Generals Olusegun Obasanjo, Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida and Bishop Hassan Kukah have, in their various ways, written themselves into Nigerian history, if not yet folklore, and they will always be celebrated for one thing or the other. This, in essence, means that mentioning their names have become an imperative wherever, and whenever, Nigeria is mentioned. This fact does not, however, suggest that there can be no glitches in that rendition as there sure are: the aborted Third Term Project, which General Obasanjo has, like forever, denied (‘If I wanted it, I would have told my God and He would have granted it’, or words to that effect), in spite of many beneficiaries of the accompanying bribe not only confessing but displaying millions of naira in public; General Babangida’s annulment of the freest, ever, election in Nigeria – that of Jun 12 1983, in which Nigerians unanimously voted billionaire businessman, M.K O Abiola of blessed memory, and for Bishop Kukah, his recent, totally incongruous invitation to the military to again intervene in the affairs of Nigeria. Just as these men are celebrated, history must, uncannily, record these glitches so that they are shown to be human, after all, and liable to commit their own mistakes like you and I, ordinary mortals. Let us therefore, proceed apace, to document these individuals as they occurred in our recent history beginning from the Bishop who, because we must quickly dispatch this section of our story, I go no further than pressing into service, The Nation’s newspaper HARDBALL column of Thursday, 8 February, 2018 which wrote, inter alia, as follows, but edited for space, in what it captioned as Kukah Cooking Full Emptiness: “The revered Father Matthew Hassan Kukah, Catholic Bishop of Sokoto, just cooked his latest broth. But it is nothing but full emptiness — taken from the angle of the good priest as sound public thinker, with a deep knowledge of Nigerian contemporary history and who loves to impress with great polemics — a little to the left; and a little to the right, like Ibrahim Babangida’s doomed two parties. Has reason so spectacularly failed among Nigeria’s most rigorous thinkers, Hardball wrote further, that their forensic minds must throw up past debacles and future miracles? Father Kukah let it slip, rippling with avant-garde knowledge and holy wisdom, that Nigerians could not afford to, much longer, “take the military for granted”. Pray, who are the military and what might that mean? Are the military a political party, constitutionally free to join political frays? Or, on the philosophical plain: the military, all-wise and supremely above board, should come, post-haste, and sack the democratic order yet again? This, proceeded the column, is a most condemnable baiting — if not outright goading — by a man who definitely ought to know better. It is a sickly reminiscence of that sorry period of Nigerian life, when some otherwise respected “intellectuals” would hug to crass emotions, and with sententious zest, beckon the military to come roll in their tanks.
No surprises though.
When Buhari’s anti-corruption war debuted in 2015, Father Kukah did not quite ripple with priestly zeal, to clear Nigeria’s public finance of sleaze. Rather, he called on Nigerians to “move on” because President Goodluck Jonathan had done fantastically well for losing election and quitting. Was he supposed to stay put, holy Father? Now, he is suggesting the military, which by the Constitution, are subordinate to the democratic order, as having intervening rights. That is bordering on high treason, no matter how putative. That is why the Catholic Church must call this priest to order. He sure has rights as a citizen. But his right ends when he starts insinuating extra-constitutional ideas, just because there is tension in the land”
Such love of country, and grandstanding! Need I add a word more?
Since General Obasanjo made his Special Statement and launched his movement, I have read nobody contests his right to talk from now till kingdom come. All they have said is that there are ways to talk, especially when you’re not only a highly regarded statesman, two-time president of Nigeria who has, with considerable justification, been described by none other than a colleague columnist of mine on The Nation on Sunday, as the greatest pilgrim to the Villa since Buhari’s fresh coming. It has been further contended that, by launching his movement to take over from Buhari, who he says must return to Daura, as if we have all forgotten his own, still denied, third term ambition, Obasanjo was opportunistically deploying the coup tactics of raking up all the hardship in the polity, using them for purposes of hoisting a MUGABE SPIRIT, of forever wanting to be in power, even if, from the shadows. Or who of his recruits into the movement, would boss the general? His launch, and all the supporting appurtenances, they say, uncannily reminded them of the murderous, goggled infantry general justifying their December 31, 1983 coup, and claiming that Nigerian hospitals have become no better than consulting clinics.
But, they say, you cannot deceive all the people, all the time. Commenting on this recently Dr Jide Oluwajuyitan wrote:”But with Col Ali (rtd), former PDP chairman and under whose chairmanship of PPRA, house probe confirmed the theft of N1.6 trillion by PDP stalwarts and their siblings under the fuel subsidy scam, and Olagunsoye Oyinlola who as governor of Osun State was sacked by the courts for electoral fraud, as the movement’s chief drivers, it is not difficult to predict the outcome of his proposal which in itself is a recipe for a rule of the mob by ill- equipped men as we have witnessed since 1966.
General Babangida, they said, did not disappoint at all with his famed Maradonic peccadilloes – three statements in as many hours – whilst famously throwing one of his spokespersons – one we must say, who self-righteously decided to input himself into the banalities he was sent to deliver, by adding his own, special anti-Buhari diatribe, and has since been running from pillar to post when law enforcement came calling, right under the bus.
Nigerians, the smart people that they are, can see ‘the collusion, and the treachery of the generals’ as they remember, only too well, all those serpentine meetings on the Minna hilltop as Buhari was battling for dear life in a London hospital.
Lest the columnist be egregiously misrepresented, let me remind my readers that nothing here should be taken as justifying the self-inflicted woes of the Buhari government. I have written my hands sore deprecating the president’s unexplainable clannishness which, saw almost the entire Nigerian security architecture in the hands of northerners, and was recently demonstrated in the re call of Prof Usman Yusuf, the Executive Secretary of the National Health Insurance Scheme, a man under EFCC investigation over an alleged, humongous N919m fraud, who should have been made to first clear himself of this grave allegation. This is a big slur on the President’s number one programme – the anti-corruption war which, very encouragingly, successfully retrieved about N500B from our yesterday thieves in 2017. How unfortunate.
The same regret must go to the poor handling of the matter of the murderous Fulani herdsmen which has run the entire country into a stupefying tailspin these past few weeks. I have written severally on these pages, counselling that the fact that the president is Fulani and owner of cattle, make it incumbent on him to quickly find a lasting solution to what has turned the entire North Central into a killing field. It is unbelievable that being so close to the problem, the president did not realise that, if not properly handled, and on time, it has considerable potential of significantly, if not fatally, affecting his acceptance in key areas of his party’s support. It is sincerely hoped that the Army’s Operation Cat Race now being put in place to fight herdsmen attacks, would not be a flash in the pan even though Nigerians are already sceptical, given the ethnic configuration of the leadership of our security agencies, about the possibility of these murderous elements being fought with the same ferocity as the equally terrible Boko Haram vermins.
In concluding, let me just say that it is the wish of most Nigerians that our two respected military heads of state and the Bishop, would be kind enough to allow Nigerians choose their leaders in an atmosphere of peace, and concord, at transparent elections, without any unnecessary hectoring.
We can only hope that this is not too much to ask.
