abdulraheem
I judud Sheriff was rather agitated when he came to the office last Wednesday. His worry was related to the viciousness of the politics around the logjam at the National Political Reform Conference. He had stumbled upon some stories that disturbed him enough to bring him here for a review of the ways of politicking in Nigeria. Ujudud reliably learnt that presidency agents were intensifying their pressures on the Northern Governors to get them to bend to the desperate demand of the Obasanjo clique to get the six year single term accepted as a conference recommendation, if and when the issues of the logjam were re opened. This was Obasanjo’s main demand from the conference, and he needed to get it, so as to convince his American and British masters that he has being “popularly” requested by Nigerians to stay in power beyond 2007. A few of the governors were beginning to cave in to the pressures of Obasanjo; or in their selfishness, have began to calculate that if Obasanjo was allowed to get his way, they might also be given an opportunity to enjoy a quid pro quo! He was worried that we might witness a systematic weakening of resolve and a capitulation to Obasanjo because of the short sightedness of a few of our Governors. Earlier that morning, during our Editorial meeting, we had decided to carry out a Northern Regional assessment of opinions in respect of the stand of the Delegates vis-à-vis the issues that provoked the walkout and the logjam. So there was a sense in which Ujudud’s fear was also an underlining emotion amongst us too. But as it turned out, from Kano to Makurdi, Ilorin to Maiduguri, there was unanimity of feeling that the Delegates were reflecting the attitude of our people in respect of the issues of the conference. This was the reason I wrote a short summary of the issues involved in my column last week. It was to back the resolve of the Northern Delegates on the issues involved and to also sensitize them about the schemings going on, and also to let them put in perspective the dangers of caving-in to the pressures being put on them to accept the re-opening of all the issues that had been debated and decided in the conference. The issues must he put ill Context. A content analysis of the south west media would reveal an overwhelmingly sinister presentation of the issues as a south-south versus North face-off. This interpretation, as devious and mischievous as it is, feeds into a long-standing arche-typing of the North and its peoples. These negative presentations often go to the most crudely racist levels. So if the North is not described as arrogant, it would be lazy, parasitic and a drag on the march of Southern communities. In the present logjam, the crisis generated has all the patterns that can be exploited in the desperate effort to achieve the desire of a six year single term. Obasanjo’s interest is not in achieving an equitable revenue profile that the people of the South-South might feel happy about. The bottom line for him and his strategists is to achieve a southern Nigerian ‘Consensus’ about the re-opening of the settled issues of the conference throughout the demonization of Northern Nigeria. The way it has played out can almost be analysed with the precision of the best of Swiss Watches! The South West delegates who were part of the decisions of the day the South-South delegates walked out of the conference, decided belatedly to recant their ‘heresy’ of being part of the procedurally proper process that took place on that fateful day. Obasanjo cajoled them to renounce their original position. So the South West discovered a ‘fraternal’ feeling with the South-South. Last week, also saw Obasanjo calling in the leadership of the Conference to express his disappointment about the independence and integrity that Justice Niki Tobi, Rev. Fr. Mathew Hassan Kukah and Professor Is’haq Oloyede have exhibited, which led to the decision that threw out the single six-year term, amongst other decisions that have been made before the conference was log jammed. Press reports have indicated that a shouting match ensued during the meeting with Justice Tobi refusing to be intimidated. I guess that by now, Obasanjo would be regretting the day he chose to appoint these men to head the conference! They have upheld their integrity and stood up to the well-known bullying tactics of the President. But a lot should be understood, which must at the same time give us the pause. One of the fallouts from the emotions that have been whipped up and which is being manipulated and exploited by those desperate for the elongation of the President’s tenure, is the deepening of anger around the country. In the South-South, a false picture has been created that they were almost achieving their goal of a 25% derivation allocation hut for the opposition o the North. A realistic assessment of what can actually be achieved through negotiations over an issue as sensitive as the revenues accruing to different sections of a federal polity has been abandoned by those who believe they can shore up their popularity with the restive mob in their localities through the vulgar abusiveness, posturing and emotional outburst that we have seen over the past few weeks. So when they lost the argument in plenary, they have resorted to threats, abuses and other forms of vulgarities. Professor Itse Tsagay, an intellectual who ordinarily should be an example of sober reflection, was alleged to