FEATURE ARTICLE


Leburah GanagoWednesday, November 5, 2003
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Atlanta, GA, USA

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NIGERIA AT 43: ANATOMY OF A STONE COUNTRY


igeria is the land of the odds. The 43rd anniversary of the nation's independence from Great Britain was recently marked but understandably in an odd way. Independence anniversary of any nation should ordinarily be a moment for banters and of sober reflection on the part of the leadership on how much or otherwise the goals of nation hold have been realized. It should also be an occasion for the country's leaders to point the way forward. It should be an occasion for hope-inspiring speeches. But the Nigerian president Olusegun Obasanjo decided to turn the 43rd anniversary of the country's independence into a day of grief for an already "overburdened" people. Obasanjo chose to visit the people with frustration and despair on their independence anniversary. He chose independence day to sell his wares - deceit and utter dishonesty. He chose to play games with the people on a day they should party.

Although he has served notice that he was going to compound their woes with the hike in petroleum products prices on that day, he chose to trick them into believing that he has listened to their cries of protestation against the proposed hike. But just as the people were about to heave a sigh of relief they woke up the next day to learn that the hangman has arrived, the petroleum products prices hike has been effected through the back door.

The Committee for the Defense of Human Rights (CDHR) in a statement said:

"The news has come to hit Nigerians with dumbfounding effect. This is ironically remarkable as an independence gift. We are shocked that people in government who should understand the conditions under which Nigerians live, courtesy of the inhuman economic policies of the incumbent administration, could suggest another hike in the pump price of fuel barely four months after an earlier one that we are yet to fully adjust to."

The Nigerian Liberty Forum, a United States based group, noted: "By the latest increase of prices, the overburdened peoples of Nigeria are being made to pay for the corruption and mis-governance of Nigeria by Obasanjo and his cronies at the seat of power"

Commenting on President Obasanjo's October 1, 2003 independence broadcast to the people of Nigeria, Guardian columnist, Dr. Reuben Abati noted that whoever wrote that speech deserves a prize in dishonesty.

Professor Tam David-West, former Petroleum Resources Minister, reacting to the recent increase in petroleum products prices fumed:

"Obasanjo cannot treat over 120 million Nigerians as class students as if he is the headmaster. I am disappointed in him. But I had long expected it. Although I am close to president Obasanjo but what he has done is disgraceful and all the reasons he gave for the hike in pump price are false. And I mean every word I said."( The Guardian, October 6, 2003 ).

You might argue that there is no big deal with a president of a Third world country telling lies occasionally in a season when even presidents of advanced democracies have had occasions to lie. However, for a president to elect to make lie -telling a way of life, this is no ordinary event.

On each occasion that prices of petroleum products would be hiked the stereotype argument has always been that government was losing essential revenue by subsidizing the prices of these products to Nigerians. The argument goes on to say that removing the so-called subsidies would ensure more money for the government to provide more services for the people. But this is a big lie. Truth is, the more money the government makes in Nigeria the more it is looted by the thieving officials. So in effect, increase in revenue does not translate into improved government performance.

An American lecturer once suggested to me that infringement and denial of rights to citizens thrive in third world countries because their leaders do not allow them to get access to education. If they are educated (enlightened) he maintained, they would not allow their leaders to treat them the way they do. I replied that in the case of Nigeria, I do not think the problem is exactly that of illiteracy. It does not matter that majority of the population are illiterates. We still have a good representation of the educated and enlightened class which is capable and indeed has stood up to some of the worst despots in human history. Nigeria has one of the most vibrant community of pro-democracy and human rights agitators in the world. Until very recently it also used to have a daring independent press.

However, here I have to add that there in Nigeria we have a conniving elite who allow themselves to be messed up by the inept and morally bankrupt despots, if only to get the scrum from the looters' table.

