmanuel Gbonigi famously challenged Obasanjo to his face: “We also hear that your people are in Ondo State training some people who are expected to wear fake police uniforms on the day of the election with a view to rigging the elections for the PDP.”Obasanjo’s response was a masterclass in pious denial: “I swear to God that the allegations are untrue and unfounded. I can never be part of such a betrayal.” Yet, the events that followed proved the Bishop’s prophecy and the General’s oath were irreconcilable.Obasanjo’s response on Thursday, nearly a quarter-century after the fact, is chillingly dismissive. He treats the AD’s struggle as a “tribal cul-de-sac” and mocks the intelligence of his peers.His verdict on Osoba is the ultimate condescension: “There were issues you did not know or understand… they were above your head.” He even revisits the late Bola Ige’s promise to “meet in the field,” mocking the ‘Cicero of Esa-Oke’ with a brutal punchline: “We never met in the field. That was above your head.” In the General’s lexicon, the ‘field’ is not a space for fair play; it is where one inters one’s rivals.But the General’s problem is not confined to Osoba; it is the chorus of men who knew him best, men whose words now hang over the nation like a shroud.These were the pillars of his own house, his own kinsmen. The late Awujale of Ijebuland, Oba Sikiru Adetona, a monarch of rare fortitude and a long-time confidant, once branded Obasanjo “a Judas” to his face, documenting the exchange in his autobiography.Chief Abraham Adesanya, the patriarch of Afenifere, warned that “he who betrays the earth would end up being swallowed by the earth.”Related NewsOsun 2026: Adeleke sails into stormy political watersAPC will win Osun gov poll – Oyetola’s wifeAl-Mustapha to ex-DSS officer: You lied on Abacha’s cause of deathThe ‘madness’ in our democracy reached its zenith with the Third Term bid. Eni B’s Shadows reminds us that, for Obasanjo, power is not a lease; it is a theology.His contemporary defence, “When did I ask for a third term? If I wanted it, I would have gotten it”, is the ‘God-complex’ distilled into a single sentence. It ignores the bribes that flooded the Senate, the machinations of Chief Tony Anenih (the PDP’s ‘Mr Fix-It’) and the desperate subversion of the Constitution.Orji Uzor Kalu, then governor of Abia State, declared he was approached with bribes and even reported the scheme to foreign leaders.Nuhu Ribadu, the then EFCC chairman, estimated that at least $300 million was spent, though other accounts put the figure closer to half a billion dollars, national wealth diverted into the service of personal ambition.The undercurrents of subversion were visible as early as the National Political Reform Conference of 2005, where a trial balloon for tenure extension was floated by the Presidency. Though voted down, its presence betrayed clear intent.The subsequent Senate campaign was a desperate assault on the Constitution itself until May 16, 2006, when the “nays” drowned out the “ayes” and the bill collapsed. That moment was the salvation of Nigeria’s fragile democracy.The General prides himself on being “unfairly” blessed by God with survival, weathering coups, both phantom and real, imprisonment and myriad political storms. But as Bello correctly chronicles, survival is not a licence for the brazen manipulation of figures or the destruction of the principled opposition the nation had left.To understand this clash, one must examine the mindset of Obasanjo, the soldier-statesman, and differentiate it from that of Osoba, the journalist-politician. Obasanjo’s worldview is shaped by the barracks: command, hierarchy and conquest. For him, politics is war by other means. Betrayal is not a moral failure but a tactical necessity.Osoba, by contrast, embodies the newsroom: dialogue, persuasion and accountability. He believes in the power of words and the sanctity of truth. Where Obasanjo sees a battlefield, Osoba sees a forum.And yet, let me be clear: I hold all these men, whose voices I have recalled here, in the highest regard. I love and respect Osoba and Obasanjo especially, mindful of the indelible mark each has left on the tapestry of our national history.However, we must acknowledge that even the grandest adventures often carry a tinge of misadventure. This piece is not intended as a slight against Obasanjo, nor is it meant simply to upscale Osoba; rather, it is a reflection on the season of life they have now entered. As both statesmen approach the “departure lounge” in the twilight of their long journeys on earth, they should perhaps seek reconciliation with those they may have wronged.True peace is found not in the fortress of self-denial, but in the quiet courage of making amends and speaking the truth in good conscience.As we watch these elders trade barbs, we are witnessing a final attempt to curate a legacy. Obasanjo wants to be remembered as the nationalist; Osoba as the chronicler who exposed betrayal. But the voices of the “Judas kiss” refuse to be silenced.The verdict of history on our Fourth Republic is that it was built on a mortar of strategic insincerity. We are living in a house constructed by a master builder who used “the starch in his agbada” anecdote to blind his brothers while he dismantled the scaffolding of their autonomy.As the sun sets on this, the General must realise that his missiles cannot stop the clock.In the fullness of time, as Abraham Adesanya warned, the earth remains. Before the final tribunal, where anecdotes of “fence-mending” will be dismissed as inadmissible, only sincerity of heart will stand.History is not written by the man who throws or doctors the book; it is written by the shadows that remain after the missile has fallen. And those shadows, General, are looking remarkably like the Judas you have spent twenty years trying to outrun. In the ‘Democrazy’ practised here, history is not a mirror for reflection; it is a brick to be lobbed at any chronicler who refuses to participate in the hagiography of the General.Yet, the book toss was merely the overture. The real theatre lies in the blistering, patronising letter Obasanjo fired off to Chief Olusegun Osoba, the Akinrogun of Egbaland, Aremo of Ijebuland and former governor of Ogun State.Don’t forget the “Ebora” himself is Jagunmolu of Egbaland, and people often pray not to receive any missive from the rotund four-star general and global statesman.What Osoba received is a document of staggering intellectual arrogance, deserving of its own wing in the library of narcissism. This is a clash of two Oluseguns: one who believes he is the state personified and another who realised, too late, that he was merely a footnote in his namesake’s quest for total capture.The betrayal of 2003 remains the fulcrum of this quarrel. In his memoir, Battlelines: Adventures in Journalism and Politics, Osoba recalls how Obasanjo wooed the Alliance for Democracy governors with eloquent pledges of restructuring the federation, fiscal federalism and a credible census.The seduction was so complete that even the veteran Chief Ayo Adebanjo exclaimed after one meeting: “I sincerely cannot believe that Obasanjo has become such a changed man. I am surprised but happy that he is ready to take fundamental actions to restructure Nigeria in his second term in office.”Yet, as Osoba narrates, this was a mirage. The AD governors were lured into a ‘Mainstream’ pact that turned out to be little more than a political slaughterhouse.“We agreed to support him for the 2003 presidential election,” Osoba laments. “It was later that we realised that we had been fooled. Obasanjo merely played along with us and ended up deceiving us by telling our leaders what he knew they wanted to hear, but which didn’t come from his heart.”The betrayal was not merely rhetorical; it was corroborated by the cold machinery of the law. The Appeal Court judgment on Ogun State’s results later declared: “All allegations in Ogun State were criminal in nature. They ranged from violence, fingerprinting, official intimidation, bias and falsification of results.” History itself, through judicial pronouncement, had signed the warrant for Osoba’s charge.Witnesses to this unfolding tragedy had tried to sound the alarm. Bishop Emmanuel Gbonigi famously challenged Obasanjo to his face: “We also hear that your people are in Ondo State training some people who are expected to wear fake police uniforms on the day of the election with a view to rigging the elections for the PDP.”Obasanjo’s response was a masterclass in pious denial: “I swear to God that the allegations are untrue and unfounded. I can never be part of such a betrayal.” Yet, the events that followed proved the Bishop’s prophecy and the General’s oath were irreconcilable.Obasanjo’s response on Thursday, nearly a quarter-century after the fact, is chillingly dismissive. He treats the AD’s struggle as a “tribal cul-de-sac” and mocks the intelligence of his peers.His verdict on Osoba is the ultimate condescension: “There were issues you did not know or understand… they were above your head.” He even revisits the late Bola Ige’s promise to “meet in the field,” mocking the ‘Cicero of Esa-Oke’ with a brutal punchline: “We never met in the field. That was above your head.” In the General’s lexicon, the ‘field’ is not a space for fair play; it is where one inters one’s rivals.But the General’s problem is not confined to Osoba; it is the chorus of men who knew him best, men whose words now hang over the nation like a shroud.These were the pillars of his own house, his own kinsmen. The late Awujale of Ijebuland, Oba Sikiru Adetona, a monarch of rare fortitude and a long-time confidant, once branded Obasanjo “a Judas” to his face, documenting the exchange in his autobiography.Chief Abraham Adesanya, the patriarch of Afenifere, warned that “he who betrays the earth would end up being swallowed by the earth.”Related NewsOsun 2026: Adeleke sails into stormy political watersAPC will win Osun gov poll – Oyetola’s wifeAl-Mustapha to ex-DSS officer: You lied on Abacha’s cause of deathThe ‘madness’ in our democracy reached its zenith with the Third Term bid. Eni B’s Shadows reminds us that, for Obasanjo, power is not a lease; it is a theology.His contemporary defence, “When did I ask for a third term? If I wanted it, I would have gotten it”, is the ‘God-complex’ distilled into a single sentence. It ignores the bribes that flooded the Senate, the machinations of Chief Tony Anenih (the PDP’s ‘Mr Fix-It’) and the desperate subversion of the Constitution.Orji Uzor Kalu, then governor of Abia State, declared he was approached with bribes and even reported the scheme to foreign leaders.Nuhu Ribadu, the then EFCC chairman, estimated that at least $300 million was spent, though other accounts put the figure closer to half a billion dollars, national wealth diverted into the service of personal ambition.The undercurrents of subversion were visible as early as the National Political Reform Conference of 2005, where a trial balloon for tenure extension was floated by the Presidency. Though voted down, its presence betrayed clear intent.The subsequent Senate campaign was a desperate assault on the Constitution itself until May 16, 2006, when the “nays” drowned out the “ayes” and the bill collapsed. That moment was the salvation of Nigeria’s fragile democracy.The General prides himself on being “unfairly” blessed by God with survival, weathering coups, both phantom and real, imprisonment and myriad political storms. But as Bello correctly chronicles, survival is not a licence for the brazen manipulation of figures or the destruction of the principled opposition the nation had left.To understand this clash, one must examine the mindset of Obasanjo, the soldier-statesman, and differentiate it from that of Osoba, the journalist-politician. Obasanjo’s worldview is shaped by the barracks: command, hierarchy and conquest. For him, politics is war by other means. Betrayal is not a moral failure but a tactical necessity.Osoba, by contrast, embodies the newsroom: dialogue, persuasion and accountability. He believes in the power of words and the sanctity of truth. Where Obasanjo sees a battlefield, Osoba sees a forum.And yet, let me be clear: I hold all these men, whose voices I have recalled here, in the highest regard. I love and respect Osoba and Obasanjo especially, mindful of the indelible mark each has left on the tapestry of our national history.However, we must acknowledge that even the grandest adventures often carry a tinge of misadventure. This piece is not intended as a slight against Obasanjo, nor is it meant simply to upscale Osoba; rather, it is a reflection on the season of life they have now entered. As both statesmen approach the “departure lounge” in the twilight of their long journeys on earth, they should perhaps seek reconciliation with those they may have wronged.True peace is found not in the fortress of self-denial, but in the quiet courage of making amends and speaking the truth in good conscience.As we watch these elders trade barbs, we are witnessing a final attempt to curate a legacy. Obasanjo wants to be remembered as the nationalist; Osoba as the chronicler who exposed betrayal. But the voices of the “Judas kiss” refuse to be silenced.The verdict of history on our Fourth Republic is that it was built on a mortar of strategic insincerity. We are living in a house constructed by a master builder who used “the starch in his agbada” anecdote to blind his brothers while he dismantled the scaffolding of their autonomy.As the sun sets on this, the General must realise that his missiles cannot stop the clock.In the fullness of time, as Abraham Adesanya warned, the earth remains. Before the final tribunal, where anecdotes of “fence-mending” will be dismissed as inadmissible, only sincerity of heart will stand.History is not written by the man who throws or doctors the book; it is written by the shadows that remain after the missile has fallen. And those shadows, General, are looking remarkably like the Judas you have spent twenty years trying to outrun. Yet, the book toss was merely the overture. The real theatre lies in the blistering, patronising letter Obasanjo fired off to Chief Olusegun Osoba, the Akinrogun of Egbaland, Aremo of Ijebuland and former governor of Ogun State.Don’t forget the “Ebora” himself is Jagunmolu of Egbaland, and people often pray not to receive any missive from the rotund four-star general and global statesman.What Osoba received is a document of staggering intellectual arrogance, deserving of its own wing in the library of narcissism. This is a clash of two Oluseguns: one who believes he is the state personified and another who realised, too late, that he was merely a footnote in his namesake’s quest for total capture.The betrayal of 2003 remains the fulcrum of this quarrel. In his memoir, Battlelines: Adventures in Journalism and Politics, Osoba recalls how Obasanjo wooed the Alliance for Democracy governors with eloquent pledges of restructuring the federation, fiscal federalism and a credible census.The seduction was so complete that even the veteran Chief Ayo Adebanjo exclaimed after one meeting: “I sincerely cannot believe that Obasanjo has become such a changed man. I am surprised but happy that he is ready to take fundamental actions to restructure Nigeria in his second term in office.”Yet, as Osoba narrates, this was a mirage. The AD governors were lured into a ‘Mainstream’ pact that turned out to be little more than a political slaughterhouse.