This write up might as well have been titled; how not to defend defamation, after all, are we scandalized by the sheer number of allegations against our collective national leadership. Thus when the letter came unto the public knowledge, like every other curious and inquisitive Nigerian, I did all I could to read what is evidently an important communication between our leadership of the past, as well as that of the present, I even pondered on how lucky I am, at the very least, for being part of history, even from a position of an insignificant nonentity, because, seemingly, this are the type of information likely to be found in presidential libraries, which many a Nigerian citizen would love to read and comprehend what actually happened in the past, since such events are almost and always never revealed to the public, as the ordinary citizen have to read of it in a few years later, perhaps in an Obasanjo type presidential library in Otta, Ogun state Nigeria.
Sensing my luck if not good luck, I quickly downloaded the mysterious but very popular document, though, what I got was merely a correspondence, by former President Olusegun Obasanjo to the current incumbent in office, Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, where he laid and made several allegations against the person and office of a presidential peer, akin to a clear and probable defamation of character. And, it was not only me, who thought of such a reality, even the Nigerian presidency thought so by the type of reaction it elicited from it, after all, one of the first line of defence in the rebuttal by the presidential spokesperson, pending a full and personal response by the country’s number one citizen, was to claim that the letter by its injurious content, was intentionally leaked by Chief Obasanjo to cause grave disrepute unto the official position of the presidency of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
Indeed, some reports which have not been disproved, especially as carried by Thisday Newspaper, stated how the letter had to be toned down due to its very feisty and combative nature, allegedly, at the urgings of former military President Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida. In fact, the attribution told of the instance where the gap toothed General gave advice to the former Chairman of Board of Trustees of the People’s Democratic Party, to subject the content of his presidential message to a legal perusal before sending it over, in order to avoid falling into the grave accusation of defaming a sitting head of state, which literally confirms at the very least, expectation of defamation of character falling on the letter, pending a judicial review saying otherwise.
Generally, the mass of allegations contained in the letter are neither unique nor prophetic or even epochal, in fact, what was stated is in full knowledge of many a Nigerian citizen. Perhaps, if any credit is to be given for authorship, it has to be for the effort made to compile an 18 page letter, covering vast and wide areas of an administration, akin to a kind of a report card of a predecessor being documented by an administration it succeeded, when usually, the Nigerian norm is for a subsisting administration to dig into the dirt of the past or putting it more correctly, a current government examining the past activities of an administration that succeeded it, which often comes with the usual acclaim of persecution or witch hunting of opposing political foes, whom probably must have lost out in the power games of gaining political ascendancy, which are the perennial election seasons known for leaving winners and losers in turns.
Though to be fair and need I say factual on the letter, it was a private mail correspondence, an atypical brotherly complaint, which is not supposed to have come to the knowledge of a third party public, unfortunately, that is exactly what happened, when the very privately written exchange was leaked unto the public space. Perhaps deliberately, most certainly to embarrass the Nigerian presidency, which in that case, the accusation eyes must fall on the sender of the letter, but, this is not the first time sealed messages have unexpectedly found its way into the sight of a leering public, the purported letter of the Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria to President Goodluck Jonathan is one, the Olusegun Aganga as Finance Minister financial impropriety allegation complain is another. In fact, many of such confidential complaints seemingly have a way of leaking out to the embarrassment of the government. Looking at things from that context, could we be so certain that the leak is a premeditated act of a political foe or rather, it is falling within the range of the careless folly of a fifth columnist or even an attempted belittling of a president, whom the opposition has mischievously tagged as a kinder garden leader.
What is an appropriate response to a defamation, it could be inform of one of a kind, a type of a dirt for dirt’s sake, where a member of the family of a defamer is encouraged to write a letter of complaint, highlighting all the betrayals supervised by an all knowing father figure, which Senator Iyabo Obasanjo-Bello purportedly wrote to her daddy, strictly a private family correspondence of no value to anyone except to the clan, since none of the duo is currently a public officer. But most appropriately, a detailed line by line response by the president should be the ideal rebuttal and the robust demand to show proof of the allegation or disowning of the attribution with a genuine profuse apology, pending which if not done, seeking judicial relief for incurred damages should immediately follow.
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