Buhari vs Obasanjo: Now that the gloves are out (II)
Continued from last week…
Nigeria is supposed to practice constitutional democracy where power resides with the people. Is it not strange that even out of office, Obasanjo has to decide on who should or should not rule? He must be kingmaker and thereafter the power behind the throne. He capriciously blocked Atiku Abubakar from taking over from him in 2007. But in my opinion, Atiku Abubakar is one of the most consummate politicians in Nigeria and that he could have made a better president than any other PDP candidate. Instead, Obasanjo packaged and imposed a decent Alhaji Umaru Musa Yar’Adua who was already hobbled by ill-health as President and an apparently unprepared but likeable Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan as Vice President. Typical of Obasanjo, it didn’t take long before he began to undermine them. Yar’Adua’s death saved him from Obasanjo’s caustic tongue and poisonous pen. Jonathan took all the missiles fired at him like the gentleman that he truly is. The scathing and vitriolic attacks only stopped when Jonathan lost the 2015 presidential election which was the only goal of Obasanjo.
When Obasanjo began to frequent the Presidential Villa after President Muhammadu Buhari was inaugurated on May 29, 2015, the question on the lips of political pundits wasn’t if but when would they fall out. Predictably, it didn’t take long. Then, Obasanjo’s pen which had dried of ink was re-inked and a long letter of gratuituous insults, loathing and bile was addressed to President Buhari. Obasanjo’s aim is simply to block the re-election of Buhari in 2019. He has now embarked on scheming and shuttling in order to undermine Buhari. I believe no sane Nigerian will listen to Obasanjo. First of all, he wasn’t an achieving military Head of State or as twoterm elected President. Second, the people he imposed on Nigerians were not achievers either and this is why he remains a laughing stock. Whether Buhari has satisfied legitimate expectations or not, Nigerians should be left without prodding from Obasanjo to decide.
I am excited that Buhari has picked Obasanjo’s gauntlet. He should take the fight to Obasanjo’s door step. I believe Nigerians will like to watch a “desert tank battle” between two Army Generals. As for me, I am offering Buhari free tips on this battle and other issues:
(i) A Judicial Panel of Inquiry to probe everything about the $16 billion electricity conundrum from 1999-2015 should be instituted. A Justice of the Supreme Court or a retired Justice of that Court should head the Panel. The other members must be tested and upright professionals in the relevant fields;
(ii) Through Executive Order, the Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library should be confiscated by the Federal Government. Obasanjo can go to court to challenge the confiscation by defending the ethics, morality and proprieteness of soliciting for donation as a sitting President from government contractors or businessmen enjoying waivers for their imports, governors etc. His action may be construed as abuse of office or even corruption. American Presidents from whom or where he borrowed the idea of Presidential Library only do so after leaving office, not before. No sitting American president will ever dare solicit for funds for Library or any other personal thing;
(iii) According to our constitution, no part of Nigeria can be ceded to another country without the approval of the National Assembly or through referendum. The Green Tea Agreement which Obasanjo signed and ceded Bakassi to Cameroun was extraconstitutional. He should defend his action in court;
(iv) Obasanjo was alleged to be insolvent when he was released from Yola prison in 1998. A Judicial Panel of Inquiry should be instituted to find out the sources of funds with which he established Bells Secondary School and Bells University. The Panel should investigate the source(s) of funds with which he built the Abeokuta Hill Top Mansion. The Panel should also find out the number of farms he acquired all over Nigeria and whether due process was followed and compensation paid;
(v) Revocation of the huge parcel of land carved out of the Aviation village and allocated to former President Jonathan and former FCT Minister, Bala Mohammed. It is gross abuse of office;
(vi) The Centenary City Project should be cancelled. It looks like an elaborately and deceitfully contrived fraud by some top officials of the Jonathan administration.
I served in Brazil for five years as diplomat (1977-1982). I saw how the ruling generals transformed that country. The civilians who took over later, consolidated and expanded on the achievements of the military. Today, Brazil which started on the same level with Nigeria is one of the largest exporters of food in the world. It is about the fifth exporter of arms and ammunition in the world. The Super Tucano attack helicopters which Nigeria is buying from America is of Brazilian origin. All over the world, Brazilian manufactured passenger planes are in use even in America and Nigeria. Ex-President Inacio da Silva Lula took about forty million Brazilians out of poverty. This is a country that is ten times the size of Nigeria. Can any Nigerian say that military rule or civilian administration has been of use to most Nigerians? Under the military regime, it was government of the privileged, by the privileged and for the privileged. Under the democratic civil administration which should rightly be government of the people, by the people and for the people, it still remained for the privileged.
The serious-minded and focused generals in South Korea and Indonesia, unlike in Nigeria, transformed their countries to enviable heights. South Korea with no known minerals has become a technological wonder in the world. Yet both South Korea and Indonesia began on the same level with Nigeria. Lee Kuan Yew of Singapore and Dr. Mahathir Mohamad of Malaysia did the extraordinary struggle to uplift their countries to enviable level. In fact, Singapore has already become a First World. Because of his inspirational leadership even at the age of ninety two, Dr. Mahathir Mohamad is back in office so as to clear the mess of former Prime Minister Najib Razak. When we talk of visionary, focused and transformational leadership, it is what you get in those countries. No Nigerian leader belongs to the class of the aforementioned leaders. Therefore, no past leader should bamboozle us with questionable superiority.
I was Consul-General in Pakistan for nearly five years (1999-2003). I saw how the military rulers, in spite of the distraction from rivalry with India and internal strife, have striven with reasonable success to transform the country. Thanks to the military, Pakistan now belongs to the Club of Nuclear Power. It is also exporting arms and ammunition to Middle East and Asia and of recent, Nigeria. It is from these examples that I feel Obasanjo should not offend our sensibilities by claiming to be on a higher ground. No past Nigerian leader was inspirational or transformational. Perhaps, if General Murtala Mohammed hadn’t been assassinated within six months of assumption of office in 1976, he would have been one.
Ambassador Sulaiman Dahiru. OFR, a retired Career Diplomat, wrote this piece from Abuja