The Failed Contract of the Emir of Gwandu
Dr. Aliyu Tilde
I have earlier intimated my readers in Privatization of APP: The Joint Bid of Babangida and Obasanjo that one of the strategies that will be employed against the candidature of Buhari would be to get northern leaders to prevail on him to give up his plans to contest against Obasanjo. In that article, I mentioned that the plan, which was conceived, hatched and financed by Babangida for the benefit of Obasanjo, would, as its first step, get these leaders to ‘reconcile’ between Babangida and Buhari. The second stage is that the same group, having gained the confidence of Buhari who is mistakenly thought to be in dire need of Babangida’s support, will pressurize him to withdraw from the contest.
The chief contractor of this project, you will be surprised to know, is the Emir of Gwandu, Alhaji Mustapha Jokolo. Kash! Albasa ba ta yi halin ruwa ba.
I am surprised because Jokolo was the ADC Buhari when he became the head of state. I also remember that he was the causa causans of the ‘53 suitcases saga’. This is the least expected of the descendant of the most upright ideologue of the Sokoto Caliphate, Shehu Abdullahi of Gwandu. If Abdullahi were to catch the Emir red handed executing this treacherous contract, he would have caned him in public for undermining the cause of social justice.
We hope His Royal Highness will capitulate and respect the legacy of the seat he is occupying. We respect the Emirate of Gwandu, its history and its people, but we seriously lament this misdeed and many others perpetrated by the Emir.
Two weeks after that publication the meeting has taken place. A friend in the Babangida camp called me saying, “Tilde, Guess what!” I replied, “The best news one would expect from his best friend.” He said yes, and went ahead to detail me on what happened at the meeting. I later corroborated his report and found that he was not playing any trick.
Briefly, the meeting did not achieve what its conveners wanted. It was brief because our elders decided to maintain their integrity and tell Babangida the truth to his face. The person that punctured the bag was a Chief from the Northeast. He questioned the basis of the reconciliation by asking, “Are the two – Buhari and Babangida – fighting?” He told the meeting what he heard Buhari say in a recent BBC interview about Babangida and even the President. The former head of state has not publicly come out to say that he has a problem with Babangida that deserves the intercession of a third party; that they meet and exchange pleasantries at meetings and other occasions. Therefore, so long as Buhari maintains this in public there is no point presuming that their differences are so great to warrant reconciliation by elders. Babangida should tell the meeting his problem with Buhari.
Part of the contract specifies that the elders should plead with Buhari to step down for Babangida. On that the Chief sided with Buhari because he is the one that has sacrificed his integrity to join politics, registered in a party and have been making contacts about his intention to contest the presidential elections. Turning to Babangida he asked, “You, what have you done? You have not joined any party and you keep on dilly-dallying with the intelligence of people. If you want to contest, register in a political party as Buhari did and declare your intention. As of now, we appreciate the sacrifice he made and we are with him.” That was the naked truth that our royal father told IBB. Others started nodding, including M. D. Yusuf, the ACF Chairman. Others started blaming the conveners of the meeting. The Shehu of Borno complained that had he known that it was for this he was called all the way from Borno he would not have attended. The Emir of Kano did not attend, having a foreknowledge of what it is all about. And so on.
The most impressive thing was that the Chief who spoke the truth was not even a Hausa-Fulani. We are grateful to this father who identified with the truth and said it when the ‘descendants of Shehu’ were ready to bury it for the little benefits of this world. So Buhari could not be coerced into stepping down for Babangida. Instead, Babangida and Jokolo left Arewa House last Saturday carrying a heavier load of blame than they came with.
That was how the contract of His Royal Highness, Mustapha Jokolo, failed. I will strongly suggest that Babangida should claim damages from him. He has proved to be an incompetent political contractor. In this regard, Babangida should do us a favor, i.e. since this is not the last political contract that may fail before 2003, he should, on one of his trips to Aso Rock, plead with Obasanjo and the National Assembly to constitute a Failed Political Contracts Tribunal. The Emir should be the first person to be summoned.
There will also be many people that Obasanjo would like to be prosecuted after May 2003 for playing political 419 with him. By then I will be a graduate of law and I will be very much ready to serve as his attorney.
Dear reader, I will keep you informed of any development in the future. My radar is sensing some three other juicy gossips. I would like to share them with you as soon as they are confirmed. Let us move to other issues.
* * * There has been some development on the issue of merger between the APP and the UNPP since we wrote about it three weeks ago. Developments that followed the formalization of the merger have proved our earlier assertion that the APP will be at the receiving end. And that is exactly what is happening.
Few days after the ratification of the merger by the National Executive Council of the APP and the implementation of all changes agreed upon regarding the name of the party, its flag and so on, the leadership of the UNPP reneged on its agreement. On the one hand, its National Chairman, Alhaji Saleh Jambo, who was one of the participants at the merger talks, publicly renounced the merger and said that his party will go ahead to seek for registration with INEC. On the other hand, Admiral Augustus Aikhomu, the Chairman Board of Trustees of the UNPP approved the merger and became a member of the new APP, now called ANPP.
I do not believe that there is any difference between Aikhomu and Jambo, both are close associates of Babangida. They are playing a game. What they have done is to divide themselves to ensure that Babangida has gained a foothold in ANPP, UNPP and NDP, in addition to the one he already has in PDP for four years now. That way, he can continue to play the role of kingmaker, which for now is nothing other than granting Obasanjo a second term.