Of course, the well-known Nigerian factor-ethnicity is at the core of bad leadership in the country. No matter how bad a ruler is in Nigeria, he will always find sympathy from his ethnic enclave. This Nigeria factor became very pronounced during the botched impeachment move by the National Assembly against President Obasanjo. In spite of the glaring fraud and gross misgovernment which continue to characterize Obasanjo's style of leadership majority of his Yoruba kinsmen saw the impeachment move as a grand plot to scheme out the nationality from the leadership matrix of the country. Even people like former Governor of Oyo state, Alhaji Lam Adesina who had earlier called for the president's resignation citing poor performance, turned round to oppose the move. Lam Adesina stated his volte- face support for Obasanjo in a grand style. He went on air to declare: "If they try anything funny concerning this impeachment plan, Yoruba will not mind to opt out of Nigeria. Let them be aware and know this clearly". And Adesina's "born again" support for Obasanjo has a comical dimension to it. He said: "Obasanjo is God chosen. The circumstances of his election can only be explained by God. And anybody fighting him would be fighting God."

The last general elections in Nigeria also exposed how far ethnicity can go to distort a people's vision of leadership. The leadership of the Alliance for Democracy, AD, the dominant party in the Yoruba area literally abandoned their own party as they resolved to support President Obasanjo of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in the presidential election. The AD governors ( all of Yoruba extraction) openly asked their supporters to vote President Obasanjo (of a rival party) and come back to vote them in the governorship polls. Even after the PDP thunderstorm has swept the AD out of power in the National Assembly election in the South- West, and Obasanjo have derisively asked the AD governors to prepare their hand-over notes, Governor Ahmed Bola Tinubu of Lagos State was still urging AD supporters to vote Obasanjo for president ,claiming that the president never meant what he said( sending AD governors packing). However, their seemingly ethnic smart game backfired. Whether it was the peoples' votes that won the election for him in the South-West or the massive fraud that characterized the conduct of the elections in other parts of the country it is not yet clear. But what is now clear is that the AD governors were done in by Obasanjo and his PDP. They were rooted out of office under that phony accord.

We do know what national honours mean in other lands. They are bestowed on citizens of proven integrity, who have distinguished themselves in various fields of human endeavor and whose activities, efforts or researches have positively affected humanity. But in Nigeria the country's national honours are handed out as personal gifts to friends and cronies of the president, some of whom are an embarrassment to society itself.

My young American friend on the train who on learning of the atrocities committed by General Ibrahim Babangida against the Nigerian people, earnestly demanded for the trial of the "evil genius", must be highly embarrassed to learn that the man was among Nigerians who earned the highest national honour from the Nigerian president on October 1, 2003. Like various commentators have pointed out, Ibrahim Babangida helped bankrolled Obasanjo's election campaigns in 1999. Obasanjo again benefited from the goodwill of the gap-toothed general to help perpetrate the grand fraud called the 2003 elections. It is also an open secret that Babangida is being prepared to take over the rulership of Nigeria from Obasanjo come 2007. Yet, this is a man who should be in prison by now. But it accords with the Nigerian tradition-where criminals walk the streets as freemen while descent men ! are horded into jail.

Also on the list of what a newspaper columnist aptly called "Dishonourable Honours" is Tafa Balogun, the Inspector- General of Police. This honour is curious for a police force whose ineptitude has ensured that armed robbers and other sundry criminals over run the country ; a police force which did incalculable damage to the credibility of the 2003 general elections; a police force that hunts down harmless innocent citizens; a police force which mauled down peaceful protesters during last June protests over hike in petroleum products prices. A police force that kills indiscriminately at road blocks should vehicle drivers and passengers question the criminal extortion of money from them. Only last week two pregnant wo! men were killed by the Nigeria police in Port Harcourt and Akure respectively. This is a police force which is enmeshed in a deadly controversy over the tear-gasing to death of the vice presidential candidate of the All Nigeria People Party (ANPP) Dr. Chuba Okadigbo, just a month to the controversial award.

What is more, the Inspector -General of police is still standing trial (in the court of public opinion ) over allegations of massive corruption charges sparked by a news magazine publication which detailed incredible stupendous wealth acquisition by the head of the Nigeria police.

One can only surmise that the national honour awarded to Tafa Balogun is President Obasanjo's thank you gift to the Inspector -General of police, for mobilizing his men to rig the 2003 elections for the ruling party and for the "able" manner the Nigeria police has been subduing the opposition so paving the way for the president to execute his dictatorial agenda.

Nigeria universities sell honourary degrees to public thieves and other crooks in society.

