Category: Jide Oluwajuyitan

Obafemi Awolowo, the best president Nigeria never had was Yoruba’s gift to a nation hijacked by brigands.  He was a philosopher king, an African pride and a man with a large heart who gave back to society what society denied him by accident of birth.  Thirty-five years after physical death, Awo, the African sun continues to shine in spite of evil conspiracy of his people and the owners of Nigeria.

He was committed to finding solution to problems associated with multi-cultural nation like Nigeria. ‘The Path to Nigeria Freedom’ which he believed would liberate Nigerians from the tyranny of the state is one of the products of such search.  That he led by example explained why he, along with like minds, also inaugurated the Action Group party as a modernisation agent. The basic principles of the party as stated in his inaugural address in Owo on April 28, 1951 were:  the immediate termination of British rule in every phase of our political life, commitment of the party to the education of all children of school-going age, the provision of health and general welfare for all our people and finally the total abolition of want in our society”.

The party’s free primary education scheme inaugurated on January 17, 1955 with about 400,000 children had by 1960, risen to an enrolment of 1,124,788 children. The major principle of the party’s health scheme was  ‘provision of adequate pure water, progressive build-up of environmental hygiene; and  the expansion of hospital, maternity and child welfare, and dispensary services, coupled with a campaign of preventive medicine’. Within a period of five years, the number of hospitals increased by over 60 per cent with six new 32-bed hospitals sited at Afenmai Etsako , Ekiti, Epe, Egbado, Aboh and Okitipupa divisions.

His agriculture policy was informed by his belief that the causes of poverty are: “the abject state of the peasant class of this country… their antediluvian methods of cultivating the land”. Consequently, his party’s agricultural reforms were tailored towards allowing farmers to enjoy the benefits of organized marketing. In this regard, the government assisted plantation development, with focus on rubber, cocoa, oil palm, citrus, cashew and coffee, through the Western Nigerian Development Corporation (later Industrial Investment and Credit Corporation (IICC).

His government also set up a finance corporation agency, to provide loans to Nigerian entrepreneurs. To increase electricity supply for domestic and industrial purposes as well as make electricity available in all Yoruba major cities by 1962, the Western Region government granted to the former Electricity Corporation of Nigeria, (ECN) a loan of 1,300,000 pounds free of interest for a number of years.

To address shortage of houses, Western Region Housing Corporation was established which had by 1959  built 173 houses in Bodija, Ibadan and  44  at the Ikeja Estate and granted loans totalling 110,000 pounds on mortgage to 44 borrowers. The government also built a 40,000 capacity Liberty Stadium through direct labour at a cost 520,000 pounds and went on to build the first television in Africa in 1959.

Awolowo who had preferred Anthony Enahoro or Rotini Williams as successor premier was at the end vindicated.  With the typical Yoruba false sense of self-worth, Akintola wanted to upstage Awo and become premier and party leader. The fall out of the party’s adoption of democratic socialism during its 1962 Jos convention, was the defeat of Ayo Rosiji by Sam Ikoku as secretary-general and the consolidation of power by the radical group.

Akintola who later pleaded guilty to the charges of maladministration and antiparty activities was indicted by 81 to 29 votes and replaced as premier by Alhaji Adegbenro. Both Ahmadu Bello and Okpara refused to recognize Adegbenro while Balewa directed the Commissioner of Police who had earlier pledged his loyalty the new premier to withdraw his service.

Following an attempt by Western Region House to have a vote of confidence on the new premier as advised by Balewa, E. A. Oke from Ogbomosho started throwing chairs and ‘shouting fire on the mountain’ while F. Ebubedike  an NCNC member from Badagry broke the mace. The house was dispersed with tear gas. Later, Akintola went with thugs to attack the premier’s office.

Akintola challenged his removal in court. But Balewa was not taking chances.  He convened the meeting of the parliament to declare state of emergence over what he described as “uproar in the western house”.

Then the usual Yoruba predilection set in. “If I cannot have it, no other person must have it” The minority held the majority to ransom. Ayo Rosiji, (Egba East) , Chief E A Okunowo (Ijebu) and  Chief Abiodun Akerele (Oyo Central) for a pot of porridge decided to sell their leader to his political foes.

The charges of Ayo Rosiji who was aided into office by Awo in 1954 were: “The motivating factor all Awolowo’s activities  is himself;. Awolowo has no abiding principle. Rather than look on  whilst another person occupies the position of Prime  Minister in this country, Chief Awolowo is prepared to destroy this country; Awolowo is arrogant, conceited and self-opinionated”.

