Interim Government

Interim Government: They Are At It Again!

Ayo Fawibe

Having barely survived the invasion of the third term monster, Nigerians may be out to grapple with another one, a relapse of the interim government epidemic. As usual, the political town criers have started testing the waters to see if this idea will be sellable to the nation.

It usually starts as a rumor or speculation, but give it sometime, just like the third term agenda, the onus would soon rest on all and sundry to start looking up to Aso Rock for a denial or confirmation. Better still; maybe those who have warned of a resurgence of the third term agenda may be right after all, if one should learn from the past experiences.

But, isn’t it appropriate to actually x-ray the approach of the inner circle to the process of replace or substituting President Obasanjo in 2007? What does it look like? Of course, the more you look, the less you see and when openness takes the back seat in a democracy, then we should always prepare our minds for the worst.

While reacting to one of my earlier articles, an old acquaintance of mine in our days at The Polytechnic, Ibadan was so infuriated about my position on the third term agenda. My friend was holidaying in South Africa away from his plum job as an oil company executive when he sharply criticized my conclusions about Obasanjo and his third term agenda. My pal reiterated that he (Obasanjo) had lofty ideas for the country; hence, Nigerians didn’t know his inner mind regarding his agenda for the nation. He was right superficially, because even if the totality of the human body is scanned, I doubt if we have the technology yet to read human minds. However, technically, my buddy was wrong because the climax of events regarding the third term agenda finally proved some of us right and probably caught him pants down.

Now it’s time again to read Obasanjo’s mind as to who takes over in 2007 and may be in what form. The only choice we actually have for now is to act as astrologers since it appears that Obasanjo seems to have arrogated to himself the role of a kingmaker, transition planner and executioner for 2007.

It is safe to conclude that we may not have an elected president in 2007, but most likely, there would be an appointed successor. Obasanjo himself made this very clear recently while responding to some Ogoni leaders who visited Aso Rock to promote the candidacy of Governor Odili. He said that even if you tear his mouth with a knife, he wouldn’t disclose whom he wants as a successor. Obasanjo has the right to support a candidate, but does his present scheming leave Nigerians with any choice?

Nigerians surely have a choice if our politicians should continue to stand tall just like they did during the third term saga. Plans are rife to utilize the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to probe presidential candidates other than the usually State Security Service (SSS) scrutiny and we know that anyone who is unlucky not to be the chosen one is automatically vulnerable as a target. And what if all the candidates are declared unfit by the EFCC, then that’s where the journey towards an interim government begins. The EFCC Act is being amended to empower the agency to arrest without warrant. Surely, this would arrogate more powers to the commission and blank check for more arbitrary arrests of perceived spoilers. By the way, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu of the EFCC has already passed a vote of no confidence in our leaders by declaring that they are all corrupt. So all those presently gunning for the presidency should forget it, as there may not really be elections in 2007 as declared as recently posited by IBB’s in-law, Chief Sunny Okogwu.

If you say Okogwu is just blabbing away as usual, former Ogun State Governor, Chief Olusegun Osoba is credible enough to be recognized as a respectable voice. In a recent interview, Osoba reiterated his assurance that we may not have seen the end of devious attempts to perpetrate Obasanjo’s rule beyond 2007. He described OBJ as a man who doesn’t give up and restated that the third term agenda was just the plan A, therefore, the plans B, C and D are still being jealously kept in the political armory of those power thirsty individuals.

Former Osun State Governor Bisi Akande has also described jostle for the 2007 presidency as that which would be a tough fight. Akande is old and well connected enough to see deeper than most ordinary Nigerians would do.

So, why has Obasanjo chosen to create a tense and chaotic atmosphere around the polity, especially as it affects the emergence of presidential candidates? Was former National Security Adviser, General Aliyu Gusau relieved of his post in order to vie for the presidency or was he redeployed unofficially to do some hatchet work? How about the PDP’s Fayose Committee, which was saddled with the responsibility of shopping for a presidential flag bearer within the party? Is the committee just another diversionary measure from the original agenda? Is the North-South agitation for presidency a mastermind to cause commotion and instability in order to warrant a state of emergency? Is the cold-blooded murder of Engineer Funso Williams one of those premeditated plots to cause confusion in order to usher in an interim government?

There are certainly enough questions and riddles surrounding the possible exit of Obasanjo that cannot necessarily be solved between now and May 2007. And when Obasanjo’s right hand man, Chief Tony Anenih keeps yelling that their opponents should forget 2007, we should take him for his words, he once declared that there was no vacancy in Aso Rock and almost shed his blood to realize the third term agenda. Also when someone like Chief Bode George says they would lead Obasanjo back to his Ota farm in 2007, you have to strain your ears to be sure that you heard him right because he was one of those third term gangsters who lost their entire credibility by being economical with the truth.

However, it won’t do any good to the country if they attempt to re-christen third term as interim government. Have we forgotten so soon that when IBB pushed Shonekan’s interim government down our throat in 1993, we only ended up with the dark-goggled General Sani Abacha and we are still paying for that miscalculation with OBJ’s moribund government.

There is no doubt that we cannot have the best in 2007, but we expect to at least have kangaroo elections, which would carry some semblance of representation and move ahead from there as a nation, other than to have an interim government which is likely to be totalitarian in nature.

We know quite well that whoever succeeds Obasanjo may not likely be a credible candidate, but advocates of an interim government at this time in the life of Nigeria are obviously the greatest enemies of the country. Once again, the challenge is still ahead for members of the national assembly and Nigerians in general not to rest on their oars in their determination to protect our one-legged democracy by fighting hard to deflate the interim government idea.