Mariam Mariam
It was President Obasanjo himself who should earn the trademark right to having ‘problematised’ the issue of loyalty in contemporary Nigerian politics. It was sometime in 2005, at the height of his labours about the consolidating platform of a third term agenda, that he had argued that what he expected from his lieutenants was nothing less than 100 percent loyalty, of the military variety.
The obsession with loyalty seeped to the surface again this week when Thisday newspaper of Monday, September 4th’, 2006 reported that there were worries within the leadership of the PDP that “the re-alignment of forces within the party.. has made the loyalty of its key members, particularly governors, to President Obasanjo uncertain”. This crisis of uncertainty, according to the report, resulted from the membership revalidation exercise “during which some founding members of the party were denied registration cards”
A neutral observer of the political landscape would no doubt be confused about why the leadership of a party in power would be far more interested in winning a “grovelling loyalty”, in the words of Chief Sunday Awoniyi, to a lame-duck, outgoing President Obasanjo than even finding time to reconcile genuinely with the aggrieved members of the party, on the eve of a general elections. It is obvious that the party is in a bad shape organisationally; while as an electoral vehicle, it is clearly out of tune with its membership and the Nigerian people.
These facts that every political observer knows dp not seem to trouble the PDP leadership; they are far more worried about “loyalty to President Obasanjo”. What is the source of the insecurity of the PDP leadership and by extension President Obasanjo who rigged Amadu Ali, Ojo Maduekwe, Tony Anenih and the rest into their offices? Why is the leaky, tom and tattered umbrella of the PDP becoming such a source of worry for the Obasanjo clique despite the bravado and pious declarations which emanated from the most recent National Ex- President Olusegun Obasanjo ecutive Council meeting? Why is loyalty the remaining redoubt of the leadership of the PDP?
I think the answer is illegitimacy. The party’s leadership was rigged into power in the context of the third term agenda. The main purpose of the coup which Obasanjo organised to install the Amadu Ali-led executive of the PDP was to beat the membership of the party into line; weed out those not likely to do the bidding ofthe despot, Olusegun Obasanjo; intimidate the National \ssembly sufficiently to be able to eventually achieve the third term agenda. Iike obedient satraps, Ali and his cohorts went about their job beyond the call of duty, rudely talked at party members, threatened the country and in their over zealousness, they alienated all and sundry. Third term was decisively defeated, Obasanjo fell flat on his face and was thoroughly humiliated. It is the fallout of this self-inflicted mess that they have been trying to clear. This is the context within which we must locate the insecurity that the PDP leadership often betrays, sometimes as we have seen, independent of their own will.
So insecure in fact is the Obasanjo clique that they even came out at their NEC meeting, courtesy of a motion moved by Senator Ibrahim Mantu, and “ably seconded” by Mrs Josephine Anenih, to adopt President Olusegun Obasanjo as “the Founder, Father and Leader of Modem Nigeria!” Of course, it follows that if you have adopted President Obasanjo ‘Founder, Father and Leader’, you must then ensure that all and sundry show “one hundred percent loyalty” to him even out of power. This is only natural, isn’t it?
It has even become particularly important to ensure loyalty beyond 2007, because there are the small issues of illegalities that this ‘Founder, Father and Leader’ has committed in the years of unconscionable power as President of Nigeria. These range from spendings without appropriation, a dubious privatisation project which included selling choice national institutions to himself and his cronies. These are issues that would most certainly be revisited once the despot vacates the seat of power in May 2007, no matter who the incoming president is.
At a related level is that die illegitimate leadership of the party is likely to get its comeuppance within the ambit of a general unravelling of the Obasanjo mystique that would be the hallmark of a post 2007 Nigeria. The PDP leadership of Amadu Ali knows that it is unpopular with the party’s rank and file; it is also aware that its fate is tied firmly to preserving the myth that Obasanjo is the best thing that has ever happened to Nigeria If it succeeds in this grand delusion, then its own career as a bunch of cronies and satraps, imposed by Obasanjo as part of an authoritarian takeover of the political space, can then be saved. But deep down, the PDP leadership is wrestling with a deep moral crisis and a neo-realism that the fig leaf covering their unsightly nakedness cannot be presented as a well-embroidered robe for too long.
This is why loyalty to Obasanjo has been placed at the heart of all the political scheming being perfected in the lead to 2007. Obasanjo has now been defied in a most grotesque manner as the ‘be all and end all’ of leadership and a sickening cult of personality of this typically African despot is being constructed everyday. It is this ambience that provides the bold relief for all that we see going on within the PDP and by extension, some of the bizarre decisions that the government has taken in recent months. Obasanjo has come to resemble the old pagan god, which must be propitiated with the skull of the slain. His ego, taller than Mount Everest, must be massaged and his perspectives, no matter how disarticulated, must be applauded and his painfully disoriented actions must be presented as acts worthy only of a genius.