What remains to be seen, especially as the APP is about to elect its new leaders at various levels, is whether the present leadership of the party will hand it over to the Aikhomu group to reincarnate the game they played in 1999 in collaboration with Shinkafi (who has also recently wrote the party declaring his intention to contest) or it will hand it over to reputable hands that cannot be bought over by the Babangida and Obasanjo.
Yusuf Ali is insisting that they will not sell the party to anyone. Well, we shall see. Ai rana ba ta karya.
* * * I believe the reader must have noticed that recent political developments have silenced the PDP. Auduga ta fara kitse… There is an ongoing campaign of intimidation that stalwarts of the PDP are waging in the North. They have not found a better trademark to sell Obasanjo with other than that of 1999.
People here are told that if the North takes over power, as it is prepared to do now, there may be no peace. So the best thing for it to do, in order to keep the peace, is to allow the South to have another term, either with Obasanjo or with any other candidate from the Southeast.
The campaign was first clandestine, now it is becoming public. The southwest has always threatened the North against retrieving power from Obasanjo.
Leaders of the North in the PDP have bulged. The Southwest is not alone now.
I remember that the first comment a PDP governor made when Buhari joined politics was the expression of this fear. In an interview he granted the Weekly Trust, Makarfi has also mentioned that the North stands to lose if there would be any crisis. On a Monday morning last week an adviser to a PDP governor was heard over VOA Hausa service tangentially criticizing Buhari and asking his listeners, “What is the point in ceasing power if you will not have the peace to exercise it?” It appears that this lamentable vituperation of the adviser was a reaction to a leakage that a cleric made in public recently. He revealed how some people gathered important dignitaries like him in 1999 and told them that they should support the candidature of Obasanjo for the peaceful coexistence of the country. Now, he said, the same people have returned this time to repeat the same thing in a more intimidating manner, despite the common knowledge that at no other time, except during the civil war, has the blood of Nigerians been so spilled like during this regime. The cleric therefore immediately and publicly disassociated himself from participating in such a plan again.
The question to ask here is why should a section of this country be subjected to constant intimidation during a political era? What is their crime? Dr. Hameed Kusamatu – a former member of the APP who recently joined the PDP from the Southwest clearly mentioned the reasons in a recent interview with the Guardian of May 28, 2002. When asked, “what about the campaign which the far-North has mounted against Obasanjo,” he replied: “If they force a northern candidate on this country, the North is not going to win, and if he wins, he will not have a country to rule. Even if they say that hey have the population, it is not sensible because the fact that you have the population does not mean you should be ruling the country all the time.” He went on to cite the example of the United Nations, an organization that elected an African, a minority race, to be its Secretary General.
The crime of the North therefore is its population, as the South has maintained for twenty years now. Why should it use its population as a basis for holding on to power always? Thus the region was forced to concede the presidency to Abiola, to Shonekan and now to Obasanjo through various manipulations. Yet, in spite of our population and the sacrifices made so far, other regions still feel that northerners do not deserve to vote for any of their own again, and if they do there will be so much trouble that the northern president “will have no country to rule.” Our governors and other leaders of the PDP are quick to use this argument again out of desperation. Some people are even suggesting that the North should allow Obasanjo to hand over to an Igbo president. According to this group, we have now seen the failure of the Yoruba, let us try Igbo; after that, by 2007, the whole country will realize that only northerners are worthy of leadership. The North should not be seen to be selfish, they say.
Haba, what an infantile thought! This is the type of thought that lodged us into the present mess and the whole country is suffering as a result to our complicity. How are we sure that the Igbo, under the promise that he will handover to Babangida in 2007, will not perform worse than Obasanjo? Let us not forget that Nigeria did not fight a civil war with the Yoruba, neither did it subject them to hunger, snatched all their wealth and left the wealthiest among them with a paltry twenty pounds. But it did all these to the Igbo. How sure are we that by conceding the presidency to them we are not reincarnating another Nzeogwu or Aguyi Ironsi? In my view, the greatest service that the North should give to the nation today is to withdraw non-democratic arguments. It must struggle to restore the freedom of Nigerians to vote for the best candidate from whatever region he may be. As I said in a lecture at Arewa House last Sunday, commitment to service, built on trust, social justice and fairness must be the merits that people should look for in a candidate, not religion, tribe, region or whatever.
If Obasanjo had performed well, I believe no northerner would have bothered himself to contest in 2003. Personally, my editor will remember that at the beginning of Obasanjo’s tenure, I was canvassing for the North to vacate the Presidency for at least eight years. That will give it enough time for self-reexamination. However, my view changed within a month, when Obasanjo clearly showed that his first duty was to subjugate other regions to the advantage of the Southwest. I have not been alone, I believe.
With time, this shift in my thinking became consolidated by the apparent failure of the regime in all sectors. Obasanjo has not been fair to the nation. Its currency has depreciated by over 80%; prices of essential commodities have risen to criminal rates; poverty has increased; bloodshed has become common; corruption has reached its highest level in the history of the nation; and ethnicity is increasingly threatening the federation.
With this catalogue of failure, why should some people think that Obasanjo should be given another chance, merely because he came from an untouchable tribe and even when the nation has many other people among its 120million population to replace him for the better? With this experience, I am bent on taking the advise that the late Emir of Kano, Muhammadu Sanusi, gave to a young politician then: Power is not something to take a sabbatical leave from. Obasanjo has proved him to be correct.
So, I now think that power is not something that should be rotated in a democracy, until when we expressly say so in the constitution. In that case, there is even no need for the North to participate in any national election.
