Obasanjo's Ghost of Misdeeds Haunts Yar'Adua

By

Dr. Wunmi Akintide  

WUMIONE@aol.com

In Management parlance the outgoing holder of any position is considered a failure, if all his successor has to battle and grapple with, are old problems which were either ignored or deliberately swept under the carpet for tactical reasons or both. Peter Drucker will tell you that, and he is exactly right. 

If you look at the unfolding problems of Yar 'Adua in his first 100 days as President, and all the problems facing him as we speak, you have to view much of the legacies left behind by Obasanjo as a total failure, and you have to feel sorry for Nigeria and her people who are on the receiving end of this conundrum.

The situation would not have been that pathetic If Nigeria was a fundamentally poor country like Haiti, Niger, Liberia, Mali and Mauritania to mention a few. Those countries lack the natural endowments and manpower resources that could be fully tapped in order to improve their fortunes. But Nigeria like her sister country, the Congo Republic formerly called Zaire were as naturally blessed by God as they come. The two countries have the potential to be two of the richest countries in this planet, but due to poor and a visionless leadership and management of their resources plus the kleptomaniac tendencies of their political leadership, they have both remained two of the poor countries in Africa

I guess you can completely hold the late Mobutu Sese Seko Kuku Ngbendu Waza Banga as totally responsible for the misfortunes of Zaire while the successive generations of Nigerian leaders and most especially the Military as the "fons et origo" of most of our problems remain the people to blame for Nigeria's retrogression. For some naive reasons, some of us have entertained  high hopes about the second or third coming of Olusegun Obasanjo in a country of 140 million. But what we got in return has fallen far short of our expectations. Yes. Obasanjo did try, here and there, to take the bull by the horn in his eight years in office, but most of what he did, were all motivated more by his desire to create a Dynasty of his own and to help a few of his most vocal supporters and loyalists who think the whole world of him because without him they would not be where they are. Obasanjo has often gloated that the whole country would miss him after he is gone. That still remains to be seen given the level of frustration that nation has endured under his tyrannical rule for eight good years of lost opportunity.

I wish to God that our illegitimate President who is one of the main beneficiaries of the Obasanjo make believe reformation of Nigeria and the election "abracadabra" and manipulations that have been condemned world-wide, do not end up a tragic casualty of many of the worst legacies of Obasanjo's leadership as I articulated in many of my valedictory serial articles on Obasanjo's presidency, beginning with the one in which I forcefully argue that Obasanjo may well be the best Nigerian President we have had hitherto, but a tragic failure, if judged by international standards and democratic norms and idealism around the world.

By the same token in one of my welcome series to the new President, I have deliberately addressed some of the symbolic gestures the new President could make within his first 100 days in office, if he is to be taken seriously as a strong leader totally different from his predecessor in office who has simply forced him down the throat of his Party and  the nation for reasons only he alone could explain.. I deposed in that article that the beginning and the end of Corruption in our country can be traced back to a particular provision in our Military-conceived 1999 Constitution which was carefully choreographed by our worst dictator, General Sani Abacha, adopted and surreptiously turned into our Supreme  Law by no less another military dictator than General Abdulsalam Abubakar, without as much as a simple referendum on it by "We The People".

Obasanjo who took over the reins of Government after swearing on oath to uphold that Constitution did not have a chance to read the Constitution before accepting it. Since it was a Constitution put together by his own constituency, the Military, Obasanjo was just too happy to accept the document in good faith. Even though Obasanjo would want to be seen and accepted as the very champion of good Government and accountability in Nigeria, he sat on that Constitution for all of his 8 years in office, and did not for once sponsor a bill to the Senate and the House of Representatives, asking them to repeal the offensive provision in our Constitution that says a sitting President and his Vice and a sitting Governor and his Deputy who break the Law or even commit murder, cannot be prosecuted or investigated until after they have left office. The goal was not to distract them. But which distraction is more egregious and dangerous than pocketing the commonwealth of our nation and looking the other way.

In other words some of the rogue Governors who have stolen enough loot to be able to rig the last election and to therefore continue in office, cannot be touched until another four years. What is that telling the Governor or Deputy about accountability in our country? The answer is that they must steal as much as they are able so as to acquire enough resources to plea-bargain like some of them are now doing with our new President who has now ordered the Obasanjo-created EFCC and the Conduct Bureau to lie low on moving forward on whatever cases they may have gathered against such Governors, their Deputies and other powerful individuals in our country including the outgoing Vice President of the Republic and the Governor of Lagos. Given that rationalization, the Ondo State Deputy Governor who was caught red handed with his hands in the cookie jar, moving stuffed ballot boxes during the last election, could conceivably wait another four years before the Law would eventually catch up with him in Nigeria. In civilized polities the world over, justice delayed is justice denied. Not in our country. How naive can our new President get to overlook such infractions and to pretend that the state of our union is indeed strong and vibrant? Can you believe that? I simply cannot.

Our new President, if he was really adequately prepared for the office he now occupies should have had an action plan on what he wanted to do as President, and the electorates should have been allowed a say in that before voting him into office. Obasanjo did not see the necessity to very much involve "We the People" because the results of the elections have been predetermined by Maurice Iwu working in tandem with the outgoing Inspector General of Police as planted agents of Obasanjo and the PDP to declare victory, at all cost, for the PDP, win or lose, even in places where they did not field any candidate as we found in the Ondo State South Senatorial District.

