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FROM DEMOCRACY TO BABACRACY
: THE OBASANJONISATION OF NIGERIAN POLITICS
By Jide Ayobolu <jideayobolu@yahoo.co.uk>
Oct 28, 2006
What we have witnessed in the past few weeks
is the country is a political tragedy of monumental proportion, the
subversion of the rule of law by an agency of government all in the name
of fighting corruption, which have not only been selective but outrightly
lopsided. EFCC has been used by the president in pursuing his gale of
impeachments proceedings, thereby engulfed the polity with ceaseless
political tension, in pursuance of his third term agenda. It will be very
germane to know exactly what the EFCC has done about countless allegations
made against the president, aleast he is not immuned from investigation,
for instance, Engr. Hamman Tukur, chairman, RMAFC, has said repeatedly
that, the president unilaterally withdrew $13.1 billion from the excess
crude oil, without the knowledge and consent of the National Assembly,
only for him to seek retrospective legislative approval for the sum of
N140billion, saying that the money was spent for two additional days of
the head count, without any accountability. He also unilaterally withdrew
the sum of $1, 062, 591,071.85 from the consolidated revenue fund of the
federation, without legislative authorization for the power sector. Again,
the National Assembly also queried why more than N.3trillion was paid in
excess of the amount owed to the Paris Club, similarly during 2002/2003
oil blocks biddings $700 was realized, but only the sum of about
$145million was released to the PTDF, so where is the balance and who used
it under what law or which appropriation subhead. In the same vein,
N90billion was squandered on the rehabilitation of Nigeria’s four
refineries within the first five years of Obasanjo governance without any
tangible result, why not move against the contractors, and sanction them
in the spirit of the anti-graft law? Why not take Tony Anenih to task
about N320billion that was given to the federal ministry of works? Why not
investigate the president over his 200shares in Transcorp? How did the
president’s son get the funds to buy a house in the U.S.? Why not take
Bode George to task about the N84billion fraud in NPA? Why not take
Ibrahim Mantu to task over the misuse of N400million 2005 hajj, where many
people that had paid up their bills could not travel for the pilgrimage to
Mecca? The EFCC has kept sealed lips on the above raised critical issues
that bothers on corruption, and the rationalization offered by EFCC is too
simplistic, reactionary and totally escapist, its excuses are very
unconvincing and predicated on voodoo statistics that are totally
baseless.
The State of emergency
that is sweeping across different states in the country presently through
the instrumentality of the EFCC, on behalf of the president in a great
threat to democracy, the president and EFCC pretend as if they are really
fighting corruption when in actual fact, they are the most corrupt and
needs to be brought to book. They have carried on as if, every other
person is corrupt and they are the only clean people, but the reverse is
the case. The state of emergency was contrived by the president, promoted
by the president and foisted by the president. What is in place in Nigeria
is dictatorship, not democracy, democracy has completely collapsed. In the
emerging scenario, the operatives of the anti-graft agency bundle members
of a state house of assembly to either Abuja or Lagos and coerce them into
removing their state chief executive. EFCC is arm-twisting of legislators
to impeach their governors. It is in this regard that Professor Wole
Soyinka said that, the flagrant disobedience of court orders, the resort
to unconstitutional methods to achieve political aims and the gangster
approach to the fight against corruption portend great danger for
democracy. In a related development, the Centre for Democracy and
Development (CDD) likened the situation in Ekiti to what happened in
Bayelsa, Oyo and being replicated in Plateau and Anambra states. According
to CDD, the EFCC has been politicized and risks losing legitimacy. It
accused the federal government of aiding and abetting the impeachment of a
governor, allowing the installation of an acting governor and facilitating
the declaration of the deputy governor as acting governor.
At this juncture it is
important to point out that, Obasanjo was involved in the impeachment plot
from the onset, the president was regularly briefed on the plot in Ekiti
and he endorsed the removal of Fayose and Olujimi. On receipt of the EFCC
report, Obasanjo summoned Fayose to Abuja for a meeting. He asked him to
read the report as well as another one submitted by the SSS. The SSS
report linked him with politically motivated killings in the state.
Obasanjo told him pointedly to resign and go abroad, pending when
attention would have shifted from him, but Ahmadu Ali and Bode George
asked Fayose not to resign. So, the question to ask is, is this how to
fight corruption? It means the president is rabidly corrupt for tacitly
encouraging corruption. It is even more important to say that, PDP is a
party of strange bed fellows, pursuing different political agenda for
different political reasons, there is no party discipline. In spite of the
fact that Obasanjo, Ali and George are all retired military men, who
belong to the same party and are holding sensitive positions in the same
party that formed the government, they don’t agree on what to do. It shows
very evidently that Obasanjo don’t consult them before taken crucial
decision and they in turn, undermined the president’s directives as was
the case in Ekiti.
Obasanjo has militarized
politics in Nigeria, he has no democratic credentials, and he was imposed
on the country in 1999 that was the people of the south-west did not vote
for him in 1999. On the Plateau issue, there is no way Dariye could have
been said to be guilty of corruption that the national officials of the
PDP, including president Obasanjo would not be similarly indicted for
receiving and using the donation of N100million for party purpose, only
for the president to refund the money after a while. In some other
civilized countries it is the president that would have resigned first.
And, if Dariye must be put on trail, the president and the national
officers of the PDP must follow suit.
In any case, the Plateau
State governor has explained that the ecological fund in question was
distributed in the following ways, namely, out of N1, 161,162,900.00; the
Plateau State government gave N250million to Plateau Radio and Television
Corporation, while the state government took N550million, Union Homes was
paid N80million, PDP south-west and national secretariat N100million, the
state PDP N66million and Senator Mantu N10million. So, what does EFCC
makes of this?
The central point in all
of this, is that president Obasanjo does not want to leave power, and this
is because of his so many atrocities, particularly as it has to do with
blatant corruption of unimaginable proportions, the president since he
came to power has engaged in several shady and under- the- table- deals,
he has however used his office to protect himself, that is why he wants to
hang on to power, as well as declare state of emergency in so many states
as possible, particularly in states where the governors are not likely to
support his tenure elongation agenda, the point that should be strongly
made is that Obasanjo is more corrupt than any of the state governors in
the country today, this was a man who could not boast of N20,000 in his
bank account in 1998, in fact, he was indebted to the tune of over
N200million to various banks, so how come that few years after he is
perhaps the richest Nigerian, and he is not in private business, he has
been in government all the while so, what is the source of his sudden
stupendous wealth? Obasanjo is a common thief. The EFCC has deliberately
refused to investigate allegations of corruption against the president,
because they think he is above the law and can therefore do no wrong.
Therefore, it will not be out of place to
reason that the EFCC is not fighting corruption in Nigeria; instead it has
become an outlaw organization that is more interested in political power.
Obasanjo is not a democrat, he does not believe in democracy, by his
actions, comportment, utterances and disposition, he is dictatorial,
hence, he is more at home with the military tactics rather than democratic
ethos, that is why he has no regard for anybody, he uses people and dump
them, he wantonly abuses people and look down on them. This is why it is
important to note that, the beneficiary of democratic rule since 1999 are
not those that suffered and fought the military for democracy to flourish.
They are military apologists who wined and dined with military jackboots,
hence, they want to deliberate plunge the country to the old dark days of
military rule. It is for this reason that Obasanjo remains a bull-in
–the-china-shop in a democratic setting, and he is a disaster to democracy
and a curse to the Nigerian state, and these are is contributions to
Nigerian politics.
By
Jide Ayobolu
No 19 Gongola Street
Garki 2
Abuja-Nigeria.
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