Ours is a world of endless possibilities. The story is told of the Atlantis, a legendary city that was said to have sunk into the sea in one day thousands of years ago. Its inhabitants were said to be so sophisticated that they developed a mind-operated computer.The myth or reality of Atlantis, however, remains a matter of conjecture. Claims of its existence are traceable only to Timaeus and Critias, two books authored by the renowned Greek philosopher, Plato, around 360 BC. Plato claimed in the said books that the Atlantis story was told to the Greek sage Solon by a priest in Egypt. Solon, on returning to Greece, shared the story with a relation named Dropides. Dropides passed it down to his son Critias, who told it to his grandson also named Critias, who finally shared it with another Greek philosopher, Socrates, and some other people who were with him.In the circumstance, therefore, the truth about the Atlantis remains far-fetched. But not so far-fetched is a similar story told during the week by Mallam Garba Shehu, the Senior Special Assistant to President Muhammadu Buhari on Media and Publicity, about former President Olusegun Obasanjos thoughts being determined by the direction of the wind, just like the candlelight. Speaking with reporters in Abuja a day after Obasanjo made a U-turn over his initial claim to being neutral in the campaign for the 2019 presidential election, Shehu said the Presidency had learnt not to take Obasanjos views seriously any longer, knowing that the slightest wind could make him change his mind on any issue.Former President Obasanjo denounces one person today and supports that same person the next day, he said. When it pleases him, he brings God into the matter and uses that as his excuse for whatever position he has chosen. We have learnt not to take his utterances seriously anymore. We know that the slightest wind can make him change his mind again. After all, this is the same man who publicly tore his party registration card barely four years ago, and he now claims to be backing the same party.While Shehus claims may sound outlandish, they seem eminently justified by the astonishing rapidity with which the former president has been changing his mind on issues of grave national concern in recent times. After telling the gathering at the 27thannual Owu National Convention in Iwo, Osun State last Saturday that he would not campaign for any particular candidate, Obasanjo was back in the news less than 24 hours later, kicking and cursing over media reports of his decision to remain neutral during the elections.Obasanjo had told the gathering in Iwo: Another election is near, open your eyes and vote wisely. Vote only the party that wont add to your suffering.The economymust return to a better state. Look at parties that have governed this country and choose that one that will return Nigerias economy to a better state. I am not campaigning for any party or candidate and I wont do that. But I urge you to open your eyes and vote wisely. Only credible leadership can guarantee good governance and that is what the country needs now.But the reports had barely hit the newsstands when Obasanjos media aide, Kehinde Akinyemi, issued a statement denying his principals neutrality in the elections. Only a fool will sit on the fence or be neutral when his or her country is being destroyed with incompetence, corruption, lack of focus, insecurity, nepotism, brazen impunity and denial of the obvious. Chief Obasanjo is no such fool nor is he so unwise, the statement said, adding: It is disingenuous, if not malicious, for anyone to suggest that Chief Obasanjo was being neutral when he chose not to use the Owu convention as a platform for political campaign but instead adopted a communal and familial approach in talking to members of his Owu family.The Iwo incident is one in the long list of the Obasanjos actions upon which he now comes across as a chameleon. The Obasanjo who made a public show of tearing his PDP membership card in the build-up to the 2015 elections, saying that the party was determined to destroy the country with corruption, is now the one at the vanguard of the campaign for the partys victory in the 2019 elections. The man who had seized every available opportunity to warn Nigerians not to allow his former deputy and PDPs presidential candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar access to any point in the radius of a kilometre to the Aso Rock presidential villa because he is incurably corrupt and incompetent, is also the one now rooting desperately for Atikus victory at the poll.More alarming is the fact that Obasanjo had previously taken his rejection of the PDP presidential candidate to celestial heights, saying that God would not forgive him if he forgave Atiku for his sins against the country. Based on the foregoing, Shehu would seem to have enough grounds for saying that the Presidency is not moved by Obasanjos outbursts on the 2019 elections, particularly with the realisation that the feeble nature of the former presidents mind can yet work in favour of Buhari and the All Progressives Congress (APC) now that the harmattan winds are here.
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