The ongoing crisis in Nigeria should be seen as part of or the by-product
of the lingering political crises afflicting the country since 1993.
The lingering political issues would have been the only issues that
President Obasanjo would have been dealing with since May 1999. Why he failed to do this since 1999 has to do with the
mode of his emergence. Those
who originated his emergence certainly wanted President Obasanjo’s period of
one term to serve as a “bridge” within which the lingering political
problems of the country would have been addressed.
It was unthinkable that “Self-succession” was anticipated.
Again those who engineered his emergence did not know that they were
dealing with a self-opinionated despot.
They mistook the man they knew as a fellow despot in the army with a man
who paid lip service to democracy. Of
course they were naïve to think that President Obasanjo would not have a mind
of his own. They were naïve to liken and compare his first reign
in the 1970s with the 21st century Nigeria and the world.
They ought to have known that his first reign was based on the military
(bullet) and that his second reign would be based on the people (ballot).
It would appear that the lingering political problems were neither
addressed nor the manifestation of these political problems understood by
President Obasanjo and the political class.
Maybe they thought that they would wither away.
What we have in Nigeria today is paralysis at all arms (executive,
legislature and judiciary) and levels (federal, state and local) of government.
The solution is complete overhaul of the governmental system and not the
removal of one person, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo. President Obasanjo is no different from the general
political class in Nigeria today. Removing
him would not solve the nature of and character of Nigerian politics.
He too ought to have known that his decision to embark on self-succession
from his record of the past three years is an abuse of the democratic process.
CHIEF
OBASANJO ERRED BY IGNORING WHAT GOD TOLD HIM
An issue today, is not the genesis of the crisis, but on the advisability
of President Obasanjo going back to what God told him which he told the Nigerian
people in June 1998. One
would recall that one of the things he told the Baptist Church at Abeokuta on
June 20, 1998 was the mode of resolving the lingering political issues
afflicting the land from 1993. He
did prophesied as to what God told him in June 1998.
Why did the President ignore this since May 1999?
This is the source of his difficulties since May 1999 to his peril and to
the peril of the country.
The solution to the Nigerian lingering political crisis did not include
his becoming the President; if that were so he would have told the Nigerian
people in June 1998. The solution that God told Chief Obasanjo would have
been through what he prophesied to in June 1998 as soon as he was released from
Abacha’s Gulag. In that
prophesy that I called the Sermon on Olumo Rock, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo told
the world and the Nigerian people through the faithful in the Baptist Church at
Abeokuta that God told him the mode of resolving the lingering political
problems afflicting the country. One
cannot pick and choose God’s words.
It ought to have been obvious to President Obasanjo that he ignored what
he said God told him in Abacha’s Gulag BEFORE June 1998 and decided to stick
what man told him AFTER June 1998.
This is disobedience of the highest order.
Another disobedience was his decision to embark on the “self-succession
fasting” in the tradition of the hypocrites in the Bible.
His decision to announce his self-succession declaration was one of the
most fraudulent acts ever inflicted on the Nigerian people.
He confessed that God used his incarceration in Abacha’s Gulag as the
opportunity God gave him to appreciate the nature of the crisis over June 12
that its non-resolution “forebodes ill
for the destiny of Nigeria”. This
was not all.
God also told Chief Obasanjo that
“It is never too late for patriotic men and women
of
goodwill in this country to get together
and
dialogue to find generally acceptable
to the unnecessary problems”.
For those who are wondering as to what I am referring to, let me call
readers’ attention to what he told the Baptist Church on June 20, 1998
immediately he was released from Abacha’s Gulag.
In his words:
Once again, as God had given me the opportunity
(meaning his stay in Abacha’s Gulag and his release)
I will comment on the elections of June
12, 1993.
RESOLUTION
OF JUNE 12 AND FOUNDATION OF DEMOCRACY
On the relationship between the non-resolution of the lingering crisis
over the June 12 and the foundation of democracy, the same God told Chief
Obasanjo in Abacha’s Gulag as he prophesied on June 20, 1998 at the Baptist
Church Abeokuta in the following words:
Without resolving the events of June 12,
we may not have a firm and solid foundation
to erect the structure of democracy on a lasting basis
apart from the implication for the unity
and stability of the country”.
FORBIDDEN FRUIT AND BENIGN NEGLECT TO GOD’S WORD
Once Chief Obasanjo was tempted with the forbidden apple later; this same
tempter assured him that he would be made to take over from General Abdulsalami
Abubakar under conditions that included benign neglect to what God told him in
Abacha’s Gulag. Was this
not why he had since then turned a deaf ear to what he told the world and the
Nigerian people on June 20, 1998 in his Sermon?
There can be no other explanation why he should do everything to
undermine what Nigerians died for in June 1993.
What is bothering me today is the way Christian organizations are
reacting to the governmental paralysis caused by President Obasanjo.
I am not blaming the National Assembly not because the members are
with no fault of their own as individuals and as an institution.
I am blaming President Obasanjo not because I believe in what the
National Assembly members are doing.
On whether the alleged breaches rise up to the level of impeachable
offences is a moot question, for after all impeachment is a political action.
Textbook and practice would tell you that what is an impeachable offence
is what the specified majority calls an impeachable offence.
It is a legal issue. I
am blaming President Obasanjo because by his act of omission, commission or
indiscretion, he brought this on himself and inflicted on the country what
amounts to governmental paralysis.
The cause of the paralysis can be traced to the benign neglect to what
God told Chief Obasanjo as the mode of
resolving the crisis in the country, which is “the
get together of patriotic men and women of goodwill”. This is
what Nigerians of all political persuasions call the Sovereign National
Conference (SNC). This was
God told Obasanjo before June 1998 and he told Nigerians so on June 20, 1998 and
after May 1999 he had been doing everything to work against what he prophesied
in June 1998.
. I am not going to discuss the merit of the
case against him by the National Assembly.
He has no business being the President just to stay in office without
resolving the lingering political problems.
Those problems are worse today than when he took office.
More deaths, more inter-ethnic violence, more religious violence, more
poverty, more unemployment, and more corruption you name it.
The solution to the lingering political crisis in
which the governmental paralysis is part can only be solved if Nigeria would
undertake fundamental restructuring through a Sovereign National Conference.
Simple.