On the 29^th of May, President Obasanjo will be handing over power to president elect Umar Musa Yar’adua. It is a great event. This is so because, at a long last, democracy has come to stay in Nigeria, even though the elections did not take place as many would have wanted. Let me now pander toward the direction of those who were angry or are still angry at the way the just concluded Nigerian elections were organised and her outcome. Yes, those elections were flawed. But does it warrant or justify the desire by some to set Nigeria ablaze as the roguish groups operating in the Niger Delta, whose stock in trade are kidnappings do now claim? The rogues operating in the Niger Delta have exhausted the alibi that they regularly use to justify their nefarious actions.

 
Now they are no longer demanding better development of their impoverished area, they want to give Obasanjo a shameful send off. As the rogues in the Niger Delta supported by the politicians of the area are continuing in their economic sabotage, who are the losers?  Alternatively, if the Oil that drives the fringe of reactionary forces in Niger Delta mad was abandoned or the exploitation stopped, what will they do with it? Is it possible to conciliate their just desire for development with the destructions of the economic means that is necessary for the realisation of their demands? Hence, I think the Nigerian government has been very passive with the web of agitators and criminals in the Niger Delta operating under different trade marks. Now is the time to deal with them squarely.

 
Nigerian agitators and their foreign supporters

 
Since those who always seek justifications for their satanic or messianic actions always need backings from somewhere, they may have been disappointed with the report of the American State department concerning the just concluded elections. But agitators such as the notoriously corrupt soon to become former vice president of Nigeria Mr Atiku Abubakar or Colonel Odemengu Ojukwu (retired) who was late General Sani Abacha’s PRO and also acting as go between Abacha and Bill Clinton have a new ally. It is the European Union or her parliament. The Brussels based organisation that has the reaction of a weathercock has send many contradictory signals since the elections took place. On one hand was the visceral anti Nigeria and chicken hearted head of the EU observer team who selected parts of Nigeria they wanted to tour under the guise of election monitoring.

 
And on the other stands Mrs Angela Merkel, chancellor of Germany and current chair of the 27 member European Union who has invited Nigeria’s president elect to attend the G8 summit and then finally, the European parliament whose bases are either in Strasbourg, France, or Luxembourg in Luxembourg or in Brussels and made up of nationally rejected politicians who decided recently, to pass a non binding resolution demanding the suspension of aid to Nigeria until the elections are rerun. Should any credit be given to an organisation that is not a paragon of democracy herself? So let us focus at what has been tested and trusted or not: The Americans. They have not given their blessings on the way the elections took place, but they have also made sure to call on all participants to seek redress through appropriate means.

 
Missed opportunity for Nigerian sectarian politicians

 
That is, through the Nigerian courts and not with guns as many do so desire. I suspect that, some of those calling themselves democrats and who have rightly or not denounced the outcome of the elections and the way they were organised, have missed a golden opportunity to disguise their true selves. Anyway, since their real selves were boiling, the lead could no longer contain the heat they were exuding, after their collective deception. Their angers are great and deep seeded not for reasons they are officially claiming.

 
I doubt whether all those crying and running their mouths against Obasanjo and their new whipping boy Maurice Iwu are really protesting because the elections were poorly organised. Certainly in that lot, there are some genuine fellows, but most as not honest. For behind the smokescreen anger at the way the elections were held most hides their tribal, regional and religious penchants. Most are angry because, the winner is not from his/her own region, tribe or religion. If the president elect was from west, south and to some degree, eastern Nigerian, I doubt whether the zeal used or currently being used at crucifying Obasanjo would have been the same. One writer reacting to my first article with the same lead made clear what I have just written. He wrote: “Obasanjo has committed the same mistake of handing power to a Muslim Northern again”.  

 
What does that mean? Must a Nigerian first be considered a Nigerian or his/her religion and region must come first? And this same bloke will call himself a democrat thus an advocate of free and fair elections and upon all, he has the effrontery to criticise Obasanjo , simply because, his successor is not from the South or Western Nigeria. Democrat or whatever identification those calling for proper elections may call themselves would normally be people who entertain opposing views. But fortunately or not these just concluded elections has helped reveal the true colours of many. How on earth can Atiku Abubakar, a man who is ready to sell his country to the highest bidder expected to have won or even nursed the ambition to rule Nigeria?

