Category: Hardball

Chief Tony Anenih may be a few months shy of 80 years old, but the aging politician and warhorse shows no sign of his zeal for politics and passion for rough tackles flagging. Instead of heading for the knacker’s yard, he has just been elected to head the coveted Board of Trustees (BoT) of the Peoples Democratic Party at a time President Goodluck Jonathan felt hemmed in by enemies. Between the time Anenih led the National Party of Nigeria (NPN) in the old Bendel State and the time he assumed the leadership of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), and then on to his tumultuous roles in the PDP, there was no let up on his machinations and ruthless politicking. He will have another opportunity to mould PDP affairs in his image, and he will do it with gusto, especially because he came in as a consensus candidate.

Everyone believes that the second coming of Anenih is tied to 2015 elections. This is probably true. By sheer amateurish display, both Jonathan and the party’s chairman, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur, have got themselves embroiled in so much controversy that desperation quickly crept into the part, sapping it of all its energies as it prepares for the coming polls. Given Tukur’s enthusiastic endorsement of Anenih and the president’s secret admiration for the tested old warrior, it was not surprising that the party did the unusual to get Anenih back in the saddle. He will not want to disappoint them. The news, therefore, is not that an old soldier has returned to his former haunts. The news is to find out what punishment he is capable of inflicting on dissenters within his party and outside. For a man who when he was previously BoT chairman hardly waited to catch his ethical breath as he plotted feverishly and unscrupulously to undermine the opposition, there is nothing to indicate he will be fastidious about principles or ideologies. He knows his brief, and we will hear from him shortly and brutally.

But rather than wait in apprehension, and considering how much of him is known, it will be the responsibility of Nigerians inside and outside the PDP to meet Anenih and his cohorts with courage and hope, in battlefields or at negotiating tables. Old men are often vulnerable in battlefields as they are usually anachronistic and overconfident in war rooms. The country must, therefore, meet his every whim with intuitive brilliance and indescribable feints. In the old man’s fading eyes, we will see the desperation of Jonathan, the man unleashing him into battle. And in his jaded dribbles, we will recognise just how much faith the ruling party is reposing in their old soldiers and old war tactics. Commodore Oliver Perry was famously quoted in the Battle of Lake Erie in 1812 to have said, “We have met the enemy and they are ours.” The excuse of the Nigerian opposition in 2015 must never be that they didn’t know the enemy, nor that when they met them, they didn’t recognise them.

Increasingly, it seems, the opposition (All Progressives Congress?) will square off with the PDP gerontocracy in 2015. Let the opposition go into that battle with fleet-foot politicians, men and women who understand what it means to be faced by unethical and ruthless warriors, and men and women who once the battle is joined recognise that the possibility of defeat does not exist.

Officially, President Goodluck Jonathan has not indicated his interest in contesting the 2015 presidential election. He is unlikely to say anything on the topic in the coming months, for in spite of his harmless look, he is no stranger to political intrigues. On the few occasions he was asked last year by foreign journalists whether he had any interest in re-election, he preferred to prevaricate. He wanted to build an enviable record of achievements upon which to base his re-election campaign, the president suggested gamely. On another occasion, he simply refused to answer the question, pleading it constituted a distraction so early into his presidency. Indeed, he will say anything but give a direct answer. He will leave the country and nosy journalists alone to solve the puzzle, that is, if the matter is really a puzzle.

In spite of the fog surrounding Jonathan’s 2015 plan, there are not many who are in the dark about his ambition. Everyone thinks he is interested, and also thinks he will do anything to clinch his party’s nomination. If he is not saying anything now, they believe, it is because he does not think it safe to commit himself. Indeed, they think his lack of candour on the matter is simply because he does not judge the moment right. For if he were to commit too early, observers conclude, it could arm his enemies. Better, therefore, to leave them guessing and squirming and fidgeting, and waiting for the other shoe to drop.

