Ayomide
If we ever needed convincing, about how desperate the Obasanjo clique would go, in pursuit of the illegal third term Project, the ‘wrap-around’ advertisement placed on THISDAY newspaper of Thursday, April 20 2006, should have nudged us all in the right direction. The faceless and cowardly group behind the advertisement had harangued Nigerians do ‘vole for tenure extension,’ because it was a ‘vote for greatness’. This was on the front page, which also had a quotation, whose source was not acknowledged by its faceless sponsors, talking about countries consistently doing “the right thing.” It was on the back page of the offensive and unpatriotic advertisement, that the sponsors let loose their platform for support of the life presidency agenda of Olusegun Obasanjo. A list of the “achievements” of the president was itemized from banking reform, due process, privatisation to foreign reserve increment. They then ‘advised’ us not to ‘be derailed by people who do not want the progress of our dear country’ and finally they asked the reader to ‘support the extension’ of the tenure of this administration. I was taken aback somewhat, when I read the advertisement, but again got confirmation of the extent to which the Obasanjo clique was ready to go with the life presidency agenda. The fact that all stops were being pulled underscore the desperacy of the clique and that despite everything, they still have not achieved the required number of legislators willing to be bribed to pass their constitutional amendment. So who were the faceless characters behind the utterly tasteless, indecent and insensitive advertisement? By late Thursday night, I have received a number of texts on my phone which underline the way Nigerians have decided to respond to the affront that the advertisement represented. One of them said “Boycott d products of NBL, Dangote, Zenith, Zenon, UBA and TRANSCOP if U want I save Nigeria 4rom DICTATORSHIP.” Yet another one said, “let all well meaning Nigerians boycott (sic) THISDAY 4 allowing undemocratic tenure extension adverts in its 2day’s edition. PIs circulate 2 at least 10 people as token contribution 2 upliftment of democracy.” These texts are an unprecedented expression of PEOPLE POWER’ in the context of Nigeria’s own peculiar evolution, and they help to gauge the determination of our people to ensure that their sovereign will was not subverted by the clearly demented Obasanjo clique. A highly placed individual and top politician assured me that between Thursday and Friday morning, he sent more than 100 texts to people around Nigeria, canvassing the boycotts that the texts are asking for. The editor of THISDAY, Olusegun Adeniyi, in the Friday, 21st April, 2006 edition of his paper attempted a damage limitation exercise, by putting the advertisement in the context of the right to hear the other side in the true spirit of democracy. There can be no doubt about the fact that it must have been a very difficult decision for the editors of that newspaper, given that, in fairness to them, they have consistently rejected the third term idea too. It was also because of their consistent rejection of the agenda, that THISDAY, along with PUNCH and DAILYTRUST, were listed as newspapers that must suffer the consequence of being so consistently outspoken. A secret directive was issued to the transnational oil companies to stop advertising in these papers. Yet, it seemed to me that even THISDAY’s editors have underrated the groundswell of feelings against the third term agenda. This without prejudice to the deep feelings that made them place the material. But what is at stake here is the brazen arrogance of the crony capitalists, the economic arm of the Obasanjo clique, that were responsible for the placement of the advertisement. Let me state that since the advertisers did not place their identity, we might only infer who the faceless characters are. However, the third term issue got started in the first place, because a set of Obasanjo cronies felt there was the need to subvert Nigeria’s constitutional order, in order to protect the rich pickings they have made from the dubious privatisation process of the regime. It was Festus Odimegwu, Managing Director of the Nigerian Breweries who actually begun to speak out boldly for the economic crimes of Obasanjo, they apparently see themselves, as the stratum that must determine the political course of the country, because they have a stranglehold on its economic circumstances. But we might in fact see the seeds of the agenda in the sponsorship that the so-called corporate Nigeria gave to Obasanjo’s’re-election’ project in 2003. Under the leadership of Mrs. Ndidi Onyuike of the Nigerian Stock Exchange, Corporate Nigeria defied the extent laws of the land in respect of collection of funds for political purposes. They collected two billion naira to aid Obasanjo’s political campaign. When Obasanjo rigged the 2003 elections and was returned to power, he surrendered our country completely to the neo-liberal paradigm of capitalist plunder of our national patrimony. An economic team dedicated to the twin agenda of doing the bidding of imperialism and shoring up a crony capitalist stratum, whose prosperity was directly linked to the continuation of the unpatriotic and antipeople regime of Olusegun Obasanjo was also put in place. They have intensified the dubious privatisation, asset stripping and other projects that taken together erode our nation’s sovereignty and impoverish the majority of the Nigerian people. But in the obverse, it has worked out well for members of the stratum of crony capitalists. They get regular import waivers, have knocked together under one economic umbrella and have begun to gobble up our national assets and have been primed to even get oil blocs, refineries and such major national assets. This stratum of Obasanjo crony capitalists are viscerally hated by the mass of the Nigerian people, because in their wealth, the people see the opposite side of their own poverty and pains. Just like President Obasanjo, this stratum of crony capitalists has an incurable disdain for the Nigerian people and they fear the people intensely too. It is this combination of disdain and fear of the people that is driving the sponsorship of and support or the life presidency for Obasanjo. Their lives, careers and prosperity are inextricably inter-twined: Obasanjo’s continued stay in power is their only guarantee that they will not be asked questions by a patriotic government in the future. They have calculated that twelve more years of Obasanjo would make it impossible to revisit the crimes they have jointly