Okunowo begged Balewa to remove Awolowo because it would mean “removing nepotism, and financial irresponsibility from the region; wanted Balewa to investigate NIPC; He is an Ijebu man like myself. Why should I support Akintola if Awo was doing the right thing? How can we work when one man is saying he is the enemy of the Sardauna, the enemy of Azikiwe the enemy of Okpara consistently?  We appeal to the prime minster to find an asylum for Awolowo and send him to asylum to have him mentally examined; here in this house today we are singing the political death song of Awolowo”.

As for Akerele whose adoption was also aided by Awo in 1951, because he had never been to Oyo let alone knowing his quarters, he wanted Balewa to probe NIPC for giving loans to members of AG including Tarka, Ibrahim Iman and Bisi Onabanjo to build houses”.

Anthony Enahoro who probably remembered the lyrics of Hubert Ogunde’s evergreen song “Yoruba Ronu” about how Yoruba “inflicted rain on themselves for the sake of wealth, undermined one another in pursuit of position and declared innocent guilty and guilty innocent” opened his speech by saying “I wonder what is going to happen to the Yorubas”.

He reminded members that “Ayo Rosiji had no complaints whatsoever against this party until he was removed as federal secretary at the Jos Congress. Ever since then, nothing his party or his leader did has been right”. On Okunowo, he revealed: “Our parliamentary council has met once and the executive once  on the question of his contract disputes with the Ministry of  Works at Ibadan” (Awolowo had stopped him from using his position to secure a contract for importation of asbestos pipes for water project). On Chief Akerele, Enahoro had this to say: “there had been a firm of Awolowo and Akerele Solicitors  and since they broke up, nothing Awolowo stands for  or has ever done  can receive favour with Akerele.”

His warning that “It is only those who cannot look far who will think this the end of everything. It may well be the beginning of chain of events, nobody knows and nobody can tell when it will end” was ignored by Balewa, Ahmadu Bello, Azikiwe and Dr Okpara who had only one thing in mind: bury Awo.

With Ayes 232, Noes 44, they disabled the tripod holding Nigeria together. The struggle ever since has been how to return to Awo’s ‘path to Nigerian freedom’ never taken.

Human rights lawyer and Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Femi Falana not too long ago asked the electorate to first demand from all 2023 presidential aspirants, how they intend to tackle the security challenges tearing our country apart instead of dissipating energy on APC and PDP which he said are two sides of the same coin.  With bandits, foreign Fulani herdsmen and other insurgents levying taxes over ungoverned territories, attacking military formations, airports, railway, highways, many Nigerians today believe President Buhari’s government is overwhelmed in spite of its seven years heroic battle.

Falana’s challenge resonated well with Nigerians, especially the besieged people of most parts of northern Nigeria. For instance, it was only on March 23, that 34 bodies were recovered following an attack on Kaura LGA of Kaduna according to Samuel Aruwan, the state commissioner for internal security and home affairs. On March 28, an Abuja-Kaduna train ferrying 970 passengers was attacked in Katari, area of the state by banditswho mined the track, killed nine, injured 29 and kidnapped unspecified number of people .

Within 24 hours, the bandits were back on Kaduna–Abuja highway where they attacked motorists before escaping with dozens of passengers. There are reports of daily harvests of deaths from Zamfara, Sokoto, Niger,  Katsina states that are today neither safe for  residents,  farmers nor the over-stretched security forces.

But last week’s emergence of Buhari’s  four zealot worshippers  as potential presidential candidates who supported their appeal to the electorate with their participation in  the president’s  seven years heroic war against insurgents and other challenges bedevilling the nation was a big relief. They include Vice President (Pastor) Osinbajo, Pastor Tunde Bakare, Minister Rotimi Amaechi and Yahaya Bello, all celebrating their joint participation in the giant strides the president has made in the areas of agricultural revolution, railway revolution, and heroic battle against insurgency.

Osinbajo reminded Nigerians that on the order of President Buhari, he “visited our gallant troops in the Northeast and our brothers and sisters in the IDP camps and felt the pain and anguish of victims in violent conflicts, terrorist attacks”. He went on to give an undertaking to complete what he jointly started with the president viz: transforming our security and intelligence architecture; pursuit of justice for all and the observance of rule of law, advancing our infrastructure development, especially power, roads, railways, taking the agriculture revolution to the next level, ensuring that all Nigerians, male and female, attend school and finally assuring provision of jobs for our youths.

Now with such assurances coming from Osinbajo, a man of God, celebrated for his integrity, I think those who have been jarring our ear-lobes with their daily sing-song of 40%-50% unemployed rate of youths,  unverified claim of 15million of out-of- school children, power outage and general insecurity across the nation, will give government a break and focus on Osinbajo’s message of hope. With Osinbajo remaining faithful to his principal’s policies, Buhari/Osinbajo train to the promised land is assured. And if you don’t vote for continuity in 2023, you are a traitor to a worthy cause.

