Stella Obasanjo: Goodbye Too Many

Posted by: Dr. Joseph Ozigis Akomodi

Written by: Miriam Ikunaiye

A fair writer wants to have a balance in his or her work that reason alone prove to be difficult in this special piece on Stella Obasanjo, the Nigerian First lady, who died on October 22, 2005, of complication after cosmetics surgery. Searching for her moral contribution as first lady does not come easy.

Besides the downpour of articles by professional praise singers, opportunist-trumpeters and wailing chameleons I came up with almost nothing praise-worthy of her. “She launched the Child Care Trust, a non profit organization aimed at giving a new lease of life to the hopeless and the physically challenged in the society.” How functional is the organization? One can't tell because one never heard of it.

However, I did find the followings:

“PMSport has exclusively unmasked the unseen faces behind the Games Village project which is still undergoing construction, even after the commencement of the Games. Sources close to COJA disclosed yesterday that the First Lady, Stella Obasanjo, was awarded a N6 billion contract by COJA to furnish apartments in the Games Village. However, athletes have complained about the quality of the furniture inside the apartments. As if that was not bad enough, the President's son, Gbenga, was said to have been given a N500 million contract to supply curtains to the apartments. But athletes and callers at the village were shocked to discover that the President's son supplied local batik materials rather than the foreign stuff quoted in the contract proposal...”

“the Stella’s son who graduated barely a year ago from university owning a mansion worth over N78million, in
a country where per capital income is a paltry 65 cents a day for majority of the over 120million impoverished citizenry..." Link

“FOUR days after her death, wife of the President, Chief (Mrs) Stella Obasanjo, has been listed as s star witness in the treason trial of the leader of the Niger Delta Volunteers Force (NDVF), Alhaji Mujahid Dokubo-Asari.

"Mrs Obasanjo, 59, was a controversial figure who ordered the arrest of a newspaper publisher earlier this year over an article headed 'Greedy Stella...'" Link

“the first lady resorted to cosmetic surgery when the populace cannot afford three square meals a day. There is abject poverty in Nigeria. Many are unemployed and living below one dollar a day. Some are plagued by common diseases that they cannot cure due to lack of money. Still Stella Obasanjo caught the “Micheal Jackson” bug to do cosmetic surgery one after another. What a shame!!! What message did her ill-fated cosmetic surgery mean to the common man on the street? That it is fashionable to do liposuction and other face-lifting surgery? What happened to the natural African beauty that many people admire devoid of make up and surgery? She did not project African values...’’ Link

“First Lady Stella Obasanjo is on the warpath — not because of the price increases on petroleum products or even in response to the lawsuit asking her and the wives of other prominent leaders to account for money they have received for their charity projects. She wants the wives of governors to stop calling themselves first ladies. "There is only one First Lady in Nigeria, Period." Her edict came on June 24, just six days before a national strike that paralyzed business and government in Nigeria. She was addressing the wives of governors of the 28 states under the ruling Peoples Democratic Party, who gathered in Abuja for training on etiquette and protocol. None of the governors’ wives has reacted in public to the directive, which has been widely interpreted here as a dangerous signal of a potential slide into civilian dictatorship...” Link

Obasanjo’s loss and grief deserve sympathy and respect by his immediate family and those who feel the need to do so. However, the idea that Stella is entitle to special standing in the society is outrageous, cheap and careless talk at the expense of the poor. This is not meant to insult her instead it is to put things in perspective, this is to ask, ‘what exactly has she really done for the masses lately?

So frightened to tell the truth; Nigerians are known to make a valor out of a villain and vice versa. They are also known for kissing asses of those in the government and crucifying those who speak of the truth.

Within the time of Stella’s death, 117(bellview victims) plus hundreds more Nigerians died. Every day, hundreds more are still dying of curable diseases and hunger and starvation. For more than a week, Stella’s death dominated the headlines of most Nigerian Newspapers. Nonsensical headlines that have no link to the content at all.

Take for instance, “Stella Obasanjo lived for love’ By Folorunso Folowosele (Guardian Newspaper). One will expect this article; with solid references, to be about Stella’s charitable lifestyle and to be about how Stella exemplified ‘love thy neighbor as thy self.’ However it was about “STELLA Obasanjo and I never met in person though her time at St. Theresa's College coincided perfectly with mine at the Government College Ibadan. Then why did I embark on this brief piece, the reader may ask?”

The writer goes on to write “Hitherto, I didn't know her beyond the remote knowledge of an average Nigerian,” well, Mr. Folowosele, this is not a good reason to warrant such headline.

Another headline reads “Stella is a unifier,” well, a unifier indeed, that denied children the access to their father when she sent a hard working family man; Orobosa Omo-Ojo, the publisher of the Lagos-based Midwest Herald to jail over an article; “Greedy Stella.” According to the story, following Stella Obasanjo’s order, security forces from Ondo state police department burst into the newspaper’s office in Lagos and whisk the publisher away to Akure prison.

Plain ignorance and excessive abuse of power led Stella to disregard area of jurisdiction, human right, and freedom of speech and set Nigeria 45 years backward from civil society. If Stella considers the article to be so disrespectful, I wonder what will cosmetics surgery mean in the eye of God.

Among the wailing chameleons is Governor Odili who changed overnight from being the man who is afraid for his life due to threats from obasanjo's camp to becoming his poster boy. In seeking reconciliation with Aso Rock, the River State Gov. Odili, immortalize Stella Obasanjo by dedicating several State Government structures to her.

To truly immortalize Stella will be to dedicate a correctional facility in her honor where greedy Nigerians take lesson on the side effects of strong attachment to material goods to the exclusion of spiritual or intellectual values.

Has Gov. Odili ever heard of Ken Saro-Wiwa? The man whose blood still drips from the tree at the backyard of every Rivers' indigene. The man, who sacrifice his life so you could live?

It is understandable if the death of a social thinker or a crusader who spent his or her entire life promoting the interest of the masses and fighting against irrational deployment of power and material wealth is honored in such a manner —not Stella

Stella Obasanjo’s cause of death is a national disgrace. She is a controversial figure whose cultural excesses of spending spree made effective propaganda for Medusa makeover. Stella is a wrongdoer and by no means a good leader. Good leaders are made not born. With the desire and willpower, one can become an effective leader. Good leaders develop through a never ending process of self-study, education, training, and experience and these are the very qualities she lacks.

Nonetheless, there is foreshadowing well worth noting. The appalling incompetence, arrogance, crudity, prodigality and negligence that characterized Obasanjo’s government manifest the outset of the human tragedy –and this time, it is his wife.

The most unfortunate thing about fighting just cause in Nigeria is that the advocates are buried even before they die. Their cause never grows beyond their household. And the principle they hold so dare get tossed out of the window for lack of willing participant to carry on the torch.

It doesn't matter if you share my opinion or not, please consider paying the same respect to the following people: Ms. Christiana Anyawu, a mother, a sister, a wife and a news reporter who spent time in prison for reporting a story. I forgot the detail but by the time she was released she has lost her sight on both eyes. Frank Olizie is a worthy newscaster who was forced to vacate his seat for Ben Bruce-Murray; Stella Obasanjo's relative. Tai Solarin is a social activist who spent his lifetime promoting social cause. Wole Soyinka, Bala Usman, Gani Fawehinme, and the unrepentant Fela; who through his lyrics exposed the societal ills of his time, our time and beyond, there are many more men of honor to immortalize.