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The Imminent Nigerian Federal Election of April, 2007.
Watching political events and all other related issues unfold in Nigeria, in preparation for the April elections, one would not have much difficulty to conclude that ours is a fragile democracy which requires utmost care if we love our country. Utmost care is needed from our leaders if they deserve to lead this huge, plural, though complex but naturally blessed giant of Africa. We should not be pleading with our leaders to take it easy and tread carefully, but they should be aware, that our country does not deserve to return, once more, to a political abyss where it neither advanced nor remain stalemated but deteriorated in social services and essential infrastructural facilities such as adequate electricity, potable water, good roads and jobs for the teeming millions of the unemployed, essentially our new college and university leavers. Precisely, without prejudice, it can easily be conjectured that Nigerians in general are fed up with the poor performances of the Peoples Democratic Party and President Olusegun Obasanjo, its leader. People want a meaningful change from what they have been subjected in the last eight years of Obasanjo’s administration. The unfulfilled promises, political highhandedness and its inherent arrogance and haughtiness, lawlessness and the cantankerous legacy of disconcerting in-fighting at the presidency, all put together frustrate most Nigerians whose expectation of this civilian government was graduated social policy success.
One probing question which my colleagues, other Nigerians and some concerned American friends continue to ask is why has our President become unusually activated, agitated and totally engaged in the coming presidential election, as if he were a contender, whereas, he is due to leave office in two months, precisely on May 29, 2007 after two full terms of four years each? They reason that, since the American political system is a presidential type like ours, it becomes troubling to see our President in a similar system of government criss-crossing all over the country behaving as if he is a fresh contender for the Nigerian presidency.
Instead of allowing the “appointed PDP contenders” to present themselves the best way they could, selling their political programs, the out-going President seems to usurp this role which belongs to Governors Musa Yar’Adua and Jonathan. This unhelpful campaign situation can be described in two ways which do not favour the PDP presidential team. First, President Obasanjo has made himself a sustaining crutch to the PDP presidential team because they are not capable of delivering their program by themselves and sell it to the populace. Secondly, Yar’Adua and Jonathan team could be seen as Obasanjo’s poddles because the mother dog, that is , the President must always be available to feed and bail its off-springs out of any conceivable problems whenever and wherever they occur. Either of these two images or scenario is unhelpful to the PDP ticket.
The president’s attitude, his tone taken along with the content of his campaign speeches sound desperate and absolute. These two character images share no similarities nor do they have any bearing with the basic spirit of laying down the tenets of democracy in our country. Desperation and absolutism are words that share inherent similarities with dictatorship. As much as it is fair to say that the President has a right to endorse any presidential aspirant over others within the PDP, Mr. Obasanjo went beyond the usual political formality of endorsement to favour and vehemently promote the candidature of Yar’Adua by denying others their rights to fairly vie for the opportunity to succeed the President in an environment that should encourage democratic values. He denied them their rights within the the party by arm-twisting, intimidating, blackmailing and purposely using the EFCC to harass them until they were all made to step aside, one after another, until he succeeded in imposing his reluctant appointee from Kaduna state, Alhaji Umar Musa Yar’Adua on the party by an unpopular acclamation. Who can argue that this is not a garrison democracy if there is such a thing, at least, descriptively?
For Mr. President’s premeditated political plan to succeed, his Vice President, Atiku Abubakar needed to be ousted, excluded, removed or shuffled aside from the PDP caucus to pave the way for the President’s choice in the person of Musa Yar’Adua; his late friend’s brother. The Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, has inadvertently, owing to the on-going political imbroglio that exits within the Presidency and the PDP, been exposed as a political disciple and preacher of democracy. I must confess that I never imagined the man had such a hidden talent about the enduring tenets of democracy. We know of Colonel Umar, a former military governor of Kaduna state who was a distinct progressive, even within the Nigerian military establishment. We also know of Balarabe Musa, the civilian PRP governor also of Kaduna state. They were and are still eloquent and full of knowledge and experience. But the Vice President of Nigeria, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar made me wonder about his political knowledge and experience. I feel that, even if the man has been labeled or permanently identified as being corrupt, our country has now reached a state of no return to financial corruption, with all that have been exposed so far about corruption in high public places. I would ask Nuhu Ribadu a question about his past in the police organization whether he ever took money, big or small, from anyone since our policemen are known all over the country as agents of corruption? If he did, can he ever do it again in the contemporary Nigerian state? Has he been providing adequate accountability for all the stolen money he recovered so far from our elite? Mind you, we should not get carried away by the success of Ribadu’s, sometimes wonderful efforts. Often times his approaches are illegal and that is why most of the impeached governors are reinstated in the face of law. When he puts a small number of legislators under duress in order to get a governor impeached, his unlawful method often back-fires in favour of the impeached governor in court. There is no doubt that the EFCC office needs composite reorganization and better understanding of the legal process to accomplish its goals. .
