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ODOGWO@naijanet.com USA

FRAUDULENT ELECTION AND COUP D'ETAT:
THE TWO FACES OF NIGERIA'S DEMOCRACY

hen a thief acquires wealth, a lot of wealth, he also conscripts power, the power to regulate and organize the society in his own image and likeness". That was part of the story the old man told, admonishing the village communal council "Ala Dimma". He was right then and he is right now, and certainly consistent with the unfolding and refolding events in Nigeria. The expressed concerns underscore the implications of the outcome of the recent elections. Those who stuffed the ballots boxes and manipulated numbers also decided the winners and losers. By the terms of their criminal actions, they secured for themselves and their fellowship of acquiescing minions, the control of the wealth of Nigeria. In doing so, they stand poised to shape and reshape the political landscape to fit the mold, the new hierarchy of power and the reformed order, the fraternity of special interest.

It is troubling indeed when only retired generals are judged to be the only Nigerians "qualified and credible" to contest election for the office of President. Dictators whose tenure in office traumatized the country beyond recognition are now the new and improved democrats preaching to everybody else. Their choirboys sing in familiar voices; the acolytes dress the altar; Nigerians are deceived in the millions by the fairy tale, the sweet smell of flamboyancy. The sacrificial lambs are eventually assembled with eyes open yet blinded by smoke and toxic fumes from the abattoir. If anybody suspects something is really wrong, really and truly many things are actually wrong. That wild cat crying in the wee hours when the night is at its most "black" is a bad omen. It is never good news in the morning when people wake up to realize the village chief passed on the night before.

To Nigeria's fairway weatherman, Colonel Abubakar Dangiwa Umar, the cry of that wild cat is so very familiar. The retired army officer and onetime military governor of Kaduna State weighed-in. It was all heavy metal, Lead, yet a floater. The former strong voice of an earlier junta shared his beef with THISDAY on April 30, 2003. According to Umar, "the suggestion that the people should exert their revenge because they have no faith in the electoral and judicial system is a clarion call to brigandage and anarchy". It sounded like the voice of reason, what all those complaining about the election results are asked to listen to. The Colonel had more to say and so let's listen too:

"My comments therefore will be more of caution to those who feel aggrieved by the outcome at all levels. They must, in the spirit of democracy, use all available democratic means in seeking redress. Having said this, I wish to point to the fact that these democratic structures are only as good as a society and particularly our political leaders have made them. They are the creation of our past socio-political engineering and manipulation. If they are perverted, as some aggrieved parties are suggesting, it is only because we have made them so. It is a contradiction to have a good electoral and judicial system in a corrupt society. I wish to remind our political leaders that in the recent past they had allowed their myopic self-interest to prevent us from creating a just, equitable and reliable system. It is therefore sheer naivety to expect a warped system to work perfectly well for us. For example, we lost an opportunity to nurture a virile democratic culture by terminating the Second Republic under President Shehu Shagari at a time when the administration gave clear indication of carrying out far reaching reforms. A coup barely three months into the life of the new administration was a subversion of the will of the electorate and was as bad, as if not worse, than a rigged election. But the most devastating act of the desecrating and debasement of our democratic structures and political process was the annulment of the freest and fairest election results of June 12, 1993. The refusal of subsequent administrations to de-annul the results with the active connivance of members of our political elite engendered a culture of the tolerance of political injustice. The crass opportunism displayed by some of our leaders disqualified them from national leadership. The bastardization of the same democratic institutions ensures that we can hardly have confidence in them. I am really surprised that the same authors of our political perdition are now the most vocal in the condemnation of those institutions."

I can hear you still clapping and standing on your feet for Colonel Umar. You definitely liked what you have just heard him say. He has become the social critic, one of the so-called "leaders-of-thought", the custodian of culture, tradition and family values. He holds court morning, afternoon, evening and night, occupying center of attention wherever and whenever he is wherever, especially among his own. You cannot "touch that". The social value in politics is not necessarily measured in terms of public morality, or is it and should it? The concern here is not what the Colonel said but what he did not say and perhaps refused to say. His listeners are left with many more questions only Umar and a few others can really answer.

