|
The Measure of Umaru Musa Y’ardua By Peter Opara
It is safe to assume that before Olusegun Obasanjo descended on gentle Umaru Musa Y’ardua in Katsina, bearing an illicit gift for him – Nigeria’s helm – Y’ardua had neither thought nor desire to head Nigeria.
It was common knowledge or so it was reported that Y’ardua was dragged kicking and screaming by “This man called animal” and compelled to accept the illicit gift he bore.
How does one spurn a gift from “This animal called man”? The one has to be some other specie of animal – more uncouth, more cavalier, more belligerent, more destructive, more of all the compelling negatives all have come to associate with “This animal called man”.
So it was that Y’ardua, though ailing and hesitant, acquiesced, and accepted the illicit gift from “This animal called man” to ascend to the helm of Nigeria.
Obasanjo then went ahead in the manner animals are wont to, killed, robbed and destroyed men, women and property just so his illicit gift for gentle Y’ardua may come to effect.
Before Obasanjo engaged in his orgy of robbery, killing and maiming of whoever and whatever was on his way to effecting his illicit gift for Y’ardua, Y’ardua himself had taken ill or so it was reported, and was flown to Germany. This writer wished him well, and also wished that upon recovery, he, Y’ardua would disavow of the illicit gift thrust upon him by Obasanjo, and return home to peace and quiet with his family.
One might have been dreaming for soon upon Y’ardua’s return from Germany, he was pictured in a defiant mode in Igbo attire – Isi Agu – arms thrust forward, gesticulating and pummeling the air, in a scripted effort to effect the illicit gift for him from Obasanjo.
The rest, they say, is history.
Some like yours truly who have not written a word since Obasanjo executed what was described as the worst election rigging in the history of election rigging have been quiet. We have been quiet not because we did not observe as the rest did. We have been quiet because we had screamed our voices hoarse dating back to 2003, when Obasanjo showed that he is nothing but a political thug that does anything to stay in power.
Some of us began screaming early in 1999, when lies, deceit, inter and intra party conflicts engineered by none other than Obasanjo backed with loads of “Ghana must go” otherwise bribe monies, began to mark his leadership. This “Animal called man” was only months into his first term, when yours truly marked him “failure of the millennium” (The Man of Biafra, Peter Opara, 2003, pg. 156).
The 2007 mother of all rigging was nothing new. 2003 was still on our mind. We wanted Obasanjo chained and gaoled for the 2003 rigging and sundry other crimes he had orchestrated and perpetrated.
The same crime of rigging, robbery, maiming and killing which Obasanjo perpetrated in 2007 in his best fashion that seemed to have awoke people, was nothing but an advanced script of the rigging and mayhem of 2003.
How many of those that were shaken by the 2007 mother of all rigging by Obasanjo wrote or spoke in support of Muhammadu Buhari and Chuwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu court challenge of the 2003 to 2007 illegal reign of Obasanjo? How many of those that were shaken by the 2007 mother of all rigging by Obasanjo have not acquiesced to the same illegality today and mouth off about giving the illicit gift to Y’ardua a chance?
The “first graduate to head Nigeria”, some of these chanted and rejoiced, so Y’ardua do understand then that none accepts an illicit gift and asks for a chance to keep it. Such is untenable in morals, in commonsense and in law.
Much like the 2003 – 2007 illegal reign of Obasanjo, Y’ardua sits atop a stolen mandate, with both of his hands wrapped around an illicit gift. Y’ardua reigns at a helm effected by the perpetration of universally acknowledged political crimes of robbery, killing, maiming and utter disenfranchisement of the same peoples to whom he deems himself “Servant Leader”!
Y’ardua deems himself a leader even of his fellow contestants to a post that was criminally denied them and handed to him. Y’ardua is aware that the post he has now, the illicit gift he accepted from Obasanjo had been effected by sundry social political crimes
Y’ardua, for what is known and reported of him, he is not one to condone or accommodate or countenance even a semblance of what was done by Obasanjo and his henchmen to put him in the position he occupies today. Y’ardua is a good man. Yet, Y’ardua cannot claim having not seen evil or having not heard evil, even when he has not said evil, and still keeps the illicit gift from Obasanjo.
Given what was known of Y’ardua before Obasanjo came calling on him bearing an illicit gift: his lack of desire for the illicit gift upon which he now has both of his hands; reports about him being an honorable man, nothing can be better and the time is now for him to act honorably to mark his measure as a man – a man of honor.
Y’ardua should announce to those whose franchise were denied, stolen from them, those of them who got maimed in the process of being disenfranchised, that, he along with those who sought the position he now occupies shall present themselves again for their choice.
Y’ardua should allow an election in which he will be a candidate, should he so choose.
Y’ardua should call for the institution of what I may call Electoral Judiciary, to which he must transit the office, he now holds, and whose responsibility shall be to arrange a presidential election within 6-months of the transition.
The Electoral Judiciary to be headed by a known and established independent minded jurist such as Justice Sylvester Nsofor, shall at the time of the said transition, announce a date certain on which presidential election shall hold, observed by internationally accredited election observers.
Y’ardua has no more important thing in his life now to do than to use the offices he now occupies albeit illegally to work to present himself and his competitors - Muhammadu Buhari and others to the peoples’ unmuffled voice, undisguised voice.
Should the people give Y’ardua their voice, it can be said then that God is truly with him. Not in the manner of God abuse peoples of Nigerian nations are wont to engage today. God abuse.
The people’s voice freely given is the voice of God.
It is worthy of note that the only place where elections held in Nigeria in 2007 - where people freely gave their voice was in Abuja – and they gave it – their voice - to Buhari.
Y’ardua should disavow of the illicit gift he now holds; he should present himself and the rest contestants in the 2007 election to the people for their unalloyed choice.
It is the honorable thing to do.
That will be the measure of Umaru Musa Y’ardua.
November 12, 2007
Peter Opara is a communications consultant, a college teacher and author of Understanding the Nigerian Nation Tribes – why they boil 1996; Think In Time – Essays and Encounters of the last Quarter of the 20th Century 2000; The Man of Biafra – in the city where America began 2003; The Man of the Moment – Muhammadu Buhari 2007. |