Too Little, Too LOO LATE
By
Dr. Wunmi Akintide
 

I cannot help but agree with Professor Mobolaji Aluko's and my good friend Chika Onyeani for their correct appraisal of the current Nigerian situation and the key players in it. Obasanjo as President cannot extricate himself from blame for leading Nigeria to the precipice of a constitutional logjam.

Unto who much is given, much is expected. Obasanjo is only one person out of a rough estimate of 140 million people . I  have expected and the great majority of us, I would concede, do expect a much higher code of ethics from a father figure whose current position ought to be the central glue that binds our nation together. For that reason, Obasanjo  ought to see himself as above partisan politics and comport himself as such, regardless of  all pressures put on him by his party members and political associates.

Obasanjo as Presidential candidate of a Party that controls no less than 28 States out of the 36 states of Nigeria was uniquely placed  to passionately convince his Party to annul the offensive provisions in our Constitution that  grant immunity from prosecution to himself and his Vice President and State Governors even if they are caught with their hands in the cookie jar, stealing money, abusing their offices and openly compromising the future of our country. It is a little bit too late for Obasanjo to convince most Nigerians that he is not actually trying to make up for what he did not do as a military head of State from 1976 to 1979 when he strictly went by the script handed over to him by his boss, Murtala Mohammed. I knew Murtala better than all of the other Nigerian Heads of state. Once he successfully took over power nine years later than he had wanted to, he knew he had to come clean with the nation to have any credibility at all. Like most of the War Lords that led the war against Biafran he truly made some illicit money and acquired some ill-gotten gains from the War. He was however willing to surrender all those gains back to the nation to maintain his credibility. He knew he had to make himself a role model for the other ranks serving under him including Obasanjo as his Chief of Staff, Supreme Headquarters at Dodan Barracks. He knew if he was corrupt, he would no leg to stand to call into question some of the activities of his subordinates.

I guess the natural inference to draw from that analogy is to blame Obasanjo for some of the excesses of his immediate Deputy in Atiku Abubakar. In their first term from 1999 to 2003, both were busy doing what they are now complaining about today enriching their pockets at the expense of the State. Obasanjo was President by right and Atiku was President by deed. The symbiotic relationship was remarkable. Because Atiku looked the other way to allow Obasanjo do what he likes, Obasanjo returned that favor by putting Atiku in charge of the juicy privatization scheme which turned Atiku from a millionaire to a mega billionaire. So was Baba himself who rose from having less than 20,000.00  Naira in his account to a man who, four years later could afford to dole half a million Naira, to mark the 76th birthday celebration of an Adedibu, a 700 million Naira chicken change to bail out a friend in some financial distress and more than 300 million as first down payment to buy controlling shares in Trans Corp, no questions asked.

How could a President with that kind of profile have the effrontery to fire one Professor Osuji for bribing the Legislature to approve the budget for his Ministry? How could such a President have the audacity to fire a Mrs. Osomo for allocating some Federal buildings to be auctioned to her friends and celebrities and family members she knew were very close to the President and his first lady? How for God's sake could such a President have the audacity to claim he was the god father of transparent Government and the most credible advocate of honesty in Government. It is simply ludicrous to hear Obasanjo tell Nigerians he would never allow Atiku Abubakar to become President because he knew he is going to swallow the whole country and put in reverse some of the legacies checks and balances he has put in place. What legacies I am tempted to ask. The whole situation stinks. The Senate committee now trying to indict the President and his Vice less than six weeks to the end of their second term. is too little, too late like they say in America. And that the Senate would go on recess till May 2nd at a time they should be working round the clock to save Nigeria from anarchy, is to say the least an abomination.

When Obasanjo with less than 20,000.00 Naira in his personal account  was brought out of prison in 1999 to come rule Nigeria, most of his backers for the Presidency at the time had what I call the audacity of hope to believe in him as the only credible southerner who could really save our country. That audacity was predicated on his previous track record when he voluntarily handed over to a civilian Administration of Shehu Shagari in fulfillment of the agenda himself and Murtala Mohammed had promised the Nation on taking over power in 1975 from General Yakubu Gowon.

