|
President
Olusegun Abacha and His Masquerade Dance
Amongst our
neighbours in West and Central Africa, developments are giving cause
to cheer. 30 year old President Joseph Kabila is steering his country,
Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) long torn into shreds by fratricidal
wars, on the throes of a National Conference. The forum involving
different sections of the Congolese society has been called to proffer
solutions on how to move the mineral rich Central African country
forward from a state of political miasma since independence. Confronted
by the arduous task of putting his country on the grindstone, the
younger Kabila whose father was consumed by the raging fire in the
Congo, reasoned that sustaining a dialogue of the deaf may not be
meaningful.
In Cote D’Ivoire,
President Laurent Gbagbo has given fillip to a National Reconciliation
Forum in which prominent leaders of the opposition like Allaissaine
Quattara, a former prime minister under Houphet Boigny, Connaire
Bedie, a former president and even the former military strongman,
General Robert Guei have been invited to a National Reconciliation
Forum to dialogue on the sorry state of the nation. Since surviving
the tyrannical regime of Bedie and the infamous transmutation scheme
of Guei, Cote D’Ivoire has not recovered from the xenophobic hysteria
which sought to brand Quattara, a key opposition figure a foreigner.
It would be foolhardy to expect that the ensuing jaw jaw and political
discourses generated from these fora are going to produce angelic
solutions to the multifarious problems in these countries.
But some significant
steps are being taken to egg on the two troubled countries on the
path of a resolution of their crises. Here in Nigeria, we seem to
be groping in some dark alley trying to conjecture the path being
thread by the civilian leadership of President Olusegun Obasanjo,
29 months after it came to power with so much goodwill from the
citizenry. My impression is that this man has decided to pettify
his mandate and take us on a dance of the masquerade. Why the president
still opted to attend a UNESCO conference in Paris, France at a
time the country was overheated by conflagration in Kano, Benue
and Taraba states is intriguing. Unperturbed by the sensibilities
of the citizenry, he barely spent a few hours commiserating with
people in Kano before jetting off again to the conference on terrorism
in Dakar, Senegal. Obasanjo certainly rides on a high horse and
perceives the matters affecting his people with disparagement. I’m
not too clear what drives this president. Could it be the anxiety
to pop wine and celebrate his imminent100 trip outside Nigeria as
a civilian leader?
Or something
peculiar that makes the comfort of a presidential plane the best
place to run the business of Nigeria? Without knowing it, we may
have cast lot on May 29, 1999 for a modern day Nero who prefers
to play ostrich while the nation burns. History has been so kind
to this former military head of state by thrusting him over our
affairs twice in a spate of 23 years. Several million of Nigerians
will not even have a minute chance to preside over our affairs.
Unfortunately Obasanjo does not appear to be keen with rising to
the demands and challenges of history. He’s taking us once again
on the same insensitive and ruinous path thread by former military
dictator, General Sani Abacha. In what way for instance has the
president brought us closer to the resolution of the national question
in Nigeria? The tragedy of the Obasanjo presidency is the naïve
conception that social integration of the different ethnic group
can be taken for granted. If this were so, why do we have the perennial
skirmishes between the Tiv and Jukun in neighbouring villages in
Wukari, Taraba or the Tiv/Fulani imbroglio which took place in Bali
local government area?. Why has the brickbat involving the Kuteb,
Chamba and Jukun refused to ebb in Takum? Why do we always have
a fresh onslaught between the Sayawa (Zar) and the Hausa-Fulani
in Tafawa Balewa in Bauchi State? Why are the Hausa-Fulani and Katafs
still on edge in Zango Kataf almost 10 years after a smouldering
war in the area? The post Sharia crises in Kaduna and Kano have
merely gone into recess, waiting for something else to tinker it.
Why the restiveness in the Niger Delta? Why the resort to Oduduwa
cocoon by the Yoruba?. Why also the intra ethnic bloodbath, which
has seen the Yoruba torn against itself in Ile Ife and Modakeke
or the Igbo on Igbo violence evinced by the crisis between Aguleri-Umuleri?
