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A ‘Dancing Tortoise’ And The State Of The Nation

Aonduna Tondu

I must admit that this is not the first title that came to mind when I set out to write this commentary. It wasn’t even considered at all amongst the list of possible headings. And most definitely not, the choice of title did not come to me through divine intervention as some religion-conscious people are wont to say. The fact is, the “sudden illumination” – if I may put it that way - happened some two miserly minutes ago as I read through a curious report on the latest instalment of the Anambra quagmire which in a sense is an apt statement on the state of the nation under the clueless but dangerous Nigerian Caligula. According to the Sunnews Online edition of Saturday, October 28, 2006, an obscure association calling itself the Anambra Patriotic Front (APF) has gone to town with the improbable allegation that Nigeria’s former vice-president and statesman, Alex Ekwueme, an indigene of Anambra, is the brain behind the attempt by a bunch of conniving state legislators to impeach the state governor, Peter Obi. The APF is claiming that the anti-Obi lawmakers who have since making known their intention to usurp power relocated to Asaba, are under the occult influence of a witchdoctor there whose protection rites for his customers from Awka are administered in the presence of a lone witness in the form of a “dancing tortoise”!

"…The deal/agreement was sealed by a fetish oath that was administered by a popular native doctor (name withheld by us) who is a native of Delta State. During the oath-taking ceremony, which allegedly took place in Orumba, each participant was clad in red pant. A dancing tortoise was the only witness to the ceremony. …(The juju priest) it was, who gave the instruction that all the Assembly men involved must relocate to Delta State so that he will have easy access to them for a morning and night 'blessing' ritual. He also advised the suspension of the House members who are not in agreement with the plot so that the potency of his medicine will not be diminished". Surreal, one may say! The imagery of a mythical dancing tortoise in the midst of a chaotic world of mischief, mystification, impunity, sleaze and orchestrated mayhem should be seen as a befitting metaphor for the Nigerian condition nowadays. Crooked men and women are exerting an asphyxiating stranglehold on our national politics. They do so chiefly by resorting to unorthodox and patently criminal methods.

Yet, “surreal” is euphemistic if one considers the regime-induced state of quasi-anarchy prevailing in Nigeria today without any countervailing influences rising to meet the barbarians in a confrontation that citizens can no longer afford to run away from. This is precisely the subject of my article here, namely, the imperative on the part of patriotic forces to envisage concrete strategies aimed at the containment or extirpation of the malignant cancer the Obasanjo tyranny has become today. An alternate title of the commentary should thus be “Scenarios for the Containment of a Tragic-comic Autocracy”. Day in day out, we are subjected to the rude and macabre shenanigans of unscrupulous judges, rascally legislators and their paymasters in Abuja and elsewhere to the extent that our country and its ordinarily hard-working people have become the laughing-stock of the entire world. The likes of Baba Aremu and his coterie of hangers-on, kow-towing courtiers and touts may find their tragic-comic antics entertaining but Nigerians are not finding them funny. They are in the millions calling for something to be done. The time for whining or sobbing is over. One reason I was instinctively drawn to the Sunnews Online story, and this does not imply that I necessarily subscribe to the seemingly far-fetched accusation being levelled against Ekwueme, is that I found revealing the apparent determination on the part of members of the Anambra Patriotic Front, amongst other groups, to organize and mobilize the public through concrete gestures by printing and circulating leaflets to press their condemnation of the wayward legislators.

To say that there is unbearable malaise in the land is an understatement. To intimate that much of that malaise is being fuelled by the reckless, lawless and bumbling kleptocracy of the Aso Rock monster is to state the obvious. Centrifugal forces of destruction and tyrannical imposition are on the prowl and something must urgently be done to stop them, before it is too late. Marooned in a desert of despair and despondency occasioned by the frightening failures of a visionless despot and his rogue regime, the average Nigerian must by now have reached that point whereby mere words of caution ring hollow and injunctions about a supposed ‘better-tomorrow’ appear forlorn and meaningless.

The tentativeness of an ineffectual opposition; the timorous disposition of a largely discredited political class; the alarming truancy of the National Assembly; the befuddling inadequacies of a compromised and tarnished judiciary; the hypocrisy as well as sectarian mind-set of the national media and civil society organisations coupled with a cowardly and sedate populace, all these have contributed in no small measure to the sustenance of the murderous autocracy of the Aso Rock tin-god who seems to derive sadistic pleasure from inflicting hardship on hapless Nigerians by the unleashing of violent and cruel forces on them. If indeed all segments of society have in one way or the other contributed to the state of anomie starring us in the face, then, it is only proper that we as citizens devise concrete ways to put and end to the source of our continued suffering. Enlightened self-interest does require therefore that as a nation, we evolve ways and measures to effectively deal with what is arguably Nigerian democracy’s Enemy Number One, namely, the rampaging and predatory schemes of the dictatorship of Obasanjo and his allies. In doing so, we should be prepared to show that we can learn from history and apply its useful lessons.

