Wole Soyinka’s Old Scare Stories And Lies Aren’t Frightening Anymore!ByDan Azumi Kofarmatadanazumikofarmata@yahoo.comSaturday, 27 January 2007
The recent (Monday, January 15, 2007) Wole Soyinka’s diatribe against the All Nigeria’s People Party (ANPP) presidential candidate Retired General Muhammadu Buhari during his World Press Conference in Lagos should not be a surprise to anyone old enough to know Soyinka’s antecedents. The reason is simple. The Noble laureate (Literature) has said nothing new that the press from the Lagos – Ibadan axis (including his humble self) has not concocted and made the nation and the international community to believe in the past 47 years or so of our national existence as one Nigeria. But all thanks go to Almighty God that we now have even a more powerful and despicable cabal and national nightmare personified and represented by no other person than President Chief Olusegun Obasanjo and his myopic co-travellers. So far, the nation has been groaning under his jackboots for over seven years of inglorious dictatorship in a supposedly free and democratic setting!
Every negative remark made by Soyinka against the person and past leadership of Buhari cannot major up to what the past seven years of President Obasanjo’s leadership has inflicted on Nigerians under a democratic setting. I wish to remind Soyinka that least he forgets, all the subsequent military dictators that misruled Nigeria after General Obasanjo’s military dictatorship of the late 1970s were off-shots of his misrule and abuse of human rights. I need not to rewind the history of Obasanjo’s atrocities and brutal attack on innocent Nigerian civilians in the late 1970s when he held sway as Africa’s other military tyrant. The additional crimes he committed against humanity in the more than seven years of his second coming are enough testimonies to show that no one Nigerian tribe, ethnic and or religious group or geographical entity has monopoly over prebendalism, predation and cabal power and dictatorship.
Soyinka’s misguided and deceitful utterances coming from his myopic and biased State of the Nation World Press Conference are nothing other than recycling and reuse of blatant political lies told over 30 years ago by the Nigerian Press of the Lagos – Ibadan axis to which he also belongs. These great old lies and deceits cannot be the basis for honest public national discourse of the nasty political nightmares we are passing through in this our beloved country since 1999. However, there are important national issues that any politician of whatever coloration must be engaged by the Nigerian polity beyond the cocktail of lies listed against Buhari by Soyinka and his shadowy sponsors.
Nigerians of today are much wiser than what they used to be in past 30 years or so. For example, is not true that, on Wednesday, 17 December 2007 the Afenefere national leaders reminded us that, “if falsehood runs for 20 years, truth will catch up with it in one day.” This shows that, even those Nigerians (now in their late 70s) are no longer in the game of using blatant lies in order to achieve ethnic and geo-political scores against their political opponents across political parties and geo-political divides of present day Nigeria. Enough is enough!
Furthermore, I don’t think anyone of our elder statesmen from the southern part of Nigeria would believe today that, northern Nigeria is still populated by animals and not humans as far as elections are concerned. We all know now, that, bad politics was responsible for all the lies that had been told and retold over the years. For example, in all the previous general elections conducted in Nigeria, these political, religious and ethnic leaders mobilised their ill-informed followers and willing intelligentsia such as Soyinka on ethnic, religious and geo-political grounds to reject electoral figures that favour the northern part of the country. However, compared with the unprecedented elections riggings that took place in the entire southern geo-political zones during the 2003 elections, all previous the elections riggings that took place in Nigeria were child’s play to say the least.
But now, we can all engaged ourselves in more meaningful discussions and analyses of national elections in more civilised and mature manner than what was the norm in the past; as time has term limit for falsehood. For example, both the old and new bride Nigerian politicians now talk of forging geo-political alliances and bridge building across ethnic and geo-political divides. Soyinka should join forces in encouraging national unity, solidarity and understanding rather than concentrating on spreading falsehood propaganda capable of dividing and disuniting the polity.
