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Obasanjo’s Pre-Farewell Address To The Nation By Ibiba Peterside
There is no doubt that General Olusegun Obasanjo has boxed himself into a tight corner. His desire to perpetuate himself in power, which has acquired a life of its own, spurned an industry and created a huge gravy train, has made it nearly impossible now for him to leave office with dignity. Many of those opposed to his plan to become a life president through the 3rd term schemes have been motivated by their love for him. They feel that the man has been a great leader through luck, sheer doggedness, uncommon courage and force of personality. They have been impressed by the giant strides of the Government under his leadership to lay the foundation for a strong virile Nigerian economy and to give Nigeria respectability in the comity of nations.
But Obasanjo has been blinded and deafened by ambition, greed, messianic delusions and egotistic arrogance. Consequently he has continued to bulldoze his way through a series of 3rd term strategies which, so far, have failed to gain traction. Having boxed himself into this tight corner Obasanjo is more likely to continue to try to win rather than throw in the towel. He does not want the humiliation of losing, yet he is likely headed for certain humiliation even if he wins. Although Nigerians have come to have little faith in the National Assembly and the Houses of Assembly in the States I predict that the final defeat of the Third Term army will take place on the floors of those legislatures. It will happen when those houses begin clause by clause consideration of those proposals for constitutional amendment. The South South will not get more resource control unless it agrees to power shift to the North; the south East will not get its additional State unless it agrees to power shift to the North and the South West will not achieve its desire for greater autonomy for the federating states unless it abandons its desire to tie its faith with Obasanjo’s. It is as simple as that. Of course Obasanjo may ignore all that but that will also mean that all bets are off. I won’t say more on that for now. Let me stress, for the avoidance of any doubt, that these are all critical and important demands that should be granted for lasting peace and stability in the land but they are likely to fail unless Obasanjo immediately abandons his inordinate pursuit of life presidency and publicly dismantles all the structures and groups canvassing for it. But then he has put himself into a serious fix.
So is this a hopeless situation? I don’t think so. For one thing Obasanjo can declare victory over his increasing army of opponents (virtually all Nigerians) and announce that he would leave Aso Rock on May 29, 2007, God willing. I have, therefore, decided to do him this unsolicited favour. I hereby present Obasanjo with a draft of his pre-farewell address to Nigerians. This is only a general outline so he and his speech writers can modify or reshape it to make it as presidential as possible or to massage his ego as much as possible. Be that as it may, it is not my intention to heap blames on Obasanjo for bringing all of this unto himself. My objective here is to make his exit as painless as possible, that is to make it as dignifying as possible under the current self-inflicted terrible circumstances. As this is only a pre-farewell address it does not contain details of the government’s achievements and challenges these past seven years. Those should come in his farewell address in 2007. Here it is:
“Fellow Nigerians, It is now almost seven years since you gave me and my government the mandate to run the affairs of this country and improve the lives of our people. We have made major strides despite the horrors we inherited from the military. It has not been easy mainly because we did not have experience in resuscitating a nearly dead economy and broken society, and because of the enormous pain that our reforms inevitably brought on most of you. But you have been patient with us and for that I thank you.
I am sure that most of you have heard the carefully orchestrated rumour that I want to perpetuate myself in power despite the provisions of the 1999 Constitution that I swore to uphold. Nothing can be further from the truth. It is gratifying that most of you have refused to believe those rumours, which are being peddled by my detractors and their friends in the mass media. You know very well that all that I care about is the well-being of this country and its people. As you know I have offered to die for this country if that is what it takes to put the country right. What I have not really given a thought to is what happens to the country should I die trying to put it right. I am not going to try to confuse you with that kind of hypothetical discussion. In any case I know that I am not going to die. I dey kampe
Some of these rumour mongers say that I seized control of the PDP in order to achieve the 3rd term project. Again this is a wicked and false allegation. All I did was assert my much-deserved leadership in the PDP. How can I be leading this country but not the party that brought me to power. In any case my modest control of the PDP is not for my interest but for the promotion of democracy in the country and in the party. State governors had hitherto been in control of the party so I had to wrest it from those corrupt governors. Nothing can be as injurious to democracy as to leave democratic institutions in the hands of corrupt people whether or not they were elected.
Our great party, the PDP, is there now for any member who wants to run for any office, including that of the President. Even those who say that they were deregistered during the recent revalidation and registration exercise are being economical with the truth. There is a difference between denying and delaying registration. We only delayed their registration, which we are now rectifying. These things happen in any democracy and ours cannot be different.
Having dispelled this 3rd term bogey I want to tell you to trust me. Until now I refused to douse the 3rd term speculation for the interest of the country. You see, as my detractors were busy selling the bogey, I was busy governing the country, securing us debt relief, improving power generation, and other infrastructure. I was also negotiating with the Niger Delta militants who have taken to kidnappings and disruptions of oil prospecting since we stopped them from illegally bunkering oil. And of course I was travelling all over the world attracting foreign investment with immense success.
It was not my intention to make this address at this time since this Government still has more than a year in its mandate. But I have chosen to do it now because I am a listening leader. And to further douse the tensions in the land as many Nigerians have requested of me I hereby state again in clear terms that I will leave office at the end of my tenure on July 29, 2007 even if the 1999 Constitution is amended to allow for a 3rd term for the President and State Governors. I know that I have the right to contest again if a new Constitution allows it but I am more interested in growing our democracy than staying in power. Besides the thought of working with these thieving governors makes me want to vomit. Again I would rather die than work with them again. As the best leader that this country has ever produced and the one that served the longest, I have no doubt that whoever succeeds me will be requiring my advice and assistance and I will always be available to assist as behoves of an elder statesman.
This is a painful sacrifice that I am making for our democracy, for peace and stability and for the welfare of our people. As you know there is little that I have wanted that I have not been able to get. I do not want a 3rd term and therefore I will not work to get it.
To further demonstrate my seriousness, in case any person or group of persons still do not understand me, I hereby direct all individuals and groups that have been canvassing for a 3rd term in office for me to disband and discontinue such activities and campaigns. I shall consider a continuation of such activities in my name by any group or individuals as an attempt to embarrass and humiliate me and tarnish the image of the Presidency of this country. I hereby direct the security agencies to deal decisively with any violators of this directive. Nobody is bigger than this country.
Although I have personal preferences in terms of who I would like to succeed me I am committed to our democratic system and, therefore, will not impose any candidate on the country. Nigerians should choose the person that they want to rule them in 2007 and beyond. So let a thousand flowers bloom.
Once more I thank you from the bottom of my heart for the mandate that you gave me and my Government to serve you. We have tried our best, and although we have not had enough time to do all that we wanted to do I have no doubt that the direction that we have established and the institutions that we have put in place will ensure that our great country continues to move in the direction of sustainable development and significant improvements in the welfare of our people. Thank you, and may God continue to bless this great country of ours.
Long live the Federal Republic of Nigeria; Long live Nigerian democracy; Long live the good people of Nigeria.”
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