A Diminished Man

By

Obiora Fabian Chukwuma

chukoby@yahoo.com

Nigeria is a nation with a very tragic irony. It boasts a long list of ‘men and women who have contributed immensely to nation building’. Our immediate past president fancies himself as leading the pack in this ‘rare’ breed. But a cursory look at Nigeria vis-à-vis developmental indices throws up very uncomfortable questions especially for Obasanjo, Nigeria’s self acclaimed super-hero. Nigeria is so blessed, yet her people are some of the poorest in the world. What exactly have these ‘patriots’ especially Obasanjo been building?

We had a glimpse into the working of his mind when he was taken-on on his stewardship in the power sector. His response was that he put a man that did not know his left from his right but had no choice than to change him. The said man we all know spent barely a year in that office. What happened in the next seven years when this man was out of the way? Before you ask another of the many questions his poor stewardship throws up, he starts to babble about how the unity of Nigeria is not negotiable and how he is ready to die to keep it one. Pray, does that not sound like what the much vilified Abacha ‘achieved’ in his five-year reign? ‘Keeping Nigeria one’ has assumed the worst excuse for failure in Nigerian leadership. Those that trumpet it most are the non-achievers. Yar’Adua should take note. He should rather start developing it as that is the only way to preserve its unity. But that is an issue for another day. Let us see how Obasanjo built Nigeria in the past eight years.

Fair enough, Obasanjo inherited an economy in doldrums and promised to turn it around. The banking sector was replete with fraud and other sharp practices. Many banks were poorly capitalised and therefore fragile. Infrastructure was poor. These led to low capacity utilization. He assembled some of the best brains in the country to turn the economy around. The banking sector reforms were successful to a large extent. Our banks became healthier, though still unable to compete globally. Many imports were banned. There was relative fiscal stability. But the infrastructure remained poor – power supply is virtually non-existent, roads are riddled with gullies and potholes, aviation industry is a tale of sorrow, tears and blood, railways are moribund, water supply is extreme luxury. Given this state of affairs, industries groan, making importation and smuggling both attractive and inevitable. The banks though healthier, do not fund local production but imports and commerce. This led to the current high level of unemployment and the attendant social dislocation. High crime wave as currently exists is only a natural consequence. What is more, the ill equipped, ill trained and ill motivated police cannot cope and are in fact overawed, leading to yet more business closures and security measures that border on the bizarre by those that manage to brave what is fast turning into war in our major cities. Most Nigerian banks allow just one entrance and exit, one person at a time to their banking halls and this usually takes minutes. Apart from the lost man-hours, there is no provision for emergency exits as the law provides for in other countries. Any hazard like fire will surely lead to heavy casualties. Back to the main issue.

The point is that Obasanjo did not invest enough in the real sector to take the full advantage of the relatively successful banking reforms for Nigeria’s overall development. Many (including the writer) believe it is due to corruption. To be sure he identified corruption as the biggest impediment to National development and set out on a war against this monster. Whether he was sincere or not is a different matter entirely. He established two agencies, Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission (ICPC) and the more vibrant Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). Many were arrested, tried and jailed in this fight. But questions remain on him and his cronies. For eight years, he was unable to fix any of our refineries after spending billions of dollars. No one was prosecuted for this. One may ask, how long and how much does it take to build a new refinery never mind repair an existing one? Who has been importing fuel into Nigeria for those eight long years? Many believe that the answers may explain the magic and miracle behind the transformation of a certain chicken farmer with a reported bank balance of N20, 000 in 1999 to a multi billionaire eight years later. Questions still remain as to what happened to whooping N300bn budgeted to the Ministry of Works and Housing when a certain Obasanjo ally, Tony Anenih held sway there as there is no evidence of that colossal sum on the ground. We may not forget the reported indictment of Bode George as the chairman of NPA. What about Ibrahim Mantu who allegedly approved public funds for himself to rent his own house and at inflated rate? None of these was ‘serious enough’ to attract EFCC or ICPC. The general belief that Obasanjo and his cronies were both corrupt and above the law while those that dared question his many misdeeds were kicked in the teeth was not helped by this state of affairs.

Our healthcare system is in shambles. Maternal mortality is still unacceptably high even by third world standards. Routine immunization has not gone far enough. For example, Nigeria is one of the few countries in the world where polio still exists. Lack of access to essential drugs occasioned by poverty, poor enlightenment and illiteracy make diseases like AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis and others major health problems with high morbidity and mortality. Even road accidents are becoming a significant public health issue due to their unacceptably high rate. The deadly strain of bird flu, H5N1 found its way into Nigeria and rather than being contained, is spreading all over the country. Obasanjo did not even know the extent of its spread at the point he left office. His pretensions to National Health Insurance were at best half-hearted and way too inadequate. Hospitals are poorly equipped and operate in fits and starts due to incessant strike by doctors and other staff. Private hospitals operate with little supervision and responsibility. This is not helped by the menace of fake drugs. A bold attempt is being made by the reinvented NAFDAC but they can only do so much with the police and customs reeking of corruption. A system so chaotic can only offer Nigerians a life expectancy of 40 to 45 years – similar to war zones. Little wonder it cannot cater for the health needs of our thieving leaders – who ironically destroyed it – who jet out of the country for all the seriousness of a routine check-up.