Throughout the history of mankind, vicious tyrants and self-important wreckers of the people’s dreams and aspirations have at the appropriate moment been made to pay for their crimes and atrocities against the people. From popular uprisings, armed campaigns to peaceful protest, pressure has often been brought to bear on repressive regimes by those interested in moving their country forward. Ancient tyrannies like the one by the demented Caligula (Emperor of Rome, A.D. 37-41) were sometimes terminated by way of determined resistance or isolated acts of rebellion against the violent tactics which the potentates employed as tools for their mindless subjugation of the people. The assassination of Emperor Caligula by his praetorian guard did put a stop to the mad ruler’s ruthless desecration of revered institutions. Not long ago, the demise of Pakistan’s autocratic ruler, Zia Ul-Haque, was recorded in violent, if mysterious circumstances – a suspected bomb or missile aimed at his plane. In a note of finality, that suspected act of politically-motivated elimination did deal a fatal blow to one of Asia’s most ruthless rulers. We must caution here that the dubious weapon of political assassinations is no solution, especially when one considers the fact that it is doubtful that such eliminations of monsters does necessarily lead to qualitatively better change. That said, Nigerians must in our present circumstances resist the temptation of shying away from considering viable, legitimate, and one must insist, democratic ways of tackling the critical danger confronting the country now.

Due to our democratic disposition, we are naturally opposed to a resort to violent means as a way of bringing sanity to the current mess in the land. Of course, I hasten to add that, to paraphrase a popular saying, those who make peaceful change impossible will invariably make violent change inevitable. This is the conundrum one is faced with in Nigeria these days. When a perfidious regime corruptly and violently deploys state structures and resources in the advancement of a personal agenda of self-perpetuation and revanchist scheming, is there any valid justification for expecting that those who are at the receiving end of such illegalities docilely and meekly remain in their corner and submit to the depravities of Obasanjo and his ruthless thugs in places like Anambra and Plateau? We reject violent confrontation but at the same time, must insist that citizens have the right to sufficiently arm themselves against a lawless and violent tyranny like the current Obasanjo misrule which has proven time and time again that it is willing to deploy violence through the criminal use of the police, the army and the SSS to commit untold atrocities against the people. You may call it the enlightened repudiation of terror inflicted by self-serving pols. Or to quote a Nigerian euphemism, “self-help” which is a manifestation of the lack of confidence in institutions that have been terribly debased and desecrated by politicians and their collaborators.

It was Governor Orji Kalu of Abia state who only recently did moot this idea of “self-help” as a possible response to the unconscionable harassment – via armed assault - of his mother, amongst other associates, by a wing of Obasanjo’s Gestapo known as the EFCC.

The time for sitting on the fence is over. Any deference to evil-doers will only embolden them. If Nigerians do genuinely want a "better tomorrow", they must immediately imagine bold and concrete steps for taking out the source of their continued suffering. I concur with the Abia state governor, Orji Kalu and Ishaku Ibrahim that the various state executives should constitute a rampart against the rampaging, undemocratic impulses of the current madman of Nigerian politics. The governors should reject as deeply offensive any attempt at blackmail by Obasanjo and his attack dogs. They should especially discard their whining for a more purposeful and robust stand against the militaristic onslaught on Nigerian democracy by the Aso Rock ‘born-again’ tyrant and his henchmen in the likes of Adedibu, el-Rufai, Bode George, Nuhu Ribadu, Chris Uba, Mantu, Ahmadu Ali and Anenih. As I did mention in my article entitled "Driving Nuhu Ribadu Out of Town", the good people of Nigeria should use "every means at their disposal" in the fight against the renewed military occupation of our socio-political spaces. In Plateau, the youths rallied to chase Ribadu and his fellow thugs out of town. Surely, the National Assembly has not done its job as amply demonstrated by their shameful abdication regarding the Ekiti debacle. It should make amends by drawing up articles of impeachment against Obasanjo. This will serve as a serious warning to the imperial king. As for citizens in general, they should realize that they do have a potent weapon in the form of organized peaceful protest. They should be ready to engage in a popular uprising to press their legitimate demands, be it nation-wide or at the level of the various states or cities which should have as objective the democratic termination of the cruel tyranny of Nigeria's Bokassa. Here, the popular resistance against the former dictator, Babangida, comes to mind.

The recent example by Plateau youths should serve as a welcome warning to characters in the Obasanjo/Mantu mould. Obasanjo and his partners in crime should know that the unpardonable killings of innocent civilians in the pursuit of their evil designs are being documented and that sooner or later, they must be called upon to account for their crimes and atrocities. A special mention must also be made of the destructive role being played by the various state judges, police commissioners, military officers and so-called security agents. They also will be called upon to render accounts to the Nigerian people.