As for Rotimi Amaechi, his’ seven years as minister of transportation, eight years as governor of Rivers State; eight years as Speaker, Rivers State House of Assembly and twice as president of Muhammadu Buhari’s campaign organisation, have sufficiently equipped him for the post-Buhari’s challenges.

And “instead of taking holiday to spend more time with his family, after more than two decades in the public arena, Amaechi was “compelled by the urgency of our present challenges to place his experience and proven capacity at the service of the nation at the highest level”. I on behalf of Nigerians commend Amaechi for his selfless service to the nation and hail his decision to ‘sacrifice his present for our future.’ Such patriotic act was last undertaken by Babangida and ‘his army of anything is possible’

For Pastor Bakare, who claimed to have been ordained president for 2023, “the south is being set against the north, while Christians are set against Muslims’; he ‘remains the rallying point to restore order in the country’. His “PTB brand is a rallying point for all Nigerians”, and he is imbued with “a vision of a new Nigeria in which he will play a leading role and has therefore declared himself  “the best suitable candidate to address the problems confronting Nigeria”.

My warning to those troubled by Bakare’s fake predictions of the past  including that of death before inauguration for Obasanjo who went on to complete his two terms of four years and even sought a third term: ‘don’t speak ill of a man of God.’

But of all Buhari’s zealot worshippers, I am more intrigued by Kogi State’s Yahaya Bello, the youngest but the least competent of all Nigerian governors. The current  Nigerian youths who unlike Zik and Awo, their  forbears that studied and read widely to proffer solutions to their country’s crisis of nation building, put their fate in power of the social media, now have the potential of electing one of their own as president in 2023.

And Yahaya Bello will ‘banish bandits, Boko Haram and ISWAP terrorists in one year if elected as president’. On how he would accomplish a goal that has eluded General Buhari, a hero of war for seven years, he “will ensure that every chief executive of the various federating units sits up and do their jobs, will not tolerate any lackadaisical attitude or passing of the buck to the centre, will ensure that various federating units are strengthened, and will supervise and ensure that all security agencies carry out their duties as expected”. Above all, he “will punish those not doing well”. He did not say if these are lessons from is mentor.

But with the above level of preparedness and commitment, it is perhaps only those who regard Bello as a comedian for proclaiming himself leader of Nigerian youths who will fail to acknowledge his readiness for the office of commander-in –chief come 2023 as I am sure the youths are earnestly yearning for him.

Osinbajo wants a Nigeria “where our diversities, tribes and faiths unite, rather that divide us”. But dear compatriots, who else but Osinbajo who has been an accomplice in Buhari’s seven years battle against Nigeria’s return to path of freedom by refusing to correct a 52-year old mistake by our ill-informed soldiers that balkanized a working federation into 36 unwieldy and unviable unitary state?

As for those who question the wisdom in Rotimi Amaechi’s continued expansion of the rail lines without first providing security along the completed lines, I will suggest they take Yahaya Bello for his words. He is going to banish bandits and insurgents from Nigeria within the first year of his presidency.

And as for the rest of us complaining about absence of governance  even as Nigerians wage war of attrition against themselves,  with prices of food hitting the roof amidst the success the nation recorded in her agriculture revolution,  diesel oil refined in Nigeria going up to N650 per litre, kerosene meant for the poor disappearing  from filling stations, bread moving up from N500 to N1,000,  even as Lai Mohammed, the fake doctor continues to insist on our good health, and that the nation’s forlorn  hope lies in  Buhari’s four zealot worshippers’ promise to continue with his current policies.

Governor Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna State is never afraid to walk alone. He is no slave to anybody’s laws. You know where he stands on any issue. In an effort to bring hope to a people divided by ethno-religion and economic differences, he has been described as ‘Fulani irredentist’ accused of ethnic cleansing and blamed by Buhari’s Aso Rock crowd who could not stand his guts of fuelling the Muslims/Christian crisis that predate him.

But Nasir can be ruthlessly aggressive in the pursuit of his objective. At the period President Buhari’s ‘loyal gatekeepers’, were claiming out of mischief that those  sacking and confiscating villages in the Middle Belt region were ‘ghosts’, El-Rufai identified them as aggrieved  Fulani immigrant herdsmen.  He took pains to trace them to their various countries where, despite opposition by Nigerians, they were offered ransom to end attack on his people.

At a period anti-Nigeria elements in the Presidency were fraudulently promoting a public funded RUGA policy to protect those Sheik Gumi, Governors Aminu Masari and Bello Matawalle claimed were immigrant Fulani herdsmen, El-Rufai opted for ranching and was shopping for N140billion to settle Kaduna pastoral farmers.