It should simply allow the zone to which the presidency is constitutionally zoned to make their arrangements for installing a man of their choice.
For the North to accept rotation again, it is my opinion that it needs a reason more palatable in the province of democracy than intimidation. The ongoing intimidation is nothing but robbery. Someone knocks on your door and demands that you either leave your house for him or he will kill you and cease it. Then a friend came to advise you that the best thing to do is to concede the property to him, for it is better to lose your home than your life. If you accept to leave, call yourself a coward. What the world expects you to do is to call his bluff.
While the South can boast of its control over the civil service and all sectors of the economy, apart from agriculture, the North has only land and population to count on. The land helps it to cultivate the crops necessary for the survival of its people. Its population is the only asset that it can invest for any meaningful participation in politics. Only through that can it guarantee the security of its people and the unity of the federation. Now if they are denied the democratic and constitutional right to freely choose a leader of their choice, in the name of sharing power through rotational presidency, I wonder what democracy we are practicing. Conversely, we can ask: Is the south ready to share by rotation its control of the economy and civil service with the North? Therefore, 2003 should be seen as an opportunity to restore sanity to the democratic atmosphere of Nigeria. People must defy these governors and other agents of exploitation who are just after maintaining their seats. Nothing more.
* * * Democracy is a system of governance that we must welcome. It has its rules.
For us Nigerians, those rules are entrenched in our constitution. In order to ensure peace and tranquility in our nation, we must abide by those rules as they are and do away with all extra-constitutional mechanisms. We must also learn to reject people who are ready to exploit our differences for their own selfish gains. Our leaders in particular must resist the temptation of wealth and office. They must not allow themselves to be used to undermine popular will. If they do so, they are doomed and nemesis will catch up with them. For now, they should be prosecuted before a failed political contracts tribunal.
Showing posts with label ANPP. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ANPP. Show all posts
Thursday, May 20, 2010
Privatization of ANPP, the Joint Bid of IBB and Obasanjo
Privatization of APP: The Joint Bid of Babangida and Obasanjo
By
Dr. Aliyu Tilde
aliyutilde@yahoo.com
Babangida has recently become a frequent visitor to Aso Rock. Long ago, he has conceded not to contest 2003 against Obasanjo. He is slated for 2007. Maradona is therefore expected to play his best skill to ensure that Obasanjo is re-elected for a second term. If Obasanjo would perchance fail to win the ticket of the PDP at the primaries, or anything happens contrary to his ambition, then Babangida will go ahead to contest in 2003 under a party most likely other than the PDP.
The result of both scenarios is to ensure that Nigeria remains stuck to these two best friends of the 'international community' that the country ever produced. This essay is about the steps taken so far to make this plan real. Read on and pray that may God save Nigeria.
1 To win a battle, generals believe in complete domination of the field, like in football. That was done in 2003 when Babangida and few others muscled all presidential aspirants, including the winner of the APP primaries in Kaduna, to ensure that the nation did not have any better choice than Obasanjo. It worked, then. After he assumed office, Obasanjo on his part ensured that he has consolidated his power by holding the PDP in firm grip while slowly but steadily weakening the opposition through various means.
However, Obasanjo has turned out to be a disgusting failure. Period. He has failed to perform to the satisfaction of the greatest percentage of Nigerians.
The feeling of dissatisfaction started with the Northerners and it quickly spread to the Southeast and the South-south. He concentrated on his people, the Southwest, for which reason they have now vowed to vote for him if the rest of the country would reject him. In addition, Obasanjo's administration is likely to be the worst in terms of performance. It has not fulfilled any of its promises (do you remember the 250,000 digital land lines per state?). To complicate matters, his regime is most likely to be the winner of the most-corrupt-government gold medal in the history of Nigeria.
The feeling of discontent has now reached undeniable levels of catastrophe. Something has to be done, if he is to return in 2003.
2 Given this record of failure, it is clear that the old bottle in which the beer called Obasanjo was sold is no longer attractive. In fact the bottle has broken. No one will attempt to remind us of his first tenure between 1976 and 1979. That will not sell anymore. No one will also convince Nigerians, as done before, that when elected again he will perform creditably and remain fair to all Nigerians. Finally, no one will tell us that for the continuous peaceful coexistence of our dear nation we need to rotate the Presidency to the South, and especially to the southwest who were denied June 12. We have repaid that debt.
Perhaps it is in consideration of this inadequacy that Obasanjo has tried, in addition to his grip over the PDP and weakening of the opposition, to count on the power of money and the role of INEC in the forthcoming elections. He has been working on the old theory that money can buy Nigerians. (Otherwise, let him tell us what he needs N32billion for).
However, that theory too is faced with a problem.
Many people are learning quickly. The North in particular, for strategic reasons, is acquiring the political skills of the Southwest that collective interest overrides the personal. Thus, as 2003 approaches there are strong feelings that Obasanjo will not make it. The resolve is so strong that northerners even in the PDP have resolved not to vote for him, of course except the few who are unlucky to enjoy his largesse. This is what led the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) to resolve that it will ensure that northerners keep their political differences aside and vote for a consensus candidate in place of Obasanjo in 2003. This was a declaration of war against Obasanjo. It must not retreat. Its candidate can be anyone else, but certainly not Obasanjo. This sounded nice to our ears.
3 The Obasanjo camp was quick to realize the loophole in ACF's position. It picked the idea and pinned it on its drawing board, neatly and interestingly so far.
