Echoes From The Jungle By Ugochukwu Ejinkeonye
“Ladoja is too greedy. He is collecting
N65 million as security vote every month. You know that governors don’t
account for security votes. He was to give me N15 million of that every
month. He reneged. Later, it was reduced to N10 million, yet he did not
give me.”
--- Alhaji Lamidi Adedibu on TV.
“President Olusegun Obasanjo knelt down
for me more th an six times, I swear in the name of God, begging me on
behalf of Ladoja…Mr. President gave him directive to come and ‘see’
me. Now, I ask the question: did he need to wait for me to ask before he
gave me money? I am putting this question to the whole country. Don’t I
deserve to get money from him?”
---Alhaji Lamidi Adedibu, (an interview
with Saturday SUN, January 21, 2006).
“I support the emergence of Lamidi
Adedibu. [I subscribe to his leadership] 100 per cent. Why not? He is my
leader.”
---Richard Akinjide, former
Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice (Sunday
SUN January 22, 2006)
Adedibu is a “force to reckon with in Ibadan poli tics”
---President Olusegun
Obasanjo.
Somewhere in Molete, Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, there is a man
called Alhaji Lamidi Adedibu, who lives, speaks and acts as if there are
no laws in the land, and enjoys hearing himself being referred to as
“the Strongman of Ibadan Politics.” From what is regularly reported
about this man, and the comments credited to him in the media, he should
either be in jail now or facing trial in a properly constituted court.
Indeed, such a man should have no place within the confines of civilized
ambience.
But
because this hapless nation is yet yoked with an uncivilized, lawless
and unrefined leadership, madly obsessed with cave-age political and
ethical preferences, a regime that could stoop so low to hobnob with and
lionize the likes of Adedibu, the man they call the
“Strongman of Ibadan Politics,”
is today a free and proud man in Ibadan, noisily celebrating his recent
victory over democracy and civilization.
Adedibu
may be a man of modest insight, but he was able to realize quite early
that if he could remain a real “grassroots man,” maintaining a very
loyal and fierce army of thugs, there would always be crude,
unscrupulous a nd bred-in-the-jungle politicians who would come knocking
on his door on election day. Evidently, this man does not subscribe to
any ennobling ideals. Blissfully scornful of all laws that govern
well-ordered society, a total stranger to all that constitute civilized
and decent conducts, he brazenly prosecutes his “Amala politics”--
the crude, revolting political ideology reportedly invented by him -- as
a full-time engagement. In his calculation, laws freeze and lose their
potency once they see his face.
Adedibu
speaks with t he confidence and bravado of one who has let it sink into
his head that he could wield, (and he, indeed, wields) boundless powers,
and wallow in lawlessness in a society that ought to be governed by
laws. Only last Sunday (January 29, 2006), THISDAY
quoted him as stating with chilling certainty: “Ladoja’s political
life started here and ends here…I put him there [as Governor]… But when
I started seeing the way he was behaving, I told him he would leave…
Ladoja gave our group no patronage.”
Now,
what this s tatement demonstrates clearly is that no matter the amount
of money and efforts deployed to organize elections, as long as Adedibu
reigns in Molete, both the electorate and the votes they cast are
totally useless in deciding who occupies “elective” offices in Oyo
State! Also, from what he has continued to say about several past and
present office holders in Oyo State, it is gradually being accepted that
whoever Baba Adedibu decides to “make” Governor or lawmaker in Oyo
State, that person will automatically “win” at the polls. Elections are
therefore lost and won in Adedibu’s lair in Molete. And the man has
never bothered to hide his mouth as he continues to clearly and
repeatedly make this point each time occasion presents itself.
Indeed,
Nigerians are thoroughly sickened and embarrassed that, for totally
base, self-serving considerations, the likes of Adedibu are continually
being propped up by the Presidency to make us a laughing stock before
the outside world. Only last Sunday, (January 29, 2006) former Kano
State Governor, Alhaji Abubakar Rimi, could not hide his disgust and
exasperation in an interview with the SUN.
Said Rimi:
''Adedibu,
a confessed thug, is getting the support of our president. On several
occasions, the president has come out to support the thuggery Adedibu is
doing. Everybody knows what Adedibu is doing is unconstitutional, it is
illegal. But instead of Adedibu being dealt with by the government,
Adedibu is being praised by the president. And that shows you the extent
of corruption and disregard for constitutionality on the part of the
government because nobody will support what Adedibu is doing. Just
imagine, a private person collecting security money and EFCC is not
after him? And he is saying it to the world, loud and clear and EFCC has
not asked him to come and explain how and why he collects security money
from the state government being an individual who has no official
status. What qualifies him to be getting the money from the governor of
Oyo State?''
Now,
that is not all the most inexplicable and revolting absurdities being
brazenly advertised in Obasanjo’s Nigeria in the twenty-first century!
Adedibu is not occupying any public office. He is not the
Inspector-General of the Police, yet, the officers and men of the
Nigeria Police appe ar to forget their brief once they see him in
action. When his “boys” unleashed mayhem in Ibadan recently, leaving
deaths and massive destruction in their wake, the police observed them
with supportive passivity. To Adedibu’s “boys”, no place was sacred, not
even the Governor’s office. They had descended on the office of the Oyo
State Governor (who incidentally doubles as the Chief Security Officer
of the state) and destroyed anything that caught their fancy. While the
destruction and violence lasted, the police did nothing to stop them.
