Saturday 28 June 2014
Dele Momodu: Before we return to 1983
Fellow Nigerians, once again I’m inclined to take you down
memory lane. In a country that has become completely reticent
to both ancient and contemporary history, it is pertinent to
refresh our collective memories once in a while. The danger of
collective amnesia is grave. It may send us back to where we
were decades ago. Only the blind would not see where we are
headed. Without mincing words, we are not too far from the
abyss.
Those who delude themselves that all is well should continue to
live in denial. I was glad when our President himself captured
the mood of the nation in his most profound analysis to date.
Day s ago, after the latest bomb blast in Abuja, Dr Goodluck
Ebele Jonathan said the Boko Haram saga was worse than the
Nigerian civil war that killed millions of our own brethren. For
once, I felt our President has now seen the light and all that is
left is for him to be truly born again.
And what does it take to be born again? The Bible says you
have to profess Jesus as your Lord and Saviour. You must go
beyond mere words and emulate Christ and walk in his ways. I
do not have to tell our President what that entails. He probably
knows more than me. We must love our fellow beings
unconditionally. We must forgive our enemies. We must not
steal what belongs to others. We must not covet. There so many
other injunctions that we must strive to obey. If our leaders
accept and heed some of these biblical injunctions, the world
would be a much better place.
It is good that the President has made such a monumental
confession. His supporters who have been treating this situation
as a joke should wake up and encourage the President to do
what is necessary without further delay. The reason the country
is blatantly heated up is simple, our leaders have abandoned
governance for politics. They are too desperately anxious to
retain their jobs, and perks of offices next year, that they no
longer give a hoot about what happens to the country. It is such
a pity that they have refused to learn from our ugly past. So it
behoves us to remind them of where we are coming from.
While I cannot contest the fact that Mr Peter Ayo Fayose won
the Governorship election in Ekiti last week, we must still
protest events that led to the victory. For the Federal
Government, Ekiti was treated like a do or die affair. Everything
and anything possible was thrown into executing that war. It
was so serious that many Nigerians wondered if we would not
have defeated Boko Haram by now if the menace was similarly
attacked. The security in Ekiti was so water-tight that one
wondered why same could not be achieved in other parts of
Nigeria.
While PDP may continue to bask in the euphoria of that victory,
they must try and resist the temptation of seeing themselves as
conquerors. Now that their opponents have been alerted to what
to expect in subsequent elections, PDP may not find it so easy to
intimidate and harass with Federal might when next tomorrow
comes. Instead of over relying on the use of brute and crude
force, PDP should try to wear a new look and embrace a more
responsible attitude. The recent all-out attack against the
opposition in Ekiti should never be contemplated or repeated.
To do otherwise is to push the people to the wall and invite their
wrath.
This type of braggadocio led to the breakdown of law and order
in 1983. The then National Party of Nigeria, at the peak of its
infamous glory, had attempted to pocket the entire country in
one fell swoop. They succeeded, or so they thought. The general
elections of that troublesome year were recorded by political
historians as a “moon-slide”, which was the hyperbolic
description of what ordinarily should have been a landslide. The
NPN was so self-conceited that it simply grabbed votes in broad
daylight and dared anyone to challenge its open robbery. Prior
to the elections, the Federal Government had armed the Nigeria
Police Force to the teeth. Headed by Inspector General of
Police, Mr Sunday Adewusi, the stage was set for the Police to
take on any recalcitrant politician. Everything seemed normal at
first. NPN arbitrarily declared victory in most unlikely places
goaded on by the enormous power of its security forces as well
as street thugs. But they did not bargain for what happened in
Oyo and Ondo States.
Dr Victor Omololu Sowemimo Olunloyo had managed to sack
the legendary Governor, Chief Bola Ige from the Agodi
Government House while Chief Akin Omoboriowo was also
declared winner in Ondo State against his former boss and
incumbent Governor, Pa Adekunle Ajasin. While Ibadan
witnessed a feeble protest against the declaration of Dr
Olunloyo, the people of Ondo State were incredibly ferocious.
They attacked everything in sight and roasted human beings
alive in an unprecedented orgy of violence. The mayhem was so
widespread that the NPN hurriedly capitulated, dropped the
stolen mandate in Ondo State like the hot potato that it had
become and returned power to Pa Ajasin.
The dust of that election had not fully settled down when the
fearsome duo of Mohammadu Buhari and Tunde Idiagbon
struck and brought Nigeria’s outrageous Second Republic to an
abrupt halt. The cleaning up exercise that followed was
blistering and pervasive. Politicians were hauled into prisons
and many of them never recovered from that trauma. The
country itself bled profusely and was engulfed in all manner of
problems. It was obvious that the politicians had overstretched
their luck through unbridled rascality. Had they managed their
affairs very well, the stage would not have been set for a
military take-over and there would have been no cast-iron alibi
for the coup that swept everyone out of power. It took the
intervention of General Ibrahim Babangida to relax the iron-
grip of Buhari and Idiagbon on Nigeria. But the damage had
been done.
