07 Sep 2006 |
|
|
In search of some hidden terrorists in the heart of Abuja, the designated offices for his Presidential campaign were recently raided by security agents who claimed to be acting on a tip-off. The SSS officials subsequently claimed that this was an innocent operation, without any political undertones. Nobody believed them. Before now, the President, his boss, had sacked his assistants, without any reference to him. He is himself under a restriction order handed down by the President; he is not allowed to travel to any part of Nigeria except Lagos and Yola. For more than two years, he and his boss have been keeping malice, with all their aides and friends, sharing out of the tension, seeking safe boundaries where they could operate without offending one or the other. The junior partner in this game of intrigue has also done his best to undermine his boss publicly. He criticises the government openly; he befriends known opponents of his boss; he encourages his aides to abuse the President whenever they can; he issues statements which portray the President in a bad light. In return, the EFCC has been used to investigate him, he has been demonised, his associates hounded. Even his bank accounts were subjected to close scrutiny. And the President has offered unkind testimonials about him in the public arena both directly and through a combination of innuendoes. With this background, it was only a question of time before Vice President Atiku Abubakar and his boss, President Olusegun Obasanjo dragged themselves into the wrestling arena, more so as Atiku is adamant - this infuriates his boss. He also insists that he will not resign, and he wants to be Nigeria's President in 2007. "Definitely not in President Obasanjo's time", say the President's strategists. When Jacob Zuma, South Africa's former Vice President was kicked out of office, I had predicted that the President may be tempted to give Atiku the Zuma treatment. No one should be surprised that the President has in fact now decided to follow this script. On Wednesday, he walked Vice President Atiku Abubakar out of the Federal Executive Council meeting. He got Ministers, Atiku's subordinates in the pecking order to discuss his fate, based on an EFCC report which investigated allegations of corruption against the Vice President and others. The report which was reproduced in full, on the pages of ThisDay newspaper yesterday and signed by Nuhu Ribadu, the EFCC Chairman, establishes in its concluding paragraphs, that the Vice President has a case to answer. The President has forwarded the report to the National Assembly, with a request that the Vice President should be impeached. The Vice President and his supporters are not giving up. They are stucking their feet into the ground. They are ready for a showdown, even as they accuse the Presidency of fabricating a "cocktail of lies". They have declared that the Vice President will not resign the mandate the Nigerian people gave him in 2003. They accuse the President of "arbitrariness and intolerance of opposition". Sordid. Sad. Sorry. Even if we had long suspected the possibility that there would be a free-for-all fight in Aso Villa, this reduction of the Presidency to a "bolekaja" mode is a big blow to Nigerian democracy, and a major threat to the health of the polity. Bolekaja is a Yoruba word which means "come down and let us fight"; it was the label used for certain commuter buses in Lagos in the 70s and 80s to refer to the indecorous, riotous conduct of the bus operators and their assistants who were famous for their love of violence; they were always ready to pick up a fight at the slightest provocation, draw blood and disrupt public peace. The squabble between the President and his Deputy has brought the Presidency to this level. It is what is otherwise known as "roforofo" fight: a desperate combat in which any weapon or method can be used. The Presidency is the soul of the democratic process, its strongest symbol, its vortex. Reduced to an arena for ego-conflicts and mindless intrigues, this devaluation of the Presidency affects everything else including inter-governmental relations and international diplomacy. When the cost of the present imbroglio in Aso Villa is calculated, Nigerians are bound to end up with the short end of the stick. For close to four years, the second phase of Nigeria's Fourth Republic, has been hobbled at the Presidential level, by personality clashes and competition for power. It is too late in the day for anyone to hope to reconcile the two warring gladiators and their factions. But it is not too late yet for voices of reason (if there are any in this land still) to call on Obasanjo and Atiku to fight by all means as they are determined to, but not to allow their personal squabbles to stand in the way of the Nigerian project. We expect from the President and his Deputy, whatever may be their differences, nothing short of decorum, conduct that is befitting of statesmen and