It is known that there cannot be a chance for any northern candidate in the PDP. Forget it, unless if you want to break the party or get Obasanjo to make a 'tactical withdrawal' from his ambition re-election.
The party from which Obasanjo's opponent is logically expected to come from, as of now, is the APP. So the government started to see how they could hijack the APP through the supporters of Babangida in various political associations. Or is it a coincidence? I asked this question because with or without ACF the surest way to the success of Obasanjo, again as it happened in 1999, is to deny the emergence of any credible candidate in the APP especially from the North. That is if any candidate will be permitted at all.
So the move to have an absolute control over APP became imperative. The ACF consensus candidature came in as a convenient device to facilitate the realization of this plan. Let there be a candidate in the ACF from the North, but he must be someone who is too weak to defeat Obasanjo, as we had in 1993 between Tofa and Abiola. Or get the elders of the ACF to work out how the North will support a candidate from the South who will contest against Obasanjo but with little chance of victory, as we had in 1999 between Falae and Obasanjo. The bottom line is that a credible candidate must not be allowed to emerge from the APP, at all cost. Period.
4 Suddenly Buhari joined politics, in the APP. It is something the Obasanjo and the Babangida camps never prayed to happen though they have constantly lived under the fear of its possibility. When they confirmed that he will register in Daura on the April 25, a friend reliably told me that Aso Rock was overcome with fear and consternation. Suddenly, a campaign to write him of started in earnest. Forget the small voices of Iro Dan Musa and Balarabe Musa. Even people in high positions like Vice President Atiku Abubakar descended so low to the level of saying that Buhari is not a democrat by his antecedents (which are not worse than those of Obasanjo, anyway), in spite of his constitutional right to do so. Atiku was instantly rewarded with stones where he made the statement at Kafanchan and later at Kachia. (You can see that the intifadah against Obasanjo-Atiku political tyranny did not start in Kano) With the reality of Buhari in politics it became obvious that the initial plan by the Obasanjo government to control the APP must be pursued seriously and in earnest. This lion must be stopped, they reasoned. Negotiations with Babangida associations like the UNPP (former UNDP) were renewed with vigor. By the time Buhari joined politics a joint committee of the APP and UNPP has already been inaugurated with seven members from both sides. The chairman of the committee came from UNPP.
With this development how can we not discern that APP is not undergoing privatization already? How could there be an equal representation between two partners that are both unequal in status and in number? How can a registered political party with millions of supporters including governors, legislators and local government chairmen accept to stand on equal footing with an association that is there only in name and is yet to be registered and tested on the difficult political terrain of Nigeria? In fact, what merger can take place between the two when UNPP is still insisting on seeking registration with INEC? Why can't its members, including Babangida, join the APP unconditionally? Well, despite lack of adequate answers to these questions, the privatization talks continued, not under el-Rufa'i but people like Augustus Aikhomu, the chairman of the joint committee and former vice-president of Babangida. They gained additional momentum with the entrance of Buhari into politics as we said earlier. I remember that Tuesday night, shortly after he joined politics when a significant breakthrough was reported made in the negotiations at Abuja. The breakthrough was so important that a party was held to celebrate it that very night. I do not know what it was, but I know that the celebration took place. To my utmost disgust, the Sokoto State Governor, Alhaji Attahiru Bafarawa was there rejoicing with members of the committee.
5 The interest of Bafarawa in the merger and his attendance of the celebration that took place that night really confirmed my fears that the merger is mischievous. Otherwise, how could the same governor who announced the declaration of war against Obasanjo by the North belong to such a group - the Babangida group - that is clearly opposed to the candidature of Buhari? The whole thing became intriguing. I later learnt that the same Bafarawa was against the inclusion of APP members who have independent disposition. And why the celebration at the middle of the night? So as fast as the mind could travel, I started questioning whether or not ACF itself meant well by its declaration. I traveled to Kano, Kaduna and Abuja to confirm the truth or otherwise of my suspicion. I was glad to find out that the intention of ACF was indeed noble but somehow it was hijacked by the Babangida and Obasanjo camps and fitted into the political calculation of Obasanjo tazarce just mentioned above. Bafarawa, I later discovered, is a 'boy' to a close associate of Babangida in the presidency hailing from the former Sokoto State. We should not also forget that he is a governor that has ambition to continue beyond 2003.
I will not hide my gross disappointment with Bafarawa and his ongoing role in the privatization of the APP.
I am sure that the citizens of Sokoto and other northerners are equally disappointed. I have planned to pay him a courtesy call on my visit to Sokoto scheduled to take place soon. With this development I have dropped him from my itinerary. I will rather visit the Sultan and the Hubbare to rejoice in the history that the city was once the seat of social justice during the Shehu and from it the Sardauna hailed. It is shame that its leadership will today be associated with scuttling the interest of social justice. All the same, Sokoto must keep its cool.
There must not be any intifadah.
Or could it be that Bafarawa, a virulent critic of Obasanjo, does not know that the aim of Babangida is to acquire the shares in APP for Obasanjo? I hope he realizes that very soon and retrace his steps.
Otherwise, he will be putting his seat in Sokoto under a strong jeopardy.
6 If the registration of Buhari has revived the interest of Babangida and Obasanjo to purchase the APP, the Kano incident has propelled the transaction to move at rocket speed. On that day both Babangida and Atiku have watched, live before their eyes, the support which, without embarking on a single campaign so far, Buhari has among the people, elite and masses alike.