For the sake of brevity, I do not want to take issues with the learned Professor on all the rehearsed and recycled lies he told in his misguided state of the nation address. Other commentators can do justice to those lies and the truth will definitely prevail. However, I would like to question the motives of the learned Professor for resurrecting those issues that have been put to rest by time as their use-values to their fomenters had since expired and more especially, those that created them and benefited from them are no longer alive and or are tired of the old game anymore?
The simplest explanation is that, the Professor has now joined the evil undemocratic forces that are fighting tooth and nail to hoist the worst type of civilian dictatorship Nigeria had ever experienced in its chequered political history to date. Soyinka in particular has become a willing tool and instrument of dirty political propaganda war being waged by President Obasanjo’s PDP against the nation’s political opposition political parties and individuals. Soyinka is therefore fighting a proxy war on behalf of the establishment and the ruling PDP. Otherwise how can one explain the timing and coincidence of the sudden undemocratic position taken against a particular leading opposition presidential candidate by the learned Professor regarding Nigeria’s quest for a smooth democratic leadership succession under free and fair elections come April 2007?
I would like to observe that the political alliance forged by Soyinka’s yet to be registered political party (i.e., the Democratic Front for a People's Federation - DFPF) and one of the registered political parties – the African Renaissance Party (ARP) is part of the grand war plan put in place by the PDP and the Nigerian establishment to keep the present government and ruling party in power for the next forty years and beyond. Least we forget, Nigerians have been told not long ago by Super Minister Nasir El Ruffai that, the ruling PDP will rule Nigeria for at lest forty years before any party can have its turn to rule the country.
One of the secret strategies of perpetuating the PDP in power perfected by the Presidency, the Nigerian Establishment and the behemoth ruling PDP is the creation of Trojan Horses that will be used to destabilise, confuse and dilute the influence of the opposition parties all over the country. For example, the strange and sudden formation of the alliance by the African Renaissance Party (ARP) and its partner, the Democratic Front for a People's Federation - the DFPF is part of a larger network of Trojan horses that will be used against the opposition parties during the 2007 general elections. Interestingly, the ARP is one of the several Trojan horses parading as national political parties but it was formed and registered by the Nigerian Establishment for and on behalf of the Presidency and the ruling PDP. These Trojan horses become active only when the Presidency and the ruling PDP are in trouble with the genuine opposition political parties and some individuals. Therefore Professor Soyinka needs to do a lot of background checks of his newfound political bedfellows within the ARP!! If however he stays with the alliance, then it is obvious whom his paymasters are.
Another Trojan horse political party in the making is the Democratic Peoples Party (DPP) recently formed by the embattled Sokoto State Governor Attahiru Bafarawa and his discredited co-travellers such as General Jeremiah Useni and company. Please observe that, PDP is the same thing as DPP (i.e., Peoples Democratic Party is equal to Democratic Peoples Party - it is like saying 2 x 4 = 8 and 4 x 2 = 8. It is only the letters that have been reordered and rearranged to look as if there is a difference)!!! This is not a mere coincidence. It was done by design to achieve certain hidden sinister political objectives. For example, recently the Attorney General of the federation and Hon. Minister of Justice, Chief Bayo Ojo suddenly intervened in the political crisis brewing between 10 Sokoto State ANPP honourable members of the State House of Assembly and their 20 DPP rivals.
The case in question is in court, but Chief Bayo Ojo has directed the Inspector-General of Police Sunday Ehindero to accord the 20 DPP supposedly illegitimate members of the Sokoto State House Assembly legitimacy to continue to hang on to their seats even though they have long quitted and dumped the ANPP and joined their paymaster Governor Attahiru Bafarawa in his new party – the DPP. The embattled Governor Attahiru Bafarawa fears that if the 10 ANPP legitimate members of the State House of Assembly succeed in easing out the 20 renegade DPP members from the State House of Assembly he will be the target of impeachment by the ANPP controlled State House of Assembly. This explains his sudden desire to mend fences with the Presidency by way of working against the candidature of General Muhammadu of Buhari of the ANPP. It seems Bafarawa’s game plan is receiving favourable response from the Presidency. You may wish to compare and contrast this case with similar scenarios across the country - similar cases but different solutions provided by Chief Bayo Ojo.
