Obasanjo no stranger to DRC

2008-11-05 11:24

Lagos - Nigeria's ex-president Olusegun Obasanjo, tasked with defusing the crisis in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, once learned a painful lesson about the dangers of trying to keep the peace in the region.

The 71-year-old, handed his new mission by UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon, cut his teeth as a young army lieutenant way back in 1960 when he served with a United Nations force in what was then known as the Belgian Congo.

And according to a new book by his first wife Oluremi, it was nearly a mission that ended in death after he was reported missing on the outskirts of Bukavu, one of the major cities in the east of the country.

"He had been captured by the rebels (fighting against colonial rule) and later locked in a car boot, being driven away possibly for execution," wrote Oluremi. "But wise counsel prevailed and the Congolese released him."

In the intervening five decades, the former colony has won independence and seen its name change first to Zaire and then to the Democratic Republic of Congo after the overthrow of its long-time ruler Mobutu Sese Seko in 1997.

Massive humanitarian crisis

And life has been every bit as tumultuous for Obasanjo who acquired firsthand experience of African civil conflict when he served as commander of a Nigerian army division during the Biafran War in the late 1960s.

Obasanjo was widely credited with crushing the attempted secession by members of the Igbo ethnic group during the Biafran conflict, which caused a massive humanitarian crisis and left between one and two million people dead.

In 1975 Obasanjo supported a military coup that overthrew Nigeria's corrupt civilian administration. The following year he became military ruler almost by accident, when the coup leader, General Murtala Muhammad, was assassinated.

Obasanjo was to rule his country with an iron hand from 1976 to 1979, before ceding power to a new civilian administration, a rare event in Africa, and unprecedented in Nigeria.

In 1991 he was a candidate for the post of UN secretary general, but the world body preferred the Egyptian Boutros Boutros-Ghali.

Four years later Obasanjo was tried and convicted for plotting a coup against military leader General Sani Abacha; he was to serve three years in jail before being freed on Abacha's death.

Obasanjo then plunged into civilian politics, founding his People's Democratic Party and winning the presidency in 1999.

A leitmotif of Obasanjo's political role has been his attempts to strengthen the unity of his vast and ethnically diverse country. The PPP remains one of Nigeria's only truly national parties, today in power in 28 of its 36 federal states.

At the end of his second term as elected president, Obasanjo blotted his democratic copybook by trying to change the constitution and serve a third term. The attempt failed, however, and he stepped down in 2007.

While he remains highly influential behind-the-scenes, his power has been gradually whittled down.

Under his rule, Nigeria affirmed its role as an African superpower, sending troops to take part in United Nations and African Union peacekeeping forces in many of the continent's conflicts.

'Intolerant of criticism'

Although he has himself been accused of graft, he spearheaded anti-corruption campaigns, notably cleaning up Lagos airport and Nigeria's sea ports.

Born on March 5 1937 in Abeokuta, capital of the southwestern state of Ogun, Olesegun Obasanjo has been married several times and has numerous children.

He is also a successful businessman, notably owning a huge poultry company.

Nigeria's most famous writer, Wole Soyinka, has described him as a "bullish personality, calculating and devious yet capable of disarming spontaneity, occasionally self-deprecating yet intolerant of criticism".

- AFP