Discourse 344
By Dr. Aliyu U. Tilde
Buhari vs. PDP: The Dog and Baboon 2015 Parable
A fight between the dog and the baboon must be one of those very rare encounters in the Animal Kingdom. Animals fight over territory, food, mates, and in defence of their lives, or of the young. It is very hard to foresee the two animals fighting over any of the above because on most of items, the paths of the two animals hardly cross.
In Africa and particularly in Hausaland where this near impossible idea was contrived as a proverb, such a fight can only happen under the influence of man when in hunting he sets the dog to catch the baboon or its baby. In that case, that fight would surely be one to witness.
The dog uses its power of speed and strong canine teeth, the baboon his powerful shoulders, limbs, claws, hands, and under extreme conditions, his teeth. And this condition is extreme – a fight for his life or that of his baby. So we better assume that the baboon will deploy his entire arsenal.
The camera of kare jini biri jini Hausa proverb often pictures a very fierce and inconclusive fight between two contenders. We can picture the dog first barking incessantly, with its jaws wide open hoping to scare the baboon into submission. The well-built baboon, on the other hand, is not a coward. He would not jump up the trees to escape the attacking dog; he would not fly. He turns wild too, flexing his muscles, beating his wide chest and destroying the surrounding shrubs to intimidate the dog. He jumps at a branch, breaks it and hurls it at the dog, but the carnivore remains recalcitrantunder the command of his master, barking, barking … and now ready to charge.
And the fight ensues and continues for several minutes and, perhaps, hours…
As the proverb depicts, the fierce fight ends inconclusively with both parties sustaining deeps cuts and innumerable browses. Each contender was lucky to survive it and returns to its shelter licking its wounds. The dog gives up hunting for that day, returns home and is granted a sick leave by its master. The baboon keeps his life and his baby and remains in his territory or migrates to a safer one. The only conclusion reached was that the dog learned to avoid the baboon henceforth, while the baboon learned to include the dog among its dangerous enemies in the Kingdom.
In the above, I have tried to capture the proper context and scenario of the proverb. It simply connotes a situation where the fight for something is fierce, where you give your challenger a good run for his money, but where despite the ferocity of the contest, its outcome was not conclusive. In short, when you tell your contender that za a yi kare jini biri jinni, it simply means the battle will be fierce. In the case of Buhari, he was promising his supporters from Niger State that 2015 elections will be fierce; or put in another way, the PDP wIll not have it easy. Simple.
How this simple statement translated into a political missile that says Buhari is promising a bloodbath come 2015 remains one of those sad stories in our practice of journalism.
Let us have a re-read of the mistranslation:
"If what happened in 2011 (alleged rigging) should again happen in 2015, by the grace of God, the dog and the baboon would all be soaked in blood.”
Does this reflect the proper context and meaning of the Hausa proverb kare jini biri jinni that we explained above? No. That is because, among other things, if by the time both the dog and the baboon are soaked in blood, both would have been dead, a picture which the proverb never envisaged. It would have been better for the reporter to say, “Come 2015, I promise you, the fight will be fierce.”
Here, I must say that the words of Buhari were misinterpreted, perhaps deliberately, to entertain the Nigerian public with a sensational story that will keep the presently near-static mill of public opinion running once more, or to invent a weapon to knock him down again in the ring of 2015 presidential contest.
But, to be fair to the reporter also, it was a mistranslation that I think was informed by the history of the General’s consistent call for mass action since 2003, of CPC’s unguarded campaign utterances in 2011 and how they were widely believed to have inspired the post election violence that year, and of the strategy of the General’s supporters of the ANPP especially in Bauchi state in 2007, a la his doctrine of protect your votes, a kasa, a tsare, a raka.
These were the elements in the background that also informed the supporting and opposing comments which trailed the publication of that mistranslated proverb. Nigerians became divided overnight into three camps.
The first group – Buhari’s opponents – jumped at it saying, “Aha. There we go again. This notorious and bloodthirsty coup plotter is still dreaming of a bloodbath.” If Buhari, by his statement, was serving such opponents with a notice of an impending doom, they did not heed to it. They did not show any sign of repentance from the sin he is accusing them of. Instead, they continue to direct their accusing fingers at him.
On the other hand, his supporters, the second group, to me, showed the most disheartening response. They did not take the pain to verify and analyse his statement. Not a single one of them came over to say that he was misrepresented. Have they done so, it would have cooled the atmosphere and reassured us. They adopted the mistranslation, in situ, as if it were right, and presented an alibi, saying, “Only election riggers are be afraid of Buhari’s statement. Would there be a bloodbath in 2015 as a result of rigging, it is the PDP that should be held responsible.”
The third group, we the onlookers, are terrified that we will be disastrously caught in the crossfire, once more, as it happened to hundreds of Nigerians during the 2011 elections, when, especially in Southern Kaduna and Bauchi state, the lives of the innocent were lost and thousands of people displaced to date across Northern Nigeria.
Here was a corper medic, for example, riding an ambulance in Toro, stopped and hacked to death by the very people he came all the way from the East to serve after his long and tedious training as a doctor, at a place where he had nobody to protect him except the mores of civilization. His sin was simply that he did not belong to the ethnic group or religion of Buhari, the opposition presidential candidate. The mob on that fateful day was found wanting in those mores, defective in conscience. That is how many like him paid the ultimate price across the state.
And there was a primary school girl in southern Kaduna, witnessing her primary school teacher hacking her father to death in Zonkwa, Southern Kaduna, for no crime but that the father belonged to the religion other than that of the incumbent President, Goodluck Jonathan. She never thought that the savage gene of the teacher would overcome the etiquette of civility that her familiarity with him would engender. On that fateful day, humanity was lost, the feeling of civilization was gone, and no guarantees were kept. Months after that massacre, the girl would tell her story to the ears of a deaf and dumb nation that allows the assassin teacher to walk the streets freely, earning his salary. That is how hundreds of the like of her father died and thousands of her type continue to suffer as the politicians behind the crimes remain unscathed.
To date, nobody is man enough to directly or remotely claim even a vicarious responsibility for those atrocities. The PDP that is accused of rigging the election refused to admit that it rigged it in the first place. Instead, it shifted the blame to Buhari, citing what it called his “inciting statements” at his campaign rallies. Buhari and his supporters, on the other hand, returned the blame to PDP, with three reasons: he was a victim not a partaker in the violence; the dastardly acts were carried out not by his supporters but by hoodlums who did not spare him either; and that it was in fact the ruling party that instigated the violence in the first place by rigging the elections. So did the trading in blame continued until our father, Justice Ahmed Lemu, inconclusively closed the chapter.
His panel came up with an ingeniously ambivalent verdict, saying both Buhari and the PDP are right. It said it is true that Buhari inspired the violence but it is also true that PDP's rigging machine provoked it. In effect, the report claimed, there is an egalitarian share of the blame. Case closed. Court!!!
With that we return to our churches and mosques to pray that may God have mercy on those departed souls! And may he protect us, the living, the onlookers, the ordinary citizens, from the evils of power – of its keepers and seekers alike.
I was caught by the same fever when I read the mistranslation in English. I wondered how Buhari could make such a statement after his widely condemned “lynch them” directive of 2011. But when I heard his actual words in Hausa two days ago, I quickly understood that he said nothing unusual, for it is proper for politicians to inject hope in their supporters. Telling a delegation of such supporters that his party will put up a fierce fight next time is just one of those confidence preserving measures.
With this, I hope our journalists will in future show a better sense of responsibility in their reportage. They should use their brains not their minds. We are tired of hearing Buhari mistranslated by a section of the media. More importantly, however, our politicians on both sides of the divide, should refrain from any contemplation of violence or cheating, or asking their followers to take the law into their own hands, whatever the situation would be. If they think that winning an election is a religious duty, then they must not forget that none of our two dominant religions call to violence as a means of winning power or as a reaction to defeat. In Islamic tradition, the injustice of forty years is preferred to the fitna (unrest) of a day.
The government and INEC must do their best to ensure free and fair elections in 2015. The electoral body has two years ahead to fully prepare for it and get rid of imperfections. Let there be a clean fight that ends in a clean winner and a clean loser. If the government is not ready for this, my dear friend, Professor Attahiru Jega, should throw in the towel. The defeated in this case - whether baboon or dog - must accept defeat and allow us live in peace.
If our advice is not accepted, we shall then pray that may our compassionate God deliver us from the evil of that day, when the dog and the baboon fiercely slug it out in the court of Nigerian election. We pray that He restricts their evil to them. And on that day, neither the dog nor the baboon should not return home clean. We are tired.
Oh Lord, answer our prayer.
Let all peace-loving Nigerians say Amen.
Bauchi,
20 May, 2011
Showing posts with label Buhari. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Buhari. Show all posts
Sunday, May 20, 2012
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
Discourse 317: Why Buhari Should Concede to Ribadu
Discourse 317
By Dr. Aliyu U. Tilde
Why Buhari Should Concede to Ribadu
I present my esteemed readers this essay whose exceptional length I am guilty bound to acknowledge at its debut, but whose importance I will leave the impartial mind to acknowledge. I implore my readers to endure the length and carefully consider the logic of its arguments with an open mind.
The presidential primaries are over and the candidates are now known. On the one hand is the PDP and its candidate, President Goodluck Jonathan. On the other are three main opposition parties' candidate of ANPP, CPC, ACN, SDMP, NCP and NTP, Ibrahim Shekarau, Muhammadu Buhari and Nuhu Ribadu, Pat Utomi, Dele Momudu and John Dava respectively.
It can hardly be denied that the PDP and its candidate represent the unfortunate status quo. There is no need to argue on this. Whoever wants to squander his hope can argue otherwise. He can join the PDP train and I wish him a safe journey.
The opposition candidates are expected to offer change. But they are many, at least. They do not stand the least chance of defeating the notorious PDP behemoth unless they join hands and support one person. This is what informed the failed attempt of the opposition to merge into one party. The option of alliance, however, remains open and it seems that its main focus is between the ACN, which has the support and understanding of other parties like APGA and Labour Party on the one hand, and CPC on the other. One of their candidates, Buhari or Ribadu, is expected to step-down for the other.
The choice of who should step down for the other has remained a contentious matter. The general perception of the result is seen in exclusive terms: He that steps down has lost to the other who is seen as more superior, more popular, more favorably disposed to the electorate, more honest, and so on. He is the winner; the other loser. In this writing, I would like to deviate from this pedestrian thinking and suggest something that is different, where there will be no loser but winners on terms of both the candidates and the future prosperity of this country. I will try in the following paragraphs to put forward the premises of the argument that is inevitably lengthy.
First, perception is important. I will start with how I view the two candidates, Buhari and Ribadu. I see them as having similar orientation and record. They are like two brothers; one senior, the other junior. What puts both on the same pedestal before me is their records. Both are among the four people who have fought corruption in this country, the other two being the late Murtala and Idiagbon. I do not think any objective person will disagree with this. The record of my mentor Buhari on corruption is known and does not require any elaboration here. That of Ribadu, however, needs some clarification and emphasis. And to this I will now turn my attention for some moments.
Ribadu has fought corruption as EFCC Chairman, in addition to his less known similar roles as a police prosecutor. The gap which his absence created is acknowledged even beyond the shores of Nigeria. To appreciate his success, we need to factor in the circumstance in which he operates, especially if we relate him with Buhari. While Buhari fought against corruption as a military head of state with full powers of state during a period that had no existing constitution, Ribadu served under a constitutional government that accorded citizens freedoms of various kinds. Many criminals exploited those provisions through the courts whose judges were ready to grant orders that would frustrate their prosecution. We were witness to issuance of such orders and now the anti-corruption prince, as I called him in those days, had to navigate his way to success in spite of them.
More importantly, however, is the civilian dictator under whom he served and to whom he must refer cases for approval by law before he prosecute them. Despite this handicap, Ribadu prosecuted hundreds of cases starting with the then rampant '419' that earned a very bad reputation for Nigeria until he reached the high and mighty like governors and his very boss, former Inspector General of Police, Tafa Balogun. We have seen thousands of police officers, army generals and jurists. Yet, few have surpassed Ribadu in his feat against corruption. If we are sincere, we will not find it difficult to place him in the league of those who fought corruption in this country.
One can just imagine what the fate of most of our governors would have been had Ribadu served as a head of state in a regime that is not encumbered with constitutional impediments like immunity and citizen's right. With an eye into the future one can as well imagine what he can achieve as a President in whose hand is entrusted not only the power of prosecution but also the command of the state apparatus of coercion. No objective mind can down play the manifestation of his courage and the determination of his pursuit in confronting the difficulties he went through, the risks he took and the dangers he faced.
Of course Ribadu did not prosecute every corrupt person for the simple fact that only God would have done so. Some say, why did not he prosecute Obasanjo in particular? How could he do so when he needed the approval of Obasanjo to prosecute any case? He was smart enough to realize the limitations of his office and the almost infinite power of the dictatorial President. He left that task to those that would come after him or perhaps, when time would be more auspicious. Unfortunately, that time was not offered him by Obasanjo's successor. Had he tried to be foolish during Obasanjo, he would have earned our applause, but the dictator would have crushed him and his EFCC, making the nation lose everything. We still have not stopped lamenting the fall of Buhari in 1984, a fact attested by our now decade long fight for his return.
Like Buhari, This record is all Ribadu has. Fortunately it has been acknowledged by many people in this country. It explains his popularity among civil society groups, the local intelligentsia and the international community."
The second property which he shares with Buhari is that he restrained himself from becoming a do-as-I-say preacher. There are of course the normal baseless accusations, which we expect to be propagated by those he fought against. The most popular one is that he has property in Dubai, just as I still come across writers who say that Buhari being accused of stolen $2.7 billion when he was the federal commissioner for petroleum in 1977! I laugh because I can claim that I know how dry the pocket of my mentor is. Buhari went to the primaries of 2003 with only N40,000 in his pocket.
The same thing with Ribadu. Can we compare him with any of Obasanjo's ministers though he has occupied a position that would have accorded him billions. One would need to meet him, see him and speak to him in order to appreciate this. But as the late Dr. Yusuf Bala Usman would say, anyone who sets out to fight corruption must be ready to face corruption because it will fight back. If Ribadu had anything like that, the Yaradua administration would have exposed him because it had the means to prove it and the power to prosecute him. It is in the absence of such evidence that it went for his persecution, including the despicable act of removing him and his family from the convocation hall of National Institite for Policy and Strategic Studies.
I will stop here and insert an email which reached me as I was editing this article and which I consider appropriate. It was written and sent to a friend by one Mr. Favour Afolabi, a lawyer from Lagos:
"While reviewing Ribadu, please remember that no one has ever accused the gentleman of collecting bribe! That is amazing in a country like Nigeria. While I was on a case at EFCC, one of his staff who was in the room the day he called his team to see the $15m cash that Ibori brought to him. The staff told me how till he dies it would be difficult to find someone else that he respects more than Ribadu. He described how the whole room were looking at Ribadu like he was a mad man. How could he be returning such monies meant for him as a person to the government coffers?
"It's IMPOSSIBLE for anyone to sell me that story of selective justice. What about no justice at all? EFCC despite all its flaws remains one of the things that generations to come would come to "fear" whenever they intend to behave funny; it has come to stay as an institution that has global acclaim; one that many third world countries dealing with corruption have not been able to rival; one that was built by Ribadu."