“We agreed to support him for the 2003 presidential election,” Osoba laments. “It was later that we realised that we had been fooled. Obasanjo merely played along with us and ended up deceiving us by telling our leaders what he knew they wanted to hear, but which didn’t come from his heart.”The betrayal was not merely rhetorical; it was corroborated by the cold machinery of the law. The Appeal Court judgment on Ogun State’s results later declared: “All allegations in Ogun State were criminal in nature. They ranged from violence, fingerprinting, official intimidation, bias and falsification of results.” History itself, through judicial pronouncement, had signed the warrant for Osoba’s charge.Witnesses to this unfolding tragedy had tried to sound the alarm. Bishop Emmanuel Gbonigi famously challenged Obasanjo to his face: “We also hear that your people are in Ondo State training some people who are expected to wear fake police uniforms on the day of the election with a view to rigging the elections for the PDP.”Obasanjo’s response was a masterclass in pious denial: “I swear to God that the allegations are untrue and unfounded. I can never be part of such a betrayal.” Yet, the events that followed proved the Bishop’s prophecy and the General’s oath were irreconcilable.Obasanjo’s response on Thursday, nearly a quarter-century after the fact, is chillingly dismissive. He treats the AD’s struggle as a “tribal cul-de-sac” and mocks the intelligence of his peers.His verdict on Osoba is the ultimate condescension: “There were issues you did not know or understand… they were above your head.” He even revisits the late Bola Ige’s promise to “meet in the field,” mocking the ‘Cicero of Esa-Oke’ with a brutal punchline: “We never met in the field. That was above your head.” In the General’s lexicon, the ‘field’ is not a space for fair play; it is where one inters one’s rivals.But the General’s problem is not confined to Osoba; it is the chorus of men who knew him best, men whose words now hang over the nation like a shroud.These were the pillars of his own house, his own kinsmen. The late Awujale of Ijebuland, Oba Sikiru Adetona, a monarch of rare fortitude and a long-time confidant, once branded Obasanjo “a Judas” to his face, documenting the exchange in his autobiography.Chief Abraham Adesanya, the patriarch of Afenifere, warned that “he who betrays the earth would end up being swallowed by the earth.”Related NewsOsun 2026: Adeleke sails into stormy political watersAPC will win Osun gov poll – Oyetola’s wifeAl-Mustapha to ex-DSS officer: You lied on Abacha’s cause of deathThe ‘madness’ in our democracy reached its zenith with the Third Term bid. Eni B’s Shadows reminds us that, for Obasanjo, power is not a lease; it is a theology.His contemporary defence, “When did I ask for a third term? If I wanted it, I would have gotten it”, is the ‘God-complex’ distilled into a single sentence. It ignores the bribes that flooded the Senate, the machinations of Chief Tony Anenih (the PDP’s ‘Mr Fix-It’) and the desperate subversion of the Constitution.Orji Uzor Kalu, then governor of Abia State, declared he was approached with bribes and even reported the scheme to foreign leaders.Nuhu Ribadu, the then EFCC chairman, estimated that at least $300 million was spent, though other accounts put the figure closer to half a billion dollars, national wealth diverted into the service of personal ambition.The undercurrents of subversion were visible as early as the National Political Reform Conference of 2005, where a trial balloon for tenure extension was floated by the Presidency. Though voted down, its presence betrayed clear intent.The subsequent Senate campaign was a desperate assault on the Constitution itself until May 16, 2006, when the “nays” drowned out the “ayes” and the bill collapsed. That moment was the salvation of Nigeria’s fragile democracy.The General prides himself on being “unfairly” blessed by God with survival, weathering coups, both phantom and real, imprisonment and myriad political storms. But as Bello correctly chronicles, survival is not a licence for the brazen manipulation of figures or the destruction of the principled opposition the nation had left.To understand this clash, one must examine the mindset of Obasanjo, the soldier-statesman, and differentiate it from that of Osoba, the journalist-politician. Obasanjo’s worldview is shaped by the barracks: command, hierarchy and conquest. For him, politics is war by other means. Betrayal is not a moral failure but a tactical necessity.Osoba, by contrast, embodies the newsroom: dialogue, persuasion and accountability. He believes in the power of words and the sanctity of truth. Where Obasanjo sees a battlefield, Osoba sees a forum.And yet, let me be clear: I hold all these men, whose voices I have recalled here, in the highest regard. I love and respect Osoba and Obasanjo especially, mindful of the indelible mark each has left on the tapestry of our national history.However, we must acknowledge that even the grandest adventures often carry a tinge of misadventure. This piece is not intended as a slight against Obasanjo, nor is it meant simply to upscale Osoba; rather, it is a reflection on the season of life they have now entered. As both statesmen approach the “departure lounge” in the twilight of their long journeys on earth, they should perhaps seek reconciliation with those they may have wronged.True peace is found not in the fortress of self-denial, but in the quiet courage of making amends and speaking the truth in good conscience.As we watch these elders trade barbs, we are witnessing a final attempt to curate a legacy. Obasanjo wants to be remembered as the nationalist; Osoba as the chronicler who exposed betrayal. But the voices of the “Judas kiss” refuse to be silenced.The verdict of history on our Fourth Republic is that it was built on a mortar of strategic insincerity. We are living in a house constructed by a master builder who used “the starch in his agbada” anecdote to blind his brothers while he dismantled the scaffolding of their autonomy.As the sun sets on this, the General must realise that his missiles cannot stop the clock.In the fullness of time, as Abraham Adesanya warned, the earth remains. Before the final tribunal, where anecdotes of “fence-mending” will be dismissed as inadmissible, only sincerity of heart will stand.History is not written by the man who throws or doctors the book; it is written by the shadows that remain after the missile has fallen. And those shadows, General, are looking remarkably like the Judas you have spent twenty years trying to outrun. Don’t forget the “Ebora” himself is Jagunmolu of Egbaland, and people often pray not to receive any missive from the rotund four-star general and global statesman.What Osoba received is a document of staggering intellectual arrogance, deserving of its own wing in the library of narcissism. This is a clash of two Oluseguns: one who believes he is the state personified and another who realised, too late, that he was merely a footnote in his namesake’s quest for total capture.The betrayal of 2003 remains the fulcrum of this quarrel. In his memoir, Battlelines: Adventures in Journalism and Politics, Osoba recalls how Obasanjo wooed the Alliance for Democracy governors with eloquent pledges of restructuring the federation, fiscal federalism and a credible census.The seduction was so complete that even the veteran Chief Ayo Adebanjo exclaimed after one meeting: “I sincerely cannot believe that Obasanjo has become such a changed man. I am surprised but happy that he is ready to take fundamental actions to restructure Nigeria in his second term in office.”Yet, as Osoba narrates, this was a mirage. The AD governors were lured into a ‘Mainstream’ pact that turned out to be little more than a political slaughterhouse.“We agreed to support him for the 2003 presidential election,” Osoba laments. “It was later that we realised that we had been fooled. Obasanjo merely played along with us and ended up deceiving us by telling our leaders what he knew they wanted to hear, but which didn’t come from his heart.”The betrayal was not merely rhetorical; it was corroborated by the cold machinery of the law. The Appeal Court judgment on Ogun State’s results later declared: “All allegations in Ogun State were criminal in nature. They ranged from violence, fingerprinting, official intimidation, bias and falsification of results.” History itself, through judicial pronouncement, had signed the warrant for Osoba’s charge.Witnesses to this unfolding tragedy had tried to sound the alarm. Bishop Emmanuel Gbonigi famously challenged Obasanjo to his face: “We also hear that your people are in Ondo State training some people who are expected to wear fake police uniforms on the day of the election with a view to rigging the elections for the PDP.”Obasanjo’s response was a masterclass in pious denial: “I swear to God that the allegations are untrue and unfounded. I can never be part of such a betrayal.” Yet, the events that followed proved the Bishop’s prophecy and the General’s oath were irreconcilable.Obasanjo’s response on Thursday, nearly a quarter-century after the fact, is chillingly dismissive. He treats the AD’s struggle as a “tribal cul-de-sac” and mocks the intelligence of his peers.His verdict on Osoba is the ultimate condescension: “There were issues you did not know or understand… they were above your head.” He even revisits the late Bola Ige’s promise to “meet in the field,” mocking the ‘Cicero of Esa-Oke’ with a brutal punchline: “We never met in the field. That was above your head.” In the General’s lexicon, the ‘field’ is not a space for fair play; it is where one inters one’s rivals.But the General’s problem is not confined to Osoba; it is the chorus of men who knew him best, men whose words now hang over the nation like a shroud.These were the pillars of his own house, his own kinsmen. The late Awujale of Ijebuland, Oba Sikiru Adetona, a monarch of rare fortitude and a long-time confidant, once branded Obasanjo “a Judas” to his face, documenting the exchange in his autobiography.Chief Abraham Adesanya, the patriarch of Afenifere, warned that “he who betrays the earth would end up being swallowed by the earth.”Related NewsOsun 2026: Adeleke sails into stormy political watersAPC will win Osun gov poll – Oyetola’s wifeAl-Mustapha to ex-DSS officer: You lied on Abacha’s cause of deathThe ‘madness’ in our democracy reached its zenith with the Third Term bid. Eni B’s Shadows reminds us that, for Obasanjo, power is not a lease; it is a theology.His contemporary defence, “When did I ask for a third term? If I wanted it, I would have gotten it”, is the ‘God-complex’ distilled into a single sentence. It ignores the bribes that flooded the Senate, the machinations of Chief Tony Anenih (the PDP’s ‘Mr Fix-It’) and the desperate subversion of the Constitution.Orji Uzor Kalu, then governor of Abia State, declared he was approached with bribes and even reported the scheme to foreign leaders.Nuhu Ribadu, the then EFCC chairman, estimated that at least $300 million was spent, though other accounts put the figure closer to half a billion dollars, national wealth diverted into the service of personal ambition.The undercurrents of subversion were visible as early as the National Political Reform Conference of 2005, where a trial balloon for tenure extension was floated by the Presidency. Though voted down, its presence betrayed clear intent.The subsequent Senate campaign was a desperate assault on the Constitution itself until May 16, 2006, when the “nays” drowned out the “ayes” and the bill collapsed. That moment was the salvation of Nigeria’s fragile democracy.The General prides himself on being “unfairly” blessed by God with survival, weathering coups, both phantom and real, imprisonment and myriad political storms. But as Bello correctly chronicles, survival is not a licence for the brazen manipulation of figures or the destruction of the principled opposition the nation had left.To understand this clash, one must examine the mindset of Obasanjo, the soldier-statesman, and differentiate it from that of Osoba, the journalist-politician. Obasanjo’s worldview is shaped by the barracks: command, hierarchy and conquest. For him, politics is war by other means. Betrayal is not a moral failure but a tactical necessity.Osoba, by contrast, embodies the newsroom: dialogue, persuasion and accountability. He believes in the power of words and the sanctity of truth. Where Obasanjo sees a battlefield, Osoba sees a forum.And yet, let me be clear: I hold all these men, whose voices I have recalled here, in the highest regard. I love and respect Osoba and Obasanjo especially, mindful of the indelible mark each has left on the tapestry of our national history.However, we must acknowledge that even the grandest adventures often carry a tinge of misadventure. This piece is not intended as a slight against Obasanjo, nor is it meant simply to upscale Osoba; rather, it is a reflection on the season of life they have now entered. As both statesmen approach the “departure lounge” in the twilight of their long journeys on earth, they should perhaps seek reconciliation with those they may have wronged.True peace is found not in the fortress of self-denial, but in the quiet courage of making amends and speaking the truth in good conscience.As we watch these elders trade barbs, we are witnessing a final attempt to curate a legacy. Obasanjo wants to be remembered as the nationalist; Osoba as the chronicler who exposed betrayal. But the voices of the “Judas kiss” refuse to be silenced.The verdict of history on our Fourth Republic is that it was built on a mortar of strategic insincerity. We are living in a house constructed by a master builder who used “the starch in his agbada” anecdote to blind his brothers while he dismantled the scaffolding of their autonomy.As the sun sets on this, the General must realise that his missiles cannot stop the clock.In the fullness of time, as Abraham Adesanya warned, the earth remains. Before the final tribunal, where anecdotes of “fence-mending” will be dismissed as inadmissible, only sincerity of heart will stand.History is not written by the man who throws or doctors the book; it is written by the shadows that remain after the missile has fallen. And those shadows, General, are looking remarkably like the Judas you have spent twenty years trying to outrun. What Osoba received is a document of staggering intellectual arrogance, deserving of its own wing in the library of narcissism. This is a clash of two Oluseguns: one who believes he is the state personified and another who realised, too late, that he was merely a footnote in his namesake’s quest for total capture.The betrayal of 2003 remains the fulcrum of this quarrel. In his memoir, Battlelines: Adventures in Journalism and Politics, Osoba recalls how Obasanjo wooed the Alliance for Democracy governors with eloquent pledges of restructuring the federation, fiscal federalism and a credible census.The seduction was so complete that even the veteran Chief Ayo Adebanjo exclaimed after one meeting: “I sincerely cannot believe that Obasanjo has become such a changed man. I am surprised but happy that he is ready to take fundamental actions to restructure Nigeria in his second term in office.”Yet, as Osoba narrates, this was a mirage. The AD governors were lured into a ‘Mainstream’ pact that turned out to be little more than a political slaughterhouse.“We agreed to support him for the 2003 presidential election,” Osoba laments. “It was later that we realised that we had been fooled. Obasanjo merely played along with us and ended up deceiving us by telling our leaders what he knew they wanted to hear, but which didn’t come from his heart.”The betrayal was not merely rhetorical; it was corroborated by the cold machinery of the law. The Appeal Court judgment on Ogun State’s results later declared: “All allegations in Ogun State were criminal in nature. They ranged from violence, fingerprinting, official intimidation, bias and falsification of results.” History itself, through judicial pronouncement, had signed the warrant for Osoba’s charge.Witnesses to this unfolding tragedy had tried to sound the alarm. Bishop Emmanuel Gbonigi famously challenged Obasanjo to his face: “We also hear that your people are in Ondo State training some people who are expected to wear fake police uniforms on the day of the election with a view to rigging the elections for the PDP.”Obasanjo’s response was a masterclass in pious denial: “I swear to God that the allegations are untrue and unfounded. I can never be part of such a betrayal.” Yet, the events that followed proved the Bishop’s prophecy and the General’s oath were irreconcilable.Obasanjo’s response on Thursday, nearly a quarter-century after the fact, is chillingly dismissive. He treats the AD’s struggle as a “tribal cul-de-sac” and mocks the intelligence of his peers.His verdict on Osoba is the ultimate condescension: “There were issues you did not know or understand… they were above your head.” He even revisits the late Bola Ige’s promise to “meet in the field,” mocking the ‘Cicero of Esa-Oke’ with a brutal punchline: “We never met in the field. That was above your head.” In the General’s lexicon, the ‘field’ is not a space for fair play; it is where one inters one’s rivals.But the General’s problem is not confined to Osoba; it is the chorus of men who knew him best, men whose words now hang over the nation like a shroud.These were the pillars of his own house, his own kinsmen. The late Awujale of Ijebuland, Oba Sikiru Adetona, a monarch of rare fortitude and a long-time confidant, once branded Obasanjo “a Judas” to his face, documenting the exchange in his autobiography.Chief Abraham Adesanya, the patriarch of Afenifere, warned that “he who betrays the earth would end up being swallowed by the earth.”Related NewsOsun 2026: Adeleke sails into stormy political watersAPC will win Osun gov poll – Oyetola’s wifeAl-Mustapha to ex-DSS officer: You lied on Abacha’s cause of deathThe ‘madness’ in our democracy reached its zenith with the Third Term bid. Eni B’s Shadows reminds us that, for Obasanjo, power is not a lease; it is a theology.His contemporary defence, “When did I ask for a third term? If I wanted it, I would have gotten it”, is the ‘God-complex’ distilled into a single sentence. It ignores the bribes that flooded the Senate, the machinations of Chief Tony Anenih (the PDP’s ‘Mr Fix-It’) and the desperate subversion of the Constitution.Orji Uzor Kalu, then governor of Abia State, declared he was approached with bribes and even reported the scheme to foreign leaders.Nuhu Ribadu, the then EFCC chairman, estimated that at least $300 million was spent, though other accounts put the figure closer to half a billion dollars, national wealth diverted into the service of personal ambition.The undercurrents of subversion were visible as early as the National Political Reform Conference of 2005, where a trial balloon for tenure extension was floated by the Presidency. Though voted down, its presence betrayed clear intent.The subsequent Senate campaign was a desperate assault on the Constitution itself until May 16, 2006, when the “nays” drowned out the “ayes” and the bill collapsed. That moment was the salvation of Nigeria’s fragile democracy.The General prides himself on being “unfairly” blessed by God with survival, weathering coups, both phantom and real, imprisonment and myriad political storms. But as Bello correctly chronicles, survival is not a licence for the brazen manipulation of figures or the destruction of the principled opposition the nation had left.To understand this clash, one must examine the mindset of Obasanjo, the soldier-statesman, and differentiate it from that of Osoba, the journalist-politician. Obasanjo’s worldview is shaped by the barracks: command, hierarchy and conquest. For him, politics is war by other means. Betrayal is not a moral failure but a tactical necessity.Osoba, by contrast, embodies the newsroom: dialogue, persuasion and accountability. He believes in the power of words and the sanctity of truth. Where Obasanjo sees a battlefield, Osoba sees a forum.And yet, let me be clear: I hold all these men, whose voices I have recalled here, in the highest regard. I love and respect Osoba and Obasanjo especially, mindful of the indelible mark each has left on the tapestry of our national history.However, we must acknowledge that even the grandest adventures often carry a tinge of misadventure. This piece is not intended as a slight against Obasanjo, nor is it meant simply to upscale Osoba; rather, it is a reflection on the season of life they have now entered. As both statesmen approach the “departure lounge” in the twilight of their long journeys on earth, they should perhaps seek reconciliation with those they may have wronged.True peace is found not in the fortress of self-denial, but in the quiet courage of making amends and speaking the truth in good conscience.As we watch these elders trade barbs, we are witnessing a final attempt to curate a legacy. Obasanjo wants to be remembered as the nationalist; Osoba as the chronicler who exposed betrayal. But the voices of the “Judas kiss” refuse to be silenced.The verdict of history on our Fourth Republic is that it was built on a mortar of strategic insincerity. We are living in a house constructed by a master builder who used “the starch in his agbada” anecdote to blind his brothers while he dismantled the scaffolding of their autonomy.As the sun sets on this, the General must realise that his missiles cannot stop the clock.In the fullness of time, as Abraham Adesanya warned, the earth remains. Before the final tribunal, where anecdotes of “fence-mending” will be dismissed as inadmissible, only sincerity of heart will stand.History is not written by the man who throws or doctors the book; it is written by the shadows that remain after the missile has fallen. And those shadows, General, are looking remarkably like the Judas you have spent twenty years trying to outrun. The betrayal of 2003 remains the fulcrum of this quarrel. In his memoir, Battlelines: Adventures in Journalism and Politics, Osoba recalls how Obasanjo wooed the Alliance for Democracy governors with eloquent pledges of restructuring the federation, fiscal federalism and a credible census.The seduction was so complete that even the veteran Chief Ayo Adebanjo exclaimed after one meeting: “I sincerely cannot believe that Obasanjo has become such a changed man. I am surprised but happy that he is ready to take fundamental actions to restructure Nigeria in his second term in office.”Yet, as Osoba narrates, this was a mirage. The AD governors were lured into a ‘Mainstream’ pact that turned out to be little more than a political slaughterhouse.