It is important, as the search continues for a new compassionate Nigeria, achieving her potentials and taking her place proudly among the comity of nations, that we pinpoint persons and institutions who played critical roles in the destruction of the nation, if only to serve as a lesson to future generations.Anybody who dares to confront the truth will no doubt accept the fact that Obasanjo and the Nigerian  military institution have wreaked havoc and all but destroyed every political, economic, structural or social  facet of our nation. The ongoing disaster  Obasanjo has become is a disappointment for all those who had hoped that power shift to the South  will herald new beginnings. Far from it, he has turned out to be perhaps the greatest dictator ever in our collective history. He has demonstrated an unrivalled and callous disregard for human life. Democracies emphasize dialogue and a respect for the rule of law, but Obasanjo’s democracy or is it Babacracy? has the utmost disregard for this virtues which constitute the main planks upon which democracies are established.

The Obasanjo killing machine went into action soon after he was sworn in. In 1999 beginning with the large scale rape and goring in Odi, moving to the levelling and massacre of Zaki-Biam, graduating to the extra-judicial killings of non-violent MASSOB members engaged in legitimate protests, continuing to the Helicopter gunship bombings of Niger-Delta communities, the recent  Onitsha  massacre, and the now official target practice which the notorious Nigerian police force  uses Nigerians for whenever you refuse  to give them 20 Naira. These days the Nigerian police has gone a step further in their impunity, by invading and burning down villages as they did recently in Delta state, and in the Southeast in the continuing culture of violence encouraged and nurtured by Obasanjo’s democracy, sorry "Babacracy". The scale and scope of violence that has largely become the hallmarks and defining attributes of this  administration, supposedly a democracy,  is comparable to Saddam Hussein’s Iraq, and Idi- Amin’s Uganda. Ironically even the British colonial establishment at the height of their power, never subjected Nigerians to this level of brutality.

On the social front, Obasanjo has turned out to be an unrefined, crude, and uncouth persona. Hardly any  day passes without registering a faux pas.His frequent abusive, and crude language has  become a source of embarrassment to all and sundry. His retrogressive style of leadership which has significantly maintained the status quo injustices and marginalisation of large swaths of the population has left Nigerians increasingly more divided than at anytime in our chequered history. Economically the regime is a non starter. Nigerians  have never had it so bad.  Poverty stalks the land, while a few government  robbers live in lavish opulence, playing God and riding roughshod on the hapless enslaved masses. Desperate poverty has pushed many to the limits of their humanity. Builders now add more sand to cement resulting in frequently collapsing buildings, airlines cut corners by recycling tokunboh spare parts, they now routinely fall of the sky. Desperate citizens answering to the painful pangs of poverty now crack open high pressure fuel pipes, most of them end up in a blazing inferno. At the last count more than 1000 have died  in such ferocious inferno in Obasanjo’s Nigeria.  The minimal relics of basic infrastructure like electricity,  roads, etc that existed before Obasanjo’s emergence  has  totally crumbled. We are now technically thrown back to the stone age.

Politically Nigeria under Obasanjo has invented a new system of government now known as “Babacracy”.  Under this system opponents are witch hunted  and disqualified from contesting, while cronies are “selected”  into office. The Babacracy system is such that you don’t even need to stand for election primaries to become a candidate. In Delta North senatorial zone Ahmadu Ali’s wife did not stand for election yet she was given the ticket, in Imo state Charles Ugwuh came 14th in the gubernatorial primaries yet he was given the ticket, In Rivers state Celestine Omehia did not even bother to stand for elections yet he was given the guber. ticket all courtesy of babacracy.  Under the babacracy variant, godfatherism is the way forward and voter registration machines are found in the “Adedibuistic” homes of untouchable private cronies of Obasanjo. 

Sum it all up, and it would be clear that Obasanjo’s exit in may, if he does leave, will be leaving behind, an ethnically divided,  bloody, broken, lawless, violent, confrontational, dysfunctional, undemocratic, autocratic, resentful and destroyed nation. His failure to apply the principles of dialogue more so in a democracy, which is capable of resolving all grievances, and his deliberate undermining of democracy amongst others has marked him out as a disaster to have befallen our fragile nation. No doubt Obasanjo is a shamefully  failed leader, and the worst so far of all Nigerian leaders. His regime singularly committed crimes against humanity far more than any before him. It would be a miracle if he escapes punishment once he is relieved of the protective cocoon of power.

Conclusions And Recommendations:

All Nigerian army officers, and all ex-combatants who served in the Nigeria-Biafra war should henceforth be disqualified from holding public office. It has been sufficiently established from our collective experience of military rule, and the ongoing Obasanjo disaster, who himself is a product of the Nigerian, crude, inept, and uncivilised military, that the Nigerian specie of military officers are not fit to hold public office at least for now. Until they are sufficiently indoctrinated into humane and civilised methods of human engagement.

