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[email protected] Ijebu-Jesa, Osun State, Nigeria

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WHEN GOD RELENTS!

his is about the second time I would be extracting from the piece, 'Justice is Worth Dying For', written by the then General Olusegun Obasanjo, few days after his miraculous escape from the late General Sani Abacha's hangman. So, apart from its continued relevance in this interregnum, it is one of Obasanjo's few write-ups that I have taken time and pain to read and dissect before my love for - and my interest in - the man began to wane.

In truth, by the time I would lay my hand on his 'This Animal Called Man', the man has thrown the elements of democratic pragmatism and good leadership into the winds and has, instead, chosen to showcase the military stuff, of which he was made, and renown. One who therefore wishes to understand issues raised by Colonel Abubakar Umar, former Governor of Kaduna State, in his 'Open Letter' to the president, and the unwarranted response from government quarters, ignobly represented by Chief Femi Fani-Kayode, Special Assistant to the President on Public Affairs, needs to read this piece by the Otta-farmer-professed-democrat and, if need be, one or two of his out-of-prison published books.

In the said letter, published in 'The Sun', Friday, January 23, 2004, Colonel Umar posited that the nation had accorded President Obasanjo "such servile obeisance on the understanding that" he "inherited a weak state and that anything after Abacha was tolerable" thereby leading the people into believing that Obasanjo "had the credentials to lead them to the Promised Land." The former governor noted that, two years into Obasanjo's first term, it had already become clear that he was not the Messiah Nigerians had been craving for but one who has been fond of operating "a theocracy, ruling from the pulpit", to the extent of going to sleep, "dreaming that the Lord will steer the ship physically" with "insincerity and ineptitude" reigning, "noble plans remaining mere paper tigers, and the economy nose-diving.

But in a swift reaction, Special Assistant to the President on Public Affairs, Chief Femi Fani-Kayode, described Umar as a frustrated(?) and an unfulfilled(?) retired military officer, who, having lost out on a job bid with the government, thought that confrontation with the it was the option. The rest of the story, as usual, is now history.

It is common knowledge that lawyers are learned men; perceived as knowing everything about anything and oftentimes regarded as being aware and abreast of all events. That is why anybody with wig and gown is learned while those of us who choose other professions are only educated, not "learned." Without doubt, Fani-Kayode is no exception of Nigeria's few "learned" men who have made of themselves bad public image-makers. And he displayed both his "erudition" and weakness by delving into military tactics and discipline, wondering why "a Colonel could afford to insult a General." It is on this premise that I "put it to him" that his unnecessary and unprofessional vituperations need no Umar to tell us what he actually is.

In fact, I got to know his stuff in the days of his 'press wars' with Rev. Fr. Matthew Hassan Kukah, that revered Catholic priest. But Umar ought to have known that, for only-God-knows-why, Nigeria is an enclave where chest-thumping in self-adulation is a necessity for survival, all for the sake of the belly and the fear of the unknown. Whenever I imagine the sterility, the infantility and the cowardice that have taken over the affairs of this country, I cannot but weep for the future of the generations who have been destined to pass through this land.

Even when it is a taboo for a Christian to judge a fellow Christian, events around and about the president now portray him as the best Christian Nigeria ever had, the "holiest of holies" who is more popish than the Pope. And he is "leaving no stone unturned" at proving this, not even with his holier-than-thou attitudes to issues of national importance, or with the many books he has published on religion and doctrines, or the number of times he has mounted the pulpit to theorize what service to humanity should depict in the people's dictionary. Whichever way, I am now at sea at deciphering what should be the credentials of a true Christian.

"The glory of great men", in the words of Rochefoucauld, "is measured by the means used in obtaining it." In other words, in as much as application of theoretical knowledge is not value-free, its use is expected to be for the attainment of some valued ends. Furthermore, since every national leadership, whatever its definition, has got to do with the solution of historically defined problems, its focus ought to be on nurturing the development of a progressive society. But all these are attainable and sustainable in a level-playing turf where civilization reigns, not in Nigeria, the land of I-know-all leaders, where a ruler's arrival is measured by the number of file-carrying and gun-trotting but war-scary security men in his convoy.

Ours is a terrain constructed on an underpinning of mendacity and disingenuousness, where our service is to our "father in the Lord", thereby forgetting that a true father will show his child the (road to the) true God. Here, our weakness is in our strength: what amuse us are inconsequentialities that do not mean anything to the world of civilization and decorousness.

In our land, success has lost its discreet meanings; it is now at an arm's length. Every year, budget of hope, of consolidation, and, of what ought not, is read but, over forty years after, the hope has defied results. Forget about its consolidation. Forty-three years portray the life of a nation conveniently swimming, irresistibly, in disarray; of a nation troubled by percolation, wretchedness and adversity, and of a nation enmeshed in political diarrhoea and economic decrepitude. And, in the midst of all these, our leaders deliberately ignore the differences between economic reforms and economic crises.