All I have attempted so far is to argue that Nuhu Ribadu too has a record of gallantly fighting corruption like Buhari though the circumstance and capacity under which each of them served are different. I have no doubt that Buhari himself, as a fair person, even in the competitive setting of this moment, would anytime anywhere attest to the anti-corruption record of Ribadu, something which, pitifully, many who support him cannot.
The next thing is to dismiss the accusation that I am equating Ribadu with Buhari, an accusation which some have labelled against me when I wrote my piece titled 2011: Jonathan, Buhari and Ribadu. Equality often does not lead to justice. In this case it is irrelevant. Though Ribadu is known, his goodwill does not match that of Buhari. He will be ready to confess this anywhere, I believe. But that does not mean that his record is any lesser. There are three reasons for this.
One, Buhari has the advantage of being a bigger celebrity by virtue of the higher office he occupied. Two, his memory has fossilized in our psyche given that his record has remained in our brains for almost twenty years before the arrival of Ribadu. Thirdly, Buhari joined politics before Ribadu and he did so especially at a time when the nation was under one of our most corrupt dictators. In contrast, Ribadu until recently was a public servant. It is not surprising therefore that Buhari has more goodwill especially among the masses than Ribadu.
So if we cannot base our argument on differentiating the two in terms of popularity, on what then can we successively persuade Buhari to concede the ticket to Nuhu? The answer, ironically, lies mainly in the goodwill argument we mentioned above.
Buhari has built a goodwill in this country which few, if any, can match. This goodwill is purely the product of his personality, not his handsome face or tall figure. Around this very rare personality have for many years rallied people whose dream of fighting corruption is not beclouded by mundane primordial considerations. What will be required to build a similar goodwill will be enormous in time, chance and effort. If we miss him today, I am afraid to say, we will miss that goodwill because, to my knowledge, he has not so far made any plan to share it or transfer it to someone. All avenues for doing so proved abortive or blocked in the past.
Tunde Idiagbon would have been one person who would have easily shared it with him today, undoubtedly. But Tunde died in 1999, just as the civilian administration was taking off. Even if he were alive, Tunde, the mentor of Ribadu, would not have been interested in politics. But he would have been in a better position to broker a deal between the two.
Buhari would have also transferred it to the governors of his former party, the ANPP, had any of them proved to be equally interested in transparency. Unfortunately, none of them could live to his expectations. Shekarau would have been one in his own right, but the unfortunate differences that developed between the two leaves no love lost between them.
Now, we have the golden opportunity for him to do so in a manner that will immortalize his name. Here is someone with the same traits like his, twenty years younger than him but matured enough by all Nigerian standards to lead, given the age records of most previous leaders. He is older and has served the nation longer than most of them as at when they came to office. The condition for the transfer is also as ripe as the circumstance is suitable. Ordinarily, Buhari would have invited Ribadu to join politics even without the latter indicating any interest. That is why I am not surprised to learn that when he heard Ribadu was aspiring for the presidency, he encouraged him after acknowledging his record in fighting corruption. When this is considered in addition to their previous linkages, we will happily realize that there seems to be more ground in the minds of the two for concession than there is for the desire of their parties to align.
The logical question that would be asked here is: why would not the junior come and follow the senior, deputizing for him or serving under him as he served under Obasanjo? This is where it is necessary to bring in other elements of the argument.
If Ribadu and his party will concede the ticket to Buhari and CPC, the benefit is just that Buhari again is running as a candidate and there is every chance of their opponents hoodwinking the south into believing that this is a northern affair. This may lead the south to rally around Jonathan.
Two, Buhari would then be vying to only occupy a seat which he occupied more than twenty five years ago with nothing new but new challenges; it is the same goal he has unsuccessfully attempted twice before. The possible outcomes here are three.
One, in line of the past two attempts, he loses the elections, especially when the south rallies behind Jonathan and the election is rigged as expected. This will be one sad outcome because hardly would the alliance opportunity present itself again in future between southern parties and a northern one; and even if it does, I doubt if Buhari, given his then age of 74, will be interested in contesting for the fourth time or able to convince Nigerians of possessing the strength to withstand the exacting rigor of transforming Nigeria into a transparent nation.
Two, if he wins the elections, the risk is even higher to him personally and to the aspirations of the nation generally. He may succeed or fail in his attempt to transform the country. If he succeeds in transforming Nigeria, it will be difficult for anyone to step into his shoes because the goodwill differential will just be too big. But many would readily argue with plausible reason that success in transforming the country by Buhari cannot be guaranteed. So it is important that we do not become blinded by our wish. So let us consider also the third possibility, that of failure.
The failure of Buhari to transform Nigeria meaningfully will be one of the most disastrous things that would happen to this country. It will wipe out any sign of hope and destroy any lingering aspiration. We have fired our last shot, the looters would gladly say. You see Nigeria cannot be salvaged, they will argue. Depending on the magnitude of that failure, as it is with the nature of man, Nigerians will start to develop a nostalgia for PDP days just as the Children of Israel longed for Egypt after their rescue from Pharaoh. Buhari himself would then not live any longer as a happy person. His failure will smash all his past record. God forbid.
I am compelled by two things to entertain the fear of his failure should he win the Presidency. One, age is not on his side, right now. Few people in history were able to transform their countries from the precipice at the advanced age of 70 and beyond. None of us can repeat at 70 somethings he did at 42. We see it even in the manner we manage our homes. We saw our parents become less and less thorough with age such that hardly did our distant juniors attain the home training we received. This is not a shortcoming on their side, may God shower his mercy on them, but an outcome of natural law. With advanced age, the ability of the body to replace aging cells with new ones of equal vigor declines; organs become weaker; and the body would require rest more than it will tolerate rigour. The result is a decline in achievement which means reduced efficiency and poor performance.
The heart, which philosophers describe as ever young, defies this reality and continue to exact the body with onerous responsibilities. It is left to the prudent mind to disobey it by realizing the declining potential of the body and behaving accordingly. The famous Shata at around 70, just about five years before his death, confessed to his friend Wada Nas the effect of aging on his output. He said: "Wada, cikin nan akwai waka, amma tsufa ta zo", meaning, "I have many unsung songs but for old age." This is the epitome of both wisdom and valour. Thus the Holy Prophet (peace be upon him) was reported saying, "God bless his servant who knows his capacity and operated within it."
So the Buhari we know today is certainly not the same as the youth who came to power in 1984. The latter exists only in our memory and wishes. Nobody could be physiologically and psychologically the same person after thirty years; and both are important ingredients of leadership especially at 70. This is the plain truth. This brings us to the second reason for my pessimism. It explains why as the Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the CPC he is finding it difficult to make the party live to our expectation. Some people say the same problems exist in other parties. But I would contend that if that is the case, why form the CPC then because Buhari would have as well joined the PDP if he cannot found a party that is different from others. If he were the Buhari of 42, he would have had the required strength to checkmate so many things and make the party really different from other parties. Those who are dissatisfied with him should be fair enough to ascribe to this factor any shortcoming they might have noticed in the conduct of the CPC. He has to rely on others who, unfortunately, are widely accused of not living to his principle.
I have heard many people foresee that if Buhari becomes the President the same CPC trend will manifest itself in the manner he will manage the affairs of the nation. I am not in a position to dispute them since I cannot guarantee the nature of the people that will work with him as ministers, advisers and heads of government agencies. I do not see many around him now and I doubt if there are some out there waiting to be called to service if they cannot offer their services to him during this hour of need. What I can assure Nigerians is that if he succeeds many would rush to him in a Tsunami that will not allow him the time to separate the chaff from the grain. The result of that situation will be disastrous.
The argument of age here is of the scientific genre, very different from the opportunistic "new breed" concept that has helped to destroy this country in the past two decades. I am not advocating Ribadu simply because he is younger but because he is young, matured, sufficiently experienced and similar to Buhari in character. Otherwise, I would have simply advocated the position to be given to Dr. Tilde!
But even if Buhari has remained as he was in 1984, the factor of time would create some problems for him. Our big brother may not be used to the sophistication of today as he was used to that of the seventies and eighties. The crooks he knew in 1984 have been supplanted by more sophisticated and merciless ones of the 21st century. This is not to mention the difference of the two systems - military administration and democracy - a line along which many have argued before me.
We are now in a better position to present the advantages of Buhari conceding the opposition ticket to Ribadu. One, the nation will not lose anything if he does so. In fact, it stands to benefit more because of the synergy that will allow the younger Ribadu to tap from the experience of his elder. The elderly advisory role is what would fit Buhari more than the exacting role of the President. The experience of the two will thus be organically fused, improved upon and handed over to future leaders thereby ensuring continuity, that is hoping that my friend Ribadu will open up opportunities to many young ones from various parts of the country among whom he will identify and elevate the promising. Nothing could be more beautiful than this.
Also, the failure of Ribadu during the election would have less consequences than that of Buhari because he will have more opportunities to attempt later than would Buhari. The damage of demystification as well as the chances of regime failure due to age or suitability would also be much lesser since Ribadu's experience in fighting corruption is almost up to date.
However, notwithstanding the importance of the above advantages, I am more fascinated with the beauty of the goodwill argument. Endorsing Ribadu would transfer the enormous goodwill of Buhari to someone who would keep it alive for many more years to come, thus saving the nation the energy of cultivating someone separately. Buhari must not die with his goodwill, in short. Even if we do not succeed this time ousting the corrupt regime at the centre and Buhari is not around to compete in the next elections, Ribadu can continue with the blessings he accords him now through the endorsement. The talakawa who now shout his slogans would be assured of a trustworthy successor.
More important than my fascination with the goodwill doctrine is the contribution that a Buhari concession will make to the political stability of this country. It will be the first time the northern masses would vote for a party with roots in the southwest because the southwest has also fielded a northern candidate also for the first time. And if a government is formed, it will be a government headed by a northerner under a ruling party that is largely southwestern. The two most contentious opposites in Nigerian politics would finally merge. The benefits in terms of political stability are obvious.
Finally there comes the humorous cultural argument of an elder with his junior brother who were presented with a food ration of one person, which in the case of an office is not a cake that could be shared. The elder is expected in all cultures to concede the meal to the younger one. And if they were to eat from the same plate, he would not scramble with the younger brother over the last morsel; he would concede it to him. Only then can he proudly walk with his shoulders high because of the altruism he exhibited. But if the elder brother would appropriate the only available ration to himself or squabble with the junior over the last portion of the meal then his estimation as a fair person will be greatly severed. What if it were a task to be undertaken? The able young is naturally expected to come forward and carry it out on behalf and to the delight of his elder.
These are the reasons why I strongly feel that Buhari should concede the ticket to Ribadu. I will not be surprised if the man on the street finds these reasons complex for his understanding, just as I will not be surprised if people with his mindset among the elite attack me for advancing them. I will leave such minds with the lazy stereotype arguments that Ribadu has served under Obasanjo (just as Buhari served under Abacha) or he is now sent by the former dictator and Jonathan to divide northern votes. The North can disprove Obasanjo by rallying around Ribadu with the approval of Buhari and pulling the votes of the progresssive south to an electoral success. Let Obasanjo attempt to test the resolve of a Ribadu president.
This campaign of smearing Ribadu among gullible Northerners which some elders are sponsoring is self-destructive to the country and to the North in particular. These youths may be destroying an asset that would be handy tomorrow. How many Ribadus do we have among the Nigerian elite? Those behind these campaigns do not possess half the record of Ribadu in transparency when they were in public service. After all, they were the architects of PDP, of its zoning principle, of shoving Obasanjo to power, etc. Why would they now use us, whom they oppressed, against Ribadu? They should focus on mediating talks between him and Buhari, not making one their scapegoat.
As a defense, I must say that the mettle of a writer does not lie with the popular but with the courage to differ from it whenever the need arises, for writing will be of no use if it will only parrot street views that it is supposed to guide and moderate. And no nation will advance beyond its present if its elite cannot think beyond the common regardless of the condemnation that might visit them.
I therefore intended my argument for the refined mind that would put reason before sentiment and has the courage to abandon the conventional for the novel that would preserve the good in the present, guarantee better opportunities in the future and lessen the chances of susceptibility to damage or exposure to risk. It is this refined mind that I hereby task with the burden of understanding my thesis and, thereafter, convincing the common minds within his reach using the simpler language for which I readily concede that I am not sufficiently gifted to display.
Abuja,
17 January, 2011
By Dr. Aliyu U. Tilde
Why Buhari Should Concede to Ribadu
I present my esteemed readers this essay whose exceptional length I am guilty bound to acknowledge at its debut, but whose importance I will leave the impartial mind to acknowledge. I implore my readers to endure the length and carefully consider the logic of its arguments with an open mind.
The presidential primaries are over and the candidates are now known. On the one hand is the PDP and its candidate, President Goodluck Jonathan. On the other are three main opposition parties' candidate of ANPP, CPC, ACN, SDMP, NCP and NTP, Ibrahim Shekarau, Muhammadu Buhari and Nuhu Ribadu, Pat Utomi, Dele Momudu and John Dava respectively.
It can hardly be denied that the PDP and its candidate represent the unfortunate status quo. There is no need to argue on this. Whoever wants to squander his hope can argue otherwise. He can join the PDP train and I wish him a safe journey.
The opposition candidates are expected to offer change. But they are many, at least. They do not stand the least chance of defeating the notorious PDP behemoth unless they join hands and support one person. This is what informed the failed attempt of the opposition to merge into one party. The option of alliance, however, remains open and it seems that its main focus is between the ACN, which has the support and understanding of other parties like APGA and Labour Party on the one hand, and CPC on the other. One of their candidates, Buhari or Ribadu, is expected to step-down for the other.
The choice of who should step down for the other has remained a contentious matter. The general perception of the result is seen in exclusive terms: He that steps down has lost to the other who is seen as more superior, more popular, more favorably disposed to the electorate, more honest, and so on. He is the winner; the other loser. In this writing, I would like to deviate from this pedestrian thinking and suggest something that is different, where there will be no loser but winners on terms of both the candidates and the future prosperity of this country. I will try in the following paragraphs to put forward the premises of the argument that is inevitably lengthy.
First, perception is important. I will start with how I view the two candidates, Buhari and Ribadu. I see them as having similar orientation and record. They are like two brothers; one senior, the other junior. What puts both on the same pedestal before me is their records. Both are among the four people who have fought corruption in this country, the other two being the late Murtala and Idiagbon. I do not think any objective person will disagree with this. The record of my mentor Buhari on corruption is known and does not require any elaboration here. That of Ribadu, however, needs some clarification and emphasis. And to this I will now turn my attention for some moments.
Ribadu has fought corruption as EFCC Chairman, in addition to his less known similar roles as a police prosecutor. The gap which his absence created is acknowledged even beyond the shores of Nigeria. To appreciate his success, we need to factor in the circumstance in which he operates, especially if we relate him with Buhari. While Buhari fought against corruption as a military head of state with full powers of state during a period that had no existing constitution, Ribadu served under a constitutional government that accorded citizens freedoms of various kinds. Many criminals exploited those provisions through the courts whose judges were ready to grant orders that would frustrate their prosecution. We were witness to issuance of such orders and now the anti-corruption prince, as I called him in those days, had to navigate his way to success in spite of them.
