The unusual and bizarre is Nigeria; reptiles, rodents and insects “chop” money in government till and we are never short of screaming headlines of exciting news item on the tabloid or the tubes. About a fortnight ago, some eminent and prominent Nigerian political gladiators were in London to discuss the problems of Nigeria. They see themselves as critical stakeholders of Nigeria because they control the bureaucratic machinery of the government at both states and federal levels that drain the life wire from our common patrimony. They are actually local compradors and lords of the manor. At the head of that gathering was Chief Olusegun Obasanjo himself who always arrogate to himself the vision of who should occupy the highest office in the land.
Chief Obasanjo unquestionably is a great patriot and truly detribalized Nigerian who had fortune smiling on him at every critical juncture of our history. He had power trusted on him in his early 30s when General Murtala Mohammed was cut down by assassins bullets in a coup d’état in 1976. It was to his credit that the military handed over power to civilian government in the Second Republic in a flawed election that he supervised. The credibility of the outcome of that election came to haunt Nigeria as the military sacked the same elected government four years later. Incidentally, the current president, General Muhammadu Buhari was the beneficiary of that coup.
Obasanjo again supervised another election in 2007 adjudged one of the worst in our living history as the election was said to be massively rigged, and the beneficiary of that election, Shehu Musa Yar’Adua acknowledged that much and promised to improve our electoral fortune. It was Obasanjo’s schism that foisted Goodluck Ebele Jonathan on us who inherited power following the demise of Musa Yar’Adua. In 2015, Obasanjo again supported Buhari. Obasanjo is too knowledgeable to feign ignorance of who Buhari was having worked with him in the military as soldiers and even as his own minister of petroleum while he was the Head of State.
Obasanjo has never had a very good judgment whenever it comes to the choice of who should rule Nigeria because he is driven by self-interest and vendetta. In 2019, Obasanjo had contemplated a Third Force, whatever that means to take over from Buhari, but that fell flat on its face. There are no good luck charms for fixing a nation; you need dedicated people not with sense of vengeance or entitlement but commitment to building a modern 21st century country not on the crucibles of ethnicity or religion.
That London parley was selfish and self-serving without any sense of mission to rescue Nigeria from the drift into collapse. They were fixated on power qua power alone and whose turn to rule not to get someone with a sense of mission to transform Nigeria and save us for the gathering storm of implosions along ethno-religious divide. The choice of London in the first place is disgustingly inappropriate for discussing matters that concern the wellbeing of Nigeria and Nigerians by so-called Nigerian political leaders. It was driven by a complex of colonial hangover of local compradors in deference to their colonial taskmasters. On top of it, they went on chartered flight in the midst of biting poverty, insecurity and hardship at home caused by bad leadership.
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The whole exercise makes one to recall history lesson with nostalgia on the 1884 Scramble and partition of Africa where eight European powers gathered in Berlin to share the continent without any African representative. The London gathering was not more than a conglomeration of political predators for settlement of the person to preside over the sharing of what is left of Nigeria without fixing the rot in the country. We are in agreement that our problems are real and huge and we should get men and women that abound in Nigeria to sit down in our country and discuss Nigeria problems in Nigeria and not in Europe or America. Ours are self-made problems.
There is a huge baggage without exception on those jostling to take over from Muhammadu Buhari and we must be circumspective not to allow pedestrian sentiments of ethnic resentment and animosities to lead us to another disaster.
A people deserve the government they get; we should blame ourselves for our political woes and misfortune, after all we are not under spell. If an Obasanjo’s choice is the choice of youths of the country, then we have lost the sense of history because Obasanjo and his generation of leaders ascended the power levers in their 20s and 30s and they made giant strides in the peculiar circumstances. I am not by this dispensing with experience and age, no!
I dare say that today, we do not need the choice of an Obasanjo, Afenifere, Ohaneze and Arewa Elders Forum; their choices are the pain and curse of our country today. We do need their experience but we have to balance it with the currency of the 21st century. Nyesom Wike is a bitter and aggrieved person, betrayed by his political friends and allies and he wants to get his own pound of flesh. Messrs Samuel Ortom of Benue State and Okezie Ikpeazu of Abia State are fighting for political survival and relevance. Messrs Peter Obi, Atiku Abubakar and Bola Ahmed Tinubu want to be the next president; they are not the critical stakeholders of Nigeria. The ordinary Nigerians, the electorate, the youths, market men and women are the critical stakeholders that should drive the engine of change and direct any useful discussion for the future of the country or their representatives.
Every Nigerian should be at home in any part of the country he chooses to live and not defined by ethnicity or religious persuasion. You see the attitude of friendship and love in every Nigerian in market places, offices and business centres everywhere. The politicians just set us up one against the other and allow us to be killing one another like savages; we have to borrow sense this time around. That the person from your ethnic nationality or religious faith is in power does not change your fortune; there are poor people in Daura, Otuoke and Owu. Let us stop being myopic and daft!
The whole world is laughing at us as a nation that has such great potentials but with political midgets as leaders who cannot take us anywhere. We have tribal champions and ethnic irredentists, without statesmen. We are sinking in debt but the loans are not visible on any tangible thing that is impacting on the ordinary citizens. We live in insecurity, poverty and unemployment while we glorify and beatify crooks and area boys with national honours. We have to come together and fight to liberate our country and build a strong united Nigeria that we can call our home. We have to exorcise the DNA of ethnicity and religion and the sooner we do that the better for us all, and the time is now. We are the Nigeria stakeholders not the tenants in government offices and political appointees.
- Kebonkwu Esq is an Abuja-based attorney.