The Content of his Character 
 
COUNTDOWN CALENDAR:

IT IS 100 OD! 

Actually, there are now 104 days left of the Olusegun Obasanjo mandate.  Since people seem to enjoy the magical number of 100, during which time a new government in Nigeria often thinks about doing nothing, I thought I might draw attention to the number at the other end of the spectrum.   

I have published my Countdown Calendar feature here for four years.  Today, I have but three Countdowns left.  President Olusegun Obasanjo, for whose administration the Calendar is intended as a monthly reminder of how much is left to kill or to heal. 

But this comment is not about the administration; it is about the man himself, his character or sense of who he is.  I have heard him lament about how much he may have “misjudged” just how serious the Nigerian problem was.  That could not completely be true, but it is in the past, and it is to the future we must turn our attention.   

That future has now arrived.  There are no longer years or thousands of days left to talk or plan or plant, but three months, during which we may well discover we did not know the president after all.  For that reason, I would like to offer a bit of advice as to how he might make life away from Aso Rock somewhat more quiet and pleasant when he leaves in May: he must now make his integrity an agenda item, and defend it.  

I have reason to believe the president intended to be remembered as a statesman, a beacon of light, a milestone.  I have no quarrel with such ambition, and Time and happenstance occasionally produce such a man.  He is the one who breaks the traditions and practices that enslave a people, and demonstrates new worlds and possibilities.  He wields the stick as he leads the people out of Egypt.  He teaches them to feed themselves out of land thought to be barren.  He builds highways to open up the land, or opens up opportunities to the poor or the talented, or establishes the highest standards of personal probity.  He is remembered as a landmark, a hero, a legend.  The people call him unusual names: Father, Leader, Founder, Master.   

Unfortunately, even while he is still in office, President Obasanjo’s image is taking a severe battering.  His purpose may not be in doubt, but his character is.  The trouble is that without character, purpose is nothing.   He has launched grandiose reforms, but the returns are laughable, and he is not accepted as a reformer because of his failure to implement important policies vigorously, and his tendency to slip into arrogance or compromise.   People may challenge or contradict the policies or politics of a true leader, but there should never be a doubt about his character.   

This is why Obasanjo’s engagement of corruption has become an issue.  He has declared a “war” against this monster, but at best, the achievements are dubious, as his claim to being an anti-corruption crusader is limited to a couple of important Nigerians who have fallen from power.  Not only have the returns been of little ripple in a war of such huge dimensions, there have emerged serious doubts as to whether he is really different from the people he claims to be corrupt.   

But it is quite possible, isn’t it, that we may all have completely misunderstood him.  As a result, and if he is to enjoy anything remotely resembling his popularity following his handing-over of power to Shehu Shagari in 1979 and his return to power 20 years later, he must publicly address this issue of his personal integrity, and put public cynicism to rest.     

It is of grave concern that few outside President Obasanjo’s government seem to believe his true anti-corruption claims.  Even the People’s Democratic Party, his constituency, is deeply divided between both men, and only the horse of incumbency seems to be keeping President Obasanjo in the upright position. As a leader and anti-corruption reformer, there has to be more depth to his credibility than this. 

It stands to reason that unless he has something to hide, the president ought to be outraged.  History, I remind him, is an unreliable lawyer; it will not defend a man beyond the facts presented to it, and then it becomes judge and accuser in one.  Unless he takes up the challenge of defending his character, when he leaves office his self-respect would have been shredded.     

In fact, if he loves his nation more than he loves himself, his is the responsibility to place in the public domain today all the facts, figures and dates that the microscope of Time cannot contradict.  There are far too many questions for him to pretend they do not exist, or that people believe him.   

Where to begin?  The logical point is the financing of his political campaigns in 1999 and 2003, a part of which has been drawn into filthy waters by the vice-president.  There are also important concerns about the questionable role of individual contributors and Corporate Nigeria in the financing of the 2003 elections.   

The president needs to speak up about his own finances, and the vast wealth he is said to have accumulated since 1999.  He needs to clarify such specific issues as the Presidential Library, and the profitability of the Otta Farm, which—once a money-loser on its way to bankruptcy even before OBJ went to jail—is reported to be virtually a mint during his presidency.  He needs to talk about other farms—six of them, it has been reported— whether they exist or not, and how.   

The President needs to talk about Transcorp, where he is known to own a lot of shares and the conflict of interest issues that it represents.  He may yet persuade us that there is none. 

The president needs to talk about the Ministry of Petroleum Resources during the seven and a half years he insisted he could entrust it to no other Nigerian.  Let us remember that IBB felt he was the only man qualified to rule Nigeria, and wiped out a perfectly legitimate election to prove the point.  Sani Abacha also wanted Aso Rock in perpetuity.  Obasanjo and other Nigerians disagreed.  This Obasanjo must now show this country how he is different.   

The president must account for the Abacha loot, remarkable chunks of which have been finding their way back to Nigeria.  Regrettably, like the Gulf Oil War revenues investigated by a panel headed by late Godwin Okigbo, they have never been systematically accounted for.  A leader who wants to be remembered for probity—the practice, not the sermon—would not let such an important account dangle. 

This list is not exhaustive.  It was never meant to be.  What I have here is a short sample of the kinds of questions the president ought to pay attention to, in case he is tempted to want to walk away from office as though they did not exist.  These are issues that border on personal probity, the platform on which every realistic assault on reform must be founded.  There is a second category, which concerns an evaluation of his governance, but that is not the subject of this piece. 

In the end, there ought to be one Obasanjo, the one who, even though he may not have succeeded in all he wanted to achieve, was true to the man he said he was.  If he does not clarify the nature and consistency of that character, History—the unforgiving prosecutor, that is—might render a judgment he will always regret.   

I end with a reminder of his letter to Chapter Chairs of Transparency International following his visit to them in 1998.  Obasanjo stressed the need to “work for a global environment from which the present debilitating scourge of corruption has been eradicated.  A world in which our people are served by honest politicians and officials…”  

He was right then, but today, he must prove he still recognizes this as a principle.  While there may be arguments about policies and politics, for a crusader of higher causes there should never be shadows over his character. 

Robot  # 1 | 04.02.2007 07:57

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