More importantly, however, is the civilian dictator under whom he served and to whom he must refer cases for approval by law before he prosecute them. Despite this handicap, Ribadu prosecuted hundreds of cases starting with the then rampant '419' that earned a very bad reputation for Nigeria until he reached the high and mighty like governors and his very boss, former Inspector General of Police, Tafa Balogun. We have seen thousands of police officers, army generals and jurists. Yet, few have surpassed Ribadu in his feat against corruption. If we are sincere, we will not find it difficult to place him in the league of those who fought corruption in this country.
One can just imagine what the fate of most of our governors would have been had Ribadu served as a head of state in a regime that is not encumbered with constitutional impediments like immunity and citizen's right. With an eye into the future one can as well imagine what he can achieve as a President in whose hand is entrusted not only the power of prosecution but also the command of the state apparatus of coercion. No objective mind can down play the manifestation of his courage and the determination of his pursuit in confronting the difficulties he went through, the risks he took and the dangers he faced.
Of course Ribadu did not prosecute every corrupt person for the simple fact that only God would have done so. Some say, why did not he prosecute Obasanjo in particular? How could he do so when he needed the approval of Obasanjo to prosecute any case? He was smart enough to realize the limitations of his office and the almost infinite power of the dictatorial President. He left that task to those that would come after him or perhaps, when time would be more auspicious. Unfortunately, that time was not offered him by Obasanjo's successor. Had he tried to be foolish during Obasanjo, he would have earned our applause, but the dictator would have crushed him and his EFCC, making the nation lose everything. We still have not stopped lamenting the fall of Buhari in 1984, a fact attested by our now decade long fight for his return.
Like Buhari, This record is all Ribadu has. Fortunately it has been acknowledged by many people in this country. It explains his popularity among civil society groups, the local intelligentsia and the international community."
The second property which he shares with Buhari is that he restrained himself from becoming a do-as-I-say preacher. There are of course the normal baseless accusations, which we expect to be propagated by those he fought against. The most popular one is that he has property in Dubai, just as I still come across writers who say that Buhari being accused of stolen $2.7 billion when he was the federal commissioner for petroleum in 1977! I laugh because I can claim that I know how dry the pocket of my mentor is. Buhari went to the primaries of 2003 with only N40,000 in his pocket.
The same thing with Ribadu. Can we compare him with any of Obasanjo's ministers though he has occupied a position that would have accorded him billions. One would need to meet him, see him and speak to him in order to appreciate this. But as the late Dr. Yusuf Bala Usman would say, anyone who sets out to fight corruption must be ready to face corruption because it will fight back. If Ribadu had anything like that, the Yaradua administration would have exposed him because it had the means to prove it and the power to prosecute him. It is in the absence of such evidence that it went for his persecution, including the despicable act of removing him and his family from the convocation hall of National Institite for Policy and Strategic Studies.
I will stop here and insert an email which reached me as I was editing this article and which I consider appropriate. It was written and sent to a friend by one Mr. Favour Afolabi, a lawyer from Lagos:
"While reviewing Ribadu, please remember that no one has ever accused the gentleman of collecting bribe! That is amazing in a country like Nigeria. While I was on a case at EFCC, one of his staff who was in the room the day he called his team to see the $15m cash that Ibori brought to him. The staff told me how till he dies it would be difficult to find someone else that he respects more than Ribadu. He described how the whole room were looking at Ribadu like he was a mad man. How could he be returning such monies meant for him as a person to the government coffers?
"It's IMPOSSIBLE for anyone to sell me that story of selective justice. What about no justice at all? EFCC despite all its flaws remains one of the things that generations to come would come to "fear" whenever they intend to behave funny; it has come to stay as an institution that has global acclaim; one that many third world countries dealing with corruption have not been able to rival; one that was built by Ribadu."
All I have attempted so far is to argue that Nuhu Ribadu too has a record of gallantly fighting corruption like Buhari though the circumstance and capacity under which each of them served are different. I have no doubt that Buhari himself, as a fair person, even in the competitive setting of this moment, would anytime anywhere attest to the anti-corruption record of Ribadu, something which, pitifully, many who support him cannot.
The next thing is to dismiss the accusation that I am equating Ribadu with Buhari, an accusation which some have labelled against me when I wrote my piece titled 2011: Jonathan, Buhari and Ribadu. Equality often does not lead to justice. In this case it is irrelevant. Though Ribadu is known, his goodwill does not match that of Buhari. He will be ready to confess this anywhere, I believe. But that does not mean that his record is any lesser. There are three reasons for this.
One, Buhari has the advantage of being a bigger celebrity by virtue of the higher office he occupied. Two, his memory has fossilized in our psyche given that his record has remained in our brains for almost twenty years before the arrival of Ribadu. Thirdly, Buhari joined politics before Ribadu and he did so especially at a time when the nation was under one of our most corrupt dictators. In contrast, Ribadu until recently was a public servant. It is not surprising therefore that Buhari has more goodwill especially among the masses than Ribadu.
So if we cannot base our argument on differentiating the two in terms of popularity, on what then can we successively persuade Buhari to concede the ticket to Nuhu? The answer, ironically, lies mainly in the goodwill argument we mentioned above.
Buhari has built a goodwill in this country which few, if any, can match. This goodwill is purely the product of his personality, not his handsome face or tall figure. Around this very rare personality have for many years rallied people whose dream of fighting corruption is not beclouded by mundane primordial considerations. What will be required to build a similar goodwill will be enormous in time, chance and effort. If we miss him today, I am afraid to say, we will miss that goodwill because, to my knowledge, he has not so far made any plan to share it or transfer it to someone. All avenues for doing so proved abortive or blocked in the past.
Tunde Idiagbon would have been one person who would have easily shared it with him today, undoubtedly. But Tunde died in 1999, just as the civilian administration was taking off. Even if he were alive, Tunde, the mentor of Ribadu, would not have been interested in politics. But he would have been in a better position to broker a deal between the two.
Buhari would have also transferred it to the governors of his former party, the ANPP, had any of them proved to be equally interested in transparency. Unfortunately, none of them could live to his expectations. Shekarau would have been one in his own right, but the unfortunate differences that developed between the two leaves no love lost between them.
Now, we have the golden opportunity for him to do so in a manner that will immortalize his name. Here is someone with the same traits like his, twenty years younger than him but matured enough by all Nigerian standards to lead, given the age records of most previous leaders. He is older and has served the nation longer than most of them as at when they came to office. The condition for the transfer is also as ripe as the circumstance is suitable. Ordinarily, Buhari would have invited Ribadu to join politics even without the latter indicating any interest. That is why I am not surprised to learn that when he heard Ribadu was aspiring for the presidency, he encouraged him after acknowledging his record in fighting corruption. When this is considered in addition to their previous linkages, we will happily realize that there seems to be more ground in the minds of the two for concession than there is for the desire of their parties to align.
The logical question that would be asked here is: why would not the junior come and follow the senior, deputizing for him or serving under him as he served under Obasanjo? This is where it is necessary to bring in other elements of the argument.
If Ribadu and his party will concede the ticket to Buhari and CPC, the benefit is just that Buhari again is running as a candidate and there is every chance of their opponents hoodwinking the south into believing that this is a northern affair. This may lead the south to rally around Jonathan.
Two, Buhari would then be vying to only occupy a seat which he occupied more than twenty five years ago with nothing new but new challenges; it is the same goal he has unsuccessfully attempted twice before. The possible outcomes here are three.
One, in line of the past two attempts, he loses the elections, especially when the south rallies behind Jonathan and the election is rigged as expected. This will be one sad outcome because hardly would the alliance opportunity present itself again in future between southern parties and a northern one; and even if it does, I doubt if Buhari, given his then age of 74, will be interested in contesting for the fourth time or able to convince Nigerians of possessing the strength to withstand the exacting rigor of transforming Nigeria into a transparent nation.
Two, if he wins the elections, the risk is even higher to him personally and to the aspirations of the nation generally. He may succeed or fail in his attempt to transform the country. If he succeeds in transforming Nigeria, it will be difficult for anyone to step into his shoes because the goodwill differential will just be too big. But many would readily argue with plausible reason that success in transforming the country by Buhari cannot be guaranteed. So it is important that we do not become blinded by our wish. So let us consider also the third possibility, that of failure.
The failure of Buhari to transform Nigeria meaningfully will be one of the most disastrous things that would happen to this country. It will wipe out any sign of hope and destroy any lingering aspiration. We have fired our last shot, the looters would gladly say. You see Nigeria cannot be salvaged, they will argue. Depending on the magnitude of that failure, as it is with the nature of man, Nigerians will start to develop a nostalgia for PDP days just as the Children of Israel longed for Egypt after their rescue from Pharaoh. Buhari himself would then not live any longer as a happy person. His failure will smash all his past record. God forbid.
I am compelled by two things to entertain the fear of his failure should he win the Presidency. One, age is not on his side, right now. Few people in history were able to transform their countries from the precipice at the advanced age of 70 and beyond. None of us can repeat at 70 somethings he did at 42. We see it even in the manner we manage our homes. We saw our parents become less and less thorough with age such that hardly did our distant juniors attain the home training we received. This is not a shortcoming on their side, may God shower his mercy on them, but an outcome of natural law. With advanced age, the ability of the body to replace aging cells with new ones of equal vigor declines; organs become weaker; and the body would require rest more than it will tolerate rigour. The result is a decline in achievement which means reduced efficiency and poor performance.
The heart, which philosophers describe as ever young, defies this reality and continue to exact the body with onerous responsibilities. It is left to the prudent mind to disobey it by realizing the declining potential of the body and behaving accordingly. The famous Shata at around 70, just about five years before his death, confessed to his friend Wada Nas the effect of aging on his output. He said: "Wada, cikin nan akwai waka, amma tsufa ta zo", meaning, "I have many unsung songs but for old age." This is the epitome of both wisdom and valour. Thus the Holy Prophet (peace be upon him) was reported saying, "God bless his servant who knows his capacity and operated within it."
So the Buhari we know today is certainly not the same as the youth who came to power in 1984. The latter exists only in our memory and wishes. Nobody could be physiologically and psychologically the same person after thirty years; and both are important ingredients of leadership especially at 70. This is the plain truth. This brings us to the second reason for my pessimism. It explains why as the Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the CPC he is finding it difficult to make the party live to our expectation. Some people say the same problems exist in other parties. But I would contend that if that is the case, why form the CPC then because Buhari would have as well joined the PDP if he cannot found a party that is different from others. If he were the Buhari of 42, he would have had the required strength to checkmate so many things and make the party really different from other parties. Those who are dissatisfied with him should be fair enough to ascribe to this factor any shortcoming they might have noticed in the conduct of the CPC. He has to rely on others who, unfortunately, are widely accused of not living to his principle.
I have heard many people foresee that if Buhari becomes the President the same CPC trend will manifest itself in the manner he will manage the affairs of the nation. I am not in a position to dispute them since I cannot guarantee the nature of the people that will work with him as ministers, advisers and heads of government agencies. I do not see many around him now and I doubt if there are some out there waiting to be called to service if they cannot offer their services to him during this hour of need. What I can assure Nigerians is that if he succeeds many would rush to him in a Tsunami that will not allow him the time to separate the chaff from the grain. The result of that situation will be disastrous.
The argument of age here is of the scientific genre, very different from the opportunistic "new breed" concept that has helped to destroy this country in the past two decades. I am not advocating Ribadu simply because he is younger but because he is young, matured, sufficiently experienced and similar to Buhari in character. Otherwise, I would have simply advocated the position to be given to Dr. Tilde!
But even if Buhari has remained as he was in 1984, the factor of time would create some problems for him. Our big brother may not be used to the sophistication of today as he was used to that of the seventies and eighties. The crooks he knew in 1984 have been supplanted by more sophisticated and merciless ones of the 21st century. This is not to mention the difference of the two systems - military administration and democracy - a line along which many have argued before me.
We are now in a better position to present the advantages of Buhari conceding the opposition ticket to Ribadu. One, the nation will not lose anything if he does so. In fact, it stands to benefit more because of the synergy that will allow the younger Ribadu to tap from the experience of his elder. The elderly advisory role is what would fit Buhari more than the exacting role of the President. The experience of the two will thus be organically fused, improved upon and handed over to future leaders thereby ensuring continuity, that is hoping that my friend Ribadu will open up opportunities to many young ones from various parts of the country among whom he will identify and elevate the promising. Nothing could be more beautiful than this.
Also, the failure of Ribadu during the election would have less consequences than that of Buhari because he will have more opportunities to attempt later than would Buhari. The damage of demystification as well as the chances of regime failure due to age or suitability would also be much lesser since Ribadu's experience in fighting corruption is almost up to date.
However, notwithstanding the importance of the above advantages, I am more fascinated with the beauty of the goodwill argument. Endorsing Ribadu would transfer the enormous goodwill of Buhari to someone who would keep it alive for many more years to come, thus saving the nation the energy of cultivating someone separately. Buhari must not die with his goodwill, in short. Even if we do not succeed this time ousting the corrupt regime at the centre and Buhari is not around to compete in the next elections, Ribadu can continue with the blessings he accords him now through the endorsement. The talakawa who now shout his slogans would be assured of a trustworthy successor.
More important than my fascination with the goodwill doctrine is the contribution that a Buhari concession will make to the political stability of this country. It will be the first time the northern masses would vote for a party with roots in the southwest because the southwest has also fielded a northern candidate also for the first time. And if a government is formed, it will be a government headed by a northerner under a ruling party that is largely southwestern. The two most contentious opposites in Nigerian politics would finally merge. The benefits in terms of political stability are obvious.
Finally there comes the humorous cultural argument of an elder with his junior brother who were presented with a food ration of one person, which in the case of an office is not a cake that could be shared. The elder is expected in all cultures to concede the meal to the younger one. And if they were to eat from the same plate, he would not scramble with the younger brother over the last morsel; he would concede it to him. Only then can he proudly walk with his shoulders high because of the altruism he exhibited. But if the elder brother would appropriate the only available ration to himself or squabble with the junior over the last portion of the meal then his estimation as a fair person will be greatly severed. What if it were a task to be undertaken? The able young is naturally expected to come forward and carry it out on behalf and to the delight of his elder.
These are the reasons why I strongly feel that Buhari should concede the ticket to Ribadu. I will not be surprised if the man on the street finds these reasons complex for his understanding, just as I will not be surprised if people with his mindset among the elite attack me for advancing them. I will leave such minds with the lazy stereotype arguments that Ribadu has served under Obasanjo (just as Buhari served under Abacha) or he is now sent by the former dictator and Jonathan to divide northern votes. The North can disprove Obasanjo by rallying around Ribadu with the approval of Buhari and pulling the votes of the progresssive south to an electoral success. Let Obasanjo attempt to test the resolve of a Ribadu president.
This campaign of smearing Ribadu among gullible Northerners which some elders are sponsoring is self-destructive to the country and to the North in particular. These youths may be destroying an asset that would be handy tomorrow. How many Ribadus do we have among the Nigerian elite? Those behind these campaigns do not possess half the record of Ribadu in transparency when they were in public service. After all, they were the architects of PDP, of its zoning principle, of shoving Obasanjo to power, etc. Why would they now use us, whom they oppressed, against Ribadu? They should focus on mediating talks between him and Buhari, not making one their scapegoat.
As a defense, I must say that the mettle of a writer does not lie with the popular but with the courage to differ from it whenever the need arises, for writing will be of no use if it will only parrot street views that it is supposed to guide and moderate. And no nation will advance beyond its present if its elite cannot think beyond the common regardless of the condemnation that might visit them.