The impression is now given that the commotion was caused by thugs. This is the tallest lie I have ever heard of. Actually there were two separate types of protests that took place that day, both spontaneously triggered by the arrival of Buhari. The first was carried out right inside the hall where only the elite were present. They booed Atiku to silence. He folded his speech halfway through it, stopped awhile, looking very furious, and went back to his seat. Babangida attempted to come forward. He was shouted at with unprintable words. He complied and quickly retraced his steps back to his seat. I never saw nor heard a general so cowardly retreat. What a pity. What a downfall.
The thugs, if there was any, carried their intifadah outside the hall when Atiku and Governor Kwankwaso were hurriedly leaving the venue. Surprisingly, these were the same thugs who were hired, as Wada Nas narrated, by the Kano State Government to receive the Vice President.
This event has disturbed both Babangida and Atiku.
That evening a colleague who knows Babangida fairly well vowed that Babangida would not sleep the night.
He was right. A week later, I witnessed a supporter of Babangida confirming that his master was highly disturbed with the high level of support he saw given to Buhari in Kano which was beyond his imagination. He revealed that Babangida was planning to join the race.
But the supporter, who was talking to another PDP stalwart in my state, said it is too late for him.
7 A day later, that was last Friday, Buhari visited the national APP secretariat in Abuja to formally introduce himself to the party at the national level.
The chairman of the party was glad. It was out of his happiness that he informed the Buhari delegation about the ongoing merger talks with UNPP and some other associations like Nigerian Mandate Group of John Nwodo and Reality Organization from Abia State. Curiously, all these associations are undeniably contraptions of Babangida. I respected the chairman for the courage to introduce this matter at the reception visit. I like people with courage.
In reaction, a member of the Buhari delegation, who happened to be a former APP chairman of one of the Northwestern states, revealed that supporters of the party, including himself, do not know anything about the merger. He implored the chairman of the party to explain the rationale and the modalities of the talks and what will be of the party at the end. Even members of the National Executive Council of the party are not in a better position to know what is going on. Trust our lovely sister, Hajiya Naja'atu Muhammed, who is also a member of the National Executive Council of the APP. She joined in interrogating the chairman of the party at the meeting. Luckily for the chairman, she was sick, so she spoke quietly, asking: "How can we return to the grassroots and explain to our supporters that the APP which some of them are already dying for has dissolved into something else, with a different logo and a different name?" May God improve her condition of health.
The chairman's response was far from satisfactory, to be honest, perhaps because he did not want to announce the details prematurely. He only assured members that he has never been a sell out in his life and so he will not be a party to any attempt to sell out the party which he has suffered in the last four years to keep together. Ironically, he conceded that he would allow only a small disruption in the logo and in the name. (I later on learnt that the changes will also include the constitution) He said doing so was necessary to attract the large crowd knocking at the door of the party, including some 80 members of the National Assembly who want to decamp from the PDP! The changes in the party identities will help them 'save their face.' He also assured members of the party at the meeting that whatever agreement has been reached at by the joint merger committee it has to be reported to the National Working Committee which will meet on the 22nd of this month for its consideration.
8 The fear now is that the National Executive Council will go ahead to approve the merger and implement it without reference to the national convention of the party. In fact, even at the convention it has all the power it needs to ensure that delegates and representatives, one way or another, support the merger. Through this means the hopes of the masses that Buhari will win the presidential ticket of the party would be dashed, to the dictate and delight of Babangida and the Presidency.
A week ago I saw a new poster of APP with a Babangida background. It confirmed my suspicion. There were also Babangida posters in Kaduna and Abuja that appeared that week. There is now a strong rumor that Babangida will join the party next month, not to actually contest against Obasanjo in 2003 but to divide the votes that Buhari will get such that a weak southerner will emerge as the presidential candidate of the party in the next elections. On a deeper thought I have dismissed this on the ground that Babangida is a tactician, not a fighter. He cannot risk putting his reputation at stake by competing openly against Buhari, especially after witnessing his support in Kano two weeks ago. If he loses in the contest, which is quite possible, he has broken the myth he created of the most indomitable power broker in the country.
He will rather prefer to remain behind the scenes. I wish he will be brave enough to contest.
So I became more inclined to believe another story that reached me some hours before I wrote this article. Here it is. Our readers will remember that Babangida was scheduled to meet with Buhari two weeks ago for reconciliation talks. He accepted the invitation after Buhari spoke to him personally on phone about the matter. However, he failed to turn up; I thought it was because he was tired from the two preceding nights he spent in Aso Rock. Rather, he gave the excuse that he will prefer the reconciliation to be made not directly between the two of them but through the committee of the ACF that includes Alhaji Maitama Sule and other elders.
However, as my source revealed, the ultimate objective of that committee, after succeeding in the reconciliation, is to persuade Buhari to withdraw from the presidential race in favor of a southern candidate either from the South-south or from the Southeast.
Buhari has been intimated about the move and strongly advised never to listen to that appeal. If he does, the masses will pelt him as they pelted Atiku in Kano.
Reconciliation, yes; withdrawal, NO.
9 So, dear reader, after going this far in our discourse, we have returned to where we started.
Whatever the maneuvers and the intrigues, the goal is that Babangida is working for Obasanjo while he waits for his turn, hopefully, in 2007. To achieve this it is important to ensure that no credible candidate contests the presidency against Obasanjo especially from the North. This can be attained in a number of ways: Suppress all contenders from the PDP; get control of the leadership of the APP; do not register new parties; and now, ensure either by persuasion or by connivance that Buhari has withdrawn or is defeated at the APP primaries.