Where were you that night, the night another successful coup d'etat terminated the Buhari/Idiagbo nightmare? No, it was not the first Saturday and you could not have been weary and tired from the day's environmental sanitation. You could not have been sleeping either. Both radio and television were playing and replaying marshal music. It was not all rumors. Dodan Barracks, Bonny Camp, Ikeja Cantonment, both local and international airports were under siege. The Nigerian airspace was closed and shut down; borders were sealed indefinitely. The military boys were on a show of force once again, the second since President Shehu Shagari's "real" civilian government. The boys were busy at work dismantling one dictatorship to replace it with yet another. That was the night the stars dimmed. It was all nimbus and the air was heavy. Together they ushered an ominous atmosphere of suspense and confusion; the uncertainty was no animation.

Our man at the TV anchor that evening was nervous and when the news came, it was a flash, the preamble of what was to come. The picture was clear, and the voice was familiar. Sanni Abacha flagged on either side by fellow uniformed henchmen made the 2-minute announcement. He commanded his listeners across the land to stay up and wait for the special broadcast to the nation by the "president". The crowning of Nigeria's first and only "military president" was made not on the parade grounds of Tafawa Balewa "Independence" Square but in the Victoria Island TV studios. Abacha was not alone; Dangiwa was there in full regalia. Major Umar (then) was one active participant, a loyal accomplice in the events that brought Ibrahim Babangida to power. That single event and its attendant multiple consequences eventually changed the face of the country.

It clearly qualifies to win a trophy for the Colonel, and a certificate of acclaim. Umar's foster child has now grown up to become a constituent of Nigeria's "past socio-political engineering and manipulation". Welcome to the theater of the absurd where the movie "Look Who Is Talking" is playing. You surely are free to watch the movie while listening to "His Master's Voice", Colonel Dangiwa Umar.

The learned one from New York, Dr. Wumi Akintide is among the many in this theater. He is worried and rightly so, but not alone. On April 30, 2003 he took his concerns to the townhall, The Nigeriaworld, strongly condemning any attempt to "Judge Nigerian Elections by American or European Standards". Obviously, Nigeria has its own standard or standards, but regardless of what it is or what they are, Obasanjo with his cabal seems to be the only one who knows. Dr. Akintide provided the sneak peek into the "General's" hidden bowl, describing why he seems to have succeeded while Azikiwe, Awolowo, and Abiola failed in their respective bids to become "elected" president. Before unveiling his special, Wumi also chastised the losers, especially all those who have never paid enough attention or learned how to win an election in Nigeria. According to him, those "the bad losers", the wimps complaining, whining and calling for a June 12-repeat annulment, are creating "a subtle invitation to the coup plotters in our Military to start exploring their chances one more time. It becomes a lot more dangerous when the person making the judgment call is a retired General and a former Head of State who had once had cause to forcibly seize power from an elected President".

For the purpose of this discussion, I hold brief for no general, retired or not and I hope Dr. Akintide will bear with me on that score. As far as the truth can be told, they are all dictators; they were in office as head of junta government that wrested power forcefully and forcibly from one and another. They remain dictators whether dead or alive because the government they presided over and prevailed upon, left lasting traumatic imprints on Nigeria. In fact the wounds they inflicted on the people and the entire country have since festered, refusing to heal or be healed. The credentials that make a retired coup plotter a saint or a villain are no less those of Buhari as they are of Gowon, Murtala, Obasanjo, Babangida, Abacha or Abubakar. If any retired general in a civilian gab still has the power to create and re-create the conditions for a military take-over of the country in the year 2003, then Dr. Wumi should be kind to Buhari and his like by placing the blame squarely where it rightly resides. The real and pertinent questions should be asked: Did the Military ever relinquish its strong hold on Nigeria? When and how can Nigeria ever establish a real civilian government? To answer these questions, we have to go back to the old man's statement and underscore once again the difficulty and how near-impossible it is to organize the society when formerly Uniformed Armed Men who robbed Nigeria's treasury to become very wealthy are now in-charge of law and order.

After watching that movie and listening to Colonel Umar, Dr. Akintide was very impressed. Accordingly Wumi agreed "the former Military Governor of Kaduna State, Alhaji Umar got it, exactly right, when he reminded all of us that a rigged Election, or better still, an imperfect Election like the one we have just had, is far better option than a coup d'etat". Could this concept then be one very important qualifying attribute distinguishing the standard of political activities in Nigeria from those prevailing in America and Europe?

It is rather difficult to adduce any moral relativism between a "Sun Slide Electoral Fraud" and a "Military-take over, a Violent Regime Change", certainly not when the same actors are involved, employing a legitimate instrument of power to perpetuate an illegitimate action.

