By
Dr. Wunmi Akintide

In my last article on Obasanjo, I concluded there is a chance the enigma of a uniter could end up a divider of our country and an embarrassment to his Yoruba base. I still hold that prediction to be self-evident, but I am having a rethinking on some of what the President has done. A bunch of Internet commentators have  agreed with me for drawing that conclusion, but there was one particular commentator, (name withheld) who has totally disagreed with me, even calling me names for always criticizing Obasanjo. I have nothing to gain from criticizing Obasanjo, but my children and I and my extended family in Nigeria have a stake in his failure or success in Nigeria. I'd rather see him succeed than fail, if I can help it. If that means criticizing him, once in a while, so be it.
  

As a matter of principle, I pay more attention, however, to those who disagree with me than those who do not. They may have a point I may have overlooked because what a man is seeing or saying, is often a factor of where the man may be sitting or standing. It was Professor Emeritus Harold Seidman of my alma mater who first crafted that statement in his one time best seller, titled "Politics, Position and Power" I agree with the dissenter, it is far much easier to criticize than to build. It is far much easier to destroy than to build.
  

Based on that prism I have forced it on myself to go back to the drawing board and to take a second look at the jigsaw of a man called Obasanjo, right from his days at the Abeokuta Baptist Boys High School where I understand he once attended with the likes of late M.K.O. Abiola and late Afolabi of Osun State. I did not stop there. I followed him through his epoch-making career in the Nigerian Military which has moved him from rag to riches, so to speak, and conferred on him, with some legitimacy, the right to be called a patriot and one of the founding fathers of our nation.
  

I don't take it that it is only our post and pre Independence leaders that qualify to be called our founding fathers, because laying the foundations of a country is not something that you do in a few years. It is like running and winning a Marathon Race. You don't win a Marathon in the first 100 yards for sure.
    

I did go back to Obasanjo's activities and achievements in the Biafran War, his activities and performances as one of the hatchet men in the Murtala Mohammed Administration, decidedly the best in our history of military outfits in Nigeria. Mohammed had led the country for only 200 days, but within that period, he had set a pace and a standard in public probity that our country could not forget in a hurry. The enigma called Obasanjo had positioned himself for succession to Mohammed in a way that our brothers, to the North of the Niger, could not ignore.
   

He may have stepped into the vacuum left by Mohammed on a quid pro quo contract with the power brokers in the North. What is important is that he did it, and he faithfully kept his own side of the bargain, and forever put himself in the good books of the Northerners as the only southerner of consequence who can be trusted?  The North was therefore willing to give to him the kind of concession and trust they could not, with any confidence, give to either Zik or Awo, regardless of their eminent qualifications to lead Nigeria. Of course they did agree to have late Zik play the role of a ceremonial President with powers to attend the funerals of some other Heads of State outside our borders, and with powers to be seen and not heard.
  

The North had trusted the school teacher from Bauchi more than they trusted the Ogbuefi with his chains of Degrees from God's own country, and with his pen which was reportedly mightier than the pen in those days. They couldn't care less about Awolowo's degrees in Economics and Law which are, by far, the two major disciplines so critical to Politics by conventional standards elsewhere in the civilized world. In the mindset of the North, it was Obasanjo that precisely fits the bill from the South. He did attain an HND in Engineering at a time that HND was not considered as an equivalent to a University degree.
   

They saw him as acceptable to the North not only because his temperament suited the North. He fits their characterization of a "Babu Turenchi," and he was one southerner who was willing to call Awolowo a tribalist to his face, and get away with it. Above all, he speaks Hausa, the Lingua Franca in the Nigerian Military till tomorrow, with the fluency of a Dan Maraya. He had not yet discovered his penchant for the orthodox evangelical obsession which makes easy for him to quote the Bible with the effortless ease of an Adejare Adeboye. If he had any strong faith at the time, he had kept it to himself. He even had the temerity as an Egba man to declare war against the Reformed Ogboni Fraternity and all secret societies in Nigeria. All those attributes had made him a gem to the Northerners who saw him as different from all the other southerners before him. To them, he was more trustworthy to be Commander-in-Chief than the late Aguiy Ironsi, the late Brigadier Ogundipe, Colonel Adeyinka Adebayo or Dim Odumegwu Ojukwu. He was their man.
   

He did promise he would keep the Murtala Mohammed timetable for handing over to civilians. He not only kept his words, he had created a conducive environment for his Northerner of choice to win, putting Awolowo in a quandary, so to speak. So when another chance for another southerner to be considered as Head of State, one more time in 1999, the only answer the North could find was to turn again to Obasanjo. They took him out of the Abacha Gulag to crown him king for the second time in 20 years without spending a kobo of the money they knew he did not have.
   

