Ayomide
I spent the better part of Tuesday afternoon receiving phone calls from people from around the country. These have been congratulatory calls in the wake of the decisive defeat of the third term project by the patriots in Nigeria’s Senate. It was in the same effusive mode that the text at the head of this piece was also sent by an equally elated compatriot. The past two weeks must surely go down in Nigeria’s recent history as some of its most incredible; Nigerians lived through the desperation of the Obasanjo clique to swing their ways the obviously dead on arrival constitution manipulative process in a most indecent, grotesque, illegal and brazen manner. The media was awashed with the ill concealed and elaborate machinery of bribery by a regime that is allegedly fighting an ‘anti-corruption law’. The bribery stake was raised to N150 million per legislator when its when it became obvious to the discredited Obasanjo clique that they had lost to the Nigerian people, thanks to the courageous decision of the Senate President Ken Nnamani and House Speaker, Aminu Bello Masari, to conduct the hearing in an open, fair and transparent manner. This was a STRATEGIC defeat for the for the conspirational agenda to manipulate, adopt secret ballot, ban the live telecast of the proceedings by Africa Independent Television (AIT) and get the rules of parliamentary procedures changed once it became obvious that the machinery of bribery, stealth intimidation and black mail has been so decisively defeated in the public sphere. The Nigerian people DECISIVELY DEFEATED the Obasanjo clique, because the coalition of the patriotic legislators, the media and the people proved far more powerful than the bullying tactics of Obasanjo; the area boy tactics of the PDP leadership and all the ‘Ghana Must Go’ that has been primed to subvert our country just for the interest of a thoroughly incompetent president, whose isolation from reality has become almost irreversible. At the end of it all, Mr. Fix- It became an irrelevant schemer, used to the dark recesses of political intrigue, but unable to stand up in the lime[1]light of democratic debate conducted in a transparent manner with a firm and fair National Assembly leadership that took a decision to be true to their oath of allegiance, their consciences and a patriotic resolve not to betray the long suffering people of Nigerian. From the beginning of 2006, I had written very consistently on this very page that the National Assembly would become the arena of life and death struggle between the Nigerian people on the one hand and the Obasanjo clique on the other. It did not need a crystal ball to see that the decisive defeat that the third term agenda suffered at the National Political Reform Conference underscored how determined the Nigerian people were to ensure that they were not subverted by a President Obasanjo whose Messianic delusions were also intertwined with the cold fear of a comeuppance for the crimes he has committed against the Nigerian nation and its people. Some of our colleague had thought that the best thing was to boycott the Reform Conference, but I had argued that we should encourage attendance in order to be able to defeat the hidden agenda that pushed the dictator to call the conference in the first place! Though handpicked, the delegates were mainly patriots who have lived through the hell that has been the Obasanjo period of the past seven years to eight years; they knew that the regime is discredited, it is unpopular and for most Nigerians, the Obasanjo name has become a by-word for sorrow, poverty, incompetence, loss of jobs, insecurity at home, at work in the streets, on the highways; there was therefore no way they would become pawns in the hands of Obasanjo. The conference helped the Nigerian people to catch a whiff of the desperation of Obasanjo clique to subvert our country. It became a platform were Northern delegates discovered the unity to transcend the ‘divide and rule’ politics that Obasanjo had perfected against its people since 1999, and the consequence of the new found unity helped to provide a solid base for eventual construction of a nationwide political process that would be conveyed into the hallowed chambers of the National Assembly. The outcome seemed almost inevitable, that Obasanjo and members of his clique would suffer a decisive defeat, as we saw this week at the senate. The distinguished senators spoke for Nigerians, unfettered by the threats issued from party headquarters; they did not succumb to the greed with money, a huge amount of money, can induce. In the full glare of AIT’s historic live telecast, the patriotic senators chose to stand on the right side of history by refusing to rewrite the constitution to suit an egoistic dictator whose main problem is the fear of life AFTER May 29, 2007. but it has become clear that Obasanjo will still get his day in the court of the Nigerian people. It just a matter of time. But we must temper our jubilation because the days ahead will be very difficult for the country. Now that they have suffered such a crushing defeat, you can expect the Obasanjo clique to go for vengeance in the days, weeks and months ahead. Every Nigerian knows that Obasanjo is an unforgiving and a very vindictive person. Let us therefore be very vigilant. The regime is quite capable of mischief and I have no doubts in my mind that the press, the opposition parties, legislators who voted against the third term and the broad masses of the Nigerian people will be visited with the sour grapes of wrath by a badly bruised, isolated and desperate regime and a President whose only exit strategy was to continue in power for another twelve years. It must truly be a very painful defeat for a man who must wake up thee days with a new jet plane in tow, wondering that he has conquered Nigeria and would do it with what he liked! He bids for commonwealth Games, imagining that he will declare it open; etc. it is this absolutely incompetent regime that will tell Nigerians that we shall not get electricity until 2056! I believe it is important for Nigerians to cherish the victory that we won against Obasanjo’s clique; it is a step forward in our effort to deepen the content of democracy. The open and transparent manner of the debate in parliament helped to put the media at the heart of the democratic process inconsonance with our obligations under the constitution. In this context AIT came out in flying colours and the courage of Dr. Raymond Dokpesi (whose house was burnt by agents of darkness) and his staff must be praised. In the same vein, we must ask