But if readers will forgive this column’s irreverence, he would like to say very forthrightly that Jonathan has really never left anyone in doubt about his 2015 ambition. And who better to give us a lengthy and substantial peep into the president’s mind than the fawning Mrs Kema Chikwe, the National Woman Leader of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and member of its National Working Committee (NWC). Speaking last Thursday in Abuja while presenting the ‘PDP Women-In-Power 2013 Calendar,’ Chikwe gushed that the president would return to office in 2015. If you think her position within the party does not qualify her to make that weighty statement, consider also that in the audience was Jonathan’s recently ‘resurrected’ wife, the boisterous, matchless and straight-talking Dame Patience Jonathan, perhaps maintaining a philosophical calm.

Considering how Dame Patience openly withstood Governor Rotimi Amaechi in August 2010 when the Rivers State governor stirred some revolt over his waterfront demolition programme in the state, the president’s wife is not someone to listen patiently to anyone making false statements about her husband or any of those esoteric topics that sometimes inexplicably catch her fancy, whether it be demolition in Okrika, her hometown in Rivers, or her elevation to the rank of a permanent secretary in defiance of gravity. While clairvoyant Chikwe rhapsodised Jonathan’s accomplishments and predicted his re-election last Thursday, the First Lady solemnly and indulgently looked on. If Dame Patience has so far not directly spoken on her husband’s 2015 ambition, it must mean she is summoning quite a huge effort to be restrained on a topic that is otherwise capable of rocketing her to the lexical stratosphere.

As Jonathan’s predecessors showed, including the reclusive Gen Sani Abacha and the irrepressible Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, there will never be an official confirmation of such a risky presidential project as re-election until all the president’s enemies are either silenced, safely out of contention, or heavily compromised. It is possible that on a hypothetical tomorrow Jonathan may develop cold feet; but for now, his feet are warm, and he is in the running. And lo, this is, well, incontrovertibly official.

The House of Representatives is in the process of making a law to criminalise what it calls contempt of the National Assembly. Even though the bill had been tabled before the Abdulrasheed Maina affair broke out, it was clear the legislators had become fed up with the shenanigans of officials who refuse summons to testify in legislative, and sometimes purely oversight, inquiries. Maina, it will be recalled, is the pension reform task team boss who is avoiding summons to testify in an ongoing, but apparently stalled, inquiry on pension fraud. The bill proposes that anyone summoned by the National Assembly but fails to honour it in 30 days is guilty of contempt. In addition, the bill seeks to punish anyone who disregards the decisions or resolutions of the legislature. The fundamental assumption here is that the legislature believes it maturely, wisely and infallibly makes its decisions and resolutions.

The mood in the National Assembly at the moment is very charged, all the more because of years of cumulative affront by ignorant and insensitive officials to the power and authority of the legislature. The National Assembly is for instance so miffed by the budgetary stalemate and the disregard some government officials and their agents show for parliamentary resolutions that it is a surprise all the Reps are asking for is a provision to punish contempt. But even that seemingly harmless proposal may be a disturbing reflection of the natural tendency in these parts for overkill (death penalty for sundry crimes such as kidnapping), for officials here do not react well or scientifically, or with moderation to issues relating to the challenge of their powers.

The problem of overkill is, however, not limited to the legislature. It is also rampant in the executive and judicial branches. Indeed, Nigerians have become accustomed to executive tyranny, with the Nigerian presidency described unflatteringly as one of the most powerful in the world, more powerful than that of the United States. It concentrates in its febrile hands such immense powers that no sector of national life is excluded from its overweening and overarching control. Nor, in the real sense of the word, is any serious power devolved to the states. Everyone and everything looks up to the centre for sustenance, with the implication that freedoms are suffocated and initiatives stifled. Now, and gradually, the legislature is also accreting powers so compulsively that between it and the executive there may be nothing left of the people but zombies.

