OLUSEGUN OBASANJO, A BASTARD SON OF AN IGBO POLICE OFFICER?

Is he really who he said he is or has he been falsely parading himself as a Yoruba man and passing-off a Yoruba identity wrongfully, knowing fully well that he is not a bona-fide son of Oduduwa? Is he of a true birth or a lowly birth from an unwed lecherous mother dalliance with a drunken Igbo police officer which produced a son, who later became the real deity of Otta? Icheoku asks, is Nigeria's foremost derisive former head of government, Olusegun Okikilemo Matthew Aremu Obasanjo, truly a Yoruba man with an unbroken Yoruba pedigree, rooted and traceable to a full Yoruba ancestral lineage? This question has become imperative in view of the latest picture fiasco of a once lived Igbo police officer later turned Igwe of Onitsha, who to every intent and purpose could be said to have provided the specimen from which Olusegun Obasanjo was cloned, judging the close resemblance or carbon-copy image similarities of both men.

Or would this picture-semblance story, like all other controversies surrounding Obasanjo, end up in suspended haziness and never see the daylight of a forensic investigative conclusion or an admission of guilt by Olusegun Obasanjo himself? The unfolding and intriguing paternity story of Olusegun Obasanjo is something rooted in a prevalent continuing suspicions, rumors and innuendos; but not an ordinary fantastical fascination on the beginning of life of a man whose actions so negatively impacted Nigeria and Nigerians, that he is regarded by many as a leper in the country. It is also fueled by the lack of any meaningful and traceable lineage of his in Owu, Abeokuta, Otta and even in greater Ogun State in general, which situation is made worse by the non availability of his history that is replete with known kinsmen, kindred, brothers and sisters as well as other relatives. So if Olusegun Obasanjo is truly a Yoruba man, who and where then are his Oduduwa biological brothers and sisters; or did they all perish in a phantom influenza of no known date or records? How could this man with his epicurean accomplishment not have a retinue of men and women falling over each other professing to their connectivity by lineage? Is this two time head of government in Nigeria really a Yoruba man or did he use that subterfuge smartly to get what he wanted out of a fractious Nigerian society that rewards mediocrity and cronyism?

But if he is not a real Yoruba man and is truly of an Igbo heritage, why does he hate Igbo people with so much venom; and viciously fought the genocidal Yakubu Gowon's Biafran war against the people of Igboland? Why would a son, albeit a bastard son of Igboland so much desire to annihilate the group that gave him life during the war, except he wanted to exact his own pound of flesh for being of such a lowly birth and for his Igbo daddy not taking full responsibility for his birth and upkeep? But were the Igbo daddy to have acknowledged his birth and owned up to his paternity, may be there would never have been a worldly known Olusegun Obasanjo, a two time head of state of Nigeria. So in a way, Olusegun Obasanjo should be grateful for destiny which played its course in this way as planned and happier for his mother's waywardness in giving birth to him outside wedlock in Yoruba-land. Otherwise were she to have married this lucky-go Igbo police officer later turned Igwe of Onitsha and become an Okoro man, how could he have become what he is today? How could he have become head of state after Muritala Mohammed was assassinated or be allowed to fill out MKO Abiola's Yoruba aborted presidency. So in a peculiar ironic way, this SOB is one lucky bastard indeed that his lowly birth gave him prominence.

So story has it that a former Abeokuta then Western Region of Nigeria based police man later turned Obi of Onitsha, Igwe Okwudili Onyejekwe, allegedly dated Obasanjo's mother back in 1930s. He wanted to marry the pregnant woman but tradition forebode a prince and a future Igwe from marrying outside his own stock and Onyejekwe had to abandon his girlfriend, mother of Olusegun and the resulting child Olusegun in preference to the stool of his forebears in Onitsha Eastern Region. The then police officer however maintained some relationship with his baby-mama till he left for Onitsha to assume his royal duties but never officially or otherwise acknowledged paternity of little Olusegun until he died in 1970, further mystifying the birth of Olusegun Obasanjo. It was also reported that the late police man turned Igwe of Onitsha “issued a recommendation that facilitated Obasanjo’s enlistment into the Nigerian Army in 1958; but Icheoku is not in a position to either affirm or deny this. Olusegun Obasanjo should be man enough to man up and own up to his not so flattery lowly birth, admitted the police officer later turned out to become an Igwe, a Royal Highness. Icheoku asks further, why would a Ghanaian be the preferred biographer for Olusegun Obasanjo in his "Baba's story - Nigeria is 50?" Was Olusegun Obasanjo hiding something and needed some peanuts writer who would settle for anything and any recitals he is told by Olusegun Obasanjo and went for a foreign writer? Who collaborated his accounts and which records and in what library were the information sourced from. One conclusion is possible, Olusegun Obasanjo is up to no good and was proactively hiding something or suppressing some facts by hiring a foreigner, Ghanaian Abyna-Ansaa Adjei to write his biography with abundance of writers in Nigeria.