Comrade Lawrence Chinedu Nwobu

Email:lawrencenwobu@yahoo.com    

Robot  Villager

# 1 It is important, as the search continues for a new compassionate Nigeria, achieving her potential...Read the full article. Posted by Robot| 21.02.2007 23:17

chibuzor  Villager

# 2 Absolutely spot on. Posted by chibuzor| 22.02.2007 04:14

chibuzor  Villager

# 3 By the way... UTOMI FOR PRESIDENT. Posted by chibuzor| 22.02.2007 04:20

Oghre  Villager

# 4 Balanced reporting required: True talk by author; but in addition to all that Obasanjo freed Nigeria from debt obligations with the parasitic Paris Club. Not only did the man do that we now have a foreign reserve of about $40 Billion, does he deserve any praises for this? We leave that the author. Now, Obasanjo in my opinion helped to neutralise the Hausa/Fulani hegemony that crippled this country for over 40 years. He may be handing over power to these miscreants again but then for the first time in the history of Nigeria the south, west and East have become major players and stakeholders. With the current PDP arrangement, Obasanjo may very well be running things even when the Mallams return to power. Obasanjo is the first southerner to archive this. Perhaps we should acknowledge it. Under Obasanjo the Nigeria economy is one of the fastest growing in Africa with the highest return on investments anywhere on this planet. We should also acknowledge Obasanjo’s achievement in the telecom revolution currently sweeping through the country. To deny the man these successes is a great injustice. I person dislike some of the man’s policies but commend him for many things. Please and please let’s incorporate balanced reporting when we write these articles, it is the only way we can be taken seriously. Thanks Ben Posted by Oghre| 22.02.2007 06:06

Son of the Delta  Villager

# 5 =Oghre;156906>Balanced reporting required: True talk by author; but in addition to all that Obasanjo freed Nigeria from debt obligations with the parasitic Paris Club. Not only did the man do that we now have a foreign reserve of about $40 Billion, does he deserve any praises for this? We leave that the author. Now, Obasanjo in my opinion helped to neutralise the Hausa/Fulani hegemony that crippled this country for over 40 years. He may be handing over power to these miscreants again but then for the first time in the history of Nigeria the south, west and East have become major players and stakeholders. With the current PDP arrangement, Obasanjo may very well be running things even when the Mallams return to power. Obasanjo is the first southerner to archive this. Perhaps we should acknowledge it. Under Obasanjo the Nigeria economy is one of the fastest growing in Africa with the highest return on investments anywhere on this planet. We should also acknowledge Obasanjo’s achievement in the telecom revolution currently sweeping through the country. To deny the man these successes is a great injustice. I person dislike some of the man’s policies but commend him for many things. Please and please let’s incorporate balanced reporting when we write these articles, it is the only way we can be taken seriously. Thanks Ben You make me laugh when you say he neutralized Hausa/Fulani hegemony.In what way has he done that ? Is it by endorsing Yarádua that is one of them or how? On the debt issue I believe he has performed very badly.Was it in our economic interest to pay off our debts when we "knew" we would need new debts almost instantly. Whatever angle you would want to look at it Obasanjo is an absolute failure.There is no way one can be fair to him.Even the monsters called Abacha and IBB did better than him. He will only find himself in the premier league of world despots.Abacha,Abdulsalami and IBB put together are better than Obasanjo. Posted by Son of the Delta| 22.02.2007 07:29

Nkire  Villager

# 6 All Nigerian army officers, and all ex-combatants who served in the Nigeria-Biafra war should henceforth be disqualified from holding public office. It has been sufficiently established from our collective experience of military rule, and the ongoing Obasanjo disaster, who himself is a product of the Nigerian, crude, inept, and uncivilised military, that the Nigerian specie of military officers are not fit to hold public office at least for now. Until they are sufficiently indoctrinated into humane and civilised methods of human engagement. Nwobu ____________________________________________________________________ Lawrence: You know, I have always wondered if I am the only one that has harbored this thought. I received some criticisms (which is quite alright) for making essentially the point contained in the first sentence above in a different thread a couple of months ago. Other than ethnic allegiance, one is at a loss why ordinary Nigerians have been unable to connect the dots between the attitude of the leadership in since 1970 and the principal actors who are officers and ex-combatants who served in the civil war. Once these officers and ex-combatants took over governance of the country, they moved the war theatre from the bush to all aspects government. Nigeria has gone downhill ever since. Having exercised power, abused power, stole from the national treasure unchallenged and committed various discreditable acts without answering to any body as military officers, for goodness sakes, what makes any sane person think that these guys will move into Aso Rock as an elected president and immediately transform into an epitome of democracy and consultative governance. In my opinion and as evidenced by Obasanjo’s proclivity to military approach to governance in a “democracy”, these guys are incapable of being reformed from a style that have served them well and made them wealthy and gave them an above the law bravado. Nkire Posted by Nkire| 22.02.2007 10:34

Caeser  Villager

# 7 Comrade, Abeg no vex: wetin be de age wey dey before de stone age? Na there all these charlatans wey rule us don carry us put. I no fit wait for the time when another BETA COUP go happen for Nigeria make dem shoot all these our past and present leaders. All of dem na thief dem be. Ole!:mad: :mad: :mad: Posted by Caeser| 22.02.2007 11:28