Hearkening to the Buhari Gospel

By

Ikechukwu Amaechi

ikechukwuamaechi@yahoo.com

I don’t know how many Nigerians took ‘judicial notice’ (apologies to President Olusegun Obasanjo) of recent political developments in the Republic of the Philippines, a country also known as the Pearl of the Orient Seas. Even for the few who may have read the story, I doubt if any appreciated the significance vis-à-vis the happenings in Nigeria’s political circle. The Philippines is an independent sovereign nation located in Southeast Asia, which consists of 7,107 islands that form in physical geography a part of the Malay Archipelago. A couple of weeks ago, I stumbled on a news material on the Internet which said that the Philippines President, Mrs. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo was fighting the political battle of her life, with so many people including her erstwhile ardent supporters calling for her immediate resignation. And what was her crime? Mrs. Arroyo admitted that she spoke to an election official after last year’s polls. Since the scandal broke, the president has shown penitence, apologizing to the entire country for what she called a “lapse of judgment” as she insisted that she neither cheated nor tried to rig the poll. “I was anxious to protect my votes and during that time had conversations with many people, including a Comelec (Commission on Election) official. My intent was not to influence the outcome of the election and it did not,” she explained three weeks ago in a radio address to the nation, sounding very contrite. But even with her explanation, many Filipinos were not impressed. On Friday, July 8, ten cabinet members stepped down in protest against Mrs. Arroyo calling her to follow suit by making the supreme political sacrifice and hand over power to her Vice President, Noli de Castro, a former television news anchor. The Finance Minister, Cesar Purisima was one of the ten cabinet ministers that asked their boss to throw in her political towel and take a walk from the presidential villa. “The longer the president stays in office, under a cloud of doubt and distrust, and with her style of decision making, the greater the damage on the economy,” Purisima said. The Liberal Party, a key member of the ruling coalition, the powerful Makati business lobby, and even former President Corazon Aquino, a close ally of Mrs. Arroyo’s coalition are all singing the resignation chorus. To Mrs. Aquino, “it is no longer possible for her (Arroyo) to govern.” The president expectedly has stonewalled, asking those who are desirous of sending her packing from the Malacanang Palace to take their concerns to the Congress where they could seek her impeachment. As you read this, the saga has become a ding-dong affair, with each party strategising on the next move. I found this story rather significant because it is fascinating to know that such a seemingly immaterial political episode that people would consider not worth mentioning here in Nigeria is indeed part of the critical elements of a bourgeoning democratic culture in other climes. Now, can anybody imagine President Olusegun Obasanjo being taken to task for speaking with either a Dr. Abel Goubadia or Professor Maurice Iwu on phone after an election, not to talk of lower ranking INEC officials? Guobadia could as well have announced the result of the 2003 presidential election from the sanctuary of Aso Rock or from inside Baba’s bedroom at Ota Farms for all anybody cares. In Obasanjo’s Nigeria, nobody will raise eyebrows if in 2007, the INEC chairman, Prof Iwu is invited by the president to ride in the same car with him to monitor the presidential election. In a country where the president could summon critical judicial elements that are hearing a serious case against his government to a meeting shortly before judgment is delivered, speaking to the INEC chairman will amount to a child’s play. And to imagine that Philippine is a country neither that is neither in America nor Europe with eons of experience in democracy. The country, which to all intents and purposes is a third world country, achieved de facto independence on July 4, 1946. It has had its own full measure of political instability and debilitating dictatorship, which peaked with the Ferdinand Marcos era. First elected president of the Philippines in 1965, Marcos at one time became one of the world’s most powerful dictators by pulling the strings of power in a most ruthless manner. Although the Philippine constitution limited the presidency to two four-year terms, Marcos ruled for 20 years. He achieved this by suspending the constitution after declaring martial law and then writing another constitution more conducive to his ambitions. He ran the Philippines like it was his private estate, controlling the military, the parliament, the courts, the bureaucracy, the press and several business monopolies. He and his cronies got richer while the country got poorer. It is worth mentioning that the Philippines is as multi-ethnic and multi-religious as Nigeria. More than 170 languages are spoken in the country. So, those who predicate our inability to throw off the yoke of dictatorship on factors of our diversity are seriously missing the point. It took the people’s power to depose Marcos who fled into exile where he eventually died. What the Philippines revolution demonstrated and still demonstrates is the power people can wield when they withdraw consent. Since 1986 when Corazon Aquino (wife of Benigno Aquino, the leading opposition figure whom the goons of Marcos assassinated at the airport on his return to the country after three years of self-imposed exile) succeeded the fleeing dictator, Philippines has never been the same again. A democratic culture was not only put in place but has been so deepened that a president’s discussion with an electoral officer on telephone in the wake of an election is the source of a national outrage. Will Arroyo bow to pressure and resign? It is not likely. Will the legislature impeach her if she refuses to bow out honourably? Only time will tell, but what the present controversy in the Asian country signals is that where the people are vigilant, the sanctity of the ballot box can hardly be violated. In Nigeria, the political elite treat the electorate with utter contempt because they know that the people can never bark not to talk of biting those rogues who steal their mandate and desecrate the land. As 2007 approaches and with abundant evidence that neither INEC, the security agencies nor the judiciary can keep faith with the people and their sovereign powers, it behoves Nigerians to take their destiny in their own hands. 2007 will require self-help for the people to protect their mandate. Anybody or group that is jostling for power in 2007 without having a fall back position that will ensure how the mandate of the people is secured is a joker. That is why I agree with General Muhammadu Buhari that come 2007 elections, Nigerians that have for long been discarded to the dustbin of irrelevance must find their way back to the power loop. In a society like ours, there is only one way to accomplish that— hearkening to the Buhari gospel of eternal vigilance and if need be, being prepared to pay the supreme price in the defence of the sanctity of the ballot box.

 

BY IKECHUKWU AMAECHI

*IKECHUKWU AMAECHI IS EDITOR OF NIGERIA'S DAILY

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