patriots, not the animadversions of "bolekaja" drivers and their assistants who curse the whole of heaven and earth, from the tailboard where they swing like hungry monkeys. As Nigerians turn their eyes towards 2007, and the much-touted transition to the future knocks on the door, they expect that their elected leaders will inspire them, raise their hopes and show good examples. Unfortunately, the men in Abuja are setting a bad example. I had once predicted, writing on this matter, that there would be body bags. In retrospect, that prediction was apt. The body bags are here. But there are other issues. The President's office may soon discover that it will be difficult to get the National Assembly to impeach the Vice President. The Atiku camp has had enough time to present the conflict with the President, to the public, as a matter of personality and ideological differences. If the National Assembly allows itself to be tempted to consider the impeachment of the Vice President, it could find itself in the throes of a big squabble that would divide it radically, heat up the polity and shake the country to its foundations. In every major political contest of this nature, the Vice President has demonstrated an understanding of power politics and managed to run a step ahead of his boss. Till this moment, he claims credit for having joined forces with others to scuttle the Third Term agenda. My gut feeling is that the numbers in the National Assembly will not add up enough to result in Atiku's impeachment, especially as pro-Atiku lawmakers are already compiling a list of 127 impeachable offences against the President. Besides, the proposed impeachment of Atiku could be interpreted, in the long run, as an attempt to discredit the North. Every major event in Nigeria, in due course, assumes an ethnic interpretation. Can President Obasanjo afford another round of humiliation by the National Assembly? It seems to me also that the hounding of Atiku as if he were already a convicted man is likely to backfire. The common view is that Atiku is being victimised by his boss, for daring to assert himself, and for opposing the President's plans to remain in power. It does not matter what the EFCC says he has done: the preliminary conclusion in the court of public opinion is that Atiku's trial is not a criminal matter, but politics, Nigerian style. It is this triumph in the perception game that allows the Atiku group the luxury of the confidence that they have been displaying. The Vice President is protected under the law: he enjoys immunity from prosecution for as long as he is Vice President. He is not likely to be impeached. And he says he will not resign. There is therefore, a stalemate at the Presidency. Nigerians have been told by the EFCC that the Vice President mismanaged public funds and that he is guilty of circumstantial "coincidences". American Law Enforcement Authorities are also being used as alibi for the case. But unless he is convicted by a competent court of law, the President cannot on his own, declare him guilty and treat him as if he were a boil on the face of government that should be removed through surgery or any useful means. What has happened is that the President has gone to the National Assembly in the Atiku case to test his popularity with the lawmakers. He may not like the verdict that will come back to him at the end of the day. In seven years, the President sent so many bills to the National Assembly which have not been attended to. He and his aides should be more interested in pushing the lawmakers to focus on those bills which can expand the space for human freedom; laws which will strengthen the education sector and the economy, laws which can create jobs for the army of unemployed youths. The diversion of Presidential energy into personal squabbles is of no benefit whatsoever to Nigerians. Indeed, the EFCC has the right and powers to investigate any Nigerian citizen. It is also the duty of the National Assembly to hold public officials accountable. But this must be done without any hint of witch-hunting. The Atiku case smacks of witch hunting. By all means, a show-down with his Deputy should not be President Obasanjo's farewell to Nigeria. In the last moments of his Presidency, he should be more interested in drawing attention to the achievements of his government. If the National Assembly investigates the Vice President and gives him a clean bill of health, the President would have lost face. Why does he want to take such a risk at this time? These squabbles have implications for post-Obasanjo Nigeria at both corporate and individual levels. It may well be that there is more to the Obasanjo-Atiku feud than both parties are willing to tell.
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
# 
# 
Your Comments
Please make The Square an enjoyable experience for everyone by refraining from gratuitous ad-hominem contributions, defamatory comments and off-topic posting. Such posts will be removed.