Obasanjo and George Bush’s boots
I wonder how other Nigerians have been
feeling since the pro-government Zimbabwean newspaper, The Chronicle, decided to cast President Olusegun
Obasanjo as an underling of President George Bush, contented with rendering
service, however demeaning to the latter, his master. According to the report
in Daily Independent, August 26 (2004), pp. A1/A2, the newspaper published “an
unflattering cartoon of Obasanjo polishing the boots of President George
Bush” and that the caricature is “causing ripples in diplomatic
circles in Washington and beyond.”
This development reminds one of a similar incident in
South Africa, not long ago, when some radio DJs made mockery of Obasanjo in a
live programme. They jested about our President conveying hard drugs to
Hillbrow, a place in South Africa where resident Nigerians have gained
notoriety for Advance Fee Fraud, drug peddling and consumption. The South
African Government did so much to head off a diplomatic row with Nigeria, by
causing the two radio presenters to be punished. They were suspended for a week
without pay. Apparently Obasanjo and his image makers were satisfied. But now,
it is another Southern Africa country, the very people Obasanjo single-handedly
liberated from white tyrannical rule. And President Mugabe, Obasanjo’s
one-time ally is not about to apologise or demand that the cartoonist or editor
of the paper be punished. Why should they treat him that way?
The answer is simple. The world sees through Obasanjo
more than anyone in his cabinet or among his aides is willing to tell him. He
believes Africa cannot be without him, and that Nigeria can be sacrificed at
his whim to enable him attain a desired respectability in the world. People
look at Obasanjo as the personification of the hollowness that we tout as
national greatness. They know the man is severely handicapped in terms of
self-perception; he has to do and overdo things to win the admiration of world
leaders outside Africa. For his own countrymen, the very ones who invited him
to be a Head of State a second time because they can’t do without him, he
has only contempt. So, while he inflicts hunger and misery on his subjects back
home, he is willing to do anything to gratify those to whom he feels nothing
but inferiority.
All I can say is that the caricature captures the
reality behind the person of Obasanjo. Happily, Mugabe will not apologise. Let
the image - the image of a shameless underling - remain to haunt
him now and after. Who knows, it may make him realise how ordinary he is and
reform him to be like any truly admirable fellow.
Effiong Nera
Victoria Island, Lagos