When the president’s men settled for El-Rufai’s long abandoned policy of appeasement and imposed their hallucination as state policy – Rehabilitating and re-integrating repentant bandits and terrorists, El-Rufai insisted bandits who have graduated from making N100,000 from rustled cow to making millions by kidnaping one person must be bombed out of existence  and allowed to go and repent before Allah in the great beyond.

El-Rufai holds no hostages.  For him, the president men are to be held responsible for near absence of governance. If he needed further proof that Nigeria is on auto-pilot,  last week’s avoidable violent attack on Abuja-Kaduna bound train resulting in about a dozen deaths and about 140 yet to be accounted for victims, was all that was needed.

And El-Rufai is not sparing the presidency. In an attack the newly adopted APC chairman, Adamu likened to  ‘taking a knife to rip open one’s stomach’, El-Rufai exposed the nakedness of  some  of Buhari’s clowning ministers. One in the face a national tragedy was asking Nigerian to donate N2billion for the rehabilitation of damaged rail lines over which he ought to have resigned. Another  who subjected Nigerians to a harrowing experience at the peak of COVID-19 pandemic over registration for NIN we were told would end the insurgency’s ability to coordinate attack is, as we speak, still on his seat even as the exercise seemed to have been designed to help the insurgents.

El-Rufai righteous indignation about government failure to heed warnings that would have prevented the attack is understandable. We have now gathered from newspaper reports that the Kaduna State government in a letter dated November 2, 2021 advised that “trains operate during the daytime only and that all arrivals after dark, to Kaduna or Abuja, should be avoided completely.”

This was followed by a second letter dated January 27, signed by Kaduna’s Commissioner for Internal Security and Home Affairs, Samuel Aruwan which states “Current developments indicate that the concerns over threats to train services…continue to exist.”

Twenty five days before the attack, an intelligence report dated March 3, titled “Plans to Simultaneously Attack Rigasa Train Station…warned of an impending attack”. Yet, no one took pre-emptive action.

Beyond the train attack, El-Rufai also said that government and security groups know the attackers, their locations and their telephone numbers through which they monitor their conversations’. He anguished:  “Why the security has not gone to kill them? Where are our soldiers?” and gave the above as reasons for going to see the president. And perhaps frustrated by the failure of the president’s earlier assurances after each meeting, El-Rufai gave an insight into what transpired between him and the president:

“And also I have said that if these actions are not taken, it becomes a must for us as governors to take measures to protect our citizens, even if it means we will import mercenaries from outside the country to do it. If our soldiers fail, I swear to God, we will do that. This issue has reached an alarming state.”

Unfortunately, instead of understanding where frustrated El-Rufai was coming from, his idea has been roundly dismissed by those who have only watched from the side-lines the daily harvest of deaths in Kaduna State.

First were some Senior Advocates of Nigeria (SAN) who called our attention to the unconstitutionality of the governor’s idea. But it is not difficult to see their intervention as either hypocritical or arising from El-Rufai’s hate. The senior lawyers cannot pretend that  President Buhari, who routinely disobeyed court orders, ordered midnight raid of Supreme Court judges’ houses and National Assembly by hooded DSS men, not to talk of murder of drug pushers through retroactive law as a military head of state, has ever been a respecter of rule of law. And they know better: In a democracy, an elected sovereign is allowed to breach the constitution in the overall interest of the nation.

Some retired Generals were also too quick to remind us that the president is the Commander in Chief. Repeating what was supposed to be obvious is often seen as proof of scepticism. And  this is possible since the president outside the first few months of his presidency when Boko haram insurgents was brought to their knees, he has for the greater part of his presidency not lived up that title, the reason  Wole Soyinka the Nobel laureate rechristened him something like “the Mourner in Chief”.

The heart-ache of some others was that it will lead to low morale of our soldiers. Again except that we live in denial, we all know the source of low morale in the military is the government. For instance, besides claims of inadequate equipment due to alleged corruption, with the upsurge in the number of daring attacks by insurgents on airport, railway, military institutions and ungoverned forests where bandits are said to be collecting taxes, it will be difficult to disabuse the minds of military officers opposed to government rehabilitation and re-integration policy of repentant militants.

President Buhari who believes he can run Nigeria without asking Nigerian what they want traded off hope through his rejection of suggestions by Nigerian stakeholders as to the way out of our crisis of nation building. This includes his rejection of the demand by the 36 states of the federation for state police to replace the current ineffective centralised policing, an aberration in any federation.

There was also the consensus by the 36 governors to substitute open grazing with ranching in order to end confrontation between farmers and herders often exploited by immigrant herdsmen and bandits. The president’s only known public reaction has been “I cannot contradict my minister of justice, who is reactivating pre-independence grazing routes across the nation.’