Obasanjo, on that occasion, had retired himself from service hoping that his track record and legacy would catapult him to the enviable position of Secretary-general of the United Nations in continuation of his Napoleonic rise as an outstanding public figure from Black Africa. He was also counting on the support that the Murtala Government and his own had given to South Africa to break the back of Apartheid, and the fact that the central plank of Nigerian Foreign Policy, at the time and even up till now, is Africa and her global interest around the world. Which other Africa country could actually stop a Nigeria-sponsored candidate from being named the Secretary-general, if it is the turn of the African bloc to present a candidate?

Obasanjo knew that going into retirement and he became one of the leading African statesmen before  Nelson Mandela came on board to lead South Africa and to really the rest of the world that the dark continent has finally come of age. Despite his own personal sufferings and deprivation for 27 years at the hands of his enemies in the Apartheid Regime, Mandela quickly made his peace with his detractors and sworn enemies to reclaim his leadership of South Africa and the whole of the African continent. It was a virtuoso performance making  mere liliputians of leaders like Mobutu Sese Seko Kuku Ngbendu Waza Banga, Robert Mugabe and Olusegun Obasanjo.

Nelson Mandela has gone ahead to demonstrate the kind of leadership that most Nigerians had expected from Obasanjo when he named a younger man in Thabo Mbeki as his Vice President. He decided he was going to serve only one term and he seized that opportunity to lay a solid foundation for South Africa, and leaving the stage while the ovation was loudest. In campaigning with Thabo Mbeki before the elections in South Africa, Nelson Mandela did not fail to impress on the voters in South Africa that it was their prerogative to put the opposition in power in South Africa, if, for any reason the ruling Party to which he belongs, does not perform.

Unlike Mandela, Obasanjo is openly nursing the ambition to make the PDP the only viable Party in Nigeria, while doing everything to muzzle the opposition and bury them like he had done in the South West when he ambushed all the AD Governors by deceiving them into supporting his plan to do a second term when it became clear to him that his Vice President had more influence with the majority of the then PDP Governors. Unlike Obasanjo, Mandela did not seek to perpetuate himself in office by seeking a second and third term. He understood better than the "General Do Good" of Nigeria that running a Government was not a one man affair and that a one Party nation was counter productive in a democratic system of Government. . Mandela was not interested in amassing wealth for himself or building white elephant projects like a building a personal Library or building a private University of his own or buying up, for a chicken change, most of the federal buildings that were being auctioned in Lagos, the former Federal Capital.

Mandela was not interested in having controlling shares in multinationals like the Trans Corp or competing with his Vice President to build his own private University and Library while all the public universities Libraries run by his Government were falling apart due to neglect and financial starvation. Because Obasanjo had controlling shares in Transcorp, he had made sure that juicy Federal contracts including major oil blocs were allocated to the Corporation for mere peanuts so their margin of profit for the benefit of the shareholders could hit the roof while Obasanjo is no longer President.

Obasanjo was interested in picking who would succeed him, and he carefully manipulated the electoral processes to ensure that only the individuals anointed by him would ever come to power regardless of their state of health or their track record in public office. Making the medical record of a candidate open to public scrutiny as a precautionary measure was not important to Obasanjo who could be praying for a stalemate that could conceivably lead to Nigeria asking him to return because he is the only one who can effectively govern Nigeria. Why does have to be nursing the ambition to be life Chairman of the ruling PDP after leaving office, and if his subterranean plan to stay put does not hold up. At more than 70 or over senility has set in for Baba Iyabo, If that were not so he would have realized that if he does not leave a job, the job can leave him, because there is a limit to how much a human being can do. It is time for Obasanjo to go and let new leaders take over.

Obasanjo would do well to understudy the Mandela model of leadership. When Mandela talks today, the whole world listens without any question. Conducting a free and fair election in South Africa was top priority for Mandela because he knew there could be no Democracy in South Africa if their elections were neither free nor fair. Mandela had set up the truth and reconciliation commission not as the toothless bull dog that Obasanjo has plagiarized when he set up the Oputa Panel whose recommendations were not enforceable because the enabling legislation was totally defective and useless. The reports are some where in the Cabinet Office in Abuja gathering dust. Rather than reconcile people by making them forget the past and move forward, the Oputa Panel report was designed to polarize our nation. .