Within the last six months, Atiku’s talents as a great orator, a confident leader and politician who is aware of Nigeria’s place in West Africa, Africa and the World have all come to the fore. Obviously, a man of Atiku’s character will not stoop to our President’s antics and forgo his political rights within the PDP, in order to have Musa Yar’Adua imposed on the entire party as its anointed presidential candidate. Now that Atiku is in another political party, why the desperation and absolute determination to prevent him from seeking his natural human right to offer himself to the nation as a presidential candidate? Is the President afraid of Atiku becoming president? If so why? Afraid that more facts may still be exposed to Nigerians on the “Wheeling and Dealing” that have taken place in the presidency?
However, I do not think that the President should be afraid of Atiku since he is neck deep in the Yar’Adua/Jonathan presidential campaign. I think his worry should be limited to rigging of the imminent election since the PDP, which “legitimatized” rigging in the 2003 general election is also expressing fear of rigging the coming one. What a joke!
The President should be interested in knowing the outcome of the presidential contest between his “ reluctant dark horse” and his Vice President he detests so much. He should be interested in finding out how the Nigerian electorate will respond to his electioneering campaign in favour of the PDP ticket as against that of his “stubborn”and “disloyal” Vice President. By now, Obasanjo should accept the obvious and desist from his desperation and absolute engineering or application of some crude and undemocratic methods to deny Atiku Abubakar his double pronounced right to offer his services to the nation as president. It appears as if all the artificial ‘legal’ barriers and impediments deliberately created by the president to frustrate Atiku in his pursuit of the presidential contest continue to crumble. The Judiciary seems to justify Atiku’s position and that encourages him on. The Administrative Panel appointed by the President and headed by his Attorney-General was an illegal body. The President did not have the power to create it. Only the legislature could make such a law to create such a body. Chief Bayo Ojo should know better and advise the President accordingly but you can imagine what this cheap type of position seekers would do to flatter their boss. The EFCC report has gradually become a controversial document. The declaration of the Vice President’s office vacant by the President sounded ridiculous, malicious, unreasonable and unpopular. The denial came with as equal a speed as the wrong action and it all constituted an embarrassment to the Obasanjo presidency and the PDP.
I wonder the number of members of the Executive Council and official leaders of the PDP who feel morally uncomfortable by this notorious show of persecution against one person by the President and his hounds. We ordinary citizens marvel at this show of inconsequential actions of vendetta against the Vice President. Aside from the Attorney- General, Chief Bayo Ojo, who we think is one of the worst law officers that ever worked at the Attorney-General’s, we have Chief Femi Fani-Kayode who used to cast insults on people as old as his father and other men of honour in the Nigerian community. His was an unusual display of bad manners, coupled with desperation, to impress his boss for compensation which came his way when he appeared before the Senate for confirmation of his earlier appointment as the Minister of Culture. Despite his wild braggadocio, he went to the Senate subdued to prostrate and apologize in order secure his ministerial appointment. Then comes El- Rufai whose friendship and personal loyalty to anyone shifts in the same manner as weather which often times is unpredictable.
When this article was nearing completion, news came that the Vice President injured his knee at his gymnasium and consequently, the Aso Rock doctor in-charge had to recommend treatment in the United Kingdom where his injured knee would be EX-RAYED and treated. President Obasanjo somehow got wind of the incident and he immediately, I understand, called the Vice President on phone to express his sympathy and made the presidential aircraft available to convey the Vice President to the United Kingdom. According to the news report, the medical bill of the Vice President would also be taken care of at the presidency. The Guardian newspaper carried the above story as presented here. This concluding piece is intended for our President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo.
Mr. President sir, if your lighter impulses could now be that benevolent and caring toward your Vice President, after all the brick-bats and a sustained political tension and all other regrettable incidences as they occurred between the two of you for the past twelve months or so, leaving the rest of us within and without, in a state of awe, would it not be great and gracious of you, Mr. President, to put a permanent stop to all the unfortunate skirmishes, in order to relieve every member of this great nation the psychological tension and mental agony that hang over us for too long as a result of the political differences between you two.
As you well know, running as a candidate in an election never translates into victory. Since you are leading the Yar’Adua/ Jonathan presidential campaign as the nation’s president for the past eight years, your Vice President could only try his best for himself and his new party. The outcome of the coming election cannot be pre-determined and if that is so, your differences with your Vice President could be honourably settled with some measure of political stability as cease-fire, before the elections hold next month. The political tension in the polity has risen so high that it may blow off our national roof. You need to buckle down Mr. President and leave office, not in a worse taciturn socio-political condition as you met it in 1999. God bless.
Bankole A. Okuwa Ph. D. is a Professor of Political Science
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Posted by Robot| 15.03.2007 02:05