Like a newborn baby but without ascertaining any bleakness of the future, Nigeria is being 'born-again" every year with hopes - phony, pale and unattainable hopes but, rather than enjoy the fruits of her hard-earned independence, she is being crippled by those who believe that the best way to help her grow is to milk her fortune dry. That is why Fani-Kayode fails to realize that a society in which the far greater part of its people remain poor and miserable can hardly flourish and that a civilizing mission that is bereft of the ethical development of its citizenry is no mission but a carapaced failure.

It is sad that a Special Assistant who has informally made of himself a Minister of Information did not react to Umar's assessment of Niger Republic's enviable economy vis-�-vis Nigeria's, ranging from the booby traps called Nigerian roads, to the epilepsy called National Electric Power Authority, NEPA. That of course helped a great deal in casting aspersions on his credentials as public image-maker for a country that has produced many reputable and more qualified commentators, public analysts and image-makers.

It is painful to find out that those who are supposed to hide their heads in shame for being part of our problems are still raising their shoulders high, pretending and showcasing their credentials and strength as if they are our the lords of the flies. Is Fani-Kayode not part of the system that has produced the likes of Olabode George, that Abacha apologist who could not distinguish between autocracy and democracy until he became a jobber in the Obasanjo administration?

Ask President Obasanjo's mouthpiece why Yinusa Adeniyi, that self-confessed killer of Chief Bola Ige, Nigeria's Attorney General and Minister of Justice, has to die in prison; even when he knows the import and the implications of delayed trials and long incarcerations, he would no doubt say that government meant well by allowing the government-declared insane man to die in prison. Ask him why Nigeria should earn the unenviable second position in the comity of (the) world's poorest nation, in a manner characteristic of Nigeria's self-professed defenders, he will either theorize that it is politically motivated or that such an act is being perpetrated by the enemies of Nigeria.

The inability of successive nation's decision-makers to learn from history is worrisome. Remember Philippines' President Joseph Estrada. When the military discovered that Estrada and the National Assembly were cohabiting up to the extent of Estrada's mortgaging of the eligibility, credibility and the conscience of his nation, the military diplomatically reacted and ... Estrada resigned as the President and Commander-in-Chief of the country's armed forces.

In our country, the question is: how on earth can we have a listening government in Nigeria when we do not have a listening president? It is because of this selfishness and self-centeredness that Fani-Kayode could not see any reason but tactlessness and "disrespectful contribution of an obviously frustrated and unfulfilled man" in Umar's comments. Needless to say that Nigerians are now viewing democracy as being worse than dictatorship.

We need not blame the Fani-Kayodes of Nigeria for choosing to be what they are. It is true that "a person who commits errors and realizes his folly is easier to correct. But he who does not understand or refuses to accept when he is wrong becomes incorrigible." Fani-Kayode's situation is worsened by the fact that idle minds will always be found everywhere, invited or uninvited, to answer the clarion call of pelf and the lust for power and relevance, oftentimes at the expense of his dignity and the unity of his fatherland.

Desperately in search of what is not lost, they make of themselves servants even as their benefactors inveigle them into believing that they are the best things to happen to the land. And, in their idiocy, or, in their quest for survival, they become soft-nosed and emotional, thereby grappling with reason more by money logic than by gut intuition. That is why "Evangelists", "Pastors", "Bishops" and "Imams" have continue to litter our streets as if they were ten-for-ten-kobo wares that could be bought in the market.

Be that as it may, much as I share Colonel Umar's sentiments, I disagree with his postulation that "if one could place God in time and space, one could safely conclude that He is now in Niger (Republic) and no longer in Nigeria as was once supposed." For the benefit of hindsight, recent events in our country have all proved that it is not that God no longer hears our prayers or that He has deliberately abandoned us. Rather, going by what Jesus Christ said in Matthew 10: 28-30, or, Luke 6: 6-7, then the good Lord might be relenting even as the president and his goons claim to be right.

But it is an incontrovertible truth that God will not anoint a man for himself alone but to do something for others. In "Evangelist" Obasanjo's case, however, even while the masses continue to moan and groan under the yoke of his unfriendly and dehumanizing reforms, corruption is avoidably on the high and his tummy continues to puff up.

But why should we wait for priests drum it into our ears that sin is a reproach to any man and that righteousness exalts a nation before making a choice between the right and the wrong? Why should we wait for those who only delight in our extinction before deciding when to sow and when to reap? Why should we wait until Nigeria's Uche Chukwumerijes, Walter Ofonagoros, Duro Onabules and Femi Fani-Kayodes make a mess of our democratic expediency before we draw a line of distinction between shrewdness and pointlessness? For God's sake, why?

May God deliver us from the hands of those who pretend as if they love us.