Obasanjo’s electoral legacies

Since the day after the last presidential election, it appeared the Ota farmer had not been at ease with the gradual process of the poll. Of all Nigerians – and even hundreds of global polls observers – he was the first to find fault with the conduct of the election. The former leader did not merely criticise the process of the conduct but immediately called for the cancellation of the entire poll. The whole country was taken aback by Obasanjo’s rash pronouncement.

It became evident that he had a mindset, and a target. Unlike all other former leaders, he had publicly told the world his choice of candidate, and Nigerians had accorded him the honour for his choice. But his hasty pronouncement on the outcome of the poll did not only unsettle most Nigerians, it put a question mark on Obasanjo’s position on the Nigerian project. Does the former President have a personal agenda he wants to foist upon over 200 million citizens?

Why attempt to throw away the baby with the bath water? What was Obasanjo’s target? Perhaps his target was a frontline contender in the race to Aso Rock who the former leader did not like.

But the apparent target had described himself to his political foes as ‘Dagunro,’ a leafy vegetable the Yoruba avoid with trepid phobia because of its puissant poison. In the last electioneering, the contender had transmogrified from ‘tete,’ the scrumptious vegetable and house wives’ delight, into venomous edible.

Obasanjo’s call for another election annulment was a wakeup call to wary Nigerians. It signposted the slippery path the nation took some thirty years ago, no thanks to those who foisted an inglorious interim government on Nigeria in the aftermath of the June 12, 1993 presidential poll, the nation’s freest and fairest election.

Gone are the days when the words of the Lords of Manor were law. It is now more difficult to manipulate public opinion to suit personal ends. Unknown to the proponents of an annulment, they are peddling a fading influence.

For General Obasanjo, it is obvious he savours being constantly in the news since his blissful retirement. But remaining in the limelight by stoking the flames of controversy should not be the pastime of a national leader. This is why his messages are now being taken with caution. How can those who brought Nigeria to this sorry state claim to have answers to the problems they created while in power?

While credible election observers have, in their reports, adjudged the February 25 presidential election to be free and fair, Obasanjo has disagreed with the popular verdict.

In the last one month, he has sought to discredit the outcome of the exercise, which clearly did not favour his preferred candidate. His position is that the poll fell below expectation; in particular, it never met his personal standard.

At every public function, the former leader has tried to whip up sentiments and play to the gallery. But the resolution of the current political issue is beyond his control. In vain, he insists on the cancellation of the election result when Nigeria is already warming up for the May 29 inauguration. It is an exercise in futility.

The reasons for his line of thought are not far-fetched. Since he left power in 2007, Obasanjo has always tried to position himself as a godfather of sort. He believes he towers above everyone else in the polity. But many do not see him as a role model, despite being a military Head of State for three years and civilian president for eight years.

Obasanjo had somewhat insisted that his successors must be his product, cast in his own image, and should be ready to take his instructions.

As far as this year’s poll is concerned, OBJ, as fondly called by admirers, is not a happy man. Two democrats, who had in the past challenged him to a duel, dominated the election. Little did he guess that one of them would soon preside over the Council of State, of which he is a member, in his lifetime.

Obasanjo’s erstwhile deputy, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), fell out with him, shortly after they won their second term election in 2003. The Turakin Adamawa was subsequently rendered redundant for the last four years of the administration. To abort his presidential bid, his big boss erected roadblocks on his path. Atiku challenged the impediments in court. Six times he won.

In his book, titled: My Watch, Obasanjo sought to liquidate his deputy but without success. He is a soldier. Yet, the best of military tricks may not succeed in a civilian dispensation where tyranny and dictatorship simmer down for constituionality. He has guns, but politically, they are in a state of misfire. It is no wonder the former leader has resorted to undemocratic tactics.

He embraced letter writing as pastime and tool for pulling down his perceived enemies. In doing so, he tries, on some occasions, to gauge public opinion. Generally, his letters, aimed at stopping or de-marketing targeted presidential candidates, only throw up avoidable controversies with obvious bile.

Obasanjo’s second headache is President-elect Bola Tinubu, the standard bearer of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).

For eight years, OBJ mounted a virulent attack on Tinubu of Lagos without justification. It was not new. In his controversial book, titled: Not My Will, the General exhibited the trait of someone who had an axe to grind with the revered former Western Region Premier, the great Obafemi Awolowo.