Despite reports that lives were lost in the fracas, till now, no arrests
have been made.
A few
hours after the bloody destructions in Ibadan, a triumphant Adedibu,
obviously basking in the vulgar euphoria of the “successful” and bloody
operation his boys had just enacted in Ibadan, rode into a traditional
ceremony in President Olusegun Obasanjo’s homestead in Ibogun, Ogun
State, on a white horse and was not only warmly received by the
President, but was praised by him as a “force to reckon with in Ibadan
politics.” How unlucky can a country be!
Indeed,
what bother me so much these days are not just the immediate
implications of what President Olusegun Obasanjo does and represents,
but the very tantalizing and insidious precedent most of those attitudes
and preoccupations constitute to those who would take over from him,
assuming he truly goes in 2007. And it does seem, judging from the way
he carries himself, that he is totally unperturbed by it all. In fact,
daily, he leaves no one in doubt that he has no qualms embarking on even
much more damaging adventures before the speculated terminal date of his
administration. And for a nation whose political class is clearly
distinguished by its unduly large appetite for unwholesome paradigms, it
would, no doubt, require decades to totally purge future Nigerian
leaders of all the unhealthy strains of Obasanjo’s peculiar leadership
agenda and style, and gratify the deep yearning of the citizenry for a
new, refreshing era of patriotic and selfless leadership, totally healed
of all the festering sores of the disastrous Obasanjo leadership
accident, where the likes of Adedibu and Chris Ubah would not be
strategic and prominent players in our polity.
What is
becoming clear is that Obasanjo appears to have boxed himself into a
helpless situation, where he is now prepared to sacrifice anything, and
pamper the likes of Adedibu to hold on to power. Widely isolated by
decent, well-meaning and respectable Nigerians who are unreservedly
opposed to his obnoxious self-succession agenda , Obasanjo is now left
with the Hobson’s choice of clinging desperately on the Adedibus of this
world, whose strongest point remains their perpetual distaste for every
idea of political morality. That is why the President of Nigeria, the
immediate past Chair of the African Union (AU), the darling of
democracy-crazy Western world, and the Chief Promoter and Grand
Installer of democracy in Africa, would find the presence of mind to
applaud in public a man who has never ceased to announce to the world
the kind of retrogressive and destructive politics he plays in Ibadan.
But the
nation is left wondering: where is the “zealous” and “righteous” Nuhu
Ribadu and his Economic and Financial Crimes Commissions (EFCC) as
Adedibu’s astounding confessions and exploits are being rehearsed by him
in broad daylight? Is anyone trying to investigate how just one man
called Adedibu is able to stay in his house in Molete and make and
unmake Governors for the people of Oyo State? What is the secret behind
this self-debasing loyalty to Adedibu by a whole eighteen members of the
Oyo State House of Assembly? What does Adedibu possess that makes the
entire political class in Oyo State cringe before him, so much so, that
former Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice,
Richard Akinjide, could, in the face of the brazen lawlessness displayed
by Adedibu in these past few weeks, declare boldly and openly that he
supports the emergence Adedibu 100 perc ent , and that Adedibu is his
leader?
Adedibu’s politics does not edify. He has no particular attachment to
any party or regime. He appears to believe in nothing except his “Amala
politics,” and would only belong to any political party that would
not find this crude and repelling politics unacceptable. He is available
to both the military and civilians. He claims to have supported MKO
Abiola and his June 12 mandate, but he would always be rememb ered in
that era for his unedifying role as late General Sani Abacha’s
“strongman” in Ibadan. So long as jungle politics remains attractive to
our politicians, Adedibu will remain relevant, and speak and act like
some god. His likes are always available to help irresponsible
politicians to drag Nigeria away from civilization to the thick jungle.
He walks
about today in Molete a happy man. He has, perhaps, at last installed a
“Governor” in Ibadan who would ensure he got the one-third of the
security vote Ladoja had refused to give him. And in order not take any
chances, his barely literate Personal Assistant had to become his “eye’
in the Government House as the Deputy Governor. Adedibu is already
declaring that the usurper-Governor, Mr. Akala, is very “obedient”,
unlike Ladoja. And we can all guess what that means! He would be trusted
to do all that Ladoja had refused to do!
But in
all these, where is the interest of the people of Oyo State being given
even a scant consideration? Was Ladoja being brutalized with Federal
might because of what he did not do for the masses of Oyo? Daily, PDP
stalwarts were ordering Ladoja to “settle” Adedibu. In other words,
neglect the people and empty the treasury into one man’s pocket! And for
refusing to do that, he has been booted out! We can now appreciate the
kind of battle Ngige fought and won in Anambra.
Obasanjo
and the kind of politicians he is breeding must be told that it is more
in their interest (because they have accumulated so much) that anarchy
is not let loose in this country. As they continue to provoke the
grossly impoverished and long suffering masses of Nigeria by their
unhealthy conducts, they should realize that the people’s patience
cannot be infinite.
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Ugochukwu Ejinkeonye is a Columnist and Member, Editorial Board,
Independent Newspapers (www.independentng.com),
Lagos. Email:scruples2006@yahoo.com
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