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Must We Continue With Military Presidents In Our Democracy? By Isah Mohammed Dutse
The more things change, the more they remain the same-Baron Clausewitz History has shown that men do not learn from history-Winston Churchill.
Why is it that the same military and political characters that contributed to rendering the country’s economy comatose and postrate for the past twenty or even thirty years are still hanging around to participate in current political going on” Let us explore this puzzle with a short excursion into our recent history.
The current President, Olusegun Obasanjo, has been in the nation’s military and political scene for 36 years – ever since he was involved in the cessation of hostilities surrounding the Nigerian/Biafran civil war in 1970. From military commander, the then pot-bellied Otta-born military officer rose to become second in command to the late Gen Murtala Mohammed, and eventually took over the reins of power after the demise of the latter in the ill-fated Dimka putsch of 1976.
It is a telling indictment on the glacial pace and conservative trend of Nigerian politics that Chief Olusegun Obasanjo is still in contention in the nation’s political paradigin after almost a generation which he served as a military head of state in 1976-1979. In a dynamic political system, (which Nigeria certainly is not) fresh faces, policies, and programmes would have long replaced the old tired and moribund ones that have held sway in the past and has brought untold woe, hardship and angst on a long suffering populace. For instance, Gen. Obasanjo’s military regime was characterized by high handedness, absolutism, mass sackings of university teachers, alleged kleptocracy and looting of the nation’s treasury that produced the first generation of billionaire army generals, awards of massively inflated contracts and generally anti-democratic, anti-populist credentials. Despite the huge revenue derived from oil earnings as a result of the rise of OPEC as a world oil producer and the instability in the Persian Gulf (caused by Shah of Iran Crisis) there was nothing in the way of developmental projects to show for the increased revenue output. Instead, several Generals in the Obasanjo regime amassed wealth for themselves and their families while OBJ himself built a gigantic farm complex in Otta spanning several kilometers, setting tongues wagging as to the source of his new found wealth. Much orchestrated noise was made in the way the Operation Feed the Nation which later turned out to be a convenient cover for OBJ’s pet project ‘Obasanjo Farms Nig Ltd.’
Today, some view OBJ’s regime paving the way for the military to be involved in massive embezzlement of funds thereby corrupting the armed forces and creating problems of indiscipline and the waywardness which would plague the institution in later years. OBJ’s policies during the period 1976-79, lacked focus, and were less sure-footed than the dynamic and dexterous leadership style displayed by his predecessor, late Gen. Murtala Muhammed. OBJ’s haphazard policies led to the Ali-Must-Go riots where scores of Nigerian Students and their parents were brutalized and traumatized while protesting the inchoate, deceptive and moribund educational policies of his regime superintended by then inexperienced and overzealous Col. Ahmadu Ali. Yet it is the same Ali that is now Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, the self-acclaimed largest political party in Africa. Another massive financial scandal involving the alleged disappearance of N2.8billion in the petroleum ministry then headed by Brigadier Muhammadu Buhari reverberated across the nation even though at the end of it all no culprit or perpetrator was brought to book or prosecuted for the alleged malfeasance.
While OBJ trumpeted to the whole world that he left millions of dollars in the foreign reserve to the incoming civilian regime of Alhaji Shehu Shagari, it is pertinent to note that the latter denied knowledge of the whereabouts of the alleged foreign reserves which to many a discerning observer, seemed to exist only in the fertile imagination of the Otta-born general turned farmer.