Former Governor Tinubu’s offence, among others, included the creation of additional local council development areas (LCDAs) in the Centre of Excellence through the House of Assembly for ease of administration at the grassroots; the Eron power project; and insistence on federal principle for the purpose of unity in diversity.

The councils were never listed in the constitution by the Obasanjo-led Federal Government. Nevertheless, they have continued to function, to the General’s surprise. What the Lagos experience has shown is that the distant Federal Government should not dabble into such local matters. They are within the jurisdiction of states.

Also, the state’s public-private initiative on power was frustrated. If it had survived, epileptic power supply would have drastically reduced. Many states would have copied the Lagos model.

But President Obasanjo, who did not want to examine the merits in Tinubu’s projects, turned the heat on Lagos. The allocations to the councils were withheld for more than three years.

Necessity, they say, is the mother of invention. The tough times made Tinubu to adorn his thinking cap. The result was creative financial engineering. Under the former governor, Lagos witnessed giant strides which puzzled other states that received full allocations.

Ahead of 2003, Obasanjo came up with a trick, urging Southwest governors to collaborate with him. Tinubu deliberately played along while at the same time fortifying his base. When the political earthquake swept across the Southwest, only the then Lagos governor survived the onslaught. Tinubu became the last man standing, to the chagrin of OBJ. Today, the General sees Tinubu as his rival in Yoruba land. Now, he ultimately rivals him in fame and stature at the national level.

Since Atiku and Tinubu can never be puppets, Obasanjo turned towards another direction. OBJ’s bet is the Labour Party (LP) candidate, Peter Obi, a presidential upstart leaning on the pillars of ethnicity and religion; a contender who could not fly despite the endless propaganda in the social media by his “Obidients” that operated outside the structure-less LP.

Since Obi was not declared winner, Obasanjo believes that the poll was null and void, and a new election should be held. While other statesmen genuinely advised those who were dissatisfied with the results to go to court, OBJ recommended cancellation. It was akin to the occasions when the Ekerin Egba and Balogun Owu tore the sheet of paper when he wanted to make way for his preferred candidate for the prestigious stool of Olowu of Owu.

After elections, the Nigerian law permits the aggrieved to seek redress. Instead of advising his anointed candidate to take the legal route, Obi and his supporters, who are in the minority, have been threatening the majority who made their choice on February 25.

The desperation of the LP crowd is worrisome.

Obasanjo has a strange bedfellow in the unfolding drama. Afenifere’s deputy leader, Chief Ayo Adebanjo, an Awoist who has forgotten the late Chief Awolowo’s advice to his followers at the 1982 Yola conference of the defunct Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN) to distance themselves from the enemy, appears to be on the same eccentric position with OBJ.

When the precious advice of the late sage was ignored back then, tragedy had hit the Awoist camp. In this dispensation, the two disciples who disobeyed the wise counsel of the indomitable leader suffered the consequences. Both Chief Bola Ige and Chief Sunday Afolabi who, against Awo’s advice, joined Obasanjo’s government, never returned alive.

What legacy of credible election did President Obasanjo leave behind? It is a legacy of electoral terrorism. The 2007 poll, which was conducted by erstwhile INEC Chairman, Prof. Maurice Iwu, remains the worst in the history of the country. It was the best example of how not to conduct an election. Winners became losers and losers received certificates of returns.

Obasanjo stood on the way of free and fair election when he described the poll as a war; a do-or-die affair. There was uproar in Ekiti, Ondo, Osun, Edo, Kogi and Anambra states. That is why off-season governorship elections are held in those days till today.

The chief beneficiary of the rot at the national level was the late President Umaru Yar’Adua, who humbly confessed that he rode to power on the back of a flawed election. Immediately, he tried to clear the mess by setting up the Uwais Electoral Reforms Panel to dissect the problems and make recommendations.

Obasanjo and his co-travellers need to embrace the reality. The presidential election has been won and lost. The battle has shifted from the ballot box to the court. Whatever the court says will be final.

Those who despise the constitutional path of honour for our electoral system would be given a long chapter in our history book as purveyors of national chaos. Most Nigerians would not accord such people the glory to achieve their selfish aims.

Peoplesmind