I just don’t know where to start. The complication is building up in gradual succession. The President is gradually being forced to drop the good guy mask. His government is running the gauntlet amid public disbelief and astonishment at the direction in which some powerful minority policy architects have steered the boat of public leadership.

Comparison with the government of his successor is simply too compelling. I have no doubt, we are nearing a point where ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo will slowly begin regretting the day he picked on Umaru Musa Yar’Adua out of many plausible and perhaps better qualified candidates to inherit his legacy as the next civilian President. The ex-General had specific criteria in mind. No doubt the much-acclaimed personal clean record of Yar’Adua was high on the list of such criteria. The current dramaturgy unfolding however, should be beating everyone’s imagination including the ex-President’s.

Much like Olusegun Obasanjo was picked from oblivion to rule Nigeria, Yar’Adua was picked from the middle of nowhere to the highest political office in the land of his birth. Much like Olusegun Obasanjo grew uncomfortable with pre-conceived arrangements in the course of governance, Umaru Musa Yar’Adua is apparently growing increasingly uncomfortable in the middle of conflicting interest groups. Today, we are seeing a frantic attempt to untie the Gordian knot – a counter-strike en route to personal liberation.

But caution though. What price do we have to pay for the personal liberation of a colorless President?

It could all have gone fairly easily. The President started off in full knowledge of the enormity of the task ahead of him. Unlike the customary days of the second Republic of intellectual party manifestoes, Umaru Musa Yar’Adua did not ride on any intellectual vision, no matter how much an ominous seven-point agenda is now being conjured up like some Jeanie in the box. Indeed, he did not need any intellectual manifesto. The three-cardinal problems of the country are all too obvious. Roads, light and water.

Massive and visible efforts to install projects aimed at solving these three cardinal problems would have been tantamount to winning the hearts and mind of the people’s constituency. This would have been a power base like no other. A power base that would have been stronger than any Babangida, stronger than any Saraki, stronger than any Atiku or any Olusegun Obasanjo. Rather, the President started off with a simple policy of reconciliation and fence mending that sought to bring conflicting interest groups under one roof (or rather set fire on that same roof)! It did not take a sage to see that this was a policy that was doomed to failure.

The lieutenants assembled by the President to execute this task soon turned out however, to be pursuing a policy of vendetta and defeatism. That the President initially gave his blessing to this approach was initially explained by the urgent need imposed on him to prove that he was his own man and not a stooge of his predecessor. Minor policy reversals and weird political appointments quickly made way for a transparent drift of political power slowly to the north. It was the simple beginning of a tangling knot that is bound to get complex farther in the lifetime of his Presidency. This writing on the wall was clear. No doubt the President read it. His advisers too.

It also soon became clear that the President was more than ever, growing increasingly dependent on advisers and some inner caucus that has steadily fashioned out the inevitability of Abubakar Atiku and Ibrahim Babangida in the lifeline of his presidential survival. The mounting dependence on these advisers finally ended up in the ultimate erosion of such slogans as “The listening President” and “The servant leader”. They were clearly replaced by the controversial “Rule of law” and “Ruse of law”. Today the new phrase of “Yar’Ado nothing” is yet unknown and may die a premature death depending on what follows in the weeks and months ahead.

The consistent and inevitable consequence of this drift towards the sidelining of one political interest group in favor of one or more other groups is the recent uproar surrounding a magical and hitherto unknown “all-important” Nigerian Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS). Overnight, this institute has been elevated to the Mecca of career adventurism. Some must-do for bureaucratic aspirants. Want it or not, Nigerians now know that no bureaucratic position of substance can be held in Nigeria today, without attending the NIPSS. Funnily somehow, feelers have always pointed to the Americans, tribal and personal financial interests in the shaping of Nigeria’s strategic policies in our recent history. Great indeed, if that is what this institute teaches our political operatives.

