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damol66@yahoo.co.uk Berlin, Germany

CAN OBASANJO DELIVER US FROM EVIL?

t was a popular American pop-star who sang "The Storm Is Over", when the storm had not even started. In that track R. Kelly could see the Sunshine somewhere beyond the cloud; He could also see the Heaven that was over him. He then called his cream of under-aged girls to come and set him free from the bondage of lustful thinking as he was sure that no other problem was on the way. Hear him:

I was here in a tunnel
And couldn`t see the light
And whenever I`d look up
I couldn`t see the sky
Sometimes when I`m standing
It seems like I done walked for miles
And my heart could be crying
Dead In the middle of a smile

But then I climbed the hills
And saw the mountains
I hollered help `cause I was lost
Then I felt the strong wind
Heard a small voice saying:

The storm is over..

At the dance halls, the sharp romantic and sonorous voice of this young artiste could move the strong hearts of even the highly principled and decent minded ladies to a melting point, displaying the very symbol that betrayed Christ. However, the fact is that the voice that R. Kelly heard was a very deceptive one. The misleading voice of an exploiter who enriches himself at the other's misfortune; the voices of bad advisers who are only interested in the amount of wealth they amass at any point in time. This assertion can be judged better when one remembers that soon after R. Kelly had released the Album bearing this song given above, he was caught in the act and was made to understand that the storm was yet to start.

Such could be the case of the PDP presidential flag-bearer, his cohorts and advisers after humiliating Chief Alex Ekwueme at the party's primaries in Kaduna. Before the Primaries, Obasanjo had found it difficult to withstand the strength of the criticisms against his current regime, both within his party and across the country. He had found himself in a muddy tunnel of criticisms, and his efforts to put his ideas across were marred by the tangles of ignorance of the very constitution that made his fourth republic possible and at the same time makes a mockery of both the executive and the judiciary.

For instance, to fight corruption and other crimes, Obasanjo set in motion the Independent Corrupt Practices and other offences Commission under Justice Akanbi; Human Rights Violations Investigation Commission under Justice Oputa, which have limited or no powers to investigate, not to talk of judging, cases. As a result the Senate-President Chief Anyim, the Governors and, much recently, Babangida could stop the efforts of the Commission to investigate cases against them through the revered judicial body, the Courts.

The question is, if the ICPC is truly an agency of the Federal Executive Council, is it then not in principle an agency of the Presidency? If that is the case, is the attitude of the Judiciary in this matter not tantamount to saying that the Presidency does not exist? To what extent can one say that the Judiciary as the second arm of the government is helping to cleanse the country for a decent leadership? One would believe that if the Presidency actually has the right to create an agency at all, it presupposes that whatever agency it creates automatically has the delegated powers of the Presidency for which it works. If that is not the case, why then, one may ask, do the well learned Judges allow themselves to be appointed and involved in such Commissions?

Furthermore, if one admits that the president's hands are tied in relation to this, what stops him from introducing the bill to the Legislature to legalize the actions of such Commissions? At this juncture, one begins to understand it is just the government's hoax to confuse the masses into believing that it means well. At last, the attempts of this government to play with the intelligence of the masses, ridicules itself and exposes the damned hypocrisy of the same government. This becomes so much so when we remember that in the night that followed the aforesaid primaries, Obasanjo himself went round and bribed the 21 PDP governors with N30 million each to help him bring only his loyalists to the primary election. He also promised to return them automatically for the second term, in spite of all the allegations of corrupt practices against them. So one can now ask: to what extent does the president himself believe in the credibility of the Anti-Corruption Commission he had set up. Is it not a hoax?

After Obasanjo and his accomplices had won the election by corruptly outwitting the other candidates, they began to sing their thunderous versions of "the Storm is over" believing that they have crossed the hurdle and the rest should be a walk-over. Furthermore they believed that with this victory their spoils have been covered and protected. Much to their chagrin, the office of the Auditor-General of the Federation released an expository report of the corrupt practices at the corridors of power, defying all fear and favour; defying any dangerous romance with the miscreants. Dumbfounded with the sincere report that did not favour the executive, in spite of its hypocritical "Holy Alliances" and "Born-Again" claims, the Federal Government stuttered in its effort to castigate the well calculated and recorded results of the decent professionals.

