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Obasanjo, Third Term and the Rest of Us By Isa Muhammad Inuwa All along in the heated debate and cacophonous ranting about the "Third Term", I have been keeping mute and withholding my pen from any comment on the issue. I preferred in the beginning to give the matter a passable attention just as a normal thing that comes to pass, and time and history are the best judges to vindicate what would prevail at last. As for me, I know quite well that the truth would always have an upper and over falsehood and injustice. In this third term palaver, the name Obasanjo does not mean much to me and it is of less importance to me than the real issue at stake. For without the presidential toga and the constitutional empowerment and intimidating protocols surrounding him, Obasanjo is nobody but an ordinary mortal and a common Nigerian like each and every one of us. It is worth remembering that some seven or eight years ago, Obasanjo was entirely a different person, a mundane, down-to-earth and devoid of power and just one of the common plebs. This is just to teach us the unbounded wisdom of God that by the time General Abacha, the so-called "northern dictator" was making his hay in the sunshine, then, Obasanjo was an infinitesimal nonentity, lurking in his world of oblivion. Now that Abacha has passed away, another "southern dictator"? has risen to do the worst he feels like doing and leave it for the posterity to judge and act on or react to his deeds. I am not being sentimental or prejudiced when I disregard the name Obasanjo in the issue of third term, but according me, there is more than meets the eye behind the issue. In my observation, some hidden cliques and interests who take Obasanjo no more than a dummy or a robot, remotely control the man in both his official and personal actions. These groups or personalities using Obasanjo for their ulterior motives are available in the Northern Nigeria as well as in the Southern Nigeria in the form of tribal advocates and religious fellowship groups and individuals, as well, the man is of course working in certain instances, according to dictates of his lobbies and overlords in foreign, western nations. Although Obasanjo himself has definitely had his human idiosyncrasies and personal aggrandizement and greed for power that had actually pushed him to want and plan to stay in power perpetually, there is also the problem of these hidden forces that further exacerbate the dream for the third term tenure even at the cost of millions of Nigerians and to their own advantage and satisfaction. Another factor is indeed the phobia or fear of the unknown, about what might befall on him after leaving power; probe? Or what? Indeed another great problem associated with the Obasanjo during his current two-terms tenure was the difficulty or inability by many people to decipher the man Obasanjo, who happened to have changed from his former personality and what he used to be or how he used to behave in the past. After finishing his former tenure as a military head of state and willingly and successfully relinquishing his seat to the succeeding civilian regime of Alhaji Shehu Shagari in 1979; after long years of interval, retirement and resignation to personal affairs and after an accidental and fateful period and life of incarceration, this time around, you have an entirely different Obasanjo as a prison-freed and civilian president. Not even the Northern political mentors who facilitated his election to office in 1999 and 2003 had found Obasanjo the same as before. In short, the hitherto detribalized Obasanjo has turned out different, the former statement has changed to a tribal champion and the once impartial has turned to a religious and racial bigot, as a result of which most non-Yoruba and non-Christian Nigerians were drastically marginalized and pushed to the wall in the scheme of things, economically educationally militarily, commercially and otherwise, in the course of his present civilian tenure. On the issue of third-term which impliedly means continuing in power for the third time or tenure is but a mere political caveat or creation to have a lee-way of justifying dictatorship and staying in power for life, which is a common phenomenon with many leaders, particularly in the African continent, as facts have already emerged that the third term is just a stepping stone towards elongating the regime's tenure perpetually. Hence, Obasanjo's third term bid is nothing more than a big political gamble and a game plan to sit-tight himself in power, as it is obvious that his continuation for the second term which is now almost finished, is not yet enough for Obasanjo and all those forces, personalities and interests that combined to characterize his regime, control it and derive direct benefit there from. A bunch of politicians and the so-called honourable senators and legislators were solidly behind Obasanjo's third term bid obviously not for the good of Nigeria or in line with the