Ahmad
I have never met General T.Y. Danjuma, nor have I ever even seen him live. That is not quite accurate; in 1978, I was attending the Basic Announcers’ Course at the Radio Nigeria Training School in Lagos. So I stayed in my uncle’s house on Mulliner Road in Ikoyi; one morning a car was escorted by an armoured car on Kingsway road and the occupant of the car was General Danjuma, then Army Chief of Staff. That was the closest I ever saw the man, except on the pages of newspapers. Sanusi Lamido Sanusi belongs to my generation. When I edited Daily Trust, we became quite close because he wrote quite regularly about many of the major controversies raging in Nigeria, during the early years of the new Millennium.
I have always been fascinated with General Danjuma, especially the forthright manner he expresses his opinions on national issues. I will cite two cases. In the lead to the emergence of General Olusegun Obasanjo as Nigeria’s president in 1999, General Danjuma believed that in the circumstance, Obasanjo was the best candidate for presidency. He made it clear, supported the man and even threatened to go into exile if Nigeria rejected the candidate.
His man won and Danjuma played a stabilizing role in government by accepting to be Defence Minister. It is on record that General Danjuma exposed the theft of N400million allegedly perpetrated by the Permanent Secretary of his ministry, a certain Makanjuola, reported to be Obasanjo’s cousin! Danjuma moved on from government, and when time came to fight Obasanjo’s Third Term Agenda, he did not shy away from a fight. The cowardly effort by the old despot to attack his economic interests did not deter him from denouncing what he felt was wrong and against the interest of the Nigerian people. That is the correct definition of patriotism.
Last week, General T.Y. Danjuma took things g answers are really an aperture into his conceptualization level in philanthropy, when he decided to give $ lOOmillion (about N 12billion) to good causes in health care, education and poverty alleviation. And as was his wont, Danjuma gave a forthright reason for his new endeavour: I am now in my 70s and could have simply enjoyed retirement quietly…The truth is I have served Nigeria all my life in different capacities, and late in my life, when I became a very wealthy private citizen, I decided to also serve my country through the channel of philanthropy”. Not only did he give the money, he disclosed the origins of wealth: shipping and oil! Ideologically, I do not accept the capitalist system. But also know that if it is the choice of a country’s ruling elite, we have to judge their actions within the parameters of those is that absurd form of capitalist has not been used to develop the nation’s productive forces, while its rich people have not developed the idea of giving back to society in a manner that can help to consolidate their class project.
Philanthropy cannot eliminate the problems of the unjust society, but when those who have become very rich within the values of such a society give back, they can assist the progress of their society. This is the import of the decision taken by General T.Y. Danjuma.
In recent years, Nigerian billionaires have been celebrated on the pages of our newspapers. But what General Danjuma has done, is to put them on notice that they need to respond to the appalling levels poverty and underdevelopment in our society. You cannot possibly be comfortably rich in a country where the majority of your people, over 70% in fact, live on less than $1 per day. It is a scandal! I think General Danjuma realizes that such a society won’t endure, and so he chose to enter the field of philanthropy in a big way. In the words of a television advertisement, if we all do a little, we will do a lot. T.Y Danjuma is calling on Nigeria’s rich with his grand gesture’ Then last Sunday, The Nation newspaper carried a very interesting interview with Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, governor of Nigeria’s Central Bank. Engaging as it was revealing, I came to the conclusion that appointing Sanusi Lamido as CBN Governor, must be recorded as one of the best decisions taken by President Umaru Yar’adua. Against the background of the unrelenting media campaign against Sanusi, by those whose interests he has exposed; it became clearer to me that in Sanusi, Nigeria found a courageous patriot with an uncommon passion to do a very difficult job! He is also very determined to do what is right not because he wants to be praised, but precisely because doing what is right will help Nigeria, on an incremental basis, to begin to actualize potentials that we all say it possessed!
There were juicy answers to questions asked and what is underlining as a streak is the brutal frankness. Told that he might be undermining the “creative aspect of banking” with his reforms, Sanusi confronted his interviewer with all guns blazing: “What do you call creative?
A managing director sits down, gets her nanny and a lawyer, they incorporate a company, she sits down and approves loans, takes the money to buy property in Dubai, sets up the next company, takes up the money to buy a plaza in Abuja. Is that creativity”?. That’s what we saw. Where was the creativity? On the type of temperament to do a job as his, the answer was also clear: ‘Somebody that can face this problem head-on! These answers are really an aperture into the conceptualization of what the patriotic should do for his country. Whether we succeeded or not as a country does not depend on what Central Bank does…It is for every Nigerian to just say, why don’t we take this as a turning point and begin to clean up the image of the country in power, in petroleum, in government, in the universities? That’s when you can say we’ve succeeded.
Now a platform informed by a perspective like this and the surety of being comfortable with his birth and circumstances won’t be popular with the forces he has taken his war to and those who live within the chauvinism of ethnic identity. The beauty of it is that he is not fazed doing his job. But the genuine patriot can build an alliance with individuals like Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, assured that it is the genuine interest of Nigeria that is being worked for. Between General T.Y. Danjuma and Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, is a gulf of experience and age but I think in their different ways, they represent a positive audacity that is useful in these trying times in Nigeria.
Shehu Sani and Thisday Newspaper’s war- criminal guests Last weekend, Thisday newspaper hosted three notorious criminals; George Bush, Tony Blair and Condoleezza Rice. Members of the ruling elite were falling upon themselves for photo-ops and to shake the blood-soaked hands of the butchers of the children of Iraq. Shehu Sani chose a different path: he protested! He is my man of the Week.
