When a Nation calls, only few can
answer
Christopher Odetunde, Ph.D.
The
bible says, many are called but few are chosen.
In the history of mankind, few people in the world have had the
opportunity to be called upon to redeem their nation’s image in times of
trouble. Franklin D. Roosevelt, Winston
Churchill and even our own Chief Olusegun Obasanjo are a few lucky ones who were
given the unique opportunity to serve their countries during times of great
peril. Some answered the call by performing
heroically and beyond human endeavor and some failed woefully because of
selfishness, inability to destroy their low self-esteem demons, their
inordinate greed, and for some, their willingness to arrogate God-like power to
themselves in times of shortsightedness.
All who may wish to be a servant leader need to subscribe to Mahatma
Gandhi’s and the Lord Jesus Christ’s philosophy of "The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of
others."
President Franklin D. Roosevelt, FDR, exhibited the special
characteristic of a servant leader during the Great Depression of the 1930s by
creating the New Deal to provide relief for the unemployed, recovered his
nation’s economy, and reformed America’s
economic and banking systems. Although
recovery of the economy was incomplete until almost 1940, many programs
initiated by FDR such as the FDIC, TVA and the SEC continued to have incremental,
instrumental and sustainable roles in the nation's commerce. Many Americans attribute FDR’s most important
legacies to the establishment of the Social Security System.
On
the other hand, Sir Winston Leonard
Spencer Churchill [1874 – 1965] was a British politician known chiefly
for his leadership during World War II. He
served as Prime Minister of the United
Kingdom from 1940 to 1945 and again from
1951 to 1955. Sir Churchill was a noted statesman,
orator and strategist. Like OBJ, Churchill
was also an officer in the British Army. Winston Churchill was a prolific author and he
won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1953 for his historical writings1.
After the outbreak of the World War II,
Churchill was appointed First Lord of the Admiralty. Following the resignation of Neville
Chamberlain on 10 May 1940, Churchill became Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and led Britain to
victory against the Axis powers. His
speeches were a great inspiration to the embattled Allied forces. After losing the 1945 election, Churchill
became the leader of the opposition. In
1951, he became Prime Minister before finally retiring in 1955. All his life, Winston presented himself and
acted as a servant leader.
After
1938, Roosevelt championed re-armament and led
the nation away from isolationism as the world headed into World War II. Fate brought FDR and Sir Churchill together on
a strategic war objective. FDR provided
extensive support to Winston Churchill and the British war efforts before the attack
on Pearl Harbor pulled the U.S.
into the war. At the start of the Second
World War, President FDR announced the intention of the United States
to remain neutral. Roosevelt
was personally hostile to Hitler's Nazi dictatorship but he was aware that the
American people had no desire to become involved in the war. Roosevelt however
arranged for Britain
to receive supplies and loans that enabled her to continue fighting the war. Roosevelt, working closely with his aide Harry
Hopkins, provided decisive leadership against Nazi Germany and made the United
States the principal arms supplier and financier of the Allies who later,
alongside the United States, defeated Germany, Italy and Japan. Roosevelt led the United States as it became the Arsenal
of Democracy, putting sixteen million American men into uniform.
On
the home front, his term saw the vast expansion of industry, the achievement of
full employment, restoration of prosperity and new opportunities opened for African
- Americans and women. With his term
came new taxes that affected all income groups, price controls and rationing,
and relocation camps for 120,000 Japanese and Japanese – Americans as well as
thousands of Italian and German – Americans. As the Allies were close to victory, Roosevelt played a critical role in shaping the post-war
world, particularly through the Yalta Conference and the creation of the United
Nations. Roosevelt's administration
redefined American liberalism and realigned the Democratic Party based on his
New Deal coalition of labor unions; farmers; ethnic, religious and racial
minorities; intellectuals2; the South; big city machines; and the
poor and workers on relief.
Like
FDR and Winston Wilson, Olusegun Obasanjo was called during many stages of his
life to answer the call of our nation and at those times, he failed to redeem
the glory of the nation or build the self-esteem of the next generation. His performance, to those who are capable of
reviewing Obasanjo’s life and times without emotional outburst or sycophancy
would see that at the end of it all, OBJ performed sub-optimally. Although Chief Obasanjo was not instrumental
in the creation of PDP, he was called upon to join, enjoy the largess and ended
throwing out the baby with the bath water by destroying most if not all those
that brought him in. One could have
forgiving OBJ if he destroyed those that rebuilt his political fortune because
of his interest in reducing corruption, improving the nation’s infrastructure
or building Nigeria’s moral, spiritual, economical and technological know-how
but that was not to be the case.
Obasanjo
did not enact any sound policies towards citizens’ self actualization, create
jobs or enact policies to encourage job creation, or revamp the energy sector
with billions of Naira he pumped into the sector nor did he rebuild the nation’s
dilapidated road infrastructure. In
fact, one will not be too wrong to say that there were more armed robbers and
hired killers than before OBJ came to office.