10 In conclusion I will appeal to APP and ACF leadership to be on the guard. They must not give way to the lures of wealth - for that is all Babangida and the present government possess, neither should they allow their simplicity to be exploited. The Buhari camp must also be on the look out. There is no harm in their effort to mend fences with every one who feels disgruntled, justifiably or not. But that must not be at the expense of Buhari's integrity. He must not withdraw from the race. I strongly believe that he can succeed, with the help of God and the determination of the majority of Nigerians, with or without the support of Babangida.
As for Obasanjo, Babangida, and their supporters, a word is enough: Power belongs to God. If he has willed, in His Mercy, to free this country from the shackles of corruption, deceit and incompetence in governance - things that both the regimes of Obasanjo and Babangida share in common, nothing can stop His Decree - not wealth, not deceit and not a campaign of calumny. Simple. Zakaran da Allah ya nufa da chara, ana muzuru ana shaho, sai ya yi.
By
Dr. Aliyu Tilde
aliyutilde@yahoo.com
Babangida has recently become a frequent visitor to Aso Rock. Long ago, he has conceded not to contest 2003 against Obasanjo. He is slated for 2007. Maradona is therefore expected to play his best skill to ensure that Obasanjo is re-elected for a second term. If Obasanjo would perchance fail to win the ticket of the PDP at the primaries, or anything happens contrary to his ambition, then Babangida will go ahead to contest in 2003 under a party most likely other than the PDP.
The result of both scenarios is to ensure that Nigeria remains stuck to these two best friends of the 'international community' that the country ever produced. This essay is about the steps taken so far to make this plan real. Read on and pray that may God save Nigeria.
1 To win a battle, generals believe in complete domination of the field, like in football. That was done in 2003 when Babangida and few others muscled all presidential aspirants, including the winner of the APP primaries in Kaduna, to ensure that the nation did not have any better choice than Obasanjo. It worked, then. After he assumed office, Obasanjo on his part ensured that he has consolidated his power by holding the PDP in firm grip while slowly but steadily weakening the opposition through various means.
However, Obasanjo has turned out to be a disgusting failure. Period. He has failed to perform to the satisfaction of the greatest percentage of Nigerians.
The feeling of dissatisfaction started with the Northerners and it quickly spread to the Southeast and the South-south. He concentrated on his people, the Southwest, for which reason they have now vowed to vote for him if the rest of the country would reject him. In addition, Obasanjo's administration is likely to be the worst in terms of performance. It has not fulfilled any of its promises (do you remember the 250,000 digital land lines per state?). To complicate matters, his regime is most likely to be the winner of the most-corrupt-government gold medal in the history of Nigeria.
The feeling of discontent has now reached undeniable levels of catastrophe. Something has to be done, if he is to return in 2003.
2 Given this record of failure, it is clear that the old bottle in which the beer called Obasanjo was sold is no longer attractive. In fact the bottle has broken. No one will attempt to remind us of his first tenure between 1976 and 1979. That will not sell anymore. No one will also convince Nigerians, as done before, that when elected again he will perform creditably and remain fair to all Nigerians. Finally, no one will tell us that for the continuous peaceful coexistence of our dear nation we need to rotate the Presidency to the South, and especially to the southwest who were denied June 12. We have repaid that debt.
Perhaps it is in consideration of this inadequacy that Obasanjo has tried, in addition to his grip over the PDP and weakening of the opposition, to count on the power of money and the role of INEC in the forthcoming elections. He has been working on the old theory that money can buy Nigerians. (Otherwise, let him tell us what he needs N32billion for).
However, that theory too is faced with a problem.
Many people are learning quickly. The North in particular, for strategic reasons, is acquiring the political skills of the Southwest that collective interest overrides the personal. Thus, as 2003 approaches there are strong feelings that Obasanjo will not make it. The resolve is so strong that northerners even in the PDP have resolved not to vote for him, of course except the few who are unlucky to enjoy his largesse. This is what led the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) to resolve that it will ensure that northerners keep their political differences aside and vote for a consensus candidate in place of Obasanjo in 2003. This was a declaration of war against Obasanjo. It must not retreat. Its candidate can be anyone else, but certainly not Obasanjo. This sounded nice to our ears.
3 The Obasanjo camp was quick to realize the loophole in ACF's position. It picked the idea and pinned it on its drawing board, neatly and interestingly so far.
It is known that there cannot be a chance for any northern candidate in the PDP. Forget it, unless if you want to break the party or get Obasanjo to make a 'tactical withdrawal' from his ambition re-election.
The party from which Obasanjo's opponent is logically expected to come from, as of now, is the APP. So the government started to see how they could hijack the APP through the supporters of Babangida in various political associations. Or is it a coincidence? I asked this question because with or without ACF the surest way to the success of Obasanjo, again as it happened in 1999, is to deny the emergence of any credible candidate in the APP especially from the North. That is if any candidate will be permitted at all.
So the move to have an absolute control over APP became imperative. The ACF consensus candidature came in as a convenient device to facilitate the realization of this plan. Let there be a candidate in the ACF from the North, but he must be someone who is too weak to defeat Obasanjo, as we had in 1993 between Tofa and Abiola. Or get the elders of the ACF to work out how the North will support a candidate from the South who will contest against Obasanjo but with little chance of victory, as we had in 1999 between Falae and Obasanjo. The bottom line is that a credible candidate must not be allowed to emerge from the APP, at all cost. Period.
