Nigeria, “A Paradise In Hell”

By

Chidi P Eze

pceze@academicplanet.com

 

 

“Give me liberty or give me death”…, “People have right                           to elect a government to serve it’s needs according to the rule of law and if that government does not meet the people’s expectation, the people have right to remove that government and elect a new government that will meet its expectation”…Henry Lock.

 

May I also add  the  popular saying that those who make a peaceful                revolution impossible make a violent revolution inevitable.

 

By so saying, I ask, how did Nigeria degenerate and sink to the level she is now? How did the country get to this state of monumental ineptitude? How did Nigeria allow an untamed, un-rehabilitated ex-convict and a tribal zealot to acquire such an absolute and unprecedented power to oversee the nation’s affairs, it’s abundant human and material resources? How did people in a country that can conveniently pride itself to have the most educated people of every profession of human endeavors on African soil, keep mute while the nation is sinking? Why did the national weather service men and women fail to warn Nigerians of the impending hurricane? Who provided Olusegun Obasanjo with ‘MAD’ (Mutual Assured Destruction) weapon he has been  un leashing on Nigeria and Nigerians? Who invented for him the political acid he has been pouring on the nation’s political waters? Who made him the judge, the prosecutor, the complainant and the jury? Who made him, the president, the nation’s financial controller and dispenser, the legislature, the chief justice, the police commander, the military commander, the security chief, the destroyer-in-chief, the killer-in-chief as well as the investigator-in-chief? Why and how did Nigerians allow an emperor and a despot in the nation’s political soil as against a democratic leader and still refer to what she has now as a democracy? Who brought the idea of making him the president?  The simple answer,….. the northern military and it’s arm of political vampires Why? To keep igbos out of Nigeria’s political and leadership parameters.(Revisit the political fraud and tribal exhibition  during the PDP convention in Jos in 1998 between Dr. Alex Ekwueme and Olusegun Obasanjo).

 

Obasanjo’s presidency is the product of the then Hausa dominated military and it’s civilian paymasters, the Yoruba and the southern Nigeria’s minorities’ complicities in their conspiracy to perpetuate marginalization, dominate, demoralize and debase Ndigbo and keep them out of Nigeria’s political equation and  economic main stream. By so doing, they had bargained more than they could chew. There has been talks about the agreement Obasanjo had with the north before he was made president of Nigeria in 1999. Agreement for what? What were in those agreement? Were the Yoruba leaders in the picture or in the know of the agreement? If the north according to it, conceded  the presidency to the southwest to placate the Yoruba for the nullification of the late chief MKO Abiola’s presidential victory of 1993, why did the Yoruba community reject him? And why did it not pick someone acceptable by his people? Charity they say begins at home. And why were igbos not placated for the murder of General Aguiyi-Ironsi who was murdered by the rampaging northern military in July 29, 1996, even though Ironsi’s military and political actions were more pro-north than south? Even at that, why Obasanjo, who still had a hangover of treason, felony, anger and resentment? Why not Olu Falae or any other Yoruba man? Why, why, and why?   Because Obasanjo is a member of the inner group and a signatory to the conspiracy against Ndigbo. Pure and simple. Pundits will mention the presence of Ebitu Ukiwe in the deputy’s office during the administration of IBB and the zoning of the senate president to the southeast. That is political hogwash and fraudulently pedantic. These were nothing more than political camouflage.

 

Dr. Alex Ekwueme was Shagari’s vice president in the 2nd republic. The palace coup of December 31, 1983 was a face saving for the north and it’s political establishment, because it would have been difficult for the northern political establishment to explain to their people why they should support an igboman for president in 1987 (according to the NPN zoning formula) against the article of the conspiracy. The north was aware of Ekwueme’s loyalty to the north and alhaji Shehu Shagari, but why did Shagari and the major northern political establishment not impress it upon their military wing in 1998 to support him for the president despite the fact that he was founder of PDP when Obj was in jail? It is no secret that the leadership of Nigeria is the prerogative of the north, so it thought, the Yoruba as the junior partner, with  the southern minorities…( the bearer of some crumbs of the national pie and some political appointments), as long as they support and help to keep the igbos away from the national political scene. Another angle to the Obasanjo presidency was made possible because Yar’dua was dead. Were he alive, the presidency would not have come to the south. Never mind he was Obj’s partner-in-fraud and corruption, 1976-1979. There was a story from a well placed source that some time during the alhaji Shehu Shagari’s presidency, while on tour to India, inside his plane, he beckoned one of his aids to come to see him at the presidential cabin. When his aid came, he pulsated, before telling the aid his encounter with Brigadier Shehu Musa Yar’dua in his office. He told his aid that Yar’dua came to his office and was furious about the NPN zoning the presidency to the south. He (Yar’dua) told him the presidency would only go to the south over his dead body, that they spilled their blood to preserve the presidency for the north, so if he Alhaji Shagari was tired, he should relinquish the presidency to another northerner.  Apparently, he did not feel comfortable with the president’s demeanor, so he perhaps alerted the northern military establishment. Hence the palace coup of December 31, 1983. The southern presidency was of-course made possible over his dead body. He was dead right. So in 1998, the north and it’s power structure… the military, seeing the United States and other western angst on the pariah nature of Nigeria with her abundant oil reserve, ordered for a political package, but when they opened it in 1999 on it’s delivery, it found that it was not what it ordered and that Babangida and it’s military hierarchy had 419ed it. Hence it’s call for the gentleman’s agreement.

