Trying To Compel Nigerians

Trying To Compel Nigerians: What Next?

Ahmed Haruna

The banner headlines read ‘OBASANJO ASKS YARADUA TO RESIGN’, and ‘HAND OVER TO GOODLUCK JONATHAN: OBASANJO’ etc. For Nigerians, the time has come to learn the correct lessons from history when it repeats itself. Was it not the former military head of state Obasanjo who once queried what former military head of state Gowon wanted to return to do as President, only for him (Obasanjo) to ‘accept’ to return as President for the two most disastrous terms the country has ever been through in its history under non-military governance? Are we today not discussing comments by the same Obasanjo who was sent, to our general amazement, to the DR Congo by Ban Ki Moon the UN Secretary-General as the UN’s representative to sort out a looming mess between that country’s government and a rebel group, and Obasanjo decided instead, to relate only with the rebel group for a fistful of diamonds? This is aside from a previous incident from the same region during which, it was historically alleged, as a result of Obasanjo’s duplicity, Africa’s foremost nationalist, Patrice Lumumba paid with his dear life. It may be remembered that the rebels nominated Obasanjo as their representative in negotiations with the DR Congo’s legitimate government.

Why should anyone be surprised, therefore, to learn that Obasanjo, who is currently in desperate need of attention, is clumsily claiming self-righteousness in asking Mr. President to, unconstitutionally, resign? Why would a former military head of state and two-term civilian President not even wince at the suggestion that he illegally forced a successor onto a country he professed to have loved, and even goes ahead to explain details about a clean bill of health certificate from Yar’Adua and the role played by ‘experts’ before finally declaring that he did no wrong? The irony of such clumsy attempts at self-exoneration by the former President is that it has been largely, politely ignored by even the self-styled political opposition. I am inclined to suggest that other Nigerians should do the same, as paying further attention to this geriatric delinquent who saw no wrong in even prostituting his own son’s wife, would tantamount to according him undeserved honour.

The title of this write-up is a re-ordering of Timawus Mathias’ article: Trying to Compel Yar’Adua: Hasn’t it Come to Naught? earlier published in the Daily Trust newspaper in which the subject of the rally held not so long ago by a group calling itself Save Nigeria (SN) was discussed. Persons who would, ordinarily, be regarded as serious leaders of a country in other parts of the world for the roles they had played in the country’s history, in complete abandonment of self-esteem embarked on a meaningless charade to compel President Yar'Adua to needlessly do the unconstitutional: resign from office for being hospitalised. The motley of selfish interest groups that came together under the SN to force the President’s resignation managed, in the word’s Mr. Mathias, to ‘....demand that a team of 15 credible persons visit Saudi Arabia in order to ascertain the condition of President Yar’Adua and determine his fitness to continue in Office as President’. So what next, what happens after that? What happens when this team of credible persons visits the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and returns with a verdict that Mr. President remains fit to continue in Office as President? In any case, what unanimously acceptable criteria will be deployed, or where in the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria did it prescribe guidelines for the selection of this team of credible persons under the circumstances? Even the National Assembly who had earlier announced plans to send a group of its own to Saudi Arabia appear to have shelved the plan.

During the Abuja rally, the SN failed to explain the rationale behind their call for Mr. President’s resignation from Office. In listening to the widely broadcasted demands, which they appear to have recently to have followed up with print media advertorials, Nigerians wondered just what Mr. President’s singular personal absence from the country was stopping from happening in Government work, especially after Justice Dan Abutu’s legal pronouncements on the Vice President’s eligibility to continue from where Mr. President left. The SN needs to explain to Nigerians what may be so special, so extra-ordinary about our situation that warrants setting aside the provisions of the country’s Constitution and the rule of law. Considering the calibre of Nigerians calling for Mr. President’s resignation, might it be any wonder then that this country, weighed down by the yoke of corruption and self-interest for so many decades, might continue to be so encumbered for longer unless focused leadership should become the norm? The sad truth is that Yar’Adua’s illness has become the latest straws that a desperate band of hollow intellectuals and debt-ridden intelligentsia have found to clutch, in the face of a seeming, unprecedented assault by the CBN and EFCC. The other truth, which is distracting, is that while the critical stakeholders including the President’s cabinet, the National Assembly and Mr. President’s close aides have remained completely separated from this whole charade, a bunch of feel-good redundants are making a killing, working for an assortment of the Government’s enemies: dismissed Bank chief executives, out-of-work emergency power contractors, dis-organised oil & gas sector interests, illegal bunkering pay-masters of demobilised ex-militants, and generally dis-enchanted former influence peddlers who are no longer in the loop, as they were during the Obasanjo Administration.

Dare I add that the recent change in gear by the Senate, and the call by a group of elder politicians, whom it may be recalled were initially responsible to a large extent for plunging Nigeria into its current mess for their selfish ends, appears to signal an impending convergence of primordial interests? While the media has been generally fair to the Administration, recent developments have brought to fore the opportunities in sensationalist reportage. Even hitherto fair-minded media outfits could not resist a bite at the opportunity presented by the combination of a media-friendly Administration and the dearth of regular information updates on Mr. President’s health.

The Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria has laid out, in clear terms, the procedure for the transfer of Presidential powers in any event, and the recent ruling by Justice Dan Abutu on the Vice President’s eligibility to act on behalf of the President during the President’s absence, was not an earth-shaking or landmark discovery. The declaration was, therefore, not enough to satiate the demands of the rather sectional SN. They have smelt blood and they are bolting for the jugular. From Abuja, they have moved their rallies to Lagos where they expect better audience, urging moral rectitude in their calls for Mr. President’s resignation as if it was immoral or against the law for a President to be taken ill. The SN are struggling hard to compel Nigerians to see things from their perspective, but it does not seem to be working. A former President, who is also a co-sponsor of the SN, had himself been caught red-handed trying illegally to rewrite the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria in the past, as well as having been indicted by his own son of committing incest, both of which remain illegal and immoral in this country, has never, on either occasion been requested to resign.

It appears that the Federal Government has been unprecedentedly accommodating to vile abuse of the institution of the Presidency of late in the name of free speech, but we must not be under any illusion that the output of entrenched media imbalance and seeming Government inaction can justify the shallow, but blatant threats to perpetration of illegalities and disorder. Mr. President is not a political orphan, and God forbid that the patience of Nigerians be stretched to breaking point. The words enough is enough should be better heeded by the SN and other elements of the self-styled opposition, and it must be realised that if Government refrains from checking the blatantly divisive actions of the group (SN), there is no predicting where the actions may lead us. Nigerians are not idiots, and it is difficult to see how an ailing President who is in a hospital bed in faraway Saudi Arabia, whose full powers are being exercised by a sitting Vice President here in Nigeria can be a problem or a hindrance in any way to good governance in the country. Really shine your eyes, as the good Pastor Bakare is wont to tell his bedazzled audiences.