29 Sep 2004 |
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This congress of mentally challenged nincompoops, made up of former civilian thieves and retired military crooks that stole Nigeria blind; together with the current civilian idiots bestriding our present democratic topsy turvydom, sat in a self-delusional cocktail party sponsored by a government that is bereft of ideas and political capital; and after exchanging small, lavatorial talks that betray their illegitimacy, bolstered Obasanjo up with the Dutch courage he needed to keep on baring his dictatorial fangs on hapless Nigerians daily harassed and impoverished by his directionless oscillatory policies. The Guardian Newspaper of 29th September, 2004, was forthright in its headlines. The Guardian told the world that in a democracy, an ultra-powerful cabal of former presidents who did more to set Nigeria back are at it again. They are still being consulted to offer Obasanjo those same ideological poverty, political puerility and socio-economic quackery, which characterised their various regimes. These discredited guys are there at the beck and call of Aso rock, still contributing those same old, silly, recycled and expired ideas that torpedoed Nigeria’s development trajectory. The Guardian wrote as follows: “The National Council of State (NCS) yesterday showed its deep concern over the state of the nation and gave President Olusegun Obasanjo power to use all legitimate means to crack-down on all groups threatening the security of the country”. When an unelected, select assemblage of executive ruins and political scoundrels gets together to encourage a fellow scoundrel in his rascality, then it is siesta time for accountability and responsibility in governance. The management team at the head of any business or political concern determines to a very decisive extent, the success or viability of that concern. In the same vein, the leadership of any country determines to a very great extent, the measure of development that that construct enjoys. Applied to our case, the National Council of State is a democratic bastard, sired through a gang rape of the political process, by our erstwhile political bandits, to secure security for themselves and their loot. This assemblage of compromised bandits, represent some of the worst conglomeration of the dregs of our political society. Had Sanni Abacha not expired atop some prostitutes, he would have been a semi-honourable member of this college of idiots. A roll call of the members of the national council of States reads like a “who is who” in the rapacious plunder of Nigeria. Most of those men should be doing some hard earned jail time in some Super-maximum prison facility, and not sitting in an Aso-rock convoked comedy, designed to confer legitimacy on Obasanjo’s crude excesses. A look at this committee of gangsters and godfathers would reveal men like Yakubu Gowon, Obasanjo, Shehu Shagari, Buhari, Abdulsalam Abubakar, Ernest Shonekan, Ibrahim Babangida. Abacha seat was empty because the randy nature of his phallus did not take into consideration the enfeebled nature of his internal organs, compromised by years of light and hard drug abuse. Had that not been the case, a tattoo faced hiding behind some black goggles would have been present at the meeting of 28th September 2004. These are the men together with State governors some of whom have broken world records in stealing their state’s allocations, and some who manifest the same midget-conquistadorial tendencies that Obasanjo manifests at the national level. An analysis of the characters masquerading as statesmen in this anti-democratic contrivance is apposite here: Yakubu Gowon was the fool who told the world in 1975 that Nigeria’s problem is not how to make money but how to spend it. This political ignoramus, who, were Nigeria to be a civilized society would never have smelled any office of responsibility, and who became head of state on the wings of tribalism, achieved virtually nothing in his nine years in office. He convoked an orchestra that commenced the frittering of the Oil boom proceeds. He routinely flouted the provisions of the development plan that was designed at his instance to set Nigeria on the path to development. He commenced so many white elephant prestige projects that had no economic value or viability. He was the guy that commenced the borrowing of odious debts that hangs on Nigeria’s neck like a sword of Damocles to fund the extravagancies of his misgovernment of Nigeria. He nursed dreams of an African Hitler. Were he not kicked out by Murtala Muhammed and his cohorts, this guy would have done in 1976, what IBB and Abacha did in the early and late 90s respectively; namely, transforming himself into a civilian autocrat. Olusegun Obasanjo has always been a historical accident. He accidentally found himself on Nigeria’s driver’s seat after Murtala Muhammed found himself at the business end of Dimka’s guns on the 13th of February 1976. This clumsy political oaf that has always been content with the backbench, in order to hide his natural disadvantages, suddenly found himself in the klieg lights as President and Commander in Chief. This was how a man who lost his reasoning abilities, consequent on the injuries his head sustained, when he fell down from a moving “Okada” as a junior army officer, somewhere in Jos area of Plateau state, came to became Nigeria’s head of State. (Cf. Guardian newspapers online, Tuesday, August 10, 2004). He commanded a regime that graduated from petty thievery in the ITT saga, (in which Fela was forced to christen him and his accomplice MKO Abiola, as International Thieves, consequent on the roles they played in duping the Nigerian treasury of so many Millions of Naira under the pretext of providing telephone service to Nigerians, in concert with the American International Telephone Company (ITT)), to