Mr. President,  Are You Trusted ? Can you answer  in the affirmative?
Bankole  A.  Okuwa   Ph. D

As a genuine Nigerian patriot, one hopes and prays for the best of all we require as a people, to grow and develop, as a national community  despite our diverse sub-cultures.  Our first set of national leaders did the best in their efforts to establish a new national community and pilot the growth and development of our country.  Chief Obafemi Awolowo, Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, Sir Ahmadu Bello, Alhaji  Tafawa Balewa, Chief S. L.  Akintola, Mr. Eni Njoku, the Senior Yar ‘Adua;  a federal  Minister of Lagos Affairs in Tafawa Balewa’s government,  Ozumba  Mbadiwe, Dr. Mike  Okpara, Alhaji  Adegbenro and the colorful Adegoke Adelabu of the ‘Penkele Messi’; that is,  peculiar mess  fame were leaders  who taught and enlightened  the uninformed  Nigerian public  of  the duties of government.  These leaders belonged to different political parties which rivaled one another ,yet they performed as selfless  political leaders and identified with the aspirations of the populace. In the absence of billions of  petro-naira, they provided essential services to the people and did not enrich themselves as the  fake political elites of today.  For an example, our former federal minister and later Ambassador to the United Nations Mallam Maitama Sule is still alive and well. The Nigerian press or any interested individual could check out his personal properties and other belongings if he has any possessions in excess of what he earned when he was active in politics. In the south, Chief T. O. S. Benson is another admirable leader of yester-years whose humble and responsible life style can be appreciated despite his natural flair and enthusiasm  for good a life. The indefatigable and tireless Chief Anthony Enahoro remains a living legend of our common hope and great Nigeria of the future. This class of political leaders kept the faith with their followers and laid the needed foundation of hope for  the ruled and  held out socio-political responsibility for  future civilian governments that could  continue building progressive,  responsive and democratic government for our people.

When compared to the present crop of Nigerian leaders, they were Angels of God in the service of their people. We no longer  have such caliber of appreciable men and leaders any more in Nigeria of today. Why are our political and social situations  getting worse  day by day? What has gone wrong with our collective social and political values as a people that our country continues to be identified with the worst social value indices in the world in terms of corruption, drug trafficking, poverty, excessive electoral malpractices which project  us as crooks in running our own affairs at home. Where is the so-called national honor and integrity to lead ECOWAS and Africa at large? The republics of Ghana , Senegal  and others in West Africa and the rest of the continent are laughing at us  because they are amused at the self-styled regional  leader whose political modus operandi and domestic condition is political instability which emanates from  elite indiscipline, bad leadership, lawlessness within and without and empty political showmanship everywhere owing to  petroleum resources and an uncultured but huge population which remains unscientific and unproductive industrially.

The answer lies in many factors arising from conditions and events that have occurred in our country since January 1966.  Many pseudo leaders and political upstarts have emerged as leadership pretenders without genuine intentions, ability  and plans to move Nigeria forward politically and economically.  Many have emerged from the Nigerian military establishment  to assume the garb of national leadership which they do not understand and were neither  trained nor  prepared to handle.  The high illiteracy rate of our people has provided cheap opportunities for these  kinds  of  leadership , which Nigeria suffered for almost thirty-years from its military elite corp.

But from the rubbles  of this prolonged state of political instability and confusion emerged President Obasanjo on whom much hope for social relief, economic progress and political development were placed.  The preceding wasteful period of Buhari-Babangida- Abacha of fifteen solid years should serve as a guiding prelude to Obasanjo’s democratic ideals and values but as observers of Obasanjo’s policies, governing style, mien and other personal attributes, our president does not look different from other erstwhile  military heads of state.  One is often disturbed reading or listening to the president talk about issues that are crucial to our body politic and economy.  For an example, “I would have got third term”-Obasanjo.  The statement implies a deception or an absolute untruth.  Even though, one does not belong to his inner caucus either  in the presidency or in the PDP, yet evidence abound that  he, the President, made superlative and desperate efforts to change the constitution in order to have a third term presidency  achieved.  Both Colonel  Dr. Ali, the PDP national chairman, Ojo Madueke, the national secretary and  the Senate Deputy President Ibrahim Mantu and several others worked assiduously to get the required amendment  passed by  the National Assembly, but the covert  arm twisting and the huge offer of money were not persuasive  enough to guarantee  the third  term agenda.  The idea of a third term by Mr. Obasanjo violates his own spirit of perceived  democratic leadership posture and abuses the trust reposed in his person as president and  as a democratic leader who took an official oath to protect our constitution in trust.  Why would the president bring God into his flawed idea and ambition? What has God got to do  with an unconstitutional  idea nursed by one man who wanted to initiate a constitutional  breach of civic order in an infant  democracy? Our God of Ages and Truth does not engage in conspiracy and disorder. I wonder why our President is using God’s name in vain.

