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Yar’Adua’s 100 Days In Office By Sam Nda-Isaiah
When doing this kind of assessment, it is customary to preface it with a caveat: 100 days is too fleeting a period to fully judge the character of an administration. If anything, the regime is still inchoate and people are still withholding their judgement with bated breath. What is very clear and incontrovertible though is that Nigerians are desperate for the new administration to succeed. And this is not about Yar’Adua himself but about the country called Nigeria. After going through the raw deal of the last eight years, during which Yar’Adua’s predecessor dragged the nation through the mire, Nigerians really have little choice in the matter. It would be in their own enlightened self-interest for Yar’Adua to succeed.
The prologue of this subject must necessarily be the process that ushered Yar’Adua into power. I think it would be trite to say that his election was undemocratic. That one is beyond doubt. Every Nigerian has said so. The entire world keeps saying it and even the president himself has adduced to that. And the argument of the president’s lackeys or the remnants of those who call themselves PDP that Yar’Adua could have won even if the elections were credible does not help their case, because that is also the contention of the large number of those who voted for General Muhammadu Buhari, the ANPP presidential candidate. I also know the Atiku group is saying the same thing.
The other logic by a more perspicacious segment of Yar’Adua’s supporters, who said that the president should not be held responsible for the conduct of the election, appears more plausible, even though the argument of another group, which avers that the man who steals and the one who keeps the stolen goods are both culpable, is also quite rational. But be that as it may, President Yar’Adua is the president today and we are going to assess him as the president. In statecraft, it is the one who is able to impose himself that becomes leader. That may not be true in a democracy, but who says we had democracy under Obasanjo?
But I think Yar’Adua has done well, warts and all. In only three months after May 29, he has disappointed many cynics. He has not been the puppet that many feared he would be. He has shown very clearly that he, like most Nigerians, disliked Obasanjo’s policies. He has re-established the place of public opinion in democratic governance. He recognised the antipathy against the sales of the Kaduna and Port Harcourt refineries, and even though the BPE confirmed that the sales were done according to laid-down due process, he reversed it. He has also reversed Obasanjo’s N12 billion contract for the construction of health centres because it was illegal. A stooge would not do this. He has directed that all the outrageous contracts Obasanjo awarded at the last-minute, which were not appropriated for in the budget, should not be honoured. He has also reversed the very wicked and mean increase in the VAT and fuel price that Obasanjo effected a few hours to his departure, even though it took the labour strike to do that. It is remarkable that he did all these within the first two months.
I hear that Obasanjo has become very frustrated. This was not what he planned for and anticipated. He wanted a third term and possibly to stay in power until he goes home to the beyond. He desired to be like Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe. But Nigerians proved to be different from Zimbabweans. He then thought he should install a stooge so that he could continue as president even after May 29. And, indeed, for some time after May 29, he thought he was still the president. He held court in Ota and several people trooped to the town to get the ear and favour of the "senior president". Some fools actually believed the government would be run from Ota. But nobody goes to Ota anymore. Not even Chief Festus Odimegwu, the former managing director of Nigerian Breweries Plc, and Mr. Greg Mbadiwe, who once led the "Obasanjo forever" campaign. Obasanjo now knows he is no longer the president.
When Yar’Adua continues to harp, almost ad nauseum, that he will respect the rule of law, it is a tacit indictment of his predecessor. It is a snide potshot at Obasanjo, which roughly says: "I am not going to be as lawless as Obasanjo." And Nigerians love to hear that. Some members of the last administration are beginning to say, "Well, the worst act of lawlessness we did was the election that brought you to power." But that is not new to Nigerians and that blackmail will not work. The world knows what happened on Election Day; the case is in court, and if they know the acts of lawlessness that took place on Election Day, they should present them in court. So far, Yar’Adua has tried to live up to his promise. If it were six months ago, Andy Uba would probably still have remained the governor of Anambra State under some warped logic in spite of the Supreme Court judgement. And Lagos State would still not have any hopes of receiving its accumulated council funds, even if, as we all remember, the Supreme Court had ruled against Obasanjo’s criminal hold of the council funds for self-serving reasons.