Whether you hate or like Obasanjo, the fact remains that he has got to be doing something right to have remained a constant factor in the Nigerian equation for so long. He, sure, has a point, if he now starts believing that without him, the nation cannot survive. He has a point, if he has now reached a point in his life that he is no longer afraid to really lay down his life, and to die fighting for Nigeria without any regrets. He has got as much out of Nigeria than any Nigerian dead or alive. If the Maslow Hierarchy of Needs theory is anything to go by, Obasanjo may now be heading for the self actualization phase in his life journey. When a man reaches that phase nothing else matters. He has been anything he wants to be in Nigeria. The last thing that interests him may be second-in-command to God, if not God Himself.
   

I think the man really wants to follow the example of Jesus, by sacrificing himself for Nigeria and hoping that that he would be immortalized and loom larger than life in death when Nigerians look back, with less prejudice, on his legacies and records in public office, and see what a great Nigerian he has been all along.
   

I was compelled by the criticism of that one commentator, I hinted earlier, to go take stock of the good that Obasanjo may have done in this his second or third odyssey of leadership in Nigeria. The first thing I could see is his courageous and iron determination to reform the Nigerian Economy which is already paying off, if you are paying attention, as closely as I do. He had made a great decision when he went after the one Nigerian he firmly believed could get the job done when he settled for Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala as Finance Minister. I can tell you Ngozi is doing a marvelous job without any question. Obasanjo has not stopped there. He had looked around and found other distinguished Nigerians like the current Governor of Central Bank, and the likes of Mrs. Akinyuli to complement Ngozi's work as Finance Minister.
  

Going side by side with that observation is Obasanjo's declared War against Corruption in Nigeria. Corruption has become a running cancer in the Nigerian political system. It is the very nerve center of our problems. Any leader who would decide to take the bull by the horn and fight it, up front, deserves our commendation and support. Obasanjo has therefore identified two of our deadliest maladies and doing something about them with the persistence of a demon, regardless of all attempts of spin masters to distract him. He may not be 100% successful, but he is giving it his best shot from all we can see.
    

With the possible exception of Murtala Mohammed, and Buhari, to some extent none of our political leaders at the Federal level, has done as much as Obasanjo to confront these two problems with as much fortitude as Obasanjo. Obasanjo finding a no-nonsense hatchet man like Numa Ribadu to lead the War against Corruption has been a special blessing to our country. I can tell you that no southerner, however competent and powerful, could be doing what the young man, Ribadu is doing, and still keep that job for as long as Ribadu has done. Another firebrand of a Minister is his Capital Territory Minister in Alhaji El Rufai. You could say all you want against these two Nigerians. They both constitute a round peg in a round hole in my opinion. They are doing their jobs to the best of their abilities and getting good results, which if sustained, can change our country for good.
   

In that context, Obasanjo is blazing a new trail that could possibly cost him his life. What is consoling, however, is that Obasanjo sees his mission as God-ordained, and he is doing it with puritanical dedication and courage, as much as humanly possible?
  

I measure his performance from the quantifiable results I can feel and see. Are there lapses here and there in his implementation of those policies? Are there things that can be done better? Does Obasanjo sometimes give the impressions he is doing a one-sided inquisition of perceived enemies? Does he regularly make efforts to clearly articulate what he is about, by carrying the silent majority of the nation along like other democratic leaders do in more civilized countries?  The short answer to all of these questions is a resounding "No" Should that be a justification to condemn hook, line, and sinker everything Obasanjo has been doing? My short answer to that as well, is also a resounding "No." I guess the next question would be for me to define what Obasanjo may have been doing right that I probably did not pay enough attention to in my last article on him.
   

In consequence of what Obasanjo has been doing on the economy, you could tranfer money in dollars or any currency to your Account in any Nigerian Bank, and get paid in real dollars within days not months, back home in Nigeria. There is more international confidence in the Nigerian economy today than at any time since the late 60s and much of the 70s spilling over to the early 80s. So much is the confidence in the Nigerian economy today that China, Japan, South and North Korea, not to talk of many European countries and the United States are much more mentally prepared and willing to invest in Nigeria. The flight of capital used to be from Nigeria to other countries of the world. Today, because of the conducive environment created through the Obasanjo Government policies, that position has been reversed.
   

That, in of itself, is a monumental achievement and one of the architects and executors of those policies is Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala. It is a question of time before those policies rub off on the value of the Naira in global terms. The Nigerian Stock Exchange has today achieved a level of stability never before seen in our country.
  

How about Debt relief for our country, and how that is fast changing the economic climate of our country? Those who criticize and said nothing has changed have to be living in a fool's paradise. A lot has changed. But sustaining what has changed and to make it outlive Obasanjo who, whether he likes it or not, must one day throw in the towel and go into retirement or be forced to go like other leaders before him, is the real acid test. What is more needed is sustainable growth?
    

