Posted by By Eric Osagie on
Chicken farmers are not supposed to be chicken-hearted, even though they inhabit the world of chickens or chickenland! The guy who presently calls the shots in this country, President Olusegun Obasanjo, is an embodiment of that truism.
Chicken farmers are not supposed to be chicken-hearted, even though they inhabit the world of chickens or chickenland! The guy who presently calls the shots in this country, President Olusegun Obasanjo, is an embodiment of that truism.
Check out most of the policies and programmes he has embarked on since mounting the saddle of leadership in 1999, you will agree with me, no doubt, that the heart of a chicken farmer isn't exactly like that of the chicken he superintends over.
OBJ has got big balls. He's got nerves and he is not afraid to take a walk in the night or if you like, take a difficult decision. Even though they are not always the right or correct decision.
However, 2007 is one critical issue the president seems, to me, to be developing cold feet or to put it the way it is, developing the heart of a chicken. Even if you don't want to describe his action regarding 2007 as being chicken-hearted, our president shows clearly by the day that he has something up his sleeves or agbada pertaining 2007.
Sadly, he shows by the minute and by the day, that he is brewing something strange or funny in the race to Aso Rock, come 2007. He shows by the day that Obasanjo is grooming Obasanjo to take over from him in 2007. He shows by the day, as Dimgba Igwe tried to put it in his SELDOM SNAPS column on Wednesday, that our president doesn't have a succession agenda.
In plain, ordinary words, what it means is that he hasn't any plan for who will take over from him, which is another way of saying that he may not have any plans to quit office when his 8-year term expires in 2007.
Oh yes, the president has said many times and assured several people that he intends to return to his chickens at his Ota farms in 2007. His aides also have been knocking their heads against the wall and swearing that OBJ will go in 2007. And only recently, the president told the visiting World Bank president, Mr. Wolfotwitz, that his heart was already in Ota, while only his physical body is at Aso Rock, meaning it won't exactly be a problem, his leaving Aso Rock in 2007.
Ordinarily, any one who understands the English language shouldn't have a problem understanding what OBJ and his men have been saying about 2007. But that's, unfortunately, not the case. The more the president assures he will go, the more the people doubt him. The more they believe he has a hidden agenda, the more they believe that, like his predecessors [IBB and Abacha], he desires to tarry a little longer in Aso Rock.
And, somehow, his body language and footwork, has been unhelpful to the president in convincing his countrymen and women that he hasn't a sit-tight agenda.
Now, let's consider these: why would a president with only one functional year in office before handover, be interested in pocketing his party and the party machinery?
Why would a president already dusting his bag and baggage, be desperately lobbying for a 6-year single tenure as we hear Baba is angling for?
Why would anyone desirous of quitting office not be seriously concerned about the seeming muzzling of political gladiators for the No. 1 office in the land? Why is it that barely 24 months to 2007, no serious issues-oriented politics is going on? Why are the big politicians in the land suddenly so scared to openly indicate interest in the presidency, if not that they are not too sure if the office will actually be vacant in 2007?
Someone asked me not too long ago: Will OBJ go in 2007? My reply: yes OBJ will go in 2007, not necessarily because he really wants to.
You can see it in his eyes. You can see it written all over him. He wants to stay. But he can't stay beyond 2007. Nigerians will not allow that [and OBJ knows] even if there are one million Greg Mbadiwes screaming ‘extension' day and night.
Let's not miss the point of this discourse: OBJ has come, he is almost rounding off after playing his part according to his ability. Let history and posterity judge if he has played his part well or not.
In 2007, it's time to let someone else do his bit, see if he can turn this country round, on the path of progress and development. Do I see any of the guys presently in the hustings as capable of doing the job? That's a subject for another piece.
For now, let's ask OBJ to expand the democratic space and allow the free rein of ideas and for anyone who believes he can do the job of piloting the affairs of Nigeria to come out and sell himself to the people. Let the best guys put their foot forward, and let the best guy rule. When a leader stifles the democratic environment or strikes fear in the heart of potential candidates, or keeps his successor to his chest, we can only have a president who is either unfit or at best, a mediocre. And that's not what we need. But do the people ever matter in this matter?
Angry reader wants me to stop blaming IBB over June 12
As an avid reader of your favourite column, Flipside, I could not resist the urge to scout through the net and get my self regularly updated even in the thick of my studies back here in Washington DC where everything appears to be on the fast track of development.
I quite understand your passion about the issue of June 12 based on your orientation as one of those media gurus from the Lagos axis who would stop at nothing but to play out their ethnocentric viewpoints without factorising the issues that ordinarily provoke the circumstance.
The issue of June 12 and its accompanying victims and victors, should not be about the fermented emotions of anyone to undo the supposed chief mourner but that power play goes beyond the sweet whispers of friends and political allies different from the usual down- to- earth smiles and good wishes of well wishers.
Much as I try to unravel the rare ignorance of most seasoned writers who are better educated than my humble self but unfamiliar with the moral canard of power play and acquisition, I am most hesitant to describe you in such brackets, more so that your experience in journalism offers me enough pointer that you should be more schooled in the symptoms and symbols of power play.
You must be prepared to accept one cold fact that, there is no morality in the game of power and that is why you find the likes of Chief Tony Anenih, Prof. Jerry Gana, Ojo Maduekwe, and many other undertakers in the June 12 drama still playing dominant role in the politics of the moment.
And I often wonder why the media cannot take up this people for whatever it is worth, only to praise some of them as Mr Fix it in such celebrated quantum without relish. Otherwise, doesnt it bother you that the president of the profession that you so much professed, Mr. Smart Adeyemi, could be placing advertorials in the media singing the praises of Chief Anenih to the point of crowning him as the Leader.
Eric, you are one man that I cherish not for anything but for the ample fact that you can ask the greatest of mortals questions that agitate the minds of the ordinary people without being carried away by the pecuniary interest that has become synonymous with the practice of journalism in Nigeria.
But I am yet to discern the rational for your continuous verbiage against the man who history has shown to be the father of modern Nigeria while you feign ignorance over the destructive politics of an Anenih whom some of your colleagues often describe as their mentor. I wonder who should be held accountable on the issue of June 12, IBB or Anenih? This is my dilemma.
The politics of 2007 has since commenced and I want to assure you that no sooner those political prostitutes see the direction of the pendullum would they smartly jump over. Only then would they appreciate my factly theory that there is no morality in power play. Any one who wants to go to heaven should simply go and build mosque or church. Those who professed morality in politics like Thomas Sankara, Betrand Russel and Rev. Jesse Jackson amongst others could not sustain the moralist bent when it mattered most. They could not make a strong impact in the contrived game of power and its addictive properties. It is on this premise that some of you should begin to appreciate the undercurrents of the June 12 episode and no matter how emotional you tend to present the issues, would not stop the power oligarch and elite class from engaging in the act they know too well. One way to present a fight is to cause internal cracks within the stratum of the major power players, a thing which the present crop of journalist cannot bring about, at least for now.
If you ask me my sincere opinion, I might be tempted to support a revolution, not the kind that will make more people richer but the one that will create a social leveller for all of us though you and me may not live to enjoy the flavour. Therefore, let us all put sentiments apart and see how we can reconstruct our national history to reflect the labours of our heroes past without dissipating energy on gainless ventures that will take us no where.
• Prince Kassim Afegbua.
The Les Aspin Center for Government,
Marquette University, Washington DC.