Daily Independent Online.
*
Tuesday, August 24, 2004.
Desperate anxieties over 2007
Amidst a coded warning by President
Olusegun Obasanjo that politicians within the ruling Peoples Democratic Party,
PDP, must tame their ambition to occupy the nation’s number one office
until 2006, and the fear of a looming bloodbath in 2007 by the party’s
national chairman, Chief Audu Ogbeh, it is now evident that the transition to the next presidential
term is fraught with danger. While
the President reportedly handed his warning to frontline aspirants to the plum
office during his personal meetings with them on individual basis, Chief Ogbeh
spoke last week at a parley in Lafia, Nasarawa State to round off the tour of
the North Central Zone by the PDP national leadership. Sounding philosophical, the party
leader who does not suffer fools gladly prophesied: “We are going to
witness a fast driving on the political highway, emergency lane crossing,
causing severe accidents and deaths.
We are going to witness uncontrollable and over-bolting [sic] ambition
and application of methods that are less than orthodox and certainly crass
unethical”.
Whereas we recognise Chief Ogbeh’s palpable
anxiety over the need for orderliness in his party, it is to be noted that
already there are dark whispers in the air that some hawks in The Presidency
are clamouring for a review of the Constitution to align with a single
five-year term arrangement that would compel the President to take a third shot
at the presidency. This is
precisely where Chief Ogbeh should ventilate his apprehension. A successful transition from civilian
to civilian administrations has eluded most African nations since the
attainment of self-rule from our colonial masters. It is, indeed, an age-long African idiom which, unfortunately,
has developed into an inscrutable nightmare. The Western Nigeria regional election crisis of the 1960s
that culminated in the January, 1966 Nzeogwu coup and the Nigerian Civil War
with all the concomitant effects on the polity arose from our inability to
conduct a successful civilian to civilian transition. It was also for this reason that the Second Republic was
terminated abruptly by the military in December 1983.
Chief Ogbeh’s fears are therefore profound and
understandable. In fact, the
President also expressed the same anxiety and apprehension over the 2003
general elections when, in a Presidential retreat on February 7, 2002 in Abuja,
he conceded that Nigerians had good reason to express fears about the future of
the country after the last Presidential elections. But it is evident that their government and the party they
represent lack the requisite democratic values that could halt the trend. Granted that after the organised
political robbery that was the 2003 general elections, the government had to
regiment the entire society to forestall sporadic civil unrest. Yet, for how long shall this
large-scale swindling continue in the country? How can Ogbeh prevent violence and bloodshed in the absence
of justice and fairness? Even as
Nigerians are aware that Chief Obasanjo is a hostage to some master-puppeteers
who allegedly planted him at Aso Rock and is contemplating to either continue
or hand over to them, it is obvious that the political process is once again
burdened by our perennial limitations which usually result in cardiac arrest.
First, the ruling PDP is like a large house divided
against itself. Like all stolen
property, the party appears incapable of managing its victory. Currently, the party is racked by
intra-party squabbles, intransigence and lawlessness. Obviously lacking any records of standing for justice, the
PDP has consistently demonstrated open contempt and repudiation of the
courts. Instances abound where the
“giant” party has employed the security forces to abuse the
judicial process. There are too
many pointers that the party will degenerate or disintegrate even before 2007.
They are the signs of internal decay, the dry rot of apathy and
indifference.
Suffice it to say therefore that Chief Audu Ogbeh is
a true and progressive prophet.
Those who choose to dismiss his warning with scorn and indignation will
do so at their own peril. A time
comes in the life of every nation when its people must summon enough courage to
tell the truth about themselves and take a stance. That is what Chief Ogbeh has done, and he deserves our
sympathy.
The truth about us today is that in spite of our
vaunted love for democracy, our country stands the risk of continuing on the
part of political and economic paralysis until we call it quits with hegemonic
arrogance and the winner-takes-all mentality. For more than fifteen years of military rule, the world had
watched with disbelief as we squandered our enormous fortunes and opportunities
for greatness. Our collective
sense of humiliation stretched to its limits when South Africa, once held in
contempt and isolation on account of its oppressive apartheid system, zoomed
onto the hallowed path of democratic transformation, swapping its former
position with Nigeria, which had hitherto been at the forefront of the struggle
for majority rule and democracy in that country.
South Africa, which today ought to be looking forward
to us for guidance, is now compelled to teach us the rudiments of
democracy. Nigeria, the
self-appointed “Big Brother” is ironically still doddering and
stumbling in the political wilderness faced only by a bleak horizon. Most educative is the fact that not
only did the National Party of South Africa which introduced apartheid in 1948
organise a free and fair election that was won by the African National
Congress, the party of the oppressed, the oppressors accepted defeat in good
faith and also agreed to serve under the man they jailed for 27years. But, here we are: President Obasanjo
declared recently that his party, the PDP, must rule for 30 years and that he
would even lay down his life to actualise this. Will there really be vacancy in Aso Rock in 2007 without a
level playing field? Everything in our recent experience shows that the very
foundations of Nigeria demand a fundamental restructuring and re-engineering. Truly, the nation is bigger than the
ambition of a select few.
