Nigeria

Nigeria's 2007 Presidency: Let the One-Eyed Man Become King

Ayo Fawibe

At the toll of the bell this second, even the worst teacher of Nigerian politics would have scored President Obasanjo low for his two-term roller coaster administration. When Obasanjo was being ‘ambushed’ in 1999 to become the nation’s president, most Nigerians cried out against having a puppet running the government on behalf of the Northern oligarchy and the hawks. The Babangidas, the Abubakars found their web of protection in OBJ and so he was installed president against the will of Nigerians, even though he lost the election in his village. The product of insanity prevailing over reasoning is the Obasanjo presidency and we can easily measure the number of miles or kilometers Nigeria has crawled since May 1999.

We are back to that juncture, replica of that period in 1999 when the truth must be told since we now have Governor Umar Musa Yar’Adua on the verge of being imposed on Nigerians just like OBJ and it’s no news that he’s been anointed and proclaimed a worthy successor to the lord of aso rock. About eight years ago, OBJ claimed that he was virtually coerced into accepting the presidency and now in 2007, the story is the same, Yar’Adua was living a quiet life as governor in his Katsina villa when ‘they’ decided that it’s his turn to mount the roller coaster.

Now it’s time to put the will of Nigerians to test once again, just like the failed third term agenda, they surely have to consider the choice of the next president as a glimpse into what the future holds for the nation under the guidance of the two brothers from Katsina.

The highly respected Professor Wole Soyinka recently gave his ‘wise’ counsel by declaring both Buhari and Yar’Adua unfit to be Nigeria’s president. So where do we go from here? Should we now endorse OBJ for a third term or allow for a vacuum in governance? Another unpalatable option is to declare these set of politicians unfit and abdicate the situation to the military and we all know that this is not plausible.

By the way, what shall we make out of OBJ’s recent conclusion that Buhari still has the mindset of a military man? If this is his idea of discrediting Buhari, then, we are just being sadly reminded that OBJ and his allies only took Nigerians for an eight-year ride. OBJ himself never fared so well as a politician, in fact, he doesn’t seem to have learnt anything about politics as a game of give and take. If given a free hand, his dictatorial tendencies surpass that of Babangida and Abacha combined. Did he not declare his Vice President’s vacant before realizing that the constitution and the judiciary are very potent factors to consider in such a move? If the legislators had not served as a stumbling block, of course, OBJ was surely poised to extend his rule in a military fashion. And how well has OBJ executed his anti-corruption campaign? Of course, his military mindset came to the fore as he has only utilized the EFCC as a tool to hunt down his perceived enemies and adversaries. Buhari and Idiagbon were in charge as military rulers, if they had acted like our present day OBJ, their pre-occupation would have been hunting down the likes of Babangida, Abacha, Dogonyaro and the others who eventually sacked them from office.

No one is saying Buhari is a saint, but if they have left us with the option of grappling with a difficult choice between the two Katsina brothers, then the wisest choice would be Buhari. The saying goes that in the land of blind men, the one-eyed man is the king. Now that we have an Obasanjo’s surrogate as PDP’S presidential hopeful, it is safe to conclude that the status- quo may not really change come May 2007. Yar’Adua is expected to come in with a borrowed image of his brother late General Shehu Musa Yar’Adua who was OBJ’s deputy as military head of state. He is being supplanted not just to be OBJ’s puppet but also only to continue as a channel for protecting the interest of the retired generals who were associates of his late brother and we all know them. In a nutshell, the strongest credential of the PDP presidential flag-bearer is the name Yaradua and that simply qualifies him as OBJ’s “worthy successor” But the truth is that Shehu Musa Yar’Adua is not the same with Umar Musa Yar’Adua, none of them can replace the other, even if they identical twins.

So where is the place for the Nigerian electorates in the scheme of things? Do they have any say at all? As usual, everything will be done to make the voters irrelevant but if the legislators could serve as worthy representatives by decapitating the evil third term agenda, then the crop of Nigerian electorates must take the destiny of Nigeria in their own hands by voting with reason and ensure that magic figures doesn’t emerge this time.

It is high time that Nigerians began to take more interest in the future of their fatherland especially in the face of the increasing desperation of the hawks to reduce a nation of over one hundred million people to a banana republic where their personal interests soar above those of the people.

When you ask the crop of Nigerians, including members of the bus stop parliament what is the solution to Nigeria’s problem? The age-long preferred solution has always been the call for a revolution and this is easier said than done. You can liken their position to that of a soccer fan who is capable of faulting the players and scoring all the goals with his mouth from the spectators stand.

However, talking about revolutionary leadership, the faintest idea of it that Nigerians practically experienced was at first, the action man, late General Murtala Muhammad and the next significant feel of positive change was evolved by the General Muhammadu Buhari administration. Although, some Nigerians at that time felt suppressed under what some observers still regard as the high-handedness of that government, but given the chance to further sanitize the system, arguably, the nation would have been the best for it.

So far, Buhari obviously soars high with a unique identity of his own, even when he managed the Petroleum (Special) Trust Fund under the dreaded Abacha government, he never mangled his credibility and the judicious the utilization of the resources was quite evident for all to feel. Buhari surely remains untainted and if he’s still thinking like a ‘zombie’ he most likely won’t project the idea of state police, which is one of his manifesto. Anyone who is candidly prepared to overhaul the Nigeria Police should be able to realize that the biggest drawback of the nation’s crime fighting machinery undue centralization of management and command. If the Obasanjo government doesn’t see anything good in the idea of state police, why is the Nigerian government sending some of its cops to the United States for training in community policing? Therefore, if Buhari is toying with the idea of championing the idea of state police, then, unlike others, he actually sees beyond his nose and worthy of Nigerians votes.

At this point in the existence of Nigeria as a nation, this is another opportunity to decide whether to plunge the dear country further into the woods or take bold steps to rescue it from the desperados of our time. When Brigadier Joshua Dogonyaro read the coup speech in August 27, 1985, he accused the ousted Buhari government of the misuse of power at the detriment of national interest. Over twenty years after the unceremonious dismissal of the Buhari government, it is unfortunate that all the successive administrations have continued to grope in the dark till date as to how to effectively utilize political power to better the lots of our people. The latest of them is the present PDP led government that has been conspicuously be-deviled by a morbid and irresponsible leadership. The present leadership of the PDP has criminally approached 2007 elections with an unwavering desperation and suicidal intrigues, thereby squandering whatever goodwill is left for the party. In level political landscape, truly, Nigerians would probably have a better opportunity to embrace the likes of Professor Pat Utomi who is an intellectual of note, but we all know that when the members of the inner circle do set the agenda, the man on the street is often left with little or no choice. As for Vice President Atiku Abubakar, he went to dine with the devil but forgot his long spoon and now he’s paying the price for it. He would continue to enjoy the sympathy of all and sundry for exposing Obasanjo, however, becoming the nation’s president would have been easier for him under the PDP, otherwise, the candid eyes still see him as one of them and he was there when the going was good.

Buhari is certainly not the perfect choice but he is the best option as the one-eyed king in the midst of blind presidential candidates. He is already democratic psychologically, having been a politician and contesting elections over the years. It is often said that when you lie down with the dogs, you’re going to get up with fleas. Buhari may have rubbed shoulders with the hawks but he has emerged stainless. Above all he’s politically mature and adequately positioned to operate independently without recourse to godfathers. The antecedents of his government as a military head of state suggest that he’s the type who wouldn’t shuttle between Abuja and Ota, then to Minna in order to take instructions on how to run the country.