12 Jun 2007 |
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CONFRONTING THE ILLUSION OF A YAR’ADUA PRESIDENCY
There is a dangerous kind of political folklore currently making the rounds in the country and especially in the northern region. Much of that folklore has to do with what should rightly be termed at this critical juncture the ‘illusion of a Yar’Adua presidency’, aptly baptized the Yar’Ardua-Obasanjo regime. Anguished by the brazen rigging that attended the corrupt imposition of an obscure entity called Yar’Adua as Nigerian president, the more naive amongst us are busy singing the overly optimistic hymn that with time, the specter of recycled incompetence and moral deficiency – the essence of the Yar’Adua masquerade - will rise to the challenge and repudiate the ruinous toga of tyrannical rule by Obasanjo, perhaps the most depraved dictator Nigeria has had the misfortune to be saddled with since independence.
Part of this misplaced optimism would seem to derive from the mythical sagacity and unity of purpose of the Northerner (that is to say the northern Muslim). Yet, one must discard the fallacy of the wise and conscientious northern politician, technocrat, businessman or intellectual ever willing to put the superior interests of his people above selfish pecuniary and other considerations because, if for nothing else, the disastrous Obasanjo profligacy of the last eight years has revealed a large segment of the elite classes in the North as being greedy, self-centered and essentially anti-people, not unlike their counterparts in other parts of the country.
The point has to be made that the very nature of the emergence of Yar’Adua, first in controversial circumstances as a reluctant Obasanjo lackey without backbone as candidate of the PDP but in reality a stooge of that hideous creature pretending to be the leader of the party, and secondly, as the beneficiary of the worst electoral heist in Nigeria, is reason enough for any right-thinking person to doubt the moral choices of the former governor of Katsina state.
The entire electoral process that threw up Yar’Adua and many other soi-disant elected officials in 2007 was so flawed that given the present state of affairs, only a miraculous transformation can yield positive outcomes in the area of governance at all levels of the polity. So, it has come as no surprise to citizens that shortly before the formal termination of his ruinous brigandage, Obasanjo went on a criminal expropriation binge of national assets with little or no regard for our feelings and most certainly not those of his hand-picked acolyte. With abandon, the tyrant from Ota and his fellow hedonists have added to their perverse collection of highly priced items from the national patrimony – refineries, hotels and other landed property, banks, telecom outfits, etc.
Add to the criminal expropriation of national assets the ill-willed and obnoxious gale of largely nepotistic but strategic appointments the lunatic from Ota did inflict on the nation in the dying days of his misrule. Nigerians must not accept the fait accompli of blackmail by the former roguish dictator and his regime. Yar’Adua should heed popular angst and cancel most if not all of the late appointments made by his predecessor. The primary consideration in these and other matters at all times should be the national interest. Obasanjo’s greed, that of his fellow buccaneers and their selfish ambitions must not be allowed to prevail.
There should be a deliberate policy on the part of Yar’Adua – assuming that he truly wants to make amends to the Nigerian people – to neutralize and clear our national political spaces of the likes of Obasanjo and his pro-third term allies in the National Assembly and within the PDP in particular. It is instructive that the other day, in apparent contradiction of the thinking of some of the people close to Yar’Adua, the speaker of the House of Representatives, herself a supposed Obasanjo adjunct, had the temerity to publicly state that the controversial sale by the Obasanjo regime of the Apo legislators’ quarters would not be revisited. Singly or together, Obasanjo and his associates - veritable vermin of Nigerian politics - have inflicted more damage on our collective unconscious than what the military did to the national psyche in the past three decades of authoritarian rule. The political emasculation of these harmful characters is long overdue. But one has to realize that Yar’Adua will not do it alone. He will need the support of the political class across the ideological divide and critically, that of Nigerians in general.
There is too much at stake to allow petty differences of opinion and rivalry stand in the way of the patriotic duty of cleaning the Augean stables through the weakening of any stranglehold Obasanjo and his fellow looters and miscreants may have on the polity. Getting rid of the putrid odor of Obasanjo and his criminal gang is a task that Nigerians must be prepared to undertake as a matter of priority, with or without the support of Yar’Adua. Only then can we realistically begin to think of laying the basis for genuine democracy in our country.
Aonduna Tondu
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