Successive Nigerians governments spend millions of dollars on image laundry missions in the vein hope the world would the country differently. However, the world is not deceived. The Sharia jahad that broke in parts of Northern Nigeria in November last year further compounded the country's already battered image. The present Obasanjo administration tried too only that it ended up compounding an already bad situation.

Apparently, the Nigerian government had hoped to use the botched Miss World pageant as an image laundry hype- to show the world that contrary to the now orchestrated "conspiracy of the international press to run down the country and (destabilize it?)", Nigeria is a safe haven for investors and tourists alike. However, the uprising of the Sharia Jihadists ensured that the efforts of the Nigerian government produced at best, an image laundry that turned awry. The bloody show in the "Taliban" enclave of the north ended up giving the country an image that needs further laundering.

The not too pleasing issue of Nigeria being seen as a country perennially embroiled in sectarian violence continue to make headlines in the international news media. On Thursday October 30, 2003, the CBN news in its 700 Club progamme showed footages of the Sharia carnage of November last year in Northern Nigeria. Victims of the Sharia war were interviewed as they told tales of barbaric attack in the hands of Moslem fundamentalists. In the story, it was alleged that over 6,000 Christians were killed in that mayhem.

Yet, one aspect of the ill-fated Miss World contest in Nigeria is the traditional Nigeria scandal mania. As reported by a Nigerian tabloid, the Nigerian first lady ( President Obasanjo's wife, Mrs. Stella Obasanjo) was so involved in the whole business of the pageant hosting that her company "won" the sole right to market tickets of the event. As if this was not enough of an over-involvement of government apparatus in what many argue is clearly a private business, it was even alleged that the Nigerian government gave four million pounds while two state governments doled out a million dollar each, to the organizers of the event. Something like a bribe to win hosting rights!. Again, this is traditionally Nigerian. Commenting on this, veteran newspaper columnist, Chief Pini Jason, writing in Vanguard of Tuesday, November 26, 2002, noted inter alia : " The federal government was clearly misguided in its enthusiasm to get mixed up in the private business of Silverbird Productions. It should as well have been promoting Lagbaja's show!. There has been clear instances of conflict of interest on the part of Ben Bruce, the Director-General of NTA (Nigeria Television Authority) as it concerns the hosting of the beauty pageants".

The already battered Nigerian image is now being assaulted on many fronts. The country has a long history of being seen as a 419 nation whose citizens across the globe must first be assumed and treated as common criminals until they prove otherwise. Yet, the country's often self-imposed rulers have always by their conducts ensured that this terrible reputation does not go away. Officials of the current "corruption -fighting" administration of General Olusegun Obasanjo- state governors, local council chairmen do more of their governing activities on air planes, junketing round the world in the name of courting foreign investors to go to Nigeria and do business. However, the truth is that each time they jet out of the country they are self preservation missions-investing their loots in foreign lands. They go to America and Europe to acquire multimillion dollar property-! some of which the rich class in those advanced countries could not afford. Obasanjo himself is alleged to have made over a hundred of such foreign trips within the first three years of his first four year tenure.

And corruption? Take a look at this comment on corruption in Nigeria: "Nigeria regularly ranks as the most corrupt place on earth to do business, a reputation the recently ended regime of Sani Abacha lived up to in every way. International authorities believe Abacha, his cronies and several previous military dictators siphoned billions of dollars away from the country's oil industry that still sit in Swiss and other offshore accounts. Despite Nigeria's position as a leading oil producer, fuel shortages are common in the country. During the 1980s, and early 1990s, most of the international corporations based in Lagos moved operations to neighboring Ivory Coast or nearby Ghana to escape the corruption" (MSNBC news, November, 22, 2002).

However, describing corruption in Nigeria in terms of past could be grossly misleading. Nigeria today runs one of the most corrupt governments in the country's fumbling history. It does not matter that President Obasanjo is said to be prosecuting an orchestrated war against corruption and has indeed set up an anti-corruption investigation commission. But everyone that has anything to do with Nigeria, except Obasanjo himself and members of his gang, now know the truth, that the Obasanjo administration is promoting rather than prosecuting corruption.