 

The diluted version of what is now known to be Nigeria’s constitution by General Abdul Salami Abubakar was made with the certainty that Obasanjo was either not going to serve out the constitutional four years or at best he would only be there for 4 years and then handover to a northerner who would continue to implement the constitution as was diluted. You will recall that Abdul Salami Abubakar refused to release the constitution until after Obj was sworn in. Now the angry Obj capitalized on the northern grand design and political miscalculation to amass an unprecedented and monumental power. He has gone into the presidency with vengeance. With the help of the United States and Britain, he fired the first thunder on assuming office in 1999. After the rain, the cannibals, the pot bellies and professional coup mongers in the military uniforms saw them selves packing  home to enjoy their loots. With the exit of the cannibals - the military, otherwise the main northern political power structure for leadership domination, the north capitulated. The northern strength and power caved in and collapsed. The so-called northern unity or what they would like us to hear and believe,(The Ahamdu Bello phenomenon) became a myth. The army, trimmed off excesses fat is now  under Obj pocket, he  moved and got the police under a Yoruba command.(see Alhaji Muslin K. Smith, later, Alhaji Mustafa Balogun and now Sunday Ehindero). With the army under the American and British telescope and the police well under the control of Obj, he broke into the nation’s treasury, off loaded whatever naira found there into GMG (Ghana Must Go Bag) took them to the national assembly. The official ‘Nigerian language’ (Corruption) was spoken on the floor of the NASS and bam! chief  Evan Ewerem was appointed senate president and Salihu Buhari  the speaker of the House. When the senators exhausted all they got from Obj to corruptly appoint chief Ewerem as the senate president and with the certificate scandal that took Buhari out of the House of representative speaker’s chair , some decent and few honest ones among them impressed it upon the NASS on the need for the legislatures to see it  as the symbol of democracy, hence the dumping of Ewerem and the election of the late Dr. Chuba Okadigbo as the senate president and Gali Umar NA’aba as the House speaker.

 

 With Okadigbo as the senate president, and Na’aba as the House speaker,   the nation began to see some flashes of legislative independent. To the chagrin of Obasanjo, naira again was deployed, the tribal irredentists and igbo hate mongers, led by Idris Kuta and Jonathan Zwigina went to work. Within few days, Okadigbo was removed and an ‘ex-bomboy’ was appointed in his place by Obasanjo to camouflage the treatment Ndigbo is getting from  Obj. From thence the senate  surrendered it’s independent and it’s constitutional power on the alter of corruption and become the appendage of the executive. Why was it so easy to remove Okadigbo as the senate president, but somewhat hard rock to knock out Na’aba? This was because igbo man lacks political backing and is dispensable in Nigerian political environment due to irredentism and hatred igbos are subjected to in Nigeria.  With the army, the police and the NASS under his control, the shuffle and maneuver saw the head of SSS, an igboman out and Kayode Are a Yoruba man in. The military intelligence a Yoruba, the commandant, Jaji, a Yoruba, the central bank governor a Yoruba, de-facto minister of finance, a Yoruba, PPRA chairman (Petroleum Pricing Regulation Agency) a Yoruba, DPR, director (Department of Petroleum Resources) Yoruba. Minister of petroleum,  Yoruba, specifically Obasanjo. Minister of justice a Yoruba. Minister of education a Yoruba. NUC (National University Commission) chairman, a Yoruba. Accountant-General, Yoruba. Auditor-General, a Yoruba. The ‘amalanization’ and ‘owambenization’ of his administration is complete. Even at that, Obasanjo became one man cabinet, minister, foreign and domestic, the chief justice, the financial controller-general, legislature, the traditional king maker and the chief political and economic adviser to his own government.

 

The intimidation of Nigerians became obvious. First, the police would go to the senate president at 3.00 a.m. and intimidated him. Next, the military  visited Odi and demolished the town and it’s people, with thousands dead. Next military stop would be Zaki-Biam. The command was “demolish any moving and non-moving objects”. For the first 4 years 1999-2003, Obasanjo vented his anger and rage on Nigerians, even at the situation where Nigerians were in the shallow of death, like the Lagos bomb explosion, he would not give a damn about the lives of Nigerians and their feelings in the midst of death, hence his outburst at the dying residents being bathed with bombs.

