Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has dismissed claims by former Ogun State Governor Olusegun Osoba that he deceived leaders of the Alliance for Democracy (AD) during the political realignments ahead of the 2003 general elections.
In a letter addressed to Mr Osoba on Thursday, Obasanjo described the article titled “How Obasanjo Deceived Us in 2003” as inaccurate, insisting that he had never deceived anyone throughout his political career.
He argued that several events surrounding his emergence as president and subsequent political engagements were either unknown to Mr Osoba or deliberately left out of the publication.
Obasanjo explained that his return to politics came after extensive consultations following repeated appeals from leaders across the country after his release from prison.
According to him, he met with prominent leaders from the South-West, the North and the South-East before joining the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and eventually contesting the presidency.
The former president said his political philosophy has always been rooted in dialogue, friendship and national unity, rather than bitterness, ethnic politics or political exclusion.
He maintained that his decision to form a broad-based government after winning the 1999 presidential election was motivated by national interest and not by political weakness.
The Alliance for Democracy, backed at the time by the influential Yoruba socio-cultural group Afenifere, dominated South-West politics when Nigeria returned to democratic rule in 1999. The party won governorship elections in all six South-West states — Ogun, Ondo, Ekiti, Osun, Lagos and Oyo.
However, by the 2003 general elections, the party had lost political control of five of those states to the PDP. Mr Osoba failed in his bid for re-election in Ogun State, while the late Adebayo Adefarati (Ondo), the late Lam Adesina (Oyo), Bisi Akande (Osun) and Adeniyi Adebayo (Ekiti) also lost their governorship seats. Bola Tinubu was the only AD governor who secured re-election, retaining Lagos State.
Political accounts over the years have linked the AD’s losses to an alleged unwritten agreement between the party’s governors and Obasanjo before the 2003 elections.
According to the widely circulated account, the AD governors agreed to support Obasanjo’s second-term presidential bid, while he would, in return, back their re-election campaigns under the AD platform.
Tinubu was said to have rejected the arrangement, instead urging Lagos voters to support the AD in all elections and oppose Obasanjo and the PDP.
While the five governors reportedly fulfilled their part of the agreement, they later lost their elections, leading to claims that Obasanjo failed to honour the alleged understanding. Tinubu, who was not part of the arrangement, emerged as the only AD governor to complete a second term.
Obasanjo, however, rejected those claims.
He insisted it was unrealistic to suggest he depended on the support of six AD governors to secure victory, given the PDP’s dominance at the time.
The former president also dismissed allegations that he accepted political conditions from Afenifere leaders before taking office, stressing that no organisation dictated his government’s policies.
He defended the outcome of the 2003 elections, arguing that the defeats suffered by most AD governors reflected political realities and campaign shortcomings rather than any manipulation.
Obasanjo further criticised Afenifere for what he described as narrow ethnic politics, insisting that effective national leadership required broader political accommodation beyond regional interests.
“I sympathise with some Afenifere leaders who died with regret as they expressed to me before they died – Chief Gani Daudu, Chief Abraham Adesanya, and Chief Ayo Adebanjo.
“I was close to some of them before they died. What they cherished, taught, believed and practised were not what their proteges accepted, believed and practised.
“There are many things you got wrong and many things you omitted advertently or inadvertently in your write-up carried in The Legal Observer of July 20, 2026.
“Your presentation in your write-up was farfetched to put it mildly.
“But Before I go further, I take strong and serious objection to your calling me a deceit 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,” he said.
Despite the disagreement, Obasanjo acknowledged Osoba’s contributions to Ogun State, particularly his decision to allocate land for the Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library in Abeokuta.
He urged political leaders to embrace humility, dialogue and lasting relationships, noting that politics should never destroy personal friendships or commitment to national development.
According to the NAN report, one of the key issues raised by Osoba in his article was the Alliance for Democracy’s endorsement of Obasanjo for the 2003 presidential election.
Osoba alleged that although Obasanjo knew he would not contest under the AD, he allowed the party to endorse him, thereby misleading its leaders.
“We decided not to present a presidential candidate for the AD, in spite of resistance from some Afenifere leaders.
“We later realised that we had been fooled. Obasanjo merely played along with us and ended up deceiving us by telling our leaders what he knew they wanted to hear but which didn’t come from his heart,” he said.
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