I therefore intended my argument for the refined mind that would put reason before sentiment and has the courage to abandon the conventional for the novel that would preserve the good in the present, guarantee better opportunities in the future and lessen the chances of susceptibility to damage or exposure to risk. It is this refined mind that I hereby task with the burden of understanding my thesis and, thereafter, convincing the common minds within his reach using the simpler language for which I readily concede that I am not sufficiently gifted to display.
Abuja,
17 January, 2011
Monday, December 13, 2010
Trivial 4 Buhari May Leave CPC
Trivial 4
By Dr. Aliyu U. Tilde
Buhari May Leave CPC
The recently concluded congresses of Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) at ward level in many states of the federation has left no one in doubt about the nature of the party’s leadership. All the commentators I read or listened to so far have expressed their shock regarding the extent to which some candidates went to rig the outcome of the exercise. Reports have also confirmed the widespread irregularities especially in states considered as the strongholds of the party and its presidential aspirant, General Muhammadu Buhari (rtd).
Barely ten days after writing Fraud, Moneybags and CPC (fridaydiscourse.blogspot.com/2010/11/discourse-311-fraud-moneybags-and-cpc.html), it is disheartening to report back that the fears I expressed in that article regarding the emerging bad reputation of the party have materialised. Unless something is done quickly, the confidence which many Nigerians have – that the party will put up a formidable challenge to the ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP) – will be quickly eroded. The fraud that is taking place has no equal in the annals of Nigeria’s political history.
The first bad omen came from Katsina, the home state of Buhari himself. There were widespread allegations that a gubernatorial aspirant, Senator Yakubu Lado Danmarke, has bribed each member of the state caretaker committee with N5million and each chairman of local government caretaker committee with N400,000. The state committee did not waste time in sitting and declaring that it has reached a consensus to give Danmarke the gubernatorial ticket of the party, to the total exclusion of other candidates. Naturally, the likes of Aminu Masari that did follow that rule cried foul. A supporter of Danmarke was heard over the BBC admitting that indeed N5m money was given but as a “contribution” to running the party. He even rhetorically asked, “Would the party run without money?”
How could a group of few people sit and decide to give a party ticket to someone in a state of four million people, without any primaries and in a party that promises to institute social justice among 150 million Nigerians? The ward congresses of Katsina State where ward executives and three ward delegates will be elected are coming up next week. The story is not over. But I bet you it will not be different.
Yes. It will not be different from what happened in the neighbouring state of Kano where the National Chairman of the party, Senator Rufa’i Hanga, violated the directive of the Board of Trustees (BOT) not to use the initial limited registration cards of the party in last Saturday’s congresses. But having known that the cards were sold mostly to his supporters, Hanga refused to carry out the directive. Haruna Danzago, the Chairman of the party in Kano, was heard on air a day before the congresses threatening that anybody who goes to the venue without the membership card will be promptly arrested by the Police. Many people called on Buhari and other BOT members to complain of this bizarre display of injustice. One of the Board members was heard advising some of the complainants on phone that they are free to “resort to whatever is possible to fight for their rights.” It was an advice given in ignorance of what the National Chairman of the party had in store in the next few hours.
As it turned out, in most local governments the congresses did not take place at all. Results were cooked and submitted to the party headquarters in Kano. Where the congresses took place, Hanga’s supporters outsmarted those of other candidates: the congresses were started at 2am in the night in some places, others until Fajr prayers were said at 5pm! By 8am when the congresses were to start officially, all was concluded. This is a new achievement in rigging. Not even PDP can beat this record, as a commentator said on Dandalin Siyasa, a yahoo discussion group. Of course, all the officials and delegates who emerged as winners from the charade are supporters of the National Chairman, who is a gubernatorial aspirant in the state. This act of desperation now gives credence to the allegation that he purposely formed the party and lured Buhari into it in order to become the Governor of Kano State. Haruna Danzago, the party chairman in Kano and who was never short of words in criticising Governor Shekarau for ‘betraying’ Buhari, told the BBC that nothing could be perfect in this world. I do not know if Danzago has realised that by this singular act he has betrayed Buhari more than any person before in the history of Kano.
I will not leave the Kano scene without weighing the capacity of CPC for injustice in comparison to the ruling PDP. Last year or so, the PDP conducted its congress in Kano where it elected state party executives. It was carried out in broad daylight and we have not heard the losers, late Abubakar Rimi and his supporters – complaining of rigging. Parties in this country have been conducting primaries but never have we seen them rigged to the extent that is presently done in the CPC.
In Kebbi State, it was a different story. The complaint is coming from moneybags who joined the party few days ago – a candidate who is supported by Senator Adamu Aliero, the former governor of the state, and another, an ex-custom officer, who is supported by the renowned smuggler, Dahiru Mangal. As usual, they started making efforts to take over the party using money. A leaflet was circulated in Birnin Kebbi a day before the election purporting that a consensus was arrived at which conceded the ticket to the former custom officer, Abubakar Garunmalam. This made CPC supporters to further rally around K. T. Turaki (SAN) who has been nurturing the party since its formation. The congresses were duly conducted and the supporters of Turaki won. There are now hues and cries from the moneybags who, not surprisingly, have the sympathy of the National Chairman, are calling for the congresses to be cancelled.
This morning, I heard the fire-spitting spokesman of Buhari, Engr. Buba Galadima, promising party supporters that they have not shifted from its ideology of social justice and that he will insist that justice must be done to all after a careful study of supporters’ complaints and reports from the police and INEC. Otherwise, Buba threatened to resign from his position as a member of the BOT or even from the party completely. I just learnt this afternoon that he has announced the dissolution of the party executive in Kano and Katsina, a good face-saving measure.
The threat of Buba should echo in the mind of Buhari, if we will advise the General honestly. If CPC will not be run in accordance with the principles of justice which he stood for all his life but only according to the whims and caprices of moneybags, he too should consider resigning from the party. The injustices in the party have been very much around to the knowledge of the General himself. Decisions of the BOT he chairs are blatantly ignored by the National Chairman.
Unless due process is followed, starting from the congresses, CPC will severely suffer from crisis of reputation by this time next week. The more contentious primaries of Katsina, Jigawa and Bauchi states are coming next Saturday. The National Chairman has long ago dissolved the party executives in Bauchi and Jigawa in favour of some moneybags that joined the party recently. If the same fraud is repeated at those congresses in favour of such characters, then the party should as well forget winning any state during the next election, let alone making Buhari the President of Nigeria. What would we expect from people who cannot retrain themselves at party level when we entrust them with the leadership of this country? Bauchi is a good example.
In that case, Buhari should seriously consider abandoning the party entirely as Buba threatened. (In fact Buba by his comment may be preparing the minds of Buhari’s supporters exactly for that.) It will be too crippled to guarantee his success and too undeserving for his membership. I have expressed my reservations to him few weeks before he joined the party based on some initial signals I intercepted. Now that they have disappointedly become real, he must start thinking, and think quickly, of a better option.
And who said such option does not exist? There are many ideologically credible parties around that have been tested and trusted. The Peoples’ Redemption Party of Balarabe Musa and Labour Party will welcome him. They supported his presidential bid in 2007. Even ACN is far more assuring than CPC, as it is. Besides, I do not know of any supporter of the General who will object to his joining the ACN or Labour Party. It will be a welcome decision and a revolution in our political history. It will improve his chances of victory and help to significantly reduce the north-south divide of our politics. This has been my stand. After he has left CPC, the moneybags can make anything of it. But at least we have denied them the chance of using Buhari to hoodwink the masses as it happened in Bauchi in 2007.
This is my advice to the Buhari. I implore every reader to express his in the comment box below (http://fridaydiscourse.blogspot.com/2010/12/trivial-4-buhari-may-leave-cpc.html if you are not reading the article from my blog). I will ensure that it reaches him immediately. Try, please. Your advice could make a difference.
Bauchi,
13 December 2010
POSTSCRIPT
The BOT met yesterday and Buba Galadima announced the cancellation of the congresses conducted in Kano and Kebbi. The excos of Katsina, Kebbi and Katsina have also been dissolved. The National Chairman, apparently displeased by the decision, objected by disclaiming Buba Galadima as incompetent to speak on behalf of the BOT. (Source: BBC Hausa service, 14 Dec 2010. 6.30am)
By Dr. Aliyu U. Tilde
Buhari May Leave CPC
The recently concluded congresses of Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) at ward level in many states of the federation has left no one in doubt about the nature of the party’s leadership. All the commentators I read or listened to so far have expressed their shock regarding the extent to which some candidates went to rig the outcome of the exercise. Reports have also confirmed the widespread irregularities especially in states considered as the strongholds of the party and its presidential aspirant, General Muhammadu Buhari (rtd).
Barely ten days after writing Fraud, Moneybags and CPC (fridaydiscourse.blogspot.com/2010/11/discourse-311-fraud-moneybags-and-cpc.html), it is disheartening to report back that the fears I expressed in that article regarding the emerging bad reputation of the party have materialised. Unless something is done quickly, the confidence which many Nigerians have – that the party will put up a formidable challenge to the ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP) – will be quickly eroded. The fraud that is taking place has no equal in the annals of Nigeria’s political history.
The first bad omen came from Katsina, the home state of Buhari himself. There were widespread allegations that a gubernatorial aspirant, Senator Yakubu Lado Danmarke, has bribed each member of the state caretaker committee with N5million and each chairman of local government caretaker committee with N400,000. The state committee did not waste time in sitting and declaring that it has reached a consensus to give Danmarke the gubernatorial ticket of the party, to the total exclusion of other candidates. Naturally, the likes of Aminu Masari that did follow that rule cried foul. A supporter of Danmarke was heard over the BBC admitting that indeed N5m money was given but as a “contribution” to running the party. He even rhetorically asked, “Would the party run without money?”
How could a group of few people sit and decide to give a party ticket to someone in a state of four million people, without any primaries and in a party that promises to institute social justice among 150 million Nigerians? The ward congresses of Katsina State where ward executives and three ward delegates will be elected are coming up next week. The story is not over. But I bet you it will not be different.
Yes. It will not be different from what happened in the neighbouring state of Kano where the National Chairman of the party, Senator Rufa’i Hanga, violated the directive of the Board of Trustees (BOT) not to use the initial limited registration cards of the party in last Saturday’s congresses. But having known that the cards were sold mostly to his supporters, Hanga refused to carry out the directive. Haruna Danzago, the Chairman of the party in Kano, was heard on air a day before the congresses threatening that anybody who goes to the venue without the membership card will be promptly arrested by the Police. Many people called on Buhari and other BOT members to complain of this bizarre display of injustice. One of the Board members was heard advising some of the complainants on phone that they are free to “resort to whatever is possible to fight for their rights.” It was an advice given in ignorance of what the National Chairman of the party had in store in the next few hours.
As it turned out, in most local governments the congresses did not take place at all. Results were cooked and submitted to the party headquarters in Kano. Where the congresses took place, Hanga’s supporters outsmarted those of other candidates: the congresses were started at 2am in the night in some places, others until Fajr prayers were said at 5pm! By 8am when the congresses were to start officially, all was concluded. This is a new achievement in rigging. Not even PDP can beat this record, as a commentator said on Dandalin Siyasa, a yahoo discussion group. Of course, all the officials and delegates who emerged as winners from the charade are supporters of the National Chairman, who is a gubernatorial aspirant in the state. This act of desperation now gives credence to the allegation that he purposely formed the party and lured Buhari into it in order to become the Governor of Kano State. Haruna Danzago, the party chairman in Kano and who was never short of words in criticising Governor Shekarau for ‘betraying’ Buhari, told the BBC that nothing could be perfect in this world. I do not know if Danzago has realised that by this singular act he has betrayed Buhari more than any person before in the history of Kano.
I will not leave the Kano scene without weighing the capacity of CPC for injustice in comparison to the ruling PDP. Last year or so, the PDP conducted its congress in Kano where it elected state party executives. It was carried out in broad daylight and we have not heard the losers, late Abubakar Rimi and his supporters – complaining of rigging. Parties in this country have been conducting primaries but never have we seen them rigged to the extent that is presently done in the CPC.
In Kebbi State, it was a different story. The complaint is coming from moneybags who joined the party few days ago – a candidate who is supported by Senator Adamu Aliero, the former governor of the state, and another, an ex-custom officer, who is supported by the renowned smuggler, Dahiru Mangal. As usual, they started making efforts to take over the party using money. A leaflet was circulated in Birnin Kebbi a day before the election purporting that a consensus was arrived at which conceded the ticket to the former custom officer, Abubakar Garunmalam. This made CPC supporters to further rally around K. T. Turaki (SAN) who has been nurturing the party since its formation. The congresses were duly conducted and the supporters of Turaki won. There are now hues and cries from the moneybags who, not surprisingly, have the sympathy of the National Chairman, are calling for the congresses to be cancelled.
This morning, I heard the fire-spitting spokesman of Buhari, Engr. Buba Galadima, promising party supporters that they have not shifted from its ideology of social justice and that he will insist that justice must be done to all after a careful study of supporters’ complaints and reports from the police and INEC. Otherwise, Buba threatened to resign from his position as a member of the BOT or even from the party completely. I just learnt this afternoon that he has announced the dissolution of the party executive in Kano and Katsina, a good face-saving measure.
The threat of Buba should echo in the mind of Buhari, if we will advise the General honestly. If CPC will not be run in accordance with the principles of justice which he stood for all his life but only according to the whims and caprices of moneybags, he too should consider resigning from the party. The injustices in the party have been very much around to the knowledge of the General himself. Decisions of the BOT he chairs are blatantly ignored by the National Chairman.
Unless due process is followed, starting from the congresses, CPC will severely suffer from crisis of reputation by this time next week. The more contentious primaries of Katsina, Jigawa and Bauchi states are coming next Saturday. The National Chairman has long ago dissolved the party executives in Bauchi and Jigawa in favour of some moneybags that joined the party recently. If the same fraud is repeated at those congresses in favour of such characters, then the party should as well forget winning any state during the next election, let alone making Buhari the President of Nigeria. What would we expect from people who cannot retrain themselves at party level when we entrust them with the leadership of this country? Bauchi is a good example.
In that case, Buhari should seriously consider abandoning the party entirely as Buba threatened. (In fact Buba by his comment may be preparing the minds of Buhari’s supporters exactly for that.) It will be too crippled to guarantee his success and too undeserving for his membership. I have expressed my reservations to him few weeks before he joined the party based on some initial signals I intercepted. Now that they have disappointedly become real, he must start thinking, and think quickly, of a better option.
And who said such option does not exist? There are many ideologically credible parties around that have been tested and trusted. The Peoples’ Redemption Party of Balarabe Musa and Labour Party will welcome him. They supported his presidential bid in 2007. Even ACN is far more assuring than CPC, as it is. Besides, I do not know of any supporter of the General who will object to his joining the ACN or Labour Party. It will be a welcome decision and a revolution in our political history. It will improve his chances of victory and help to significantly reduce the north-south divide of our politics. This has been my stand. After he has left CPC, the moneybags can make anything of it. But at least we have denied them the chance of using Buhari to hoodwink the masses as it happened in Bauchi in 2007.
This is my advice to the Buhari. I implore every reader to express his in the comment box below (http://fridaydiscourse.blogspot.com/2010/12/trivial-4-buhari-may-leave-cpc.html if you are not reading the article from my blog). I will ensure that it reaches him immediately. Try, please. Your advice could make a difference.