The PDP government had set up something they call Poverty Alleviation Programme (PAP). Whatever that means .The government apparently wanted us to believe that the PAP is a special outfit designed to execute programmes that would alleviate poverty in the country. But right thinking people in that country know that the government does not need to set up a special department to tackle poverty in the country when we have the ministries of Agriculture and Natural Resources, Industries, Economic Development and Planning, Labour and Productivity, which can conveniently accommodate any arrangement for "poverty alleviation". Those who know Nigeria well would rightly note that the so-called poverty alleviation programme is nothing but an avenue for dispensing government patronage to loyal members of the ruling party who one way or the other helped in rigging the elections which purported to have returned President Obasanjo to power for a second term. It is a conduit pipe to salt away billions of the cursed Niger delta oil money into the private pockets corrupt government officials and their well-connected friends and sponsors.

Now, the results. ThisDay newspaper of September 30, 2003 in its editorial comments as follows:

"When the first N10 billion appropriated by the National Assembly went straight into private pockets, the president couldn't act because it was PDP's own sacred cows that were involved in the scam. After prolonged public outcry, he merely admitted that the money did nothing to reduce poverty and promised to try once more with fresh funds".

The other day the Nigerian president shamelessly confessed (as reported by Nigerian newspapers) that the Swiss authorities have told him that they are wary of releasing the country's looted money in their banks because they are afraid the money would fall into the ocean of corruption in Nigeria. This is a shame for a government that has made so much noise about its anti-corruption campaigns. It is yet another shame that 43 years after flag independence and in a supposed democratic dispensation, another country is offering (in our own interest) to manage our own money for us. What other way to disown Obasanjo's war on corruption?.

In the early days of Obasanjo's second coming his supporters were swearing that the man is a saint who would not stand the stench of corruption, let alone partaking of its fruit. However, today, all those silly talks have been exposed .

Alhaji Abdulkadir Balarabe Musa an opposition politician and chairman of the Conference of Nigerian Political parties, (CNPP) in a recent interview with The Guardian newspaper wondered how a president who is not corrupt could tolerate such a stinging level of corruption in his government. Balarabe Musa, not known for kid gloves, pointedly accused Obasanjo of personally involving in corrupt practices, citing cases of serious corruption charges against the president which he maintained Obasanjo has refused to defend. And one may add that the fact that he is strongly rumoured to be favouring General Ibrahim Babangida, the man widely reputed to be the god father of corruption in Nigeria to succeed him as president do little credit to his claims of fighting corruption.

We have said it time and time again that the Obasanjo administration has adopted gross- dishonesty, hypocrisy, deceit and outright blackmail as fundamental principles of state policy. Obasanjo continues to berates church leaders who have no legal or governmental authority to hold corrupt government officials accountable for failing to practice what they preach and for not doing anything to discourage corruption in society. However, the president of the country who has all the powers in the world to deal with corruption is swimming in the ocean of corruption seemingly looking helpless and bereft of ideas. Obasanjo to this day, has stubbornly refused to appoint a Minister for the petroleum ministry, instead doubling as the president and Petroleum Resource Minister. Yet corruption in the petroleum sector of the economy is phenomenal .The government has not been able to disclose the actual figure of the country's monthly oil sales.

Contracts running into millions of dollars are often awarded for turn around maintenance (TAM) of the nation's refineries while importation of refined petroleum products continue to constitute another corrupt enrichment chain for government officials and their well-connected businessmen friends. The Pan Yoruba cultural group, the Afenifere was so disturbed by this development that they recently challenged president Obasanjo to name the contractors behind the now apparent refineries TAM scam. But as usual, Obasanjo will not bulge.

The late Minority Rights crusader, Ken Saro Wiwa must have been absolutely right when years back he noted that what we have in Nigeria is organized banditry that goes in the name of government. Absolutely. The evil men who are ruling the country loot and kill.

