A Message for Obasanjo - Azibola Omekwe The simplest composition to write about Nigeria is to do a narrative about the person of President Olusegun Obasanjo. It is instructive that this man goes by many identities. He could also pass for Pastor Obasanjo or letter writer Matthew. It is difficult to pin him down. But I have made a discovery. He is best suited to the character of Nanga the politician in A Man of the People by Chinua Achebe, who was so contradictory to himself, in both public and private life, that the most the people could manage his person is to elicit a tentative ‘no mind am’. There was the usual ‘no mind am’ response by Nigerians to the carting away of ₦2.8 billion in the 70s; an amount of money that could build a quarter of Abuja at the time. Fela, whose noble birth dwarfs most leaders of Nigeria today, Obasanjo inclusive, shouted himself hoarse for us to demand the return of the money. ‘No mind am’ was our collective response. This ‘no mind am’ inaction by was among the reasons we incubated the conditions for breeding Boko Haram. Obasanjo was to order the invasion of Fela’s privacy by a battalion of the Nigerian Army, very dreadful to contemplate. And Mama was thrown out of the window. Let me ponder a little about Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti. She is the best mother Nigeria was ever blessed with. Amid a refrain, I would say my mama is the best in Nigeria. But in aggregate parade of mothers in Nigeria, we would give it to Fela’s mother. She was part of the Nigerian contingent of the wise men that travelled to the UK to demand for our independence in those days of ignorance. This founding mother who fought for our independence would come back years later to tolerate misrule especially from Obasanjo. Now Obasanjo has been branded the luckiest Nigerian dead or alive. It is unspeakable that Mama Fela would be killed in a way worse than firing squad after fighting for independence for the likes of Obasanjo. Her death has become a tradition in Nigeria and dismantles our national anthem by making the labours of our heroes past vain. This pastor gave vent to the cancellation of June 12, 1993 presidential election, the only time he agreed with Gen. Ibrahim Babangida. Few years later, precisely in 1999, in trying to sanctify Nigeria of the June 12 stalemate, he was used to silence the Yoruba. It is unbelievable that before our very eyes, Baba Aremu, now turned spin-doctor, is consciously making frantic efforts to rewrite history. This serial letter writer wrote a letter to President Goodluck Jonathan that he was not doing enough against Boko Haram. He said it with a looming advice that Jonathan should have treated Borno like Odi and Zaki Biam, two towns where the federal government is still battling to extricate itself from the recklessness of Obasanjo. But how can Jonathan do enough about them? Obasanjo’s advice runs contrary to that of Gen. Buhari whose utterances emboldened Boko Haram, a rather more popular reception of Boko Haram in their early, embryonic days. The contingency to strike at Boko Haram was so opaque that allowing them space initially to operate saved Nigeria from disintegration. A governor from the North-west said the reason Boko Haram did not attack his state was because their demand for Sharia in Nigeria was in place in his domain. That statement explains that anywhere Boko Haram sees Sharia on a doorpost, it would pass over the place. In its early days of formation, their targets were mainly Christian settlements in the North and churches, while the present presidential flag bearer of APC, Buhari, came to their defence. It was when our Muslim brothers rejected their tactics that the bombings became non-sentimental and holistic. Is that the kind of atmosphere Jonathan would fight Boko Haram by treating Borno like Odi, as canvassed by Baba Iyabo through his letters, on CNN and in Ota? This is the time to fight Boko Haram with everything. This fight is going to be difficult because they have permeated the length and breadth of Nigeria, after being shielded from Jonathan earlier on by vested interests out to actualise inordinate ambitions. They know the terrain of our security forces. It is shocking how Boko Haram, a group that shares a common vision with ISIS, Al Qaeda, etc., is yet to send panic to Europe and America for Nigeria to be assisted. This is a matter whose complexity cannot be deciphered for a long time. The blackmail of some people against Jonathan is yielding fruits. They mobilised support for Boko Haram just to use it as campaign strategy later. Let us analyse how simple it is to dislodge Boko Haram from Nigeria. This is an irregular warfare. I dare say the present military is doing her best in this war. This is not the first time Nigeria is fighting. We fought a civil war for three and a half years. While the present war against Boko Haram is made-in-Nigeria under Jonathan, it was not the case with the Nigerian civil war. Few months into that war in which Nigeria was the aggressor as opposed to this present one, Biafra nearly overran Lagos. There was panic in Europe about a black race that was becoming ambitious about the British trading post, United Niger Constabulary. A British Amphibious Brigade was flown to Nigeria without a single visit of a Nigerian government official to London. The brigade was given an express mandate to halt Biafra advances into federal territories. They were closely followed by air power, infantry, armour and big logistics to strengthen Nigeria. USSR, another military captain, contributed in no