WHO WILL SPEAK TRUTH TO POWER? (1) Uma O. Eleazu

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo should apologise to the nation, writes

The cry had gone out. Who will speak truth to power? Former President Olusegun Obasanjo took up the gauntlet. He can speak truth to power, come what may, even when his truth is less than the whole truth. He has done so in the past. There is hardly anyone who has occupied the post of head of state or president of Nigeria that he has not found occasion to criticise for one failure or the other. He is a wise man, sagacious in his ways. Besides he knows quite a lot about Nigeria’s ship of state. He has on two different occasions piloted its affairs, and since his second coming in 1999 has more or less been involved in hand picking who pilots the Nigerian ship. So one would like to think that he knows where all the rocks and quicksand are in the journey to becoming a modern democratic state.

Before he jumped on the bandwagon to persuade Nigerian voters to crown Muhammadu Buhari as President, by his own admission, he knew that the man was incompetent: He knew he was “weak in the knowledge and understanding of the economy...weakness in understanding and playing in foreign affair...he (OBJ) thought that PMB would fight corruption and financial crimes ….” In short, he is now telling us that the man he backed lacks the knowledge to steer the Nigerian ship of state. He owes us, the Nigerian people, an apology.

It is of no comfort to us Nigerian voters to hear all that from him after the birds have flown out of the nest, after the damage is done. Never the less, I believe that he knows more than he is willing to reveal. May be he is letting sleeping dogs lie in order to cover his own weakness and compromises that have contributed to the rot we have now in our governance system. So what bothers me now, is not so much what OBJ had to say about President Buhari, but what he did not say or simply brushed aside.

The issue of incompetence of PMB apart, the real danger besetting the country is fundamental and structural, compounded by the ineptitude of its current operators. Buhari is not all that incompetent when we view his performance from the point of view of his ardent supporters. They have simply exploited the contradictions in our constitution to follow a different agenda from that which OBJ and most well- meaning Nigerians want for this country. Reading through his epistle (and previous ones), one would like to assume that OBJ belongs to the group of Nigerians whose mental image of a modern Nigeria is one of a prosperous, democratic country where there is rule of law and the basic freedoms of speech, of worship and thought, of association and personal security, etc . Buhari does not believe in such values and yet OBJ , and the rest of them in All Progressives Congress were still prepared to foist him on the nation. PMB is neither a democrat nor a progressive although he will mouth such platitudes as his handlers wanted him to say. In actual fact, he will rather do (and has been doing) all in his power to subvert and undermine the very constitution he swore to protect ,while mouth- ing democratic platitudes to deceive his handlers and the electorate until he achieved his goal of becoming the President of Nigeria. In political Islam, deceit is a virtue if it achieves ones goals. Hear the man who has sworn to defend the 1999 constitution:

“I will continue to show openly and inside me the total commitment to the Sharia movement that is sweeping all over Nigeria. God willing we will not stop the agitation for the total implementation of the sharia in the country.” (News24, August,27; 2001)

Obasanjo was president at the time when Yerima and Co declared 12 states of the federation to be Sharia states, in contravention of the 1999 Constitution which states in section 10 “The government of the Federation or of a State shall not adopt any religion as State religion”, which makes Nigeria a secular state. OBJ presided over that blatant challenge to the constitution and he compromised with it. Compromise and erosion of values are two sides of the same coin. That was the in-road the Sharia movement wanted. Having allowed the 12 insurgent states to have their way, that now gave Buhari the courage to run for president in 2003 to achieve the goal of islamising Nigeria. The rise of Boko Haram and failed Almajiri revolt in Kano and Kaduna all have a link to that one in-road. Buhari actually urged his followers while he was campaigning to vote for only candidates that will promote the cause of Islam.

“Muslims should only vote those who will promote Islam. We are more than the Christians, if you add our Muslim brothers in the West. (Liberty Radio , Kaduna 2003)” I find it hard to believe that with all his usual perspicacity, that OBJ does not know that Islam and Democracy are strange bedfellows and that Buhari is a confirmed Islamic Jihadist who is sworn to make Nigeria into an Muslim state.

Well, he did not win in 2003 and so he tried again in 2007 and 2011, still pushing his agenda to climb to the highest office in the land so as to implement the OIC agenda all over Nigeria, which includes:

“To eradicate in all its forms and ramifications all non-Muslim religions in member nations (such religions shall include Christianity, Ahmadiyya and other tribal modes of worship unacceptable to Muslims)

“To ensure the decoration of Nigeria a Federal Sultanate at a convenient date and time from March 1990 with the Sultan of Sokoto enthroned as the Sultan Supreme sovereign of Nigeria.” ( See he Declaration of OIC Ibadan Conference, 1989 )

In its detailed working, the declaration also includes that non-Muslims should not be allowed to be president of member countries of OIC , also all major/strategic Ministries and Departments of Government in member countries should be headed by Muslims. When it looked like Abiola was going to become president, Abacha thought he was not muslim enough, and between him and the Sultan, they persuaded Ibrahim Babangida to annul the election. Dr. Eleazu is Officer of the Order of the Niger(OON)

IT IS OF NO COMFORT TO US NIGERIAN VOTERS TO HEAR ALL THAT FROM OBASANJO AFTER THE BIRDS HAVE FLOWN OUT OF THE NEST, AFTER THE DAMAGE IS DONE. NEVER THE LESS, I BELIEVE THAT HE KNOWS MORE THAN HE IS WILLING TO REVEAL