Nigerians and President Buhari’s APC overwhelmingly settled for restructuring of the country to take care of those agitating for self-actualization and guarantee enough resources for the reconfigured states to protect their borders from unwanted immigrants. The president rejected the idea.

If I have to choose between Buhari’s actions that foreclose hope and El-Rufai’s idea that promises hope for his besieged people, no matter how defective, I will settle for the latter.

Crisis-ridden APC finally had its much postponed convention last weekend. It survived the doomsday prediction about its possible collapse under the weight of its own contradictions. The convention however ended as a parody of PDP, its cloned senior brother. As it was with PDP during its own convention when nearly all contested offices including that of  all-important chairmanship position, were cornered by defecting fair-weather APC politicians without principle, vision or allegiance to any ideological orientation, so it was with APC. Just as PDP chair was clinched by Iyorchia Ayu, an APC defector, APC’s chairmanship position went to Abdulahi Adamu, a founding member of PDP and President Buhari’s favoured candidate

The APC National Secretary position went to another PDP defector, Iyiola Omisore, a controversial divisive politician and until recently APC tormentor. The National Women Leader went to Betta Edu who decamped from PDP to APC only in 2021.  If we needed further confirmation that the difference between these two  political parties without soul, vision or ideological orientation, is that of six and half a dozen, the relative ease with which all key positions in each party were clinched by serial defectors was all that was needed.

Yet, before the 1966 military misadventure that truncated our political party development, there were organic political parties which like their counterparts in France, USA. Britain and Japan were created as agents of modernization by dedicated youths who had their eyes on history. There was the Herbert Macaulay’s Nigeria National Democratic Party (NNDP) inaugurated in 1923 as a response to Hugh Clifford 1922 constitution  with defined objectives viz to seek a “municipal status for Lagos, local self-government, compulsory primary education, non-discriminatory private economic enterprise and Africanisation of the civil service.” There was the Jam’yyar Mutanem Arewa, Northern Nigerian Congress (NNC) inaugurated in June 1949 whose main objectives  according to Dr. A. R Dikko,  included ‘fighting ignorance, idleness and injustice’ in the northern region. There was also Obafemi Awolowo’s Action Group’s (1950) whose well-articulated manifesto  promised “free education, free health, and full employment among many others”.

The collapse of party ethos is one more evidence of regression in our political development as with all other aspects of our efforts at nation building. Ironsi and Gowon truncated the development of our political party system.  Babangida out of delusion decreed NRC and SDP of equal joiners without founders. Abacha came up with, the UNCP, CNC, NCPN, DPN and GDM which late Bola Ige described as five fingers of a leprous hand.  With Abdulsalami Abubakar came PDP described by John Campbell, former US envoy as ‘an elite cartel at the centre of power in Nigeria that came together for sharing of oil rents and political spoils’. It was to become a haven for military-bred new-breed politicians that breed nothing but corruption.

The birth of APC in 2014 was a big relief. Concerned Nigerians had told Buhari, Tinubu and other founding fathers that what they were being called upon to do was not just an inauguration of party to win an election, since PDP had already shot itself in the leg by its 16 years of mindless stealing of the nation’s resources but to provide alternative to PDP controlled by gangs with garrison commanders who, like all soldiers of fortunes, engaged in squabbles over the sharing of loot from conquered territories.

Like most progressive parties, APC manifesto promised miracles: Exchange rate of N1 to $1; end to fuel subsidy, refurbishment of refineries, solution to power crisis in six months, sales of fleet of presidential jets, eradication of corruption and  political restructuring etc. They in fact dared people to stone them if they failed to deliver on their promises.

For the Yoruba mainstream political tendency, joining ultra-conservative Buhari regarded as a religious fundamentalist by political foes was a risk worth taking. Their fathers had engaged in 60 years unwinnable battle over the need for an egalitarian society across the nation. After forcefully retiring their fathers for refusing to trust Buhari, they dressed him in borrowed robes of a progressive and carried him on their back across the nation for the 2015 battle which ended in victory for APC.

But for promoters of APC, it was a pyrrhic. Despite warning by Pa Akande, its former chairman and Aisha Buhari, the president’s wife, about efforts at undermining the APC coalition that brought Buhari to power, his government was hijacked even before inauguration. Thereafter, with the support of a compromised section of the media, Buhari’s trusted gatekeepers embarked on revisionism. Night became day. Buhari, we were told won the 2015 election on his personal merit. Yoruba contribution to his victory was tangential. Buhari was an asset to a party on whose back he rode to power. Bukola Saraki who by his own admission sold APC victory to secure the presidency of the eighth senate, and whose father traced their Fulani origin to southern Sudan suddenly became Yoruba man representing the interest of Yoruba in yet to be constituted Buhari’s government.