According to snippets of available information, the late police man later turned Igwe of Onitsha was a tough, stubborn, non-conformist, recalcitrant, mean, sadistic, wicked, cruel, domineering and quarrelsome person, notorious for his rabid mood swings and strength of character. Icheoku says the same character traits are bountifully present in Olusegun Obasanjo which goes to vouchsafe that he must have been sired by this policeman as alleged. Further, a close study of their features show that both loves and kept moustache; both has penetrating squinted eyes; both has stout short necks and flared-up ears; both has wide lips; both has broad African nose and both has prominent foreheads. It would also appear that both men cannot resist daughters of Eve very much as Olusegun Obasanjo was a product of illicit sexual liaisons Onyejekwe had with his mother while Olusegun Obasanjo himself, is a notorious he-goat whose love for women knows no boundaries that he slept with his daughter in-law, Mojisola Gbenga Obasanjo. Icheoku says these semblances are rather too many to be ordinary and goes to the root of the paternity question under advisement here; otherwise how could two men be this closely resembled and sharing same characteristics and features, which is not usually even common among Siamese twins, except it is as a result of gnome which was passed on directly from a father to a son.

Icheoku says it is not sufficient for Olusegun Obasanjo to just claim that he "was born in a village called Ibogun-Olaogun in what was then Abeokuta province"; but he should go further to tell the public by who, who his father was, whether he married his mother, his other brothers, sisters, uncles, aunties and other relatives. Obasanjo cleverly asserted where he was born but never mentioned by who or the marital status of his mother when he was given birth to. Icheoku challenges Obasanjo to name his parents and produce some photographic evidence of their existence, since 1930 is not such a medieval times that photographs never existed. Madam Olikoye Anikulapo Kuti was already very active politically around the same period and photographs of her exist, so Obasanjo must be prepared to back up his alleged parental existence with pictures of them or other collaborative records of convincing evidence.

Icheoku queries, if 'Obasanjo's father was the most successful farmer in their village at the time' as he claims, stories of his exploits should abound and be easily collaborated; except if he, Olusegun Obasanjo, in his childhood faintly recollections, mistook his grandfather, the father of his mother, as his own father. Many children born outside wedlock are usually inuandated with the mistaken-daddy syndrome and they mistake their grandfather or any man in the household where they were raised as their own biological daddy. Icheoku is aware of so many cases where such children grew up calling their mother's father dad and such may have been the case with our poor Olusegun Obasanjo, who is now trying too hard to straighten his crooked lowly birth. Further the story of Oduduwa and Oramiyan is taught in schools and even non Yorubas are familiar with this fable; so Obasanjo claiming that his daddy told him about Oduduwa and that his daddy heard it from 'Baba Alarobo as passed on from Baba Elesin is not a completely exculpating evidence as to his having a father who is a Yoruba man. Icheoku needs more evidence as to Obasanjo Yorubaness, as it does not lie in the mouth for him to just say 'I am Yoruaba' and that automatically and by itself, without more, makes him Yoruba.

Until the final conclusive resolution of this matter, possibly with an open admission of Olusegun Obasanjo himself and personally as to his true paternity, Icheoku says questions will continue to be asked as to Olusegun Obasanjos's true ancestry. Obasanjo's asinine hatred and dislike of the Igbos of Nigeria can only go to one conclusion - his attempt at a pay back for feeling short-changed by an Igbo father who did not or failed or refused to acknowledge him as his legitimate son. But hey, when would this visiting of the father's iniquities on the entire Igbo tribe by Olusegun Obasanjo finally come to an end as he seems too doggedly determined to make the Igbos pay and continues to pay a price for the rejection he suffered from his biological Igbo father who abandoned him. But Obasanjo, if he were smart, should be thankful to his stars that a person of such a lowly birth rose up to become what he is today - the Nigerian version of the American dream, sort of? Or better still, could Olusegun Obasanjo agree to a DNA test since the sires of the Igwe Onyejekwe are still around and one of them is a pharmacist at Houston Texas United States of America or just answer the question, who is your daddy?