Obasanjo / Atiku: Situation Report By Sam Asowata There is no doubt that President Olusegun Obasanjo and Vice President Atiku Abubakar do not care to be Nigeria’s last president and vice president. I mean that they do not mind setting this country on fire. Obasanjo is as incorrigible as a rock; Atiku is as ambitious as Satan. Obasanjo’s holier-than-thou attitude, his pseudo-messianism and sense of indispensability are legendary. In fact, Cardinal Anthony Olubunmi Okogie once said of Obasanjo that “he is a man who does not listen to advice; he knows everything.” More than this, Obasanjo is unreliable and this, invidious as it may sound, is virtually true of his race. And there are antecedents, not necessarily, but mainly political, to buttress this, but the litany is for another day.
Atiku, on his part, with an eye on the presidency, which he has pursued with vigour for nearly two decades, will not easily let himself be dumped by one he partially raised to the pedestal from which he now dictates who to prop up or dump. Theirs is, therefore, a dangerous combination and, so, the nation and democracy have never been more endangered as they are now.
It may be tantamount to prejudice or, even hatred, to rehash here what many of Obasanjo’s detractors say of him; that he is not only wants to enter history as the first Nigerian to rule the country twice, the first and only Yoruba man to really do so but also as the first Nigerian and the only one to return the country to democracy from military rule (in 1979) and the only one whose absence from power will cause the death of democracy.
In fact, many Nigerians believe that Obasanjo is deliberately digging democracy’s grave and that of Nigeria’s corporate existence, thereby. Many even interpret his cession of the Bakassi peninsula to Cameroon in these terms. And, then, there is the intractable Niger Delta problem. His philosopher’s stone called the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, has failed disastrously to remedy the apparently irremediable. But is the problem without solution? Rather, is the NDDC, whose own publication admits that more than 70% of Niger Deltans live below the poverty line, not mired in corruption? One of its directors is so rich that his wife, not a First Lady, meaning neither the wife of the president nor of a governor, runs her own pet project like any other governor’s wife. Indeed, her very rich husband nearly overthrew the Bayelsa State governor, now impeached DSP Alamieyeseigha, in the 2003 primaries of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP.
Right now, President Obasanjo has cried out against the ceaseless inflow of sophisticated arms and ammunition into the Niger Delta to which he has dispatched a Joint Military Task Force just as was done by the late Head of State, General Sani Abacha. Yet, this is a democracy; democracy calls for dialogue, not strong arm or gunboat diplomacy. And, knowing Obasanjo’s strong headedness, many communities in the Niger Delta should start evacuating their ancestral homes. Thus, they can avert the ‘Obasanjo’s fate’ which befell the peaceful town of Odi in 2000.
In that year, ostensibly because a handful of policemen had been killed in the area, Obasanjo, Commander-in-Chief of Nigeria’s Armed Forces, ordered his troops into the rustic settlement and leveled it with bombs, mortals and rifles. When the then Senate President, now deceased Dr. Wilberforce Chuba Okadigbo, visited the place in the company of fellow senators, he was mute: “There is no need for a speech; there is nobody to speak to.” Yet, the epoch is a democracy, but the president has no patience with democracy’s sluggishness; the brusque and callous military approach is the midas’ touch.
It should then not surprise anyone that there is a literal war in the land today; he is an occupation army commander: the PDP is his; he has run it aground. INEC is his; Nigerians expect a rigged election in 2007; the national coffers is his; why won’t he withdraw from it without parliamentary approval; Transcorp is his; why won’t he add it to Obasanjo Farms? What stops him from buying up NITEL? Indeed, did God not deliver him from prison for just this purpose?
Yesterday, September 17, 2006, a two-time member of the National Assembly called up this writer. After receiving congratulation for his new baby boy which he called to inform the writer about, he then asked about the truth or otherwise of the cover story in that Leadership Sunday, saying: “
Anenih Dumps Obasanjo.” There was glee, even euphoria, all too perceptible in his voice, even though on phone, when this writer confirmed the story.
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Yes, it is true. And this is not the first time. Remember that during the third term battle, we carried a story that Anenih walked out on Obasanjo.”
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Is that so? This man called Obasanjo; I mean… has he no shame? Think what mess he has landed the country”? Many of his words were unparliamentarily and so I will not reproduce them here. However, utter disgust and a fed-up-with the president resignation were all too discernable in his voice.
Where is Obasanjo leading Nigeria? Is he leading Nigeria anywhere? What manner of an anti-corruption crusade is he waging? And what manner of general elections may Nigerians expect from such a man? Buba Galadima, former director-general of the National Maintime Authority, NMA, believes there will be none. And even though President Obasanjo has declared that he did not understand the basis for anyone to accuse him of scheming to impose an Interim National Government of the nation, his denial underlines popular distrust for him and all that he says.
Few Nigerians, even close associates of his, even principal officers of the National Assembly, trust the man. And this is logical; a president who rigged himself into office does not bother about credibility; does not feel duty-bound to consider himself on a sacred mission.
The fact That Obasanjo is Nigeria’s Minister of Petroleum Resources eludes many. So, when he continually increases prices, people do not remember that he considers fuel his personal property; what can Edmund Daukoru, Minister of State whom he grudgingly appointed less than two years ago, do to stop him? Is that not why he spends money without parliamentary approval but only in anticipatory approval?
How did he source money for his miscarried National Political Reform Conference, NPRC? And what happened to that report? And what is the conclusion drawable from it all? A wastrel, ego-motivated president! He devised that conference to have his two tenures extended to two more, to make four or even eight. He failed. Then the constitutional amendments came, he pushed N50 million to each senator to realise the same tenure-elongation goal. He failed, killed by the Senate, supported by Vice President Atiku Abubakar and assisted immeasurably by the press. Now, the man, a veritable wounded lion, is taking on Atiku who has provided ground for his own suspicion which his former ally but now arch-enemy, has latched on to seek his impeachment. So far, he has not succeeded and may not succeed. But, into what further dangers and embarrassment will both men, especially Obasanjo, lead Nigerians?
Obasanjo is more dangerous than Atiku; he has the typical warrior’s disdain for, and impatience, with democracy and true democrats. He demands unquestioning sub-servience, obsequiousness and sycophancy which, for him, is absolute loyalty. And so Obasanjo must be stopped today, even though both men should resign, but Obasanjo is particularly dangerous to the health of Nigeria and to the happiness of Nigerians, and this is what governance is all about.
It was in 2004 that Chief Emeka Ojukwu said it that something had to be done to “extract Obasanjo” from the scene of Nigeria. Don’t you agree? He has written to the Senate asking it to impeach Atiku who, so far, has proved invincible and who is asking him to resign even as the president’s letter to the Senate President asking for his deputy to be impeached remains just what it is: a letter.
Now, then, where is Obasanjo and Atiku leading Nigeria? In view of last year’s Intelligence Report on Nigeria released by the Untied States, predicting Nigeria’s disintegration in 15 years, are Obasanjo and Atiku not laying the foundation for that event? And considering a World Bank’s group’s report in September this year (last week) that Nigeria heads for a collapse who does not know that Obasanjo and Atiku are the bricklayers for that collapse?
Should Nigerians not stop them? http://www.leadershipnigeria.com/Oba...n%20Report.htm