Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has fired back at former Ogun State governor Aremo Olusegun Osoba, rejecting an accusation published in The Legal Observer (July 20) that he deceived Southwest governors during the 2003 elections.
In a letter dated July 23, 2026, Obasanjo said he “takes strong and serious objection” to being called deceitful and accused Osoba of getting key facts wrong or omitting them. He said many events of that period “were above your head” and were handled by AD and Afenifere elders.
Obasanjo recounted the sequence of events leading to his return to active politics after prison, saying several groups personally invited him to play a role in government. He said he consulted widely across the South-West, North and East — naming figures he visited in Ibadan, Kano and the East — before formally joining the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
Referring to a pre-election meeting attended by former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, Obasanjo recalled asking Bola Ige if fence-mending promised in Ibadan had been done; “We will meet in the field,” he said Ige replied. “We never met in the field. That was above your head,” Obasanjo wrote.
Obasanjo noted that PDP won 21 state governorships outside Yorubaland and that he secured almost 63 percent of the presidential vote, but acknowledged limited support from Yorubaland. He said he moved to bring defeated South-West PDP gubernatorial candidates into federal appointments to “widen the circle” and encourage future support from the Yoruba.
He also defended attempts at outreach to AD and Afenifere as a strength aimed at national unity rather than a sign of weakness, and rejected claims that he sought to have AD dictate his government’s agenda. “Six to dictate to thirty is ridiculous,” he wrote, saying he would not accept such dictation.
On the impeachment of late House Speaker Ghali Na’Abba, Obasanjo blamed an alleged plot by his then Vice‑President to use the process to shorten his presidency and to position himself for the presidency. He alleged the Vice‑President funded impeachment efforts and pursued a two‑track plan that involved sidelining opposition competition in 2003 — claims Osoba, Obasanjo said, should have checked with him.
Obasanjo criticised what he described as AD/Afenifere’s “tribal” politics and said some of the group’s younger leaders departed from the values of earlier elders whom he said had expressed regret before their deaths. He said he never pursued tribal politics and emphasised his belief in communication, dialogue and accommodation.
The letter closed on a conciliatory note acknowledging Osoba’s role in allocating the site for the Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library in Abeokuta, calling it “the most significant landmark in Abeokuta” and thanking him for it.
The response is signed Olusegun Obasanjo.