4 Suddenly Buhari joined politics, in the APP. It is something the Obasanjo and the Babangida camps never prayed to happen though they have constantly lived under the fear of its possibility. When they confirmed that he will register in Daura on the April 25, a friend reliably told me that Aso Rock was overcome with fear and consternation. Suddenly, a campaign to write him of started in earnest. Forget the small voices of Iro Dan Musa and Balarabe Musa. Even people in high positions like Vice President Atiku Abubakar descended so low to the level of saying that Buhari is not a democrat by his antecedents (which are not worse than those of Obasanjo, anyway), in spite of his constitutional right to do so. Atiku was instantly rewarded with stones where he made the statement at Kafanchan and later at Kachia. (You can see that the intifadah against Obasanjo-Atiku political tyranny did not start in Kano) With the reality of Buhari in politics it became obvious that the initial plan by the Obasanjo government to control the APP must be pursued seriously and in earnest. This lion must be stopped, they reasoned. Negotiations with Babangida associations like the UNPP (former UNDP) were renewed with vigor. By the time Buhari joined politics a joint committee of the APP and UNPP has already been inaugurated with seven members from both sides. The chairman of the committee came from UNPP.
With this development how can we not discern that APP is not undergoing privatization already? How could there be an equal representation between two partners that are both unequal in status and in number? How can a registered political party with millions of supporters including governors, legislators and local government chairmen accept to stand on equal footing with an association that is there only in name and is yet to be registered and tested on the difficult political terrain of Nigeria? In fact, what merger can take place between the two when UNPP is still insisting on seeking registration with INEC? Why can't its members, including Babangida, join the APP unconditionally? Well, despite lack of adequate answers to these questions, the privatization talks continued, not under el-Rufa'i but people like Augustus Aikhomu, the chairman of the joint committee and former vice-president of Babangida. They gained additional momentum with the entrance of Buhari into politics as we said earlier. I remember that Tuesday night, shortly after he joined politics when a significant breakthrough was reported made in the negotiations at Abuja. The breakthrough was so important that a party was held to celebrate it that very night. I do not know what it was, but I know that the celebration took place. To my utmost disgust, the Sokoto State Governor, Alhaji Attahiru Bafarawa was there rejoicing with members of the committee.
5 The interest of Bafarawa in the merger and his attendance of the celebration that took place that night really confirmed my fears that the merger is mischievous. Otherwise, how could the same governor who announced the declaration of war against Obasanjo by the North belong to such a group - the Babangida group - that is clearly opposed to the candidature of Buhari? The whole thing became intriguing. I later learnt that the same Bafarawa was against the inclusion of APP members who have independent disposition. And why the celebration at the middle of the night? So as fast as the mind could travel, I started questioning whether or not ACF itself meant well by its declaration. I traveled to Kano, Kaduna and Abuja to confirm the truth or otherwise of my suspicion. I was glad to find out that the intention of ACF was indeed noble but somehow it was hijacked by the Babangida and Obasanjo camps and fitted into the political calculation of Obasanjo tazarce just mentioned above. Bafarawa, I later discovered, is a 'boy' to a close associate of Babangida in the presidency hailing from the former Sokoto State. We should not also forget that he is a governor that has ambition to continue beyond 2003.
I will not hide my gross disappointment with Bafarawa and his ongoing role in the privatization of the APP.
I am sure that the citizens of Sokoto and other northerners are equally disappointed. I have planned to pay him a courtesy call on my visit to Sokoto scheduled to take place soon. With this development I have dropped him from my itinerary. I will rather visit the Sultan and the Hubbare to rejoice in the history that the city was once the seat of social justice during the Shehu and from it the Sardauna hailed. It is shame that its leadership will today be associated with scuttling the interest of social justice. All the same, Sokoto must keep its cool.
There must not be any intifadah.
Or could it be that Bafarawa, a virulent critic of Obasanjo, does not know that the aim of Babangida is to acquire the shares in APP for Obasanjo? I hope he realizes that very soon and retrace his steps.
Otherwise, he will be putting his seat in Sokoto under a strong jeopardy.
6 If the registration of Buhari has revived the interest of Babangida and Obasanjo to purchase the APP, the Kano incident has propelled the transaction to move at rocket speed. On that day both Babangida and Atiku have watched, live before their eyes, the support which, without embarking on a single campaign so far, Buhari has among the people, elite and masses alike.
The impression is now given that the commotion was caused by thugs. This is the tallest lie I have ever heard of. Actually there were two separate types of protests that took place that day, both spontaneously triggered by the arrival of Buhari. The first was carried out right inside the hall where only the elite were present. They booed Atiku to silence. He folded his speech halfway through it, stopped awhile, looking very furious, and went back to his seat. Babangida attempted to come forward. He was shouted at with unprintable words. He complied and quickly retraced his steps back to his seat. I never saw nor heard a general so cowardly retreat. What a pity. What a downfall.
The thugs, if there was any, carried their intifadah outside the hall when Atiku and Governor Kwankwaso were hurriedly leaving the venue. Surprisingly, these were the same thugs who were hired, as Wada Nas narrated, by the Kano State Government to receive the Vice President.
This event has disturbed both Babangida and Atiku.
That evening a colleague who knows Babangida fairly well vowed that Babangida would not sleep the night.
He was right. A week later, I witnessed a supporter of Babangida confirming that his master was highly disturbed with the high level of support he saw given to Buhari in Kano which was beyond his imagination. He revealed that Babangida was planning to join the race.