Another  question is, why does a national political leader  like Obasanjo need to talk like our president talks.?  Did  our 1999 constitution, which he initially said did not need an amendment, as a national  document  drop from  Mount Sinai?  Is n’t the idea of a third term a violation of the spirit of our constitution which he swore to uphold and protect?  Did God tell Obasanjo in one of his dreams that he should seek a third term?  My wild guess is that if Obasanjo and his minions had succeeded on the third term issue, Nigeria would not be the same again.  What does one  mean?  Take your guess.  From  a  hind-sight, Nigeria would have become a full-blown  dictatorship.  The last election would have handed the entire country to the PDP including Lagos, Kano, and Abia and a bloody resistance would have been mounted by  those who believe in democratic Nigeria in the same spirit that tyrant Abacha was resisted by NADECO  until he suddenly collapsed..  Abacha’s escapades would have been a child’s play.  So I wonder what Mr. President is talking about whether he is fully aware of the implied negative consequences  of his boastful  assertions  and  utterances or not.

Again, the President continues to reiterate his unpopular assertion that the recently concluded elections in Nigeria were free and fair.  The president’s position is absolutely dishonest.  If the elections were described as free, fair, open and transparent, they are so to him alone. It is a false and dishonest  position which only men of  falsities, lies and self deception  will share with our president. In consequence,  Obasanjo had  inadvertently but deliberately too , placed himself in an uncomfortable position as a leader in Nigeria, Africa and in the world.  His obvious dishonest position removes any credibility and integrity he has acquired over time.  He fits into the popular axiom and notion that African leaders lack integrity and character.  It is beyond realism to talk of a perfect election which he pretentiously uses as a justification for all the mess he and Iwu’s INEC, the police establishment,the PDP goons who intimidated the helpless  Nigerian voters and stole their highly valued  constitutional rights intended for use to determine their future and that of their  children.  Why should any serious or democratically committed leader handle this kind of issue with levity?  No one anywhere all over the democratic world talks or expects perfection from any  human endeavor.  So the president’s point of reasoning and argument is deceitful and not germane to the reality of the situation of massive  electoral abuse, fraud  and criminality in the recently conducted  elections  in Nigeria..  The big and old democracies  of Britain, France and the United States do not and cannot record perfect elections because there are no such things  but  when  democratic electoral norms become violated deliberately and  randomly with numerous irregularities  from one state to another, with stolen ballot papers and ballot boxes and outlandish thumbing of materials with PDP hoodlums taking control with the complicity of Iwu and his neck-deep corrupt INEC, what else is left  for  the expectation of responsible and formidable Nigerians who desire and hope for a democratic  nation?

All external observers of our last election from other parts of Africa and the western world felt disappointed and horrified at what they witnessed as  reflected in their reports.  The fact is that no election in Nigeria had ever been so massively manipulated and abused. The democratic Republic of Congo which recently held its first popular  election after  forty years of political turmoil had a better  election than Nigeria; the so-called giant of Africa.  We are inadvertently confirming our 419 status to the world if our president can defend this kind of charade physically seen and documented by foreign observers.

