Anything short of the respect of the rule of law, useful interconnectedness between individuals and groups, non-infringement of people’s rights, right to live, express an opinion and association, is not democracy.  The absence of the above mentioned principles is a negation of democracy.  Good governance can only be possible if the pillars or principles of democracy are duly observed and respected.  We should understand it in vivid terms that a flagrant disregard of a constitution is one of the things democracy hates most.  In any presumed democratic setting therefore, if the leaders are disregarding the law of the land, the best and suitable way to describe them is they are the most disturbing and destroying enemies of democracy.

Not minding the lip service they are deeply engaged in.

To me personally, it is sinful politically, any pretence and deceitful arrangement of political processes in a given society.  As a matter of fact therefore, whenever somebody employs immorality into politics, either knowingly or unknowingly, such a person is inviting instability into the polity.  As long as politicians are mentally enslaved, socially confused and politically poisoined, they will never be able to intellectually reflect over their socio-political and economic predicaments.  With the view to salvaging the nation from all that existing catastrophe.

To cut the long story short, when General Olusegun Obasanjo was contesting for the number one seat ( presidency ) many people, including my humble self, were rejoicing that an elder statesman had come to rescue us from the protracted military rule and intervention.  When he came, contested and won, we thought that the era of demilitarization of politics had finally come.  But to our dismay we came to realize immediately that Obasanjo is more undemocratic than the other system of rule.  He had an opportunity of moving, on a large scale, from grass to grace.

Before the middle of his first tenure, the old farmer from Otta Farm started disregarding, flagrantly, the constitutional provisions of our great motherland, Nigeria.  To him, it is only a lazy person that can respect the rule of law.  He sees nothing good in all the tenets of democracy.  That is why he is always ready to muzzle, in whatever direction he deems fit, the National Assembly.  The strong and a fundamental pillar of democracy, that is the legislature, is always seen as a mere talking shop, by Obasanjo That is why he looks at them with disdain. Thank to the time of the late Dr Chuba Okadigbo’s Senate leadership.  And Honourable Ghali Umar Na-Abba’s era of Speakership at the federal House of Representatives.  They were able to tell Obasanjo to his face that, “ Look Mr President we are an independent and fundamental pillar of democracy. ” And fortunately they were able to iron and fought it out with him.

In my view, what gives Obasanjo more courage to follow the footsteps of Kamuzu Bandas, Samuel Does, Idi Amins, King Bokassas, name them, is nothing more than the loosed National Assembly we are having.  The leadership of both the Houses is nothing more than a rubbishly shaped arrangement, total and absolute disgrace to democracy, talkless of its survival.  You have very few individuals in the National Assembly that you can count on your finger tips, that are true democrats, responsible and very much sensitive to the yearnings and aspirations of the electorates.  Such few people are always ready to fight Obasanjo on anything that borders on the defence of democracy.  Even before the coming of the wasteful and devilishly orchestrated third term agenda.  I salute and dove my cap to them.  They are unshakeable, uncompromising and always resisting.  Please keep it up.  And democracy likes people with courage, dedication, honesty and steadfastness for its survival.

But the general leadership behaviour of the National Assembly, is but a disgrace and disrespect to the humanity in general, not only to democracy.  Some might not accept my argument in the affirmative when I say that a great number of our legislators, both at the state and the national levels, are interested and always ready to give Obasanjo a life presidency.

We have in the leadership cadre of the National Assembly, people that were not elected, in fact some did not even contest, but are now holding leadership responsibilities at the legislative Houses.  Some reached the zenith of their career as academics.  I had respect for them in the past.  But now I see them as mere political choppers-and-go, cowards and people who have immorality inbuiltly positioned into their flesh and blood.  With such people at the helm of our affairs, Nigeria cannot move an inch forward in the next 100 years to come.  In fact even if angels will come down and enter into the shoes of these people and then be placed into the position of leadership, Nigeria will definitely remain a dust bin of underdevelopment.  There is no two way about this.