Bauchi,
13 December 2010
POSTSCRIPT
The BOT met yesterday and Buba Galadima announced the cancellation of the congresses conducted in Kano and Kebbi. The excos of Katsina, Kebbi and Katsina have also been dissolved. The National Chairman, apparently displeased by the decision, objected by disclaiming Buba Galadima as incompetent to speak on behalf of the BOT. (Source: BBC Hausa service, 14 Dec 2010. 6.30am)
Sunday, November 28, 2010
Discourse 311 Fraud, Moneybags and CPC
Discourse 311
By Dr. Aliyu U. Tilde
Fraud, Moneybags and CPC
Both Muhammadu Buhari and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) do shoulder the responsibility of stopping the ongoing fraud in the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) regarding the use of fake cards in its ongoing membership registration exercise. In this task, the responsibility of the former is largely moral, while that of the latter is constitutional. Desperate politicians who thronged the party are setting new records of fraud in the history of our political culture in their bid to use Buhari to hoodwink the masses and capture power in states where the presidential candidate has large followership.
The call has become necessary because, surprisingly, the party leadership is backing the fraud, a practice that is an antithesis of its promise to use the party as a platform for progressive politics. If the fraud is not checked, it has every potential to wreck the prospects of the party and spoil the legendary image of Buhari himself especially given his position as the party's Chairman, Board of Trustees and, understandably, its natural presidential flagbearer.
The story is simple. Many gubernatorial aspirants in the party do not want to play the game by its rules. They want to singlehandedly determine every stage that would lead to their nomination. Aiding their ambition and encouraging it is the poor financial state of the party. Whoever has money will have the upper hand. Simple. He will have everything twisted in his favour regardless of any INEC procedure or the provisions of the party's constitution. And the source of his money is not an issue. What is essential is to have the money, pay the party leadership, contribute handsomely to funding the party and the way becomes his. The entire state executive of the party will be dissolved at his instance; an interim leadership that is favourably disposed to him will be sent to his state; it will solicit for his funding; and it will approve his wishes.
It is not therefore surprising that the complaints are the same across the affected states, whether in Kebbi, Katsina, Kano, Kaduna or Bauchi. Such aspirants who have earned the goodwill of the National Chairman of the party are sponsoring candidates for the chairmanship of the party executive bodies at state, local government and ward levels. Through these aspiring chairmen, or directly on their own, such gubernatorial aspirants have printed hundreds of thousands of fake party membership cards and distributed them among the masses, waiting for the party congresses that are just about to hold. At the congresses, the fake membership cards, which outnumber the meagre genuine 50,000 maximum which the party sent to each state at its debut, will be used to elect the executives nominated by such gubernatorial aspirants. When inaugurated, such party executives, who according to the existing guidelines of the party will be the party delegates at all levels, will back the candidate who sponsored their success. A gubernatorial candidate of CPC has then emerged. Then Buhari will take the lead in backing such a candidate. The masses, working on their trust for Buhari, will vote for the candidate, as they did to Isa Yuguda in Bauchi in 2007. Your Excellency is then formed!
The person supporting this scheme is the National Chairman of the party, former senator Rufa'i Hanga, who within a short time has earned the bad reputation of being extremely unreliable. Supporting him are many close associates of Buhari himself who have their 'boys' working in concert with the Chairman. There is a fundamental difference between Buhari and these people. They focus on winning elections, hook or crook, in line with the ideologies of their former parties - the PDP, the ANPP and the UNCP (the 'PDP' of Abacha if we can recall). To them politics means power; and power yields money. As they play it, politics is livelihood. Buhari, on the other hand, as we all know, believes power is for service which must be hinged on the rule of law in government; then power itself in a democracy must be attained through internal democracy and free and fair elections. As he plays it, politics is a cause, not a livelihood.
These schemes will only produce governments that are inept and corrupt, like the one we have in Bauchi now. It is totally worthless though it came to power on the platform of opposition politics and with the backing of Buhari. The present membership of CPC is overwhelmingly from ANPP and PDP, and so is the majority of its aspirants for political offices. There is the need for the party to prove itself better than both PDP and ANPP by being transparent in its conduct and prudent in its affairs. So far, its national chairman has not proved that difference.
Tomorrow, Monday, 29 November 2010, the national leadership is sending a delegation of lawyers to defend the use of fake cards in its registration exercise before a federal high court here in Bauchi. An order was duly secured by aggrieved members of the party. It baffles me that a party that goes about dropping the name of Buhari can stoop so low to defend a clear case of fraud. Nothing can be more shameful. Bauchi is just one out of many cases. Its masses will pitifully be deceived again via the same route if care is not taken. The intention is to usher in a stooge governor who will allow outsiders to once more ransack their treasury and leave them without water, healthcare, education or security.
The solution fortunately is simple. The party should print millions of cards if it wishes and sell them to interested members through due process. However, it must validate previous ones that were genuinely sold by the former excos in various states while rejecting any fake card printed and distributed by any contestant under whatever circumstance. Then it can conduct its congress and primaries accordingly. If time is against it, let it use only the genuine cards distributed so far. It is assumed that any serious member must have acquired his long ago. There are about ten gubernatorial candidates in the state, for example. Let them all contest on this level playing ground. Simple.
Buhari needs to be firm on this matter in his characteristic measure. He carries on his shoulder the trust of the masses who will always subscribe to his judgement and presentation. He stands to account for that trust on the day of judgement. He must be under no illusions about that. His popularity is a gift that engenders a responsibility. "Then you will certainly be asked, that Day, about the favours (of God)." He can easily do this through his position as the Chairman, Board of Trustees of the party, its highest decision making body. No fake membership cards. No worshipping of moneybags. Period.
INEC would also need to wade in, just in case Buhari's effort does not yield the desired result. It has the duty to ensure that all political parties live to a certain standard of transparency in the conduct of their affairs, including congresses and primaries. These are the embryonic stages through which governance is ushered, whether good or bad, and to which neither the body nor we, ordinary Nigerians, can afford to turn a blind eye.
In conclusion, for the avoidance of doubt, I would Iike to state that I am not a card carrying member of any party. On the affairs of Buhari, I have maintained an advisory interest while I keep to myself the constitutional freedom to express my opinion regarding any issue that partains governance in my fatherland, Nigeria. I am thus also interested in the affairs of other candidates. As it relates my state, however, I owe its citizens the responsibility to aid in blocking any further attempt to hoodwink them, regardless of the platform that may be exploited to achieve that ignoble end.
Bauchi,
28 November, 2010
By Dr. Aliyu U. Tilde
Fraud, Moneybags and CPC
Both Muhammadu Buhari and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) do shoulder the responsibility of stopping the ongoing fraud in the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) regarding the use of fake cards in its ongoing membership registration exercise. In this task, the responsibility of the former is largely moral, while that of the latter is constitutional. Desperate politicians who thronged the party are setting new records of fraud in the history of our political culture in their bid to use Buhari to hoodwink the masses and capture power in states where the presidential candidate has large followership.
The call has become necessary because, surprisingly, the party leadership is backing the fraud, a practice that is an antithesis of its promise to use the party as a platform for progressive politics. If the fraud is not checked, it has every potential to wreck the prospects of the party and spoil the legendary image of Buhari himself especially given his position as the party's Chairman, Board of Trustees and, understandably, its natural presidential flagbearer.
The story is simple. Many gubernatorial aspirants in the party do not want to play the game by its rules. They want to singlehandedly determine every stage that would lead to their nomination. Aiding their ambition and encouraging it is the poor financial state of the party. Whoever has money will have the upper hand. Simple. He will have everything twisted in his favour regardless of any INEC procedure or the provisions of the party's constitution. And the source of his money is not an issue. What is essential is to have the money, pay the party leadership, contribute handsomely to funding the party and the way becomes his. The entire state executive of the party will be dissolved at his instance; an interim leadership that is favourably disposed to him will be sent to his state; it will solicit for his funding; and it will approve his wishes.
It is not therefore surprising that the complaints are the same across the affected states, whether in Kebbi, Katsina, Kano, Kaduna or Bauchi. Such aspirants who have earned the goodwill of the National Chairman of the party are sponsoring candidates for the chairmanship of the party executive bodies at state, local government and ward levels. Through these aspiring chairmen, or directly on their own, such gubernatorial aspirants have printed hundreds of thousands of fake party membership cards and distributed them among the masses, waiting for the party congresses that are just about to hold. At the congresses, the fake membership cards, which outnumber the meagre genuine 50,000 maximum which the party sent to each state at its debut, will be used to elect the executives nominated by such gubernatorial aspirants. When inaugurated, such party executives, who according to the existing guidelines of the party will be the party delegates at all levels, will back the candidate who sponsored their success. A gubernatorial candidate of CPC has then emerged. Then Buhari will take the lead in backing such a candidate. The masses, working on their trust for Buhari, will vote for the candidate, as they did to Isa Yuguda in Bauchi in 2007. Your Excellency is then formed!
The person supporting this scheme is the National Chairman of the party, former senator Rufa'i Hanga, who within a short time has earned the bad reputation of being extremely unreliable. Supporting him are many close associates of Buhari himself who have their 'boys' working in concert with the Chairman. There is a fundamental difference between Buhari and these people. They focus on winning elections, hook or crook, in line with the ideologies of their former parties - the PDP, the ANPP and the UNCP (the 'PDP' of Abacha if we can recall). To them politics means power; and power yields money. As they play it, politics is livelihood. Buhari, on the other hand, as we all know, believes power is for service which must be hinged on the rule of law in government; then power itself in a democracy must be attained through internal democracy and free and fair elections. As he plays it, politics is a cause, not a livelihood.
These schemes will only produce governments that are inept and corrupt, like the one we have in Bauchi now. It is totally worthless though it came to power on the platform of opposition politics and with the backing of Buhari. The present membership of CPC is overwhelmingly from ANPP and PDP, and so is the majority of its aspirants for political offices. There is the need for the party to prove itself better than both PDP and ANPP by being transparent in its conduct and prudent in its affairs. So far, its national chairman has not proved that difference.
Tomorrow, Monday, 29 November 2010, the national leadership is sending a delegation of lawyers to defend the use of fake cards in its registration exercise before a federal high court here in Bauchi. An order was duly secured by aggrieved members of the party. It baffles me that a party that goes about dropping the name of Buhari can stoop so low to defend a clear case of fraud. Nothing can be more shameful. Bauchi is just one out of many cases. Its masses will pitifully be deceived again via the same route if care is not taken. The intention is to usher in a stooge governor who will allow outsiders to once more ransack their treasury and leave them without water, healthcare, education or security.
The solution fortunately is simple. The party should print millions of cards if it wishes and sell them to interested members through due process. However, it must validate previous ones that were genuinely sold by the former excos in various states while rejecting any fake card printed and distributed by any contestant under whatever circumstance. Then it can conduct its congress and primaries accordingly. If time is against it, let it use only the genuine cards distributed so far. It is assumed that any serious member must have acquired his long ago. There are about ten gubernatorial candidates in the state, for example. Let them all contest on this level playing ground. Simple.
Buhari needs to be firm on this matter in his characteristic measure. He carries on his shoulder the trust of the masses who will always subscribe to his judgement and presentation. He stands to account for that trust on the day of judgement. He must be under no illusions about that. His popularity is a gift that engenders a responsibility. "Then you will certainly be asked, that Day, about the favours (of God)." He can easily do this through his position as the Chairman, Board of Trustees of the party, its highest decision making body. No fake membership cards. No worshipping of moneybags. Period.
INEC would also need to wade in, just in case Buhari's effort does not yield the desired result. It has the duty to ensure that all political parties live to a certain standard of transparency in the conduct of their affairs, including congresses and primaries. These are the embryonic stages through which governance is ushered, whether good or bad, and to which neither the body nor we, ordinary Nigerians, can afford to turn a blind eye.
In conclusion, for the avoidance of doubt, I would Iike to state that I am not a card carrying member of any party. On the affairs of Buhari, I have maintained an advisory interest while I keep to myself the constitutional freedom to express my opinion regarding any issue that partains governance in my fatherland, Nigeria. I am thus also interested in the affairs of other candidates. As it relates my state, however, I owe its citizens the responsibility to aid in blocking any further attempt to hoodwink them, regardless of the platform that may be exploited to achieve that ignoble end.
Bauchi,
28 November, 2010
Thursday, May 20, 2010
No Aisha, Leave Buhari Alone
No, Aisha. Leave Buhari Alone after 4-19
By Dr. Aliyu Tilde
In the aftermath 4-19 (read four nineteen, not four-one-nine!) came an article written by the leading female writer from the North, Aisha Umar Yusuf, in the Weekly Trust of May 10, 2003. It was a letter to General Muhammadu Buhari, advising him to “accept whatever the courts decide in the end.” Apparently unhopeful that anything tangible in his favour would come out from the court, Aisha went further to say, “if the court failed to overturn Obasanjo’s victory, as many fear it would, please do not repeat your call for mass action nor should you quit the political scene disgruntled. No, see it as a challenge to remain and constitute a credible opposition.”
Aisha was quick to support her advice with reason: “A decent, sincere, people-oriented opposition is what this country lacks since the beginning of this Fourth Republic. Wasn’t it amazing that when the Federal Government arm-twisted not so-independent INEC into refusing to register new parties, it was left to Gani Fawehinmi to single-handedly fight for the registration of new parties? Would this have been the case if we had a sincere and truly democratic opposition to fight the government?”
Then she went ahead to assure Buhari that he has “what it takes to lead the opposition...” by listing the personal attributes that makes him different from many Nigerians in opposition.
This essay is a reply to Aisha. In it, I have tried to question the possibility of a credible opposition to the style of governance in Nigeria and whether Buhari is the right person to burden with its leadership.
Advice and Criticism
Beyond the often-repeated point that there is no space for opposition in the presidential system of government, Buhari as opposition leader is not likely to accomplish anything beyond advice which in some form the establishment will prefer to denigrate as criticism. Nigerian leaders from local government councils up to the presidency regard such public comments as an irritation that should be ignored while “business” goes on as usual.
Otherwise, the public would have changed a lot during the Fourth Republic. But not even the ‘organized’ labour could do it. The NLC tried it a year ago and failed. Today, one cannot fail to see that the labour leader is competing with the Minister of Information, Professor Jerry Gana, in expressing his support for anything Obasanjo does. ASUU has been on strike for five months now. After Obasanjo has ignored the lecturers this long, even our leading columnists are today asking them to call off the strike and allow the government go ahead with the commercialisation of the universities. There is nothing you can do, such commentators are telling ASUU, literally.
Any comment from Buhari will be treated with the same evasion until when the public is made to believe that he is nothing better than a trouble maker, “a bad loser”, as Soyinka called him a week ago, or “a frustrated person”, as INEC Chairman described him after 4-19.
If Obasanjo had a listening ear, he would have achieved a lot beyond licensing GSM, the only thing Bola Ajibola could recently count in his defence of the President (Punch, May 11, 2003). He would have selected a fine cabinet from the vibrant and honest, not from the dead stock of the old brigade or their boys. He wouldn’t have crippled the legislature through sponsoring impeachments and circulating ‘Ghana must go’. He would have accomplished projects beyond plagiarising the ones executed by state governments, only to later on confess that he did not actually execute the projects. He would have used the ICPC to check the widespread corruption in his government, from what transpired in the privatisation of parastatals to the billions that disappeared in NNPC or in roads rehabilitation that never took place. His son, Gbenga, would not be sitting on the notorious “First Son” seat that Ibrahim Abacha once occupied.