His ministerial appointments and board chairmanships then, showed that sensitive and lucrative positions were given to his sycophants, boot lickers, concubines or I may say, agents of his concubines or his match makers. The post of minister of works was assigned to a dismissed corrupt  police officer who can not differentiate between asphalt tarring and coal tarring and yet 300 billion naira was made available to him which he shared between himself, Obj, his other political vampires and their contractors. With the legislature annexed as extension of the executive, the military and police under his pocket, the security, legal, academic and resource control, completed,  political control was to be embarked upon.

The PDP must be ‘Aremunized’, therefore all the foundation members must be fired. On their exit, PDP has become personal industry for corruption and terrorism. He employed and empowered some disoriented and fraudulent members of the society into the new party as chairmen of the party and BOT, and renamed it PDP--- Peoples Dysfunctional Party.

 

Mission accomplished. He now attained the position of emperor and heartless dictator. He requested and was granted by the senate, EFCC, known  as the police arm of PDP government to be used to whip up political enemies real and imaginary, into submission or outright removal from office. The emergency of EFCC has robbed the regular police a major economic bonanza and financial exhortation of lump sums hence the police regimentation of 20 naira from the motorists and periodic threat of strike. In his new PDP, a killer squad was established for political assassinations. There is also trained and well financed mules, young and old of every class in PDP for infiltration and destabilization of any unsanctioned organization whether cultural, social and or political. All the organized and non organized bodies in the country have been infiltrated , be it NANS, legal profession, even the trade union and political parties. Common civil demonstration to express constitutional rights of free assemble as enshrined in the constitution is completely banned by the dictator-in-chief. All symbol and ingredients of democracy have been disbanded by the political czar. The nation’s constitution is irrelevant to him.

 

In the United States there is CIA whose primary role is the external intelligent security net work for security, military, political and economic efficiency of the country. There is FBI for national investigation and dictation of crimes such as murder, fraud and corruption. There are federal, state and local government police with lines drawn on sand for their operational parameters, whose primary focus are the protection of citizens of the United States wherever they may be. There is legislature that makes laws for the good of the people of United States. There is a court of law which is the last hope of the common man.  What do you have in Nigeria? SSS for  intimidation, abuse and violation of human rights. EFCC,  PDP police arm for emasculation, humiliation, intimidation and suppression of vocal political critics of his fraudulent political gamble and his life presidency. There is another police  that go with the acronym NPF, whose primary assignment is for political terrorisms against Nigerian citizens, agents for crooks, political and economic vampires. There is INEC whose purpose is to select people in various political positions against the constitutional provision of democratically elected officials. Ever since Prof. Humphrey Nwosu, the country ceases to have a genuine INEC chairman. One wonders how Obasanjo’s Nigeria would have been without people like Odumegwu Ojukwu, Gani Faheimni, Wole Shoeinka, Falana and great many Nigerians I would no be able to name here due to space constrain.

 

It is not a happy sign for a country to be in economic quagmire, it is more dangerous for the same country to be in both economic predicament and political uncertainty. If one speaks his/her mind, more so on the nation’s political, social and economic whores, he/she is sure to be visited by the SSS, EFCC and the police. Where the intimidation, humiliation and harassment fail, assassination squad takes over. No group of any kind can now assemble for ordinary social or political gathering. Even family reunion is monitored and infiltrated. All the political parties including his PDP have destroyed or destabilized for fear of opposition. The vampires have now introduced political weddings, where all the execu-thieves and murderers assemble to exhibit their fraudulent and sprawling political life styles in the face of grueling poverty, hunger and starvations.  Simple political criticism elicit police and security terrorism. The nation is scared. Scared to the point where political campaign is now extinct in Nigeria. Only one Nigeria is bold enough so far to tell the nation that he is running for the president of Nigeria come 2007. His name is Orji Kalu, Abia State governor. Corruption and fraud are more daring in Nigeria now than ever. Armed robbers now operate with complete impunity. The country has never been that bad and dangerous. Obj has trained and maintain infiltrators of the nation’s honest groups and society, but could not train infiltrators to criminals, armed robbers, corruption monsters and cultists. He has scared day light out of the governors that they  are now willing to subvert the constitution to avoid EFCC expose. In Nigeria only the economic fraudsters are the ones bold enough to vie for political offices. EFCC has assumed the job of both investigation, jury, judge and prosecution. The presidency stinks. There is no difference between Obj and Atiku as far as corruption is concerned, except that Atiku steals with his name, Obj steals through fronts. If his anti-corruption war is real let him tell Nigerian who owns Gwarimpa housing estate. Fellow, Nigerians, wake up and retake your God given country before the darkness replaces day light.

 

Chidi P Eze, pceze@academicplanet.com