aspirations and interest of majority of Nigerians, but cheaply because of the expectant drops of monetary gratifications from the boss up there. Just recently a story about collection of such filthy and illegal package by senators advocating Obasanjo third term milled round the country that they were given some 50 million Naira each with new brand Peugeot car to add up. On the contrary, Chief Anenih, one of the President's trusted crony for third term was said to have received the harshest reprimand of Obasanjo for not having pushed and canvassed the third term idea to the boss' satisfaction. In the seven good years of Obasanjo regime which witnessed the biggest oil proceeds earned by Nigeria ever in history, yet, the Federal Government had virtually nothing to write home about in terms of capital projects execution, particularly in the Northern geo-political zone of Nigeria, where the most populated communities were terribly marginalized and discriminated out of semester and sentimental motives of tarnishing and endangering their future survival within the Nigerian federation. While in spite of their corrupt tendencies, even the local and state governments were rated by many observers as having performed much better than the Federal Government under the Obasanjo regime, in the provision of basic and tangible infrastructures. Ironically, it is the proclivity of supporters and vanguards of Obasanjo third term to be hell-bent trying to convince gullible people that their man is still the best person to steer Nigeria's ship to the promised land, after all, he succeeded in servicing and paying off Nigeria's foreign loans. It has appeared so vivid that the so-called constitutional review that has been dragging, its way for quite long under the indefatigable loyalist of Obasanjo, the deputy senate president Alhaji Ibrahim Mantu, is no more than a grand design to actualize the third term agenda, since it seemed that third term is the only issue that dominates the review process. Because some, if not most of the states governors seemed not to have fallen along the line of the big boss' interest, a new clause emerged to bar the governors from the third term opportunity. This could also serve as a gimmick to cow them into compromise and total submission and loyalty to his preferred course. When sometimes in April, the governors' forum protested and demanded three conditions before they pay total allegiance to Obasanjo's wishes of third term: to retain their constitutional immunity; to retain their control over local government funds and to allow them rights to contest for the third term, the big boss waved them aside and was contended with allegiance of Ibo and Yoruba traditional leaders in addition to loyalty of his boys in the National Assemblies and others elsewhere. On the other hand, Mantu's constitutional gimmick has provided for the Assemblymen to continue for the third term, which serves as an apparent bait to lure them into endorsing the Obasanjo's third term clause to become constitutionally enforced or approved. The prevailing tug of war in the National Assemblies between the proponents and opponents of the third term suggests the impossibility of the realization of the motive or adaptation of the clause for the third term. It is clear that both the senators and the legislators are now in a situation between the devil and the deep blue sea. That is either for them to act in accordance with their peoples' interest and wishes by shunning and rejecting the third term proposal or else follow and succumb to the whims and threats of the power mongers thereby mortgaging the future of Nigeria to perpetual dictatorship and despotism to prevail on the teeming masses. Thanks to the unavoidable masses' awareness which manifested in the recent cases of outright attack by the masses in Mubi, on their senator Umar Hambagda for his being a front liner on the third term issue. He was chased to the extent that he ran for his life and sheltered in Mubi Emir's Palace. A similar seenario in Zaria, happened earlier with Assemblyman Dalhatu Sarki Tafida. Despite his heavy police escort, he was said to also have the run for his life to be able to escape lynching by the infuriated mob. The rest of senators and legislators ought to draw a lesson from Hambagda's and Tafida's experience if they want to coexist peacefully with their constituency men back in their villages and wards, for a word is enough for the wise. In any case and at all cost, we and the Assemblymen and all stakeholders must not allow Nigeria to drift. At this crucial juncture let the wind of freedom, just leadership and fairness prevail in our polity. For now, let us put the issue of "third term", "second term" or even fourth and whatever term behind us and forge ahead for a total rebirth by correcting our past misdeeds and mistakes, for the world is already ahead of us the Nigerians. It is time we wake from our slumber and be serious. ISA MUHAMMAD INUWA Is a freelance journalist in Kano E-mail: ismi2000@yahoo.com. |