The President feigned ignorance as to the meaning of restructuring, the major plank on which APC won the 2015 election. Not even the valiant effort of Kayode Fayemi, his trusted ally who in order to allay the fears of those who are afraid of the word ‘restructuring’ clarified by saying  it is about “how best  we can move towards a more perfect union through better management of our diversity” could stop El-Rufai Committee on restructuring. It’s report never saw the light of the day despite APC’s control of 65 seats in the 109 Senate, 190 of the 360 Lower house seats and 21 of the 36 state governors and their state houses of assemblies.

Then APC’s voice increasingly became muffled even as immigrant Fulani herdsmen, bandits and kidnappers visited violence on innocent Nigerians. It remained so until the president and those who caged him remembered a political platform was needed for re-election in 2019 and sought the help of Bola Tinubu, the neglected corner stone and Adams Oshiomhole.

Oshiomhole, a giant killer who had in his home state of Edo retired Chief Anthony Akhakon Anenih, the Iyasele of Esanland  and PDP’s  “Mr Fixer and Chief Gabriel Igbinedion and his son, Lucky the two-term governor of Edo State moved over to  Ilorin  where he uprooted  Bukola  as senator, and his nominees as governor. He then moved to Imo where he “stopped Okorocha from establishing a dynasty by imposing his son in law in government house. In Ogun, he made it clear to Amosun that APC would not allow him pick himself as a senate candidate, nominate the governorship candidate and his deputy and the next speaker and deputy speaker.

For his pains at attempting to build a disciplined party different from PDP, he was illegally removed by President Buhari who presided over the handing over of APC to PDP last weekend. Apart from imposing a PDP defector as APC chairman after forcing other contestants to step down, he celebrated the PDP defectors at the APC convention by declaring –  “It is gratifying that the party recorded massive and unprecedented defections under the caretaker committee administration. APC received three sitting governors, a deputy governor, senators, members of the House of Representatives and state assemblies…”

With our newly refurbished APC and PDP exalted with neither vision nor ideological orientation, a sad testimony to the travails of our party system, welcome to the Babangida’s age of delusion when figment of imagination becomes article of state policy.

With widespread hopelessness among confused Nigerians who are increasingly becoming unsure of what the future holds, the Nigerian governing political elite have become the scourge of the nation. It is today clear that their quest for democracy, the new value system in the run up to independence was just a means to an end. For them, it was the shortest route to power without war or allegiance to democratic ethos such as the imperative of a vigorous opposition, self-restraint, treatment of citizens with respect and respect for laws and facts.

It was not as if Nigerians ever had any illusion about the real motive of governing political elite.  “Given a choice”, as Obafemi Awolowo once observed, “between the educated elite, the traditional rulers and the British imperialists, they would choose in reverse order’’, because with the latter, they were assured of justice whose absence today is the major source of social dislocation in the nation.

Driven by greed, Nigerian governing political elite embarked on massive economic sabotage, and opulent brigandage resulting in what Arthur Nwankwo describes as ‘reckless confrontation politics.’

First to appeal to the military for support following the constitutional crisis associated with the massively rigged 1964 election was Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe and those that struck on January 15, 1966 were the young idealistic military officers that identified with his nationalistic fervour and progressive politics while those that struck in July 1966 in what they described as vengeance coup were military officers that identified with the conservative political tendencies of the north.

But Zik was the first to appreciate the price the governing elite must pay for luring the military into politics albeit inadvertently. He had, as chancellor of the University of Lagos, therefore, used the occasion of Samuel Jereton Mariere Memorial Lecture, organized by University of Lagos students on October 27, 1972 to call for the establishment of civilian military government (diarchy) just for a period of five years until when the military government hand over as promised in 1976. It was his opinion that: “In a developing nation like Nigeria, where the military, like Adam and Eve, have tasted the forbidden fruits of political powers, it will be imprudent to overlook the constructive role the armed forces can play in stabilizing a nation that has just emerged from colonialism and a bloody civil war”.

But Zik who was shouted down and roundly condemned had the last laugh. As against five years he had advocated, by 1979 when Obasanjo handed power over to civilian, the military had been in power for 14 years of Nigeria’s 24 years of independence. The second republic was short-lived as it was toppled on December 31, 1983 by Buhari, followed in quick succession by Babangida, Abacha and Abdulsalmi, with the military monopolizing political power for additional 16 years (1983-1999).

But the worst was yet to come. After compounding our crisis of nation-building, the new power holders that emerged in 1999 were military-bred new-breed politicians that bred nothing but corruption and behaved more like an army of occupation sharing spoils of war in form of oil wells, national assets kept in their custody for the future of our children, and turning our country to importer of labour of other societies.