I do sympathise with Obasanjo’s desire for wanting to maintain suzerainty
over the larger territory called Nigeria but an over simplistic
approach to the issue of social integration will not resolve these
lingering questions hanging over the nation. He needs to take more
than a gauntlet to tackle these problems.
Against the
background of the issues thrown up by the post June 12, 1993 presidential
election, one would have thought that the president will move to
confront the fundamental issues of the national question. He has
strangely elected to watch as the country dips from one inter and
intra ethnic crisis to another. Obasanjo is part of the current
which contends that the unity of Nigeria is settled and cannot be
negotiated. This strand is contemptuous of any attempt to convoke
a genuine debate to discuss the Nigerian question. Oblivious of
the burden of history, Obasanjo is willing to play along with forces
out to scuttle any attempt at a dialogue of the crises of the Nigerian
nation. Their antics is that if a National Conference must be called,
it can only be a caricature, without a soul. But this will not be
new. It’s the old Abacha song Strange Tunes over Electoral Bill
I fear for Nigeria’s democracy and my heart bleeds. Some say we
are jinxed by civilian-civilian transition. Strangely the Anyin
Pius Anyim led Senate is assuming the status of a Supreme Court
interpreting the law on who’s eligible to run for a second term
or not. My worry is that we do not learn from history. My reading
is that the People’s Democratic Party PDP is desperate about a home
base for its key political actors and is ready to crystallise one
not minding the cost.
The same old
game of the defunct National Party of Nigeria NPN is about to be
re-enacted. We are definitely inching towards the inglorious days
of landslide and moon slide victories. Chief Akin Omoboriowo who
benefited from one of those subversion of the people’s franchise
had to flee into a doldrums to be able to exercise his blood mandate
in Ondo State. The same forces which made the 1983 transition violent
and bloody are around ready to prey on us once again. But must we
allow them? I pity President Olusegun Obasanjo and his rainbow coalition
who are out to ensure a home base at all cost. The target is Chief
Segun Osoba who must be got out of the way. The same applies to
his other colleagues in Taraba, Yobe and Kogi. It’s become convenient
for the basis of this calculation to include the tenure of a still
birth republic which was denied life by the main drammatis personae,
General Ibrahim Babangida. Songs for Afenifere at 50 Like a cat
with nine lives, this political structure of the Yoruba survived
the rampaging effect of successive military regime by merely claiming
to be a socio cultural organisation. It is not one. But the ability
to alter its form and endure the antics of dictatorial regimes remains
its strength. From the Action Group (AG), Unity Party of Nigeria
(UPN), Social Democratic Party (SDP) to the Alliance of Democracy
(AD).
Afenifere has
struck a functional chord between the form and content of the organisation.
This is why I find it amusing the argument of those who wish to
sever the organisation from the AD. How do you cut off an organisation
from a political front which it crystallised and nurtures? Founded
fifty years ago by Yoruba visionaries like Chief Obafemi Awolowo,
Chief Michael Ajasin, Chief Adisa Akinloye and others, Afenifere
has grown into a monster becoming the bulwark of the resistance
against the permutation gamble of late dictator, General Sani Abacha.
As its front, the National Democratic Coalition NADECO took on the
battle of confronting the evil general, many of its prominent actors
took flight abroad under an unbearable siege. The Joker called Yahya
Jammeh This man believes the Gambia is his racket. He has even threatened
to make life unbearable for those who refused to support his continued
reign. This joker who took over government nine years ago and civilianised
himself does not believe that his county men have an option in this
mattar. But time will tell.
The Ivoriens
threw out General Robert Guei when he attempted this path about
a year ago. Like the sit tight General in Pakistan, Pervez Musharraf
who recently declared himself president, Yahya Jammeh will soon
have a date with history. I’m confident his path cannot be anything
but ignominious. Listening to the BBC interview of this joker who
thinks provision of water supply and good roads for his people is
such a big deal in 21st century Africa was quite revolting
|
