FEATURE ARTICLE

Olanrewaju AjiboyeWednesday, February 15, 2006
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London, UK

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A CLARION CALL ON ALL NIGERIANS TO SAVE NIGERIA FROM A BURGEONING DICTATOR


s May 2007 inches close, so also is the plot for the Third Term of President Obasanjo thickens, the show of shame displayed in Otta with the chorus "Emi l'owo si" ( I stand to be counted) by five of the South West governors and other political vagrants is an eloquent testimony to extrapolate on 2007 politics in Nigeria. However, if the scheme of elongation does not materialize come 2007, it will not be because serious and surreptitious efforts were not made, it would just have been impossible to foist it on Nigeria.


The matter at hand does not convey the issue of ethnicity or performance, it is just a matter of credibility, fair play, morality and good precedent. The fulcrum for the market appeal of the bad product (Third Term) by its marketer is the issue of continuity and sustenance of the legacy of the present administration. This argument is not only vacuous, it is also noxious just like the lazy argument marshaled by these political vagrants pre- 2003 elections when they were asking the South West to embrace mainstream politics.

Obasanjo has two opposing legacies. One is his efforts in fighting corruption and serious efforts towards good governance. In this aspect of his legacy are the achievements on GSM, absence of queues in petrol stations and revolutionary increase in remunerations of civil servants and other categories of public servants. The other legacy is the desecration on the rule of law and refusal to yield court rules as in the case of Lagos State, the clobbering of democratic tenets as in the disposition of Rasheed Ladoja (himself a bad product) and the abduction of Chris Ngige a serving governor. Other aspects of this second legacy are the pervasive hunger in the land, the lack of any social programmes for the mass of Nigerian people, a subservient police and an economic programme that makes the rich to be richer and the poor to be poorer.

The idea of elongation is not new in Nigeria either from elected leaders or usurpers called military heads of state but the good thing is that, every attempt have ended up in a terrible fiasco. If it was inglorious for General Babangida during his time, if it was satanic and suicidal for General Sanni Abacha during his time, it is certainly not in the best interest of Chief Olusegun Obasanjo and it will not augur well for our country's sickle cell type of democracy. What president Obasanjo owes us as Nigerians is not elongation of his term, rather he should facilitate the process of smooth transfer of power and a free and fair elections where brilliant, patriotic and credible Nigerians are allowed free participation to move Nigeria forward.

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Notwithstanding the grand plan of the active collaborators of the third term scheme, the scheme even if successful by clever manipulations of the constitution, the Morality issue will create a very serious problem for the post 2007 Obasanjo presidency. Morality is very germane to the social contract that exists between the rulers and the ruled and when Morality is compromised, the cookie begins to crumble. For a leader facing Morality crisis to be able to maintain the status quo, he or she will have to adopt subterranean methods to let the centre holds. History abounds about leaders and governments that have gone down because of the issue of Morality. Within Nigeria, Salisu Ibrahim had not been convicted before he lost his seat as the Leader of House of Representative, Alamieyeseigha was not yet convicted of allegations of corruption before he was deposed as the governor of Bayelsa. On the foreign scene, Bill Clinton had a brilliant record as the President of the United States of America, the Monica Lewinsky's case remains his albatross. America's Neighbour, Canada, had a change of baton recently; a performing Prime Minister, Paul Martin was forced to call an election which ousted him just because of party sponsorship scandal which he was not personally indicted. All the above are Moral Crises that brought down many and compromised the integrity of others.

Suffice to say that come 11.59 p.m. on May 28 2007, if President Obasanjo still remains in the saddle then he would have to govern with great difficulty which will be at variance with democratic governance. The fact of the matter is that, though the President would have been legally enabled by the constitution, but the quality of that contract will be a far cry if compared with his contract of 1999 to 2003 and even the most brazen contract of 2003 to 2007.

The likely scenario therefore is that, whilst the President will claim legitimacy by virtue of constitutional amendments, his challengers will accuse him of manipulating the process in his favour. If the centre must hold in that situation, then the President will have recourse to the use of force to ensure compliance. If this happens, dictatorship creeps in and the more it gets entrenched the more the danger for the polity.

The problem with Nigeria is that it has had more of "Toxic Leadership" and readers need to grab a copy of JEAN LIPMAN-BLUMEN's book, titled ALLURE OF TOXIC LEADERS. In the book, she did not only itemize the Acts of a Toxic Leader, she also highlighted their qualities. The cheer in it is that she also proffers solutions on how to free ourselves from Toxic Leaders.

It is therefore incumbent on us all to put sentiments apart and believe that nobody is indispensable. In this we can save our country from another avoidable situation where we become another focus of international attention on democratic issues.