The story is not different in the education sector. As a boy in primary school in the 1980’s we had good school buildings, furniture, free education and sometimes free exercise and textbooks in government schools. We were told they were products of Obasanjo’s Universal Primary Education (UPE) during his first stint in power. The ‘new’ Obasanjo ruled Nigeria for 8 years and Nigerian Children still study under trees. School buildings where they exist are decrepit never mind furniture and teaching aids. It is disgusting. Private school operators cash in, taking education way beyond the reach of the average Nigerian, perpetuating the cycle of poverty and widening the already embarrassing gulf between the rich and the poor. All the talk about Universal Basic Education was mere hot air. The new Obasanjo does not have the tenacity, forthrightness, discipline, courage and patriotism to see it through. Higher up in the education ladder, the picture is even more appalling. Our secondary schools are wracked by ills from poor infrastructure, all-time-low-morale teachers to exam malpractices. It gets even worse in the University system. Poor infrastructure and poor remuneration in our ivory towers have remained unresolved despite several rounds of industrial action. Students being poorly engaged in the inadequate system, routinely get involved in drug abuse, cultism, sexual abuse and sundry vices. The picture is completed by lecturers that routinely demand bungs and even sexual gratification in exchange for marks. The system cannot be uglier. Little wonder, none of our Universities is of international standard. Parents that want the best for their children send them abroad (some to less endowed but more serious countries like Ghana for university education). Again almost all our corrupt leaders take this route, after messing up our schools. To rub salt into injury, they still cash in on their own failures by building private universities. Moral bankruptcy cannot be more sickening. Those that cannot afford the high cost of education abroad but still desire to protect their children from the morass, send them to these schools even though they are still substandard – at least, they have a higher chance of not being murdered by cultists or becoming one themselves while completing their studies in set time. This is the position as Obasanjo left office after eight years. In fact, his legacy in this all important sector is summed up by the fact that Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) were on strike as he left office. NO SCHOOL.

Obasanjo wrote a book entitled ‘The Animal called Man’ shortly after his release from the gulag. I did not read the book but the title suggests it dwells on the bestial tendencies of man. Obasanjo’s politics in the past eight years was definitely a sick metaphor for this. His first actions as president showed undue obsession with the National Assembly leadership. This led to the emergence of Evans Enwerem and Salisu Buhari as senate president and speaker of the house respectively, not due to the choice of their colleagues but in spite of it. Buhari’s lies eventually found him out while Enwerem’s lack of acceptability proved too much of a burden. They were eventually replaced by Ghali Na’Abba and Chuba Okadigbo respectively. But Obasanjo never hid his dislike for both and his desire to remove them, nay handpick their replacements. Unorthodox methods were employed by Obasanjo presidency to achieve this – covert and overt bribery, threats, intimidation, mudslinging, rumour mongering, backstabbing – and it never ceased throughout his eight years at the helm. Law making took the back seat as the National Assembly became a large theatre of energy sapping battle of wits. By the time Obasanjo was leaving office in 2007, the National Assembly had assumed a mass grave of political careers and even members. Enwerem just sank into political oblivion (died recently), Ghali Na’Abba, Nwuche and Anyim are deep in the political wilderness, Okadigbo and his deputy, Haruna Abubakar are both dead, Mantu is still dazed by the outcome of the last election, Wabara is on the brink of jail, Aminu Masari is yet to come to terms with his inability to even contest the governorship primaries in his state, Opara is neither here nor there. Record number of members lost their lives in the same period. I have no doubt in my mind that the wasteful exertions occasioned by Obasanjo’s unrelenting meddlesomeness contributed to this unusually high body count. If his manipulation of the National Assembly is unacceptable, his assault on his vice especially in the last four years of their tenure is disgusting. At no point in Nigeria’s history has the presidency been so divided. He practically bullied his vice. His aides were changed at the president’s whim. He openly accused him of corruption. Things came to a head when he declared his position vacant. Obasanjo made sure his presidential dream was not realised. This bullying streak extended to the states. Curiously, he hobnobbed with people that are at best questionable characters and at worst outright criminals and use them to destroy the states. Chris Uba’s presidency inspired running battle with Ngige for Anambra’s treasury and the attendant monumental destruction of the state is still fresh in our minds. Adedibu and his gang gave Ladoja and Oyo state a raw deal. Crimes ranging from arson, election rigging, murder and wilful damage were committed but these brigands still walk free. Yet, these are states that boast a long list of accomplished men and women that will gladly work with Obasanjo and the state governors to solve the many problems confronting them. It is still a great personal puzzle what the nexus is between Obasanjo and these characters. This brand of politics has led to yet unresolved high profile murders like that of Bola Ige, Harry Marshall, Dikibo, Funsho Williams to mention but few with Obasanjo blowing hot and cold in each case.

And then, the elections. This is where Obasanjo failed us most. He was quoted after the collapse of the infamous third term bid, as saying something to the effect that he would have amended the constitution to allow him a third term if he had wanted. That implies that his not going for third term had nothing to do with what Nigerians think or want but what HE wants. That is the crux of the matter. Unfortunately, it summarizes his attitude to elections in Nigeria. Election winners are known before votes are cast. The relationship between contestants and winners of elections is fluid, depending entirely on the choice of the president as dictated by his ever changing temperament. Thus, the winner of an election may not necessarily have contested for it! If the 2003 elections were flawed, those of 2007 reek of odium. The presidential elections were rigged right from the primaries. Strong contenders were brazenly made to step down using the stick-and-carrot approach on the eve of the laughable PDP primaries to pave way for the anointed Yar’Adua. Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) completed the job. He seems to be embarrassed by the process that threw him up. He strikes me as meek and well mannered but that does not justify the vile process employed by Obasanjo in foisting him on us.

In his shenanigans, Obasanjo succeeded in reducing the high office he occupied and invariably himself. Compare him pre- and post- presidency – definitely less in stature. Yes, he is a Diminished Man.

Obiora Fabian Chukwuma,