According to the Presidency "the report was rash. In fact, what the Auditor-General has done was to embarrass the Federal Government. In addition to financial regulation which we revived, financial accountability is being taken seriously. There is no approval without due process. We are going to provide detailed explanation. We shall give absolute and clear account to the Public Accounts Committee of the National Assembly. This government believes in accountability.''

These are the words of Prof. Jerry Gana, an honourable cabinet member of the presidency in an attempt to tarnish the image of the revered Auditor-General of the Federation. Does it not ring hollow to argue that the intention of the Auditor-General was to embarrass the FG when the former had worked with written records and evidence beyond reasonable doubts? To what extent can the Presidency prove its financial accountability and "due process of approval " in the alleged cases of improper accounting practices and release of funds for unexecuted (or do we say, non-existing) projects?

Furthermore, the hollowness of that argument becomes clearer when we note that the international organizations recently ranked Nigeria as the most corrupt country in the world. With this, one wonders where the pride of the presidency lies when it claims to have been fighting corruption. And instead of offering the right advice to Obasanjo, his advisers and members of his cabinet feed him with deceptive and incorrect state of the realities of the country. For instance, commenting on the reports of the international organizations, Magnus Kpakol, economic adviser to the president said:

"As far as I am concerned, I know that Nigeria today is better than the Nigeria of four years ago. This is the first time we set up an agency where you can report people for corruption. We never had that. For the first time, we have an agency at the Presidency where capital budgets of the Federal Government go through due process and certification and many other things that we do. "Council memos on capital budgets are brought to the Federal Executive Council meetings and debated and you need to see the rigorous debates that go on in council. All these must have some effect,"

he declared.

For these false advisers, it would be better if the truth is covered and the president goes for the second term, so that they can enrich themselves the more at the expense of the masses. For them, it does not matter the state of the nation, what matters is the weight of their personal purses. They are the people who tell the president that the storm is over.

Despite their recorded failures, Obasanjo and his followers still yearn to go for a second term, just because they do not have conscience. The only ambition Obasanjo nurses is to go to history as the longest serving head of state of Nigeria if he wins this time- having already served as a military head of state for three and half years.

As for policies, he has exhausted all he can offer, yet his best is far less than enough. He has also exposed his weakness to change the mode of things in the country when he told the CNN that fighting corruption is a long-term project and can not be achieved within four years. We can rightly recall that Obasanjo`s main program was to fight corruption and in that process, probe the activities of the past regimes, including his own military regime.

From all indications he has failed even in his main program. What he has done was to establish a fertile ground for the muslems to practice sharia law which he himself had earlier smuggled into the Nigerian Constitution as a military head of state in 1978.

An American proverb says: "He who does not know and does not know, he does not know is a Big F." After going through the articles of some of the Awoists of today, it seems to me that some people mistake Obasanjo for an Awoist. If we may follow the records of history, we can easily understand that Obasanjo is rather a very selfish man who believes he is the only man from the southern Nigeria who can deliver the country to the Promised Land. For him, the ambition of any person from the South to rule Nigeria can not materialize in his own lifetime. That was why he frustrated Awolowo`s victory that would have been possible through the latter's shrewd power of coalition.

But Obasanjo motivated by his personal agenda, declared Shagari the winner, even at the fact that the result was "too close to call" (apology to AL Gore). As if that was not enough, he frustrated Abiola`s dream to become the president of Nigeria after the latter had won the free and fair election. In his effort to fight for the right already given to him by the people, Obasanjo warned him several times not to take the law into his hands, instead of telling Babangiga and Abacha to hand over the power to Abiola.

Today many Yorubas who had fought for the June 12 mandate are also shouting for the Southerners especially the Yorubas to vote Obasanjo en mass because he is a Yorubaman, even at the fact that he has nothing to offer for a better Nigeria.

One believes it is high time we advised Obasanjo to step aside, for his presence in the Nigerian politics is rather an obstruction for the South, destruction for the Christians and an obsession for the masses. Even if the masses are forced to vote on the basis of gerontocracy, our judgement can not favour him, from the standpoint of fair history, for he apparently can not deliver us from evil of the time. Surely, he will lose nothing if he fails, but we will lose much if he wins.