 
But most of those who reacted justly or not to my first article don’t seem to tolerate or accept opinions that are at variance with theirs. The truth is that, most agitating against the just ended elections which were not perfectly organised, are in fact war mongers, despots, religious fanatics and tribalists. However, as earlier mentioned, some protesters are honest, but they are very few. Most agitating against the just ended elections are also perennial lairs. For it is grossly unfair to conclude as I have read that, for 8 years of Obasanjo rule in the current Democratic dispensation, nothing positive has changed in Nigeria. It is also a colossal misrepresentation of facts to say or write proudly that, Nigeria has not changed positively.

 
Positive changes in Nigeria under Obasanjo

 
The huge Nigerian external reserve, the fight against corruption, Nigerian banking reforms, the settling of Nigeria’s foreign debts and three Nigerian governors belonging to the vilified People’s Democratic Party (PDP) are the lightening rods of the positive things that, democracy and Obasanjo has given to Nigeria in the 8 years of his presidency that ends on the 29^th of May 2007. Umar Musa Yar’adua, as governor of Katsina state, took over a state that was in red, account wise, and in two mandates left it with a financial surplus. Donald Duke, governor of Cross River State. He is the one who has realised at state level, the dream of making Nigeria a tourist destination.

 
The Tinapa resorts, the first of it kind in West and Central and the Obudu cattle range are strong evidences and are also indelible marks left on the state and Nigeria as positive changes brought into the state and country courtesy democracy. In Kwara state, Mr Saraki as governor, has given a face lift to agriculture, by bringing in the more experienced Zimbabwean farmers and in doing so, creating jobs and guaranteeing food security for the state and country. These governors are products of a new Nigeria. It is with such people, that Nigeria’s democracy is going to grow. Furthermore, they are proves that, Nigeria is not as bad as generally presented by Nigerians and some foreigners.

 
Antipode and shared responsibilities

 
At the antipode of the latter mentioned excellent Nigerian governors and products of New Nigeria: political and economy, stands out the governor of Lagos states and others. What has Mr Ahmed Bola Tinubu done to turn Lagos around? Apparently nothing, for the economic capital of Nigeria, her centre of excellence is a mess. She still has her rickety yellow buses; roads are punctuated with potholes that are transformed in rainy season into swimming pools. Gangs of jobless boys called ‘Area boys’ still roam the streets of Lagos racketeering ordinary Lagosians and these same hoodlums are occasionally used by the same Tinubu to foment trouble.

 
The area boys of Lagos are Tinubu’s own weapons of mass terror. But incompetent Tinubu still has the effrontery to criticise Obasanjo, he ( Tinubu) would have done well to travel to Abuja and ask the Minister of Federal capital to give him some lessons on running a city and keeping her clean. Will Tinubu be remembered as he leaves the seat of governor of the richest but most filthy state in Nigeria positively? Sadly that is how democracy and the world are. There are some competent people and there others who refuse to be competent. If those who call themselves democrats were really what they claim, there won’t use the vitriolic that they employing against those who fail to see things using their own lenses. Their writings radiate hate and not love. What those who are currently sabre-rattling forget is that, peace, stability and economic progress of Nigeria are paramount.

 
Democracy will stand in Nigeria only when stake holders create conducive environment for democracy to prosper. How? Through the construction of roads, schools, hospitals and also a change in the moral values of leaders: politicians, journalists, traders, lawyers, Medical doctors etc. according to the interpretations of the vocal groups, the Nigerian elections were a fiasco. Even though it were not exactly so, however, Nigerians themselves need now to carryout individual and collective introspections and not slam the blame of poor electoral organisation on Obasanjo alone. And as  I wrote last time, Obasanjo has played his part and now is the turn of Yar’adua the prima facie president elect of Nigeria to play his and for him to succeed, he need the support of all Nigerians.

Robot  # 1 | 27.05.2007 16:01

On the 29th of May, President Obasanjo will be handing over power ...Read the full article.

ebasain  # 2 | 28.05.2007 12:34

If you call the militants of the Niger-delta who are conducting a political cause rogues, what then would you call Obasanjo and his cabal of evil, degenerate, ego-centric and blood-sucking thieves? In your clouded and extremely skewed prism, you may see Obasanjo as a Saint. But in the public's eye, he's one of Nigeria's greatest thieves and criminals and Nigerians cannot wait to see this evil in human construct to be brought to justice any time soon.