There is nothing to cheer in the nauseating spectacle of state-sponsored criminality and mayhem taking place in locations like Ekiti , Plateau and Anambra. In Ekiti, the forced removal of the governor was carried out by a military invasion of the state capital by Obasanjo’s mercenaries erroneously referred to as the Nigerian army. What happened in Ekiti a few weeks ago was nothing short of a military take-over with a band of corrupt and irresponsible so-called legislators acting as accessories to the crime. And when one hears the clown calling himself Nigeria’s Attorney General shed crocodile tears in the manner of his political master by feigning a condemnation of the illegal removal of the governor and his deputy, he and his boss – master-mind of the perfidy in Ekiti and elsewhere - should be told to shove their contrived lamentation where it would have a most appropriate abode. But an even worse tragedy as far as the Ekiti fiasco is concerned is the undignified and shameless role played by so-called progressive activists in the likes of Gani Fawehinmi. Opportunists of Nigeria’s pro-democracy/pro-human rights militancy would seem to have lost their coherence when they prefer to play petty politics in Ekiti instead of calling a spade a spade and condemning in no uncertain terms the brazen lawlessness that led to the ‘coup d’état’ there. It is sad that the inconsistency and duplicitous disarray of self-proclaimed defenders of human rights are offering a dubious kind of comfort and legitimacy to the illegalities of the Obasanjo regime.

In Plateau, quite obviously acting on cue, INEC has predictably joined the fray in a most ignoble manner. Until they were forced to retrace their steps, most likely by the defiant mood on the part of the people of the state against the marauding agents of destabilization and their sponsors, INEC agents did announce on the heels of the botched attempt to initiate impeachment proceedings against Governor Dariye, that they were going to hold elections for seats currently occupied by 14 legislators who happen to be opposing or at least not supporting the illegal attempts to remove Dariye.

An important lesson from the stand-off in Plateau is the value of concerted opposition to the type of thuggery represented by Obasanjo and his sinister gang. A broad alliance of the local political elite and the masses of the people, it would seem, has taken shape and is determined to decisively reject the impositions of a desperate and discredited band of usurpers operating from Abuja. This can only gladden our hearts. At this critical moment, vigilance is de rigueur. As I keep saying, one should not underestimate Obasanjo’s capacity for evil. We salute the stand by the Nigerian Bar Association in their repudiation of the kangaroo committee set-up by the Egbo-Egbo-like Chief Judge of Plateau state as a prelude to the illegal overthrow of Governor Dariye by the dictator from Ota. The NBA should remain resolute and refuse to be intimidated. Their input has once more underscored the crying need for all the strategic segments of society to do their part in the struggle to entrench a truly democratic dispensation in the country.

It is pertinent therefore to reiterate here that the effort by the National Assembly in the necessary opposition to the tyrannical order in the country today should go hand in hand with the people’s determination at all meaningful levels to protect their rights. In that regard, it is noteworthy the concern expressed recently by the Senate president, Ken Nnamani, who spoke a few weeks ago at the inauguration of the Senate ad-hoc committee set up to probe the Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF) in the light of the allegations by Obasanjo and Vice president Atiku, respectively, regarding their alleged misuse of the fund.

Nnanami did observe: "These accusations have the capacity to diminish the moral credibility of the Presidency. The Presidency is not an individual. It is an institution. It is an institution that symbolises the strength and dignity of the Nigerian people. We cannot allow this institution to be degraded and demystified ….

As the elected representatives of the people, it is our historical duty to save the Presidency from further embarrassment. The Presidency is a national institution that we must protect irrespective of our view about the present occupants of the office. In order to protect the Presidency, we must clear it of cobwebs of mistrust, mischief and scandal. With truth, justice and fairness, we can save the Presidency and save our democracy…In constituting this special committee, the Senate acted in the best traditions of statesmanship. We carry the burden of history to ensure that we reposition the Presidency in the eyes of Nigerians…” .

Encouraging words indeed! It is hoped that the National Assembly will confound the sceptics amongst us and truly rise to the occasion by making the quest to cleanse the presidency and save Nigerian democracy a holistic venture. That is to say, a coherent enterprise that is neither episodic nor cosmetic in nature, but one that is systematic, thorough and above all, predicated on the National Assembly’s oversight function of legislation for the nation. The intervention of the National Assembly on the side of the people will help reduce the risk of citizens having to resort to “self-help” measures in order to deal with adversity in their midst.

The 2007 elections are around the corner. The pre-election period is being unnecessarily polluted by the violent and lawless antics of a debauched tyrant and his associates. Anambra state is once more on fire with reports that the governor’s official residence in Onitsha has been burned down! Meanwhile, in Plateau, the macabre show of shame continues… Citizens should exercise extra vigilance against these malefic forces of mischief and disunity. The tortoise must never be allowed to dance at our expense.

Aonduna Tondu

New York

E-Mail: tondua@yahoo.com