Obasanjo to Osoba: ‘I didn’t deceive AD leaders in 2003’

By James Ogunnaike, ABEOKUTA

FORMER President Olusegun Obasanjo, yesterday, faulted claims made by former Ogun State Governor, Aremo Olusegun Osoba, that he deceived leaders of the Alliance for Democracy, AD, during the political realignments leading to the 2003 general elections, insisting that he neither misled anyone nor acted in bad faith.

The former President, in a letter dated July 23, 2026, titled ‘Reply to your inaccurate posture: ‘How Obasanjo deceived us in 2003’, described Osoba’s account, published in The Legal Observer on July 20, as “farfetched” and riddled with inaccuracies, omissions and misconceptions.

Obasanjo took particular exception to Osoba’s allegation that he deceived Yoruba political leaders, insisting that his political engagements had always been guided by openness and national interest.

He said: “I take strong and serious objection to your calling me a deceiver because I deceived nobody. I always presented my case and all issues as I had them and as I understood them, no matter whose ox is gored.”

Obasanjo argued that several political developments preceding his emergence as President in 1999 were unknown to Osoba because they were handled by senior leaders of Afenifere and the AD.

Recalling his engagements with the late Afenifere leader, Chief Abraham Adesanya, Obasanjo said despite being repeatedly told that Yoruba people would not vote for him, he continued to maintain cordial relations with the elder statesman.

He said: “There was no time I called on Papa Adesanya that I was not well entertained. Yet Papa stood on no vote for me, and I stood on my respect and what was due to him.

“Bringing PDP and AD to join me for a sort of national government was not out of weakness; rather, it was out of strength and for the unity and progress of the country.”

He also rejected Osoba’s account of events surrounding the attempted impeachment of former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Mr Ghali Na’Abba, alleging instead that the impeachment plot originated from within his administration.

He said: “The game continued to be played on with me treating it with contempt as I had committed no impeachable offence.”

On the 2003 elections, Obasanjo disputed Osoba’s suggestion that the defeat of AD governors resulted from political manipulation by the Presidency.

He said: “Your loss or defeat in 2003 was genuine in all the six states except the one where the figures were successfully and murderously changed. I have never believed in tribal politics.”

While criticising Osoba’s interpretation of events, the former President acknowledged the former governor’s contributions to Ogun State and to the establishment of the Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library, OOPL, in Abeokuta.

He commended Osoba for allocating the land on which the library stands, describing it as a landmark project that has benefited the state.

“The greatest service you rendered for me is the land allocated by you for the Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library. It has become the most significant landmark in Abeokuta. Politics may end, relationships may live till life’s end, there is no end to humility and thanksgiving”, he said.

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