“We agreed to support him for the 2003 presidential election,” Osoba laments. “It was later that we realised that we had been fooled. Obasanjo merely played along with us and ended up deceiving us by telling our leaders what he knew they wanted to hear, but which didn’t come from his heart.”The betrayal was not merely rhetorical; it was corroborated by the cold machinery of the law. The Appeal Court judgment on Ogun State’s results later declared: “All allegations in Ogun State were criminal in nature. They ranged from violence, fingerprinting, official intimidation, bias and falsification of results.” History itself, through judicial pronouncement, had signed the warrant for Osoba’s charge.Witnesses to this unfolding tragedy had tried to sound the alarm. Bishop Emmanuel Gbonigi famously challenged Obasanjo to his face: “We also hear that your people are in Ondo State training some people who are expected to wear fake police uniforms on the day of the election with a view to rigging the elections for the PDP.”Obasanjo’s response was a masterclass in pious denial: “I swear to God that the allegations are untrue and unfounded. I can never be part of such a betrayal.” Yet, the events that followed proved the Bishop’s prophecy and the General’s oath were irreconcilable.Obasanjo’s response on Thursday, nearly a quarter-century after the fact, is chillingly dismissive. He treats the AD’s struggle as a “tribal cul-de-sac” and mocks the intelligence of his peers.His verdict on Osoba is the ultimate condescension: “There were issues you did not know or understand… they were above your head.” He even revisits the late Bola Ige’s promise to “meet in the field,” mocking the ‘Cicero of Esa-Oke’ with a brutal punchline: “We never met in the field. That was above your head.” In the General’s lexicon, the ‘field’ is not a space for fair play; it is where one inters one’s rivals.But the General’s problem is not confined to Osoba; it is the chorus of men who knew him best, men whose words now hang over the nation like a shroud.These were the pillars of his own house, his own kinsmen. The late Awujale of Ijebuland, Oba Sikiru Adetona, a monarch of rare fortitude and a long-time confidant, once branded Obasanjo “a Judas” to his face, documenting the exchange in his autobiography.Chief Abraham Adesanya, the patriarch of Afenifere, warned that “he who betrays the earth would end up being swallowed by the earth.”Related NewsOsun 2026: Adeleke sails into stormy political watersAPC will win Osun gov poll – Oyetola’s wifeAl-Mustapha to ex-DSS officer: You lied on Abacha’s cause of deathThe ‘madness’ in our democracy reached its zenith with the Third Term bid. Eni B’s Shadows reminds us that, for Obasanjo, power is not a lease; it is a theology.His contemporary defence, “When did I ask for a third term? If I wanted it, I would have gotten it”, is the ‘God-complex’ distilled into a single sentence. It ignores the bribes that flooded the Senate, the machinations of Chief Tony Anenih (the PDP’s ‘Mr Fix-It’) and the desperate subversion of the Constitution.Orji Uzor Kalu, then governor of Abia State, declared he was approached with bribes and even reported the scheme to foreign leaders.Nuhu Ribadu, the then EFCC chairman, estimated that at least $300 million was spent, though other accounts put the figure closer to half a billion dollars, national wealth diverted into the service of personal ambition.The undercurrents of subversion were visible as early as the National Political Reform Conference of 2005, where a trial balloon for tenure extension was floated by the Presidency. Though voted down, its presence betrayed clear intent.The subsequent Senate campaign was a desperate assault on the Constitution itself until May 16, 2006, when the “nays” drowned out the “ayes” and the bill collapsed. That moment was the salvation of Nigeria’s fragile democracy.The General prides himself on being “unfairly” blessed by God with survival, weathering coups, both phantom and real, imprisonment and myriad political storms. But as Bello correctly chronicles, survival is not a licence for the brazen manipulation of figures or the destruction of the principled opposition the nation had left.To understand this clash, one must examine the mindset of Obasanjo, the soldier-statesman, and differentiate it from that of Osoba, the journalist-politician. Obasanjo’s worldview is shaped by the barracks: command, hierarchy and conquest. For him, politics is war by other means. Betrayal is not a moral failure but a tactical necessity.Osoba, by contrast, embodies the newsroom: dialogue, persuasion and accountability. He believes in the power of words and the sanctity of truth. Where Obasanjo sees a battlefield, Osoba sees a forum.And yet, let me be clear: I hold all these men, whose voices I have recalled here, in the highest regard. I love and respect Osoba and Obasanjo especially, mindful of the indelible mark each has left on the tapestry of our national history.However, we must acknowledge that even the grandest adventures often carry a tinge of misadventure. This piece is not intended as a slight against Obasanjo, nor is it meant simply to upscale Osoba; rather, it is a reflection on the season of life they have now entered. As both statesmen approach the “departure lounge” in the twilight of their long journeys on earth, they should perhaps seek reconciliation with those they may have wronged.True peace is found not in the fortress of self-denial, but in the quiet courage of making amends and speaking the truth in good conscience.As we watch these elders trade barbs, we are witnessing a final attempt to curate a legacy. Obasanjo wants to be remembered as the nationalist; Osoba as the chronicler who exposed betrayal. But the voices of the “Judas kiss” refuse to be silenced.The verdict of history on our Fourth Republic is that it was built on a mortar of strategic insincerity. We are living in a house constructed by a master builder who used “the starch in his agbada” anecdote to blind his brothers while he dismantled the scaffolding of their autonomy.As the sun sets on this, the General must realise that his missiles cannot stop the clock.In the fullness of time, as Abraham Adesanya warned, the earth remains. Before the final tribunal, where anecdotes of “fence-mending” will be dismissed as inadmissible, only sincerity of heart will stand.History is not written by the man who throws or doctors the book; it is written by the shadows that remain after the missile has fallen. And those shadows, General, are looking remarkably like the Judas you have spent twenty years trying to outrun. The seduction was so complete that even the veteran Chief Ayo Adebanjo exclaimed after one meeting: “I sincerely cannot believe that Obasanjo has become such a changed man. I am surprised but happy that he is ready to take fundamental actions to restructure Nigeria in his second term in office.”Yet, as Osoba narrates, this was a mirage. The AD governors were lured into a ‘Mainstream’ pact that turned out to be little more than a political slaughterhouse.“We agreed to support him for the 2003 presidential election,” Osoba laments. “It was later that we realised that we had been fooled. Obasanjo merely played along with us and ended up deceiving us by telling our leaders what he knew they wanted to hear, but which didn’t come from his heart.”The betrayal was not merely rhetorical; it was corroborated by the cold machinery of the law. The Appeal Court judgment on Ogun State’s results later declared: “All allegations in Ogun State were criminal in nature. They ranged from violence, fingerprinting, official intimidation, bias and falsification of results.” History itself, through judicial pronouncement, had signed the warrant for Osoba’s charge.Witnesses to this unfolding tragedy had tried to sound the alarm. Bishop Emmanuel Gbonigi famously challenged Obasanjo to his face: “We also hear that your people are in Ondo State training some people who are expected to wear fake police uniforms on the day of the election with a view to rigging the elections for the PDP.”Obasanjo’s response was a masterclass in pious denial: “I swear to God that the allegations are untrue and unfounded. I can never be part of such a betrayal.” Yet, the events that followed proved the Bishop’s prophecy and the General’s oath were irreconcilable.Obasanjo’s response on Thursday, nearly a quarter-century after the fact, is chillingly dismissive. He treats the AD’s struggle as a “tribal cul-de-sac” and mocks the intelligence of his peers.His verdict on Osoba is the ultimate condescension: “There were issues you did not know or understand… they were above your head.” He even revisits the late Bola Ige’s promise to “meet in the field,” mocking the ‘Cicero of Esa-Oke’ with a brutal punchline: “We never met in the field. That was above your head.” In the General’s lexicon, the ‘field’ is not a space for fair play; it is where one inters one’s rivals.But the General’s problem is not confined to Osoba; it is the chorus of men who knew him best, men whose words now hang over the nation like a shroud.These were the pillars of his own house, his own kinsmen. The late Awujale of Ijebuland, Oba Sikiru Adetona, a monarch of rare fortitude and a long-time confidant, once branded Obasanjo “a Judas” to his face, documenting the exchange in his autobiography.Chief Abraham Adesanya, the patriarch of Afenifere, warned that “he who betrays the earth would end up being swallowed by the earth.”Related NewsOsun 2026: Adeleke sails into stormy political watersAPC will win Osun gov poll – Oyetola’s wifeAl-Mustapha to ex-DSS officer: You lied on Abacha’s cause of deathThe ‘madness’ in our democracy reached its zenith with the Third Term bid. Eni B’s Shadows reminds us that, for Obasanjo, power is not a lease; it is a theology.His contemporary defence, “When did I ask for a third term? If I wanted it, I would have gotten it”, is the ‘God-complex’ distilled into a single sentence. It ignores the bribes that flooded the Senate, the machinations of Chief Tony Anenih (the PDP’s ‘Mr Fix-It’) and the desperate subversion of the Constitution.Orji Uzor Kalu, then governor of Abia State, declared he was approached with bribes and even reported the scheme to foreign leaders.Nuhu Ribadu, the then EFCC chairman, estimated that at least $300 million was spent, though other accounts put the figure closer to half a billion dollars, national wealth diverted into the service of personal ambition.The undercurrents of subversion were visible as early as the National Political Reform Conference of 2005, where a trial balloon for tenure extension was floated by the Presidency. Though voted down, its presence betrayed clear intent.The subsequent Senate campaign was a desperate assault on the Constitution itself until May 16, 2006, when the “nays” drowned out the “ayes” and the bill collapsed. That moment was the salvation of Nigeria’s fragile democracy.The General prides himself on being “unfairly” blessed by God with survival, weathering coups, both phantom and real, imprisonment and myriad political storms. But as Bello correctly chronicles, survival is not a licence for the brazen manipulation of figures or the destruction of the principled opposition the nation had left.To understand this clash, one must examine the mindset of Obasanjo, the soldier-statesman, and differentiate it from that of Osoba, the journalist-politician. Obasanjo’s worldview is shaped by the barracks: command, hierarchy and conquest. For him, politics is war by other means. Betrayal is not a moral failure but a tactical necessity.Osoba, by contrast, embodies the newsroom: dialogue, persuasion and accountability. He believes in the power of words and the sanctity of truth. Where Obasanjo sees a battlefield, Osoba sees a forum.And yet, let me be clear: I hold all these men, whose voices I have recalled here, in the highest regard. I love and respect Osoba and Obasanjo especially, mindful of the indelible mark each has left on the tapestry of our national history.However, we must acknowledge that even the grandest adventures often carry a tinge of misadventure. This piece is not intended as a slight against Obasanjo, nor is it meant simply to upscale Osoba; rather, it is a reflection on the season of life they have now entered. As both statesmen approach the “departure lounge” in the twilight of their long journeys on earth, they should perhaps seek reconciliation with those they may have wronged.True peace is found not in the fortress of self-denial, but in the quiet courage of making amends and speaking the truth in good conscience.As we watch these elders trade barbs, we are witnessing a final attempt to curate a legacy. Obasanjo wants to be remembered as the nationalist; Osoba as the chronicler who exposed betrayal. But the voices of the “Judas kiss” refuse to be silenced.The verdict of history on our Fourth Republic is that it was built on a mortar of strategic insincerity. We are living in a house constructed by a master builder who used “the starch in his agbada” anecdote to blind his brothers while he dismantled the scaffolding of their autonomy.As the sun sets on this, the General must realise that his missiles cannot stop the clock.In the fullness of time, as Abraham Adesanya warned, the earth remains. Before the final tribunal, where anecdotes of “fence-mending” will be dismissed as inadmissible, only sincerity of heart will stand.History is not written by the man who throws or doctors the book; it is written by the shadows that remain after the missile has fallen. And those shadows, General, are looking remarkably like the Judas you have spent twenty years trying to outrun. Yet, as Osoba narrates, this was a mirage. The AD governors were lured into a ‘Mainstream’ pact that turned out to be little more than a political slaughterhouse.