After Shagari was overthrown in a dramatic and surprising coup by the duo of Gen Buhari and Brigadier Idiagbon, Nigerians once more witnessed the extent to which military arrogance and disregard for human rights and dignity of the human person could be taken by a regime ostensibly on a mission of corrective governance. Rather than tackling the prime perpetrators of corruption in the civilian era which happened to be the leaders of the NPN, Buhari in an increasingly parochial move, descended on the opponents of the NPN which happened to be the UPN, and the NPP, throwing most of their leaders into prison on trumped-up charges. Chiefs Bola Ige, Bisi Onabanjo, Ebenezer Babatope, Ambrose Alli, Jim Nwobodo, Solomon Lar, Sam Mbakwe, Alhaji Abubakar Rimi, Bakin Zuwo, Waziri Ibrahim, (all chieftains of UPN, NPP, PRP and GNPP) were clamped into detention and sometimes given long prison sentences running into centuries while the ruling NPN chieftains who had masterminded the graft and corruption of the civilian era were largely let off the hook. While Alhaji Shehu Shagari was placed under dignified house arrest and never tried in a court of law, his deputy; Dr. Alex Ekwueme was thrown into jail even though after a prolonged trial he was found innocent of the corruption charges levied against him. Continuing his unrelenting assault on human rights, Buhari promulgated some notorious retroactive laws like the anti-drug trafficking decree which led to the execution by firing squad of some convicted drug traffickers – despite international and local condemnation. Another notorious Decree No 4 of 1984 targeted journalists, and caught up with Nduka Irabor and Tunde Thompson who were jailed for disseminating accurate information that was embarrassing to the government. Some judges who forthrightly challenged the obnoxious laws of the Buhari junta were summarily dismissed from office without recourse to laid-down rules and guidelines.
Horsewhip-wielding soldiers and policemen pounced on hapless Nigerians at the slightest opportunity, flogging them mercilessly for alleged acts of indiscipline. Mass retrenchment of Nigerians in the public service of the federation was carried out with impunity and a Decree No 17 of 1984 ousted the courts jurisdiction to enquire into the validity or legality of the whole exercise. A climate of fear and deep foreboding pervaded the land as Buhari & Idiagbon (nicknamed Commander of Burial Grounds) and Order Maitatsine (OOM) respectively by the popular Concord newspapers, ruled the land with an iron fist and reckless impunity of which the ruthless dictator Gen. Pinochet of Chile would have been proud. Needless to say, a massive feeling of relief engulfed Nigerians with the overthrow of the despised Buhari/Idiagbon regime by the gap-toothed self-styled Military President, Gen. Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida, who barely some months after displayed his fangs by embarking on ruinous economic policies that totally destroyed the national economy, completely and shamelessly devalued the naira, wiped out the middle class as an income group, introduced hyper-inflation and artificial scarcity of goods, reduced the country into a second hand nation (second hand clothes, cars, fridges, electrical products, computers, etc) crippled manufacturing and industrial activity, turned the country into a dumping ground for low quality goods and products and effectively brought Nigeria to the lowest group index among developing nations. Millions of Nigerians recently pauperized by the profligate IBB regime fled the country shores in search of any means of obtaining the now almighty dollar which had appreciated against the naira by over 2,000 percent since IBB took over the reins of power. A nebulous transition programme which seemed to operate in fits and starts and lacking any iota of credibility was embarked upon by the IBB regime and it finally crashed on a sour note with the annulment of the June 12 presidential elections thus plunging Nigerians into a political and economic impasse that was only slightly relieved when IBB agreed ‘to step aside’ with the formation of an interim national government (ING) headed by Chief Ernest Shonekan, a seasoned bureaucrat formerly with the United Africa Company, a colonial era conglomerate.
However, the ING was short-lived as it was shoved aside by an impatient General Sani Abacha who incidentally was the Defense Secretary in the dissolved ING and had been widely touted as the ‘Khalifa’ or successor to the ‘evil genius’ Gen Ibrahim Babangida.
Immediately on assumption of power in November 1993, Abacha dissolved all democratically elected structures of government from the National Assembly to the local government councils. Interim military administrators were deployed to the states to take over from the sacked civilian governors while a total ban was played on all political activity. The new military regime christened itself a ‘child of necessity,’ ironically, the Shonekan ING had called itself ‘a child of circumstance.’ However, the immediate challenge of the Abacha regime was how to deal with the renewed clamour for the revalidation of the June 12 election results and though such calls were initially ignored, the new military strongman had to take matters in his own hands when the clamour grew intense and desperate. Moving swiftly, Abacha clamped most of the pro-democracy activists into jail while other lucky ones escaped via the ‘NADECO route’ through Seme boarder. A number of trade unions and professional associations were proscribed; movement around the country was severely curtailed while scores of activists were gunned down in mysterious circumstances including Mrs. Kudirat Abiola, Chief Rewane, Alhaji Suliat Adedeji, Chief Alex Ibru (he survived the onslaught), Abraham Adesanya (he also survived) among others.
