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Author: Okah Ewah Edede
Posted to the web: 2/21/2006 7:07:10 AM

The other day, I went to visit a friend in his house when I ran into a heated dialectical discussion. Two other of my unemployed graduate friends were there, and they were laboriously espousing elegant ideas on the man called obasanjo.
       'O boy, that man, OBJ, is a wicked tyrant,' Stanley fumed,
       'He has placed us in a situation where the gnawing edge of hunger never departs,' emoted Balogun, the friend we all came to visit.
       'Cool-off guys, that man has good intentions for this country,' Hassan argued.
       ' How dare you say a thing like that, Hassan?' Balogun queried,
       ' Men, I'm piqued at Hassan o!' Stanley said solemnly.
       'Though times are hard, Obasanjo has well meaning intentions for this country. His fight against corruption, not withstanding its shortcoming, is a welcomed development. His privatization exercise is another plus for his administration, though we may not give it to him now, posterity will surely praise him for pushing Nigeria out of the doldrums of a dependant economy managed by inept governments to a competitive economy being driven by the private sector. We all know that governments are the worst managers every where in the world. In the western and industrialised nations whom we envy, their economies is been controlled by the private sector.' Hassan espoused.
       'But must we suffer for the sake of development?' Stanley asked,
       'Yes we have to suffer. Russians went through the same pain during Stalin's ten years developmental scheme,'
       'It was a five years plan,' Balogun countered
       'There was a first five years plan, and a second five years plan.' I chipped in tentatively.
       'Thanks, Edede, for your contribution,' Hassan said to me.
       'Okay, which other country went through this same pain?' Balogun fired.
       'Mao took china through that path, Europe experienced it during the industrial revolution,' Hassan elucidated.
       'Hassan, why are you citing only communist countries, and an Europe that wasn't yet a democracy then?' Queried Stanley.
       'All I'm trying to stress is that for any country to be self-sufficient, that country must have a stubborn leader with the political will to take abrasive and drastic measures to push that nation from the abyss of economic dependence to economic stability,' Hassan explained
       'Now, Hassan,' I queried 'what have you got to say about his third term agenda?'
       'Look, Edede, we do not know for sure if he does harbour a third term agenda, but, just know that Obasanjo do not want to hand-over power to the super-corrupt cum powerful political dons who dominates the land.'
       'But that doesn't mean he should perpetuate himself in power. after all, he himself is a product of these political AL Capone's.' I argued.
       'The Nigerian political terrain and the the system is not meant for saints. It is only bad people like Obasanjo who can get to elected position via decoy elections. But, we should be thankful that we got an evil man with noble intentions, after all, going by our history, we have always had wicked men with sinister motives as our leaders.'
      ' But must he cling continuously to power?' I repeated stubbornly.
      ' Fire down, Edede,' Stanley and Balogun chorused, 'let hear him explain that.'
      ' Instead of handling power over to megalomaniac marauders, I rather that OBJ perpetuates himself in power.' Hassan equivocated.
      ' What? So you mean that both the governors, senators, LG chairmen, legislators and councillors should all perpetuate themselves in office as third tenurist?' We all chorused in disbelieve.
      ' Ha! Hassan! You better go and visit a shrink!' Balogun advised.
      ' (laughs) well, they should all go, but Obasanjo alone should stay if they are no other viable options.' Hassan remarked.
      ' And you think the political class will swallow that?' Stanley asked sarcastically.
      ' Okay, I accept he should leave, but he shouldn't give power to the corrupt.'
      With that the dialectic warfare ended in a truce. Yes, we all agreed that Obasanjo though a bad and stubborn man (we refused to accept that he was anything else but bad because he is a Nigerian politician), has good intentions for Nigeria. we concurred that, yes, if we must become an efficient economy, the privatization scheme and the other economic reforms though they are causing hardship to we common folks, they must be encouraged to survive.
       it is high time Nigerians learn to pay for services, rather than wait on government to subsidize for them save for essential services. it is high time to give value to proficiency and merits, and stop dwelling in the nepotic era of ethnic character and quotas. with what Obasanjo is doing today if continued by the next administration will see Nigeria becoming a competition driven economy where no particular firm, industry or parastatal will have a strangulating monopoly.
      I went home that day with a new perspective. polity may be bad, the system might be corrupt sprouting out seemingly bad personalities, but one amongst this seething cauldron of bad personage will ironically have good intention for the society.