But the supporter, who was talking to another PDP stalwart in my state, said it is too late for him.
7 A day later, that was last Friday, Buhari visited the national APP secretariat in Abuja to formally introduce himself to the party at the national level.
The chairman of the party was glad. It was out of his happiness that he informed the Buhari delegation about the ongoing merger talks with UNPP and some other associations like Nigerian Mandate Group of John Nwodo and Reality Organization from Abia State. Curiously, all these associations are undeniably contraptions of Babangida. I respected the chairman for the courage to introduce this matter at the reception visit. I like people with courage.
In reaction, a member of the Buhari delegation, who happened to be a former APP chairman of one of the Northwestern states, revealed that supporters of the party, including himself, do not know anything about the merger. He implored the chairman of the party to explain the rationale and the modalities of the talks and what will be of the party at the end. Even members of the National Executive Council of the party are not in a better position to know what is going on. Trust our lovely sister, Hajiya Naja'atu Muhammed, who is also a member of the National Executive Council of the APP. She joined in interrogating the chairman of the party at the meeting. Luckily for the chairman, she was sick, so she spoke quietly, asking: "How can we return to the grassroots and explain to our supporters that the APP which some of them are already dying for has dissolved into something else, with a different logo and a different name?" May God improve her condition of health.
The chairman's response was far from satisfactory, to be honest, perhaps because he did not want to announce the details prematurely. He only assured members that he has never been a sell out in his life and so he will not be a party to any attempt to sell out the party which he has suffered in the last four years to keep together. Ironically, he conceded that he would allow only a small disruption in the logo and in the name. (I later on learnt that the changes will also include the constitution) He said doing so was necessary to attract the large crowd knocking at the door of the party, including some 80 members of the National Assembly who want to decamp from the PDP! The changes in the party identities will help them 'save their face.' He also assured members of the party at the meeting that whatever agreement has been reached at by the joint merger committee it has to be reported to the National Working Committee which will meet on the 22nd of this month for its consideration.
8 The fear now is that the National Executive Council will go ahead to approve the merger and implement it without reference to the national convention of the party. In fact, even at the convention it has all the power it needs to ensure that delegates and representatives, one way or another, support the merger. Through this means the hopes of the masses that Buhari will win the presidential ticket of the party would be dashed, to the dictate and delight of Babangida and the Presidency.
A week ago I saw a new poster of APP with a Babangida background. It confirmed my suspicion. There were also Babangida posters in Kaduna and Abuja that appeared that week. There is now a strong rumor that Babangida will join the party next month, not to actually contest against Obasanjo in 2003 but to divide the votes that Buhari will get such that a weak southerner will emerge as the presidential candidate of the party in the next elections. On a deeper thought I have dismissed this on the ground that Babangida is a tactician, not a fighter. He cannot risk putting his reputation at stake by competing openly against Buhari, especially after witnessing his support in Kano two weeks ago. If he loses in the contest, which is quite possible, he has broken the myth he created of the most indomitable power broker in the country.
He will rather prefer to remain behind the scenes. I wish he will be brave enough to contest.
So I became more inclined to believe another story that reached me some hours before I wrote this article. Here it is. Our readers will remember that Babangida was scheduled to meet with Buhari two weeks ago for reconciliation talks. He accepted the invitation after Buhari spoke to him personally on phone about the matter. However, he failed to turn up; I thought it was because he was tired from the two preceding nights he spent in Aso Rock. Rather, he gave the excuse that he will prefer the reconciliation to be made not directly between the two of them but through the committee of the ACF that includes Alhaji Maitama Sule and other elders.
However, as my source revealed, the ultimate objective of that committee, after succeeding in the reconciliation, is to persuade Buhari to withdraw from the presidential race in favor of a southern candidate either from the South-south or from the Southeast.
Buhari has been intimated about the move and strongly advised never to listen to that appeal. If he does, the masses will pelt him as they pelted Atiku in Kano.
Reconciliation, yes; withdrawal, NO.
9 So, dear reader, after going this far in our discourse, we have returned to where we started.
Whatever the maneuvers and the intrigues, the goal is that Babangida is working for Obasanjo while he waits for his turn, hopefully, in 2007. To achieve this it is important to ensure that no credible candidate contests the presidency against Obasanjo especially from the North. This can be attained in a number of ways: Suppress all contenders from the PDP; get control of the leadership of the APP; do not register new parties; and now, ensure either by persuasion or by connivance that Buhari has withdrawn or is defeated at the APP primaries.
10 In conclusion I will appeal to APP and ACF leadership to be on the guard. They must not give way to the lures of wealth - for that is all Babangida and the present government possess, neither should they allow their simplicity to be exploited. The Buhari camp must also be on the look out. There is no harm in their effort to mend fences with every one who feels disgruntled, justifiably or not. But that must not be at the expense of Buhari's integrity. He must not withdraw from the race. I strongly believe that he can succeed, with the help of God and the determination of the majority of Nigerians, with or without the support of Babangida.
As for Obasanjo, Babangida, and their supporters, a word is enough: Power belongs to God. If he has willed, in His Mercy, to free this country from the shackles of corruption, deceit and incompetence in governance - things that both the regimes of Obasanjo and Babangida share in common, nothing can stop His Decree - not wealth, not deceit and not a campaign of calumny. Simple. Zakaran da Allah ya nufa da chara, ana muzuru ana shaho, sai ya yi.
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