I plead for Wumi's indulgence here to recall Are Moshood Abiola's translation of a Yoruba adage, that "The son of a bastard cannot be legitimate". If this truism by Nigeria's expert logic cannot be normalized into a uniform standard applicable to America and Europe, we must ask another question. How does any concerted effort on the part of an organized deliberate force to legitimize fraud become the minimum standard for measuring the institution of democracy in Nigeria?

Fareed Zakaria, an Indian-born academic, a US citizen and editor-in-chief Newsweek International has articulated a valid response to the same intriguing question. Fareed knows a lot about Nigeria and the rest of the developing third world countries attempting to "manufacture conditions for liberal democracy". In his most recent book, The Future of Freedom: Illiberal Democracy at Home and Abroad", Zakaria points out how such "manufactured conditions" have been used to manipulate national electoral process to bring into power a supposedly a "popular president". Is holding an election bedeviled by crime and civil violations a good recipe for instituting a liberal, constitutional democracy? According to Zakaria, democracy in America and Europe attempts seriously to protect the rule of law, individual rights, property rights, equity and fairness. Democracy under "manufactured conditions" similar to what is now playing in Nigeria, guarantees nothing for the civil society. The universities are closed 75% of the time, literacy level is in decline, safety of life and property is for sale at the highest bidder. Nigerians are asking for constitutional intervention in defense of their citizenship, residency, freedom of movement and association. How does a "rigged election" lend itself to become the pragmatic instrument for good governance under a "born-again" dictator? Those who therefore share Wumi's concerns and agree not to judge Nigeria by foreign standards must be candid enough to accept the challenge. That challenge resides in Nigeria's failure to establish the reference standard for nurturing a civil society based on equal protection under the law. Without such a tape rule, democracy in Nigeria will continue to mean different things to many but the few who now find political activism a cherished profitable career, a viable alternative, yet an underpinning platform for a violent change of government.

And so joining the military with the prospect and hope of overthrowing a legitimate government or any government for that matter in the future is no longer considered an attractive option. All those who retire from the military with no other skill than soldiering fall back on the most promising trade in the land, politics. Professors have grown tired of being bullied and insulted by the illiterate powerful few. They have decided to archive their research skills to join the group just as the ABC Nwosus. Medical doctors are tired of begging to be paid their salaries when due. Some of them have had to hang the stetescope in quest of Naira and sound of money just as the Tony Dis and the Okupes. Students are no longer ready to continue listening to all those "crap", telling them "you are leaders of tomorrow". That tomorrow will never come so long as the Nzeribes keep winning senatorial elections and retired generals like Buhari and Obasanjo refuse to give up the quest for power and allow "real" civilians be groomed into the office of President of Nigeria.

When I heard Dangiwa, I was definitely concerned and I am still concerned. It certainly was not the return of the military by way of a coup as Wumi seems to worry so much about. Is there a shadow casting an image yet to appear? Is Umar clearing the turf for his master Babangida, the same way Abacha did on that fateful coup night? This other retired specie, the one that annulled June 12, has recently been sited beaming with crooked smiles excited Nigeria finally turned the corner, with a civilian to civilian change of government. Babangida was less concerned with the conduct of the election, but what does he care? "We shall understand it better by and by", perhaps when Umar clears his throat the next time around, certainly before the year 2007.

Obviously Wumi may have been carried away listening to someone he admires, perhaps a fellow academic who supposedly found "his way to Harvard to legitimize his claim to scholarship and clearheaded thinking". Dr. Akintide knows Umar was not the first to go to Harvard. Joe Garba was there before and later found his way representing the military government in the United Nations. Gowon was the first and perhaps the only ex-head of junta to attend a university after he was overthrown in a military coup. In each situation, the military provided for these individuals. They were living like kings and lords while being students. Both Garba and Umar were rewarded very handsomely for their role in military take-over sustained by a violent change. They were coup plotters and remain active participants in the events and circumstances that continue to plague and haunt Nigeria.

It is completely a rape of history to equate Umar and his ability to comment on national issues with the politics of Alhaji Aminu Kano, Sir Manuwa, Chief Michael Ani or even Balarabe Musa. It is equally shocking that Alhaji Alhaji Abubakar would be nominally mentioned in this category of Nigerians. I am now beginning to wonder whether Wumi actually knows who is Alhaji Alhaji Abubakar. Let him check out the Federal Ministry of Finance, and perhaps learn more about how Alhaji Alhaji and the other Alhaji Ahmed, one time Governor of Central Bank served Babangida before Alhaji Alhaji became Nigeria's High Commissioner in the UK. He should be told the story of how the Alhajis "played poker" with Nigeria's foreign exchange. If Alhaji Alhaji had been mentioned in the class of the super permanent secretaries like Sidney Asiodu and co who took Nigeria to the cleaners, then Wumi would certainly be speaking much clearer.

