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Olusegun
Abacha
By TONY IYARE
For me it does
appear the Nigerian ship of state is near rudderless. And the man
for whom history has been so kind to lift the country out of a prolonged
comatose is savouring the Russian roulette. He either seem to have
lost rhythm nor confused on how to proceed. Although I do sympathise
with the weight of President Olusegun Obasanjo’s assignment, I’m
puzzled by his predilection for the tactics and nuances of the regime
of late dictator, General Sani Abacha. Almost throughout last week
I could not resolve the riddle of drawing even a thin line between
both. As much as I tried, the looming image of Abacha kept taunting
me. Olusegun Abacha fits the bill of this sudden transfiguration.
Obasanjo says there’s no alternative to deregulation of the petroleum
sector, a euphemism for increase in the price of fuel because the
country’s finances is reeling from a 300 billion naira annual subsidy.
This comes to
$28 per annum or a little above $2 for every Nigerian per month.
Obasanjo is simply saying that Nigerians cannot be subsidised with
about 260 naira monthly in a country where government has virtually
abdicated even the semblance of responsibility for its people. What
really does government in Nigeria do for its people? Education is
in shambles, healthcare is in paralysis, electricity and water supply
are erratic, the roads are filled with craters, housing programmes
benefit only the rich while the transport system is virtually broken.
It has taken the regime close to two years to embrace the GSM telephone
network, which has been available to everyone in the West Coast
for years, including Sierra Leone where there is war.
Our telephone
is less efficient than that of Somalia where there is no government,
according to a report by the BBC. It’s the same old refrain of driving
smugglers out of business and making the distribution of petroleum
products efficient. It was the same argument employed by the regime
of General Ibrahim Babangida and Abacha to rein in a geometric rise
in this sector years ago. Abacha raised fuel price from 4 to 11
Naira, an increase of almost 200 per cent. Obasanjo says his plan
to hike the price of fuel from 22 to 40 Naira, an increase of about
100 per cent, will go on as it is in the best interest of the national
economy. His logic is that not many Nigerians are buying on the
pump price. Is that not a failure of government policy, which left
the refineries to rot and the distribution channels taken over by
cartels.
How many countries
will relish and glamorise such increase without catastrophic consequences
for its people? In whose interest is the hike, a hard sell either
to the people, their representatives in the National Assembly and
state governors. Its obvious this government is on the path of harakiri.
When a leader begins to romanticise his monologue, he is on the
verge of a civilian dictatorship. The hard fact is that the Obasanjo
regime has virtually surrendered the economy to the dictates of
the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank whose prognosis
for us to get out of our economic quagmire is to deregulate our
economy, open it to foreign concerns and barter our currency. Little
wonder the naira now exchanges at close to 130 to the dollar at
the black market. I’ve never seen a regime so religious about selling
off our national patrimony all in the name of privatisation.
The duo of General
Muhammed Buhari and Late General Tunde Idiagbon may have built the
country into a huge prison but their regime resisted the patronising
dictates of the IMF and World Bank whose officials were bent on
making mincemeat of the country’s being. That apart, Obasanjo will
enter the history books as a man who subverted our struggles and
victory against the Anglo-Nigeria Defence Pact by foisting another
with America almost through the back door. It took the patriotic
call of the Chief of Army Staff, Lt. General Victor Malu, for the
nation to realise that those who told us they were out to professionalise
the Nigerian Army had other motives I’m particularly worried at
the involvement of MPRI, a group of retired military officers said
to be renowned for training mercenary armies. They have even found
a way of edifying themselves as Private Military Companies (PMCs).
The Obasanjo
regime, which came to power against the backdrop of heightening
inter and intra-ethnic crises is still dancing around with the call
to convoke a National Conference. Even if it conceeds to hold one,
the frenzy over the whole ides of sovereignty has demonstrated clearly
that it favours a mere talkshop to allow people vent their spleen
rather than addressing fundamental issues of the national question.
This would not be different from the Constitutional Conference summoned
and guided by Abacha and his cronies. The alternative of playing
chess with the idea of discourse over the polity is scary. We may
be handing out a blank cheque for ethnic based militia to resolve
the crises in their mould.
It is a choice
between peace and a race to insanity. My fear is that Obasanjo is
drifting and may not spare time to ponder over these thoughts. First
published in the National Interest Volume 1, No 97 on Sunday, March
25, 2001
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