I am deeply troubled that some or all of the Obasanjo's reforms may not survive him. Why? Because I believe Obasanjo has not groomed anyone to succeed him. Less than 18 months to the end of his second term, the best he has done is to keep the nation guessing on what happens, if the Third term dog would not hunt. Any nation whose stability is predicated on the whims and caprices of just one individual, is nothing but a weak and volatile country. Josep Tito had proved that in the former Yugoslavia. Ho Chi Mingh has proved it in Vietnam.
   

It takes more than one man to build and to sustain a nation. America and Great Britain are shining examples of that. George Washington as the founding father of the United States was a one man battalion, for sure, but America could count on other juggernauts like Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, Woodrow Wilson, FDR, Harry Truman, JFK, Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton to pass on the touch, and to keep the nation going. I guess you could say the same of Great Britain. Winston Churchill was only one among several generation of strong leaders which include Harold Wilson, James Callaghan, Margaret Thatcher and now Tony Blair to mention just a few.
  

Democracy thrives best in plurality, and not in a one man or a one party dictatorship like the Nigerian PDP has become. The Opposition should always be the Government in waiting like is done in America and Great Britain, if the Government in power fumbles. If Obasanjo is ever going to be recognized as one of the founding fathers of our nation, he should be above board like Caesar's wife, and must be seen to welcome the opposition and to create a conducive environment for the Opposition to thrive by letting the Electoral Commission and the Police and Law Enforcement do their work without fear of favor. He ought not to be seen as openly siding with or hobnobbing with political mercenaries and charlatans like Chris Uba and Alhaji Adedibu.
   

Usually second term Presidents who have no ambition to run again and who are disallowed by the Constitution so to do, ought to maintain such neutral postures that will put the nation's interest above their own personal interest, and give an ironclad guarantee that a successor would be available to carry on just like Nelson Mandela had done.
   

Obasanjo's Wars against Corruption as derelict and one-sided as it may appear to many, is definitely doing some good. Today when you see a one time Inspector General, past and present Governors and intimate buddies of Mr. President in handcuffs, to answer for their past misdeeds, it sends a powerful message to all Nigerians across the board. I cannot think of any of the 36 Governors and Deputies who have not abused their offices and stolen money from their states, one way or the other, if you look closely into their records. Corruption has been idolized in our country because nearly everybody does it, but with different levels of intensity. Taking their cues from Alimiyeseigha, the impeached Governor of Bayelsa and Governor Dariye whose legs are shaken in Plateau State, as we speak, many of them are now scared to death that nemesis may soon catch up with them.
  

The most vulnerable are those of them whose states have recently been classified as oil producing, and are now suddenly swimming in funds that run into billions of Naira from Federal Revenues. Rather than using such funds to build needed infrastructures for their states, they are pocketing the money, using fictitious contract awards that follow no rules at all, other than their own criminally improvised ones.
   

Ribadu is serving notice to such Governors it is no longer going to be business as usual, and that is good for our country. Governors, Deputies and public officials no longer indulge in taking their looted money abroad to Banks in Switzerland and other places because they no longer feel safe to do that. Through Obasanjo's fiscal policies, such looted funds are not only traced, but the owners are compelled to forfeit the money and the properties to the Federal Government, which is also good. Obasanjo is doing one hell of a job in this area, and getting very good results. The likes of IBBs must be shaking in their pants, because sooner or later, they know, it would be their turn to explain how they came about their limitless wealth. I can tell you that many Nigerians already nursing the ambition to run for President are now bidding their time before declaring their intention, because they are scared to death that might be an invitation for Ribadu to go after them.
  

Such criminals are putting a very negative spin on the observation, and blaming Obasanjo for sending Ribadu after them because he does not want to quit force in 2007. It is hard to see why Obasanjo would want to give up the only leverage he has with the international community, by voluntarily handing over power to the civilians in 1979, and the only Military dictator to do that in all Africa. He had become one of the elder statesmen around the world, and he nearly ended up becoming the UN Secretary-general for doing so. If the IBB Government had stood by him like they professed at the time, there was no way Kofi Annan could have beaten Obasanjo as a former Head of State, in the race to serve the remaining balance of Butros Butros Ghali's tenure. That much I know.
   

There is no other way to do Politics in Nigeria or elsewhere around the world, if you don't have money to spend. The only person who had successfully done that before was Obasanjo himself who was taken out of the Dungeon in 1999 and bankrolled by the likes of IBB and Theophillus Danjuma and others to run for election as President. This time around, both the candidates and the bankrollers are scared to death to come out, for fear of being targeted by Ribadu and his Commission. So for once in our history, the bribe givers and the bribe takers have found themselves in the same fox hole, thanks to Obasanjo's policies.
   

There could therefore be some method or virtue to what some critics have labeled as Obasanjo's madness or his often crude ways of doing things. If only the man can fine-tune some of his methods, I have to concede that the man's ultimate mission has been quite good for our country, all things considered. I still believe his criticism in a few areas is legit, but he is on to scoring a home run on his reform of the Economy and his stance on Corruption, and why we must not relent on it.
   

I rest my case.
Dr. Wunmi Akintide.