But the greater tragedy seems to have come with President Buhari’s mismanagement of our crisis of nation-building. With today’s total disillusionment  among a disoriented Nigerians, with those in power pretending to be unaware of impending  apocalypse if the country implodes, perhaps the time calls for a revisit of Zik’s diarchy option we once rejected with derision.

Perhaps the first compelling reason is the lesson of history. We remember with nostalgia the giant strides made by the Gowon regime of 1966-1972 which can at best be likened to a diarchy. The star-studded regime could boast of visionary and nationalist leaders like Obafemi Awolowo, Aminu Kano, Joseph Tarka, Tony Enahoro Pa Edwin Clark and other astute politicians from all over the country that laid the foundation for what was to become the enduring legacy of military regimes in Nigeria. These include refineries, textile industries, assembly plants, Lagos-Ibadan expressway, Third Mainland Bridge, Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Sagamu –Benin (East-West road), Lagos-Badagry and their equivalents across the nation.

But more than this, the governing political elite have since the birth of the fourth republic shown they are incapable of institutionalising justice through constitutional engineering. The nation achieved unity in diversity through constitutional engineering between 1922 and 1957 because of there was the colonial master whipping everyone into line. Because the colonial master served as umpire, representative of ethnic nationalities trying to hold the nation to ransom out of sheer mischief were easily called to order.

The 1963 Republican Constitution, the first without some big brother whipping us on line was self-serving. The only people that benefitted from the exercise were leading members of the governing elite notably the president who from Governor-General became titular President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces and the Prime Minister who took control of the judiciary.

Murtala Muhammed’s 1979 attempt at constitutional-making was like working to the answer. They adopted the American federalism model, a product of their civil war experience that celebrates the values of a strong centre that can effortlessly subdue internal insurrection and withstand external  threat without taking into account that America with shared value is different from a multicultural society like ours, where different groups are at different levels of cultural development.

Babangida with his characteristic conceit tried his own variant of diarchy  designed for self-perpetuation along the line of other sit-tight African leaders; Abacha’s intervention  was to  prepare him for self-succession, while  Obasanjo’s half-hearted efforts at constitution-making collapsed over his failure to secure a third term. Abdulsalami Abubakar’s 1999 constitution, regarded by many as a military decree was drafted by some conscripted public servants who never presented their draft for public debate until the inauguration of Obasanjo after the 1999 election.

Unfortunately, President Buhari that the nation turned to in 2015 for salvation continues with his characteristic sense of self-righteousness to do what he thinks the people want while ignoring their demand for political restructuring which many believe is the only way to avert the coming apocalypse. Except for the period of the civil war, Nigeria has never been as divided and suspicious of each other as today.

As we today grope in darkness, unsure of tomorrow, perhaps there can be no better time for a revisit of the Zik diarchy option. First, there is the lesson of history as shown above. Nigeria’s governing political elite have since 1963 not treated Nigerians as citizens but as subjects. From 1999, they embarked in in fiscal brigandage, freely sharing the national patrimony kept in their care for our children.

As we today grope in darkness with the nation enveloped by a heavy darkling cloud, it is obvious our suicidal governing political elite who seem ready to pull down the edifice on their heads need help.

And short of inviting our colonial masters back as once suggested by frustrated one-time governor of Ogun State,  the late Olabisi Onabanjo, a revisit of the Zik’s diarchy option could serve as balance of terror for serial betraying Nigeria’s governing political elite.

Nigerians, including even his political foes will readily admit Obasanjo, a gift to Nigeria and an African pride, is undoubtedly an accomplished active player in international politics. Vice President Osinbajo, despite accusing his administration, that of Yar’Adua and Jonathan of not funnelling about  $783b into improving the nation’s infrastructure described him during his  80th birthday,  as “as a world statesman and a gift to humanity”. At his 85th birthday celebration last week, Senate President Ahmad Lawan described him as a “pan-Africanist and global figure”. Dr Akinwumi Adesina, president, of African Development Bank (AfDB) praised him for his “selflessness toward causes in Africa as well as global issues” while President Buhari spoke of his “strong network nationally and internationally”.

Obasanjo remains a pillar of the African Union, the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) and the prominent member of African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM), designed to promote democracy and good governance. He has “served as chairman of the Group of 77, chairman of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, and chairman of the NEPAD Heads of State and Government Implementation Committee”. Even at an advanced age, he remains in the forefront of international mediation efforts in Angola, Burundi, Namibia, Mozambique and South Africa.