committed against the Nigerian people. This is the political economy platform for the sponsorship of the illegal agenda to keep the absolutely incompetent and anti-people Obasanjo regime in power. From the perspective of their self interest, there is no alternative to Obasanjo. But what they deserve is a sharply administered riposte. Nigeria’s present has been compromised on the basis of the fraudulent economic agenda that President Obasanjo and his imperialist-sponsored economic team are implementing. This programme works for the bandit class of crony capitalists around Obasanjo, but they don’t work for the Nigerian people. This is the political economy of pain and the dialectical opposite of the political economy that supports Obasanjo’s economic policies and the third term agenda. There is an antagonistic contradiction at work today between the arrogant crony capitalists, the Obasanjo clique on the one hand and on the other, the broad mass of the Nigerian people; the patriotic political and economic elite, the working people in towns and villages and the youth. The Obasanjo clique and the crony capitalists want to entrench their hegemony through the third term agenda. The people contest that hegemony with the National Assembly and the public platform of the media becoming the arena for the contestation of this hegemony, by which crony capitalism is using the Obasanjo third term agenda as the main instrument to achieve victory. It is important to point out that the Nigerian people are facing a formidable enemy in this group: the crony capitalists, and the Obasanjo privatisation, asset stripping and other projects that taken together erode our nation’s sovereignty and impoverish the majority of the Nigerian people. But in the obverse, it has worked out well for members of the stratum of crony capitalists. They get regular import waivers, have knocked together under one economic umbrella and have begun to gobble up our national assets and have been primed to even get oil blocs, refineries and such major national assets. This stratum of Obasanjo crony capitalists are viscerally hated by the mass of the Nigerian people, because in their wealth, the people see the opposite side of their own poverty and pains. Just like President Obasanjo, this stratum of crony capitalists has an incurable disdain for the Nigerian people and they fear the people intensely too. It is this combination of disdain and fear of the people that is driving the sponsorship of and support or the life presidency for Obasanjo. Their lives, careers and prosperity are inextricably inter-twined: Obasanjo’s continued stay in power is their only guarantee that they will not be asked questions by a patriotic government in the future. They have calculated that twelve more years of Obasanjo would make it impossible to revisit the crimes they have jointly committed against the Nigerian people. This is the political economy platform for the sponsorship of the illegal agenda to keep the absolutely incompetent and anti-people Obasanjo regime in power. From the perspective of their self interest, there is no alternative to Obasanjo. But what they deserve is a sharply administered riposte. Nigeria’s present has been compromised on the basis of the fraudulent economic agenda that President Obasanjo and his imperialist-sponsored economic team are implementing. This programme works for the bandit class of crony capitalists around Obasanjo, but they don’t work for the Nigerian people. This is the political economy of pain and the dialectical opposite of the political economy that supports Obasanjo’s economic policies and the third term agenda. There is an antagonistic contradiction at work today between the arrogant crony capitalists, the Obasanjo clique on the one hand and on the other, the broad mass of the Nigerian people; the patriotic political and economic elite, the working people in towns and villages and the youth. The Obasanjo clique and the crony capitalists want to entrench their hegemony through the third term agenda. The people contest that hegemony with the National Assembly and the public platform of the media becoming the arena for the contestation of this hegemony, by which crony capitalism is using the Obasanjo third term agenda as the main instrument to achieve victory. It is important to point out that the Nigerian people are facing a formidable enemy in this group: the crony capitalists, and the Obasanjo clique. The crony capitalists have a formidable war chest of money that they are willing to put its use to be able to achieve the subversion of our constitutional order. Already, the investigations going on in the Senate have heard the allegation that Senator Mantu allegedly received four hundred million naira from some business organisations as part of payment to members of the National Assembly Constitution Review Committee. Similarly, Obasanjo is controlling the levers of government and sits atop a national security state that is authoritarian, undemocratic and corrupt. He is willing to manipulate that state to achieve his desire. But it is also in the nature of hegemony that it is not won finally and decisively. In the context of Nigeria’s present struggle against the Obasanjo clique, despite the huge amounts being used to bribe and cajole, they still have not overcome the inherent weakness of their alliance and have not overcome the resistance of the Nigerian people. That is why their desperacy has heightened as reflected in the THISDAY advert of last Thursday. The Nigerian people are stirring, and have decided to let Obasanjo know that even though he rigged elections to return in 2003, we are nevertheless committed to the flowering of a genuine democracy in this country. Ours is not conquered territory for the exploitation of the crony capitalists backing the life presidency agenda of Olusegun Obasanjo. The Nigerian people must puncture the arrogance of Obasanjo’s bandit capitalists, through a decisive defeat for the third term agenda. A tiny band of cronies who became fabulously rich through the dubious privatisation process of the anti-people government of Olusegun Obasanjo must not be allowed to determine the future of our country. They must be made to cough out all that they gobbled up under Obasanjo. This is the definitive justice they deserve; it is the fate they hope to stare off by their support for the third term, life presidency agenda of President Obasanjo. But they will fail. Obasanjo will go on May 29 2007, and his anti-people regime will be massively laid bare for retributive justice soon after. The arrogant crony capitalists will get their comeuppance too
