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Obasanjo:
Not Yet a People’s President
For many Americans,
President George Bush (Jnr) is neither gifted in eloquence nor possesses
the oratory, charm and magisterial intellection of his immediate
predecessor, President Bill Clinton. But Bush took the gauntlet
after rejigging 19 speech drafts and six rehearsals according to
Newsweek and “flawlessly delivered an address that inspired the
nation, rallied the allies and impressed his critics” in the wake
of the terrorists attacks on America on September 11, last year.
Said he “In our grief and anger we have found our mission and our
moment”. Wading through the rubble of the twin tower World Trade
Centre in New York’s central district with fire fighters and other
rescue workers, a shell shocked and sobbing Bush provided encouraging
words and succour to his despondent country men and women.
“Freedom and
fear are at war. The advance of human freedom, the great achievement
of our time and the great hope of every time, now depends on us,”
the American President who axed many scheduled engagements quipped.
The morrow after our own September 11 disaster which shook Lagos
last Sunday to its foundation, leaving scores of people dead and
many missing, President Olusegun Obasanjo decided it was time to
give bile to a nation in agony. For him, it was time for insolence
to grief stricken families of soldiers reeling in pains from the
explosion of the Ammunition Transit Depot at Ikeja Military Cantonment.
Watching Obasanjo’s garrulous and arrogant mien Monday morning,
it was definitely clear that we are still miles away from a president
that would do the people’s bidding.
We are certainly
far from one that would live up to the yearnings and aspiration
of the people. It didn’t occur to him that he needed to sympathise
with the people’s travails and tribulations. Instead of a president
providing balms, succour and soothing words for his people now engulfed
in a monumental tragedy with families virtually torn apart, I saw
a man whose composure betrayed the looks of janitor atop the presidential
car barking disparaging orders at his countrymen and women. “Shut
up, don’t be unruly. I don’t have to be here. I only happen to be
in Lagos,” was what Obasanjo arrogantly had to offer bereaved and
homeless families, some of who had lost everything they had in a
twinkling of an eye. What kind of absentee president is this? Like
Rehoboam, Obasanjo was only short of asking the people to take a
dinner of scorpions merely for voting for him. Implied in the president’s
unsavoury speech is that if he were not in Lagos he will not consider
it important to venture out of his safe haven in Aso Rock in Abuja
to visit the site of the explosion and condole bereaved families.
After his rather casual visit to the explosion site, it was business
as usual as he took off to enjoy his two-day visit to Katsina.
Although he
has not bothered to share the people’s travails, a president that
is perpetually on flight declared a day of mourning for close to
2000 victims of the disaster and was even planning to proceed on
his US tour before he reluctantly bowed to the motion from the House
of Representatives asking him to stay at home. It’s tragic knowing
how far we have sunk with a president who cares no hoot about the
grief of his people. At each turn Obasanjo’s explanation of his
non challance continues to assault the sensibilities of a wailing
nation. How can a president say he was not properly briefed that
there were casualties from last Sunday’s explosion? Could the commander
in chief and a war general be talking from ten sides of his mouth
when he told the bewildered nation he was first informed about the
explosion from the media? If we are to believe him, what then is
the job of the array of security officials flocking around the president?
I’m not close to being a war general apart from being familiar with
the writings of Von Clausewitz, one of the most accomplished scholars
on war. .
But each time
there’s stampede in a stadium, my instinct says some people may
have died. But a war general like Obasanjo that I see in the image
of the American Gulf War hero, General Norman Schwarzkorpf, says
he was not properly briefed about casualties and so expected none
from the explosion of an ammunition depot located close to densely
populated areas in the city of Lagos. This president needs to do
more to convince his people that their well being is uppermost in
his heart. He needs to deal with his people with greater compassion.
I was taken aback that when his Minister of Justice and Attorney
General, Chief Bola Ige was assassinated last December, Obasanjo
still proceeded to dance owambe in a Church and attended a wedding
ceremony in Yola. When the last time there was mayhem in Kano, Jos
and Tivland almost threatening to smoulder the country, our president
was on flight as if abdicating his responsibility as the nation’s
chief security officer.
The president
definitely needs to show compassion, tact and the will to steer
the nation away from the present state of miasma. Saving PDP From
Itself In a Rambo like fashion, disparate groups from the South
East Zone of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) were locked in
a gun duel at the recent National Executive Council meeting of the
party held penultimate week in Abuja. Not even the presence of big
wigs of the party including President Olusegun Obasanjo was enough
to deter the combatants. At the centre of the ugly fray are parallel
party structures, floated by governors and some political office
holders from the zone based in Abuja, angling for each other’s throat.
The ruling party has definitely shot itself on the foot in the raging
internal battle for power. In an attempt to foist its loyalists
made up largely of political office holders in Abuja, the presidency
has been too eager to throw away the rules and return to the Hobbesian
state of nature. Just look at the way the former chairman of the
party, Chief Barnabas Gemade and Secretary, Dr Okwesilieze Nwodo
were chucked out without the luxury of a contest.
In a spate
of five minutes the kangaroo election at the convention of one of
the largest parties in Africa had come to a close with Chief Audu
Ogbeh and Chief Vincent Ogbulafor emerging as the new party henchmen.
Also, the struggle between Senate President Anyim Pius Anyim and
Governor Sam Egwu for the control of Ebonyin ended in a fiasco with
five party men killed courtesy of Anyim’s security officials. The
Abuja politicians who are too anxious to present themselves as the
new wheelers and dealers in Abia state would not also allow Governor
Orji Uzor Kalu any breathing space. They appear too much in a hurry
to hijack the party machinery through the back door. The political
environment both within the PDP and without is being shrunk by people
who want only the prolongation of their own empire. The same forces
plotted to extinguish all other players from the politics of the
country via the smuggling of clause 80 (1) into the ill fated Electoral
Act. But we need to understand that where the will of the people
are subverted, they look for other forms of expression. The PDP
is merely postponing the evil day by stultifying the process of
political competition within and outside its shores.
At the appropriate
time people are bound to explore alternative platforms to express
their feelings, when that happens it may be difficult saving the
PDP from itself. A Vote for Police Strike. It is indeed cheery news
that the Police have finally joined civil society in exploiting
the strike option as a form of expression. I’m surprised many were
jolted by this. The police in many parts of the world and even in
Africa have had to adopt the strike weapon to draw attention to
their sorry plight. In a situation where the police in Nigeria live
in putrid conditions in barracks that have not been renovated for
35 years, their salaries unpaid for months while promotion becomes
forlorn, it is inconceivable to expect them to continue to fold
their arms. We seem to wait for issues to degenerate before we move
to salvage it. Why did the authorities tardy for this long before
releasing money for the welfare of policemen? Earlier the policemen
had requested to form a union.
The authorities
prefer to play ostrich as if policemen have no democratic right
to form a union. The police are entitled to a union. In granting
their request we must abrogate those laws that preclude Customs
and Immigration officials from operating their unions. We cannot
be seeking to extend democratic space on one hand and deny Police,
Customs and Immigration officials from exercising their rights of
association. Even the rights of members of the military to form
associations must be supporte
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