Last Friday 6 August 2004, President Obasanjo arrived Uyo, the Akwa Ibom state capital for a three-day state visit. By Saturday 7 August when I arrived Uyo, the talk all over town was about how the President had come to “rubbish” Governor Obong Victor Attah. As proof, Uyo diplomatic pundits that abound in the beer parlours had pointed out that the President was not wearing the same uniform with the Governor as is customary in such visits. Indeed, the way some vendors of this “quarrel with the Governor” painted the picture of tension you would think that before the end of the visit, blows would fly or incendiaries would cascade on Uyo as was the case in Shendam!
At the interactive session with Akwa Ibom people, the President had, perhaps, inadvertently given credence to the rumour. He had publicly deprecated the Minister of Women Affairs, Chief Rita Akpan’s quality of work as minister. The “quarrel with the Governor,” theorists pointed out was that the public humiliation of the Minister was aimed at the Governor who nominated her. I believe that these rumours must have found their way back to the President. At the state dinner in his honour, during which he donned the same type of attire with Governor Attah, he took pains to debunk the rumour of a quarrel. Shortly after he began his speech, which was as usual off the cuff, he delved into the nature of his so-called disagreement with the Governor. It is purely on principle, nothing personal, he said.
The principle, as he enunciated it, is that as members of the same party, the Governor has no right (?) to criticise him publicly, just as he the President has no right to criticise the Governor publicly. If the Governor does it, the party will discipline him. If the party fails to discipline him, “I will personally discipline him!” Of course that was vintage OBJ, and his mien showed that he meant it. The hall roared with laughter. Governor Attah himself quaked with laughter. I think I heard the President say that, in fact, he loves Governor Attah! I reliably learnt too that when the President returned to his seat, the Governor stretched out his palm like a naughty schoolboy and said to him, “Oya, you can flog me sir”, and the President in kind reacted to the joke and said: “Go away joo!”
Since the President said that whatever disagreement was on principle and not personal, it may well be taken that the bone of contention must be matters of public interest. In which case many people would contest his taboo on public criticism. That is a way to muzzle public debate. The PDP has done too much of stonewalling public issues and constricting public space for dialogue. And as I said last Tuesday, the PDP has been guilty of clamping down on internal democracy. The party has become a politburo of dictators, intimidating members at the slightest disagreement with the party apparatchik at Abuja. If the President exhibited his passion for bluntness by chastising his minister and by disapproving being publicly criticised, he also showed his passion for acknowledging performance! His state visit to Akwa Ibom could easily be said to be his most memorable, judging from his effusive praise of Governor Attah’s agricultural projects. And this becomes significant if you know that the President is not generous with praises! Except to God!
Governor Attah himself must be a lucky man. The President was visiting when many of the foreign partners in Akwa Ibom’s various agricultural and infrastructural projects were in Uyo for one meeting or the other. Mind you, these are not Zimbabwean white farmers! The rice and cassava farm projects were what excited the President most. When the rice project manager in charge told the President that by 2006, Ibom rice will take over the Nigerian market, that news brought out the farmer in OBJ! Soon too bakers in Nigeria could be using twenty per cent of cassava flour in their baking. The President rubbed in that he was a farmer to the core! He has the best-kept secret, which is where Akwa Ibom could sell the catfish they are growing. He would not say it in public, but would tell the Governor later in confidence, when the fish are ready for export.
The President is not one you would want to lecture about poverty. He knows it and can connect with it. Sometimes his poor background informs his reaction to situations. But the tremendous progress he saw in Akwa Ibom lightened his usually dour mood that he easily connected with the rural people. I was told that en-route one of his inspection sites, he ordered his motorcade to stop. He saw how ordinary poor people lived, and decided to enter one village house. He engaged the poor woman who, thanks to the death of her husband, is now the head of the family, in conversation. He saw the children. He saw their circumstances. He wanted to know how they lived. He asked one of the kids, a boy about six years old, if he goes to school. The boy said no. Instantly, the President adopted the child. As you read this, the boy would be on his way to Obasanjo’s Bells School. That is a life transformed. That is a family whose circumstance is forever changed, if the boy does well and gets good education!
I am particularly gratified, not to say vindicated, by the fact that the President bore the same testimony as I did when many months back I toured some of Obong Attah’s projects. His accomplishments are not outstanding just in sheer number, but by their quality, their relevance, their sustainability, their endurance through time and their contribution to overall national development. I have seen projects in many parts of the country. Many of them easily stand out as political gimmicks both in quality and relevance. But Attah’s projects in Akwa Ibom and his use of the resources of the state bear the signature of a mature, decent and sincere man. As he was quoted to have told the President: “I am your best friend because I tell you the truth.” The President, perhaps unknowingly, more than reciprocated that gesture by going ahead to endorse Attah’s efforts glowingly even after speaking bluntly about what he did not agree with!
A few times I had occasion to discuss with Governor Attah, I noticed a very deep intellectualism masked by his unassuming nature. But the more he talked, the more you noticed that you were in the presence of a deep mind. It is not just about eloquence which is natural to him, but the humanity that drives his passion for performance, or is it the aesthetics of an architect? As I said many months ago, by the time he will be leaving office as the Governor of Akwa Ibom, many of the projects which are now only visible to imaginative eyes would have all cohered and formed one integrated development effort that would rouse the sleeping giant that Akwa Ibom has become.
As I watched the President enthuse about what he saw in Akwa Ibom, offering his own useful tips, I kept wondering if the President, and indeed the Governor realised that the achievements (and the failures) of the Governors will add up to the Obasanjo legacy? And this always brings me back to the troubling issues of Obasanjo’s successor. The issue of 2007 has been steered to a direction that is likely to rubbish Obasanjo’s legacy and discredit the Yoruba in turn. Which is why I find the behaviour of some Yoruba leaders very disturbing! 2007 must not be reduced to another Abacha era when, while we were stomping for power shift and Abiola’s mandate, the Imeri group thought that the best option for Yoruba was to collaborate with Abacha to stage a coup! Unless one is totally unkind, one would concede that in his second term, Obasanjo has, although belatedly, taken some bold economic steps that could, if sustained, get Nigeria out of the woods. And some of those steps are getting Nigeria positive recognition. From a pariah status, now a Nigerian President is virtually the President of the world! Which is a point those who focus on his travel logbook miss. In any case with a strong economic team that knows what to do, I don’t care where he relocates! Ronald Reagan was on holiday most of his presidency.
But back to the key issue: Obasanjo will leave in 2007. What is the guarantee of the sustainability of the reforms he is putting the nation through, which is putting Nigerians through hardship? He saw some of that hardship in Akwa Ibom. But he can’t adopt all the poor and hungry children! I am of the view that geo-political zone alone must not decide the 2007 presidency. The economic and developmental needs of the nation must define the job description of that office. We can then look for those who can match the job content of the office, North, East and South!
Yorubas are already fighting themselves over Babangida’s rumoured presidential ambition. Abiola’s family is reportedly divided on the IBB project. If Yoruba can’t do better than that, then I have the perfect suggestion for them: They should go for a ticket of IBB and Arthur Nzeribe!!!
