By: Ik Muo
Once in a while, we actually, ‘see tomorrow’. In the first two weeks of November I examined the antics of some of our ‘ex-this, ex-that’ and how the present leaders respond to their interventions. Among other things, I had commented that ‘..The curse of the yesterday’s men- syndrome is that they are always better, their successors are always up to no good. Furthermore, and most unfortunately, most of yesterday’s men are hypocritical, economical with the truth and forget that the foundation for today-good or bad- was laid yesterday-when they were in charge!… Those in charge and in power today will always counter-attack: Even you? What did you achieve? You were a colossal failure! In the ensuing melee, the real issue is hidden or ignored…. All the men of yesterday are entitled to freedom of expression, association and aspirations. But they may not act in such ways as to devalue the institutions they had personified. Former heads of state,
in particular should speak and act very decorously. They have official and unofficial channels to air their views. It is unbecoming for persons who had been CEOs of Nigeria Inc. to start making inflammatory statements, promoting parochial or destructive values or even desecrate the office that they once occupied so as to attain some petty or even grand political gains. (see Ik Muo, ‘Yesterday’s men, Today’s men and allied matters’; Business Day, 5 &12/11/13
Less than a month after this commentary, we received Obasanjo’s letter bomb; a sort of Christmas gift, to President Jonathan and indeed, to the whole country. Efforts to separate the message from the messenger have been futile, if only because, as our elders say, one needs to see a child’s welcoming visage before receiving a gift from him/her. And viewed from my ‘hypothesis’ above, it is obvious that Chief Obasanjo will not receive any accolades from me. He has views to air; he has several avenues to air such views[he had an international break-fast meeting with President Jonathan just as we were trying to unravel the satanic verses), the statements are inflammatory and desecrate the office he once occupied [and actually schemed to occupy in perpetuity]and they are obviously aimed at some political objectives. The motive may be to blackmail, scare-away or intimidate the president, settle scores or gain political advantage, chase him out of
Aso Rock, or whittle down his authority; incite Nigerians and the soldiers(?) against the government; or as Segun Adeniyi argued, exact a revenge from a recalcitrant and ungrateful benefactor. But whatever the motive, this letter which devalues both the writer and the receiver, and even the Nigerian state, amounts to playing politics- and to the gallery- with the unity and stability of Nigeria.
Another part of the unfolding scenario is the manifestation of another view of our elders; that whoever points a finger at another, will have at least three of his own fingers, pointing back at him; a sort of triple return to sender! Obasanjo had accused Jonathan of fueling corruption, mismanaging the security situation, seeking a second term, manipulating the umbrella party and so on. But everyone who has been around [and even those who are observing from outside] knows the score on these issues between Jonathan and Obasanjo. Both of them are of and in the PDP and Obasanjo manipulated the party to ensure the emergence of Yar’Adua and Jonathan, just as the system was manipulated for him to emerge against Ekwueme in 1998. A commentator had argued that if Jonathan had actually fought corruption seriously, Obasanjo should be where he was before 1998 and that somebody who has an office dedicated to corruption[like sharing the 3rd term monies, transmitting the Ibori-EFCC bribe, and $20m agric equipment scandal]should not be talking about corruption. We also know who empowered those that Achebe calls ‘efulefu’ [riffraff] to take over Anambra State and burn down the patrimony of that state while police looked the other way
Of course, Obasanjo has always been a good letter-writer. He had once written that government policies should have milk of human kindness while at another time he bemoaned that the government was deficit in honour, deficit in truth and deficit in everything apart from saying one thing and doing another. But these letters are not truly ‘for the masses’. This is because, like other members of the political elites whom Dele Akinola referred to as power traffickers, rampaging and ubiquitous power merchants disguised as leaders, who want to score from the political off-side position [Guardian, 23/12/13,p16], his interest is not selfless. In this regard, John Campbell’s theory linking the crises of governance in Nigeria to the breakdown of elite consensus is germane. Campbell wrote about powerful elite –oligarchs- who bypass the weak institutions and exercise power through patron-client networks as well as indulge in nonstop elite bargaining and
maneuvering to access power and influence based on oil wealth. This network is composed of retired-and political- generals, ex heads of state, politicians and is characterized by seeming elite collegiality as well as cooperating and competing [‘coopetition’], and intense politicking. This façade of togetherness however cracks whenever change in government looms because of the winner-takes- all political culture which makes politics a matter of life and death in Nigeria. He specifically mentioned Obasanjo as a product and perpetrator of politics of patronage’ and declares that ubiquitous patronage and corrupt behavior fueled by oil money is the root cause of Nigeria’s political and economic crises. He concludes that when the elites start to devour each other, to violate with impunity the rules that have governed their behavior, instability becomes inevitable. [Nigeria: Dancing on the brink, Ibadan: Bookcraft Co, 2010]. In effect, drawing from
Campbell’s theory, what is happening is an intra-elite war over political power, influence and wealth at the expense of the citizens; it is not in the interest of the citizens! So, we are witnessing a war of big-men and those who act as if they own Nigeria: those who feel shortchanged, those who want to be noticed, those who want to have a larger share and all this is about sharing the booty
Meanwhile, a these issues raised by Chief Obasanjo are in the public domain-apart from the issue of snipers[ Governor Amaechi has declared that he is number one on the list]. President Jonathan should act in these issues because they are areas in which we, the people demand and deserve performance. But Obasanjo and other Exes should behave with decorum and these oligarchs should stop throwing us into confusion and panic whenever some people violate their written and unwritten codes and when they fight over our resources. May 2014 be a pleasant and letter-free year for us.
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