These are not view phenomena; they correspond to the typical acts of a despot in the twilights of his career: There are elements of Mobutu, Banda, Bourguiba, several other autocrats and despots, in the ways that the Obasanjo phenomenon has unfurled in the past few years as well as the macabre posturing by members ofhis clique, the likes of Amadu Ali, Ojo Maduekwe, Nasir Mantu to entrench their own relevance within it all. Of course, they would worry about loyalty to Obasanjo because deep down, they know that Obasanjo does not deserve the loyalty of party members, because central to his own political life has been disloyalty to his benefactors, to his party and to theNigerian people that he leads. They are also aware that political life is a complex phenomenon that cannot be manipulated in the interest of just an individual; if you try hard and you stay long enough, of course everything changes. So in their desperate effort to dig in, in their trench of loyalty, they cut the miserable pictures of disoriented individuals and politicians, because no matter the desperation, loyalty to Obasanjo and his so-called legacy will NEVER become the central issue of Nigerian politics. So even this last redoubt of scoundrels, loyalty to ‘the Father, Founder and Leader’ the ‘holy trinity’ ofthe PDP leadership, will soon melt like snow in the sun of Nigerian politics. Mark my words.
ANPP’s road to perdition? Almost as if in anticipation of this week’s congress o f the party, I had expressed my incredulity at the way that the ANPP has turned itself into willing victim of serial rape by all manners of individuals almost from the inception of fee party. It seemed to have been the fate of this party that somehow, it would fell into the hands of all types of self-serving individuals who end up using it and then dumping it. So a party which had tremendous possibilities of being an alternative platform went through a gradual process of denudation, until becoming a rump that threatens to disappear altogether with its last elections. It seems obvious that a few of the governors have now completely captured the party, with the possibility that one of them will emerge as die presidential candidate of the party. Such a joke presidential candidate will be totally annihilated by the PDP and it won’t be a surprise if the loser then declares for the PDP soon after the elections.
But for the defeat of third term agenda, the original script was that one of the governors would emerge as candidate, quickly bow out that Obasanjo has won a re-election, and get immunity from the EFCC. Unfortunately, Obasanjo was humiliated with the defeat of third term, but the part of the script to ensure that General Buhari is unable to find a platform in the ANPP to run seems to be playing itself out What General Buhari’s game plan would be like should come to the fore in the days and weeks ahead. I think one of the problems with the leading elements in the ANPP is that their politics and attitude to governance was not different from their counterparts in the PDP. In fact, many of the ANPP chaps have behaved worse than the PDP elements. So in a political system that lacks elementary principles nor any ideological anchor, not even basic decencies of commitment to the basic interests of the Nigerian people, it fnade greater sense when the prebendalist calculations are made to gravitate towards the PDP.
After all, it has federal might, can dispense a greater portion of lucre and has the largest percentage of the nation’s bandit elite within its rank. There is greater comfort in numbers, for members of the bandit bourgeoisie which makes the business of politics its business. It has therefore become far easier for the PDP to tap into the ANPP and other so-called opposition parties or for the PDP to send its agents such as Don Etiebet to take over the ANPP, or as we saw in 2003,.to have individuals like Rochas Okorocha to attempt to emerge as presidential candidates: It is seen, treated and manipulated as a joke platform really.
This is the tragedy of theANPP, which unfortunately the moral strength of General Buhari could not cleanse or change. As a matter of fact, General Buhari’s presence in the party was always seen as avoidable nuisance by those who operated at the level of the lowest common denominator this is what has finally triumphed this week, with the trouncing of all the candidates of The Buhari Organisation (TBO) at the party’s copgress. So by humiliating the last light of the party, General Buhari, the ANPP has begun an accelerated race to the dung heap ofNigeria’s political history. Was it any surprise that two of the governors, Bukar Abba Ibrahim and Sani Yerima, were said to have abused each other at a “Victory party”? It’s feasting time at the ANPP and the vultures are gathering.
This tragic fete of the ANPP actually is a pointer to the complete rottenness of the nation’s political elite, and its inability to apprehend the demands of the historical process they are within. The fractiousness of our lumpen political elite is making it^lifficult for them to even capitalise on the divisions within the PDP, its huge lack of popularity with the Nigerian people, its moral dilemma arising out of its lack of illegitimacy and the huge amount of resentment its misrule has built in the Nigerian people. It is as if these lumpen politicians are determined to hand power back to the absolutely incompetent elements in the PDP with their inability to build a strong, alternative platform. Why would a political elite be as short-sighted as we have in Nigeria? It’s so incredible!