Overnight and all of a sudden, Nigerians are being told that the all-important Economic and Financial Crime Commission has been too badly personalized rather than institutionalized. Some Agbakogba of the Nigerian Bar Association minced no words emphasizing this point. Well, all my life and I guess there are many Nigerians seeing what I have seen, I have never seen the Nigerian Bar Association so hugely personalized and politicized like it has been all these past two or three years. Never have the views of the head of the NBA been so prominently and selectively featured in the mass media on some political issues (conveniently ignoring others) and presented as the views of the NBA like has been done in the past two to three years. I have never seen the Nigerian Ministry of Justice so badly personalized and politicized under the banner of “Chief Law Enforcement Officer” like it has been in the past few months. Gentlemen and Ladies, we have two more prominent candidates for the Nigerian Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies.

It is becoming increasingly clear that Nuhu Ribadu hardly has friends within the police force. Not surprising. He is now up against a combination of comprehensibly angry politicians and envious professional colleagues. Indications are also mounting that evidences will soon pile up to tell and show the world how corrupt Nuhu Ribadu has been. How much of a thief he was. Gosh! Pray he is not dumped in the gaols for daring to cross the “holier-than-thou” threshold of untouchables.

So badly dependent on advisers has this President become that one sometimes gets the feeling that the absence of advisers may spell disaster for the conduct of the President. Held in awe and fascination at speaking with the American President, we had the President of Nigeria expressing his admiration of the scene remarking never “to forget” this incident in his life. A novelty in diplomatic language unknown even to the youngest of novices. Unguided by advisers, our President quickly moved out of the scheduled agenda and promised “partnering” a highly controversial American Africom project to the surprise and delight of the American President and amazement and consternation of other African leaders. Efforts were however, later made to salvage what was left of the situation in damage control.

A listening President needs his advisers. A President addicted to advisers and interest groups however, may be lost in mental captivity and intellectual bankruptcy. The amateurish quality of Presidential advisers cost Olusegun Obasanjo a great deal of credibility against Atiku Abubakar while Atiku Abubakar looked like a shining example of a democrat thanks to his brilliant and skilled team of advisers. Just where did it go awfully wrong in the plot to remove Nuhu Ribadu?

A political appointee in an independent Federal Bureau is suddenly being treated as if he was a casual police officer on police routine duty. If this was true, Nuhu Ribadu should be prosecuted without delay, for the insubordination of leading the arrest of a senior officer IG Tafa Balogun. If the Inspector General of Police could simply decree the dispatch to a compulsory study leave of a politically appointed Commissioner, how on earth, would the commission have been able to investigate the same Inspector General if there was any complaint against him?

Let’s come off this trash and rip off this mole. Now the President is in a corner. He is faced with some credibility problem in the face of international observers and heads of government sympathetic to the heroic acts of Nuhu Ribadu. Did he or his advisers not see this coming? Will the President retreat? If he does, he would be constituting a massive disappointment to his inner caucus with a different agenda of using Ribadu’s removal as a prelude to the ultimate humiliation of Yar’Adua’s predecessor. If he does not retreat, his political aura will be suffering a huge setback and may diminish seriously in future international outings.

The strategy at the moment is to sell the idea and make it appealing to the hearts and mind of media consumers. Another remedial act in the spirit of damage control. How else can this be done than denting Ribadu’s clean man image? How else can this be done than appealing to popular sentiments by claiming it to be a prelude to the ultimate probe of Olusegun Obasanjo? The truth however, is that President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua currently has immense problems probing governors that financed his own fraudulent election with stolen government money. How does he for God’s sake, intend to probe Olusegun Obasanjo?

While I appreciate and admire the historic achievements of Olusegun Obasanjo in his eight-year tenure, it is pertinent to provide answers at least, to the chain of questions raised in the charges of corruption leveled against him and backed up by clear circumstantial indications of where and how money was stolen. The team of ex-governors led by Balarabe Musa filed such accusations with the EFCC very recently. By all indications however, Umaru Musa Yar’Adua is hardly in a position to deliver on this task if he is not pushed to the wall.

While the removal of Nuhu Ribadu, if pushed through, will translate into a very negative local and international image for the President, the urgent need to restore this dented image may push the President to the wall and make him seek sacrificial lambs.

Even though I score the chances of this happening as low, given the backdoor influence of the Americans on the Nigerian government (Abubakar Atiku and Olusegun Obasanjo are still highly viewed as guarantors of American interest in this part of the world, who may not be so easily and radically desecrated) chances of history repeating itself should however, not be underrated. Obasanjo bit the fingers that fed him to push through his political agenda that were unfortunately dented by charges of corruption. If its payback time, the northern oligarchs will surely be on the spot to prevail on Musa Yar’Adua and he will definitely know what to do.

