Obasanjo and the Verdict of History

By

Anthony A. Akinola

anthonyakinola@yahoo.co.uk 

            President Olusegun Obasanjo's leadership of Nigeria should terminate on the 29th of May ,2007. Obasanjo’s physical presence may remain with us for many more years to come but that would be a matter of less interest than it currently is.  How are we going to remember him and what could be his legacy?  I ask these questions because what people remember a contemporary leader for may not necessarily constitute a legacy in the eyes of history.  What then is a legacy?

            The Oxford Dictionary of English defines legacy as “something left or handed down by a predecessor (the legacy of centuries of neglect)”.  As a matter of fact, most past political leaders merely occupied space and did not leave permanent footprints in the sands of time.  A legacy, positive or negative, is an event whose consequences endure in history. For instance, the continuing transformation of the Yoruba into a community of assertive and highly educated people is the legacy of the legendary Obafemi Awolowo's policy of universal free primary education implemented in the 1950's, If President Obasanjo is destined to be a political leader with an enduring legacy, it could be from one of the many things he did while in office.

            One irony of President Olusegun Obasanjo is that he will be leaving behind him an image of the Nigerian nation almost as he met it in 1999, an image of contempt in the eyes of the world.  President Obasanjo’s immediate preoccupation upon coming to power was to redeem an image which General Sani Abacha would appear to have left battered beyond repair.   Obasanjo did this with utmost commitment, as his became a ubiquitous face in every capital of the world, trying to sell Nigeria to those who had assumed it was a better forgotten place.  His persistence would appear to have paid off but the image of Nigeria as a crude African nation has again re-emerged in the same capitals, not least because of rigged elections whose scale and methodology defy civilised imaginations.  Those touting Obasanjo as a possible Nobel Prize winner for his role in conflict management in the African continent would now be rushing to withdraw their signatures!

            The truth is that contemporary Nigerians, especially those less sympathetic to Obasanjo and his political party, will continue to emphasise the 2007 elections and the bickering between him and his deputy, Vice President Atiku Abubakar, as the key moments of his presidency.  Dr Tajudeen Abdul-Rahim in a recent article, described President Olusegun Obasanjo as a “Field Marshal in the art of manufacturing enemies”.  Obasanjo’s combatant approach to politics could not but have earned him a few enemies.  He is one politician who pays scant regard to image making; there are quite a few things he did which could have got the entire nation singing behind him if he had had a more polished way of selling himself in the political market.  The fight against corruption should be a national fight which, on its own, could have constituted an enduring legacy for a great political leader.  The few scapegoats of our war against corruption ended up getting undeserved sympathy because it was one war many believed or assumed Obasanjo had directed against real and perceived enemies or those he had disagreed with. 

            However, assuming the war against corruption continues to feature in the agenda of future governments and corruption itself becomes an unattractive venture among future generations of Nigerians, the name of Olusegun Obasanjo will be written in gold.  He was right to want to support a political leader who he believed would continue with his reform programme.  What he was not right to do was to insist on it as the national choice via the instrumentality of election rigging.

            General Obasanjo is an apostle of a one-party state, an author of a book in that subject.  The massive rigging he and Maurice Iwu of the “Independent” National Electoral Commission (INEC) orchestrated was geared towards achieving Obasanjo’s dream of a one-party Nigeria.  He again gave this away in a recent speech, the relevant part of which I quote here: “… I believe that if the National Assembly is an arm of government, National Assembly should not be an opposition to the Executive arm of government.  They should work together particularly when they are now from the same party” (The Guardian, 8 May 1997).

            Our president’s statement betrays a lack of understanding for the workings of the presidential system of government which he has superintended for eight good years.  Or, he is still angry that his “third term” agenda did not sail through!  The freedom of elected politicians to vote according to their individual consciences, the majority opinion in the constituencies they represent, and indeed their own future political aspirations, have combined to provide the lubricant that keeps the engine of the principle of Separations of Powers working.  The Nigerian politicians who seek to wrestle power form the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) must now begin to work towards producing an alternative or rival political party for future governance.  I say “alternative” or “rival” political party because parties of presidential politics are not “opposition” parties in the context of adversarial politics; the parties are expected to be able to work together. 

            Of course President Olusegun Obasanjo will be remembered for his part in getting Nigeria out of debt but this would only be for as long as the country is not back to the bad old ways.  His critics are however not happy that Obasanjo boasts more of what money he has saved in the bank than what he has been able to do for the nation in terms of jobs, and social and infrastructural developments.  Obasanjo’s era also heralded a new culture of widespread use of the telephone but to over emphasise this would be like wanting to attribute the use of motor vehicles to a particular government in Nigeria.  Nigeria did not invent the telephone so there should be little noise about it.  There are things which contemporary Nigerians should be taking for granted which, sadly, still remain in their dreams – things like the uninterrupted supply of electricity and free-flowing drinkable water.  Obasanjo’s success rating, as is the case with any other political leader, will vary from one individual to the other.  However, what constitutes his legacy, if any, is a matter for the undiscriminating eyes of history to reveal. 

 

            E-mail: anthonyakinola@yahoo.co.uk