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Obasanjo Had Sanusi’s Letter Before It Was Leaked – Data Analyst

A Data and Information Analyst, Babajide Ogunsowo, on Friday averred that former President Olusegun Obasanjo had access to Central Bank of Nigeria governor, Sanusi Lamido’s … Continue reading Obasanjo Had Sanusi’s Letter Before It Was Leaked – Data Analyst


A Data and Information Analyst, Babajide Ogunsowo, on Friday averred that former President Olusegun Obasanjo had access to Central Bank of Nigeria governor, Sanusi Lamido’s letter before it was leaked to the public domain because he had referred to the CBN letter in his own letter to President Goodluck Jonathan.

Speaking on Sunrise Daily, Mr Ogunsowo surmised that the fact that Obasanjo had referred to Sanusi’s letter had “influenced some parties to quickly release Sanusi’s letter.”

“It could also be interpreted sublimely that President Obasanjo was also subtly telling President Jonathan that he has access to information that he (Jonathan) has.”

Ogunsowo gave an in-depth analysis of the contents of Obasanjo’s letter, which he insisted was a ‘personal letter’ as opposed to a ‘leadership letter’ which some analysts have pegged it.

Most discussions on-going in the media have focused on the messenger and the message forgetting the ‘critical thirdling’ which is the ‘mess,’ he said, citing Obasanjo’s opening statement which read: “I am constrained to make this an open letter.”

According to Ogunsowo, Obasanjo used the word ‘president’ 40 times, ‘party’ 38 times and ‘PDP’ 31 times indicating the message was concerning him, Jonathan and PDP.

The word ‘terrorism’ was used three times, ‘integrity’ three times, ‘Boko Haram’ six times.

“Compared to other words like democracy that he used 10 times, you could clearly see that from the beginning (based on the texture and analysis) the letter was about him, the party, and the president which is more of a personal letter as opposed to how most analysts are viewing it as a leadership letter.”

Other words are ‘I’ which was used 152 times and he referred to President Jonathan using ‘You’ 148 times.

“He used the word ‘They’ more than he used the word ‘we,’” Ogunsowo added.

“A lot of times in the letter, he had used the words ‘I,’ ‘You’ and ‘They’ pointing to potential people that he felt were opposed to the developments in the country, then he had focused most of his words on the party and on the president.”

“It is important for us as stakeholders not to analyse a personal letter as if it were a leadership letter. Leadership letters would focus more on issues like the economy, for instance Martin Luther King Jnr’s letter; the most words he used were law and segregation.”

Commenting on CBN governor’s letter, he highlighted two similarities including the opening words “I am constrained to.” They also used the same words at the closure of the letter.

Other similarities he listed include the controversy generated, they corresponded with international standard lengths of letters (they were both long), and both letters have also been perceived as leadership letters.

He added that analysts believed that Obasanjo was trying to tell President Jonathan that he was also privy to important exchanges in his cabinet by referring to Sanusi’s letter which was yet to be seen in the public domain.