The issue of a frail health and judicial uncertainty hanging over the legitimacy of the Presidency may however, serve as some cautioning leverage to get the President to act in consideration for his days outside the Presidency, in which he may end up being alone and abandoned in the cold. Whichever way it goes, Umaru Musa Yar’Adua has thus far, abandoned the people’s constituency in search of a power base. Now the knot is tangling up in an ever-growing complexity. When Obasanjo’s knot tangled up in extreme complexity, the result was Atiku, judicial and media activism, a laughable election and the nation was on the verge of anarchy.

Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, heed the signs! Read the writings on the wall and return to the people’s constituency. May God bless Nigeria in the birth of a new year. 

Robot  Villager

# 1 var sbtitle9671=encodeURIComponent(Yar’Adua’s ...Read the full article. Posted by Robot| 01.01.2008 17:45

gwobezentashi  Villager

# 2 It is becoming increasingly clear that Nuhu Ribadu hardly has friends within the police force. Not surprising. He is now up against a combination of comprehensibly angry politicians and envious professional colleagues. Indications are also mounting that evidences will soon pile up to tell and show the world how corrupt Nuhu Ribadu has been. How much of a thief he was. Gosh! Pray he is not dumped in the gaols for daring to cross the “holier-than-thou” threshold of untouchables. If Nuhu like Obasanjo is dumped in gaol, it will be because he got submerged in the morass of corruption that he claimed to be fighting. Corruption in his words did not fight back, he like his Baba became corruption personified. What we have failed to sufficiently define is what constitutes corruption. Corruption is abuse of power. It is abuse of opportunity. It is abuse of priviledge. Let Mr Larrimore tell us if Nuhu and his Baba did not personify these traits. While he is at it, let him also please spare us the excuse that exigent conditions required the standing of the constitution on its head for the benefit of short term political expediency. Envy and jealousy are natural human conditions where people have been elevated beyond their peers but cannot be the over riding predilection for his ouster. He is being ousted because he allowed it through his poor political skills and over reach. Imagine a policeman vocalising his arrogation to himself of the power to decide who governs us. Has any policeman been brave enough to carry out a coup before? Worse is that he got too intoxicated by his assumed invisibilty and international applause that he imagined that he walked on water. In Aondoakaa the small town attorney, he ran into the road block, call it the epiphany of bogus giants. If after 8 years of their Baba and 4 years of Nuhu, we are still where we are, we were never going to arrive at the eldorado in a lifetime. I would also disagree that roads, water and light are our most pressing problems. Our most pressing problems in my view are the people. We need a cultural revolution that educates the people to have zero tolerance for bad leadership. It is when the people insist on good leadership that it delivers the infrastructure that we so badly need. No righteous and accountable leader can emerge in the funk of decadence that our electoral collegiate currently entails. When at Awoniyi's recent burial, artful dodger Dariye received applause from the audience and people queued to shake IBB's hand, you just wondered what bad leaders needed to do to be disabused by our people. The upside was that Nuhu received the loudest applause though few knew that his fate had long been sealed by his recalcitrant behaviour towards his superiors and high handed bias. All in all, I think that Frisky doth protest too much! I say bring on Umar Dangiwa and let Obasanjo, Uba et al quake in their boots (or is it loot?) and private jets. Let the corrupt never rest while Nigeria strives for continuous improvement. Aluta! Gwobezentashi Posted by gwobezentashi| 01.01.2008 19:41