one in which he converted the allocation mapped for Operation Feed the Nation (OFN) to that of Obasanjo Farms Nigeria (OFN). He convoked and presided over FESTAC 77, where Nigeria’s wealth was mercilessly and senselessly squandered to appease the gods of his ego. That was in his first missionary journey as Nigeria’s head of State. In part 2 of his ruler ship of Nigeria. He was equally an accident, following on the heels of Abiola’s murder by a conspiracy of national and international forces. He was rescued from the valleys and shadows of death when Abacha died. He was drafted into the PDP by the military mafia that have held Nigeria hostage since 1966, as their man-Friday who would protect their loot from public inquiry, and assure their security from prosecution. He out rigged Alex Ekwueme, one of the most civilized politicians ever to come out of Africa both in Jos 1999 and in Abuja’s Eagle Square in 2003 to steal the presidency. Since then, his stupidity as a leader has come to the fore to the utter embarrassment of all who have hoped for a renascent Nigeria. What were his achievements since he came to power? A festival of negatives! He built a stadium in Abuja that gulped more than 100 billion naira and which was marred by one of the most massive corrupt practises ever condoned by a race of civilized men, just like FESTAC 77, in order to host the All African Games. The privatisation of Public enterprises exercise was hijacked by Atiku Abubakar. Here the companies and concerns that formerly bore our collective names were auctioned off for peanuts to Obasanjo/Atiku fronts, using El Rufai as their front’s man. He has been presiding over the impoverishment of Nigerians by his crazy economic regimes. A year ago, he approved an arbitrary increase in domestic fuel price citing the need to fund certain development projects as the wooden excuse for that increase. Today, almost all ramifications of our national life are a testament to dereliction and government’s directionless ness. Nigerians cannot put two decent square meals on the table and this guy is lending money to Sao Tome and Principe and other countries as only a Santa Claus would. Obasanjo’s dictatorial tendencies were tasted by Mrs. Fumilayo Ransome Kuti in the late 70s. Today in his second missionary journey, Odi in the Niger Delta, Zaki Biam in the Middle Belt, have all tasted the firepowers of an inglorious tyrant. The Nigerian Labour Congress, Ndigbo and today the people of the Niger Delta are all tasting the criminal excesses of Obasanjo’s security dogs. And this is the tyrant that the national council of fools gave a blank cheque of dictatorial powers to crush any group or persons who voice opposition to the government’s crimes. And this is happening in a democracy where the people are the repositories of ultimate power. Shehu Shagari was the mallam from Sokoto who came to office armed with all the congenital endowments of stooge. His political puerility was latched onto by the atrociously clever Umaru Dikko, who tele-guided and controlled his decisions like one would a pliable piece of plastercine. He was a good man at heart, but he had no opinion of his own. He is the worst material for the presidency. But a Nigeria divided by tribalism and consolidated ignorance paved the way for mentally compromised candidates like him to come to office. The rot that was the Nigerian economy from 1979-1983 remains an eternal testament to his intellectual disabilities. The scandal that was the Presidential task force on rice, headed by Umaru Dikko remains till date a blot on the integrity of his government. It must equally be noted that he was atop the government that ensured Nigeria’s admittance into the halls of a hypocritical austerity measure that commenced the gradual corrosion of the Nigerian middle class. Buhari for want of time blazed across the Nigerian political scene like a tyrannical meteor in its embryonic stages. The perfidies of Babangida did not allow for its full blossoming as to warrant an exhaustive analysis. But suffice it to note that he started a war against Indiscipline, which was laced with some tyrannical postures. Nduka Irabor and Tunde Thompson became victims as they languished in jail for writing out their fears about the excesses of Buhari’s dictatorship. He murdered Drug pushers, and armed robbers to teach Nigerians that murder, killing, crimes is not good business. He was tough nay draconian. Though it seemed that was a good tonic for a Nigeria bludgeoned into idiocy by successive plundering governments. Then came Maradona. Ibrahim Babangida was the enfleshment of Machiavellic manipulation of the people. He is a sediment of all that was bad, terrible and ugly in leadership. He was a gangster and basked in corrupting and debauching the structures of state. He stole Nigeria blind in concert with his wife and accomplices. He took Nigeria and Nigerians on a crazy-circle-run around for some six years and ended up with the worst crime against democracy: annulling an election where Nigerians came out in droves to freely and fairly confer their mandate. IBB was a thief extra-ordinaire. He makes to pretences to that effect. In his computations, Nigeria is a cow to be milked dry to fund his avarice. He was a past master at blackmail. Tai Solarin would tell better. He smiles like all capricious hypocrites do while thrusting his daggers of deceit in your vital organs. That was what he did to Nigeria. And Nigeria is yet to recover from this guy’s crooked social engineering. We would wish not to analysed the State governors that are another part of this democratic joke. What would one expect from a council made up of jingoes and bigoted fanatics like Ahmed Sanni of Zamfara State; compromised and broken integrities like Chris Ngige of Anambra State; and thugs like the Ekiti State governor. These are the men who make up the council