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Remaking the Presidency
CHUMA IFEDI
THE
presidency today is indeed battling with an image problem. This writer had an
occasion four years ago to sympathise with the late Tunji Oseni when he was the
special assistant of the president on media affairs. Today, one would also
express the same degree of condolence to Mrs Remi Oyo and Femi Kayode who share
the onerous task of representing the image of President Obasanjo and trying to
reflect its positive aspects. The reality starring us in the face is that
President Obasanjo, whatever his good attributes, lacks the tact and the
discretion to carry the people of Nigeria along. He is better disposed to making
more enemies than friends. He also fights too many battles simultaneously.
Former Vice President Alex Ekwueme
succinctly expressed the position: "The whole instability we are going through
in this country is due to the style of the leader of government, the president.
His style generates this instability."
In the last one month, most citizens blame
President Obasanjo for the crisis and massive devastation in Anambra State. One
would have expected the president to take an objective view of the situation and
plead for peace. Not President Obasanjo. He has pitched his tent with Chris Uba,
a semi-literate politician, insisting that Governor Chris Ngige should honour
the agreement reached with Chris Uba to empty the Anambra State treasury into
the private pockets of the political contractor. For a president who preaches
anti-corruption gospel, this stand is terribly disgraceful and criminal. How can
anybody defend this dishonourable stance of a president who seeks respect and
acceptance?
The Northern Governors Peace Committee has
accused President Obasanjo of deliberately trying to truncate their last meeting
by preventing the Vice-President Alhaji Abubakar from attending the meeting. The
president was also alleged to have instructed the ministers of Northern origin
not to attend. In a similar vein, the last Southern Governors Summit in Benin
accused President Obasanjo of inciting the public against them and vehemently
claimed that they were not more corrupt than the presidency in which the
president held overall command. They demanded for State Police and a radical
review of revenue allocation to stem the prevailing undue advantage of the
Federal Government. A section of the Plateau citizenry detest the vicious
campaign against Governor Joshua Dariye which the president had orchestrated in
recent weeks to the extent of showing a film to crucify the governor. There was
no doubt that the president had an agenda for the impeachment of the governor
despite the fact the case is already in court.
Most of the Plateau State indigenes allege
that President Obasanjo was acting on the script handed over to him by his
friend and ardent supporter Senator Ibrahim Mantu. Christians of Plateau State
are bitter against the president because of the open disgrace he meted out to
one of their most respected clerics in full view of radio and television.
Everybody is aware of the battle between
the president and the Nigeria Labour Congress. Whatever might have been the
purported hostility of the trade union organisation, the president could have
assuaged their temper by a more tactful trouble shooting approach. This writer
has a profound background in industrial relations and collective bargaining and
watched with severe concern as the president carelessly threw away easy
opportunities of winning the battle with the workers’ representatives. Recent
strikes could have been avoided if the presidency had meticulously exploited the
immense benefits of cost-benefits dialogue. There is pressing need for the
Presidency to attract experienced labour relations manpower into its team to
douse the frequent confrontation with the trade unions. The crisis of strikes
will continue long after the Nigeria Labour Congress has been emasculated
through the National Assembly.
President Obasanjo still wears the
military toga in his official attitude to crucial problems. He readily dismisses
the prevailing abject poverty in the land. According to his recent statements,
there is no abject poverty in Nigeria. During the last radio programme "The
President explains," he insisted that the standard of living in Nigeria has
improved tremendously in the last five years.
The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)
lately reported that poverty level in Nigeria rose from 27 per cent in 1980 to
60 per cent in 1990 to 70 per cent in 2002. The International Monetary Fund
recently stated that 80 per cent of the Nigerian population live below one U.S.
dollar a day. With the extreme comfort in Aso Rock Villa and the jaundiced
information of sycophants in the presidency, the president does not have a true
view of the hell through which many Nigerians are passing. In any case, how does
the president believe that Nigerians are actually living well when pensions,
salaries and contractors’ fees are not paid? Pensioners of the Nigerian Railway
Corporation have not been paid for thirty months. Salaries of staff of Nigeria
Airways have not been paid for three years. Domestic contractors are owed over
two trillion naira. By what miracle do these improverished citizens survive? It
is most callous of President Obasanjo to paint a picture of prosperity when in
fact he inflicts terrible penury on the masses.
President Obasanjo contests the rating of
Transparency International that Nigeria is the third most corrupt country in the
world. It is the view of most well meaning people that Nigeria should be rated
the first in the context of the prevailing fraud and corruption everywhere in
the country especially at the highest level including the corridors of power.
The British government recently said that 50 per cent of corruption in Nigeria
is perpetuated in the presidency. USAID in a recent study with non-governmental
organizations indicated that 51 per cent of corruption in Nigeria is committed
in the presidency. What else does one expect when dubious persons are awarded
national honours and questionable characters gain political patronage as a
matter of course.
This writer was a great fan of President
Olusegun Obasanjo prior to the 1999 general elections. As a member of the
Editorial Board of a national newspaper, I backed the president with feverish
fanaticism in opposition to other members who incidentally hail from his ethnic
group. Today, events seem to have proved me wrong. President Obasanjo certainly
is not carrying the people along. His policies rather strangulate the
unfortunate common man.
A lot needs to be done to salvage the
image of the president and the presidency as a body. The president must keep his
ear to the ground and appreciate the yearnings of the people. The poverty level
indeed is excruciating. Mortality rate is escalating in the wave of crippling
penury and massive unemployment. The irony is that the president invites
Nigerians abroad to come home when those at home are desperately fighting hard
to escape from the horrendous spate of suffering and insecurity.
Our president should be more tactful and
discreet in his actions and utterances. Most of his present attitudes and
disposition portray him as a sadist who refuses to identify with the miserable
plight of the common people. President Obasanjo should adopt more benevolent
policies in whatever reforms he intends to apply. His current ill-treatment of
senior citizens by failure to pay public service pensions as and when due has
isolated him from his generational constituency. The president must lead by
examples, good examples, rather than empty precepts. He should handle sycophants
and cronies with utmost care.
The president must sanitize and
rationalise the presidency. The grapevine conveys the ugly impression that the
presidency is congested with praise singers, crooks of sorts, boot lickers,
concubines and other hangers-on who are kept as sinecures at public expense. It
is high time the overbloated presidency is rationalised.
President Obasanjo should reduce his
overseas journeys and concentrate more on home assignments. He should desist
from accumulating posts - chairman of African Union, Chairman of NEPAD, Chairman
of the Commonwealth. These heavy duties will tell heavily on his health. He
should relinquished his hold on Otta farm and transfer it to a company until he
retires from public office. The president must ensure that the trial in respect
of top men involved in national identity card scam proceeds is according to law,
otherwise his anti-corruption crusade will collapse like a pack of cards.
President Obasanjo had in recent times been booed openly
in public functions. Nothing can be more humiliating for head of government
especially in the presence of other nationals. The only way to stop this malady
is to identify with the people and sincerely cater for their welfare within our
available resources. The presidency should stop chasing the shadows.
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