“We agreed to support him for the 2003 presidential election,” Osoba laments. “It was later that we realised that we had been fooled. Obasanjo merely played along with us and ended up deceiving us by telling our leaders what he knew they wanted to hear, but which didn’t come from his heart.”The betrayal was not merely rhetorical; it was corroborated by the cold machinery of the law. The Appeal Court judgment on Ogun State’s results later declared: “All allegations in Ogun State were criminal in nature. They ranged from violence, fingerprinting, official intimidation, bias and falsification of results.” History itself, through judicial pronouncement, had signed the warrant for Osoba’s charge.Witnesses to this unfolding tragedy had tried to sound the alarm. Bishop Emmanuel Gbonigi famously challenged Obasanjo to his face: “We also hear that your people are in Ondo State training some people who are expected to wear fake police uniforms on the day of the election with a view to rigging the elections for the PDP.”Obasanjo’s response was a masterclass in pious denial: “I swear to God that the allegations are untrue and unfounded. I can never be part of such a betrayal.” Yet, the events that followed proved the Bishop’s prophecy and the General’s oath were irreconcilable.Obasanjo’s response on Thursday, nearly a quarter-century after the fact, is chillingly dismissive. He treats the AD’s struggle as a “tribal cul-de-sac” and mocks the intelligence of his peers.His verdict on Osoba is the ultimate condescension: “There were issues you did not know or understand… they were above your head.” He even revisits the late Bola Ige’s promise to “meet in the field,” mocking the ‘Cicero of Esa-Oke’ with a brutal punchline: “We never met in the field. That was above your head.” In the General’s lexicon, the ‘field’ is not a space for fair play; it is where one inters one’s rivals.But the General’s problem is not confined to Osoba; it is the chorus of men who knew him best, men whose words now hang over the nation like a shroud.These were the pillars of his own house, his own kinsmen. The late Awujale of Ijebuland, Oba Sikiru Adetona, a monarch of rare fortitude and a long-time confidant, once branded Obasanjo “a Judas” to his face, documenting the exchange in his autobiography.Chief Abraham Adesanya, the patriarch of Afenifere, warned that “he who betrays the earth would end up being swallowed by the earth.”Related NewsOsun 2026: Adeleke sails into stormy political watersAPC will win Osun gov poll – Oyetola’s wifeAl-Mustapha to ex-DSS officer: You lied on Abacha’s cause of deathThe ‘madness’ in our democracy reached its zenith with the Third Term bid. Eni B’s Shadows reminds us that, for Obasanjo, power is not a lease; it is a theology.His contemporary defence, “When did I ask for a third term? If I wanted it, I would have gotten it”, is the ‘God-complex’ distilled into a single sentence. It ignores the bribes that flooded the Senate, the machinations of Chief Tony Anenih (the PDP’s ‘Mr Fix-It’) and the desperate subversion of the Constitution.Orji Uzor Kalu, then governor of Abia State, declared he was approached with bribes and even reported the scheme to foreign leaders.Nuhu Ribadu, the then EFCC chairman, estimated that at least $300 million was spent, though other accounts put the figure closer to half a billion dollars, national wealth diverted into the service of personal ambition.The undercurrents of subversion were visible as early as the National Political Reform Conference of 2005, where a trial balloon for tenure extension was floated by the Presidency. Though voted down, its presence betrayed clear intent.The subsequent Senate campaign was a desperate assault on the Constitution itself until May 16, 2006, when the “nays” drowned out the “ayes” and the bill collapsed. That moment was the salvation of Nigeria’s fragile democracy.The General prides himself on being “unfairly” blessed by God with survival, weathering coups, both phantom and real, imprisonment and myriad political storms. But as Bello correctly chronicles, survival is not a licence for the brazen manipulation of figures or the destruction of the principled opposition the nation had left.To understand this clash, one must examine the mindset of Obasanjo, the soldier-statesman, and differentiate it from that of Osoba, the journalist-politician. Obasanjo’s worldview is shaped by the barracks: command, hierarchy and conquest. For him, politics is war by other means. Betrayal is not a moral failure but a tactical necessity.Osoba, by contrast, embodies the newsroom: dialogue, persuasion and accountability. He believes in the power of words and the sanctity of truth. Where Obasanjo sees a battlefield, Osoba sees a forum.And yet, let me be clear: I hold all these men, whose voices I have recalled here, in the highest regard. I love and respect Osoba and Obasanjo especially, mindful of the indelible mark each has left on the tapestry of our national history.However, we must acknowledge that even the grandest adventures often carry a tinge of misadventure. This piece is not intended as a slight against Obasanjo, nor is it meant simply to upscale Osoba; rather, it is a reflection on the season of life they have now entered. As both statesmen approach the “departure lounge” in the twilight of their long journeys on earth, they should perhaps seek reconciliation with those they may have wronged.True peace is found not in the fortress of self-denial, but in the quiet courage of making amends and speaking the truth in good conscience.As we watch these elders trade barbs, we are witnessing a final attempt to curate a legacy. Obasanjo wants to be remembered as the nationalist; Osoba as the chronicler who exposed betrayal. But the voices of the “Judas kiss” refuse to be silenced.The verdict of history on our Fourth Republic is that it was built on a mortar of strategic insincerity. We are living in a house constructed by a master builder who used “the starch in his agbada” anecdote to blind his brothers while he dismantled the scaffolding of their autonomy.As the sun sets on this, the General must realise that his missiles cannot stop the clock.In the fullness of time, as Abraham Adesanya warned, the earth remains. Before the final tribunal, where anecdotes of “fence-mending” will be dismissed as inadmissible, only sincerity of heart will stand.History is not written by the man who throws or doctors the book; it is written by the shadows that remain after the missile has fallen. And those shadows, General, are looking remarkably like the Judas you have spent twenty years trying to outrun. “We agreed to support him for the 2003 presidential election,” Osoba laments. “It was later that we realised that we had been fooled. Obasanjo merely played along with us and ended up deceiving us by telling our leaders what he knew they wanted to hear, but which didn’t come from his heart.”The betrayal was not merely rhetorical; it was corroborated by the cold machinery of the law. The Appeal Court judgment on Ogun State’s results later declared: “All allegations in Ogun State were criminal in nature. They ranged from violence, fingerprinting, official intimidation, bias and falsification of results.” History itself, through judicial pronouncement, had signed the warrant for Osoba’s charge.Witnesses to this unfolding tragedy had tried to sound the alarm. Bishop Emmanuel Gbonigi famously challenged Obasanjo to his face: “We also hear that your people are in Ondo State training some people who are expected to wear fake police uniforms on the day of the election with a view to rigging the elections for the PDP.”Obasanjo’s response was a masterclass in pious denial: “I swear to God that the allegations are untrue and unfounded. I can never be part of such a betrayal.” Yet, the events that followed proved the Bishop’s prophecy and the General’s oath were irreconcilable.Obasanjo’s response on Thursday, nearly a quarter-century after the fact, is chillingly dismissive. He treats the AD’s struggle as a “tribal cul-de-sac” and mocks the intelligence of his peers.His verdict on Osoba is the ultimate condescension: “There were issues you did not know or understand… they were above your head.” He even revisits the late Bola Ige’s promise to “meet in the field,” mocking the ‘Cicero of Esa-Oke’ with a brutal punchline: “We never met in the field. That was above your head.” In the General’s lexicon, the ‘field’ is not a space for fair play; it is where one inters one’s rivals.But the General’s problem is not confined to Osoba; it is the chorus of men who knew him best, men whose words now hang over the nation like a shroud.These were the pillars of his own house, his own kinsmen. The late Awujale of Ijebuland, Oba Sikiru Adetona, a monarch of rare fortitude and a long-time confidant, once branded Obasanjo “a Judas” to his face, documenting the exchange in his autobiography.Chief Abraham Adesanya, the patriarch of Afenifere, warned that “he who betrays the earth would end up being swallowed by the earth.”Related NewsOsun 2026: Adeleke sails into stormy political watersAPC will win Osun gov poll – Oyetola’s wifeAl-Mustapha to ex-DSS officer: You lied on Abacha’s cause of deathThe ‘madness’ in our democracy reached its zenith with the Third Term bid. Eni B’s Shadows reminds us that, for Obasanjo, power is not a lease; it is a theology.His contemporary defence, “When did I ask for a third term? If I wanted it, I would have gotten it”, is the ‘God-complex’ distilled into a single sentence. It ignores the bribes that flooded the Senate, the machinations of Chief Tony Anenih (the PDP’s ‘Mr Fix-It’) and the desperate subversion of the Constitution.Orji Uzor Kalu, then governor of Abia State, declared he was approached with bribes and even reported the scheme to foreign leaders.Nuhu Ribadu, the then EFCC chairman, estimated that at least $300 million was spent, though other accounts put the figure closer to half a billion dollars, national wealth diverted into the service of personal ambition.The undercurrents of subversion were visible as early as the National Political Reform Conference of 2005, where a trial balloon for tenure extension was floated by the Presidency. Though voted down, its presence betrayed clear intent.The subsequent Senate campaign was a desperate assault on the Constitution itself until May 16, 2006, when the “nays” drowned out the “ayes” and the bill collapsed. That moment was the salvation of Nigeria’s fragile democracy.The General prides himself on being “unfairly” blessed by God with survival, weathering coups, both phantom and real, imprisonment and myriad political storms. But as Bello correctly chronicles, survival is not a licence for the brazen manipulation of figures or the destruction of the principled opposition the nation had left.To understand this clash, one must examine the mindset of Obasanjo, the soldier-statesman, and differentiate it from that of Osoba, the journalist-politician. Obasanjo’s worldview is shaped by the barracks: command, hierarchy and conquest. For him, politics is war by other means. Betrayal is not a moral failure but a tactical necessity.Osoba, by contrast, embodies the newsroom: dialogue, persuasion and accountability. He believes in the power of words and the sanctity of truth. Where Obasanjo sees a battlefield, Osoba sees a forum.And yet, let me be clear: I hold all these men, whose voices I have recalled here, in the highest regard. I love and respect Osoba and Obasanjo especially, mindful of the indelible mark each has left on the tapestry of our national history.However, we must acknowledge that even the grandest adventures often carry a tinge of misadventure. This piece is not intended as a slight against Obasanjo, nor is it meant simply to upscale Osoba; rather, it is a reflection on the season of life they have now entered. As both statesmen approach the “departure lounge” in the twilight of their long journeys on earth, they should perhaps seek reconciliation with those they may have wronged.True peace is found not in the fortress of self-denial, but in the quiet courage of making amends and speaking the truth in good conscience.As we watch these elders trade barbs, we are witnessing a final attempt to curate a legacy. Obasanjo wants to be remembered as the nationalist; Osoba as the chronicler who exposed betrayal. But the voices of the “Judas kiss” refuse to be silenced.The verdict of history on our Fourth Republic is that it was built on a mortar of strategic insincerity. We are living in a house constructed by a master builder who used “the starch in his agbada” anecdote to blind his brothers while he dismantled the scaffolding of their autonomy.As the sun sets on this, the General must realise that his missiles cannot stop the clock.In the fullness of time, as Abraham Adesanya warned, the earth remains. Before the final tribunal, where anecdotes of “fence-mending” will be dismissed as inadmissible, only sincerity of heart will stand.History is not written by the man who throws or doctors the book; it is written by the shadows that remain after the missile has fallen. And those shadows, General, are looking remarkably like the Judas you have spent twenty years trying to outrun. The betrayal was not merely rhetorical; it was corroborated by the cold machinery of the law. The Appeal Court judgment on Ogun State’s results later declared: “All allegations in Ogun State were criminal in nature. They ranged from violence, fingerprinting, official intimidation, bias and falsification of results.” History itself, through judicial pronouncement, had signed the warrant for Osoba’s charge.Witnesses to this unfolding tragedy had tried to sound the alarm. Bishop Emmanuel Gbonigi famously challenged Obasanjo to his face: “We also hear that your people are in Ondo State training some people who are expected to wear fake police uniforms on the day of the election with a view to rigging the elections for the PDP.”Obasanjo’s response was a masterclass in pious denial: “I swear to God that the allegations are untrue and unfounded. I can never be part of such a betrayal.” Yet, the events that followed proved the Bishop’s prophecy and the General’s oath were irreconcilable.Obasanjo’s response on Thursday, nearly a quarter-century after the fact, is chillingly dismissive. He treats the AD’s struggle as a “tribal cul-de-sac” and mocks the intelligence of his peers.His verdict on Osoba is the ultimate condescension: “There were issues you did not know or understand… they were above your head.” He even revisits the late Bola Ige’s promise to “meet in the field,” mocking the ‘Cicero of Esa-Oke’ with a brutal punchline: “We never met in the field. That was above your head.” In the General’s lexicon, the ‘field’ is not a space for fair play; it is where one inters one’s rivals.But the General’s problem is not confined to Osoba; it is the chorus of men who knew him best, men whose words now hang over the nation like a shroud.These were the pillars of his own house, his own kinsmen. The late Awujale of Ijebuland, Oba Sikiru Adetona, a monarch of rare fortitude and a long-time confidant, once branded Obasanjo “a Judas” to his face, documenting the exchange in his autobiography.Chief Abraham Adesanya, the patriarch of Afenifere, warned that “he who betrays the earth would end up being swallowed by the earth.”Related NewsOsun 2026: Adeleke sails into stormy political watersAPC will win Osun gov poll – Oyetola’s wifeAl-Mustapha to ex-DSS officer: You lied on Abacha’s cause of deathThe ‘madness’ in our democracy reached its zenith with the Third Term bid. Eni B’s Shadows reminds us that, for Obasanjo, power is not a lease; it is a theology.His contemporary defence, “When did I ask for a third term? If I wanted it, I would have gotten it”, is the ‘God-complex’ distilled into a single sentence. It ignores the bribes that flooded the Senate, the machinations of Chief Tony Anenih (the PDP’s ‘Mr Fix-It’) and the desperate subversion of the Constitution.Orji Uzor Kalu, then governor of Abia State, declared he was approached with bribes and even reported the scheme to foreign leaders.Nuhu Ribadu, the then EFCC chairman, estimated that at least $300 million was spent, though other accounts put the figure closer to half a billion dollars, national wealth diverted into the service of personal ambition.The undercurrents of subversion were visible as early as the National Political Reform Conference of 2005, where a trial balloon for tenure extension was floated by the Presidency. Though voted down, its presence betrayed clear intent.The subsequent Senate campaign was a desperate assault on the Constitution itself until May 16, 2006, when the “nays” drowned out the “ayes” and the bill collapsed. That moment was the salvation of Nigeria’s fragile democracy.The General prides himself on being “unfairly” blessed by God with survival, weathering coups, both phantom and real, imprisonment and myriad political storms. But as Bello correctly chronicles, survival is not a licence for the brazen manipulation of figures or the destruction of the principled opposition the nation had left.To understand this clash, one must examine the mindset of Obasanjo, the soldier-statesman, and differentiate it from that of Osoba, the journalist-politician. Obasanjo’s worldview is shaped by the barracks: command, hierarchy and conquest. For him, politics is war by other means. Betrayal is not a moral failure but a tactical necessity.Osoba, by contrast, embodies the newsroom: dialogue, persuasion and accountability. He believes in the power of words and the sanctity of truth. Where Obasanjo sees a battlefield, Osoba sees a forum.And yet, let me be clear: I hold all these men, whose voices I have recalled here, in the highest regard. I love and respect Osoba and Obasanjo especially, mindful of the indelible mark each has left on the tapestry of our national history.However, we must acknowledge that even the grandest adventures often carry a tinge of misadventure. This piece is not intended as a slight against Obasanjo, nor is it meant simply to upscale Osoba; rather, it is a reflection on the season of life they have now entered. As both statesmen approach the “departure lounge” in the twilight of their long journeys on earth, they should perhaps seek reconciliation with those they may have wronged.True peace is found not in the fortress of self-denial, but in the quiet courage of making amends and speaking the truth in good conscience.As we watch these elders trade barbs, we are witnessing a final attempt to curate a legacy. Obasanjo wants to be remembered as the nationalist; Osoba as the chronicler who exposed betrayal. But the voices of the “Judas kiss” refuse to be silenced.The verdict of history on our Fourth Republic is that it was built on a mortar of strategic insincerity. We are living in a house constructed by a master builder who used “the starch in his agbada” anecdote to blind his brothers while he dismantled the scaffolding of their autonomy.As the sun sets on this, the General must realise that his missiles cannot stop the clock.In the fullness of time, as Abraham Adesanya warned, the earth remains. Before the final tribunal, where anecdotes of “fence-mending” will be dismissed as inadmissible, only sincerity of heart will stand.History is not written by the man who throws or doctors the book; it is written by the shadows that remain after the missile has fallen. And those shadows, General, are looking remarkably like the Judas you have spent twenty years trying