Obasanjo has nobody but himself to blame for his failure to pick subordinates who can best serve the nation well. Atiku Abubakar was on his way to being sworn in as Governor of Adamawa when Obasanjo decided to tap him for the position of Vice President. If he did not do his home  work before picking him, he cannot turn round to blame Nigerians for his own naivety. His choice of Atiku and people like Tafa Balogun as Inspector General and some of the terrible choices he has made in picking a few of his Cabinet members speaks volumes on the vision and character of Obasanjo as a leader.

There is also his total disregard for provisions of the Nigerian Constitution in taking decisions as President or authorizing disbursement of Funds without following the  due process. In most civilized countries such deviations were serious enough to warrant impeachment because no corruption can be more egregious than spending money you have not been authorized to spend, or diverting public money to pet projects of your own choice without approval by the Legislature. Separation of powers was not defined in our system as mere window dressing to be ignored by the President. Another troubling area of concern is Obasanjo's predisposition to ignore the rule of Law or setting aside Court rulings or verdicts to do what he pleases. He is also encouraging his aides to do the same.

Obasanjo bears vicarious responsibilities for many of the wrongs that Vice President Atiku Abubakar is being indicted for today. If the President is disobeying Laws what does he expect from his Vice President and other Cabinet members, aides and special assistants and his ambassadors abroad who take their cue from him?

I personally think that the Nigerian Senate would be failing in her duties to want to treat the President like a sacred cow while his Vice President is being treated as an outlaw.. Nigerians are all equal before the Law and it makes no sense at all to treat the President as being above the Law. Nigeria would be heading for anarchy, if we do not insist on a level playing field as eloquently argued by Wole Soyinka and most of the Nigerian intelligentials.

I concur with Chika Onyeani that Obasanjo is shamefully leaving office like Richard Nixon with the specter of  being indicted for Corruption. He has spent much of his second term in office pointing accusing figures on others while he himself is very much guilty of the same offense. Obasanjo has become a bundle of contradictions just like most of his hand-picked officials. When a President like him openly canvasses the friendship and confidence of a political hoodlum like Adedibu, and would not let the Law Enforcement agents go after him for illegally procuring six ballot-making machines at a time the whole Nation is totally apprehensive that the next elections are most likely to be rigged, because of sloppy and inadequate preparations. What are we all supposed to make of that?.

A member of the Nigerian Legislature, one Mrs. Abike Dabiri has openly admitted that she and some of her colleagues were offered 50 million Naira to vote for the third term agenda by a President who wants to be seen as the greatest champion of transparency in Government. What do we make of that? Why did this President find that money or the 700 million Naira he had paid to the private account of his friend and business partner, Chief Fasawe?

The immunity provision in the Nigerian Constitution is an invitation for our public officers to be corrupt while in office. It makes no sense at all. The provision is simply asking our leaders to grab as much as they can while still in power. I have to believe that Obasanjo was prepared to live with that provision for eight years and beyond, because he himself is not above board.

I think it is disingenuous for Nuhu Ribadu to now plead that the EFCC is truly not independent of the Presidency. The point has been made, time and again, that the EFCC was being used as an attack dog to go after the perceived enemies of Mr. President. This Ribadu of a man used to say it was not so, until he is now forced to admit lately that all of the list of indicted candidates by his EFCC have, in fact, been doctored by the President. We knew that to be so all along, and the man kept defending the indefensible. By the same token, Professor Iwu, the Chairman of INEC has been blowing hot and cold on whether or not he is being micro-managed by the President to do certain things and to disqualify certain candidates who are known to be enemies of the President. So is the Inspector-general of Police, the man who is supposed to enforce the Law without fear or favor. 

These individuals have done a lot of damage to our country already. What they are saying in is now too little, too late and they should all be ashamed of themselves.

I rest my case.

Dr. Wunmi Akintide