I  used to defend Obasanjo’s government between 1999 and 2003 because of my misplaced hope and belief that the man had seen enough of the negatives that have beset  Nigeria since its inception as  an independent nation struggling to establish itself as an infant democracy  in Africa. Coming back to rule by popular vote  after the Abacha tyrannical episode, raised my anxieties and hopes to the limits. but I have seen  enough lapses, prejudiced policies, half-truths, too many irrelevant controversies, dictatorial tendencies, vendetta activities and all kinds of deliberate abuses that made me re-evaluate the integrity of Obasanjo’s government.  The issue of unemployment, especially as it affects the fresh graduates and other school  leavers is completely neglected, yet more universities are being built by private individuals including Obasanjo himself. The  unemployment rate, the statistics of which is not available is never addressed by the Obasanjo government. All communication network from railroad to tarred roads, postal  activities with the exception of  the massive  mobile phones which have now taken over oral communication in Nigeria is regarded as compensation in the area of Nigeria’s communication  development.  Education which should receive about twenty-five percent of the nation’s budget regularly receives nine percent. Yet billions of naira are being squandered and thrown around among  party  faithfuls  without  accountability.  The Petroleum Technology Development Fund account has been abused at the expense of common sense,  responsible governance and the good people of Nigeria whose constitutional  rights are abused and violated  by  our  vampire  political  leaders and election  riggers.

Public properties are continuously sold to contributors to political party coffers in the name of promoting capitalism.  I continue to wonder why and how our president considers  himself knowledgeable enough to re-define the global  poverty indices as far as Nigerians are affected.  Our president has failed to discuss economic and political issues that are relevant to Nigerians but would rather engage in talking big and flex ,regrettably, his presidential powers to monopolize the utility of state security agencies to promote his political interests and that of his party; the PDP.  Political opponents are threatened at every opportunity and their civil liberties and civil rights are violated under the guise of preserving state security.  In the big and powerful democracies, security agents are not  used by executive presidents to threaten, harass and intimidate political opponents  as they often occur in Nigeria. The situation is so bad and cheap  that some top party officials  of the PDP like Ojo Maduekwe of the Abacha regime often  threaten political opponents with the police, the SSS and other security agencies.  That is the conceptual understanding of those who want to be seen as leaders in an infant democray such as  Nigeria. Every opinion which is apposite but contrary to that of the PDP and its leaders constitutes an enemy’s  view-point.  One needs  to agree to every idea, proposition and opinion of those privileged to be in power to  avoid being labeled or identified an enemy of their so-called skewed progress. The Nigerian political parties operate like cults or at best  communist  party  cells where order comes from above. Political parties in democracies observe democratic values and norms. Party primary elections need composite reforms to be meaningfully productive and avoid the random imposition of candidates on the people by one person. All dictatorial approaches are not congruent with democratic values. Our major problem with politics is intolerance of others and the  views  of our opponents  when contrary to ours. But people have personal (human) rights to express themselves as we also do. We destroy life and property because we are vying for political positions to serve others. We are desperate to hold political positions because most of us are internally and outwardly corrupt in every sense of the word.

I still wonder why the president cannot do without talking negatively about his Vice President Atiku Abubakar.  I do not want to believe that Obasanjo is fixated or obsessed with Atiku’s polemic political stance or posture  against him.  During a prayer sevice at the Aso Rock chapel, he even went as far as praying for Jonathan not to behave as Abubakar Atiku. The President has proposed an amendment to the Nigerian  constitution to the effect that Vice Presidents and Deputy Governors should be appointed subject to the ratification of the appropriate legislatures. This  kind of amendment proposition will not hold water. First, the Vice President, if appointed  will fall into the same category of appointed cabinet ministers who can be reshuffled or removed at any given time without notice. Since he can be appointed like a cabinet minister, where will his electoral executive power emanate from if he has to succeed the President in case of death in office or any kind of incapacity which are unpredictable? There are still other  political reasons and emergencies  which cannot be satisfied by the  President’s suggestive appointment of  Vice  Presidents and Deputy Governors as the case may be.  Aside from the reasons given above, Executive Presidents in democracies are not supposed to become  dictators. All constitutional  obligations of the presidency in democracies are not due to be totally dominated in execution by the president alone. His  Vice must be above  the conceptual  and operational levels of the President’s appointed ministers who could represent him ordinarily through personal relations and other factors. What I fail to understand in President Obasanjo’s conceptual  reference to loyal/ disloyal relationship between him and his men, especially his Vice President is his expectation in terms of all his political ideas and ambition.  How is loyalty expressed when the boss does something considered wrong by his subordinate?  Loyalty is a feeling of devoted attachment and affection.  It is easier and better expressed between two married people, that is, between husband and wife.  Between a president and his vice, it may be more difficult to attain especially in a democracy where associations are not built on cultic, faddish  or veneration of principles or individuals. Loyalty is reciprocal and could be expressed vice versa, not in a single direct flow from the Vice president to the President all the time.  The Nigerian judiciary and precisely its apex; the Supreme Court ,is trying hard to establish Nigeria as a country of laws and not of men.  The Nigerian presidency is not a cult and therefore the issue of loyalty between the president and his vice president is highly subjective and indefinable.
     

