2005 Award - Nominating Obasanjo By Mahdi Shehu
Nigeria as a country has no single data that can be said to be genuine, original, reliable or dependable, particularly if the data comes from Government, Local, State or Federal. Because in most cases, it is either a recycled data concocted, distorted, stale, fraudulent or non-existent. This makes it the more difficult to ascertain the volume and magnitude of expenditure incurred for all forms of ceremonies by citizens of Nigeria. These ceremonies range from those that can be said to be sensible, others nonsensical and many stupid and dangerous. But even then, it is severally acknowledged and widely too, that billions of Naira, perhaps trillions are spent annually on ceremonies, cutting across all the cultures in Nigeria.
During these ceremonies many people, male and female, the good, the bad and even the ugly are given all sorts of awards, titles, prizes, investures and accolades. To be sure, most of these awards are suspect, undeserving, subjective and oftentimes fraudulent. For that is why you find criminals becoming kings, emirs , obas, obis, etc., 419ers receiving chieftaincy titles, ideal minds and corrupt elements are lumped together along with the innocent and brandished with national honours, crooks are called princes, and people who have taken advantage of the public treasury have become senior citizens and above the law.
Year in year out, world over, various forms and shapes of awards are churned and channeled out to "deserving individuals" writers, authors, actors, actresses, musicians, corporate bodies, communities, politicians, etc. all for one "outstanding" performance or the other. It is in appreciation of that and the fact that 2005 is coming to an end that I am strongly inclined to nominating Mr. Obasanjo for the worst cumulative award from 1999 to date in view of the following palpable and verifiable reasons.
Before his advent and descent into the political arena of Nigeria, during what he Obasanjo called Nigeria's darkest moment, when General Abacha calling shots, just prior to 29/5/99, Nigeria was rated the 26 most corrupt nation on earth. With Obasanjo presiding from 1999 to date our corruption perception index and rating has been oscillating from the 2nd most corrupt with the erroneous 3rd most corrupt in the world. If only Transparency International were more transparent in their rating particularly by calculating correctly the sum total questionable foreign account lodgements, in addition to taking cognizance of inflated contract sums and the increase in the fortune of most people in government, they would have seen wisdom and light by placing Nigeria as the most corrupt nation in the history of world existence or easily put, from Adam.
When by a sheer misfortune, Obasanjo descended heavily into our political arena with the status of the coupist, and wearing the badge of State pardon, technically bankrupt with no political home, he met our currency, the Naira, relatively stronger and exchanging 80 to an American Dollar. But 1999 its value had been dwindling by the minute and is now exchanging for 147 to a Dollar. For all practical purposes, making it difficult and impossible for those within the confines of legitimate income to break-even or survive with decency. It is while Obasanjo is presiding over that young promising career military and security personnel, seasoned civil servants and innocent public employees were retired, discharged or dismissed from service prematurely, either on account of their ethno-religious and or regional identities, using vindictive, sadistic, animalistic and selfish criteria.
He, Obasanjo, brought into governance more glaringly for the first time, open, naked, and wicked divide and rule system of administration which propelled to all record time, thereby amplifying ethnicity, rivalry and hatred which further fueled and paved ways to affiliate and show open preferences to men and women of his tribal extraction, particularly in the security, oil and banking sectors.
The refusal of Obasanjo to appoint a substantive Petroleum Minister in spite of the Constitutional requirement to do so, is substantially part of the reasons why all sorts of ethnic militia emerged and are becoming restive and violent throughout particularly at the Niger-Delta.
Obasanjo introduced religious factor openly in both private and private sectors and went further to make it a fundamental criteria of getting or loosing from the public service any form of patronage. If you belong to the private or voluntary sector the impact is the same. In fact to his eternal credit, most of his sensitive appointments have religious and tribal coloration and bias attached to them.
Obasanjo hates criticism no matter how genuine, well intentioned or constructive, perhaps by his training and upbringing. The best way he always reacts to criticisms is by referring to those doing them as "cynic" or people who breeds thieves, instead of checking his avoidable old-age derailment, make-beliefs and delusion. He is the only ruler in the history of Nigerian nation who openly pour and shower abuses insults and invectives to clergies who dare admonish on the Lord's command. Other citizens that wear no religious garb are flogged publicly by him at any slight loss of temper in spite of the more than adequate laws in our Statute books to check perceived offenders.
Hundreds and thousands of lives were avoidably lost and properties worth billions of Naira, perished, wasted and melted away all resulting from ethno-religious crises across all the geo-political zones occasioned, promoted and amplified. By Obasanjo high propensity preference to open discriminating programmes, myopic policy pronouncements and open persecution purely on his bid to continue riding rough-shod on all of us, being part of the only way he derives pleasure, thereby further inflicting difficult to him multiple injuries that even passage of time will not heal.
It was not enough that Obasanjo stole our mandate, stole our votes by refusing to count them, votes that voted him out, but he had to go extra length, speed and mile to making it an additional article of faith to insult all of us at any given opportunity in most cases unprovoked.
