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National Unity Government May Be Good On Face Value, But It Cannot Save Nigeria! By Dr. Wunmi Akintide
What purpose does it serve to start locking up the stable after the horse has bolted? It is a good question to ask our new President and the Governor of Ondo State in particular, as they frantically make overtures to all opposition parties in their domains to just bury the hatchet, withdraw their pending cases at the various Election Tribunals, across the country, and to join hands with the fraudulently proclaimed winners of the April 14 and April 21 elections in Nigeria. It is common knowledge that those elections have now been condemned and dismissed as a charade by the great majority of Nigerians and much of the informed International community led by the very leader of the Free World.
It has been widely reported in newspapers and on the Internet that the US has recently cut down or considerably reduced her more than 100 million subvention to the so-called democratic reforms by the defunct Obasanjo Government. Our new President has been under so much pressure and embarrassment of sorts in every trip he has made since his inauguration, that he now has no choice than to publicly admit that his victory lacked legitimacy because the elections, including, his were blatantly rigged across the country. That is the truth that nobody can deny.
The President has even gone a step further to promise electoral reforms with immediate effect by looking into the "fons et origo" of election mal practices in Nigeria and the pervasive culture and tendency in our politicians to always want to cut corners, at election times, just to favor the ruling Party and by denying the opposition their chances by fraudulently raining on their parade, so to speak.
The declaration of the new President, to that effect, is definitely a step in the wrong direction in my judgment, but talk is cheap. What is important is for "the servant leader" to keep his words to the nation and to the world by doing what is productive and realistic. Forming a national Unity Government as presently configured by him and the think tank working for him led by Ambassador Kingibe, his Secretary to Government and some of the leaders of thought in the PDP, is an exercise in futility.. Whether or not the new Presidency is ready to admit that a strong wind of change or even a Tsunami has just blown through the PDP and their mind set, still remains to be seen.
If Yar Ardua wishes to succeed he has to take along the majority of the big wigs in his Party, many of whom are still more loyal to Obasanjo than they are to him. Why? Because without Obasanjo all or most of them would never have been where they are now. Even the President himself could never have been President without Obasanjo's bulldozing tactics as the de facto leader of the PDP today, and arguably the most powerful ex-President in all of our History.
The situation in the PDP today is a far cry from what it was when Obasanjo was led out of prison to be crowned President by acclamation in 1999 and less so in 2003. Obasanjo of that time was as poor as a Church rat. He could not afford a motor bike, if he had wanted one, but today in retirement, he is richer than most Nigerians. He can afford going to his lectures at his Open University campus in Lagos by hopping into a helicopter to avoid a repeat performance of his recent more than 5 hour traffic hold-up on the street of Lagos on his very first day at college.
Our ex- President who was ready to send Inspector-General Tafa Balogun to a life jail for corruption has just returned from a vacation in Jamaica with a few members of his nuclear family in a private jet he is reported to have purchased with a chicken change of only 36 million Naira or is it dollars. The jet might have been a gift to him from his friend and political associate, Alhaji Dangote, the Bill Gate of Nigeria who got most of the juicy contracts the Federal Government of Obasanjo has been able dole out in all of his eight years in office. Tongues are already wagging on why Obasanjo has suddenly become so filthy rich and if all the salaries he has earned in 8 years could possibly have made him a trillion man, while majority of Nigerians cannot afford three square meals a day, and some are really going into the garbage can to look for food while our born-again ex- President and preacher is laughing all the way to the Bank.
The crumbs falling out of the multi billion Naira Obasanjo Presidential Library, not to talk of the dividends coming from his expanded Ota Farm initiatives which now generates 300 million Naira profit a month the last time I checked, and his shares in the multinational called Transcorp of Nigeria is now our financial equivalent of Enron Inc in Houston Texas. I am told Obasanjo now has his eyes on setting up the moral equivalent of either the Arthur Daniel's Mid Land Farms of America or the Nigerian version of Wall mart, the largest chains of supermarkets based in Arkansas.
In short, Obasanjo has now succeeded in creating his own Dynasty like the Kennedy or the Rockefeller Dynasty of America, and can now afford to use his limitless wealth to set up a political machine of his own, if he is now forced by circumstances beyond his control to part ways with his anointed successor in Yar Adua.
I go into all this digression to underscore my fear that Yar Adua has his job cut out for him, if he is to succeed. Whether or not he likes it, he would have to confront the only elephant in the room and his boys for him to have any chance of charting a new course for himself as President. That is job number one the way I see it. If Yar Adua is still standing by the time he gets past Obasanjo's can of worms, he may then have a chance to address some of the urgent problems of Nigeria like electoral reforms, and the hydra-headed problems of Corruption in our country and derelict or epileptic basic infrastructures.
Making appeasement to the opposition to join him by sharing out of the various ministerial appointments, ambassadorial appointments and Chairmen and members of the governing trustees of parastatals across the country and giving out juicy Federal contracts to companies owned by members of the opposition are the reasons so many of the opposition leaders are embracing the new President and his initiative today. But when all is said and done, Yar Adua would just be a rejuvenated "Shehu Shagari in Babariga", if you like. I see nothing new in what Yar Adua is saying today.