olusola  Villager

# 3 Gwobe, Umar Dangiwa once infamously said he would follow IBB to war blindfolded. In all honesty,how would expect such a person to treat corruption allegations against IBB? =gwobezentashi;4294976948>If Nuhu like Obasanjo is dumped in gaol, it will be because he got submerged in the morass of corruption that he claimed to be fighting. Corruption in his words did not fight back, he like his Baba became corruption personified. What we have failed to sufficiently define is what constitutes corruption. Corruption is abuse of power. It is abuse of opportunity. It is abuse of priviledge. Let Mr Larrimore tell us if Nuhu and his Baba did not personify these traits. While he is at it, let him also please spare us the excuse that exigent conditions required the standing of the constitution on its head for the benefit of short term political expediency. Envy and jealousy are natural human conditions where people have been elevated beyond their peers but cannot be the over riding predilection for his ouster. He is being ousted because he allowed it through his poor political skills and over reach. Imagine a policeman vocalising his arrogation to himself of the power to decide who governs us. Has any policeman been brave enough to carry out a coup before? Worse is that he got too intoxicated by his assumed invisibilty and international applause that he imagined that he walked on water. In Aondoakaa the small town attorney, he ran into the road block, call it the epiphany of bogus giants. If after 8 years of their Baba and 4 years of Nuhu, we are still where we are, we were never going to arrive at the eldorado in a lifetime. I would also disagree that roads, water and light are our most pressing problems. Our most pressing problems in my view are the people. We need a cultural revolution that educates the people to have zero tolerance for bad leadership. It is when the people insist on good leadership that it delivers the infrastructure that we so badly need. No righteous and accountable leader can emerge in the funk of decadence that our electoral collegiate currently entails. When at Awoniyi's recent burial, artful dodger Dariye received applause from the audience and people queued to shake IBB's hand, you just wondered what bad leaders needed to do to be disabused by our people. The upside was that Nuhu received the loudest applause though few knew that his fate had long been sealed by his recalcitrant behaviour towards his superiors and high handed bias. All in all, I think that Frisky doth protest too much! I say bring on Umar Dangiwa and let Obasanjo, Uba et al quake in their boots (or is it loot?) and private jets. Let the corrupt never rest while Nigeria strives for continuous improvement. Aluta! Gwobezentashi Posted by olusola| 01.01.2008 20:43

truthsayer33  Villager

# 4 It is entertaining to observe the wriggling of the Frisky Larrimore. We were told by some pundits that having a graduate as Head of State would usher in an era of intelligent governance. The evidence so far suggests that perhaps we need skills other than the academic or worse still that this man is seriously ill. There is a darker thought: did he get his degree from the same supermarket as Andy and Maurice(I can't count) Iwu? Posted by truthsayer33| 01.01.2008 21:21

Gladiator  Villager

# 5 This piece hits the proverbial "nail on the head". It seems that the powers that be in Nigeria are oblivious to the fact that the technology and information driven world in which we live today no longer lends itself to antiquated or Orwellian modes of governance. Today the neck-breaking speed with which information flows and is exchanged globally means that the processing and the ultimate analysis of information is almost instant! For a Government to be effective in today's world it's perception management has to be "with it". The days that a Government could take policy decisions (no matter how well intentioned) with little or no regard to how the decision will be perceived are gone forever! In Nigeria the advent of mobile telephony with its "texting" feature together with the ever-increasing availability of Internet access with e-mail, and its rich source of news and analysis has raised the consciousness of the average Nigerian to a level that the likes of Aondoakaa, Iwu and ultimately Yar'adua have simply failed to grasp. Otherwise Yar'adua would not have embarrassingly exclaimed "a moment I will never forget" on meeting George W. Bush! And Aondoakaa and Iwu would have long ceased to make grotesque public statements and claims. Aondoakaa's embarrassing continued roles in trying to aid Ibori and his frequent chest-beating mantra that he is the "Chief Law Officer" can only be described as both juvenile and bizarre for the office he claims he represents. The Fourth Estate in Nigeria is still somewhat comatose and is afflicted from the battering and corrupting influence that it took under the successive military and/or other regimes that suppressed or bought press freedom as the case maybe. Today many sections of this most important of estates have sold and continue to sell their obligations for money. It is most revealing that virtually all important news emanating from within Nigeria is broken by Internet-based media organisations! Aondoakaa, Okiro and Yar'adua have irredeemably "cocked up" this Ribadu - NIPSS issue so badly that the "hidden agenda" is just too glaring that it needs no explanation. Posted by Gladiator| 01.01.2008 22:22