I also know that Yar’Adua is working on the release of General Ishaya Bamaiyi, Major Hamza Al-Mustapha and co., also through due process. There’s news that the president is talking to the Lagos State governor, Babatunde Fashola, about the need to enter a nolle prosequi on the case since it is a Lagos State case. He has also promised to look into the last oil block allocations, which was done in a hurry in Obasanjo’s usual sleazy approach to such matters. I also know for certain that agriculture is about to receive an unprecedented boost. That is why Dr. Abba Sayyadi Ruma was posted there as minister, I am told. Agriculture employs the majority of Nigerians, and, for the first time in eight years, it will be made a priority. Yar’Adua has also promised that our refineries will produce fuel. We shall support him to achieve that: first, to bring down the price of PMS, and, second, to put those who profiteer from the death of the refineries and further aggravate the level of poverty in the country out of business.
But there are still a few dark spots. One of the reasons why many were ready to give Yar’Adua a chance at all was because of the promise of electoral reforms. Nigerians love democracy and they want votes to count. They want to vote for politicians of their choice. If they make a mistake in electing a leader -- as they did in 1999 -- democracy should make it possible to correct such a mistake by the following election. They were denied that privilege of democracy in all of the last eight years. The promise of electoral reforms was therefore good music to the ears. But there was disappointment when it eventually emerged that Justice Muhammadu Lawal Uwais would be chairman of the committee. If truth be known, it is the electoral rot of the last eight years that needed to be reformed, and the judiciary, which Uwais was head of, was part of that rot. People sense either mischief or lack of sincerity, or insensitivity at the very least, in the appointment of the committee chairman. My personal beef against Uwais heading the committee has nothing to do with Uwais himself. I respect him, but I think he is the most inappropriate person for that assignment. No matter what anyone wants to say, Uwais was the one who finally endorsed Dr. Abel Guobadia’s 2003 elections. And we know the world’s verdict on that election. For those who still care, it is clear that it was because the perpetrators of the 2003 event were not punished, especially by the courts, that got people like Iwu emboldened. Uwais was at the very least vicariously liable for the mess in which we find ourselves today. In forming this kind of committee, the president should have procured the confidence of the leadership of other parties and even included their nominees in the list.
The first requirement for the electoral reform committee to succeed in its work is the people’s confidence. People’s perception of the committee will determine whether its recommendations will be read at all. Even if the committee comes out with the best report, as long as the people refuse to trust its leadership, it has wasted its time. So, as far as many Nigerians are concerned, the Uwais committee is dead on arrival. The essence of electoral reforms would be better served if the president had simply been courageous enough to punish all those who, together with Iwu, have put us in this embarrassing state than having a personage of Uwais’ antecedents head the committee. And, I even wonder why the former chief justice would insist on being chairman of the committee, in spite of the public outcry. The more honourable thing, especially in his kind of profession, would be to recuse himself from this assignment.
The other dark spot is the state of security in Nigeria. Today, it is still as bad and even worsening. Obasanjo pretended about the situation and even extended the tenure of a police IG who was clearly not performing because it served his other interests. Armed robbers now operate in broad daylight because they know they will not be caught and, even if caught, there are no dire consequences. When was the last time we heard that armed robbers have been sentenced to death in this country and were going to be executed or hanged? What happened last week in Zaria, where many A.B.U. students were killed, is only one example. There are usually more than 100 armed robbery cases in Abuja alone every day. The situation has become an emergency. If Yar’Adua succeeds in everything else and fails in this one, his success will not be of use to anyone.
All the same, it’s an encouraging start. If the morning heralds the day, then it will be in order to be hopeful. At least, things are clearer today than they were on May 28. But Yar’Adua is still being watched. And whether he ends up a statesman or goes the way of Obasanjo would, in the end, depend on his ability to restore the democracy that was killed by his predecessor.
EARSHOT
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