to outrun. Witnesses to this unfolding tragedy had tried to sound the alarm. Bishop Emmanuel Gbonigi famously challenged Obasanjo to his face: “We also hear that your people are in Ondo State training some people who are expected to wear fake police uniforms on the day of the election with a view to rigging the elections for the PDP.”Obasanjo’s response was a masterclass in pious denial: “I swear to God that the allegations are untrue and unfounded. I can never be part of such a betrayal.” Yet, the events that followed proved the Bishop’s prophecy and the General’s oath were irreconcilable.Obasanjo’s response on Thursday, nearly a quarter-century after the fact, is chillingly dismissive. He treats the AD’s struggle as a “tribal cul-de-sac” and mocks the intelligence of his peers.His verdict on Osoba is the ultimate condescension: “There were issues you did not know or understand… they were above your head.” He even revisits the late Bola Ige’s promise to “meet in the field,” mocking the ‘Cicero of Esa-Oke’ with a brutal punchline: “We never met in the field. That was above your head.” In the General’s lexicon, the ‘field’ is not a space for fair play; it is where one inters one’s rivals.But the General’s problem is not confined to Osoba; it is the chorus of men who knew him best, men whose words now hang over the nation like a shroud.These were the pillars of his own house, his own kinsmen. The late Awujale of Ijebuland, Oba Sikiru Adetona, a monarch of rare fortitude and a long-time confidant, once branded Obasanjo “a Judas” to his face, documenting the exchange in his autobiography.Chief Abraham Adesanya, the patriarch of Afenifere, warned that “he who betrays the earth would end up being swallowed by the earth.”Related NewsOsun 2026: Adeleke sails into stormy political watersAPC will win Osun gov poll – Oyetola’s wifeAl-Mustapha to ex-DSS officer: You lied on Abacha’s cause of deathThe ‘madness’ in our democracy reached its zenith with the Third Term bid. Eni B’s Shadows reminds us that, for Obasanjo, power is not a lease; it is a theology.His contemporary defence, “When did I ask for a third term? If I wanted it, I would have gotten it”, is the ‘God-complex’ distilled into a single sentence. It ignores the bribes that flooded the Senate, the machinations of Chief Tony Anenih (the PDP’s ‘Mr Fix-It’) and the desperate subversion of the Constitution.Orji Uzor Kalu, then governor of Abia State, declared he was approached with bribes and even reported the scheme to foreign leaders.Nuhu Ribadu, the then EFCC chairman, estimated that at least $300 million was spent, though other accounts put the figure closer to half a billion dollars, national wealth diverted into the service of personal ambition.The undercurrents of subversion were visible as early as the National Political Reform Conference of 2005, where a trial balloon for tenure extension was floated by the Presidency. Though voted down, its presence betrayed clear intent.The subsequent Senate campaign was a desperate assault on the Constitution itself until May 16, 2006, when the “nays” drowned out the “ayes” and the bill collapsed. That moment was the salvation of Nigeria’s fragile democracy.The General prides himself on being “unfairly” blessed by God with survival, weathering coups, both phantom and real, imprisonment and myriad political storms. But as Bello correctly chronicles, survival is not a licence for the brazen manipulation of figures or the destruction of the principled opposition the nation had left.To understand this clash, one must examine the mindset of Obasanjo, the soldier-statesman, and differentiate it from that of Osoba, the journalist-politician. Obasanjo’s worldview is shaped by the barracks: command, hierarchy and conquest. For him, politics is war by other means. Betrayal is not a moral failure but a tactical necessity.Osoba, by contrast, embodies the newsroom: dialogue, persuasion and accountability. He believes in the power of words and the sanctity of truth. Where Obasanjo sees a battlefield, Osoba sees a forum.And yet, let me be clear: I hold all these men, whose voices I have recalled here, in the highest regard. I love and respect Osoba and Obasanjo especially, mindful of the indelible mark each has left on the tapestry of our national history.However, we must acknowledge that even the grandest adventures often carry a tinge of misadventure. This piece is not intended as a slight against Obasanjo, nor is it meant simply to upscale Osoba; rather, it is a reflection on the season of life they have now entered. As both statesmen approach the “departure lounge” in the twilight of their long journeys on earth, they should perhaps seek reconciliation with those they may have wronged.True peace is found not in the fortress of self-denial, but in the quiet courage of making amends and speaking the truth in good conscience.As we watch these elders trade barbs, we are witnessing a final attempt to curate a legacy. Obasanjo wants to be remembered as the nationalist; Osoba as the chronicler who exposed betrayal. But the voices of the “Judas kiss” refuse to be silenced.The verdict of history on our Fourth Republic is that it was built on a mortar of strategic insincerity. We are living in a house constructed by a master builder who used “the starch in his agbada” anecdote to blind his brothers while he dismantled the scaffolding of their autonomy.As the sun sets on this, the General must realise that his missiles cannot stop the clock.In the fullness of time, as Abraham Adesanya warned, the earth remains. Before the final tribunal, where anecdotes of “fence-mending” will be dismissed as inadmissible, only sincerity of heart will stand.History is not written by the man who throws or doctors the book; it is written by the shadows that remain after the missile has fallen. And those shadows, General, are looking remarkably like the Judas you have spent twenty years trying to outrun. Obasanjo’s response was a masterclass in pious denial: “I swear to God that the allegations are untrue and unfounded. I can never be part of such a betrayal.” Yet, the events that followed proved the Bishop’s prophecy and the General’s oath were irreconcilable.Obasanjo’s response on Thursday, nearly a quarter-century after the fact, is chillingly dismissive. He treats the AD’s struggle as a “tribal cul-de-sac” and mocks the intelligence of his peers.His verdict on Osoba is the ultimate condescension: “There were issues you did not know or understand… they were above your head.” He even revisits the late Bola Ige’s promise to “meet in the field,” mocking the ‘Cicero of Esa-Oke’ with a brutal punchline: “We never met in the field. That was above your head.” In the General’s lexicon, the ‘field’ is not a space for fair play; it is where one inters one’s rivals.But the General’s problem is not confined to Osoba; it is the chorus of men who knew him best, men whose words now hang over the nation like a shroud.These were the pillars of his own house, his own kinsmen. The late Awujale of Ijebuland, Oba Sikiru Adetona, a monarch of rare fortitude and a long-time confidant, once branded Obasanjo “a Judas” to his face, documenting the exchange in his autobiography.Chief Abraham Adesanya, the patriarch of Afenifere, warned that “he who betrays the earth would end up being swallowed by the earth.”Related NewsOsun 2026: Adeleke sails into stormy political watersAPC will win Osun gov poll – Oyetola’s wifeAl-Mustapha to ex-DSS officer: You lied on Abacha’s cause of deathThe ‘madness’ in our democracy reached its zenith with the Third Term bid. Eni B’s Shadows reminds us that, for Obasanjo, power is not a lease; it is a theology.His contemporary defence, “When did I ask for a third term? If I wanted it, I would have gotten it”, is the ‘God-complex’ distilled into a single sentence. It ignores the bribes that flooded the Senate, the machinations of Chief Tony Anenih (the PDP’s ‘Mr Fix-It’) and the desperate subversion of the Constitution.Orji Uzor Kalu, then governor of Abia State, declared he was approached with bribes and even reported the scheme to foreign leaders.Nuhu Ribadu, the then EFCC chairman, estimated that at least $300 million was spent, though other accounts put the figure closer to half a billion dollars, national wealth diverted into the service of personal ambition.The undercurrents of subversion were visible as early as the National Political Reform Conference of 2005, where a trial balloon for tenure extension was floated by the Presidency. Though voted down, its presence betrayed clear intent.The subsequent Senate campaign was a desperate assault on the Constitution itself until May 16, 2006, when the “nays” drowned out the “ayes” and the bill collapsed. That moment was the salvation of Nigeria’s fragile democracy.The General prides himself on being “unfairly” blessed by God with survival, weathering coups, both phantom and real, imprisonment and myriad political storms. But as Bello correctly chronicles, survival is not a licence for the brazen manipulation of figures or the destruction of the principled opposition the nation had left.To understand this clash, one must examine the mindset of Obasanjo, the soldier-statesman, and differentiate it from that of Osoba, the journalist-politician. Obasanjo’s worldview is shaped by the barracks: command, hierarchy and conquest. For him, politics is war by other means. Betrayal is not a moral failure but a tactical necessity.Osoba, by contrast, embodies the newsroom: dialogue, persuasion and accountability. He believes in the power of words and the sanctity of truth. Where Obasanjo sees a battlefield, Osoba sees a forum.And yet, let me be clear: I hold all these men, whose voices I have recalled here, in the highest regard. I love and respect Osoba and Obasanjo especially, mindful of the indelible mark each has left on the tapestry of our national history.However, we must acknowledge that even the grandest adventures often carry a tinge of misadventure. This piece is not intended as a slight against Obasanjo, nor is it meant simply to upscale Osoba; rather, it is a reflection on the season of life they have now entered. As both statesmen approach the “departure lounge” in the twilight of their long journeys on earth, they should perhaps seek reconciliation with those they may have wronged.True peace is found not in the fortress of self-denial, but in the quiet courage of making amends and speaking the truth in good conscience.As we watch these elders trade barbs, we are witnessing a final attempt to curate a legacy. Obasanjo wants to be remembered as the nationalist; Osoba as the chronicler who exposed betrayal. But the voices of the “Judas kiss” refuse to be silenced.The verdict of history on our Fourth Republic is that it was built on a mortar of strategic insincerity. We are living in a house constructed by a master builder who used “the starch in his agbada” anecdote to blind his brothers while he dismantled the scaffolding of their autonomy.As the sun sets on this, the General must realise that his missiles cannot stop the clock.In the fullness of time, as Abraham Adesanya warned, the earth remains. Before the final tribunal, where anecdotes of “fence-mending” will be dismissed as inadmissible, only sincerity of heart will stand.History is not written by the man who throws or doctors the book; it is written by the shadows that remain after the missile has fallen. And those shadows, General, are looking remarkably like the Judas you have spent twenty years trying to outrun. Obasanjo’s response on Thursday, nearly a quarter-century after the fact, is chillingly dismissive. He treats the AD’s struggle as a “tribal cul-de-sac” and mocks the intelligence of his peers.His verdict on Osoba is the ultimate condescension: “There were issues you did not know or understand… they were above your head.” He even revisits the late Bola Ige’s promise to “meet in the field,” mocking the ‘Cicero of Esa-Oke’ with a brutal punchline: “We never met in the field. That was above your head.” In the General’s lexicon, the ‘field’ is not a space for fair play; it is where one inters one’s rivals.But the General’s problem is not confined to Osoba; it is the chorus of men who knew him best, men whose words now hang over the nation like a shroud.These were the pillars of his own house, his own kinsmen. The late Awujale of Ijebuland, Oba Sikiru Adetona, a monarch of rare fortitude and a long-time confidant, once branded Obasanjo “a Judas” to his face, documenting the exchange in his autobiography.Chief Abraham Adesanya, the patriarch of Afenifere, warned that “he who betrays the earth would end up being swallowed by the earth.”Related NewsOsun 2026: Adeleke sails into stormy political watersAPC will win Osun gov poll – Oyetola’s wifeAl-Mustapha to ex-DSS officer: You lied on Abacha’s cause of deathThe ‘madness’ in our democracy reached its zenith with the Third Term bid. Eni B’s Shadows reminds us that, for Obasanjo, power is not a lease; it is a theology.His contemporary defence, “When did I ask for a third term? If I wanted it, I would have gotten it”, is the ‘God-complex’ distilled into a single sentence. It ignores the bribes that flooded the Senate, the machinations of Chief Tony Anenih (the PDP’s ‘Mr Fix-It’) and the desperate subversion of the Constitution.Orji Uzor Kalu, then governor of Abia State, declared he was approached with bribes and even reported the scheme to foreign leaders.Nuhu Ribadu, the then EFCC chairman, estimated that at least $300 million was spent, though other accounts put the figure closer to half a billion dollars, national wealth diverted into the service of personal ambition.The undercurrents of subversion were visible as early as the National Political Reform Conference of 2005, where a trial balloon for tenure extension was floated by the Presidency. Though voted down, its presence betrayed clear intent.The subsequent Senate campaign was a desperate assault on the Constitution itself until May 16, 2006, when the “nays” drowned out the “ayes” and the bill collapsed. That moment was the salvation of Nigeria’s fragile democracy.The General prides himself on being “unfairly” blessed by God with survival, weathering coups, both phantom and real, imprisonment and myriad political storms. But as Bello correctly chronicles, survival is not a licence for the brazen manipulation of figures or the destruction of the principled opposition the nation had left.To understand this clash, one must examine the mindset of Obasanjo, the soldier-statesman, and differentiate it from that of Osoba, the journalist-politician. Obasanjo’s worldview is shaped by the barracks: command, hierarchy and conquest. For him, politics is war by other means. Betrayal is not a moral failure but a tactical necessity.Osoba, by contrast, embodies the newsroom: dialogue, persuasion and accountability. He believes in the power of words and the sanctity of truth. Where Obasanjo sees a battlefield, Osoba sees a forum.And yet, let me be clear: I hold all these men, whose voices I have recalled here, in the highest regard. I love and respect Osoba and Obasanjo especially, mindful of the indelible mark each has left on the tapestry of our national history.However, we must acknowledge that even the grandest adventures often carry a tinge of misadventure. This piece is not intended as a slight against Obasanjo, nor is it meant simply to upscale Osoba; rather, it is a reflection on the season of life they have now entered. As both statesmen approach the “departure lounge” in the twilight of their long journeys on earth, they should perhaps seek reconciliation with those they may have wronged.True peace is found not in the fortress of self-denial, but in the quiet courage of making amends and speaking the truth in good conscience.As we watch these elders trade barbs, we are witnessing a final attempt to curate a legacy. Obasanjo wants to be remembered as the nationalist; Osoba as the chronicler who exposed betrayal. But the voices of the “Judas kiss” refuse to be silenced.The verdict of history on our Fourth Republic is that it was built on a mortar of strategic insincerity. We are living in a house constructed by a master builder who used “the starch in his agbada” anecdote to blind his brothers while he dismantled the scaffolding of their autonomy.As the sun sets on this, the General must realise that his missiles cannot stop the clock.In the fullness of time, as Abraham Adesanya warned, the earth remains. Before the final tribunal, where anecdotes of “fence-mending” will be dismissed as inadmissible, only sincerity of heart will stand.History is not written by the man who throws or doctors the book; it is written by the shadows that remain after the missile has fallen. And those shadows, General, are looking remarkably like the Judas you have spent twenty years trying to outrun. His verdict on Osoba is the ultimate condescension: “There were issues you did not know or understand… they were above your head.” He even revisits the late Bola Ige’s promise to “meet in the field,” mocking the ‘Cicero of Esa-Oke’ with a brutal punchline: “We never met in the field. That was above your head.” In the General’s lexicon, the ‘field’ is not a space for fair play; it is where one inters one’s rivals.But the General’s problem is not confined to Osoba; it is the chorus of men who knew him best, men whose words now hang over the nation like a shroud.These were the pillars of his own house, his own kinsmen. The late Awujale of Ijebuland, Oba Sikiru Adetona, a monarch of rare fortitude and a long-time confidant, once branded Obasanjo “a Judas” to his face, documenting the exchange in his autobiography.Chief Abraham Adesanya, the patriarch of Afenifere, warned that “he who betrays the earth would end up being swallowed by the earth.”Related NewsOsun 2026: Adeleke sails into stormy political watersAPC will win Osun gov poll – Oyetola’s wifeAl-Mustapha to ex-DSS