of States that have asked Obasanjo to CRUSH every opposition, just like they are going back to their states to do on another level. This are the men a responsible government is taking advise from. So much for an analysis of these men who advise Obasanjo. Such a collection of retired murderers, pocket crooks, certified ignoramuses, midget tyrants and borrowed intelligences have nothing useful to offer save speaking their perverted minds in an unintelligent way. All I want to state is that these crooks represent a monumental mockery of democracy. This stance was programmed to be the case, by the dictatorial propensities of Obasanjo. He and PDP contrived a stealing of the people’s mandate in 2003. In that one fell swoop, he destroy the voice of credible opposition. He bought over a House of Senators compromised by greed. Those whose voices they could not buy, they blackmail and sometimes eliminated. We have not really heard the last word on the fate that befall Okadigbo, who till date remained the only voice of rationality, ever to rise in challenge of Obasanjo’s unrefined festival of political puerility. What is the role of the senate and House of Representatives, when this cabal of Obasanjo’s Yes-men would wake up from their imbecilic slumber, and hand the incumbent imbecile, a blank cheque of powers to deal with legitimate voices of reason dissent. The people are the sovereign in every democracy. In Nigeria, the patience of the sovereign has been stretched beyond every elastic limit by waves and waves of bad government policy and lackadaisical attitude. The senate betrayed the people the day it converted itself into Obasanjo’s rubber stamp. They people lacking a legislative bulwark against the rampaging advance of tyranny, rose in various ways and manners to ask this incumbent in his majestic incompetence, to pay heed to their distress calls and address the concerns and issues bordering on their welfare. The ogre took offence at the people’s expression of their pain and dissatisfaction. He, instead of addressing these gaping concerns, kept on piling economy pressures on their already battered frames. He has increased the price of domestic fuel, without rhyme or reason and expects Nigerians to shut up their mouths and die in silence. To this end, he sent a bill to his rubber stamp senate, seeking to eviscerate the Nigerian Labour Congress, which consequent on Obasanjo’s decimation of legitimate opposition, arose to fill the vacuum left here, in canvassing for the rights of the people. The ethnic militias dotting the Nigerian socio-political landscape are not outlaw groups like this present government is. They represent the legitimate aspirations of their various peoples, whom government’s avaricious policies are seriously frustrating. The questions before us boils down to: One: Who elected the members of this council of States? Whose aspirations are they representing? What constitutional or legitimate role do they have to ask Obasanjo to crush opposition? In a civilized society, oppositions are not crushed; they are allowed to ventilate their disagreements. The opponents of war in Britain have constantly peppered Tony Blair with their disagreements and protests. The police, the SSS, or the Army, like Obasanjo would readily do, was rolled out to deal decisively with them. George Bush’s economic policies and isolationist foreign policy, has been the butt of newspaper columnists from the East coast to the West. Washington Post or New York Times have not been proscribed or its editors quizzed by the Secret Service for criticizing Bush’s policies. But our August Emperor Obasanjo who does not know the definition of democracy is constantly degenerating into a mad tyrant. He has crushed the Insider Magazine with his tyrannical weight. He has disembowelled the Nigerian Labour Congress through judicial manipulations. He is has now been advised by a league of failed presidents and incompetent governors to stamp his head on anyone who raises his voice against irreconcilable stupidities of his government. Obasanjo’s dalliance with these retired misfits, whose executive incompetence left Nigeria a legendary, fractured fairy tale, is simply the fastest way of digging his political grave. He may never realise it. He is touting force as an option, after failing woefully to learn any lessons from his misadventures in Odi and Zaki Biam. This may be the most stupid administration we have had in Nigeria in recent times, I think. I pray I am wrong. But lets see him roll out the tanks to crush the protests that is sure to greet his atrociously inconsiderate hiking of domestic fuel price, as the Council of thieves had advised. Lets equally see him arrest Ojukwu for some flimsy igbohphobic reasons. Lets see him send the army into Port Harcourt, instead of convoking a sovereign national conference. History always confronts every villain with an opportunity for greatness. It confronted Macbeth with infinite possibilities of becoming a great host or an eternal villain. Macbeth chose the latter, murdering sleep to that and marrying insomnia in the process. IBB was confronted with the same historical kairos. He chose to become an accomplished villain. He scuttled an opportunity for Nigeria’s political renaissance. Today, Obasanjo is presented with the greatest opportunity of inscribing his name in the sands of time as a great leader by convoking a Sovereign Conference to address the contemptible inflexibilities plaguing the Nigeria of today. He may spend his time coughing his eyes out, or he may take the bull by the horns and write himself into history. His greed can blind him. His sycophantic courtiers may keep on deceiving him with their scripted lullabies that immunizes him from the realities outside Aso rock. But all in all, the day of reckoning is simply around the corner. 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