On the above and many others, Nigerians have written and spoken a lot in the past four years. But nothing has changed. Obasanjo remains stark deaf and dumb. And there is the preponderant likelihood that, with the demystification of the electorate during the past election, mal-administration under Obasanjo will only worsen in the next four years. He will continue to ignore criticisms because he believes, as he said last week before a group called Ohaneze-Ndigbo Youth Forum, criticisms are borne out of ignorance that should be ignored, or mischief that should countered, or quest for wealth and popularity.
Among which of the three groups will Obasanjo and his government categorize ‘Buhari, the critic’? Certainly in the second because he can neither accuse Buhari of ignorance of what is government, nor of seeking material gain or popularity. Criticism, in my view, should rather be left to people like us, who are “ignorant”, or “mischievous”, or “material and popularity” seekers. Buhari should not compete with us in our domain.
Followers and Resources
‘Buhari, the opposition leader’ must also contend with the orientation of many Nigerian politicians in the “Sahara of opposition” and the lack of resources required to keep it alive. It is an opinion I have always expressed that, generally, Nigerian civilians have proved themselves to be like a herd of sheep. I am sorry if this generalization sounds a bit harsh. But reason with me, Aisha. Unlike the military who work with orders, civilians work with commandments, which, like the Ten Commandments, they selectively obey. For example Buhari’s “protect your votes” advice was not faithfully complied with in many areas.
Worst of all, if a wolf would decide to attack the shepherd, the sheep would run away or at best remain aloof. We have seen it in Awolowo’s case in the 1960s. We have also seen it in the case of Abiola when most of his elite supporters, including his running mate, rushed to take ministerial positions in the military government that jailed him after denying him his mandate.
That is why Nigerians always look helpless before the might of their government. They look on to the military to save them. All the politicians at the receiving end of the electoral malpractice in 1965 and 1983 looked on to the military, though today they are against its return because 4-19 serves the parochial goals of their ethno-chauvinism. Right now the begrudged electorate are leaving matters to God, as did many columnists and laureates in the aftermath of August 6, 1983.
So the matrix of opposition – the people – is not ideologically knit enough to vault away injustice or prevent its circulation in Nigeria. I doubt if Buhari as an opposition leader will make any difference in this case.
We do not need to elaborate on the lack of resources. The average Nigerian politician would like to be paid for attending every meeting or carrying out any assignment. This is partly as a result of an ideologically neutral state of our politics since the late eighties, partly due the involvement of a late retired general, and partly due to government funding of parties during the SDP/NRC era. Today, the average politician is bereft of ideas; his political ingenuity is reserved for generating money. Buhari has never laid any claim to the wealth that can trigger this kind of ingenuity. Also, the recent history of some newly formed parties enjoying the support of billionaire ex-generals has clearly shown that financing politics in Nigeria is beyond what even the most generous hand in the country can afford.
Party
Finally, let us briefly discuss the framework. A platform is needed for any organized political opposition, which in politics of a secular country like ours is usually provided by the party or organization one belongs to.
After 4-19, the highest office Buhari will occupy in the ANPP is membership of its Board of Trustees, under the leadership of Augustus Aikhomu. He cannot speak on behalf of the party because he is not Don Etiebet, its Chairman.
More importantly, the ANPP as a party has its fundamental shortcomings. I doubt if its founders in 1998 stood on a higher moral ground than those of the PDP. During the Fourth Republic, its governors scored the same F-grade in terms of accountability and achievements as those of PDP.
There is little wonder also if some of them were quick in distancing themselves from him after they have ‘won’ their seats for the second time. They quickly went to Aso Rock to pay homage to Obasanjo and enjoy his victory cake even before their party could decide on what to do with the 419 it suffered from during the last elections. How could Buhari and these characters be partners in opposition? It would have been different if he were the President because of the authority that his office would command. But then he wouldn’t need to be an opposition leader!
These are some reasons why I do not share your idea that Buhari should lead any opposition in the country. But I may not be absolutely right.
“The North” Again?
In case the advice on leading an opposition against the government is not accepted by Buhari, or in addition to it, Aisha had the following suggestion: “If you lose your 4-19 contest and you still return home to make yourself useful before 2007, believe me you have enough clout to advise and be listened to. You might even set up a North Development (Special) Trust Fund (NDTF) and have all governors contributing. Knowing that you can always be trusted with our Naira and kobo you are the natural choice to head the NDTF.
“A meaningful quarterly contribution to the fund by all governors (and local government chairmen),” she added, “could provide enough money to address the key concerns of Northern Nigeria. We decry the rot in the education sector, in health services, in provision of social amenities, as well as the neglect of our economic mainstay – agriculture. If the NDTF can address all this through judicious use of the money contributed, you dear General would have served Nigeria in the best possible way. And who knows, may be by 2007 you will not need to campaign at all; your sterling record at the NDTF, added to all the others could grant you a smooth sail to the Presidency.”
My first reaction to this suggestion is that it has shortened the vision of Buhari and confined his role to the North. In fact, the region – in political terms – actually does not exist today, as it did before 1966, with abundant respect to the efforts made by various bodies like the ACF to sustain its concept. I doubt very much if Buhari has joined politics to save the North alone, but the nation as a whole. I have never heard him speak of the North exclusive of other parts of Nigeria. He thinks, like how most soldiers do, in the context of post-civil war Nigeria. So I doubt if, after losing the 4-19 ‘war’, the General would, in the regional context, go beyond membership of Board of Trustees of the ACF, in congregation of past heads of states from the region.
More importantly, however, is the absence of political and constitutional allowance that will enable him play the suggested NDTF role. I do not know of any Northern governor at present who will surrender a dime to Buhari to use in solving any problem in the region. They are a bunch that is even opposed to ACF, believing that the body was formed to usurp political leadership of the region from them. Most Northern governors are yet to redeem N15m pledge they made over two years ago on School of Basic and Remedial Studies, Funtua – something they initiated and agreed upon in one of their meetings – when on the average each of them receives a billion monthly from the federation account!
Let us remember that for the past four years, each of the 19 Northern governors has been receiving more than the annual budget of Northern Nigeria, which was only £29million in 1963 – “a pound per head”, as the slogan then was.
The geographical North is still a region whose leadership is deeply entrenched in retrogression, reaction and corruption of unprecedented dimension. All the ills of underdevelopment are here. To compound the matter, an elaborate syndicate of inept political elite have decided to back only candidates of questionable origins, backgrounds and aptitude for leadership roles. Once in office, like their counterparts in other regions, they portray their unassailable brilliance and insatiable appetite for self-aggrandizement, not for service to the people they so much despise and who are in dire need of basic things like water, health care and primary education.
Therefore, the governors can only tolerate Buhari as long as he lives quietly among their masses, not when he is ready to break their monopoly over the treasury, or lead them to the path of probity. They would rather make do with chaps who will help them launder their stolen billions in purchasing mansions and hotels overseas, or run their petroleum smuggling business to Niger, or worst of all, help them commit all sorts of electoral malpractices.
Finally, as for Buhari Presidency come 2007, his admirers will not then be at a better state of hope than they are now. After all, who believes that there will be a vacancy in Aso Rock then? And if there will be any, it will certainly not be for the Northerner. The Igbo, as Obasanjo has started hinting, will then justifiably be entitled to it. I concur, and Atiku must be told this, right now.
Whatever is the situation by 2007, we are bound to witness worse electoral malpractice then. I doubt if a one-party dominated state would not emerge then in the country, with PDP sweeping everywhere, scoring 99.99% with a 99% turnout, like 4-19, like that of Saddam Hussein.
Conclusion
So, Aisha, let us leave Buhari alone to decide how he intends to spend his post 4-19 days. If, on the one hand, he believes that, in spite of the fear that the wolf may attack the shepherd, the sheep should not be left alone and, therefore, wishes to spend the days in opposition together with younger generations, then it will be commendable, though daunting as we have seen above. If, on the other, he decides to go back to his retirement, I believe he has done a enough even within the last one year in politics to warrant a rest.
The next four years will definitely be rough and challenging, as is the common practice of any government that has inherited itself by subverting the will of the people in a developing country like ours. Coercion becomes its only source of legitimacy. The ball of opposition is in the court of public commentators like you. A pen that remains consistent in supporting the truth and collective good is mightier than the sharpest sword that any civilian dictator could afford in the next four years. And the greatest struggle, we are told long ago, is to speak the truth in the face of injustice.
By Dr. Aliyu Tilde
In the aftermath 4-19 (read four nineteen, not four-one-nine!) came an article written by the leading female writer from the North, Aisha Umar Yusuf, in the Weekly Trust of May 10, 2003. It was a letter to General Muhammadu Buhari, advising him to “accept whatever the courts decide in the end.” Apparently unhopeful that anything tangible in his favour would come out from the court, Aisha went further to say, “if the court failed to overturn Obasanjo’s victory, as many fear it would, please do not repeat your call for mass action nor should you quit the political scene disgruntled. No, see it as a challenge to remain and constitute a credible opposition.”
Aisha was quick to support her advice with reason: “A decent, sincere, people-oriented opposition is what this country lacks since the beginning of this Fourth Republic. Wasn’t it amazing that when the Federal Government arm-twisted not so-independent INEC into refusing to register new parties, it was left to Gani Fawehinmi to single-handedly fight for the registration of new parties? Would this have been the case if we had a sincere and truly democratic opposition to fight the government?”
Then she went ahead to assure Buhari that he has “what it takes to lead the opposition...” by listing the personal attributes that makes him different from many Nigerians in opposition.
This essay is a reply to Aisha. In it, I have tried to question the possibility of a credible opposition to the style of governance in Nigeria and whether Buhari is the right person to burden with its leadership.
Advice and Criticism
Beyond the often-repeated point that there is no space for opposition in the presidential system of government, Buhari as opposition leader is not likely to accomplish anything beyond advice which in some form the establishment will prefer to denigrate as criticism. Nigerian leaders from local government councils up to the presidency regard such public comments as an irritation that should be ignored while “business” goes on as usual.
Otherwise, the public would have changed a lot during the Fourth Republic. But not even the ‘organized’ labour could do it. The NLC tried it a year ago and failed. Today, one cannot fail to see that the labour leader is competing with the Minister of Information, Professor Jerry Gana, in expressing his support for anything Obasanjo does. ASUU has been on strike for five months now. After Obasanjo has ignored the lecturers this long, even our leading columnists are today asking them to call off the strike and allow the government go ahead with the commercialisation of the universities. There is nothing you can do, such commentators are telling ASUU, literally.
Any comment from Buhari will be treated with the same evasion until when the public is made to believe that he is nothing better than a trouble maker, “a bad loser”, as Soyinka called him a week ago, or “a frustrated person”, as INEC Chairman described him after 4-19.
If Obasanjo had a listening ear, he would have achieved a lot beyond licensing GSM, the only thing Bola Ajibola could recently count in his defence of the President (Punch, May 11, 2003). He would have selected a fine cabinet from the vibrant and honest, not from the dead stock of the old brigade or their boys. He wouldn’t have crippled the legislature through sponsoring impeachments and circulating ‘Ghana must go’. He would have accomplished projects beyond plagiarising the ones executed by state governments, only to later on confess that he did not actually execute the projects. He would have used the ICPC to check the widespread corruption in his government, from what transpired in the privatisation of parastatals to the billions that disappeared in NNPC or in roads rehabilitation that never took place. His son, Gbenga, would not be sitting on the notorious “First Son” seat that Ibrahim Abacha once occupied.
On the above and many others, Nigerians have written and spoken a lot in the past four years. But nothing has changed. Obasanjo remains stark deaf and dumb. And there is the preponderant likelihood that, with the demystification of the electorate during the past election, mal-administration under Obasanjo will only worsen in the next four years. He will continue to ignore criticisms because he believes, as he said last week before a group called Ohaneze-Ndigbo Youth Forum, criticisms are borne out of ignorance that should be ignored, or mischief that should countered, or quest for wealth and popularity.
Among which of the three groups will Obasanjo and his government categorize ‘Buhari, the critic’? Certainly in the second because he can neither accuse Buhari of ignorance of what is government, nor of seeking material gain or popularity. Criticism, in my view, should rather be left to people like us, who are “ignorant”, or “mischievous”, or “material and popularity” seekers. Buhari should not compete with us in our domain.
Followers and Resources
‘Buhari, the opposition leader’ must also contend with the orientation of many Nigerian politicians in the “Sahara of opposition” and the lack of resources required to keep it alive. It is an opinion I have always expressed that, generally, Nigerian civilians have proved themselves to be like a herd of sheep. I am sorry if this generalization sounds a bit harsh. But reason with me, Aisha. Unlike the military who work with orders, civilians work with commandments, which, like the Ten Commandments, they selectively obey. For example Buhari’s “protect your votes” advice was not faithfully complied with in many areas.
Worst of all, if a wolf would decide to attack the shepherd, the sheep would run away or at best remain aloof. We have seen it in Awolowo’s case in the 1960s. We have also seen it in the case of Abiola when most of his elite supporters, including his running mate, rushed to take ministerial positions in the military government that jailed him after denying him his mandate.
That is why Nigerians always look helpless before the might of their government. They look on to the military to save them. All the politicians at the receiving end of the electoral malpractice in 1965 and 1983 looked on to the military, though today they are against its return because 4-19 serves the parochial goals of their ethno-chauvinism. Right now the begrudged electorate are leaving matters to God, as did many columnists and laureates in the aftermath of August 6, 1983.
So the matrix of opposition – the people – is not ideologically knit enough to vault away injustice or prevent its circulation in Nigeria. I doubt if Buhari as an opposition leader will make any difference in this case.
We do not need to elaborate on the lack of resources. The average Nigerian politician would like to be paid for attending every meeting or carrying out any assignment. This is partly as a result of an ideologically neutral state of our politics since the late eighties, partly due the involvement of a late retired general, and partly due to government funding of parties during the SDP/NRC era. Today, the average politician is bereft of ideas; his political ingenuity is reserved for generating money. Buhari has never laid any claim to the wealth that can trigger this kind of ingenuity. Also, the recent history of some newly formed parties enjoying the support of billionaire ex-generals has clearly shown that financing politics in Nigeria is beyond what even the most generous hand in the country can afford.
Party
Finally, let us briefly discuss the framework. A platform is needed for any organized political opposition, which in politics of a secular country like ours is usually provided by the party or organization one belongs to.
After 4-19, the highest office Buhari will occupy in the ANPP is membership of its Board of Trustees, under the leadership of Augustus Aikhomu. He cannot speak on behalf of the party because he is not Don Etiebet, its Chairman.
More importantly, the ANPP as a party has its fundamental shortcomings. I doubt if its founders in 1998 stood on a higher moral ground than those of the PDP. During the Fourth Republic, its governors scored the same F-grade in terms of accountability and achievements as those of PDP.
There is little wonder also if some of them were quick in distancing themselves from him after they have ‘won’ their seats for the second time. They quickly went to Aso Rock to pay homage to Obasanjo and enjoy his victory cake even before their party could decide on what to do with the 419 it suffered from during the last elections. How could Buhari and these characters be partners in opposition? It would have been different if he were the President because of the authority that his office would command. But then he wouldn’t need to be an opposition leader!
These are some reasons why I do not share your idea that Buhari should lead any opposition in the country. But I may not be absolutely right.
