Obasanjo's Farewell: If We Had Known Better

By

Prince Charles Dickson

pcdbooks@yahoo.com

Jos, Plateau Nigeria

Whether Ahmadu Ali likes or Tony Anineih decides together that through their headmaster Baba Iyabo a decree be passed that merger process or consolidation of the PDP and opposition begin, whether people think that the opposition rightly or wrongly are part of problem that PDP was or became is not the issue, there is one irrevocable fact and that is, that Nigerians have "lost hope in the present continuous experiment called PDP government in which everything that concerns the ordinary man has been treated with malice.

It has gotten to a point that even the President cannot be trusted to spell out his name without manipulating the spelling as we know it. The PDP and President have and will leave this nation worse than they met it.

A farewell to Obasanjo, if only we knew better, I want to use this essay and this medium to let Mr. President know that this medium and such like it, never voted him, from all the analysis and based on available rational indices the President has abused our collective trust and put us in a very precarious position, so much so that, this is what his farewell message has been and we are not disappointed, we are only determined that Allah help us, this will be the last such will happen, not again.

Luther Vandross the late American Musician in his last effort sang 'if I did not know better' most of us now know better and wish we had been wiser in resisting the devil and the demons now tormenting the nation. Those who recommended Obasanjo on 1998 did so under the premise that he would act as a unifying factor with a philosophy of one Nigeria. Obasanjo himself in his "I will die for Nigeria" stance has proven unconsciously or not that if he is not chased back to Ota farm in 2007 he will be President over a nation of rebel leaders from South to North.

The recent meeting of our traditional leaders here in the North has proven for the first time in years that they are vulnerable, this only strengthens the fact that we have an impoverished masses that cannot fight strongly their battle and an elite more confused than ever due to personal interest and this only points to a disintegration of the nation by political buffoons that championed the same cause only a few years back to the late Abacha With a nation as ethnically diverse as ours, the President and his party has entrenched the continuous practice of societal discrimination on the basis of ethnicity, we have witnessed de facto ethnic segregation of urban neighbourhoods. The history of tension among major ethnic groups has continued. Many groups have continued to complain of insufficient representation as you were either PDP, third term or an enemy and this has remained the basis for representation.

While the government continued to play oil politics by being indifferent to the states of the oil producing areas. Economic exploitation and environmental destruction continued. Communal conflict along borders from Jigawa to Bauchi, Borno and Kebbi. Conflicts over land rights and ownerships continued everywhere, Ogori and Ekpedo, Tiv, Kwallla, Jukun and Azara. Clashes between herdsmen and farmers became hobbies through which killings occurred and Obasanjo sat in Abuja when he was not on the plane to some foreign land to launder his image for third term or life presidency.

At least the President's third term dream has been strengthened by the delivery of a 72 million Dollars Business Jet. This country is in trouble if we don't make the present crooks account for all the wahala and stealing they have encapsulated Nigerians into, we have lost 50 million Dollars in Donor funding to battle The HIV/AIDS scourge, we just took a loan from the World Bank for the National Immunization Programme, our schools are archives of the good that was and never can be, while hospitals are just a better place to go and die if one perhaps does not want to die at home. The roads are simply suicide arenas, our airspace. If the President's plane can nearly crash; reminding us of Bellview and Sosoliso will only bring back the pain. Can the Okonjis and Soludo tell me the common sense in this plane buying venture with some 300 and something days more, besides I can almost say in the Nigerian style the next President will have to buy his own plane, the only good reason maybe that the President cannot stop flying around and thus might be working on his handover notes while junketing. While the President and his co-journey men and women have contrived to sing self songs of praises of economic reform. Nigeria is so hit by all manner of untold hardship because all the success recorded by the present leadership is paper work. I have followed the debate on the TTA and so far my conclusion is that we have wasted eight years with little to show as even the TT apostles could not properly channel home their points, while on the other hand as the unnecessary debate went on, poverty was on the prowl real time online as several millions was moving around the hands of few. Today, the country is a source, transit and destination for trafficked persons, the number of Nigerians stranded along trafficking routes and these deported is a sad testimony. Our young persons were trafficked to Europe Middle East and other African counties with their consent because of the promise of a better life. Forced labour, domestic servitude and sexual exploitation has witnessed a boom, with Nigerians having sales 'outlets' for sex in Italy, France, Spain, the Netherlands, neighbouring Cote d' voire and Benin.

If I did not know better, I would wish obj to continue, but not with corruption being massively perpetuated, widespread and pervasive at all levels. February 17, 2005 Haruna Yerima of the House of Representative publicly told us that his National Assembly colleagues engaged in corrupt practices. Yerima claimed that some members extorted money from government ministers and heads of parastatals to get their budgets passed e.g. (Wabara and the Bribe for budget scam), he accused all members of accepting free phone cards each month worth N7,500 from a prominent mobile phone provider. The House of Representative only suspended Yerima from one month, no EFCC, no one denied it with proof. What a nation, this is the President's farewell, if only we knew better. A local government chairman spends an average of 3.09 million Naira on celebrating his first 100 days in office, with 776 L.G.A's doing same, let's do the summation. We all know better that despite all the anti-corruption song, the Senate approved a code of ethics but expunged a rule from the draft code that senators and their staff shall not accept money or ay gift meant for inducement in the course of performance their official duties.

Soon it would be one year, several people have been arrested or detained by the EFCC and neither of these cases have been solved. 27 Bauchi state government employees were arrested for their role in embezzling 281million Naira, the case has hit a dead end. In Kebbi same weekend the Bauchi chaps were arrested, five from Kebbi were arrested with the Commissioner of Agriculture for embezzling 3 billion naira. Our media is full of all manners of stories depicting public thievery, not to talk about the National Television that sells 90% of airtime to the highest bidder in the name of commercialization, so the taxpayer is forced to watch lies paid for with his own money. We know better that the security of lives and property can no longer be sustained, in fact it is non existent. Only a week ago embattled Senator Mantu bought a 30million Naira bullet proof car, if we knew better, this kind of men would have not made it to the hallowed Senate. If one had known better we would have not given the likes of Jubril Aminu the mandate for the Senate to go and be supporting an unpopular cause such as the third term with the David Marks and co singing the tar zar che chorus. If only we had known that the umbrella was meant to shelter only a select few in the good books of Mr. President. But they say ignorance is not an excuse, though a lot of people warned against allowing Obasanjo this privilege, those who knew him from close range kept warning but when the power brokers said it was him. The masses had no choice irrespective of what they knew, how they vote, how much more those that were ignorant of the fact that a dictator was in the making and voted.

This writing is just a scratch on the kind of farewell that Obasanjo and his PDP cohorts will be leaving us with come 2007. What a farewell, what manner of leaders, if Nigerians had known better we did not need to have gone through this pain called democracy by force with force and repression. As Obasanjo leaves he should know every of his action leaves his name hanging on the balance, although the question is how much damage can one do to an already bad name. Almighty Allah give us the grace to survive the exit of this disaster.