It is still fresh in the memory of many that while Obasanjo presides, a city's elected Governor was adopted, harassed and insulted a set of juvenile miscreants, and the only comment he made was that the crisis in the adopted Governor's State, Anambra, is a routine family squabbles that had neither legal nor democratic solution.
From 1999 to date and in compliance with the dictates with the monster called globalization, a system that was sired by the callous market forces, Obasanjo made people to lose their jobs, both in the private, voluntary and public sectors, through his irresponsible, selective, unjustifiable and sadistic rationalization exercise. Not yet done, he made sure that neither their terminal benefits nor their monthly pensions are a right to them nor an obligation for his government to discharge. Under him until today, both civilian and military pensioners stay upto 4 years without collecting their legitimate entitlements. The least they are always in arrears of 12 calendar months. He is wilfully refusing to implement the Pensions Reforms Law that is clearly favourable to the pensioners simply that it was a law that emanated from Sani Abacha.
Under his messiah complex made Nigerians of all tribes, cultures, religions and other influences, to become substantially much more suspicious of and hostile to one another at every step more than ever before, even though to his eternal credit they became united by hunger, poverty, general insecurity, and clear and certainty of their future. Obasanjo it was who made sure that from 1999 to date through his anti-people and anti-God educational policies that Federal high institutions are not only strangulated by having their grants deliberately withdrawn or slashed substantially, but went further to force them in privatizing all courses, wherein students pay consultancy rates as in all fees in addition to forcing them to pay room rates at Abuja-rate. He prefers to fight the academic staff openly instead of engaging them in dialogue.
Against all democratic etiquettes and in spite of his claim to religious morality and born-againsm, Obasanjo connived with some selected law makers and fraudulently introduced an unknown clause into the Electoral Law and was even deceptively appealing to Nigerians for patience while assenting to the docked law. The same confused old man that expects Nigerians to see him as a transparent leader and a father of all. With Obasanjo around, Nigerians have witnessed, recorded and continue to witness and record, more ritual killings, selected high profile murders, selective justice, industrial labour strikes, forced detentions, and yet expect Nigerians to celebrate 29th of May as democracy day.
In spite of the trillions of Naira that accrued to Mr. Obasanjo from 1999 to date, he deliberately and wilfully refused to implement any appropriation act because he seems not to have faith in the laws of the land in addition to having infinite disdain on the Nigerian people and their "representatives". In compliance with his masters command and in his bid to take Nigeria to the comity of "civilized" nations, Obasanjo swallowed on behalf of all Nigerians the privatization deadly pill, hook line and sinker which saw him selling our common patrimonies not necessarily to the highest bidder, but in most cases to the lowest under questionable circumstances. And to make matters worse, he introduced oligopoly into the banking sector by insisting on 25 billion capitalization which clearly restricts entry and forces exit.
From 1999 to date, on his directives, orders and instructions billions of Naira import duties and concessions were extended to companies mostly belonging to the people of his tribal extractions or political affiliates thereby surcharging most Nigerians, denying the rest of the much needed revenue and giving further trade and commercial advantage over the rest of us. A clear case of robbing Peter to pay Paul because Paul has no wide mouth he would have used to cry foul even when none exists. He presided over the spending of billions of Naira executing a fraudulent I.D. card project. He sanctioned further billions in hosting the so-called All African Games at a time when Nigerians were and are still facing increased hardship and worst of all the list of all contractors who handled the games contract reflect nepotism and sectionalism. He authorized yet many more billions to host a ceremonial commonwealth heads of government meeting whose wealth is not common. He squandered further billions in conducting the most fraudulent election in April 2003 whose fraudulency was acknowledged by both local, regional and international monitors and observers. He constructed a stadium using billions of Naira at inflated sum even as World Bank officials confirmed the same inflation at a time when doctors, nurses and federal civil servants were on national strike for non-payment of their legitimate entitlements.
He introduced and promoted treachery and betrayal in the political scenario, thereby making it possible for everybody to be on his own, everybody for himself, survival of the fittest, and the devil takes the hindermost.
Finally, all these and many more not mentioned for want of space, that Obasanjo did from 1999 and doing till today has forced millions Nigerians to remain unemployed, further millions homeless, additional millions diseased and sick, uncountable millions hungry, in distress and uncertain about their future and that of that of their children and dependants. With him presiding over public structures are decaying, industries collapse with nobody safe at home, in the office, on the highways, at banking halls and even at worship centres.
In normal societies, people who spearheaded and masterminded the few above absurdities would have automatically quality for psychiatric evaluation and assessment and would have mostly likely ended up in an asylum. But Nigeria is not a normal society and the best anybody can say is that Obasanjo is the worst Nigerian leader from 1999 to date and should be conferred with an accolade, prize, gifts, investure and special honour for deploying excess guts, courage, and audacity in bringing majority of Nigerians to the current stage of despair, stagnation, indignity and uncertainty in the midst of plenty.
(Mahdi Shehu) |