Obasanjo’s Manifest DestinyBy Anie Udoh
"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” ...George Santayana in his Life of Reason
President Olusegun Obasanjo with 40years of service to his fatherland has earned a place in the front page of Nigerian history. To succumb, in the twilight of his life, to the lure of a satanic extension of stay in office beyond the mandated May 29, 2007 will surely scuttle him to an ignominious end.
The effusive debate being generated by the 3rd Term bogey is a joke going too far. It draws parallel, in a way, with the account in a little book, Manifest Destiny and Mission in American History by Frederick Merk, Professor Emeritus of American History, Harvard University. The book makes interesting reading, revealing useful lessons in the intrigues of governa nce especially in a ‘garrison democracy.’ The author masterfully presents an intriguing catalogue of factious presidential ambitions, often acquiesced to by a lethargic legislature. The campaign was enthused, amplified and laundered by the agencies of mass propaganda especially the press, in a manner that confused a bewildered American public in the 1840’s.
About 150years after, the impish Yankee movie is now showing in Nigeria directed by some impervious characters with majestic support. The 3rd term bogey if not checked has the potential to disorientate the Nigerian public, jettison reason, inflate emotions and allow deranged extremists to hold sway in an already traumatized nation.
Vice President Atiku Abubakar, the serving deputy of Obasanjo had inadvertently promoted the 3rd Term Agenda from the recess of the classified to the front-page of national discourse in a plaint press interview. He averred among other things that his boss swore to him (Atiku) to uphold the tenets of the constitution as it relates to his tenure as president. This drew the anger of the president who in a rather unpresidential manner disparaged his deputy in a prime-time national television talk show. The presidential vituperation against Atiku has continued in various ways thereafter.
Gbenga Obasanjo, the eldest son of the president was to up the ante in a rather imprudent yet vintage press interview alleging and revealing much. More importantly he harped on the illogicality of his father continuing in office beyond his May 2007 mandate. He reasoned intelligently, that his father could possibly not contemplate such absurdity at his advancing age having voluntarily relinquished power 26years ago in 1979 as a military Head of State to a civilian president, at a time so many factors would have encouraged a prolong stay. Such factors include the undying sympathy for the assassinated General Murtala Mohammed, Obasanjo’s youthful age, the military might and their avaricious appetite then for political power. Of course, presidential aides promptly disassociated the presidency (not the president) from Gbenga’s verbal irritants. This was followed by some amusing legal threats from another quarter to the publisher of the vexed interview in a rather feeble semantic gymnastic.
Between the Atiku and Gbenga polemics, is a wide field of active believers and docile observers of the3rd Term project. They are all engaged in a fussy national pastime that is heating up the polity in ways that could strain the shaky cord of national unity beyond breaking point. How did we come to this national frenzy? Inspite of our grim political history replete with similar misguided and failed experiments, how could anyone tread this path again? How is it that the pro-3rd Term characters are unable to learn some lessons from the misfortunes of the past? Our nations history posits Generals Yakubu Gowon, Ibrahim Babaginda and Sani Abacha as leaders who attempted to stretch their lust for power. They all insisted on overstaying their welcome. Even as military Heads of State, they failed with ignominy. It’s only a pervert politician and self-seeking advisers that will ignore such claring lessons of recent history to embark yet again on the road to infamy with the 3rd Term project. Indeed politicians of the ruling party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), are a rare breed of the lunatic fringe. The party harbours a surfeit of merchants of evil and revealers of doom. With such political hawks hovering around the corridor of power, little wonder that the idea of a 3rd Term for Obasanjo is promoted with so much gusto just for its sheer fancy with hope for selfish gains.
Test balloons are being floated in the form of government-sponsored seminars, rallies, conferences, talk shows, solidarity visits and dubious award ceremonies for serving public office holders and friends of Mr. President. Speeches emanating from the presidency drips with the ‘unprecedented benefits’ of government reform programmes and the need to continue with them. If you listen to the president lately when promoting his Reform Continuity Theory, you can read from his lips the “we” pronoun but his body language amplifies the “I”. It makes you wonder if the miracle formula for the needed reform of our nation is irretrievably lodged in the president’s brain only to be dispensed in a voodoo fashion solely by him to be effective. Agreed Providence has allowed him to play prominent roles in the chequered history of our nation. It is not Obasanjo’s Manifest Destiny to reform and redeem Nigeria in perpetuity.
In all of these some presidential foot soldiers and bogeymen launch propaganda tirades to distract and deceive the public to the effect that no concrete evidence exist to prove the reality of the 3rd Term project. They harp on the fact that the president has not publicly declared in words his interest to extend his stay in office. What concrete evidence can anybody provide to prove the aspiration of some other person, moreso a serving president of Nigeria? Pray that such advisers do not propose a special Tribunal in the league of a Patrick Aziza’s to horde people who cannot prove in concrete terms the presidential aspiration of a serving president for a 3rd Term tenure. These presidential aides and mouthpieces choose to be blind to the president’s body language and subterranean encouragements. They play deaf to the cacophony of a pressured polity pandering to the drumbeat of an odious 3rd Term campaign.
They may not have to wait long for their concrete evidence because a select group of Executive cum legislators is about town to collate for public view doctored views of a Mantu Constitution which draft may very well have been written before their hushed zonal tours to forge a new constitution.
All of these portend bad omen for our country. We may yet find solace in the expressed sentiments of Gbenga Obasanjo that his elderly father will not fall for the trap of the 3rd Term bogey. If M.K.O. Abiola, Obasanjo’s kinsman, had listened to his son Kola and followed any of his many discredited options in tr ying to secure the release of his father from Abacha’s gulag, the ebullient chief will most probably be alive today with his beautiful wife Kudirat (not Gbenga’s mother). The so-called human right and democracy defenders, many from the comfort of Europe and America, prodded the chief to wrest ‘his mandate’ from Abacha using methods peculiar to a more civilized clime. Their fake, incompatible and inappropriate prescriptions for the realization of the June 12 mandate facilitated Abiola’s death.
Tunji Braithwait stayed alive because he saw the wisdom in abandoning an imposed hunger strike (at least at night) while in Abacha’s dungeon. A Nelson Mandela could never have emerged in Nigeria because the power-that- be would not tolerate having such a high profile political detainee spend 27 years in detention. Those who ignored such realities are not around to consummate their heroics.
Our nation’s history attest to the fact that undistorted public opinion does not support an extended stay for public office holders beyond their stipulated tenure. It is wise to respect the popular view as succinctly admonished by Jefferson in 1801 that, “it is rare that the public sentiment decides immorally or unwisely and the individual who differs from it ought to distrust and examine his own opinion.”
Obasanjo has done much for Nigeria by giving 40years of meritorious service. His long years of national service have certainly taken a toll on him and his family. Just recently he lost his beautiful wife Stella ( not Gbenga’s mother) who strived in an ill-advised pursuit to satisfy the insatiable cosmetic appetite of her glamorous admirers.
I will humbly suggest that the president does two things. First, he should go on a weekend retreat to Obudu Cattle Ranch without his usual retinue of presidential aides to spend quality time with Olusegun Adeniyi for a one-on-one tutorial on The Last 100days of Abacha. Secondly, he should accede to the clarion call of his son Gbenga and honourably retire from public office come May 29,2007 even if as a mark of ‘personal sacrifice’. He should enjoy a well deserved life of a statesman who sees beyond the next election and lust for power, to care more for the preservation and well-being of the next generation of Nigerians in a united Nigeria.
Anie Udoh
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