|
Obasanjo’s
Strange Homily at Xmas
I must confess
that even as I covered the political campaigns of General Olusegun
Obasanjo, as a stringer for the New York Times, in the run up to
the presidential election of February, 1999, this song, When Obasanjo
Dey Rule, usually rendered in pidgin English by the women wing of
the People’s Democratic Party, summed my expectation of the incoming
civilian regime. At least a few times I was so encapsulated by the
melody that I could not help joining the chorus. At the campaign
rallies at the famous Okpara Square in Enugu, Awka, Asaba which
I reported with Norimitsu Onishi, the West African Bureau chief,
I could not resist the urge to swing a little to the women’s rendition
of When Obasanjo Dey Rule, When Obasanjo Dey Rule O! Nigeria Go
Better, When Obasanjo Dey Rule. Coming particularly from a country
with a history that is near rudderless, many Nigerians indeed were
filled with great expectation as they savoured this song and danced
in admiration when Obasanjo gave his post victory speech at the
International Conference Centre in Abuja.
At the historic
swearing-in of Obasanjo and his Vice, Atiku Abubakar by the Chief
Justice, Muhammed Uwais on May 29, 1999, many more Nigerians learnt
to sing the song by heart. But deep into the twilight of the regime’s
reign, I wonder whether that song will still move anybody. Oblivious
of the burden of history, Obasanjo who survived the gulag of late
dictator, General Sani Abacha by airs breathe, has virtually carried
on as if the people do not matter. He has perhaps spent more time
outside the country on his elusive search for investors than he
had for his countrymen and women. He is merely passing through here
for convenience and treat the popular resentment to his junketing
with scorn. Obasanjo prefers to engage his people only in a dialogue
of the deaf. A man signs an Electoral Law preparing the grounds
for his emergence as a civilian dictator and beckons on you to take
your grievances to the courts. I read between the lips of the same
person who presided over the jankara Supreme Court judgement of
12 two thirds in 1979 which cannot be cited for precedence.
The homily
from President Olusegun Obasanjo at this Christmas is insipid. In
spite of his avowed stance to maintain the unity of Nigeria, his
every action points to an attempt at the ruination of the country.
It was not by accident that our founding fathers opted for a federal
structure. This is largely informed by the ethnic and cultural diversity
of our people. A system which guarantees multiple political centres
can only flow from this. We’ll in fact imperil our multi-ethnic
state if we attempt to foist a zombie agenda. I have in my earlier
writings observed that the Obasanjo regime was threading the path
of Abacha. Those who thought I was crying fire too early in a market
place can now see the direction of the principal actors. The Electoral
Law signed recently by the president has been cleverly crafted to
give a consensus second term to Obasanjo without the rigours of
facing a formidable opposition. It is also designed to deny the
Nigerian people the right of choice.
By disallowing
the new parties participation in the presidential election in 2003,
we are merely being asked to chose between Obasanjo and Obasanjo
as the All People’s Party (APP) and the Alliance of Democracy (AD)
are virtually too spineless to present any effective opposition.
In the frenzy to partake in the spoils of office, their leadership
have been beheaded and almost submerged by the PDP. If you ask me,
I can hardly tell the PDP, APP and AD apart. The parties have been
in league in denying the democracy dividends to the Nigerian people.
They have merely reinforced the view that governance in this country
is not about taking care of the interest of the people and providing
their needs but about festering their pockets. Governance in this
our largely pauperised setting is about primitive accumulation of
the people’s resources.
It explains
why many political office holders are ready to do anything including
subverting the people’s will just to perpetuate themselves in office.
It is sad that having voted with our feet against Abacha’s transmutation
plan and false construct to present himself as the only messiah,
somebody can be attempting to con the citizenry through the same
path. It is inconceivable that a post Abacha civilian regime will
be contemplating kick-starting with the presidential election in
order to benefit from a band wagon effect and thereby ambushing
the people’s right to chose from different political tendencies.
If in the First Republic, the people had a right to chose even from
independent candidates, the Second Republic presented us with options
to chose from among Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe, Alhaji Shehu Shagari, Alhaji
Aminu Kanu, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, Alhaji Ibrahim Waziri and later
Dr Tunji Braithwaite, Obasanjo has decided to unilaterally abridged
our rights by scheming himself as the only option for Nigerian voters
in a Third Republic is almost akin to a throw back to the era of
savagery.
But why do
our leaders not learn from the sins of Abacha that dictatorship
cannot thrive in a multi-ethnic country like Nigeria. Obasanjo’s
strange homily can only move this country to shreds. Those the gods
wish to destroy are first made mad and drunk with power. The same
forces who have consistently told us that we should forget the agitation
to dialogue on the Nigerian project via a National Conference are
bent as foisting themselves as the only option out of our state
of political miasma. While scoffing at the idea of a dialogue among
the different ethnic groups to resolve the national question, the
government of President Obasanjo has been prostrate in arresting
the myriad of inter and intra ethnic skirmishes that have engulfed
the nation.
Like many other
moves of the principal actors of the present civilian dispensation
has shown, we are far from civilian transition as long as pro Abacha
forces are still waiting in the wings to subvert our collective
effort at re-inventing our beloved Nation
|
