No Sharia in Buhari/Babangida v. Yar'Adua/Obasanjo Permutations

By

Farouk Martins, OmoAresa

faroukomartins@aim.com

 

Keep your eyes on characters not on religious fundamentalists without political ideas. It seems that the lesser “saint” in this permutation is Umaru Yar’Dua. We are not so naïve, no matter what is said, not to know that anyone squeezed between Obasanjo, Babangida and Buhari Trio, has a long spoon. Yar’Dua may not be a Koran or Bible zealot by peers’ standards. But if you label him Obasanjo’s altered ego, think again. Say the last Northern leader who took orders from the South. If he has no penchant for power, that is a plus.

 

As some of us wonder about what business the trio has in the presidency, there is this burning desire for control by each. Whoever they touch, is soiled. That is, it diminishes their chances of being voted for. While Buhari may be the lesser devil of the trio, I do not think he will get the votes of decent, law abiding moderates in Nigeria because of his dictatorial arrogance. He was crowned the Presidential candidate of ANPP without much of a contest twice. Atiku, “do or die”, he is used to having his own way, defying anybody.

 

What is it they want? Money, they have. Fame, they have. Usurper, they have been. Dictator, they have been. If they have not gotten enough, Africans have had enough of it. Yet they are hungry for power like they have never “been to”. Biko, see our trouble o!

 

Why come back? In order to cover their butts, soothe their bruised ego without any idea of how to get us out of the misery they plunged us into. It is only in Nigeria that a failure will come back for an encore. Yet we have 140 million brains of immerse proportion that can not secure our own salvation. Being the most religious Country has not helped either.

 

Something stinks to high heavens between Babangida and Buhari on one hand and between Yar’Dua and Obasanjo on the other hand. The notion that we need an iron clad hand and only dictators can rule Nigeria leaves us with a feeling that our people are so incorrigible that there are no more law abiding citizens left in Nigeria. I beg to disagree. On the contrary, majority of Nigerians are decent. If we are taken for granted and heavy weights sink their boats, Pat Utomi can get our protest votes like Otedola did in Lagos.

 

We tend to forget that those who flaunt their looted funds, disobey the traffic rules and destroy communal properties are very few compared to hard working Nigerians who sweat for very little returns in the hinder land. These are people in the villages who work from dusk to dawn and keep their environment tidy. Even the hawkers in the cities, of different ages, work from dusk to dawn. There are not many people anywhere who will work for about the same amount of money as it takes to pay for transportation.

 

However, I will be the first to agree that the few irredeemable souls in our midst control most of us and get all the national and international attention. If this is the vulture class past leaders belong to, why would anybody give four more miserable years, times what?

 

As for Buhari, who is more disciplined amongst the trio, his double standard of law, order and justice between those privileged to be close to him and the rest of us, corrupted his principles. He is not a poor man on a soldier’s salary either. We now know that by 1999, he was richer than Obasanjo, his head of State under whom he served.

 

There is no doubt that since 1999, Ali Baba has used the power of incumbency to enrich himself either by loans he would not have qualified for or with the Petroleum Technology Development Fund creative accounting. We enjoy the exposure of all the crooks though.

 

Babangida’s case and Okigbo report speaks for itself and need no more quantification. He is one of the richest men in Nigeria.  Actually, they and their cronies make many of us look stupid when they talk about acquiring their loot through some legitimate businesses and transactions unattainable by the rest of us.

 

How Umaru Yar’Dua joined this trio as a crown prince of the circumstances will be for Nigerians to sort out during the election. Some may see him as Moses in the house of Pharaoh or a devil in disguise. Until he is exposed as a billion naira blatantly corrupt ruler with dictatorial tendencies; in Nigeria, that is a plus. Obasanjo’s repute is his albatross.

 

Anybody who thinks the friendship of convenience between Buahri and Babangida will last from here on is in blissful euphoria of some drug. Babangida always cover his bases no matter who wins the presidency. That is why he is Maradona. Obasanjo was one of his greatest critics; he got him somehow in the pocket and dislocated Atiku in the process.

 

Well, well, oh well! It may not be that easy to get Buhari in the pocket, no matter what he does. Getting back at Obasanjo through Buhari has a price. Babangida may not spend the same amount of time in jail he sentenced Buhari to, but he will serve mitigated time in kind. That will be less protection than he enjoyed under Obasanjo regime.

 

I have no faith in any religious law that is only hard on the common man or woman as Exodus’ Eye for an Eye or Sharia - Either in Saudi Arabia or in Nigeria which allows privilege men of status to be drunks, kleptomaniacs or womanizers without the same type of punishment. Asking us to bow, while we pray in the name of Jesus or Isha Allah while others steal billions is not good enough. Not even with a free trip to Mecca or Jerusalem.

 

However, I do not think the fear of Sharia taking over the rest of Nigeria is justified. The spread of Sharia in the North was a backlash against Obasanjo election. He prayed in Church, ate amola and infringed on the lingua franca with Yoruba language in Aso Rock!

We need to emulate religious tolerance in the South-west of our Country where every family has Christians, Moslems, Atheists and Humanists in their compounds. Religious festivals are celebrated as welcomed joyous occasions for all, and gifts are exchanged.

 

We now have enough parties and enough characters to choose a dark horse if all else fail. The power of impeachment, even though misused many times, is also there to check the flagrant unilateral abuse of religious power witnessed during the military regimes. Nigeria must remain a secular State to move us along.