Obasanjo: The Wounded Presidency
By
Chika Onyeani
(African Sun Times - Aug. 22-28, 2002)
On Tuesday, August 13, Nigerians tested their nascent democracy to its most
dangerous limit, when members of the House of Representatives passed a
resolution demanding that the President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, resign
within two weeks or face impeachment proceedings. Said the motion,
"Chief
Olusegun Obasanjo is hereby advised to resign honorably...within two weeks
from the date of this motion, failing which the House will commence
impeachment proceedings," passed by an overwhelming majority in the
360-member House.
What is significant in the House motion is that Obasanjo's party, the Peoples
Democratic Party (PDP), controls both the House and the Senate. Out of the
360 members, the PDP has 196 members in the House, as well as 63 members in
the Senate.
Chief Obasanjo was elected as the first civilian president of Nigeria in
1999, after 16 years of dictatorial military rule ending with the death of
General Sani Abacha in 1998, and the assumption of the office of Head of
State by General Abdulsalami Abubakar. General Abubakar immediately vowed
to
return Nigeria to a democratic civilian government. He quickly instituted
the process for a series of elections, culminating in the election of a
democratically elected civilian president. President Obasanjo himself was
the first militaryman to have handed power peacefully to a civilian elected
president in 1979, having served as military Head of State from 1976-79.
Obasanjo was overwhelmingly elected with the support of the two main ethnic
groups in Nigeria, the Hausa-Fulanis of the North and the Igbo of the South
East. The other third major ethnic group, the Yorubas of the Southwest of
which Chief Obasanjo is a member, voted overwhelmingly against him. The
group's main political party, the Alliance for Democracy (AD), swept all the
polls in the West. As an example, in Lagos State, former capital of
Nigeria,
the AD candidate Chief Olu Falae polled more than 2 million votes to
Obasanjo's 210,000 votes. In fact, Obasanjo lost the election in his own
local government area (LGA) to the same Olu Falae.
The two groups which elected him, together with members of the South-South
area, which includes the oil producing areas of Nigeria, Nigeria's
breadbasket, are the groups which are now increasingly disenchanted with the
Obasanjo presidency. They have become increasily critical of his policies,
his manner of addressing Nigerians, his contempt for members of the House and
Senate, his taking unilateral decisions which in a democracy should be taken
by the two arms of the government - the executive and the legislator and even
accusing his administration of major corruption. In 2001, Nigeria was
named
the second most corrupt country in the world by Transparency International,
of which Obasanjo was a member before being jailed by the former dictator
Gen. Sani Abacha.
In fact, Alhaji Ghali Na'Abba, Speaker of the House of Representatives which
passed the motion, and a member of the Hausa-Fulani group, has accused
Obasanjo of outright dictatorship.
But what has enraged lawmakers as well as most Nigerians, is Obasanjo's trips
abroad. According to newspaper accounts in Nigeria, Obasanjo has travelled
about 103 times since he came to office in May of 1999, and spent more than
360 days outside Nigeria, compared to 98 travels for Pope John Paul II who
was elected Pope in 1978. Said one of the legislators voting for the
motion,
Hon Sule Yari Gandi, "today our President has been reduced to a mere
ambassador. If there is going to be a cultural dance in Barbados, it is
Obasanjo that will go there. If there is going to be burial ceremony in
Botswana, it is President Obasanjo that will be there. In the last three
years, President Obasanjo has operated 361 days in the air, which means out
of three years, one year was spent in the air, two years on the ground."
Given the problems that Obasanjo faces, the question then is is he in any
danger of losing his presidency through the impeachment process? The
answer
is absolutely NO. Given the intricacies of Nigerian politics and
provisions
of the constitution, Obasanjo is not in any danger of being impeached.
On the other hand, internationally the Obasanjo presidency has suffered a
severe, not mortal, wound. As much as Obasanjo can shrug off the threats
by
the members of the House and despite the support he is receiving from the
Nigerian public, what has been engineered and achieved by the House vote is
the perception of a President that has lost the confidence of his people.
The impeachment motion would have been meaningless to most African
presidents, except maybe to a President Mbeki representing the other
power-house of democracy in Africa. But not to President Obasanjo who
seems
to have bet his presidency and how he is judged by how he performs
internationally, always a dangerous road, that Presidents like the older
George W. Bush learned the hard way.