“The North” Again?
In case the advice on leading an opposition against the government is not accepted by Buhari, or in addition to it, Aisha had the following suggestion: “If you lose your 4-19 contest and you still return home to make yourself useful before 2007, believe me you have enough clout to advise and be listened to. You might even set up a North Development (Special) Trust Fund (NDTF) and have all governors contributing. Knowing that you can always be trusted with our Naira and kobo you are the natural choice to head the NDTF.
“A meaningful quarterly contribution to the fund by all governors (and local government chairmen),” she added, “could provide enough money to address the key concerns of Northern Nigeria. We decry the rot in the education sector, in health services, in provision of social amenities, as well as the neglect of our economic mainstay – agriculture. If the NDTF can address all this through judicious use of the money contributed, you dear General would have served Nigeria in the best possible way. And who knows, may be by 2007 you will not need to campaign at all; your sterling record at the NDTF, added to all the others could grant you a smooth sail to the Presidency.”
My first reaction to this suggestion is that it has shortened the vision of Buhari and confined his role to the North. In fact, the region – in political terms – actually does not exist today, as it did before 1966, with abundant respect to the efforts made by various bodies like the ACF to sustain its concept. I doubt very much if Buhari has joined politics to save the North alone, but the nation as a whole. I have never heard him speak of the North exclusive of other parts of Nigeria. He thinks, like how most soldiers do, in the context of post-civil war Nigeria. So I doubt if, after losing the 4-19 ‘war’, the General would, in the regional context, go beyond membership of Board of Trustees of the ACF, in congregation of past heads of states from the region.
More importantly, however, is the absence of political and constitutional allowance that will enable him play the suggested NDTF role. I do not know of any Northern governor at present who will surrender a dime to Buhari to use in solving any problem in the region. They are a bunch that is even opposed to ACF, believing that the body was formed to usurp political leadership of the region from them. Most Northern governors are yet to redeem N15m pledge they made over two years ago on School of Basic and Remedial Studies, Funtua – something they initiated and agreed upon in one of their meetings – when on the average each of them receives a billion monthly from the federation account!
Let us remember that for the past four years, each of the 19 Northern governors has been receiving more than the annual budget of Northern Nigeria, which was only £29million in 1963 – “a pound per head”, as the slogan then was.
The geographical North is still a region whose leadership is deeply entrenched in retrogression, reaction and corruption of unprecedented dimension. All the ills of underdevelopment are here. To compound the matter, an elaborate syndicate of inept political elite have decided to back only candidates of questionable origins, backgrounds and aptitude for leadership roles. Once in office, like their counterparts in other regions, they portray their unassailable brilliance and insatiable appetite for self-aggrandizement, not for service to the people they so much despise and who are in dire need of basic things like water, health care and primary education.
Therefore, the governors can only tolerate Buhari as long as he lives quietly among their masses, not when he is ready to break their monopoly over the treasury, or lead them to the path of probity. They would rather make do with chaps who will help them launder their stolen billions in purchasing mansions and hotels overseas, or run their petroleum smuggling business to Niger, or worst of all, help them commit all sorts of electoral malpractices.
Finally, as for Buhari Presidency come 2007, his admirers will not then be at a better state of hope than they are now. After all, who believes that there will be a vacancy in Aso Rock then? And if there will be any, it will certainly not be for the Northerner. The Igbo, as Obasanjo has started hinting, will then justifiably be entitled to it. I concur, and Atiku must be told this, right now.
Whatever is the situation by 2007, we are bound to witness worse electoral malpractice then. I doubt if a one-party dominated state would not emerge then in the country, with PDP sweeping everywhere, scoring 99.99% with a 99% turnout, like 4-19, like that of Saddam Hussein.
Conclusion
So, Aisha, let us leave Buhari alone to decide how he intends to spend his post 4-19 days. If, on the one hand, he believes that, in spite of the fear that the wolf may attack the shepherd, the sheep should not be left alone and, therefore, wishes to spend the days in opposition together with younger generations, then it will be commendable, though daunting as we have seen above. If, on the other, he decides to go back to his retirement, I believe he has done a enough even within the last one year in politics to warrant a rest.
The next four years will definitely be rough and challenging, as is the common practice of any government that has inherited itself by subverting the will of the people in a developing country like ours. Coercion becomes its only source of legitimacy. The ball of opposition is in the court of public commentators like you. A pen that remains consistent in supporting the truth and collective good is mightier than the sharpest sword that any civilian dictator could afford in the next four years. And the greatest struggle, we are told long ago, is to speak the truth in the face of injustice.
Discourse 128 My Stand on IBB and Emir of Gwandu
Discourse (128)
My Stand on IBB, Buhari and the Emir of Gwandu
By
Dr. Aliyu Tilde
aliyutilde@yahoo.com
Expectedly, our last discourse was upsetting to His Highness, the Emir of Gwandu. He met with two of my elder brothers – Mohammed Haruna and Kabiru Yusuf – to complain about it and even threaten a court action. However, the elder brothers pleaded with him to give up the idea, and he yielded. I am grateful for their persuasion because, were it not for it, students and practitioners of Nigerian law of tort would have had a new case to study and cite in their schools and courts – Emir of Gwandu v Tilde. I would have been forced to publicly deny every word in the article and pay as damages a sum that is likely to be beyond my reach. I now remember Mutawakkil al-Laithi and pledges to be of very good conduct henceforth, at least in public.
However, one of the brothers – Muhammed Haruna - went a bit further, all in an effort to protect me. He lightly spanked me a couple of times, like anyone of us would do to an erring younger brother or son, saying, ‘you stubborn boy, do not court trouble again. If you do it, I will allow them to deal with you.’ That is my honest interpretation of the spirit with which he wrote The maligning of the Emir of Gwandu which appeared in his Wednesday Column of Daily Trust two days ago.
I have undoubtedly proved to be very stubborn, for that was the second time brother Haruna has spanked me for erring in public. As he once did so to correct me some months ago in reply to my Seven sins of Buhari, unfortunately, due to my fragility, he injured me with his long nail in a spot. I was shy to complain the first time. The wound has almost completed healing, as Ummi Kulthum would say in Fakkarouni, when this second time he mistakenly hit the same spot with the same nail. In addition to the refreshed wound, Haruna has mistakenly injured me in two other spots in his recent article. Though these injuries are not grievous enough to tamper with the admiration I have for him, in my discourse today I would nevertheless like to persuasively show him these spots such that next time he would set out to correct me, as Motanabbi would hold, he will be a bit careful on where to hit on my body.
IBB
The first wound was regarding IBB, about whom Haruna in his first article said I “hate” and recently said “Tilde believes is all vice and no virtue.” Haba yaya. How could a person be all vice and no virtue, regardless of his prayer, generosity and so on? I will not be surprised if the IBB himself and many of his friends believe the way Haruna does. But they are mistaken.
Let it be on record that I do not hate Babangida. Hatred is not my trade, at all. Haruna must take this word as honestly coming from a brother whom in his recent article he qualified as a “Malam, in the true sense of the word.” Let IBB and his friends also please believe in it.
If I hate IBB and believe that he is all vice and no virtue, I would not have ever written The North will vote for Babangida in which I called him to run for the presidency even if it were against the principles that I have been expounding in the column for two years then. Though I knew it carried the risk of contradiction and that of earning ‘intifadah’ from my dear readers (which they fairly did anyway, and so Atiku was not alone) I nevertheless went ahead and published it. (By the way, I have read that Atiku denied being stoned and booed at Kano. What then did the Emir went to Aso to apologize for then?)
I have realized that brother Haruna has quoted that essay many times in his recent article and it was his basis for diagnosing my problem as “confusion” over who should lead Nigeria – between “Buhari the idealist and Babangida the pragmatist.” I plead with brother Haruna to refresh his memory about what I said regarding Babangida in Goodbye Disappointed Reader, an answer to some of my readers who who staged an intifadah against me as a result of the first article. In it I placed all of us on the same spiritual plain as IBB.
Though confusion, contradictions and other ‘cons’ are part of the natural state of the human mind, and I am thoroughly human, I will still hold the view that Haruna would do his brother a better justice if he had quoted my article in its proper perspective. He should not, like Abu Nuwwas, say that “Your Lord has not said ‘curse those intoxicated (with beer)’, but he said ‘curse unto those who say prayers.” I have granted myself the allowance of explaining the seeming contradiction, on which recent political developments in the North have vindicated me completely.
In those two articles, I have given my reason for assuring IBB of the support of the North, were he to be the sole contender against Obasanjo in 2003. This is implicitly the stand that ACF took one year after that article was published. Someone is needed to stand against Obasanjo for the reason of survival, both of the region and the country at large. I have a strong belief that the corruption going on under Obasanjo is more than whatever we witnessed during IBB; the rate at which the units in the federation are becoming increasingly separated was alarming; the performance of the government was terribly poor; so much insecurity, poverty and so on.
It was reasonable therefore to think – and I may be wrong – that within the context of the aforementioned, IBB stood a better chance of gaining the support of the North than Obasanjo. A year later, I have heard people say that if Obasanjo and IBB were to contest, they will rather hold their votes. As for me, I still believe that I will vote for IBB. People may still feel that this is a contradiction, but it is a fact. For that reason, I will gladly serve under IBB a million times than under the Obasanjo that I know today. Under IBB at least people like Jibril Aminu, to my judgment, have in many ways performed well, far better than what the ministers under Obasanjo are presently doing.
I was disappointed that IBB was hesitant to follow the feelers he sent with action. To be precise, as many people know today, he has given up the question of contesting, to the extent that Obasanjo and his boys had a field day terrorizing us by saying that “there is no alternative to Obasanjo”, “no Mandela option”, “no vacancy in Aso Rock”, no whatever. This was terror. I do not know precisely when people started approaching Buhari, calling on him to develop interest in the presidential race. I was not at all in the picture until when hints of those efforts started appearing in our dailies, particularly Thisday. Believe my haste. I was fast in capturing the opportunity, quick in response. Without any hesitation, I lent my voice to that call. That was when I wrote Buhari, Please Join Politics Now.
People may now blame me, only with the benefit of hindsight though, that I was not wise enough to know that Buhari could be convinced to join politics. I doubt if Buhari knew that either, as he repeatedly said. But I know two things at least: one that God stand between man and his heart; and two, if it was certain that IBB will and can contest against Obasanjo, Buhari would not have bothered himself about the presidential bid. I am certain about the two.
But Malam Haruna, being closer to IBB than I am, knows very well the worry in the camp of IBB regarding his silence over this matter. It is a disappointment not only to the majority of people in that camp but also to us, who many believe are pythons that are full of venom, ready to spit against IBB.
However, I think I know the source of this disappointment. Part of it arises from the fact that IBB was once in power and he knows very well what damage an incumbent could cause to any opponent. Obasanjo is undoubtedly in a position to impair with IBB’s wealth and freedom, as he respectively did for the Abacha family and people like Bamaiyi. IBB is not a fool. He knows that among the thousands who have been enjoying his generosity, very few, if any, would risk to protest on the street or even write an article in his favor against Obasanjo. He saw it once happen to Yar’adua and Obasanjo. However, when everybody goes quiet, Haruna should not be surprised if it will be will be “confused” people like Tilde who will come out, “with all guns blazing” to the aid of IBB by writing “nasty pieces” against the selective justice of Obasanjo. The days are near, with the desire shown by the president, in compliance with the Afenifere conditions, to implement the recommendations of the Oputa Panel. Then brother Haruna will know that Tsiya ma da ranar ta. I think IBB already knows this potential in Tilde. That is why he has never bothered me. I like intelligent guys.
But I do not believe that Obasanjo is a fool either. Any incarceration of Babangida will further infuriate the North and lessen the success of his tazarce bid in 2003. What he is expected to do is to use any evidence he has against Babangida to coerce him into playing his game. And it is in this light that we clearly see the revival of the role Babangida played in the success of Obasanjo in 1999. That is the major message in the Privatization of APP: the joint bid of Babangida and Obasanjo which Haruna, to use his word, “thought was a nasty piece that unnecessarily antagonized General Ibrahim Babangida.” He must accept the rule uncertainty becomes certain with time because of the limited scope of our reasoning and the mistakes we commit. That is how the unpredictable Babangida became predictable since the early nineties.
However, a more fundamental problem of the article on Privatization of APP was that it accurately predicted and pre-empted the move of Obasanjo and IBB. It is nasty because that kind of information is supposed to be published only in confidential magazines that are restricted to top echelon political circles only. The public, especially in the North, have for long been denied access to such category of information. They come to know the truth ad post mortem, after they have been used and discarded. I owe my people, or at least the readers of this column the duty to tell them what I know, particularly now that the region has declared its resolution to work against Obasanjo’s second bid. It was not intended at all to “unnecessarily antagonize IBB”, Bafarawa, and others, to the detriment of Buhari’s candidature.
Propaganda?
This brings me to the second wound. Haruna referred to my recent writings as propaganda which he defined as “the systematic spreading of deceptive or distorted information to achieve certain, invariably dubious, objectives.” It is a pity, that my brother does not know me well. The irony is that he reads this column always but he is yet to discern my personality. I will mention two things here. First, Haruna needs to find out personally the type of person I am. Though I recognize, as Abbas al-Aqqad said in Ana, that people may have an opinion about a person that is completely different from the one he holds about himself, Haruna should grant me the pleasure of immodestly to assert that “invariable dubiousness” has never been part of my habit or objective. So propaganda cannot be my tool.
The second thing is that what I said in Privatization of APP cannot be disputed. All the meetings I mentioned took place, in the way I described them; no one can deny them. As for the objective of the merger, it is clear now, as Haruna would confirm if he takes a peep into the ANPP presently, that the merger was a sell out, in spite of what anybody will say. Events have now proved that and more in the near future will affirm my stand. It is not propaganda. It is the truth. If Obasanjo is allowed to confiscate the ANPP, I know for sure that there will be two great losers: one, the North which will be demystified politically; and IBB who should expect a very rough time during the second tenure of Obasanjo. My words will not save him. That is my worry, and I can see many hands that are prepared to do exactly that job for their selfish goals. Forget about Buhari, who, if defeated at the primaries, will have every opportunity laugh last. He will look at us and say, “shebi I told you?”
Falsehood
The third wound is the charge of malicious falsehood against His Royal Highness, the Emir of Gwandu. I believe my article has done a great service to His Highness. I personally hold our traditional rulers in high esteem, though I am not blue-blooded in any way. I believe that there should be wisdom and decorum in the way they conduct themselves especially regarding political matters. The Emir has breached that in his desire to reconcile Buhari and Babangida. Going about gathering a congregation of Emirs at Arewa House or even going through ACF was not the best way of doing it, in my view.
I strongly believe that the two can reconcile themselves, if left alone. Nothing gives me this feeling other than the courage that Buhari had in preferring to pick the phone and call Babangida rather than allowing third parties (‘yan kai kawo) to arrange their meeting. I believe Babangida wanted to come, as he promised Buhari, but was prevented by people who go about town boasting that they stopped him from doing so. In addition, Buhari – supposedly the aggrieved party - has on more than one occasion publicly said he has forgiven IBB. What else do we expect him to do? To go about kissing IBB’s feet saying, I have forgiven you?