Now that Mr. President has applied all available political pressure that could emanate legally and otherwise from his office to install his ‘political boy Musa  Yar’ Adua as his successor, we need to wait and see how the issue of loyalty will apply to their relationship.  To whom will Musa Yar’ Adua be loyal? To  the northern elite or Obasanjo?  Who are the northern elites?  The political, social and economic  postures of the northern  elites  as a body is at variance with those of their  southern counter-part.  This is a controversial issue which is not tension free but the  writer  of this article will deal with that important aspect  of Nigeria’s  elite socio-political dichotomy at a later date.
       

At the PDP retreat held in Abuja  after the last April fraudulent election, two eminently important people among  several others, addressed the audience.  Mr. Andrew Young, former  US ambassador to the United Nations during Carter’s presidency and an influential friend of our president tried to enlighten the PDP power adherents about the nature and social conditions that make democracy grow and I hope they listen, adapt and apply the contents of the brilliant delivery.  Our renowned clergyman, Rev. Father Matthew Kukah took a reprimanding  swipe at the newly elected but rigged PDP officials who  would be part of the various governments at the states and federal levels.  He chastised them for their intended  loot and also challenged them to do better than those who have always gone into government and politics to enslave those that need their services. Father  Kukah could not be more blunt in his address and he deserves commendation for being so open in his remarks.
       

On  Bakassi, Obasanjo’s government cannot surprise me. The Bakassi  territory as part of Nigeria was never understood by Obasanjo’s government.  His government lacked the historical content and antecedent to argue Nigeria’s case at the ICJ.  All the various and  succeeding military regimes demonstrated share incompetence in the way the issue was handled from inception.  Military occupation of Bakassi peninsula was merely a demonstration of military strength.  It  was  a means to strengthen  our claim.  It was not the ultimate goal of any meaningful policy to settle  the dispute between Nigeria and Cameroon.  The Nigerian military governments  failed to appreciate the inconclusive situation until suddenly Cameroon took Nigeria  to the ICJ.  Our  natural and carefree attitude and share  incompetence and empty show of making relevant issues irrelevant are totally responsible for our failure at Bakassi peninsula.  Britain and Germany are not naturally disposed to tell us to whom Bakassi  belongs.  Both of them are colonial powers  that invaded the African continent for economic exploitation.  They lacked any knowledge about African societies and history until after 1884/85 Berlin conference.  It is utterly preposterous to make reference to British and Germans as determinant  witnesses  of African societal boundaries which the Europeans created arbitrarily.  Our historian-intellectuals have done enough research to nullify the Anglo-German arbitrary boundaries which usually cut across same ethnic groups all over colonial Africa.

One is not surprised to read about the difficulties and social problems of displaced Nigerians from  Bakassi.  The Cross River state and the federal governments  would have disappointed me if they lived up to all the numerous promises they made to re-settle the affected Nigerians in Bakassi.  Our governments  are run by lazy minds whose preferences are empty publicity for show.  No conscience, no commitment to serve their people but a demonstration of power for personal aggrandizement.  We have started all-over  again  running  around for public appointments  and positions to achieve nothing but  self service.  The election has been massively rigged.  The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) had done its hatchet job by recommending exclusion from election into public office for some people who are deemed  politically recalcitrant by the Presidency and at the same time allowing those who are equally corrupt as others but loyalists of the powers that be, to run for elective  office. The double standard  and immoral factor introduced into the qualification and  disqualification of candidates for the last election leaves a  sour taste in the mouth. Let us see how far the Tribunals and the courts will go in dispensing justice.  I am sure that the time will soon come when Nigerians, though differ in tribe and tongue, will  see themselves as nationals with common interests and fight to take back their country from  the oppressive, selfish and self centered ruling  elites.



Bankole  A.  Okuwa   Ph. D.
Professor  of  Political  Science.
okuwa1006@cablelynx.com

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# 1 var sbtitle9137=encodeURIComponent(Mr. Preside...Read the full article. Posted by Robot| 05.06.2007 07:11