Obasanjo is front and center in the so-called North-South dialogue, the G77
group, Africa's attempt to wrestle $64 billion from the G8 countries through
the new NEPAD, and then of course, the OAU's changeover to African Union.
In
all of these institutions, Obasanjo sincerely believes it is his absolute
right as President of the so-called "Giant of Africa", Nigeria, to be
a
leader. Before Boutros-Boutros Ghali was elected the Secretary-General of
the United Nations, Obasanjo was one of those whose names were being
mentioned as a candidate for that exhaulted office.
With Presidents Thabo Mbeki of South Africa, Abdulaye Wade of Senegal,
Abdulazziz Bouteflika of Algeria, Obasanjo led them in developing the New
Parternship for Africa's Development (NEPAD), with its main objective and
strongest recommendation being the advocacy of good and transparency in
governance. At the last G8 meeting in Canada, it was Obasanjo who spoke on
behalf of the five African presidents who attended the meeting - Mbeki,
Wade, Bouteflika and Mubarak of Egypt.
Given Obasanjo's unbridled ambition as an international man, it is difficult
to see how other world leaders would look at him and say, yes, you are that
epitome of good and transparent governance and you definitely operate with the
blessing of the populace, after all these leaders understand that democracy
is for the people and by the people as represented by their legislators.
And
the legislators have spoken otherwise.
Conversely, the legislators might have achieved their aim of stopping what
they couldn't achieve through legislation when they barred Obasanjo from his
frequent trips abroad. The type of publicity that the impeachment motion
generated around the world, could only have been matched by that of a coup
d'etat. In other words, every foreign leader heard the
"gun-shot" fired by
the legislators, and they would have incredible time justifying an invitation
to Obasanjo for a visit. When somebody is always in your house
begging for
this or that, or metely stopping by for meaningless chit-chat, your respect
for that individual begins to fade, as you wonder whether he really has
anything meaningful to do.
Unfortunately, even before this alarming episode in an already destabilizing
environment, Nigeria's light had started to fade while that of South Africa
has started to shine even brighter, and ultimately that of its president,
Thabo Mbeki. South Africa is increasingly seizing the issues as well as
the
solutions for which Nigeria had originally been depended upon to articulate
and solve.
In the latest rounds of peace initiatives in Africa, and where those peace
initiatives are being held, Nigeria has become a non-player. In fact, nobody
could accuse Thabo Mbeki of leading a "travelling circus," as one
Asian
Ambassador described Obasanjo. The West is turning increasingly to South
Africa to make the decisions that Nigeria used to be depended upon to make.
In the last two years, most of the important conferences have been held in
South Africa - whether it is the racism conference, the Organization
of
African Unity's last meeting before changing to the Africa Union, and now the
Conference on Sustainable Development due to begin on August 26 - the world
wants a peaceful environment and an infrastructure capable of handling the
large conferences without hitch. It is estimated that more than 50,000
people will be attending the Sustainable Development conference.
It is possible that Obasanjo only listens to his own drum-beat; he has
already said he would defy the ultimatum given to him by the House of
Representatives to resign in two weeks. But the sad part is that, here is
a
man for whom millions of Nigerians had invested all their hopes to lift them
out of 16 years of military misrule, but instead have seen their hopes dashed
by the intransigence of both the two arms of government.
Obasanjo has announced he would be running for a second term of four years,
but with the present two major groups in Nigeria distancing themselves from
him, it is doubtful he will succeed if matched with a relatively decent
candidate and if a free and fair election is held. But money plays a major
role in Nigerian politics, and utilizing his incumbency and financial war
chest, it is possible he may win a second term. But wouldn't it be a
mockery
for a person who has spent his whole civilian life preaching need for
democracy and transparency in elections? Well, c'est la vie.
Dr. Chika A. Onyeani, Author
"Capitalist Nigger: The Road to Success"
Publisher & Editor-in-Chief
The African Sun Times
463 N. Arlington Avenue, Ste 17
East Orange, NJ 07017-3927
Phone: 973-675-9919
Fax: 973-675-5704
email: afrstime@aol.com