Please don’t reconcile OBJ with GEJ on august 28, 2014 at 12:18 am in people & politics Facebook Share Twitter Share By Ochereome Nnanna WHEN I saw the story in one of the newspapers it made me laugh. One of the headlines read: “1000 Bishops Storm Abuja To Reconcile Jonathan, Obasanjo”. The story had it that 1,000 Christian clerics from the southern part of Nigeria last weekend invaded the Christian Ecumenical Centre, Abuja to pray and forge a reconciliation between President Goodluck Jonathan and one of his predecessors and estranged political godfather, former President Olusegun Obasanjo. It made me laugh for several reasons. Number one; imagine 1,000 clerics abandoning their otherwise sacred pastoral duties in their respective domains to come to Abuja to reconcile quarrelling politicians! That is how banal the character of people who have taken up religious vocation and donned the grandiloquent title of “Bishops” has become. Obviously, these are mainly the one-room church owners who peddle miracles and prosperity as their unique selling points rather than genuine pastoral duties which involve a lot of teaching, mentoring, counseling, visitations and missionary work among the faithful. A genuine man of God will not have the time to run after politicians and seeking to “reconcile” them, unless such people are (a) members of their flock or congregation, or (b) have approached the clerics, seeking to be reconciled. If Jonathan and Obasanjo want to be reconciled, they will not need 1,000 pastors to achieve it. If, for instance, Jonathan has reasons to believe that without the support of Obasanjo, he will not get re-elected next year, he will descend on Ota, or wherever the chicken farmer may be holed up, with the entire National Working Committee (NWC), National Executive Council (NEC) and Board of Trustees (BOT) of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) if need be. He will switch on his usual humble façade, and everyone will go: “Baba this, Baba that”. He will give Obasanjo those things he withheld which made the old man to start looking for his replacement in Aso Villa. Obasanjo believes in his heart that he is a tin god of Nigeria, and there are quite a few, even among politicians, who believe he is. If you ask me who might have taken the initiative to bring those busybody “bishops” to Abuja, I will tell you it unlikely that the President did. I don’t even think the ex- president did. Rather, it could be the handiwork of middle-men politicians trying to rally some politically- exposed clerics to stage a show, so that if the two warring parties eventually hook up ahead of the 2015 elections, they would claim some credit for themselves. Obviously, it did not work, because the two men only reportedly sent low-level representatives who equally happened to be clerics. Honestly, I don’t want Obasanjo and Jonathan to reconcile. I don’t consider it in the larger public interest that they do. Experience has shown that when our leaders quarrel, the polity becomes more vibrant. More disclosures are put in the public domain; newspapers become more readable and sell more. It becomes more worthwhile to sit and watch the news on television. The usually warm social media begin to boil. You will remember what happened in December 2013 and January 2014, the famous season of open letters. Obasanjo wrote a long, windy poisonous missive against his political god son, Jonathan. Jonathan replied hotly, while Obasanjo’s daughter, Iyabo, took her father to the laundry. It was from Iyabo I borrowed the term I used above, that Obasanjo believes he is “a god” of Nigeria. On a more serious note, Obasanjo should not reconcile with Jonathan because if he does, our democracy will be the worse for it. How do I mean? Without Obasanjo, the late Umaru Yar’ Adua and Jonathan would not have been president. That the two men became the presidents of Nigeria owed to the careful and deliberate machinations of Obasanjo and his political henchmen/women. If you read Nasir el Rufai’s book, The Accidental Public Servant and related writings by various authors who should know, you will hear it from the horse’s mouth. Obasanjo had hand-selected ailing Yar’ Adua to replace him as president with strong but pitifully humble Jonathan as his running mate. He knew Yar’ Adua’s terminal disease would not allow him to complete his tenure. It was a matter of time before Jonathan would climb into the coveted seat. You also recall that long before Yar’ Adua died, he and Obasanjo were no longer in talking terms. Obasanjo was no longer an effective stakeholder in PDP and the federal government it produced, even though Umaru was installed because he was the lamb-like younger brother to the late General Shehu Yar’ Adua, Obasanjo’s deputy during their military years who later became a close family friend and confidante. When Umaru died, Obasanjo jumped out of his political doldrums and was one of the first to start pressing the new Acting President, Jonathan, to run in 2011. Barely one year into Jonathan’s stay in power, he and Obasanjo became seriously estranged, to the point of that open media shootout earlier referred to. The reason for these events is simple. Obasanjo put them in power. Therefore they must dance to Obasanjo’s tune. This is what most people are unable to put up. Having once again failed to control power from Ota, Obasanjo started looking for a replacement for Jonathan come 2015. He has lined up several candidates. Two of them: Governor Rabiu Kwankwaso of Kano and the Speaker, House of Reps, Waziri Tambuwal, are in the All Progressives Congress (APC) while Governor Sule Lamido is still in the PDP. I want to see how far Obasanjo can go in getting any of these men in and Jonathan out. It is an opportunity for Jonathan to have a real fight for his second term. If Obasanjo and Jonathan are reconciled before the elections we will be denied the thrills and excitement of witnessing this epic political battle. I want to see a well-contested presidential election next year, especially the magic Obasanjo will wrought to produce a new president.
Posted on: Thu, 23 Oct 2014 07:01:59 +0000
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