gwobezentashi  Villager

# 6 =olusola;4294976957>Gwobe, Umar Dangiwa once infamously said he would follow IBB to war blindfolded. In all honesty,how would expect such a person to treat corruption allegations against IBB? Mallam Olusola, I believe he made this reference to IBB as his then commander in chief. If you know anything about Dangiwa, you will know that he takes no prisoners nor brook any quarter. He will be a good fit for the job and there is no danger of not probing IBB if the evidence exists. The problem I see for him is with giving legitimacy to the April election by working for UMYA. We know they are talking to him sha and maybe he will do a Buhari to Abacha at PTF. I sorry old boy say una Baba dey see red like so. Na him take him hand cook okro soup. Abi na gbegiri for Molete sef? I think na our broda dem dem Osibisa dem sing say, Don't play with fire.....Fire go burn you..... We remember the Abamieda himself when he sang, Obasanjo dey there, With him big fat stomach Yar'adua dey there, With him neck like ostrich Hee hee hee hee hee hee hee heeeeeeeeee..... Woyo Allah Sarki! I go die o! Aluta! Gwobezentashi Posted by gwobezentashi| 01.01.2008 22:59

sammyrob  Villager

# 7 Frisky, This article is truly a masterpiece! Coming from you, I am really impressed. You captured the soul of this Yar'Adua's administration. The scenario could not have been better presented. For whatever, it is worth, Yar'Adua is on a self-destructive mission. Its only a matter of time! Unfortunately, Nigeria and Nigerians would be the loosers for it...as usual. God help us! Posted by sammyrob| 02.01.2008 09:04

Kay Soyemi (Esq.)  Villager

# 8 =truthsayer33;4294976963>It is entertaining to observe the wriggling of the Frisky Larrimore. We were told by some pundits that having a graduate as Head of State would usher in an era of intelligent governance. The evidence so far suggests that perhaps we need skills other than the academic or worse still that this man is seriously ill. There is a darker thought: did he get his degree from the same supermarket as Andy and Maurice(I can't count) Iwu? Truthsayer, I must confess I was one of those who, it seems erroneously, assumed as much (highlighted part of your statement) in one of my articles penned for NigeriaWorld before he was (s)elected. I cannot say I am wriggling now nor would I say the same for Frisky, but simply embarassed beyond comprehension at what makes supposedly intelligent men come across as mugus!! But having said the above, Nigeria's now had the benefit of being led by ideologues, jackboots, adventurers, kleptomaniacs and academics to no avail. Maybe, it is the turn of the talakawas or mekunus to rule! Will you vote for one? Posted by Kay Soyemi (Esq.)| 02.01.2008 09:30

tonsoyo  Villager

# 9 More grease to your elbow Frisky! This is masterpiece. Brilliant analysis. You wonderfully blended the humourous side of the unfolding events with its seriousness and dire consequences. I particularly like this part: Overnight and all of a sudden, Nigerians are being told that the all-important Economic and Financial Crime Commission has been too badly personalized rather than institutionalized. Some Agbakogba of the Nigerian Bar Association minced no words emphasizing this point. Well, all my life and I guess there are many Nigerians seeing what I have seen, I have never seen the Nigerian Bar Association so hugely personalized and politicized like it has been all these past two or three years. Never have the views of the head of the NBA been so prominently and selectively featured in the mass media on some political issues (conveniently ignoring others) and presented as the views of the NBA like has been done in the past two to three years. I have never seen the Nigerian Ministry of Justice so badly personalized and politicized under the banner of “Chief Law Enforcement Officer” like it has been in the past few months. Gentlemen and Ladies, we have two more prominent candidates for the Nigerian Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies. Bull's eye sir! Aondoakaa and Agbakoba are due for some training at NIPSS and not Ribadu! Posted by tonsoyo| 02.01.2008 10:40

JAGA-JAGA  Villager

# 10 Frisky, Good piece from you again! May your pen never dry. The grand deception perpetrated by UMYA/ his rougue ex-governors and the act of perfidy by Aondoakaa (aka ANACONDA) have truncated the anti corrpution war momentum. It is good that every Nigerian now knows that UMYA's so called anti-corruprion war and rule of law are based on insincerity and fraud. Posted by JAGA-JAGA| 02.01.2008 14:51

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