Obasanjo is not God. Only God’s plan will succeed at all times. Man proposes, but God disposes. All Obasanjo’s plans will not work. He is only one person. Nigeria is bigger than the selfish interest of one single person. OBJ has no true advisers, all he has are bunch of lackeys and sycophants who themselves are self-seeking. The people surrounding him do not tell him the truth. The same bunch of people surrounding Abacha and telling him that Nigeria will never survive without him and that he was the best thing Nigeria has ever had since 1914, are the same professional politicians surrounding OBJ. These bunches of people are making all kinds of inflammatory statements that threatens the corporate existence of Nigeria. Obasanjo fought in 1967-1970 to keep Nigeria one indivisible nation. He was the same man whom destiny entrusted with accepting the surrender of the defunct Republic of Biafra. I believe that he does not wish that the country should disintegrate after what the diverse ethnic nationalities went through to be together. I believe that he wants the best for the country, but the recent happening in that country points to the contrary. Everything that is happening tells me that he is either ignorant of what is going to happen or that he was too arrogant to allow good counsel to prevail. Nigerians believed that of all Nigerian leaders, Obasanjo has a little more virtue and integrity, but integrity in the pursuit of a fantasy is not a virtue. He should be made to understand the words of Charles de Gaulle that “history continues even though the graveyard is full of indispensable leaders” Nigeria going by the recent population has over 150 million people. What makes OBJ think that without him, Nigeria cannot survive? It is this notion of indispensability and invincibility that ruined Abacha. Our awesome God was watching. He is still watching over His people of Nigeria.
Obasanjo should be saved from the clutches of himself and that of the selfish advisers at his beck and call. He should do what is best for the country. He should pick up the phone and call his machineries to order. The peace and indivisibility of the country are more important than any person’s ambition. He should reverse this course that he is taking for it leads to destruction. Let him leave the democratic system alone to run its full course. In every democratic setting, the rule of law and not the rule by force should be the order of the day. ICPC, EFCC and INEC should be totally independent of the presidency. They should be left to perform their statutory duties without fear or favor. The court should be left to perform its sacred duties of interpreting the laws of the land and the orders of the court must be carried out by the government.
The courts has jurisdiction over the disqualification of candidates for the election by virtue of section 137(1) of the 1999 constitution and not that of the electoral body. The INEC has the power of verification of candidates’ claims in their forms but it is the duties of the court to disqualify candidates. A Federal High Court has also ruled that INEC has no such powers to disqualify anybody and that it is sole duty of the court. This cannot be any simpler. To make it complicated as INEC is doing in obedience to OBJ’s scripts is only paving way for anarchy. The way and manner he is going about this issue of election of his successor should not leave anyone with any illusion that he is ready to leave office anytime soon. The way he is pursuing the opposing political parties as if his name is on the ballot can only lead us to only one conclusion, which is that he is not ready to leave the stage while the ovation is loudest. If he is sincere, at this stage of his life and at the stage of his government, he should work towards bringing a lasting peace and progress to the country. The resolution of this over-heated political climate in the country should be paramount to him. OBJ should do the right thing.
According to President John F. Kennedy “those who make peaceful resolution impossible, make violent revolution inevitable”. JFK went ahead to say, during the time of the Cuban missile crisis, “we should not be afraid to negotiate, but we must not negotiate in fear”. Every leader must listen to the wishes of the generality of his people whom power belongs to in the first place. To seek for peace is not a sign weakness but a sign of strength and maturity.
Having said all that, the ball is in the court of Obasanjo. He could decide to end all these mess today or he can decide to fight on as a general. But my thinking is that a living private is better than a dead general. The PDTF revelations have shown that OBJ is not the Saint Matthew we all thought that he was. The report has now lifted the veil behind which OBJ was hiding. We now also see that it was just a case of the kettle calling the pot black and that both OBJ and Atiku are equally as guilty.
It would only take a phone call. OBJ could decide to call all the stakeholders to a meeting and end all these. He should decide to make for a level playing ground for every person that want to pursue any political office in the country including that of the presidency. He has only a few more months to complete his term in keeping with the dictates of the constitution.
If he cannot bring peace to the country and as the country is gradually heading toward anarchy, the National Assembly should act fast to save the country. They should not be afraid to use their constitutional powers of impeachment under section 143 of the constitution. They should impeach the President and the Vice President, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar. The PTDF panel indicted both the president and the vice president. The national Assembly has the duty and in fact the responsibility to impeach these two leaders.
During the time OBJ wanted to amend the constitution to guarantee his a 3 rd term of office, it was the National Assembly that stopped him. It was Atiku Abubakar that led the anti-3 rd term honorable men and women of the lawmaking body to put a spanner in the works of these anti-democratic colleagues of them that wanted to give OBJ a life-presidency through the back door. Many believe that it was that singular act of Atiku that led to his persecution by OBJ. But whatever their grouse was, the report of the PTDF has shown that both men are not worthy to trust with the governance of Nigeria.
We have hope that we still have men and women of proven integrity who actually have the interest of the country at heart. Despite what they went through in the hands of the government machinery, the anti-3 rd term members of the Antional Assembly kept faith with their constituencies and delivered a fatal blow to those evil machinations of OBJ. Now we are faced with the same scenario. The National Assembly should live up to expectation of the masses. They have done it before, and they can do it again. They should immediately start impeachment proceedings of both OBJ and later Atiku. OBJ had committed numerous impeachable offenses before; the PDTF Report is only superfluous.
After the impeachments by the National Assembly, The Senate President, Chief Ken Nnamani, should take over as president of Nigeria in keeping with the dictates of the constitution. He should then bring the country together and immediately fire INEC Chairman, “Professor” Maurice Iwu. The ICPC and the EFCC should be re-structured to work for the people of Nigeria and not at the whims and caprices of the president in power. A new INEC Chairman should be appointed immediately to midwife a free and fair election before September this year. Then President Ken Nnamani should hand over to the democratically elected president by 1 st October, 2007.
The Nigerian Press should step it up also. They are the 4 th estate of the realm. They have the voice of the people behind them. Just like they helped to defeat OBJ’s 3 rd term quest, they can do the same this time around through their fearless but factual reporting of events leading up to this election. Also by making a live broadcast of the impeachment proceedings of OBJ and Atiku at the National Assembly live, the world would see who said what, who is for and who is against the impeachments at the floor of the house. When the press does that, it would put the “Ghana Must Go” Senators and Honorable members of the House of Representatives in the searchlight of the people. Nigerians would see who the enemies of Nigeria are.
The masses should also continue to pray that God intervenes as usual in the affairs of Nigeria as He always does. Every one of us has a stake in this. This is not the time to sit on the fence. If you are for dictatorship, come out openly and say it, and if you are not, go ahead and do something, you can call or write your senator or representative. You can send your opinions to a newspaper to register your protest. Martin Luther King Jr. during the Vietnam war controversy, said:
“We are at the moment when our lives must be placed on the line if our nation is to survive its own folly. Every man of humane convictions must decide on the protest that best suits his convictions, but we shall all protest”
We are now faced with what happened during Gowon, Babangida and Abacha regimes. We will survive it by the grace of God.
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