There are hundred miles difference between acquiring all kinds of certificates and morality, honesty, transparency, name them.  Majority of these people are in the Senate.  They look old, responsible and serious.

But most unfortunately these are people without direction, regard for humanity, sense of belonging and are political waste and liabilities.  I do not respect them at all.  They are shamelessly confusing ( or are they contributing ? ) on the floor of the Chambers.

I am not digressing or loosing focus from the title of this piece.  I see Obasanjo and the National Assembly as one indivisible entity.

For an easy comprehension of knowing who among the opponents of Obasanjo’s Third Term Agenda are serious, up to the task, responsive and dogged, the employment of studying the role played by them all in the Obasanjo’s second term coming is a barometer for measuring who among them is honest and who is a deceit.  Honesty in the exercise means is the person fighting against the third term doing that for bettering the life of Nigerians, or for his/her self-centred and highly cliquish interest ? So if supporting Obasanjo’s second coming is the yardstick, I can therefore conveniently assert that people like the Vice-President Atiku Abubakar, Chief Audu Ogbeh, Dr Iyorchia Ayu, Chief Solomon Lar and the like mind political juggernuts, who are in this bandwagon have failed woefully.  I do not regard the former Head of State, General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida, as a courageous man.  He has never been identified with a clearly stated and well defined cause or rather direction, to be more appropriate.  So that makes him to be a political coward.  Not a staregist as some people believe him to be.  Neither a tactiful politician.  He is of course not in my shopping list.  People should not mind Babangida’s recent, but unholy “alliance” between him and the All Nigeria Peoples Party’s ( ANPP ) presidential candidate, General Muhammadu Buhari.  I suspect that Babangida is under all periscopic surveillances.  And he too is a deceit.  He might be on frequent basis feeding Aso Rock with the information about any step he makes towards the direction of General Buhari.  Our beloved Buhari knows this more than any other person.

That is why it is always good to have a clean past.

Reverand Father Mathew Hassan Kukah has suddenly falled victim under this category.

Kukah’s case is peculiar.  He had been a social critic and a crusader.  I saw him as a person who was fighting for the souls of the downtrodden ones, irrespective of their religious, political or ethnic affiliations.  But of recent because of the patronage he is enjoying from the Aso Rock, he turns a different person.  An Obasanjo apologist and a third term preacher.  You are just right to describe Kukah as a military apologist ( not military in agbada only ), but his, is in cleverly fashioned, indirectly positioned and coherently misplaced approach.

Upon all the people that are doggedly fighting against Obasanjo’s poor record on the protection of human rights, his flagrant disregard of the constitutional provisions, mismanagement of the nation’s economy, bad governance and the highly entrenched corrupt practices, that characterize this administration, only very few of them, among the circle of our elites, can stand above sea level.

That is only few of them are doing the fight with all sincerety of purpose.  Among them are the ANPP presidential aspirant, General Muhammadu Buhari, the former governors of old kano and kaduna states, Alhaji Muhammadu Abubakar Rimi and Alhaji Abdulkadir Balarabe Musa respectively.  Others in this category are the famous human rights activist, Chief gain Fawehinmi, General Ishola Williams (rtd), courageous and a kano born radical politician, Hajiya Naja’atu Muhammad, the former Senate President, late Dr Chuba Okadigbo, late Beko Ransome Kuti, and a handful few.

I am not restricting myself on the recently created third term agenda.  These people have been fighting all the intended wrong doings of Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, as a President, right from the first tenure of his incapable and inept rule.  What we have on the ground now is the genuine and directioned activists with a cause on one hand, and shouters against the third term agenda, on the other hand.  What will people like Atiku Abubakar, Chief Sunday Awoniyi, Chief Audu Ogbeh and the like minds tell us about Obasanjo? I mean for God sake do they even have a moral courage to tell us something bad about this man? I do anticipate that the National chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party ( PDP ), Dr Amadu Ali will sooner or later join this category.  It is only time that can tell.