Abacha imposed a reign of terror on the country and the country’s economy nosedived as a result of the restrictive and exclusionary policies of the dictator which discouraged foreign investment and adopted an unrealistically hostile posture to most western governments and financial institutions. Nigeria overnight assumed the unenviable status of a pariah state shunned by most western nations and in desperation sought friendship and close ties with the likes of Sudan, Libya, North Korea etc. Even the then foreign minister Chief Ikimi (Uncle Tom) was accused of adopting an ‘area boy attitude to serious matters of diplomacy.
Nigeria’s lowest point in international relations came with the suspension of the country from the Commonwealth, over the conviction and execution of Ken Saro Wiwa and 8 others over charges of murder, incitement to murder etc. The killing of Ken Saro Wiwa, a renowned environmental rights activist and Ogoni freedom fighter, was roundly condemned both locally and internationally.
Needless to say the Abacha regime’s policies of the OBJ, Buhari and Babangida military regimes and to this day the nation is yet to recover from the recidivist, citaristic, egregious policies of these dictatorial military juntas.
Now with the exception of Abacha, who of course has passed on since 1998, the remaining trio of OBJ, Buhari and IBB are still aspiring to govern over what remains of the Nigerian nation which they played no small part in rendering an economic basket among nations. At the time OBJ was in power 26 years ago (1976-78), Jimmy Carter held sway in the U.S. as President, but it is inconceivable that the same Jimmy Carter would still be aspiring to rule the U.S. or still be in power in that same country as is sadly the case in Nigeria where OBJ is rather busy plotting elongation of power for another 12 years. Such is the pitiable and disgraceful state of Nigerian democracy which has been reduced to laughing stock among nations.
Similarly, Buhari was thrown out of office in 1985 while IBB was forced to ‘step aside’ in 1993, at a time when their contemporaries in the U.S., the late Ronald Reagan and George Bush Snr. were respectively in and out of power.
However, only a mentally deficient idiot in the U.S. would contemplate, not to talk of advocating, the return of Ronald Regan (even if he were still alive) or George Bush Snr. to presidential power as the dynamic country has long moved away to a new crop of young leaders e.g. Bill Clinton, Al Gore, John Edwards, Howard Deen, George W. Bush, Sen. Hilary Clinton, Dick Gephardt, John Kerry and a host of other new millennium politicians.
Then the question should be asked ‘why is Nigeria different from other countries of the world that we keep recycling corrupt, tired, gerontocratic, archetypical and kleptocratic leadership while the world moves swiftly along the information and political super highway. Even Indira Ghandi, premier of India, and Golda Meir of Isreal (all late) who ruled in the mid 70’s along with OBJ have passed on the baton of leadership to a dynamic new crop of politicians in their respective countries while Nigeria is still stuck with the same old, myopic, feeble and thick-headed set of leaders ever since.
Finally, now is the time for Nigerians to reject the ancient outdated leadership that has been the bane of the country’s political, economic and social development and vote in a new crop of young, resourceful, dynamic, dedicated, patriotic and highly focused patrician leaders who would lead us to a future of peace, justice, prosperity and progress in the new millennium.
In looking at the crop of people who are jostling for the position right now, it is easy to see that we can actually go for a new crop of civilian leaders, beginning from the Vice President himself, down to any other person who may think that he has what it takes to govern a big and complex nation like Nigeria. If we are looking for anyone who will succeed Obasanjo and continue with his policies, we should be concentrating on the people at the national level who designed the policies and implemented them, not the governors most of who have stolen their states blind and want to continue the nonsense at the national level. |