The issue is not how many Nigerians speak out and when. The era when government used to listen to compliant based on overwhelming public opinion is past midnight. For instance, that Obasanjo could have the gut to tell Nigerians on the even of the presidential election that he intends to increase the pump price of gasoline, clearly illustrates how the president passed what Dr. Akintide describes as the "acid test", anchored of course on what he also calls "the Nigerian State of mind". Obasanjo is the only one that has acquired the master key to the Nigerian State of mind, similar in scope to Fareed's "manufactured conditions" where elections have little or nothing to do with the outcome, certainly not who becomes president and when. The forces meant to re-elect Obasanjo president, were too big for the ballot box. It did not matter any more since the president could win the same election in Odi whether the people were dead or alive. And that result was so true in Odi any way according to the Independent Electoral Commission (INEC).

Surely, Dr. Akintide put forward an interesting thesis. According to him,

"The Nigerian State of mind requires that if you want to become President so bad, you have to first of all pretend you don't want it at all, and let the people start appealing to you to please consider it. Awolowo and Zik did not understand that, to begin with, but Balewa did and he became Prime Minister with effortless ease, even though he was the least qualified".

"The Nigerian State of mind requires that you always identify with the North more than you identify with your own people. You must also be willing to equate the interest of Nigeria with that of the North".

"The Nigerian State of mind enjoins you to recognize that election or no election, there is a powerful cabal that decides who will rule Nigeria, or who will die in an effort to do so. If that cabal does not want you, you could have all the best credentials for the job like Awolowo, Azikiwe, and Gani Fawehinmi, you will never get there. The Nigerian State of mind requires you to say and actually believe in the statement made famous by Yakubu Gowon when he said "To keep Nigeria one is task that must be done" regardless of the inequities within the system. The Nigerian State of mind requires that you do not rock the boat, or suddenly change the rules by which the country was put together, and governed from".

With the Nigerian State of mind, the power brokers set the rules and to be president, the one must abide by those rules. The individual "must not ruffle the feathers, or try to project Nigeria as a secular state. In the mindset of the power brokers, Nigeria is an Islamic State. You have got to be willing to live with that perception for you to successfully rule Nigeria. Don't you ever think of removing Nigeria from the Organization of Islamic States. Just let sleeping dogs lie, and you will do just fine as President".

Dr. Akintide concludes by revealing the real and true faces of democracy elsewhere in the world different than Nigeria's.

"All those issues that make candidates win or lose elections in civilized polities around the world, like freedom for all, and life more abundant, fighting corruption, constructing and maintaining roads, making sure there is security of life and property in the country, proper education for our children, affordable Housing, making sure the Military never venture into politics, a buoyant economy, availability of Food, are only a side attraction for the power brokers of Nigeria".

If Dr. Akintide is right in this regard, and I hereby subscribe that he is, what then is the difference between Obasanjo's government and that of Babangida or Abacha under a military occupation? To advance the argument that a rigged fraudulent election is better than a military coup ignores the same standard Nigeria seems to have set for itself. A government not considering itself accountable and responsible to all the people but a few could be typically Nigerian whether under a military head of state or a civilian president (retired dictator) elected under a "manufactured condition". A tainted election that advances the course of ONE PARTY STATE in Nigeria is perhaps the closest to institutionalizing a Supreme Military Council.

Wumi's thesis clearly traces the genesis of Obasanjo's "Kampe Doctrine" and also reveals a lot more. God has nothing to do with anything Obasanjo stands for pertaining to Nigeria after all. It is all part of an energized remote control. Since Wumi did not mention other life members of this cabal, Obasanjo surely knows them by name otherwise he would surely not become president not for the first time, certainly not for a second term. Now that we have been told about the Obasanjo "hunchback presidency" and who is paying this piper, perhaps it is time to ask the Big Question: "President Obasanjo why not come clean, tell the truth and shame the devil?" Obviously, you are everything Awolowo, Zik and Ahmadu Bello were not, not to their constituencies, certainly not to Nigeria. What then is the purpose of this government, the politics of 419 if in the end Nigeria's yesterday still remains the best left behind?