14 Jan 2005 |
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| In a bold display of consistency, the Nigerian media has reported that Chief Audu Ogbeh has been forced at gun point to resign as the National Chairman of the ruling party, the PDP. Ogbeh’s exit under duress is said to have been supervised by none other than President Obasanjo himself with the assistance of members of his praetorian guard composed, amongst other elements, of the dreaded SSS, the police and Military Intelligence. We are reminded that operatives of these so-called national security agencies have also actively participated in other regime-induced human rights abuses across the country including those associated with the orchestrated rigging of the 2003 elections. Surely, there should be consequences, not just for the president and his political errand boys but also for the heads of the various security outfits as well as their subalterns known to have been physically involved in atrocities against the people. Yet, Ogbeh’s travails are only but an indication of something much more fundamental, namely, the state of near-collapse of the Nigerian edifice. The dismal spectacle of a gun menacingly aimed at his head is a potent metaphor of where we are today as a nation – a society held hostage by some of the most violently backward forces in the history of Nigeria without any countervailing influences willing or ready to mount a broad-based challenge to this reign of gangsters. It is a reminder that those who talk about democracy and the defence of human rights must do much more than that and envisage other determined gestures if the country is to be salvaged any time soon. The illegally procured resignation of the PDP chairman mirrors that of the “resignation” saga in Anambra - clearly an ominous pointer to the fact that both of these heinous acts bear the same signature of executive rascality and abdication. The departure of Ogbeh is yet another sad episode in the sadistic misrule Nigerians have had to endure since 1999. His resignation at knifepoint is coming on the heels of the exchange of letters between him and President Obasanjo on the crisis in Anambra. Soon after the publication of his letter indicting the president’s leadership style and warning of dire consequences to the nation if his call was not heeded, the PDP chairman was subjected to untold cruelty on the part of Obasanjo. He was kept under house arrest, his passport reportedly seized and members of his family harassed and humiliated. All of a sudden, Audu Ogbeh’s tenure as the chairman of his party came under the scrutiny of the president’s thugs and sycophants alike in a show of despicable vindictiveness and crudity. This display of presidential recklessness and intimidation was meant to send an unmistakable message – that our Caligula-like ruler will not tolerate any non-conformist voice, no matter how well-intentioned. It is significant that the out-going PDP chairman would later reveal that he was not safe. He was being threatened with physical elimination by agents of the regime. But he went further than that. For the first time, the PDP chairman publicly confided that one of the reasons why he had chosen to write Obasanjo was to help save Governor Ngige’s life. He added chillingly that when he alerted the president as to the threat facing Ngige, he did not seem to be overly bothered! In a press briefing, Ogbeh has preferred to employ euphemism by calling his coerced exit as “sacrifice” for Nigerian democracy. Of course, despite claims of a “voluntary” resignation, it is obvious that criminal pressure was brought to bear on the chief. And it is from what Ogbeh has said so far about this matter that one can glean the full extent of the rogue nature of the current Obasanjo dictatorship. By his unwholesome ways, Obasanjo has debased the Nigerian presidency. It is high time the institution got sanitized. The ordeal of the PDP National Chairman has only reinforced the image of the party as an organization harbouring what Wole Soyinka once called “a nest of killers”. By his own words, Chief Ogbeh has, perhaps inadvertently, confirmed our worst fears. He has told us how he set out, through his letter of December 06, 2004, to prevent Governor Ngige from becoming yet another number in the grim series of political assassinations that have so far happened under the current regime. The most high-profile of such murders include those of Uncle Bola Ige and Harry Marshal. And even though Governor Akume of Benue has lived to tell his story, his late friend, Engineer Agum was not that lucky. So, beyond helping in the recording of contemporary history, what Ogbeh is telling us once more is that under the hegemony of a ghastly cabal led by Obasanjo, the PDP constitutes probably the single most serious threat to Nigerians and Nigerian democracy. Part of that threat involves what the PDP-led regime of President Obasanjo has refused to do in the area of providing security for citizens, preferring instead, to impose a reign of terror and callous deprivation on the nation. “I’m tired of a party which instead of talking on issues of education, health and so on which will impact on the lives of the people, are scheming to get somebody out of office. How can these people who say they are fighting for principles go around in the night distributing money for people to vote for them. What kind of principle is that? I find it abhorring”, Chief Ogbeh is reported to have said in the January 11, 2005 online edition of Thisday. This is another damning indictment of Obasanjo and his party, this time, from the National Chairman! And the fact that Ogbeh has repeatedly told the world that he has no regrets for his timely admonition to Obasanjo should leave us in no doubt as to what he wishes fellow citizens to do regarding the situation about which he is warning them. What the world is witnessing today in Nigeria speaks to the relative failure of civil society groups – registered political parties included – as agents of democratic change. The weakness of these groups has compounded our national problems and especially in the area of responsible political leadership. With a few notable exceptions, human rights advocacy in Nigeria has tended to be episodic in nature, with some of the representatives of pro-democracy outfits behaving in a manner akin to that of opportunistic pro-regime agents even as they continue to mouth “progressive” slogans. Fighting for democracy and human rights cannot be a sinecure. It cannot be seen as a part-time hobby either. In the last two decades or so, the human rights struggle in the country has had credible champions in the likes of Gani Fawehinmi. Gani has excelled on account of his coherence and consistency. His transparency has mounted him against successive tyrants whether or not they are military dictators or “democratically elected” predators. So, even as we rejoice in the publication of the Oputa Report (OR), thanks to the courageous efforts of some of our compatriots, we must learn to put Oputa in its proper perspective. Its controversial recommendations notwithstanding, the OR can be said to hold some interesting ideas. For those who must see it as a reference document for our recent past, they should not ignore its lapses and learn to deal with them in an open and meaningful manner. Crucially therefore, concerned human rights and pro-democracy advocates must quit their equivocation on critical national issues. The exit at gunpoint of the PDP National Chairman has raised very troubling human rights questions which should not in any rational sense be treated as a “family affair”. To do so would be tantamount to succumbing to the self-serving antics of a desperate cabal. It is apparent that panic and desperation are some of the principal forces driving the ship of state in Nigeria nowadays. It is panic that is partly responsible for the way Chief Ogbeh has been hectored and hounded in the last few weeks. That is the logic of evil. President Obasanjo and his allies have through their gross human rights abuses against the people realized that the only way they can postpone the day of reckoning is to muzzle legitimate dissent by resorting to the most egregious means possible. But they will have their way only if Nigerians allow them to do so. In the heyday of the violent kleptocracy of the late Mobutu of Zaire, the central African dictator so much believed in his supposed messianic calling and invincibility that he proceeded with his clan of looters and henchmen , both local and foreign, to fashion that otherwise potentially great country in the image of the Leopard King. That is to say that Zaire – now simply known as République Démocratique du Congo (RDC) – became his private property, almost literally. Zaire was thus reduced to an economic backwater of desolation and rampant tyranny. Alas, that is where Nigeria is today under President Obasanjo. My Congolese friends kept reminding me during Mobutu’s backward regime that ‘whom the gods want to destroy, they first drive them mad’. I think they got those words of wisdom from an ancient saying. Well, I told them, “may be so, but wouldn’t you agree that your people should also react and prevent Mobutu and his selfish gang from taking Zaire with them?” Of course, this query was soon overtaken by events when a patriotic force led by an exiled ‘son of the soil’ led the effort to take back the country from Mobutu and his allies. It is hoped that Chief Ogbeh and other democratic voices will remain steadfast despite the odds and fight to reclaim Nigeria. Aonduna Tondu New York E-mail: tondua@yahoo.com |
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