It was clear in Ondo State and Ekiti that the voters did not vote for Agagu or Oni just like the voters had voted massively to defeat late Governor Adebayo Adefarati in 2003. Mimiko receiving as many millions of votes as was declared for him were all proof positive that he clearly won the elections arms down, as the tribunal Investigations would reveal, if it is done in all fairness and objectivity. I am so glad that a Governor Lamido of the PDP is now speaking up on the same point some of us have raised that the immunity from prosecution provision does not make sense at all, and should be expunged from our Constitution with immediate effect. Those with petitions at the Tribunal must not back down, if they are sure they have a point. We now seem to have a Judiciary under Chief Justice Kutigi that is up to the task, and would remain the last hope of the common man in our country.

If Mimiko backs down and does not move forward with all the preponderance of evidence on his side, he would have forfeited his right to lead in the future and his political appeal would have been shattered for good. Our new President must also extricate himself from a blind loyalty to his anointer who may be setting him up for failure from all indications. The new President's appeasement posturing with corrupt Governors was clearly a step in the wrong direction. He is definitely sending the wrong messages by appearing to be a stooge of Obasanjo.

His emphasis should be on doing the right thing for Nigeria, come rain or shine. If he is not able to repeal the offensive provisions in our Constitution with the overwhelming majority the PDP still controls in the Senate and the House, he would go down in history as one of the worst Presidents Nigeria has had, even worse than Obasanjo who was a military man. If in deed the new President is convinced, like he has admitted, that the last elections were badly rigged nation-wide, he could only earn legitimacy by doing something concrete about it. Trying not to embarrass or offend his anointer can only tie his hands behind his back, and that is not the way to go, if he values his name and reputation.

The other point I raised in my article grudgingly welcoming the President is that he must maintain the status quo/ balance in the way and manner he makes his appointments in the so-called Government of National Unity that he is contemplating. Although I disagree that the Government of National Unity is the way to go, unless the President wants to try it for a 2 year period as suggested in certain informed quarters around the world. I know that opponents of that move would easily shoot down the suggestion by claiming it is unconstitutional. If the President and his Party are serious about going that route, the way to go is to use the PDP's great majority at the Federal  to get the amendment to our Constitution passed within a year or two, if he truly means business. It can be done thru a purposeful leadership and determination. Restructuring Nigeria is a must if our nation is to survive.

I thought the new President on coming to office should have used an executive order to torpedo all of the rushed decisions of his predecessor to tie his hands. Raising the price of Gas Oil and Kerosene and rushing the award of some juicy contracts, at the eve of his departure, was a silly and corrupt move by Obasanjo. The new President should have had the courage to say "No" or to summarily cancel all such contracts altogether. Although I realize that might be a difficult proposition to implement because Obasanjo making himself the life Chairman of the PDP's Board of Trustees, and making sure that the Party Chairman and President of the Senate and Speaker of the House all go to his cronies who he can then use to render the new President ineffective and powerless, is an attempt to clip the wings of his successor in a way that was not contemplated by our flawed 1999 Constitution.

The other members of the PDP should have seen that coming, and should have blocked it before it saw the light of day. Obasanjo has therefore become the most powerful ex- President in all of our history. He is no longer President, but he is going to be wielding as much power as the figure-head President he has helped to put in office by force.

I know Ambassador Kingibe who has now become the hatchet man of the new President as Secretary to Government could conceivably  help to mitigate the effect of the Obasanjo move on the new President, but Kingibe would be doing so at his own peril, if he is not careful. As a matter of fact, the appointment of Kingibe is Obasanjo's worse nightmare for the wrong reasons. It was a smart move though by the new President but it could also be a landmine for an inexperienced and an ideologically-driven president who may be surrounded by too many wolves, because Kingibe is an ambitious team player  with a track record for back-stabbing friends, if the price is right, like we found out when he was among the first to jump into the band wagon of Sani Abacha even while claiming to be still championing the cause of M.K.O.. Those who condemn his appointment due to that sensitivity, surely has a point, but the new President was probably looking at the other side of him as an "agent provocateur" of sorts and an artful dodger diplomat with some talent to navigate the troubled waters of Nigeria at this point in the game.  

Because our naive new civilian President is sending the wrong or mixed messages on some of these important issues of major concern to our country, I can understand why most of the failed Gubernatorial candidates in Ondo State in particular and elsewhere in our country are now busy engaged in a horse trading with Governor Agagu and his Deputy on how much settlement they need to forego their pending cases at the tribunal. It is another corruption galore and the new President must call it what it is. Period. Even though the duo were responsible for rigging the individuals out of contention in the election, to begin with, they are the same people now calling the shots in Ondo State today, because the treasury of Ondo State for another four years could presumably remain at their beck and call.if the failed gubernatorial candidates as a group can be settled and pressurized to withdraw their pending cases against Governor Agagu and his Deputy.

Of course, many of those useless candidates are eager to negotiate with Agagu just to recover much of their expenses in the last elections by asking for settlement or seeking political appointments where their ultimate goal is to go loot the treasury of their various Departments, after all is said and done. The scenario in Ondo State can be juxtaposed "mutatis mutandi" to what is currently happening at Abuja and other state capitals around the country. It is a terrible country. Corruption is still as lethal like it once was, despite the best effort of Papa Iyabo.

That is precisely why I think the new President is heading in the wrong direction at this moment from all I can see from a distance. Unless he acts very quickly to stabilize the ship of State and to be his own man for once, it does not take a Rocket scientist to know he may soon be overwhelmed by many of the problems  created or set in motion by his anointer and political father.