This piece is looking at the problem of Nigeria beyond the well articulated, but not over-publicized third term palaver.  Political instability and religious intolerance have for long been the order of the day in Obasanjo’s long planned misrule.  Unemployment, crime and a loosed, fading and ineffective security system are always in the increase.  It is the government that takes, as its cardinal principle or article of faith, entrenchment of hatred among the ethnic groups in the country.  It also believes in , either as a short or long term strategy, the uprootment of all the tenets of democracy, at the expense of the nation’s international relation.

With the entrance of Buhari into the mainstream, partisan and active politics, the bogey structures, ill-intentioned political arrangements and the ill-will execution of the unGodly given ideas of Obasanjo and his cohorts, started shaking from their roots.  On this very particular aspect, one may not be a sinner politically, if he describes Buhari as a symbol of democracy.  Mine is not to look at Buhari as a person.  No! It should go beyond that.  But what does this man stand for? What is his ideological focus, when it comes to delivery as a leader? What are his programmes? What is his world view? What kind of critical and aptly designed ideas he has in the pipeline that can move this nation to progress and development? To the extent that Nigeria can be relevant and useful among the commity of nations.  It is only through a critical analysis of the above questions and the likes that one can fully understand who this man, called Buhari is.  What are his potentialities and all that.

I want my readers to please comprehend my stand coherently, that I do not hate Obasanjo just for the sake of hating him.  Neither do I love Buhari simply because he is Buhari.  The diametrically opposed causes they stand and fight for are my only concern.  And these are the things that inform and influence my view about them.  The very first time Buhari derails, GOD FORBID, I will be in the forefront, and undoubtedly among the frontliners that will wash him down.  The same thing with Obasanjo.  If Chief Obasanjo genuinely and honestly repents, WE WISH THAT, I will appreciate and acknowledge his laudable programmes, policies and projects, if they are correctly positioned.  I am not trained to hate or love blindly.  Hate and love are supposed to always come through a clearly defined and genuine framework.  And it is the sincerety of purpose that makes one to look at issues from a well intended and particular point of view.

It is of course the aftermath of the verdict passed by the Supreme Court of the Federation that turns the nation’s political landscape.  With all the alledged malpractices that visited the said election, the way the entire election processes and the conduct were assessed by both the domestic and international observers, the court still passed the verdict the way many Nigerians expected, not wanted, it to be.  People had since started posing questions like what is court order? What order? Which court and for who? Is that order always genuine and original? Are there no disorders in court orders? Many people asked and are still asking such kind of questions concurrently.  Whether the said verdict promotes political uncertainty in the polity or not is another point of argument entirely.  I always ask this question that, what is the yardstick for measuring election malpractice in the Nigerian courts? I mean apart from the evidences and exhibits presented by Buhari and ANPP, what again do court needs as a further evidence? Angels to come from the sky and testify that they witnessed all the malpractices? Though I understand that what we have in place is more or less like a selective judgement.  That clears everything.

Of course Buhari emerged more courageous after the verdict of the Supreme Court.  And because of his respect for the rule of law, he is now seen as a model.  Even by the Western world.  And I do believe that this is what informs his frequent invitations by the so-called developed world, to go and discuss with them the future of democracy in Nigeria, in particular, and Africa in general.  Buhari has been discussing this with these people, I guess.  And they might since started realizing that yes Obasanjo is fastly loosing ground.  They also came to understand Buhari on one-on-one basis.  That he is not a potential terrorist.  Neither a promoter of terrorism, whatever that means.  As they were fed with false and of course misleading information.  This is it ! We can see how these people have started redefining their relationship with Abuja.  What I am saying in essence is, the western world have since started suspecting Obasanjo’s inept leadership.  There is no gainsaying the fact that both United State of America and the Great Britain have a clearer picture that Obasanjo’s regime is nothing more than an impromptu regime of opportunists.  The impeccable way Buhari discusses the fate of the Nigerian democracy to the West is undoubtedly one of the fundamental things that are instrumental in souring the relationship between Abuja and London.  And also between the White House and Aso Rock.  Take it or leave it! The procedural arrangements of Buhari’s political calculation is far from being a hit-and-miss exercise.