Shehu Shagari has said more than that, just imagine where that has led our country when the Akinloyes and the Umaru Dikkos and the Uba Ahmeds of this world surreptiously got under his skin, calling him the second-in-command to Allah, and making him feel a few inches taller than he actually was. Before you could say Jackie Robinson, the nation was headed to a precipice of no return, and that was the invitation to the Military coming back again one more time too many in our body politic. Just imagine why that has led our country. It was always one step forward, and three steps backward.
If Yar Adua truly loves Nigeria and he wants to be remembered for something, "you chop, I chop mentality and [predilection" that are the foundations of his invitation to the opposition to join hands with him to steer the ship of State, is nothing but an exercise in futility and it is the wrong message to be sending at this time just like Agagu's invitation to the opposition in Ondo State is equally as bastardized as they come. The gang of Six who recorded only 8 per cent of the votes cast in the last elections are so quick to jump on the band wagon of Agagu, the man who currently holds the key to the Ondo State Treasury and subventions coming from the Federal, because Ondo remains one of the 13 oil producing states in Nigeria..
I know a lot of people can kill to dislodge Agagu who did not win the last elections but was fraudulently declared the winner because he is a card carrying member of the new President's Party and he has made enough money to oil his political machine and propaganda. The young man who won and won convincingly is "Iroko" Mimiko of the Labor Party. If the failed candidates who only got 8% of the total votes cast in that election are now expressing their willingness to bury the hatchet with Agagu, all they are looking for are ministerial appointments and crumbs from the political spoils system like they say in America. They are political contractors and mercenaries. I only regret that my only candidate among them, Architect Olu Agbesua got hoodwinked in joining the gang. I thought he was better than that. I was shocked to see his name and I told him so because I have the greatest respect for him.
The six candidates have lost their credibility, if they tell you they are doing so for the interest of our State. They are just looking for an opportunity to replenish the money they have spent for the elections. They are seeking to cut their losses and Agagu is willing to accommodate them because he knows that when the rubber meets the road, at the Tribunal, he might lose it all, in one given night. Agagu is like a drowning man, at this point, who can cling to a snake just to survive because the stakes are just too big for him. Another four years in the Government House free of all encumbrances guaranteed by the immunity provisions in our Constitution that say Governors and their Deputies, Presidents and their Vice cannot be prosecuted for all crimes committed while in office But the evidences are just too overwhelming that Agagu did not win in Ondo State at all. The members of the Tribunals are not deaf and dumb. They too are part of the society and they knew all that happened in those elections.
The best Agagu attorneys could hope for are to harp on technicalities offered by his fraudulent INEC collaborators to rubbish some of the overwhelming evidences in favor of Mimiko. I believe the Tribunal, if they stand on the side of justice, would vindicate Mimiko when all is said and done.
My point is that our new President must not stand in the way of getting the Tribunal to do their job with fairness and objectivity. He must not interfere with the work of the Tribunal because he himself is an interested party at the Federal level.He must steer clear of teleguiding the Tribunal just like he is doing now with the Conduct Bureau and the EFCC headed by Nuhu Ribadu. He also must, as a matter of urgency, take immediate steps to submit bills that seek to expunge the offensive provisions in our Constitution that protects and shields many of the pen robbers that currently occupy most of the Government Houses in all states of our Federation. That should be job number one of the President like I said before in a previous article.
The President must allow the Tribunals to do their work and to return the stolen mandate of the Opposition parties to them in all the States where their candidates have won arms down. Doing so will signify that the President understands that the role of the opposition is very critical in every successful democratic set up the world over. The opposition has to be viewed as a Government-in-waiting, if the Government in power fumbles, as they often do.
The new President must strive to create that conducive environment for the opposition to thrive and succeed, if they come up with more rational ideas than the Government in power. Doing that is far better than asking the opposition to join hands with him by taking a few ministerial jobs. Doing that is to encourage a one Party system of Government which is a subtle form of Dictatorship.
A very wise and patriotic leader of opposition will take much the same position that Obafemi Awolowo had done, when Shehu Shagari made overtures to him to come share power with him. Of course, Awo turned down the offer, and he was happy to remain the leader of the loyal opposition because he understood what Shehu Shagari did not fully grasp, at the time, that his unity government appeasement proposition like the current one by Yar Adua is doomed to fail and fail woefully, because it is like putting a wall paper over a cracks on the wall..
If anything, Yar Adua must strive thru legislation to reduce the number of parties in our country like Babangida once tried to do. That move would have been the greatest legacy that Babangida would have given our country, had he allowed M.K.O. to savor and enjoy his victory and mandate on the platform of the defunct SDP. Yar Adua has some useful lessons to learn from Babangida in that regard, and must do so for his own legacies to ever have a chance to endure in Nigeria.
I rest my case.
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