small measure. Immediately after the World War ll, the Berlin wall came into force. KGB, MI6, CIA, among others, were all involved to scoop intelligence from each other. But, curiously, they found a common ground in Biafra. KGB was dormant enough to tolerate Czech, Polish and some of the Eastern bloc countries to fight side by side with the British military in the jungles of Biafra. Volunteers were gathered on both sides of the divide that make up the Berlin wall. The CIA moderated heavily the angry response of the American public for seeing children and women bombed into pieces. International aid agencies were prevented from seeing the Biafran side of the story and journalists were transported to places Nigeria suffered heavy casualties. Against all empirical war conventions, a blockade was sustained on food, medicine and essential services in the pretext that it goes directly to sustain the State House in Umuahia and troops fighting Nigeria. As a matter of fact, some international aid agencies found themselves helping people in Biafra. But those came through the imprimatur of the Catholic Church who used to govern Europe many years ago and so brooks no opposition in her operation. Again, the church has a head whose alarm was dreaded all over the world. At the end, Biafra was tied by the biggest imperialist mankind had ever known for the Nigerian Army to playfully beat Biafra. Where is Obasanjo in all these tumultuous events? He was posted to collect the Biafran imminent surrender to Lagos. He came out of the war as a war hero, as opposed to the reality, the Black Scorpion. How much was paid for such foreign assistance would be a matter of conjecture for years to come. Was it free? Was it the cost of the Bakassi Peninsula that provides a corridor for troops to access the Bight of Biafra? During Obasanjo’s regime, PDP did not need to campaign to win elections. The PDP was absolute in its self-styled opinion. While Obasanjo claims in his book that Jonathan is pursuing his interest instead of that of PDP, we begin to wonder on whose interest the third term rests on. The third term, which Obasanjo had hoped his powerful supporters would sell to Nigerians, was neither a PDP agenda nor a constitutional thing. Although, Obasanjo and Jonathan had a similarity of declaring a state of emergency, Obasanjo, who had no business following the constitution, sacked the former governor of Plateau State, Joshua Dariye, completely. While he helped Nigerians into the character of the kings of the APC, describing Alhaji Atiku Abubakar as a liar and cited Chief Bola Tinubu as an epitome of corruption, he was very mild on Gen. Buhari with whom he has struck a new fellowship. It is apparent he is intending to pitch his tent with Buhari, just anybody he can harvest to fight Jonathan. But Obasanjo had had the opportunity to make Buhari the president of Nigeria. He single-handedly picked Yar’Adua for the president of Nigeria while pummelling Odili and others to give way to his personal interest instead of that of the PDP. Truth is, it was impossible for Yar’Adua to lose an election in which Obasanjo was his chief campaigner. In those times of an intolerant president like him, APC wouldn’t have existed. Jonathan was in reality not given the vice president then but was co-opted because of his supreme silence and manservant role he was brought to play in the interest of Obasanjo. Everything went well to fit into a botched third term as plan B. ‘Umaru are you there?’ would go into the annals of electioneering campaigns in Nigeria. Although Buhari stood for election then, his success in those polls had been foreclosed because Obasanjo’s interests overrode that of the PDP and the country. A fainting Yar’Adua admitted his election as commandeered by Obasanjo was flawed, an overwhelming indictment on Obasanjo that his interest drives Nigeria. No mind am. Somehow the plan B of the election did not work. Yar’Adua, who sometimes directed files to Ota Farm to be treated with Jonathan, his vice, idling, doing nothing, regrettably passed on. And when Jonathan became president, Obasanjo expected him to continue to share the kingdom of Nigeria by half as he had carefully laid down. When that was not forthcoming, although he was being carried along on critical matters of the state, he decided on another of his interest, a plan G, after searching in vain in plans C, D, E and F when some state governors failed his test. In Obasanjo’s days, Nigeria hit all-time infamy as the second most corrupt country on earth. $16 billion of electricity money got missing. Nobody dared write him a letter. A letter he wrote to Jonathan recently mentioned imaginary billions of dollars missing. The Senate after a thorough investigation said no money was missing. Talk about corruption. I did write some time ago that corruption, the biggest problem of Nigeria, was on a significant decline under Jonathan. People who have already implanted a fantasy of a corrupt Jonathan dismissed my observation as cosmetic. But since a light cannot be hidden, Transparency International only recently corroborated my argument. No wonder life is a bit harder than we used to know because there is no strayed money to go to Dubai and others. I think Nigerians should take this independent but rigid scorecard with pride and encourage Jonathan. This is the biggest project ever undertaken in Nigeria since our independence. It was done noiselessly. It clearly shows there is hope under Jonathan.
Posted on: Mon, 29 Dec 2014 13:17:47 +0000
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