The legislators are angry their summonses are being disregarded. And with Maina’s irresponsible disappearing act, the legislature will appear to be justified in taking extraordinary steps to compel obedience. In fact, recently, some members of the President Goodluck Jonathan cabinet were tempted to disregard legislative summons, or honour it grudgingly, or publicly show their exasperation with interminable invitations. This attitude of grudge and disregard, it must be mentioned, is as old as the Fourth Republic itself. But there is also suspicion that the House of Representatives may be devising this unusual solution in the heat of anger. This is wrong and counterproductive. There is no proof that officials are more irresponsible now than they were under the Olusegun Obasanjo and Umaru Yar’Adua governments.

If the previous governments and the past National Assemblies coped fairly well in spite of many hiccups and much dissonance in the system, this legislature has a duty to examine whether it cannot also cope well without taking unusual steps to arm itself the more against the people in the name of the people. For indeed there is some sense in the complaints of many officials and the public that while the legislature has not shown exemplary patriotism and willingness to sacrifice its perks and privileges, it is at the same time requiring of the rest of the country higher degree of responsibility and compliance with rules and legislation. Worse, it has sometimes usurped the powers of the executive by either sacking or demanding the dismissal of officials. In the exercise of its oversight functions, it has also sometimes acted improperly, imperially and meddlesomely.

The executive and the legislature are already brimful with power. Rather than seek to arm themselves with more, they should instead embrace measures and adopt styles that will earn them respect and obedience. For in the end, it is not stringent rules, harsh laws and vaulting powers that will protect the legislature from being compromised, subverted or swept away. No one can better defend the constitution and its structures than the people themselves from whom legitimacy flows.

On Sunday, newspapers reported Governor Babangida Aliyu as claiming that President Goodluck Jonathan actually signed a one-term pact with Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governors before they agreed to support him for the 2011 presidential election. Aliyu made this startling disclosure during an interview with a Kaduna-based radio station, Liberty FM on Saturday. Naturally, as any Nigerian government is wont, the presidency has denied that such an agreement existed anywhere. The ball is now in Aliyu’s court, and we await his angry response. All we can confirm so far is that he was quite definite in talking about the pact on Saturday.

In the interview with the radio station, Aliyu had declared thus: “What will be will be in 2015. We must remind people of the promises they have made. When he (Jonathan) was going to declare, PDP governors were brought together to ensure that we were all in the same frame of mind. Some of us, given the PDP zoning, were expecting that the northern states would produce the President for a number of years, but God has done His own. At that discussion, it was agreed that President Jonathan would serve one term and we all signed, and when he went to Kampala, he said the same thing. But for now, President Jonathan has not declared his candidacy and we must not be speculating based on those who are benefiting from such a thing. I believe that we are all gentlemen enough and when the time comes, we will all sit down and see what the right thing to do is.”

For a PDP governor, this was quite strong stuff. But Aliyu’s trenchant claims are probably a reflection of the frustrations many governors, and indeed most Nigerians, feel when they contemplate the Jonathan presidency’s lethargic administration of Nigeria. Those frustrations are not likely to abate in the coming months, as the 2015 elections draw near. Two things are, however, evident. One is that Jonathan himself has neither said he would seek reelection, as Aliyu acknowledged, nor has he denied signing a one-term pact. But don’t rule out a response from Jonathan. It is in the nature of the boyishly optimistic president, when he is inspired, to sometimes angrily rebut disagreeable claims by setting the records straight, no matter whose ox is gored. That of course does not guarantee he would not give a rose-coloured account of what transpired between him and the PDP governors prior to the 2011 elections. His predecessor, the inimitable Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, is famous for telling spectacular untruths. There is no reason for us to think that Jonathan is not mildly tarred with the same brush, having been mentored by the gruff former army general.

Second is the fact that a document suggesting Jonathan agreed to a single term may never surface. It is typical of such documents to become either lost or apocryphal. Recall that Obasanjo also had an agreement with the northern group that put him in power in 1999 to spend only one term. There is abundant evidence to indicate he agreed to its infamous and humiliating terms, for Hardball himself was for a long time in possession of the document. But the document was either never signed or the only copy signed was kept with Obasanjo himself. It would be surprising if Jonathan signed any document, just as it would not be surprising if he agreed not to seek reelection. Outfoxing opponents is the exclusive preserve of ambitious leaders.