Last week celebration of his 85th birthday reflected his international stature. The theme of the lecture is Africa and the establishment of Africa Narrative society to promote the following values:

That truth must be known and propagated for the purpose of authentic history of the past, to prevent repeat of mistakes of the past;

To continually make ourselves essential contributors to the world civilisation, world ethos, world development and world preservation;

To ensure governance and system of administration that makes use of all available human resources and talents;

To cherish and uphold our past and present in the way that will enhance our future and strengthen our participation in the global decision-making process.

Accomplished scholars from all over the world participated in the discussion of Obasanjo’s central narrative: “that every village, town, nation or region has its socio-cultural peculiarities that are best suited for the emergence of its leader and the colour of its governance”.

But the question arises as to whether charity should not begin at home since all politics is local. This question becomes relevant because the focus of Obasanjo’s central thesis is not different from the colonial master policy on Nigeria which Obasanjo and the military who believe they know what the people wanted without asking them truncated.

The departing imperial powers had canvassed for a home-grown system patterned and informed by the experiences of group’s forbears which would allow them develop at their own pace without interference from others. Towards this end, they bequeathed onto us a workable federal arrangement which self-proclaiming messiahs who falsely claim ‘they sacrifice their present for our future’, truncated.

They have continued to dig deeper into the hole instead of returning to the “path of Nigerian freedom; never taken. This perhaps explains why Obasanjo even at 85 has continued to insist that the answer to Nigerian crisis of nation building which he says finds expression ‘in sentiments, euphoria, ignorance, incompetence, ethnicity, nepotism, bigotry, sectionalism, regionalism, religion or class” is through federal character principle.

If  “Since 1999, we have changed from one political party or another we have manoeuvred and manipulated to the point that election results are no longer reflections of the will of the people and we seemed to be progressively going back rather than going forward politically, economically and socially”; And if he “casts a cursory look at some of the people running around and those for whom people are running around; If EFCC (Economic and Financial Crimes Commission) and ICPC (Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission) will have done their jobs,  supported adequately by the judiciary, most of them would be in jail”; President Obasanjo and his military messiahs should look at the mirror. We can only reap what we sowed. The current class of politicians starting from 1999 were all military-baked ‘new-breed’ politicians some of whom even attended school of democracy, instituted by those who destroyed our political socialisation process.

The rational thing to do if we dig ourselves into a hole is to find a way to escape.  But instead, Obasanjo celebrates the virtues of federal character which he says was responsible for “steady and uncompromised process of nation-building that have stood us in good stead.” Top on the list was voting Shehu Shagari into power with Alex Ekwueme from “Biafra” as No. 2 in 1979, less than ten years after attempted cessation by ‘Biafra” when, it took America decades to achieve the same feat after her civil war. But if the experiment was so successful, how come the issue of marginalisation is what is fuelling agitation for a sovereign state of Biafra by marginalised Igbos?

Next on his list was his 1999 imposition by northern hegemonic class and the military to spite his Yoruba home base that rejected him. But if climbing the palm tree from the top which was what Obasanjo did in 1999 was normal, why did he in 2003 fall back on ethnicity, massive deception and outright rigging to secure the base that rejected him 1999 when his second term was threatened?

He also credited the federal character principle with his imposition of ailing Yar’Adua and ill-prepared Jonathan as president and vice president in 2007 and the later as president in 2011. But it is on record that the late Yar’Adua was appalled by the level of massive electoral fraud that brought him to power that he had to set up the Uwais Commission to forestall the reoccurrence of the 2007 tragedy.

It is also on record that Obasanjo’s perfidy in  scheming incompetent  and ill-prepared Shehu Shagari who  was only ready for the senate into power, erased what would have been part of Obasanjo’s enduring legacies including  the setting up of  four refineries connected by about, 4,500 kilometres of pipeline across the country, the reorganization of the Nigerian Airways which in 1979 had about 33 aircraft, setting up of car assemblies plants in Lagos, Kaduna and Enugu, government policy on patronage of locally assembled vehicles  and of course the depletion of huge external reserve he had built up before leaving office in 1979.

As for Jonathan, he is remembered more for selling the country to PDP stalwarts that Obasanjo described as “pen robbers’.

Perhaps, the worst part of federal principle as implemented by the military and Obasanjo was the sharing of oil-wells and our national patrimony to favoured individuals through Babangida’s commercialisation that heralded an era of importation of labour of other societies even as our own graduates roam the street and Obasanjo privatization through which the nation’s investment of over $100b was according to House probe sold to privileged members of the governing elite for less than $1.5b.

If after 60 years of trading “the path to Nigeria freedom” for federal character principle that has destroyed meritocracy in our bureaucracy and tertiary institutions leading to division and mutual suspicion among our people, for Obasanjo to now be “counting on the patriotic commitment and desires of well-meaning Nigerians to start the process of forging a part out of darkness into light of salvation and a new glorious dawn” is in itself an admission of failure.