And this brings us to one salient point: the issue of insecurity in the country. Like a bad dream, it refuses to go away. A couple of weeks back, I was riding on the train and going through my old scripts. An inquisitive young American lady sitting next to me peeped into my script, my write-up, AGAIN, MERCENARIES AT WORK (Tell magazine of August 27,2002) and fascinated with what I was reading, she sought permission to read it. I obliged. her. When she got to a paragraph where I discussed how the late Dr. Pius Okigbo panel indicted Ibrahim Babangida for the misappropriation of over $12billion 1991 Gulf War oil wind fall. She was so astonished by the disclosure that she asked if Babangida has been tried. I said no. I went on to explain to her that there is no so such thing as committing past corrupt rulers in Nigeria to trial. I further explained that the chances of public thieves being tried in Nigeria simply do not exist since it is the same clique of thieves and murderers that keep recycling themselves in power. This ensures that they keep protecting themselves and covering-up their filthy tracks. At this point the 21 year old lady noted my deep sense of resentment and near total lack of faith in the future of my country and, with a tinge of prophesy attempted to console me by suggesting that there would be a revolution in that country, someday. Incidentally, this is a hope I have always harbored.

And President of Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole seems to be having this kind of thing on his mind when frustrated by Obasanjo's callous intransigence in his determination to continuously hike petroleum products prices, he reportedly said that labour may have no option than to resume its suspended strike or leave it for Nigerians to fight their own battle. However, I am urging Comrade Oshiomule not to leave this battle of our lives in the hands of the Nigerian masses. I do know that pushed to wall the way they are now, they would take up the challenge but they need someone to lead them. This is exactly the opportunity that Oshiomule and his colleagues at the NLC have now

Like a bad dream, this image of Nigeria being an unsafe place to be has simply refused to go away. My young American companion on learning that I am a Nigerian had asked me if they are still killing in Nigeria. Again, I found myself in a fix. My initial assumption was that the lady was referring to the Abacha years. So, should I answer no, since Abacha is no more and the soldiers are also supposedly gone to their barracks? But I quickly recalled that an opposition politician, the ANPP vice presidential candidate in the last electoral fraud in Nigeria ,and former Senate President ,Dr Chuba Okadigbo has just been tear-gassed to death by the Nigeria police while attending an anti-government rally called by his party. I also recalled that the South-South Coordinator of that same opposition party Dr. Marshal Harry, was assassinated a few weeks to the elections. What is more, the Minister of Justice and Attorney -General of the Federation Chief Bola Ige who happened to have been "loaned" from another opposition party had earlier been assassinated. This is not to talk of other "unknown soldiers" who have perished in the political violence of a new democratic Nigeria.

Lest I forget, when what some commentators aptly called the "overburdened" Nigerians poured out on the streets to protest the seasonal hike in the price of petroleum products last June, a good number of them were mauled down by the usually trigger -happy Nigeria police. The Odi massacre and that of the Tivi communities which were overrun by the Obasanjo "mad dogs" are tell-tale signs of a nation in the grip of tyranny. When all these are read together, it sums up to the fact that Nigeria is today a killing field. It used to be Ogoni, in isolation. However, when it first started in Ogoni ten years ago, Nigeria's sole Nobel Laureate Professor Wole Soyinka predicted that it was an ! ethnic cleansing unfolding, with Ogoni as an experiment. It seems to be going round now.

The present dynasty of treasury looters and murderers in Nigeria have so entrenched themselves in power that no form of general elections can dislodge them. Of course, like a commentator noted the other day, should the fraud of 2003 be allowed to stand the ruling P.D.P would not bother to conduct even a mock election in 2007. They will simply go ahead to declare " results". This is very real. They have the instrument of violence and coercion ; they have all the looted funds to recruit, arm and pay the army of hungry youth that abound in the land as deadly thugs to unleash mayhem on the opposition while the police force thumb prints the ballot papers and settled election officials turn in jumbo figures for polling units where thugs did not even allow voters to come out and vote. You will recall that we have seen a Senate president, one Adolphus Wabara, installed at the behest of president Olusegun Obasanjo even without winning election in his constituency.

Today, the soul of the Nigerian nation is like a corpse. Groaning under the yoke of full-blown dictatorship and economic locusts, it is terminally dead. But ironically, the grave digger, Olusegun Obasanjo, keeps saying that the corpse is alive and kicking. He keeps sermonizing on hope and optimism amid glaring despair and despondency enveloping the country. Nigeria today is an evil empire which only a few would brood over its demise.

Only a timely intervention of a peoples' revolution can save Nigeria or like the late Ken Saro Wiwa had predicted, the dynamics of history would make the disintegration of the country inevitable.