where Tony Iredia kept NTA at this important historical juncture in our nation’s life. It is this irresponsible use of our national public service broadcasters, the NTA and FRCN that make it important for us to interrogate the public broadcasting space, post the Obasanjo dictatorship. If we intend to deepen the content of our democracy beyond the opening that the anti-third term debates have shown to be possible, we must also beam our searchlights on the electoral process, we must ensure that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) become a genuinely INDEPENDENT body, not one dedicated to doing the biddings of Obasanjo and the PDP. Some of its actions have left a sour taste in the mouth, in a manner of speaking. INEC did not come out as an independent body in respect of the recall process in Plateau State. It was a zealous body in the effort to recall the speaker of the Plateau State House of Assembly but became lost in dubious legalese when it came to the effort to recall Senator Ibrahim Mantu in the same state. One was perceived as an opponent of Obasanjo and the other blue blooded member of the Obasanjo entourage. The by[1]election of Ekiti State with the massive deployment of strong[1]arm tactics by the PDP government in cahoots with security agents all portends danger for 2007. In that disgraceful process, INES did not instill confidence in the Nigerian people. The INEC chairman, Prof. Maurice Iwu, belatedly admitted that the 2003 election lacked credibility; it does seem as if 2007 might even be more scandalous unless the Nigerian people resolve that we should refuse to be subverted and our votes will count. We must also be very cautious in the days ahead about the manipulations by the Obasanjo clique of the struggle for the Presidency in 2007. I think they will do everything to play one section of the country against the other; the North against the South, and they might also deliberately precipitate crises of such proportions that even a state of emergency might be declared. The idea will be to show the world that it is only Obasanjo that can keep the country together. As part of the process of extracting vengeance, the Obasanjo clique will not be bound by decency and morality. This means that Nigerians must be very cautious in the coming days and weeks not to fall into the trap of wounded Obasanjo. We should press ahead our victory over the unpatriotic Obasanjo clique but we should play our politics in as responsibly patriotic manner as possible. Alliance that was built to defeat Obasanjo dictatorship should become platforms for deepening of the content of democracy in our country. The party system must be increasingly de-militarized; democracy could be made to work for the Nigerian people and the strangle hold of the cabal of oil importation lobby, the import waiver receivers, the crony capitalists and the and the imperialists sponsored economic team must be loosened in our economy. The main lessons of the Obasanjo years would include the fact that an individual without a patriotic vision and commitment to the Nigerian people must never be allowed to become the president of our country ever again. Nigerians infact over-rated Obasanjo; a peasant boy from Ibogun, whose child hood as he himself confessed at the mother’s Summit this week, was a flawed one devoid of motherly love. So without even trying, the man volunteered the information about the origins of his lack of empathy for people, his vindictiveness and dogged selfishness. This overrated dictator went to a missionary, Baptist School in colonial Nigeria and there from got a commission into the colonial army that was being prepared for the independence by 1960. Obasanjo got very rapid promotions in tune with the policy of a post- colonial state and lived a life of privileges that made him to overcome the deprivations and wretched poverty and lowliness of his birth. He was also an incredibly lucky person who knew how to fawn to the people he needed to advance. By the end of the Nigerian Civil War. He has been thrust by fate to the heart of the country’s developments, as the war Commander who accepted the surrender of the Biafran forces. His rise went on steadily, as General Gowon’s Commissioner for Works and after the coup that brought Muritala Mohammed to power he became the Chief of Staff Supreme Headquarters. Had almost got retired for some obscure act of corruption, but he begged Chief Sunday Awoniyi to save his commission in the army and government with General Muritala Muhammed. Obasanjo’s luck did not desert him even when Muritala’s death exposed him as invertebrate coward concerned only with his own personal safety at a time that other valiant officers were putting their lives at risk to crush the absolutely senseless Dimka coup de’tat . General Danjuma and a host of other patriotic solders plucked Obasanjo from under the bed of the late Chief S. B. Bakare were he had been hiding to name the badly shaken lily[1] levered soldier, the Head of State to maintain a federal balance in Nigeria. Those who have aided Obasanjo to achieve higher positions always seem to ignore his tragic character flaws, those streaks of vindictiveness, cruelty and self centeredness, which reached a head in the past seven years of civil rule in Nigeria. Buoyed by the near imperial content of the Presidency, including the powers of patronage, the unchecked use of our national resources, the nurturing of crony elite of bandit capitalists and a developed propensity to play groups against each other, Obasanjo’s worst features as an individual and leader became pronounced in the day light of politics and governance. Nigerians must NEVER allow such a flawed type to reach the heights of leadership anymore. I feel extremely delighted that I campaigned on these pages that the Nigerian people must derail the third term train and the call was headed. The second part of my appeal is that we begin to compile a case file against the Obasanjo clique for all crimes it has committed against the Nigerian people; this is the task after May 29th 2006. we will NOT give the dictator a ‘soft landing’. Obasanjo must be de mystified and shown for what he truly is, an enemy of the Nigerian people. We must throw out his pro[1]imperialist economic team and overturn the neo- liberal programme of surrender to imperialism that they have implemented. Obasanjo and his team worked against the best interest of Nigeria and they should be made to answer for all their crimes. Congratulations, Nigeria, for DEFEATING and BURING the third term agenda. But this is only the first step. We must remain vigilant.