One would have thought politicians would learn useful lessons
from that unfortunate era but alas nothing seemed to have been
absorbed. Exactly ten years after, in 1993, Babangida’s endless
transition came to a crescendo. The election was so beautiful
that we actually saw a glimpse of paradise. For the first time in
the history of Nigeria, our people voted for a Muslim-Muslim
ticket without anyone raising eyebrows. A Yorubaman, Chief
Moshood Abiola received resounding votes from every part of
Nigeria and no one cared to ask his birthplace. But tragedy
struck when some co-conspirators sat on Babangida and forced
him to terminate that handsome electoral process. Many could
not believe the audacity of those who turned day into night.
A contraption called the Interim National Government was
hurried packaged an assembled and the winner of that election
was told to go to hell. Chief Ernest ‘Degunle Shonekan was
handpicked to head the fragile institution. Our politicians
thinking they had perfected their act soon discovered that what
awaited us at the other side of midnight was not going to be
palatable. Rather than deepen our democracy, it killed it again.
And General Sani Abacha simply sauntered into power without
firing a single shot in anger. Power was handed to him on a
platter of gold. Nigeria would soon explode into another round
of interminable suffering. This went on from 1993 to 1998.
Some got killed, jailed or forced into exile. Both the military
ruler, Abacha, and the winner of the wonderful election, Abiola,
died within one month of each other under mysterious
circumstances. No one bothered to ask too many questions not
to talk of getting answers to what truly transpired. Life just
moved on as usual.
General Abdul-salami Abubakar came on the scene and started
his own sojourn in power. Unlike others, he had no plans to stay
on permanently in office after the death of Abacha. The only
problem was how Abiola suddenly died under what should have
been his close watch. But life still moved on. Nigerians have
infinite capacity to endure pain and insults. General Abubakar’s
transition was apparently tailor-made to return General
Olusegun Obasanjo to power. Before our very eyes Obasanjo
became the first and only former military ruler to transfigure
into civilian President. We expected Nigeria to become an
Eldorado under the master of the game of power, Obasanjo. But
our hopes were soon dashed again.
Obasanjo left in 2007 after an election that produced a critically
ill President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua and his very quiet deputy,
Dr Jonathan. Before we could say Umaru, the President had
virtually collapsed and was hidden for months by his acolytes.
He eventually died and Dr Jonathan was thrown up by fate. It
was one of the greatest miracles of our time. Again we thought
our President would work assiduously to douse tension and
restore glory to our nation. But our optimism seemed to have
been misplaced as we waltzed from one debilitating crisis to
another. Today, Nigeria is at its lowest ebb. Our country has
virtually taken over from Iraq, Afghanistan, Yemen, Libya and
others as the headquarters of terror. While this senseless
killings are going on our leaders seem incapable of ever being
moved by human misery. Politics and winning elections are
much more important to them. They have studiously ignored
the dangers ahead.
I’m very worried like many concerned Nigerians that our
leaders are once again sowing seeds of discord and setting the
stage for enemies of democracy who litter our political
firmament. It is a great pity that we have not learnt anything
from our bizarre existence.
We appear to have come full circle again. This is very
dangerous and I will go on to give my free suggestions and
solutions again. I hope those who can take the necessary steps
would not dismiss this patriotic act as coming from an
interloper. I do not want my country to go down again. It is our
responsibility to ensure that those beating the drums of war are
not allowed to succeed.
I believe the President alone can kill this fire if he finds the
courage to ignore his self-appointed warriors. The President
should alter his body language by showing that he’s not
desperate for power. The reason his enemies appear to be
getting more daring is that they see that he appears ready to
sacrifice the nation for his personal ambition. The President as a
true Christian should embrace the spirit of true reconciliation
like Nelson Mandela. He should work actively for peace. Under
him, Nigeria has become endlessly polarised. He should
urgently bring the Governors back under the same Forum like it
used to be. He should recognise the faction that won and
encourage his own side to do same.
A good statesman would ordinarily bring his nation together
and President Jonathan can do this by rising above politics to
unite the country. He should recognise The Emir of Kano,
Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, in the spirit of the Muslim Ramadan and
pay a visit to his palace. He has more to gain as the father of the
nation and nothing to lose by offering this olive branch. The
President should set in motion the process of identifying those
who can force the leadership of Boko Haram to the table for
dialogue. These irrational killings and kidnappings must be
stopped by any means necessary. Nothing is too much to
sacrifice for the sake of ending this bloodbath. Even if he needs
to sacrifice himself by not seeking a re-election and supporting
someone else, the President should seriously consider this. I
know what the reaction of those profiting from the present
arrangement would be but the President is the one carrying all
the pressure and blame. He should not allow people to use his
head to break coconut because those who did so in the past did
not partake in the eating.
The President should concern himself more with the work he
was voted to do. To whom much is given much is always
expected. The responsibility thrust upon him is heavier than an
elephant. He would not be remembered by how long he spent in
power but by how well he governed. The President must restore
peace in our Polytechnics. How can students be at home for
nearly one year? The Education Ministry needs a total overhaul
and urgently too. The future of our kids is endangered with the
lackadaisical approach to incessant closures of higher
institutions.
The President still has close to a year to prove his mettle and
achieve something monumental. It is sad that he has allowed
himself to be sucked totally into this incomprehensible rat race
that would end up doing more harm than good. There is so much
to accomplish and I have no doubts it is doable if the President
can spend more time at his desk working for Nigeria instead of a
privileged few who wish to retain power for themselves at all
costs and not for the people.
Let us pray.
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