06 Jul 2007 |
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Between Obasanjo and Yar'Adua By Reuben Abati
The New Age newspaper recently posed the question differently when it asked: When will Obasanjo and Yar'Adua fight? The newspaper's correct suggestion is that with President Obasanjo being so over-bearing, with this farmer at Ota, refusing to return to his chickens, and maize farm and putting a foot into governmental affairs, running a government of sorts outside government, the incumbent President would find it difficult to act freely, to express his will, and assert himself, without having to genuflect to the whims and caprices of the Godfather at Ota. The only exit from this power-imprisonment is for Yar'Adua to "eliminate" the political influence of the Godfather, and stand on his own. President Olusegun Obasanjo, before relinquishing power had in fact jokingly said that a kingmaker is an endangered being because he would be the first target of the new king and hence, the best option for the kingmaker would be to flee. But President Obasanjo is not heeding his own advice or the wisdom of his own declaration. Since his return from a brief trip to Jamaica, during which according to him, he shut out Nigeria from his consciousness, (he didn't even know there was a nationwide strike over increased prices of petroleum products - a problem engineered by him!); he has been holding court and carrying on as if he were still in charge. On his way to a meeting of the PDP Board of Trustees, shown on television, the old man had nearly shoved Yar'Adua out of the way as both men, unwittingly struggled for space. I saw this on television; I am not making it up. President Obasanjo's larger than life, Senior-President presence in the political space and his expansive demonstration of this is already creating an influence problem for his prot�g� and successor, President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua. It is not enough for President Obasanjo's strategists to argue that there is an uncanny attempt to set both men against each other, inflame egos and create an unnecessary problem. The real problem is the style that has been adopted by the former President. He had promised to return quietly to his farm in Ota, and his earlier role as an international statesman. Nigerians were glad to see him leave. In spite of the crisis of legitimacy that dogged the April elections, one bright aspect of Yar'Adua's emergence is its promise of fresh possibilities. By standing astride the political space, President Obasanjo is invariably denying Nigerians the benefit of those possibilities. By appearing to be the principal mastermind of the Yar'Adua government, he compounds this new government's image problems. For purposes of context-definition, it is apposite to note that media reports of President Obasanjo's public persona since May 29 confirm the foregoing without a scintilla of doubt. He had hardly settled down in Ota when the Yar'Adua women: the President's mother, his step-mother, his wife, his brother's wife, went to Ota to thank the former President for making their son, brother, brother-in-law, husband, President of Nigeria, with a passionate plea by Yar'Adua's mother that he Obasanjo, should please help look after her son. Obviously, this was a culturally correct gesture by the Yar'Aduas, and considering the circumstances, an expression of loyalty to the President who made him President, by President Yar'Adua. Then, President Obasanjo travelled abroad during which period, he pretended not to know that Nigeria was on the boil over prices of petroleum products and Value Added Tax. The sub-text of that is this: he was more or less distancing himself from the reversal of the increases initiated at the eleventh hour by his administration. In his absence, the party had allegedly taken a decision on the idea of a Government of National Unity and negotiations had commenced between the PDP and three other political parties. If the reports are to be believed, President Obasanjo showed no keen interest in this initiative (which came across like Yar'Adua's own original thinking), and not surprisingly, the cabinet list now in circulation, is strictly an entirely PDP affair, thus negating one of the three principal objectives of the Union Government proposal. But by far, the strongest evidence of President Obasanjo's overbearing presence is his politics within the PDP, and the autocratic manner in which he has seized full control of the party. This is a project which began during his tenure as President - first with the blackmail, ambush and final elimination of the influential Abubakar Atiku-led Peoples Democratic Movement (PDM) from the ranks of the PDP. This was followed by a review of the party Constitution which made President Obasanjo life-leader of the party, along with provisions which make the party completely supreme and all its members subject to the dictates of the party on all, and every issue under the surface of the globe. The third intervention was executed the other week when President Obasanjo literally removed Chief Tony Anenih as Chairman of the Board of Trustees, and installed himself in that position. The President's explanation, as presented to the PDP Governors in the South-West whom he summoned to Ota for a meeting, is that Anenih refused to support the party's decision to promote David Mark as Senate President. For exercising the right of choice, Anenih lost his position. And should OBJ have been the one to replace him? The real problem here is the spectacle of a ruling, dominant political party whose processes run counter to the ideals of internal democracy. With Obasanjo as life-leader, Head of Legislative Agenda and Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the PDP, that party has now become a one-man system, where no form of independence of thought is allowed, except as sanctioned by the life-leader. The incumbent President, Umar Yar'Adua, as a member of this same political party is expected to fall in line. And so, Nigerians are faced with a situation whereby the list of Ministers cannot be released, until the life-leader has vetted it, and given his approval. By the same logic, the President cannot act without recourse to this same epicentre of power. Shall we not ask then: how many Presidents do we have? Did we vote (if we did at all) for two Presidents or one? It is an open secret that former President Obasanjo continues to hold court in Ota on governmental affairs, and the traffic in that direction is as busy, if not busier, than the traffic towards the Presidential Villa in Abuja. A number of categorical clarifications need be made - personal and general. President Obasanjo's continued Presidency out of office is an abuse of form and privilege. The moral end of it is that President Obasanjo is doing to Yar'Adua what he himself never accepted from anyone, and which anyone who dared to treat him in similar fashion regretted. True, in 1999, President Obasanjo was brought to power through a combination of forces. But the moment he became President, he refused to allow anyone tie his hands. He bluntly advised his own Advisers to hold their advice until he requested for it. When Sunny Okogwu, and others began to talk of a pact that brought him to power, he denied ever entering into any pact with anyone. When his Vice President, Atiku Abubakar began to make heavy weather out of his investment in Obasanjo's return to power, he was brutally cut down to size. Obasanjo as President gave full expression to the Presidential system of government to the extent of its disadvantage as a possible vehicle for authoritarianism. If he did not allow anyone to push anything in his face, why is he doing the same to Umaru Yar'Adua? Elsewhere, former Presidents deliberately stay in the background, unless when called upon by circumstances to play a role, traditionally, they do not compete for space on the front pages with the incumbent. President Bill Clinton of the United States was a charismatic leader, with a common touch but out of power, does he pose any threat to George Bush? President George Bush of the United States, has a father who was also President of the same country. Is George Bush Snr in any way disturbing his son and openly interfering? The suggestion of President Obasanjo's open interference, even as Chairman of the PDP Board of Trustees is discomforting. He must define his own limits, or risk an eventual confrontation with his own proteges, who in the fullness of time, could gain the confidence to confront him and rescue the party from his paternalistic clutches. It is also worth noting that in a Presidential system of government such as ours, the concept of a super-party dictating to the President should be deplored. In the past eight years, there has been a conflation of concepts in terms of the system of government in operation, with the Presidential system being run as if it were a Parliamentary system. The President in a Presidential system of government has a direct mandate from the people, which transcends party loyalties. He is expected to act on behalf and in the interest of the people, and not necessarily the platform that brought him to power. He is both Head of State and Head of Government. Under our American-style of Presidential system of government, it is a misnomer to expect all members of a political party to subject themselves to a uniform way of thinking on every issue as dictated by the party hierarchy. This is not a way of ensuring party discipline, it is a move towards authoritarianism which further compromises the Presidential system of government. Who has ever heard of the Chairman of the Board of Trustees, or the Chairman of the Republican Party in the United States summoning state Governors to a meeting and insisting on his will? The beauty of the Presidential system is that it allows room for the separation of powers, and systemic governance. The President also enjoys a wide scope for self-expression. Nigerians voted for one President in the last elections, not two. Can we please ask that the PDP Board of Trustees should allow the Yar'Adua government to function? And if the Chairman of that Board, or its members have any input to make, would they do so in a less noisome manner? The life-leader of the PDP and Chairman of its Board had informed Nigerians that he'd be returning to school, as a student of the Open University. And indeed, he has since reported for classes. Many Nigerians would rather have former President Obasanjo concentrate on his studies. And if this is a case of hang-over, we hope he'd recover soon, and adjust properly to life out of the Presidential Villa.
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FORMER President Olusegun Obasanjo does not appear to be managing his politics outside the Presidential Villa very well, and this is the product of his own flaw, and the failure of his strategists to advise him appropriately. The general perception, confirmed by hard evidence, is that he is burdened by a post-Presidential status hang-over, a crisis of identity, political that is, which compels him to seek to continue to act Presidential, even when he no longer bears that title; and no longer occupies the office. And so, the questions are necessarily asked: When will Obasanjo hands off? Would he allow President Umaru Yar'Adua to govern? Who exactly is in charge please?
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