Friday Discourse With Dr. Aliyu Tilde The
Ebb Of Obasanjo On the other hand, a leader with a listening ear is able to see things from different perspectives that he acquires from his advisers or captures in the course of public debate and dialogue. His conscience then makes a wise choice from the array of suggestions proffered in the light of his knowledge, experience and good intention. That is the purpose of consultation, one of the two most important cornerstones of public policy. Obasanjo in his first outing appeared to belong to the latter group of leaders. He had a listening ear during his tenure as Head of State. With that he was able to achieve three things: stability of tenure, mass improvement of infra-structure and smooth transition to civilian rule. He often boasts, justifiably, of having treated people fairly, built our refineries, upgraded most of our inter-state roads, and willingly handed over power to the civilian regime of Shehu Shagari. It was this history that was used to package him as a presidential candidate in 1999. And the trick worked, because as men, we feel more secured with the assurance of history than in the uncertain promises of future. The newspapers did not hesitate to brand him our Joseph drawing an analogy between him and Joseph; claiming that he was a born-again, some called him the Messiah, who will deliver us from the shackles of the oppression. However, no sooner has he assumed power in 1999 that we realized our blunder. The two Ps – Prison and Presidency – do not match, especially when they are accompanied by a third P – poverty. It appears now that we did not consult the Bible properly. The bible clearly tells us that the computation of the two Ps do not always yield a Joseph. They yield another P, Pharaoh. The Bible says, “A poor yet wise lad is better than an old and foolish king who no longer knows how to receive instruction, for he has come out of prison to become king, even though he was born poor in his kingdom.” Ecclesiates 4:13-14. We
tried to advise him throughout his first tenure, but he was as deaf as
his predecessor. He felt it is Before the constructive criticism of Ogbe, we have read the letters of Dangiwa Umar who supported him and his regime against a tide of criticisms, especially from Northern opinion leaders. His comments were dismissed by one of people licking the fingers of the President. The same aide was used to dismiss the instructive protest of Chinua Achebe who rejected the national award against the background of what he described as “the chaos in my own state of Anambra where a small clique of renegades, openly boasting its connections in high places, seem determined to turn my homeland into a bankrupt and lawless fiefdom.” Audu Ogbe was thus lucky that he was considered relevant enough to earn the response of the President in person, perhaps for his position as Chairman of the ruling party. The letter of Ogbe deserves our attention here for two reasons: one, for its valid contents, and, two, for the tiny window it offers us to catch a glimpse of the moral crisis that the PDP has been suffering from since the perfidy it committed in April 2003 election. Like
the President, his followers in the party are calling for Ogbe’s head,
accusing him of anti-party activity, and leaving the core issue raised
in his letter evaded. Instead of acknowledging the embarrassing failure
of their master, the PDP followers of Mr. President are attacking
someone who offered a simple advice. We know really that Ogbe is not a
saint himself; he has failed from his position of respect as one of the
progressive ministers during the The
issue which Ogbe’s letter has only helped to reaffirm is the
incompetence of Obasanjo. Here is a President who came to power based on
a goodwill never shared by any Nigerian leader at his debut. The
earnings from oil, unlike the cases of Balewa, Gowon, Shagari, Buhari,
Babangida, Shonekan and Abacha, have remained highest since the
beginning of this tenure. At no time was All the problems he inherited are here with us; in fact, they have only worsened. Fuel scarcity continues in spite of the hiking the price of petroleum products three times; the refineries are still not rehabilitated and new ones have not been constructed either by government or the private sector. Corruption has become more pervasive more than even when it was a cornerstone of state policy in the mid-1980s. Poverty level has risen from 50% in 1999 to over 75% now. We now feel less secured on our roads, offices and homes than in 1999. We have suffered the greatest number of civil unrests in all regions of the federation to the extent that some victims of such crises have been serving as slaves in the homes of their captive masters. Etc. The
Anambra issue is one of such colossal failures of Mr. President. In fact
he has been rightly accused of complicity. Here is one of the houseboys
of the President claiming a monthly allocation of On
failing to secure his booty, the chap went about using force to oust the
government and destroy its institutions. Forget about the whether
Governor Ngige was elected or not. Is the President himself duly
elected? What moral locus is he occupying better than Ngige? Is he not
another con foisted on us by hooligans like Chris Uba? The Anambra
crisis has only vindicated the opposition and international observers
who reported that no elections took place in some states, especially in So the President has failed to address the issues raised by Ogbe. He is supposed to protect every government by virtue of his position as commander in chief and the executive having an absolute control over all our law enforcement agents. But the President watched Anambra state go ablaze, with its judiciary, house of assembly and government bombed and ransacked by hooligans of one of his houseboys. And the police remained aloof. What
defence therefore has Obasanjo got against the allegation that he treats
Igbo and their land with disdain and that he is orchestrating the
debasement of their society by elevating hooligans and abandoning the
cause of law and order? What proof shall we demand from them other than
his refusal to act decisively before a gross act of treason that has
breached the precepts of law in their land? If Uba and his group who do
not deny their commission of treason are let to go unchecked, what will
be of Igboland, nay, what will be of If
it were not for the alleged disdain that he has for the Igbo, would he
stand aloof and see the Government House in Bauchi, The President should agree that Ogbe has chosen a better position of truth than him. In fact the President is no where close to the truth on this matter. People with an iota of credibility in the PDP, if any, should stand up like Ogbe to tell the President the truth. His regime is a failure. He should arrest Chris Uba and his group and treat Ngige as the governor of Anambra until a constitutional authority has nullified his election. Of the comments made on the issue, the brief opinion of Professor Sagay deserves reproducing here. He said, “It raises serious moral questions when a person like Chris Uba will appear before Mr. President to admit that Ngige never won an election but that he imposed him and still that kind of a person is allowed to leave Aso Rock free and even still walks the streets a free man today. It is saddening and I don’t want to say more than that.” Talking about morality, the letter of the President appears ironical. In it he was made this confession: “I got the real shock of my life when Chris Uba looked Ngige straight in the face and said, ‘You know you did not win the election,’ Ngige answered, ‘Yes, I know I did not win.’ Chris Uba went further to say to Ngige, ‘You don’t know in details how it was done.’ I was horrified and told both of them to leave my residence.” Then
Obasanjo went ahead to address Ogbe, saying, “This incident was
reported to you because although constitutionally, Ngige had been
declared winner, for me and, I believe, for you there remains a moral
burden and dilemma both as leaders in Here is Obasanjo speaking about moral burden and dilemma! This where Hausas will say Tsofaffi na kiran junansu goggo. Morality it appears is common to all jurisdictions, including the domain of thieves. Now who would have envisaged that Obasanjo will descend to such a position of incapacity? Where has gone the guts of Mr. My Command? Was he worth the friendship of Chukwuma Kaduna Nzeogwu? Nothing in my view has caused the President this ineptitude other than the illusion that he has answer for everything and a monopoly of wisdom. Had he lent his ear to the various voices of advice he would have made a better president today, certainly not someone in whose bedroom the robbery of election fraud is discussed freely without any trepidation; and all he could tell the criminals is, “leave my house,” then sit over the treachery for years. Who knows how many times Dokunbo Asari was invited to the house of the President?
There is little doubt that Obasanjo is the single Nigerian that God has given the ample opportunity of becoming a Mandela. But with all the power that a dictator would command he is unable to check the excesses of his house boy. I cannot imagine an ebb lower than this for Mr. President. I now doubt the validity of credits he claimed as a head of state in the seventies. They might have belonged to Murtala, Yar’adua, Danjuma, Buhari and a host of other military officers that were members of the Supreme Military Council then. Bula ne. |