officer: You lied on Abacha’s cause of deathThe ‘madness’ in our democracy reached its zenith with the Third Term bid. Eni B’s Shadows reminds us that, for Obasanjo, power is not a lease; it is a theology.His contemporary defence, “When did I ask for a third term? If I wanted it, I would have gotten it”, is the ‘God-complex’ distilled into a single sentence. It ignores the bribes that flooded the Senate, the machinations of Chief Tony Anenih (the PDP’s ‘Mr Fix-It’) and the desperate subversion of the Constitution.Orji Uzor Kalu, then governor of Abia State, declared he was approached with bribes and even reported the scheme to foreign leaders.Nuhu Ribadu, the then EFCC chairman, estimated that at least $300 million was spent, though other accounts put the figure closer to half a billion dollars, national wealth diverted into the service of personal ambition.The undercurrents of subversion were visible as early as the National Political Reform Conference of 2005, where a trial balloon for tenure extension was floated by the Presidency. Though voted down, its presence betrayed clear intent.The subsequent Senate campaign was a desperate assault on the Constitution itself until May 16, 2006, when the “nays” drowned out the “ayes” and the bill collapsed. That moment was the salvation of Nigeria’s fragile democracy.The General prides himself on being “unfairly” blessed by God with survival, weathering coups, both phantom and real, imprisonment and myriad political storms. But as Bello correctly chronicles, survival is not a licence for the brazen manipulation of figures or the destruction of the principled opposition the nation had left.To understand this clash, one must examine the mindset of Obasanjo, the soldier-statesman, and differentiate it from that of Osoba, the journalist-politician. Obasanjo’s worldview is shaped by the barracks: command, hierarchy and conquest. For him, politics is war by other means. Betrayal is not a moral failure but a tactical necessity.Osoba, by contrast, embodies the newsroom: dialogue, persuasion and accountability. He believes in the power of words and the sanctity of truth. Where Obasanjo sees a battlefield, Osoba sees a forum.And yet, let me be clear: I hold all these men, whose voices I have recalled here, in the highest regard. I love and respect Osoba and Obasanjo especially, mindful of the indelible mark each has left on the tapestry of our national history.However, we must acknowledge that even the grandest adventures often carry a tinge of misadventure. This piece is not intended as a slight against Obasanjo, nor is it meant simply to upscale Osoba; rather, it is a reflection on the season of life they have now entered. As both statesmen approach the “departure lounge” in the twilight of their long journeys on earth, they should perhaps seek reconciliation with those they may have wronged.True peace is found not in the fortress of self-denial, but in the quiet courage of making amends and speaking the truth in good conscience.As we watch these elders trade barbs, we are witnessing a final attempt to curate a legacy. Obasanjo wants to be remembered as the nationalist; Osoba as the chronicler who exposed betrayal. But the voices of the “Judas kiss” refuse to be silenced.The verdict of history on our Fourth Republic is that it was built on a mortar of strategic insincerity. We are living in a house constructed by a master builder who used “the starch in his agbada” anecdote to blind his brothers while he dismantled the scaffolding of their autonomy.As the sun sets on this, the General must realise that his missiles cannot stop the clock.In the fullness of time, as Abraham Adesanya warned, the earth remains. Before the final tribunal, where anecdotes of “fence-mending” will be dismissed as inadmissible, only sincerity of heart will stand.History is not written by the man who throws or doctors the book; it is written by the shadows that remain after the missile has fallen. And those shadows, General, are looking remarkably like the Judas you have spent twenty years trying to outrun. But the General’s problem is not confined to Osoba; it is the chorus of men who knew him best, men whose words now hang over the nation like a shroud.These were the pillars of his own house, his own kinsmen. The late Awujale of Ijebuland, Oba Sikiru Adetona, a monarch of rare fortitude and a long-time confidant, once branded Obasanjo “a Judas” to his face, documenting the exchange in his autobiography.Chief Abraham Adesanya, the patriarch of Afenifere, warned that “he who betrays the earth would end up being swallowed by the earth.”Related NewsOsun 2026: Adeleke sails into stormy political watersAPC will win Osun gov poll – Oyetola’s wifeAl-Mustapha to ex-DSS officer: You lied on Abacha’s cause of deathThe ‘madness’ in our democracy reached its zenith with the Third Term bid. Eni B’s Shadows reminds us that, for Obasanjo, power is not a lease; it is a theology.His contemporary defence, “When did I ask for a third term? If I wanted it, I would have gotten it”, is the ‘God-complex’ distilled into a single sentence. It ignores the bribes that flooded the Senate, the machinations of Chief Tony Anenih (the PDP’s ‘Mr Fix-It’) and the desperate subversion of the Constitution.Orji Uzor Kalu, then governor of Abia State, declared he was approached with bribes and even reported the scheme to foreign leaders.Nuhu Ribadu, the then EFCC chairman, estimated that at least $300 million was spent, though other accounts put the figure closer to half a billion dollars, national wealth diverted into the service of personal ambition.The undercurrents of subversion were visible as early as the National Political Reform Conference of 2005, where a trial balloon for tenure extension was floated by the Presidency. Though voted down, its presence betrayed clear intent.The subsequent Senate campaign was a desperate assault on the Constitution itself until May 16, 2006, when the “nays” drowned out the “ayes” and the bill collapsed. That moment was the salvation of Nigeria’s fragile democracy.The General prides himself on being “unfairly” blessed by God with survival, weathering coups, both phantom and real, imprisonment and myriad political storms. But as Bello correctly chronicles, survival is not a licence for the brazen manipulation of figures or the destruction of the principled opposition the nation had left.To understand this clash, one must examine the mindset of Obasanjo, the soldier-statesman, and differentiate it from that of Osoba, the journalist-politician. Obasanjo’s worldview is shaped by the barracks: command, hierarchy and conquest. For him, politics is war by other means. Betrayal is not a moral failure but a tactical necessity.Osoba, by contrast, embodies the newsroom: dialogue, persuasion and accountability. He believes in the power of words and the sanctity of truth. Where Obasanjo sees a battlefield, Osoba sees a forum.And yet, let me be clear: I hold all these men, whose voices I have recalled here, in the highest regard. I love and respect Osoba and Obasanjo especially, mindful of the indelible mark each has left on the tapestry of our national history.However, we must acknowledge that even the grandest adventures often carry a tinge of misadventure. This piece is not intended as a slight against Obasanjo, nor is it meant simply to upscale Osoba; rather, it is a reflection on the season of life they have now entered. As both statesmen approach the “departure lounge” in the twilight of their long journeys on earth, they should perhaps seek reconciliation with those they may have wronged.True peace is found not in the fortress of self-denial, but in the quiet courage of making amends and speaking the truth in good conscience.As we watch these elders trade barbs, we are witnessing a final attempt to curate a legacy. Obasanjo wants to be remembered as the nationalist; Osoba as the chronicler who exposed betrayal. But the voices of the “Judas kiss” refuse to be silenced.The verdict of history on our Fourth Republic is that it was built on a mortar of strategic insincerity. We are living in a house constructed by a master builder who used “the starch in his agbada” anecdote to blind his brothers while he dismantled the scaffolding of their autonomy.As the sun sets on this, the General must realise that his missiles cannot stop the clock.In the fullness of time, as Abraham Adesanya warned, the earth remains. Before the final tribunal, where anecdotes of “fence-mending” will be dismissed as inadmissible, only sincerity of heart will stand.History is not written by the man who throws or doctors the book; it is written by the shadows that remain after the missile has fallen. And those shadows, General, are looking remarkably like the Judas you have spent twenty years trying to outrun. These were the pillars of his own house, his own kinsmen. The late Awujale of Ijebuland, Oba Sikiru Adetona, a monarch of rare fortitude and a long-time confidant, once branded Obasanjo “a Judas” to his face, documenting the exchange in his autobiography.Chief Abraham Adesanya, the patriarch of Afenifere, warned that “he who betrays the earth would end up being swallowed by the earth.”Related NewsOsun 2026: Adeleke sails into stormy political watersAPC will win Osun gov poll – Oyetola’s wifeAl-Mustapha to ex-DSS officer: You lied on Abacha’s cause of deathThe ‘madness’ in our democracy reached its zenith with the Third Term bid. Eni B’s Shadows reminds us that, for Obasanjo, power is not a lease; it is a theology.His contemporary defence, “When did I ask for a third term? If I wanted it, I would have gotten it”, is the ‘God-complex’ distilled into a single sentence. It ignores the bribes that flooded the Senate, the machinations of Chief Tony Anenih (the PDP’s ‘Mr Fix-It’) and the desperate subversion of the Constitution.Orji Uzor Kalu, then governor of Abia State, declared he was approached with bribes and even reported the scheme to foreign leaders.Nuhu Ribadu, the then EFCC chairman, estimated that at least $300 million was spent, though other accounts put the figure closer to half a billion dollars, national wealth diverted into the service of personal ambition.The undercurrents of subversion were visible as early as the National Political Reform Conference of 2005, where a trial balloon for tenure extension was floated by the Presidency. Though voted down, its presence betrayed clear intent.The subsequent Senate campaign was a desperate assault on the Constitution itself until May 16, 2006, when the “nays” drowned out the “ayes” and the bill collapsed. That moment was the salvation of Nigeria’s fragile democracy.The General prides himself on being “unfairly” blessed by God with survival, weathering coups, both phantom and real, imprisonment and myriad political storms. But as Bello correctly chronicles, survival is not a licence for the brazen manipulation of figures or the destruction of the principled opposition the nation had left.To understand this clash, one must examine the mindset of Obasanjo, the soldier-statesman, and differentiate it from that of Osoba, the journalist-politician. Obasanjo’s worldview is shaped by the barracks: command, hierarchy and conquest. For him, politics is war by other means. Betrayal is not a moral failure but a tactical necessity.Osoba, by contrast, embodies the newsroom: dialogue, persuasion and accountability. He believes in the power of words and the sanctity of truth. Where Obasanjo sees a battlefield, Osoba sees a forum.And yet, let me be clear: I hold all these men, whose voices I have recalled here, in the highest regard. I love and respect Osoba and Obasanjo especially, mindful of the indelible mark each has left on the tapestry of our national history.However, we must acknowledge that even the grandest adventures often carry a tinge of misadventure. This piece is not intended as a slight against Obasanjo, nor is it meant simply to upscale Osoba; rather, it is a reflection on the season of life they have now entered. As both statesmen approach the “departure lounge” in the twilight of their long journeys on earth, they should perhaps seek reconciliation with those they may have wronged.True peace is found not in the fortress of self-denial, but in the quiet courage of making amends and speaking the truth in good conscience.As we watch these elders trade barbs, we are witnessing a final attempt to curate a legacy. Obasanjo wants to be remembered as the nationalist; Osoba as the chronicler who exposed betrayal. But the voices of the “Judas kiss” refuse to be silenced.The verdict of history on our Fourth Republic is that it was built on a mortar of strategic insincerity. We are living in a house constructed by a master builder who used “the starch in his agbada” anecdote to blind his brothers while he dismantled the scaffolding of their autonomy.As the sun sets on this, the General must realise that his missiles cannot stop the clock.In the fullness of time, as Abraham Adesanya warned, the earth remains. Before the final tribunal, where anecdotes of “fence-mending” will be dismissed as inadmissible, only sincerity of heart will stand.History is not written by the man who throws or doctors the book; it is written by the shadows that remain after the missile has fallen. And those shadows, General, are looking remarkably like the Judas you have spent twenty years trying to outrun. Chief Abraham Adesanya, the patriarch of Afenifere, warned that “he who betrays the earth would end up being swallowed by the earth.”Related NewsOsun 2026: Adeleke sails into stormy political watersAPC will win Osun gov poll – Oyetola’s wifeAl-Mustapha to ex-DSS officer: You lied on Abacha’s cause of deathThe ‘madness’ in our democracy reached its zenith with the Third Term bid. Eni B’s Shadows reminds us that, for Obasanjo, power is not a lease; it is a theology.His contemporary defence, “When did I ask for a third term? If I wanted it, I would have gotten it”, is the ‘God-complex’ distilled into a single sentence. It ignores the bribes that flooded the Senate, the machinations of Chief Tony Anenih (the PDP’s ‘Mr Fix-It’) and the desperate subversion of the Constitution.Orji Uzor Kalu, then governor of Abia State, declared he was approached with bribes and even reported the scheme to foreign leaders.Nuhu Ribadu, the then EFCC chairman, estimated that at least $300 million was spent, though other accounts put the figure closer to half a billion dollars, national wealth diverted into the service of personal ambition.The undercurrents of subversion were visible as early as the National Political Reform Conference of 2005, where a trial balloon for tenure extension was floated by the Presidency. Though voted down, its presence betrayed clear intent.The subsequent Senate campaign was a desperate assault on the Constitution itself until May 16, 2006, when the “nays” drowned out the “ayes” and the bill collapsed. That moment was the salvation of Nigeria’s fragile democracy.The General prides himself on being “unfairly” blessed by God with survival, weathering coups, both phantom and real, imprisonment and myriad political storms. But as Bello correctly chronicles, survival is not a licence for the brazen manipulation of figures or the destruction of the principled opposition the nation had left.To understand this clash, one must examine the mindset of Obasanjo, the soldier-statesman, and differentiate it from that of Osoba, the journalist-politician. Obasanjo’s worldview is shaped by the barracks: command, hierarchy and conquest. For him, politics is war by other means. Betrayal is not a moral failure but a tactical necessity.Osoba, by contrast, embodies the newsroom: dialogue, persuasion and accountability. He believes in the power of words and the sanctity of truth. Where Obasanjo sees a battlefield, Osoba sees a forum.And yet, let me be clear: I hold all these men, whose voices I have recalled here, in the highest regard. I love and respect Osoba and Obasanjo especially, mindful of the indelible mark each has left on the tapestry of our national history.However, we must acknowledge that even the grandest adventures often carry a tinge of misadventure. This piece is not intended as a slight against Obasanjo, nor is it meant simply to upscale Osoba; rather, it is a reflection on the season of life they have now entered. As both statesmen approach the “departure lounge” in the twilight of their long journeys on earth, they should perhaps seek reconciliation with those they may have wronged.True peace is found not in the fortress of self-denial, but in the quiet courage of making amends and speaking the truth in good conscience.As we watch these elders trade barbs, we are witnessing a final attempt to curate a legacy. Obasanjo wants to be remembered as the nationalist; Osoba as the chronicler who exposed betrayal. But the voices of the “Judas kiss” refuse to be silenced.The verdict of history on our Fourth Republic is that it was built on a mortar of strategic insincerity. We are living in a house constructed by a master builder who used “the starch in his agbada” anecdote to blind his brothers while he dismantled the scaffolding of their autonomy.As the sun sets on this, the General must realise that his missiles cannot stop the clock.In the fullness of time, as Abraham Adesanya warned, the earth remains. Before the final tribunal, where anecdotes of “fence-mending” will be dismissed as inadmissible, only sincerity of heart will stand.History is not written by the man who throws or doctors the book; it is written by the shadows that remain after the missile has fallen. And those shadows, General, are looking remarkably like the Judas you have spent twenty years trying to outrun. The ‘madness’ in our democracy reached its zenith with the Third Term bid. Eni B’s Shadows reminds us that, for Obasanjo, power is not a lease; it is a theology.His contemporary defence, “When did I ask for a third term? If I wanted it, I