have given way to his base instincts in describing Professor Attahiru Jega a “snake’ and ‘colonialist’, for presenting the actual positions of the 1960 and 1963 constitutions in respect of the revenues accruing to constituent parts of the country. He is of course one of the most consistent haters of the North. Not to be outdone in these matters, even Raymond Dokpesi, the chairman of the South-south peoples Assembly has joined the band wagon of abusing the North, describing the region as one that does not contribute .anything to the nation’s revenue. The most laughable of the recent quixotic posturings must be by Retired Admiral Mike Akhigbe whose village in Edo state does not produce a drop of oil, but has become so gung-ho about derivation revenue. Maybe, he needed to tilt at the windmills now, as a way of atoning for the misdeeds that the military juntas of the recent past, of which he was a majorparticipant, inflicted on Nigeria in general and the South-south area of the country in particular. The truth is that issues of national development cannot be resolved through resorts to vulgar abusiveness or the issuance of threats or the demonization of the people of a region of the country, as the Lagos-Ibadan press has done to the North over the past few weeks. Intimidations, vulgar abusiveness or demonization would not make the North shift from its position. What is most regrettable and unfortunate in the on-going effort to play peoples against themselves is that it fits into the game plan of the Obasanjo clique to present a chaotic national situation as an indication of the indispensability of his own leadership of the country. A plan to exploit the unfolding scenario has therefore been implicit in the schemings of the clique from the beginning of the conference. The nation is certainly more divided now than ever before, as a result of the present impasse. It is incredible that lost to the reflex action of North- bashing and North-hating, a lot of our compatriots in the south don’t seem to appreciate the dangers lurking against the democratic process in the manipulation that the presidency team is carrying out or on the other hand. They have become accomplices in the process. Whichever is the actual reason for their inability to think through their actions, they are inadvertently helping to constrict the democratic space and abetting the unpatriotic agenda which is being unfurled through the attempt to manipulate the outcome of the National Conference. It is the fact that things are not going according to the script that a desperate effort is being made to exploit the present impasse as much as possible by those who have set great store by the spurious single six year term and the rotation of power through the unconstitutional geo political zones. The North should remain steadfast about its refusal to accept the re opening of the settled issues of the conference. The reason is simply that an atmosphere has been deliberately created to present the issues now as a North versus South platform. It is therefore impossible for reason to outplay the base emotions that have been whipped up. Besides, what sense would it make for us to accept that a president, who has enjoyed two four-year terms, should now have the temerity to hamstring his successor through a dubious manipulation of the constitution to have a single six-year term? This at a point when power should shift to the North, come 2007? So accepting to bow to the wishes of Obasanjo in respect of the issues of a single six-year term and rotation of power between the unconstitutional geo political zones is to voluntarily accept political suicide. This is certainly unacceptable and it is really the reason why we should not accept a re opening of the issues already decided. Unfortunately, the relationship with our friends of the south-south has suffered what the Americans call ‘collateral damage’ given the scenario that has unfolded. We do not wish it so, but the vital interest of ensuring that the manipulation by Obasanjo does not win out has made it truly difficult to re open the decided issues For all patriotic Nigerians, let us agree that Obasanjo should go at the expiration of his term in 2007. This is the only way to reclaim our country from the pains his regime has visited on our country, through his incompetent government. In six years he turned governance into an enemy of the best interests of the Nigerian people; and consumed in his delusions about his infallibility, the man began to see himself as “the messiah”. But we know better, that what will suit Nigeria is to manage him through to the end of his tenure in 2007, so we can uproot the neo liberal economic regime he has instituted. It is an economic programme of intolerable hardships for the Nigerian people and the systematic erosion of our country’s sovereignty. The pains to our people are very obvious, and these programs must be revisited when a patriotic government and president come to power in May 2007. Obasanjo’s fears are rooted in what might happen when he is out of power in 2007. But the truth is that no matter how long the night. It still would have to give way to the light of day. 2007 will come, and Insha Allah, Obasanjo must vacate Aso Villa Nigerians can then truly institute the building blocks of a democratic society. This is the background why we should not allow any manipulations of the settled issues of the National Political Reform Conference.