It seems to me that OBJ was more interest in amassing wealth because he
felt that it was for lack of money that he was thrown into Abacha’s gulag. OBJ who claims to be a born again Christian
failed to understudy the life and times of the biblical Joseph who was thrown
into jail but later became the respected and bible quoted Prime Minster of
Egypt.
Unlike
FDR, OBJ never expanded any industry but instead created surrogates such as
Dangote and Otedola who he used as handles to receive all the parastatals he
sold for next to nothing. Chief Obasanjo
also believed, in his own warped mind that he was the most knowledgeable
Nigerian, he knew it all and listened less to other’s opinion. He insulted those dare tell him the truth and
so, he make his legacy un-contestably myopic.
OBJ did not border to establish employment for his fellow citizens who
were dying under the weight of poverty neither did he care about the restoration
of prosperity for average Nigerians other than those few cabals he was
associated with. Although OBJ initially
was destined for greatness, he allowed the sycophants to derail his God ordained
path. For example, he brought about the recovery
of looted funds, the recovery of the nation’s economy, and he attempted to reform
the economic and banking systems by creating mega banks but his efforts was for
selfish reasons. We can’t blame OBJ
because he performed to the level of his capacity and to level of his greed.
When
OBJ became the president of Nigeria in 1999, I was one of those that wished him
well and offered prayers for his success believing that the nation could not go
wrong because of: 1) OBJ’s many years in the corridors of power; 2) His
Josephic experience in jail; and 3) His frugality, which has now been exposed
as mere pretense would make him think of Nigeria first before himself but we
are wrong. Oh, how wrong we were!!! Instead of reducing our sorrow, Chief
Obasanjo bequeathed to us the worst election supposedly recorded in the history,
a paralyzed presidency due mainly to issue of legitimacy; a corrupted and
selected war on corruption; an invigorated separatists Arewa constitutional
Assembly, OPC, etc. and the strengthening of the role of godfathers from Kwara
state (Saraki), Oyo State (Adedibu) to Anambra State (the Ubas); the dismantling
of the rule of law which were iron clad for those perceived to be enemies of
OBJ but thrown out of the window for OBJ and any of his cronies and finally, making
the nation much poorer and less respected nation than he met her. As a last
act of gratitude to the nation that gave him so much, OBJ, in his final benevolence
in office, raised the price of fuel on average poorly paid citizens. What manner of human beings are these African
leaders?
While
Nigeria
was getting poorer, OBJ and his chosen Lieutenants were making themselves
supper rich at the expense of the rest of us and selling all the parastatals to
themselves (Transcorp, NITEL, etc.).
Where exactly does OBJ want to take his wealth when he dies? During the period the country was held
economic hostage, no sane Nigeria
was courageous enough to call OBJ to order either while in office or out of
office. No wonder that our politics is a
do-or-die, and go-there-take-your-own (GTTYO) politics. Since we were all cowards, we also do not
have the moral justification to query actions of the so-called “Baba go slow.”
The
little that OBJ did for Nigeria
is now being rubbish at different levels.
His signature policies have been dismantled by his predecessor, Umar Yar
‘Adua. His son accused him of having sex
with a daughter in-law. He is fighting
for Chairmanship of BOT which he ought to have been begged to assume. Many of the election he and Professor Maurice
Iwu presided over are being annulled with the rule of law OBJ never believed
in, what an irony. In Ekiti land, OBJ
was not welcome as persona non-grata welcomed. His escapade with NNPC is being exposed and
Iyabo Obasanjo’s $3.0 million contract in the energy sector while OBJ was in
office has also been exposed. What then
has it profited OBJ to gain the whole world if at the end he loses his soul and
the money he selfishly accumulated? Even
as much as we want to fault Buhari – Idiagbon’s regime, one thing is clear, the
administration left behind spirit of service to the nation, fear of corrupt
enrichment which IBB and OBJ revived. If
history may end up seeing Abacha’s undisciplined legacy as better than that
OBJ, it will be a sad commentary. OBJ
has no legacy worth writing home about except through the eyes of his
sycophants and errand boys.
When
I started to write this article I was hoping that I’ll be in a position to
positively compare these three great men of their time but my conscience did
not permit me to see OBJ as one of the great men called upon to redeem a
wounded nation. The successes and failures
of these men have practically nothing to do with race but anchored on their
vision for their nation and pinnacle of where they were willing to take their
nations. Most great leaders become
wealthy after they leave office because of the good policies they enacted but
not most African leaders. I really pity
OBJ because when the nation called on him, though he answered, history will
record him, even with the genuine efforts he made in some areas, as a failure
because of his selfishness, his inability to destroy his inordinate ambition,
and see him as a mortal whose sole purpose was to be a god not God-like.
____________________________________________________________
1.
Siwertz, S. The Nobel Prize in Literature
1953 – Presentation Speech. Retrieved on
2007 -1222.
2. Rorty, R. (1997). Achieving
Our Country: Leftist Thought in Twentieth Century America. Cambridge,
MA: Harvard
University Press.
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Posted by Robot| 21.02.2008 08:29