Other Trojan horses at work for and on behalf of the PDP have also been created and implanted within the supposedly true and genuine opposition political parties themselves. For example, all the ANPP State Governors (probably with the exception of Governor Ahmed Sani of Zamfara State) have for a very long time, been cooperating and collaborating with the Establishment, the Presidency and ruling PDP. The ANPP State Governors were recently used by the Presidency and the PDP in order to frustrate, intimidate and embarrass General Buhari during the last two national conventions the ANPP conducted. In the first instance, the game plan succeeded during the national convention to elect the Party’s national leadership but it failed during the national convention convened to elect the Party’s Presidential flag bearer for the 2007 general elections. Though it nearly succeeded; it was only last minute divine intervention that crushed the evil plot.
Secondly, these same ANPP Governors will be deployed by the Presidency in their respective states to ensure the success of the PDP Presidential candidate in return for retaining their seats for a second term or allowing their anointed successors to win the gubernatorial elections for those ANPP Governors that have exhausted their two-term limits and or be further rewarded in other ways; including but not limited to granting of immunity from prosecution by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Independent Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC) and the Code of Code Bureau/Tribunal as the case may be.
However, one of the most bizarre and frightening strategy adopted by the combined forces of the Nigerian Establishment, the Presidency and the ruling PDP in their quest to rule Nigeria in perpetuity, is the formation, registration and ownership of surrogate political parties. For example, more than fifty percent of the 50 political parties registered by INEC are political associations/parties that were directly formed and or hijacked by the Nigerian Establishment in collaboration with the Presidency, INEC and the ruling PDP.
The reader may think I am on a journey of fantasy! But there is element of truth in this matter. I will cite only one example for the sake of brevity. ACCORD Party (name copied from South Africa) is one of the newest political parties registered by INEC last year. When it was registered, the national chairmanship (Alhaji Ikira Bilbis) of the party was provided by the Presidency and the PDP. Until his becoming the national Chairman of the Accord Party (AP), Alhaji Bilbis was a member (and still is) of the Zamfara State branch of the PDP. Alhaji Bilbis was the only member of the PDP who won the 1998 Local Government Chairmanship election in Zamfara State. However, he was immediately removed from office by the ANPP led-government of Governor Ahmed Sani (Yariman Bakura) on trump-up charges of financial recklessness. The link between the Presidency, the PDP and the Accord Party can be seen with the appointment of Alhaji Bilbis as one of new Ministers of State (Environment and Housing) appointed by President Obasanjo recently.
Last but not the least, if you carry out a forensic scrutiny of about 25 or more of the 50 registered political parties that we have in Nigeria today, you will find the hands and pockets of the Establishment, the Presidency and the PDP in their formation, registration, funding, leadership and logistical support, amongst other things. One possible explanation of this development is probably to dilute the political strengths of the true and genuine opposition political parties and confuse the electorates with so many political parties during the election and voting procedure. It is here that the nation needs the positive contribution of Professor Wole Soyinka, the EFCC and patriotic Nigerians towards unmasking these Trojan horses, including their paymasters. Unfortunately, Soyinka is already romanticising with one of the Trojan horses in a political alliance.
Finally, if there is going to be a free, transparent and rigging-free elections in 2007, then, the true and genuine opposition parties (of which there are only about five in number), must insist that INEC adopts the proposal put forward recently by the Shehu Shagari Institute for Leadership and Good Governance (SSWI). This proposal calls for printing on the ballot papers, only the names, logos and candidates of the political parties that have candidates contesting any given electoral office. For example, if only five political parties are contesting for the office of the President, only those five political parties will appear on the Presidential Ballot Papers; including their logos and names of the presidential candidates. This means that, there will not be fifty political parties printed on the Presidential Ballot Papers. The same procedure should be adopted for other elective offices. In addition, the design of the ballot papers should also vary according to the six geo-political zones. If this strategy is adopted and followed to the later, election malpractices will be drastically reduced, if not entirely eliminated.
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