What role is therefore left for ACF and Emirs to play? Nothing. The role that remains is for people like Haruna and my humble self who appear to be close to the two. Let us prevail on them to use every chance to meet through the various opportunities that present themselves daily. It is through this that the gaps would be bridged, leaving out their fundamental difference like matters regarding worldview, personal principles, approach to governance, etc, which may vary as people vary in the length of their feet.
Still, if the His Royal Highness, the Emir of Gwandu, had felt that the rift between them necessarily calls for the involvement of a third party, he would have adopted the standard practice of the Sultanate. As Late Sir Abubakar Siddique once did with the seven northern presidential aspirants in the NPN in the Second Republic, His Eminence, the incumbent Sultan, also has the power to invite Babangida and Buhari to his palace within 24 hours and reconcile them. I am sure that both will listen to him and both will give him the assurance that they will do their best to improve on their relationship.
I often sympathize with Babangida. Though it is said that people are asset, sometimes – or most times rather – they can also be a problem, as the issue in question has shown. What IBB could do personally, people suddenly jump, for whatever reason, to offer their ‘assistance’. At the end the results are not always as bright as if he had taken the little inconvenience of doing it himself.
That is my view about the reconciliation. I was happy that about the meeting in Kaduna, we varied with yaya Haruna only in version. He heard one; I heard another. Both are now in public and people are free to believe whichever suits them.
ACF
Finally, just a small correction for my brother. Unlike what Haruna has said, Buhari has no problem with ACF. No, at least not yet. I believe if ACF will use the criteria of merit as expounded by the founders of the Sokoto Caliphate and which I once wrote about in 2003: Choosing a suitable candidate, he will have no problem even if the organization were to endorse someone better than him. It seemed before he could even go a third way through his article, yaya Haruna fell into the same trap of misjudgment of which he accused me of committing.
Conclusion
As I said in the beginning, I did not see Haruna’s recent article as hostile to me. He was calling his junior brother to order, in his effort to persuade His Royal Highness to abandon the idea of a court action.
If, however, I am wrong in my perception of Haruna’s motive, I expect him to pardon my credulity. If his intention was to expose my contradictions as regards IBB, he has done a futile job because I already believe, in spite of all the explanations that I gave above, in what Sidi Khalil said in his Précis, that no author is beyond mistake. For that I did not bother to write a rejoinder per se. This is not one. Had I wanted to do so, certainly, that would have been the cheapest thing – God willing and with all gratitude unto Him – which I could do even while asleep.
My Stand on IBB, Buhari and the Emir of Gwandu
By
Dr. Aliyu Tilde
aliyutilde@yahoo.com
Expectedly, our last discourse was upsetting to His Highness, the Emir of Gwandu. He met with two of my elder brothers – Mohammed Haruna and Kabiru Yusuf – to complain about it and even threaten a court action. However, the elder brothers pleaded with him to give up the idea, and he yielded. I am grateful for their persuasion because, were it not for it, students and practitioners of Nigerian law of tort would have had a new case to study and cite in their schools and courts – Emir of Gwandu v Tilde. I would have been forced to publicly deny every word in the article and pay as damages a sum that is likely to be beyond my reach. I now remember Mutawakkil al-Laithi and pledges to be of very good conduct henceforth, at least in public.
However, one of the brothers – Muhammed Haruna - went a bit further, all in an effort to protect me. He lightly spanked me a couple of times, like anyone of us would do to an erring younger brother or son, saying, ‘you stubborn boy, do not court trouble again. If you do it, I will allow them to deal with you.’ That is my honest interpretation of the spirit with which he wrote The maligning of the Emir of Gwandu which appeared in his Wednesday Column of Daily Trust two days ago.
I have undoubtedly proved to be very stubborn, for that was the second time brother Haruna has spanked me for erring in public. As he once did so to correct me some months ago in reply to my Seven sins of Buhari, unfortunately, due to my fragility, he injured me with his long nail in a spot. I was shy to complain the first time. The wound has almost completed healing, as Ummi Kulthum would say in Fakkarouni, when this second time he mistakenly hit the same spot with the same nail. In addition to the refreshed wound, Haruna has mistakenly injured me in two other spots in his recent article. Though these injuries are not grievous enough to tamper with the admiration I have for him, in my discourse today I would nevertheless like to persuasively show him these spots such that next time he would set out to correct me, as Motanabbi would hold, he will be a bit careful on where to hit on my body.
IBB
The first wound was regarding IBB, about whom Haruna in his first article said I “hate” and recently said “Tilde believes is all vice and no virtue.” Haba yaya. How could a person be all vice and no virtue, regardless of his prayer, generosity and so on? I will not be surprised if the IBB himself and many of his friends believe the way Haruna does. But they are mistaken.
Let it be on record that I do not hate Babangida. Hatred is not my trade, at all. Haruna must take this word as honestly coming from a brother whom in his recent article he qualified as a “Malam, in the true sense of the word.” Let IBB and his friends also please believe in it.
If I hate IBB and believe that he is all vice and no virtue, I would not have ever written The North will vote for Babangida in which I called him to run for the presidency even if it were against the principles that I have been expounding in the column for two years then. Though I knew it carried the risk of contradiction and that of earning ‘intifadah’ from my dear readers (which they fairly did anyway, and so Atiku was not alone) I nevertheless went ahead and published it. (By the way, I have read that Atiku denied being stoned and booed at Kano. What then did the Emir went to Aso to apologize for then?)
I have realized that brother Haruna has quoted that essay many times in his recent article and it was his basis for diagnosing my problem as “confusion” over who should lead Nigeria – between “Buhari the idealist and Babangida the pragmatist.” I plead with brother Haruna to refresh his memory about what I said regarding Babangida in Goodbye Disappointed Reader, an answer to some of my readers who who staged an intifadah against me as a result of the first article. In it I placed all of us on the same spiritual plain as IBB.
Though confusion, contradictions and other ‘cons’ are part of the natural state of the human mind, and I am thoroughly human, I will still hold the view that Haruna would do his brother a better justice if he had quoted my article in its proper perspective. He should not, like Abu Nuwwas, say that “Your Lord has not said ‘curse those intoxicated (with beer)’, but he said ‘curse unto those who say prayers.” I have granted myself the allowance of explaining the seeming contradiction, on which recent political developments in the North have vindicated me completely.
In those two articles, I have given my reason for assuring IBB of the support of the North, were he to be the sole contender against Obasanjo in 2003. This is implicitly the stand that ACF took one year after that article was published. Someone is needed to stand against Obasanjo for the reason of survival, both of the region and the country at large. I have a strong belief that the corruption going on under Obasanjo is more than whatever we witnessed during IBB; the rate at which the units in the federation are becoming increasingly separated was alarming; the performance of the government was terribly poor; so much insecurity, poverty and so on.
It was reasonable therefore to think – and I may be wrong – that within the context of the aforementioned, IBB stood a better chance of gaining the support of the North than Obasanjo. A year later, I have heard people say that if Obasanjo and IBB were to contest, they will rather hold their votes. As for me, I still believe that I will vote for IBB. People may still feel that this is a contradiction, but it is a fact. For that reason, I will gladly serve under IBB a million times than under the Obasanjo that I know today. Under IBB at least people like Jibril Aminu, to my judgment, have in many ways performed well, far better than what the ministers under Obasanjo are presently doing.
I was disappointed that IBB was hesitant to follow the feelers he sent with action. To be precise, as many people know today, he has given up the question of contesting, to the extent that Obasanjo and his boys had a field day terrorizing us by saying that “there is no alternative to Obasanjo”, “no Mandela option”, “no vacancy in Aso Rock”, no whatever. This was terror. I do not know precisely when people started approaching Buhari, calling on him to develop interest in the presidential race. I was not at all in the picture until when hints of those efforts started appearing in our dailies, particularly Thisday. Believe my haste. I was fast in capturing the opportunity, quick in response. Without any hesitation, I lent my voice to that call. That was when I wrote Buhari, Please Join Politics Now.
People may now blame me, only with the benefit of hindsight though, that I was not wise enough to know that Buhari could be convinced to join politics. I doubt if Buhari knew that either, as he repeatedly said. But I know two things at least: one that God stand between man and his heart; and two, if it was certain that IBB will and can contest against Obasanjo, Buhari would not have bothered himself about the presidential bid. I am certain about the two.
But Malam Haruna, being closer to IBB than I am, knows very well the worry in the camp of IBB regarding his silence over this matter. It is a disappointment not only to the majority of people in that camp but also to us, who many believe are pythons that are full of venom, ready to spit against IBB.
However, I think I know the source of this disappointment. Part of it arises from the fact that IBB was once in power and he knows very well what damage an incumbent could cause to any opponent. Obasanjo is undoubtedly in a position to impair with IBB’s wealth and freedom, as he respectively did for the Abacha family and people like Bamaiyi. IBB is not a fool. He knows that among the thousands who have been enjoying his generosity, very few, if any, would risk to protest on the street or even write an article in his favor against Obasanjo. He saw it once happen to Yar’adua and Obasanjo. However, when everybody goes quiet, Haruna should not be surprised if it will be will be “confused” people like Tilde who will come out, “with all guns blazing” to the aid of IBB by writing “nasty pieces” against the selective justice of Obasanjo. The days are near, with the desire shown by the president, in compliance with the Afenifere conditions, to implement the recommendations of the Oputa Panel. Then brother Haruna will know that Tsiya ma da ranar ta. I think IBB already knows this potential in Tilde. That is why he has never bothered me. I like intelligent guys.
But I do not believe that Obasanjo is a fool either. Any incarceration of Babangida will further infuriate the North and lessen the success of his tazarce bid in 2003. What he is expected to do is to use any evidence he has against Babangida to coerce him into playing his game. And it is in this light that we clearly see the revival of the role Babangida played in the success of Obasanjo in 1999. That is the major message in the Privatization of APP: the joint bid of Babangida and Obasanjo which Haruna, to use his word, “thought was a nasty piece that unnecessarily antagonized General Ibrahim Babangida.” He must accept the rule uncertainty becomes certain with time because of the limited scope of our reasoning and the mistakes we commit. That is how the unpredictable Babangida became predictable since the early nineties.
However, a more fundamental problem of the article on Privatization of APP was that it accurately predicted and pre-empted the move of Obasanjo and IBB. It is nasty because that kind of information is supposed to be published only in confidential magazines that are restricted to top echelon political circles only. The public, especially in the North, have for long been denied access to such category of information. They come to know the truth ad post mortem, after they have been used and discarded. I owe my people, or at least the readers of this column the duty to tell them what I know, particularly now that the region has declared its resolution to work against Obasanjo’s second bid. It was not intended at all to “unnecessarily antagonize IBB”, Bafarawa, and others, to the detriment of Buhari’s candidature.
Propaganda?
This brings me to the second wound. Haruna referred to my recent writings as propaganda which he defined as “the systematic spreading of deceptive or distorted information to achieve certain, invariably dubious, objectives.” It is a pity, that my brother does not know me well. The irony is that he reads this column always but he is yet to discern my personality. I will mention two things here. First, Haruna needs to find out personally the type of person I am. Though I recognize, as Abbas al-Aqqad said in Ana, that people may have an opinion about a person that is completely different from the one he holds about himself, Haruna should grant me the pleasure of immodestly to assert that “invariable dubiousness” has never been part of my habit or objective. So propaganda cannot be my tool.
The second thing is that what I said in Privatization of APP cannot be disputed. All the meetings I mentioned took place, in the way I described them; no one can deny them. As for the objective of the merger, it is clear now, as Haruna would confirm if he takes a peep into the ANPP presently, that the merger was a sell out, in spite of what anybody will say. Events have now proved that and more in the near future will affirm my stand. It is not propaganda. It is the truth. If Obasanjo is allowed to confiscate the ANPP, I know for sure that there will be two great losers: one, the North which will be demystified politically; and IBB who should expect a very rough time during the second tenure of Obasanjo. My words will not save him. That is my worry, and I can see many hands that are prepared to do exactly that job for their selfish goals. Forget about Buhari, who, if defeated at the primaries, will have every opportunity laugh last. He will look at us and say, “shebi I told you?”
Falsehood
The third wound is the charge of malicious falsehood against His Royal Highness, the Emir of Gwandu. I believe my article has done a great service to His Highness. I personally hold our traditional rulers in high esteem, though I am not blue-blooded in any way. I believe that there should be wisdom and decorum in the way they conduct themselves especially regarding political matters. The Emir has breached that in his desire to reconcile Buhari and Babangida. Going about gathering a congregation of Emirs at Arewa House or even going through ACF was not the best way of doing it, in my view.
I strongly believe that the two can reconcile themselves, if left alone. Nothing gives me this feeling other than the courage that Buhari had in preferring to pick the phone and call Babangida rather than allowing third parties (‘yan kai kawo) to arrange their meeting. I believe Babangida wanted to come, as he promised Buhari, but was prevented by people who go about town boasting that they stopped him from doing so. In addition, Buhari – supposedly the aggrieved party - has on more than one occasion publicly said he has forgiven IBB. What else do we expect him to do? To go about kissing IBB’s feet saying, I have forgiven you?
What role is therefore left for ACF and Emirs to play? Nothing. The role that remains is for people like Haruna and my humble self who appear to be close to the two. Let us prevail on them to use every chance to meet through the various opportunities that present themselves daily. It is through this that the gaps would be bridged, leaving out their fundamental difference like matters regarding worldview, personal principles, approach to governance, etc, which may vary as people vary in the length of their feet.
Still, if the His Royal Highness, the Emir of Gwandu, had felt that the rift between them necessarily calls for the involvement of a third party, he would have adopted the standard practice of the Sultanate. As Late Sir Abubakar Siddique once did with the seven northern presidential aspirants in the NPN in the Second Republic, His Eminence, the incumbent Sultan, also has the power to invite Babangida and Buhari to his palace within 24 hours and reconcile them. I am sure that both will listen to him and both will give him the assurance that they will do their best to improve on their relationship.
I often sympathize with Babangida. Though it is said that people are asset, sometimes – or most times rather – they can also be a problem, as the issue in question has shown. What IBB could do personally, people suddenly jump, for whatever reason, to offer their ‘assistance’. At the end the results are not always as bright as if he had taken the little inconvenience of doing it himself.
That is my view about the reconciliation. I was happy that about the meeting in Kaduna, we varied with yaya Haruna only in version. He heard one; I heard another. Both are now in public and people are free to believe whichever suits them.
ACF
Finally, just a small correction for my brother. Unlike what Haruna has said, Buhari has no problem with ACF. No, at least not yet. I believe if ACF will use the criteria of merit as expounded by the founders of the Sokoto Caliphate and which I once wrote about in 2003: Choosing a suitable candidate, he will have no problem even if the organization were to endorse someone better than him. It seemed before he could even go a third way through his article, yaya Haruna fell into the same trap of misjudgment of which he accused me of committing.
Conclusion
As I said in the beginning, I did not see Haruna’s recent article as hostile to me. He was calling his junior brother to order, in his effort to persuade His Royal Highness to abandon the idea of a court action.
If, however, I am wrong in my perception of Haruna’s motive, I expect him to pardon my credulity. If his intention was to expose my contradictions as regards IBB, he has done a futile job because I already believe, in spite of all the explanations that I gave above, in what Sidi Khalil said in his Précis, that no author is beyond mistake. For that I did not bother to write a rejoinder per se. This is not one. Had I wanted to do so, certainly, that would have been the cheapest thing – God willing and with all gratitude unto Him – which I could do even while asleep.
The Failed Contract of the Emir of Gwandu
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.
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.
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