would have gotten it”, is the ‘God-complex’ distilled into a single sentence. It ignores the bribes that flooded the Senate, the machinations of Chief Tony Anenih (the PDP’s ‘Mr Fix-It’) and the desperate subversion of the Constitution.Orji Uzor Kalu, then governor of Abia State, declared he was approached with bribes and even reported the scheme to foreign leaders.Nuhu Ribadu, the then EFCC chairman, estimated that at least $300 million was spent, though other accounts put the figure closer to half a billion dollars, national wealth diverted into the service of personal ambition.The undercurrents of subversion were visible as early as the National Political Reform Conference of 2005, where a trial balloon for tenure extension was floated by the Presidency. Though voted down, its presence betrayed clear intent.The subsequent Senate campaign was a desperate assault on the Constitution itself until May 16, 2006, when the “nays” drowned out the “ayes” and the bill collapsed. That moment was the salvation of Nigeria’s fragile democracy.The General prides himself on being “unfairly” blessed by God with survival, weathering coups, both phantom and real, imprisonment and myriad political storms. But as Bello correctly chronicles, survival is not a licence for the brazen manipulation of figures or the destruction of the principled opposition the nation had left.To understand this clash, one must examine the mindset of Obasanjo, the soldier-statesman, and differentiate it from that of Osoba, the journalist-politician. Obasanjo’s worldview is shaped by the barracks: command, hierarchy and conquest. For him, politics is war by other means. Betrayal is not a moral failure but a tactical necessity.Osoba, by contrast, embodies the newsroom: dialogue, persuasion and accountability. He believes in the power of words and the sanctity of truth. Where Obasanjo sees a battlefield, Osoba sees a forum.And yet, let me be clear: I hold all these men, whose voices I have recalled here, in the highest regard. I love and respect Osoba and Obasanjo especially, mindful of the indelible mark each has left on the tapestry of our national history.However, we must acknowledge that even the grandest adventures often carry a tinge of misadventure. This piece is not intended as a slight against Obasanjo, nor is it meant simply to upscale Osoba; rather, it is a reflection on the season of life they have now entered. As both statesmen approach the “departure lounge” in the twilight of their long journeys on earth, they should perhaps seek reconciliation with those they may have wronged.True peace is found not in the fortress of self-denial, but in the quiet courage of making amends and speaking the truth in good conscience.As we watch these elders trade barbs, we are witnessing a final attempt to curate a legacy. Obasanjo wants to be remembered as the nationalist; Osoba as the chronicler who exposed betrayal. But the voices of the “Judas kiss” refuse to be silenced.The verdict of history on our Fourth Republic is that it was built on a mortar of strategic insincerity. We are living in a house constructed by a master builder who used “the starch in his agbada” anecdote to blind his brothers while he dismantled the scaffolding of their autonomy.As the sun sets on this, the General must realise that his missiles cannot stop the clock.In the fullness of time, as Abraham Adesanya warned, the earth remains. Before the final tribunal, where anecdotes of “fence-mending” will be dismissed as inadmissible, only sincerity of heart will stand.History is not written by the man who throws or doctors the book; it is written by the shadows that remain after the missile has fallen. And those shadows, General, are looking remarkably like the Judas you have spent twenty years trying to outrun. His contemporary defence, “When did I ask for a third term? If I wanted it, I would have gotten it”, is the ‘God-complex’ distilled into a single sentence. It ignores the bribes that flooded the Senate, the machinations of Chief Tony Anenih (the PDP’s ‘Mr Fix-It’) and the desperate subversion of the Constitution.Orji Uzor Kalu, then governor of Abia State, declared he was approached with bribes and even reported the scheme to foreign leaders.Nuhu Ribadu, the then EFCC chairman, estimated that at least $300 million was spent, though other accounts put the figure closer to half a billion dollars, national wealth diverted into the service of personal ambition.The undercurrents of subversion were visible as early as the National Political Reform Conference of 2005, where a trial balloon for tenure extension was floated by the Presidency. Though voted down, its presence betrayed clear intent.The subsequent Senate campaign was a desperate assault on the Constitution itself until May 16, 2006, when the “nays” drowned out the “ayes” and the bill collapsed. That moment was the salvation of Nigeria’s fragile democracy.The General prides himself on being “unfairly” blessed by God with survival, weathering coups, both phantom and real, imprisonment and myriad political storms. But as Bello correctly chronicles, survival is not a licence for the brazen manipulation of figures or the destruction of the principled opposition the nation had left.To understand this clash, one must examine the mindset of Obasanjo, the soldier-statesman, and differentiate it from that of Osoba, the journalist-politician. Obasanjo’s worldview is shaped by the barracks: command, hierarchy and conquest. For him, politics is war by other means. Betrayal is not a moral failure but a tactical necessity.Osoba, by contrast, embodies the newsroom: dialogue, persuasion and accountability. He believes in the power of words and the sanctity of truth. Where Obasanjo sees a battlefield, Osoba sees a forum.And yet, let me be clear: I hold all these men, whose voices I have recalled here, in the highest regard. I love and respect Osoba and Obasanjo especially, mindful of the indelible mark each has left on the tapestry of our national history.However, we must acknowledge that even the grandest adventures often carry a tinge of misadventure. This piece is not intended as a slight against Obasanjo, nor is it meant simply to upscale Osoba; rather, it is a reflection on the season of life they have now entered. As both statesmen approach the “departure lounge” in the twilight of their long journeys on earth, they should perhaps seek reconciliation with those they may have wronged.True peace is found not in the fortress of self-denial, but in the quiet courage of making amends and speaking the truth in good conscience.As we watch these elders trade barbs, we are witnessing a final attempt to curate a legacy. Obasanjo wants to be remembered as the nationalist; Osoba as the chronicler who exposed betrayal. But the voices of the “Judas kiss” refuse to be silenced.The verdict of history on our Fourth Republic is that it was built on a mortar of strategic insincerity. We are living in a house constructed by a master builder who used “the starch in his agbada” anecdote to blind his brothers while he dismantled the scaffolding of their autonomy.As the sun sets on this, the General must realise that his missiles cannot stop the clock.In the fullness of time, as Abraham Adesanya warned, the earth remains. Before the final tribunal, where anecdotes of “fence-mending” will be dismissed as inadmissible, only sincerity of heart will stand.History is not written by the man who throws or doctors the book; it is written by the shadows that remain after the missile has fallen. And those shadows, General, are looking remarkably like the Judas you have spent twenty years trying to outrun. Orji Uzor Kalu, then governor of Abia State, declared he was approached with bribes and even reported the scheme to foreign leaders.Nuhu Ribadu, the then EFCC chairman, estimated that at least $300 million was spent, though other accounts put the figure closer to half a billion dollars, national wealth diverted into the service of personal ambition.The undercurrents of subversion were visible as early as the National Political Reform Conference of 2005, where a trial balloon for tenure extension was floated by the Presidency. Though voted down, its presence betrayed clear intent.The subsequent Senate campaign was a desperate assault on the Constitution itself until May 16, 2006, when the “nays” drowned out the “ayes” and the bill collapsed. That moment was the salvation of Nigeria’s fragile democracy.The General prides himself on being “unfairly” blessed by God with survival, weathering coups, both phantom and real, imprisonment and myriad political storms. But as Bello correctly chronicles, survival is not a licence for the brazen manipulation of figures or the destruction of the principled opposition the nation had left.To understand this clash, one must examine the mindset of Obasanjo, the soldier-statesman, and differentiate it from that of Osoba, the journalist-politician. Obasanjo’s worldview is shaped by the barracks: command, hierarchy and conquest. For him, politics is war by other means. Betrayal is not a moral failure but a tactical necessity.Osoba, by contrast, embodies the newsroom: dialogue, persuasion and accountability. He believes in the power of words and the sanctity of truth. Where Obasanjo sees a battlefield, Osoba sees a forum.And yet, let me be clear: I hold all these men, whose voices I have recalled here, in the highest regard. I love and respect Osoba and Obasanjo especially, mindful of the indelible mark each has left on the tapestry of our national history.However, we must acknowledge that even the grandest adventures often carry a tinge of misadventure. This piece is not intended as a slight against Obasanjo, nor is it meant simply to upscale Osoba; rather, it is a reflection on the season of life they have now entered. As both statesmen approach the “departure lounge” in the twilight of their long journeys on earth, they should perhaps seek reconciliation with those they may have wronged.True peace is found not in the fortress of self-denial, but in the quiet courage of making amends and speaking the truth in good conscience.As we watch these elders trade barbs, we are witnessing a final attempt to curate a legacy. Obasanjo wants to be remembered as the nationalist; Osoba as the chronicler who exposed betrayal. But the voices of the “Judas kiss” refuse to be silenced.The verdict of history on our Fourth Republic is that it was built on a mortar of strategic insincerity. We are living in a house constructed by a master builder who used “the starch in his agbada” anecdote to blind his brothers while he dismantled the scaffolding of their autonomy.As the sun sets on this, the General must realise that his missiles cannot stop the clock.In the fullness of time, as Abraham Adesanya warned, the earth remains. Before the final tribunal, where anecdotes of “fence-mending” will be dismissed as inadmissible, only sincerity of heart will stand.History is not written by the man who throws or doctors the book; it is written by the shadows that remain after the missile has fallen. And those shadows, General, are looking remarkably like the Judas you have spent twenty years trying to outrun. Nuhu Ribadu, the then EFCC chairman, estimated that at least $300 million was spent, though other accounts put the figure closer to half a billion dollars, national wealth diverted into the service of personal ambition.The undercurrents of subversion were visible as early as the National Political Reform Conference of 2005, where a trial balloon for tenure extension was floated by the Presidency. Though voted down, its presence betrayed clear intent.The subsequent Senate campaign was a desperate assault on the Constitution itself until May 16, 2006, when the “nays” drowned out the “ayes” and the bill collapsed. That moment was the salvation of Nigeria’s fragile democracy.The General prides himself on being “unfairly” blessed by God with survival, weathering coups, both phantom and real, imprisonment and myriad political storms. But as Bello correctly chronicles, survival is not a licence for the brazen manipulation of figures or the destruction of the principled opposition the nation had left.To understand this clash, one must examine the mindset of Obasanjo, the soldier-statesman, and differentiate it from that of Osoba, the journalist-politician. Obasanjo’s worldview is shaped by the barracks: command, hierarchy and conquest. For him, politics is war by other means. Betrayal is not a moral failure but a tactical necessity.Osoba, by contrast, embodies the newsroom: dialogue, persuasion and accountability. He believes in the power of words and the sanctity of truth. Where Obasanjo sees a battlefield, Osoba sees a forum.And yet, let me be clear: I hold all these men, whose voices I have recalled here, in the highest regard. I love and respect Osoba and Obasanjo especially, mindful of the indelible mark each has left on the tapestry of our national history.However, we must acknowledge that even the grandest adventures often carry a tinge of misadventure. This piece is not intended as a slight against Obasanjo, nor is it meant simply to upscale Osoba; rather, it is a reflection on the season of life they have now entered. As both statesmen approach the “departure lounge” in the twilight of their long journeys on earth, they should perhaps seek reconciliation with those they may have wronged.True peace is found not in the fortress of self-denial, but in the quiet courage of making amends and speaking the truth in good conscience.As we watch these elders trade barbs, we are witnessing a final attempt to curate a legacy. Obasanjo wants to be remembered as the nationalist; Osoba as the chronicler who exposed betrayal. But the voices of the “Judas kiss” refuse to be silenced.The verdict of history on our Fourth Republic is that it was built on a mortar of strategic insincerity. We are living in a house constructed by a master builder who used “the starch in his agbada” anecdote to blind his brothers while he dismantled the scaffolding of their autonomy.As the sun sets on this, the General must realise that his missiles cannot stop the clock.In the fullness of time, as Abraham Adesanya warned, the earth remains. Before the final tribunal, where anecdotes of “fence-mending” will be dismissed as inadmissible, only sincerity of heart will stand.History is not written by the man who throws or doctors the book; it is written by the shadows that remain after the missile has fallen. And those shadows, General, are looking remarkably like the Judas you have spent twenty years trying to outrun. The undercurrents of subversion were visible as early as the National Political Reform Conference of 2005, where a trial balloon for tenure extension was floated by the Presidency. Though voted down, its presence betrayed clear intent.The subsequent Senate campaign was a desperate assault on the Constitution itself until May 16, 2006, when the “nays” drowned out the “ayes” and the bill collapsed. That moment was the salvation of Nigeria’s fragile democracy.The General prides himself on being “unfairly” blessed by God with survival, weathering coups, both phantom and real, imprisonment and myriad political storms. But as Bello correctly chronicles, survival is not a licence for the brazen manipulation of figures or the destruction of the principled opposition the nation had left.To understand this clash, one must examine the mindset of Obasanjo, the soldier-statesman, and differentiate it from that of Osoba, the journalist-politician. Obasanjo’s worldview is shaped by the barracks: command, hierarchy and conquest. For him, politics is war by other means. Betrayal is not a moral failure but a tactical necessity.Osoba, by contrast, embodies the newsroom: dialogue, persuasion and accountability. He believes in the power of words and the sanctity of truth. Where Obasanjo sees a battlefield, Osoba sees a forum.And yet, let me be clear: I hold all these men, whose voices I have recalled here, in the highest regard. I love and respect Osoba and Obasanjo especially, mindful of the indelible mark each has left on the tapestry of our national history.However, we must acknowledge that even the grandest adventures often carry a tinge of misadventure. This piece is not intended as a slight against Obasanjo, nor is it meant simply to upscale Osoba; rather, it is a reflection on the season of life they have now entered. As both statesmen approach the “departure lounge” in the twilight of their long journeys on earth, they should perhaps seek reconciliation with those they may have wronged.True peace is found not in the fortress of self-denial, but in the quiet courage of making amends and speaking the truth in good conscience.As we watch these elders trade barbs, we are witnessing a final attempt to curate a legacy. Obasanjo wants to be remembered as the nationalist; Osoba as the chronicler who exposed betrayal. But the voices of the “Judas kiss” refuse to be silenced.The verdict of history on our Fourth Republic is that it was built on a mortar of strategic insincerity. We are living in a house constructed by a master builder who used “the starch in his agbada” anecdote to blind his brothers while he dismantled the scaffolding of their autonomy.As the sun sets on this, the General must realise that his missiles cannot stop the clock.In the fullness of time, as Abraham Adesanya warned, the earth remains. Before the final tribunal, where anecdotes of “fence-mending” will be dismissed as inadmissible, only sincerity of heart will stand.History is not written by the man who throws or doctors the book; it is written by the shadows that remain after the missile has fallen. And those shadows, General, are looking remarkably like the Judas you have spent twenty years trying to outrun. The subsequent Senate campaign was a desperate assault on the Constitution itself until May 16, 2006, when the “nays” drowned