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EARSHOT
A President’s Delusion Of Grandeur The president has been deluding himself -- and disgracing the country in the process -- by insisting and then denying that he has sacked the vice president. Who the hell told him he has such powers? When will the National Assembly get patriotic and responsible enough to realise that it is time to remove both the president and the vice president from office? Have we become a banana republic? Do the National Assembly members know that by their inaction they are also guilty, together with the president, of bringing the name of the country to ridicule and disrepute? For God’s sake, someone should act today!
LAST WORD This is 2007. We thank God for the New Year. Nigerians have waited for this year as if everything depends on it. In a sense, indeed it does. 2007 is a watershed year in many respects. First, it is significant for Nigerians because this is the first time in the life of our nation that we intend to have a transition from a civilian administration -- and one which lays claim to a democracy even though the world knows better -- to a real democracy. It is a year that Nigerians hope to get their democracy back, by force if necessary, as this is not the kind of democracy they fought the military for.
The year is also significant for many of those who thought they would remain in power for life even though their tenancy in Aso Rock expired in 2003. The New Year coming on the heels of the defeat of the third term project makes it even sweeter to celebrate. Only God knows the kind of war situation it would have been in Nigeria today had the N50million bribes to members of the National Assembly succeeded in purchasing a third term for the president.
But anyone who thinks that 2007 in itself will bring all the anticipated promises of democracy without working for it must still be living in a fool’s paradise. From the little we know of President Obasanjo, there is no way he will leave Aso Rock without a fight. It will be better, therefore, for Nigerians to brace themselves to that fact.
Even though he has succeeded in forcing Gov. Umar Yar’Adua on his party, the PDP, against the wish and will of both Yar’Adua himself (who was obviously planning for a quiet retirement after eight years as a governor) and the majority of PDP apparatchiks, Obasanjo’s main preoccupation at the moment remains to remain in power, one way or the other beyond May 29. It is difficult to see how he intends to achieve this, but we are watching. It is only the president that still doesn’t know that the game is up. But whether he knows it or not, he will have to vacate by 10am on Tuesday, May 29.
But what will Nigerians do to ensure that the elections this year will not be a repeat of the shame of 2003? We cannot continue to live a lie as a nation the way we have done in the last four years, claiming that we have a democracy when we all know better. We have now learnt the hard way and seen what a rigged presidency can do to a nation.
From our collective experience, what should matter most to Nigerians at this point is not even who emerges the next president but the process through which the next president emerges. Because Obasanjo rigged himself into power in 2003, he ruled as if he had nothing to lose if everything comes crashing down. He was never responsible to the people and didn’t feel obliged to obey the constitution and the laws of the land. We cannot afford to have that again. We must never allow gangsters to be in charge again. Let the best candidate win through a respectable election; at the very least, the same way Obasanjo emerged in 1999. This may sound like a pipe dream, but that is the only thing that will be acceptable this year.
And for Obasanjo, it is even more important that the elections be free and fair. That would perhaps be the only real legacy he would be leaving behind after messing up the whole country through poor standards of governance, nepotism and corruption.
But Nigerians should not hope to get that lucky with their president who is used to getting away with official thuggery and lawlessness Obasanjo will not conduct free and fair elections this year because he has not been punished for his crimes of 2003, which were even legitimised by the judiciary headed by Justice Muhammadu Uwais. If anything, he has been emboldened to even act more wantonly. But he will not have his way. The coming election must be what the Nigerian people want it to be, and, from what I hear, it will definitely be so. If it happened in Kano and Lagos in 2003, it will happen on a national scale this year. And everyone who stands in front of this moving train will be crushed.
People who consider themselves friends of the president should earnestly advise him against tampering with the coming elections in his trademark manner. Obasanjo has not conducted one single respectable election, whether within his party or even a general election since that fateful day he became president nearly eight years ago. His friends should inform him that an outgoing president is a “lame duck” president and the only way he can leave with his shoulders high and remain a statesman is to behave himself.They should also tell him that if he does not heed this counsel, he will be disgraced out of power. Happy New Year!
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