Yet, it would be unkind to say Governor Aliyu cannot produce documentary proof. We may, however, have to wait for a more auspicious or, as the case may be, ominous time for the signed proof to surface. The country will then have to decide whether a signed one-term pact that implies Jonathan is a liar is sufficient to debar him from seeking reelection. If Jonathan is to be stopped, as the temper of the country appropriately dictates at the moment, his opponents will have to do better than call him a liar. No politician hangs himself for being caught in flagrant delicto. It is a badge of honour. If in doubt, ask Obasanjo again whether he planned to seek third term. And before he answers, hurl Mallam Nasir el-Rufai’s latest book at him and see whether the solid aurochs will flinch.

President of the Nigerian Senate, David Mark, seems puzzled that many African countries are hostile to Nigeria. His evidence, he said, was observing how dignitaries in the state box of the FNB Stadium, Johannesburg, all rooted for Nigeria’s opponent, Burkina Faso, during the final match of the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON). The support for Burkina Faso must be nearly so overwhelming that Mark and other top Nigerian officials couldn’t help but notice how either unpopular we had become or how enviously other African nations viewed us. Mark voiced his observations during a Senate special session to mark Nigeria’s unexpected and unusual victory in the 2013 edition of AFCON, about 19 years after we last lifted the prestigious continental cup.

Senator Mark was not exaggerating, even though he refrained from adducing reasons for that envy or unpopularity. Indeed, there is hardly any Nigerian who is unaware of the Africa-wide hostility to Nigeria, with many of those haters actually indebted to us. The Senate President’s observation should, therefore, be a challenge to the government of Nigeria. Could we be doing so many things wrong vis-a-vis our African brothers? Are we intimidating our neighbours? Indeed, are we irredentist in any way, or are Nigerian citizens engaged in unwholesome activities in other African countries? Whatever the reasons are, it is perhaps time we examined all the factors that have made us to be loathed.

As the experience of two brutalised Nigerian journalists showed on their last day in South Africa covering the competition, that Southern African country has a special dislike for Nigerians. And this is in spite of a remarkable history of solidarity and friendship between the two countries, one in which Nigeria virtually made the sacrifice and gained only a grudging initial thank you. Nigerians are similarly treated with scorn in Namibia, another southern African country Nigeria sacrificed so much to set free from the clutches of their white oppressors.

With the exception of Liberia, where Nigeria is still somewhat regarded with respect, there is hardly any African country, north or south, east or west, where we are respected in proportion to the love we show other African countries, or the sacrifice we made for them. For instance, in spite of the huge sacrifice we made in Sierra Leone during their 1991-2002 civil war, the British calmly walked in towards the end of the war and took the prize after a very short and limited military engagement. Today, on the subjects of Sierra Leone and Liberia, some European chroniclers choose to remember only the contributions of Britain and the United States. The sacrifice Nigeria made is conveniently glossed over or denied.

It is important to go beyond merely observing how poorly Nigeria is rated and scorned in many African countries. The Federal Government should call its foreign policy experts and historians together to examine the factors responsible for this anomaly. It is an anomaly that has lasted for far too long probably because of the incompetence of the government in planning the aftermath of our foreign policy actions. The problem should be arrested now, for on its own it will not go away, no matter how much we wish it.

The place to begin, it seems, is to recognise that other countries will respect us only when we become the continental leader in instituting the highest grade of democracy and assiduously promoting it, achieving incomparable economic development feats to give Nigerians a very high standard of living, respecting human rights by eliminating extrajudicial killings and all forms of torture, and generally running an orderly and disciplined society, the toast and envy of the world. The loathing other African countries have for us may in fact be connected to how self-deprecatingly we have carried ourselves than what immeasurable contributions we have made for other countries’ comfort and wellbeing. Whatever the problems are, and whatever the solutions might be, it is important we never ignore the problems as if they do not exist.