out the “ayes” and the bill collapsed. That moment was the salvation of Nigeria’s fragile democracy.The General prides himself on being “unfairly” blessed by God with survival, weathering coups, both phantom and real, imprisonment and myriad political storms. But as Bello correctly chronicles, survival is not a licence for the brazen manipulation of figures or the destruction of the principled opposition the nation had left.To understand this clash, one must examine the mindset of Obasanjo, the soldier-statesman, and differentiate it from that of Osoba, the journalist-politician. Obasanjo’s worldview is shaped by the barracks: command, hierarchy and conquest. For him, politics is war by other means. Betrayal is not a moral failure but a tactical necessity.Osoba, by contrast, embodies the newsroom: dialogue, persuasion and accountability. He believes in the power of words and the sanctity of truth. Where Obasanjo sees a battlefield, Osoba sees a forum.And yet, let me be clear: I hold all these men, whose voices I have recalled here, in the highest regard. I love and respect Osoba and Obasanjo especially, mindful of the indelible mark each has left on the tapestry of our national history.However, we must acknowledge that even the grandest adventures often carry a tinge of misadventure. This piece is not intended as a slight against Obasanjo, nor is it meant simply to upscale Osoba; rather, it is a reflection on the season of life they have now entered. As both statesmen approach the “departure lounge” in the twilight of their long journeys on earth, they should perhaps seek reconciliation with those they may have wronged.True peace is found not in the fortress of self-denial, but in the quiet courage of making amends and speaking the truth in good conscience.As we watch these elders trade barbs, we are witnessing a final attempt to curate a legacy. Obasanjo wants to be remembered as the nationalist; Osoba as the chronicler who exposed betrayal. But the voices of the “Judas kiss” refuse to be silenced.The verdict of history on our Fourth Republic is that it was built on a mortar of strategic insincerity. We are living in a house constructed by a master builder who used “the starch in his agbada” anecdote to blind his brothers while he dismantled the scaffolding of their autonomy.As the sun sets on this, the General must realise that his missiles cannot stop the clock.In the fullness of time, as Abraham Adesanya warned, the earth remains. Before the final tribunal, where anecdotes of “fence-mending” will be dismissed as inadmissible, only sincerity of heart will stand.History is not written by the man who throws or doctors the book; it is written by the shadows that remain after the missile has fallen. And those shadows, General, are looking remarkably like the Judas you have spent twenty years trying to outrun. The General prides himself on being “unfairly” blessed by God with survival, weathering coups, both phantom and real, imprisonment and myriad political storms. But as Bello correctly chronicles, survival is not a licence for the brazen manipulation of figures or the destruction of the principled opposition the nation had left.To understand this clash, one must examine the mindset of Obasanjo, the soldier-statesman, and differentiate it from that of Osoba, the journalist-politician. Obasanjo’s worldview is shaped by the barracks: command, hierarchy and conquest. For him, politics is war by other means. Betrayal is not a moral failure but a tactical necessity.Osoba, by contrast, embodies the newsroom: dialogue, persuasion and accountability. He believes in the power of words and the sanctity of truth. Where Obasanjo sees a battlefield, Osoba sees a forum.And yet, let me be clear: I hold all these men, whose voices I have recalled here, in the highest regard. I love and respect Osoba and Obasanjo especially, mindful of the indelible mark each has left on the tapestry of our national history.However, we must acknowledge that even the grandest adventures often carry a tinge of misadventure. This piece is not intended as a slight against Obasanjo, nor is it meant simply to upscale Osoba; rather, it is a reflection on the season of life they have now entered. As both statesmen approach the “departure lounge” in the twilight of their long journeys on earth, they should perhaps seek reconciliation with those they may have wronged.True peace is found not in the fortress of self-denial, but in the quiet courage of making amends and speaking the truth in good conscience.As we watch these elders trade barbs, we are witnessing a final attempt to curate a legacy. Obasanjo wants to be remembered as the nationalist; Osoba as the chronicler who exposed betrayal. But the voices of the “Judas kiss” refuse to be silenced.The verdict of history on our Fourth Republic is that it was built on a mortar of strategic insincerity. We are living in a house constructed by a master builder who used “the starch in his agbada” anecdote to blind his brothers while he dismantled the scaffolding of their autonomy.As the sun sets on this, the General must realise that his missiles cannot stop the clock.In the fullness of time, as Abraham Adesanya warned, the earth remains. Before the final tribunal, where anecdotes of “fence-mending” will be dismissed as inadmissible, only sincerity of heart will stand.History is not written by the man who throws or doctors the book; it is written by the shadows that remain after the missile has fallen. And those shadows, General, are looking remarkably like the Judas you have spent twenty years trying to outrun. To understand this clash, one must examine the mindset of Obasanjo, the soldier-statesman, and differentiate it from that of Osoba, the journalist-politician. Obasanjo’s worldview is shaped by the barracks: command, hierarchy and conquest. For him, politics is war by other means. Betrayal is not a moral failure but a tactical necessity.Osoba, by contrast, embodies the newsroom: dialogue, persuasion and accountability. He believes in the power of words and the sanctity of truth. Where Obasanjo sees a battlefield, Osoba sees a forum.And yet, let me be clear: I hold all these men, whose voices I have recalled here, in the highest regard. I love and respect Osoba and Obasanjo especially, mindful of the indelible mark each has left on the tapestry of our national history.However, we must acknowledge that even the grandest adventures often carry a tinge of misadventure. This piece is not intended as a slight against Obasanjo, nor is it meant simply to upscale Osoba; rather, it is a reflection on the season of life they have now entered. As both statesmen approach the “departure lounge” in the twilight of their long journeys on earth, they should perhaps seek reconciliation with those they may have wronged.True peace is found not in the fortress of self-denial, but in the quiet courage of making amends and speaking the truth in good conscience.As we watch these elders trade barbs, we are witnessing a final attempt to curate a legacy. Obasanjo wants to be remembered as the nationalist; Osoba as the chronicler who exposed betrayal. But the voices of the “Judas kiss” refuse to be silenced.The verdict of history on our Fourth Republic is that it was built on a mortar of strategic insincerity. We are living in a house constructed by a master builder who used “the starch in his agbada” anecdote to blind his brothers while he dismantled the scaffolding of their autonomy.As the sun sets on this, the General must realise that his missiles cannot stop the clock.In the fullness of time, as Abraham Adesanya warned, the earth remains. Before the final tribunal, where anecdotes of “fence-mending” will be dismissed as inadmissible, only sincerity of heart will stand.History is not written by the man who throws or doctors the book; it is written by the shadows that remain after the missile has fallen. And those shadows, General, are looking remarkably like the Judas you have spent twenty years trying to outrun. Osoba, by contrast, embodies the newsroom: dialogue, persuasion and accountability. He believes in the power of words and the sanctity of truth. Where Obasanjo sees a battlefield, Osoba sees a forum.And yet, let me be clear: I hold all these men, whose voices I have recalled here, in the highest regard. I love and respect Osoba and Obasanjo especially, mindful of the indelible mark each has left on the tapestry of our national history.However, we must acknowledge that even the grandest adventures often carry a tinge of misadventure. This piece is not intended as a slight against Obasanjo, nor is it meant simply to upscale Osoba; rather, it is a reflection on the season of life they have now entered. As both statesmen approach the “departure lounge” in the twilight of their long journeys on earth, they should perhaps seek reconciliation with those they may have wronged.True peace is found not in the fortress of self-denial, but in the quiet courage of making amends and speaking the truth in good conscience.As we watch these elders trade barbs, we are witnessing a final attempt to curate a legacy. Obasanjo wants to be remembered as the nationalist; Osoba as the chronicler who exposed betrayal. But the voices of the “Judas kiss” refuse to be silenced.The verdict of history on our Fourth Republic is that it was built on a mortar of strategic insincerity. We are living in a house constructed by a master builder who used “the starch in his agbada” anecdote to blind his brothers while he dismantled the scaffolding of their autonomy.As the sun sets on this, the General must realise that his missiles cannot stop the clock.In the fullness of time, as Abraham Adesanya warned, the earth remains. Before the final tribunal, where anecdotes of “fence-mending” will be dismissed as inadmissible, only sincerity of heart will stand.History is not written by the man who throws or doctors the book; it is written by the shadows that remain after the missile has fallen. And those shadows, General, are looking remarkably like the Judas you have spent twenty years trying to outrun. And yet, let me be clear: I hold all these men, whose voices I have recalled here, in the highest regard. I love and respect Osoba and Obasanjo especially, mindful of the indelible mark each has left on the tapestry of our national history.However, we must acknowledge that even the grandest adventures often carry a tinge of misadventure. This piece is not intended as a slight against Obasanjo, nor is it meant simply to upscale Osoba; rather, it is a reflection on the season of life they have now entered. As both statesmen approach the “departure lounge” in the twilight of their long journeys on earth, they should perhaps seek reconciliation with those they may have wronged.True peace is found not in the fortress of self-denial, but in the quiet courage of making amends and speaking the truth in good conscience.As we watch these elders trade barbs, we are witnessing a final attempt to curate a legacy. Obasanjo wants to be remembered as the nationalist; Osoba as the chronicler who exposed betrayal. But the voices of the “Judas kiss” refuse to be silenced.The verdict of history on our Fourth Republic is that it was built on a mortar of strategic insincerity. We are living in a house constructed by a master builder who used “the starch in his agbada” anecdote to blind his brothers while he dismantled the scaffolding of their autonomy.As the sun sets on this, the General must realise that his missiles cannot stop the clock.In the fullness of time, as Abraham Adesanya warned, the earth remains. Before the final tribunal, where anecdotes of “fence-mending” will be dismissed as inadmissible, only sincerity of heart will stand.History is not written by the man who throws or doctors the book; it is written by the shadows that remain after the missile has fallen. And those shadows, General, are looking remarkably like the Judas you have spent twenty years trying to outrun. However, we must acknowledge that even the grandest adventures often carry a tinge of misadventure. This piece is not intended as a slight against Obasanjo, nor is it meant simply to upscale Osoba; rather, it is a reflection on the season of life they have now entered. As both statesmen approach the “departure lounge” in the twilight of their long journeys on earth, they should perhaps seek reconciliation with those they may have wronged.True peace is found not in the fortress of self-denial, but in the quiet courage of making amends and speaking the truth in good conscience.As we watch these elders trade barbs, we are witnessing a final attempt to curate a legacy. Obasanjo wants to be remembered as the nationalist; Osoba as the chronicler who exposed betrayal. But the voices of the “Judas kiss” refuse to be silenced.The verdict of history on our Fourth Republic is that it was built on a mortar of strategic insincerity. We are living in a house constructed by a master builder who used “the starch in his agbada” anecdote to blind his brothers while he dismantled the scaffolding of their autonomy.As the sun sets on this, the General must realise that his missiles cannot stop the clock.In the fullness of time, as Abraham Adesanya warned, the earth remains. Before the final tribunal, where anecdotes of “fence-mending” will be dismissed as inadmissible, only sincerity of heart will stand.History is not written by the man who throws or doctors the book; it is written by the shadows that remain after the missile has fallen. And those shadows, General, are looking remarkably like the Judas you have spent twenty years trying to outrun. True peace is found not in the fortress of self-denial, but in the quiet courage of making amends and speaking the truth in good conscience.As we watch these elders trade barbs, we are witnessing a final attempt to curate a legacy. Obasanjo wants to be remembered as the nationalist; Osoba as the chronicler who exposed betrayal. But the voices of the “Judas kiss” refuse to be silenced.The verdict of history on our Fourth Republic is that it was built on a mortar of strategic insincerity. We are living in a house constructed by a master builder who used “the starch in his agbada” anecdote to blind his brothers while he dismantled the scaffolding of their autonomy.As the sun sets on this, the General must realise that his missiles cannot stop the clock.In the fullness of time, as Abraham Adesanya warned, the earth remains. Before the final tribunal, where anecdotes of “fence-mending” will be dismissed as inadmissible, only sincerity of heart will stand.History is not written by the man who throws or doctors the book; it is written by the shadows that remain after the missile has fallen. And those shadows, General, are looking remarkably like the Judas you have spent twenty years trying to outrun. As we watch these elders trade barbs, we are witnessing a final attempt to curate a legacy. Obasanjo wants to be remembered as the nationalist; Osoba as the chronicler who exposed betrayal. But the voices of the “Judas kiss” refuse to be silenced.The verdict of history on our Fourth Republic is that it was built on a mortar of strategic insincerity. We are living in a house constructed by a master builder who used “the starch in his agbada” anecdote to blind his brothers while he dismantled the scaffolding of their autonomy.As the sun sets on this, the General must realise that his missiles cannot stop the clock.In the fullness of time, as Abraham Adesanya warned, the earth remains. Before the final tribunal, where anecdotes of “fence-mending” will be dismissed as inadmissible, only sincerity of heart will stand.History is not written by the man who throws or doctors the book; it is written by the shadows that remain after the missile has fallen. And those shadows, General, are looking remarkably like the Judas you have spent twenty years trying to outrun. The verdict of history on our Fourth Republic is that it was built on a mortar of strategic insincerity. We are living in a house constructed by a master builder who used “the starch in his agbada” anecdote to blind his brothers while he dismantled the scaffolding of their autonomy.As the sun sets on this, the General must realise that his missiles cannot stop the clock.In the fullness of time, as Abraham Adesanya warned, the earth remains. Before the final tribunal, where anecdotes of “fence-mending” will be dismissed as inadmissible, only sincerity of heart will stand.History is not written by the man who throws or doctors the book; it is written by the shadows that remain after the missile has fallen. And those shadows, General, are looking remarkably like the Judas you have spent twenty years trying to outrun. As the sun sets on this, the General must realise that his missiles cannot stop the clock.In the fullness of time, as Abraham Adesanya warned, the earth remains. Before the final tribunal, where anecdotes of “fence-mending” will be dismissed as inadmissible, only sincerity of heart will stand.History is not written by the man who throws or doctors the book; it is written by the shadows that remain after the missile has fallen. And those shadows, General, are looking remarkably like the Judas you have spent twenty years trying to outrun. In the fullness of time, as Abraham Adesanya warned, the earth remains. Before the final tribunal, where anecdotes of “fence-mending” will be dismissed as inadmissible, only sincerity of heart will stand.History is not written by the man who throws or doctors the book; it is written by the shadows that remain after the missile has fallen. And those shadows, General, are looking remarkably like the Judas you have spent twenty years trying to outrun. History is not written by the man who throws or doctors the book; it is written by the shadows that remain after the missile has fallen. And those shadows, General, are looking remarkably like the Judas you have spent twenty years trying to outrun.