Nowhere in his history as a leader one can accuse him of being hocus-pocus.  He is always honest, straightforward, steadfast, committed, transparent and articulate in whatever position or stand he takes.  He said it time without numbers that, he is into politics not because he is in dire need of political power.  And all his political behaviours during and after the Presidential court case can attest to that.

Our beloved Buhari was hitherto very uncompromising when it comes to accepting and playing party politics in the Nigerian crude, unarranged and always confusing context.  He later, at the most appropriate time came to realize that his being in the political limelight could change the already distorted and daunted direction of the national politics.  Thank to people like the late Alhaji Wada Nas, who forcefully made Buhari to understand the above fact.  This is just my personal observation.

The histrionic nature of Obasanjo’s political behaviour has already been smashed and watered down by Buhari’s well calculated, honestly exhibited, politically directioned and characteristically well positioned political relevance and behaviour, both within and outside Nigeria.  I think Obasanjo knows this best.  So whether Mr President’s reaction right from the word go is repentant or unrepentant is left for the political observers to think, scrutinize and decide.

It is happily revealed that the United States National Intelligence Director, John Negroponte has recently in the US warned of a possible major turmoil and conflict, should Obasanjo seek constitutional amendments for the purpose of the elongation of his tenure.  Director Negroponte came to Nigeria and said the same thing.  He testified that recently before the Senate Armed Forces Committee.  Hear him, “……. speculation that President Obasanjo will try to change the constitution so he can seek a third term in office, is raising political tensions, and if proven true, threatens to unleash major turmoil and conflict. ” I also learned that Mr. Negroponte clarifies what the fears of the US are.  That chaos in Nigeria could lead to, “……. disruption of oil supply, secessionist moves by regional governments, major refugee flows, and instability elsewhere in West Africa. ” According to the Leadership Newspaper of Monday 20th of March, 2006, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo was invited to the White House, in the first week of April, 2006, to discuss on issues bordering on his third term and the crises in the Delta region.

In another edition of the Leadership Newspaper of Sunday, 5th of March, 2006, according to the paper it “ authoritatively gathered that during the “ private” discussion, Straw, the British Foreign Secretary, had with Obasanjo, he ( Straw ) told him that British wanted him to leave power.  Though Straw was both diplomatic and euphemistic in choosing his words.  Straw told the President that it was the considered opinion of the British government that there is the need to replace the ageing Nelson Mandela of South Africa- a statesman who would come out and be negotiating for peace and resolving conflicts across Africa. ” The paper continued that Obasanjo, it was further gathered, replied that he was “ going to discuss it with Tony, that is the British Prime Minister, Tony Blair.  And Straw was said to have angrily blurted out : “ This is the position of Her Majesty’s Government. ” Looking at the position of the West more critically, one can put it succinctly clear that they are more concerned and disturbed about what will be the fate of Nigeria should Obasanjo comes back in a third term arrangement.  To my own understanding therefore, they are not doing that simply because they love Nigeria and Nigerians.  No! They have their own thinking that is surrounded by economic interest.  So they do not want to see the occurrence of something that could jeopardize and endanger their economic interest in the country.  Which means the position they have taken is largely hypocritical.

Another bone of contention to the Aso Rock is, as far as third term palaver is concerned, the West and a large percentage of our elites, as regards their positions, have similarities in both their nature and substance.  They are in essence facing a common enemy.  But the end result is to some extent different.  For example those Nigerians fighting against the third term, some of them are eyeing for the political power so that they can be relevant.  And in the final analysis protect their economic, political and whatever interest.  And the Western world on the other side of the coin have the protection of their economic interest at the back of their minds as the first priority.  I stand to be corrected.

I finally advice that Obasanjo should start looking inwardly and see what is good for him and the country.

And all the antagonists of the third term agenda should try as much as they can to see that they include in their struggle the salient issues of economic rights for the poor and unattndant Nigerians.

BUHARI MORE GREASE TO YOUR ELBOW !!! Abba Anwar, Kano state, Nigeria.

abbanwar@yahoo. com