#Reflections

Obasanjo laments mistakes
as Nigerians titrate

Busuyi Mekusi

Fate, and not necessarily faith, has been argued to be responsible for the success or otherwise someone records in the journey of life. Most socio-cultural and philosophical treatises are almost unanimous on the fact that the decisions one makes in the trajectory of life would either complement or negate the enunciating and supervisory roles the Supreme Being would play in the realisation of patterned divine template that would chart the course on earth.

Little wonder that some political adherents of Tinubu are venerating an article that relies on the artistic reflection of Ola Rotimi’s Odewale in The Gods Are Not to Blame, to typify him and his fostering by the great Madam Tinubu of Lagos.

The foregoing is one of the many efforts made to explain away the yarning gap that critics identified in the academic evolution of the APC flag-bearer, reminiscent of the scrutiny that characterises elections in Nigeria. As acceptable as the exhumation of fatalism in Rotimi’s text is in shoring up support for Asiwaju, it would be good if the reading is done, juxtaposed with the complications of identity theft in Athol Fugard’s Sizwe Bansi is Dead. As we continue the march to 2023 presidential election, the lamentation-laced reflection of the former president, Olusegun Obasanjo, about his major mistakes in the past, and how God saved him from them, is resonating enough as Nigerians continue to politically ‘titrate’; verbally, strategically, emotionally and abusively, to ensure that another mistake is not committed in choosing a leader.

Mistakes are errors or blunders, which are characteristic of both man and God. The infallibility of God was abnegated by the human ambitious fallibility that made God to repent ever creating man. To titrate is to ascertain the amount of constituent in a solution, based on standard, needed to complete a reaction. To titrate similarly means adjusting the amount of a drug consumed until desired effects are achieved. With Obasanjo’s mistakes being part of the political adjustments that Nigerians have been making to attain nationhood, it is important to convert his moment of confession to the evaluation of the political titrations in contemporary Nigeria to prevent, individually and collectively, making new set of mistakes.                        

Olusegun Aremu Obasanjo, who claimed to have been born in 1937, and joined the army in 1958, is one of the uncommon statesmen that Nigeria has produced. He, like Buhari, had the privilege of ruling Nigeria as both a military and civilian. This feat could not be achieved by Abacha and Babangida. While the former lost his prestigious ambition to death, the latter got his dimmed by the clouds of the annulment of the 1993 presidential election that has been acknowledged was won by MKO Abiola. Obasanjo reluctantly but patronisingly became Nigeria military ruler in 1976, following the assassination of his boss, Murtala Muhammad, and presided over democratic elections, handed over to a democratically-elected civilian government in 1979. In 1995, Sani Abacha tried him for plotting a coup, and he was sentenced to life imprisonment. Following the political imbroglio that followed the annulment of the June 12, 1993 presidential election, and the need to placate the southwest for the controversial death of the winner, MKO Abiola, Obasanjo got pardoned, and was brought out of prison by the Gen. Abdusalam Abubakah military government to be part of the democratic process. Obasanjo won the presidential election in 1999, returning to the seat of power in Agbádá. 

The unique personality of Obasanjo coloured his administration, spotted with deft political moves and engagements. The frequency of the change of the leadership of the Senate during his regime was seen by some as evident of his capacity to bait people and get their smeared anuses examined for putrefaction, moments later. His Machiavellian handling of the removal of Chuba Okadigbo is still distilled by analysts as the use of the mouse style, which would bite and blow its victim, simultaneously. Obasanjo was said to have visited Okadigbo in his official quarters in the morning before his removal by his colleagues. It was also common knowledge that Obasanjo had a running battle with his vice, Atiku Abubakar, who was believed to be very powerful with the privatisations of some government properties, and who was taunted to be politically powerful enough to influence the national assembly. The frosty relationship between the two was hinged by some on the thwarting of the denied ‘third term agenda’ of Obasanjo by Atiku. The self-conceited memoir of Obasanjo, My Watch, contains his perceptions of Atiku.

Obasanjo recently reopened a closing wound, while answering questions posed by students from selected secondary schools that participated in the final of the National Exhibition and Awards organised by students for the advancement of entrepreneurship at the Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library, Abeokuta, where a small bottle of table water sold for N500 in 2017, as against the N50 street value, when he listed some of his genuine mistakes to include: choosing a vice when he was civilian president in 1999; his joining the army; and his decision not to accept the asylum offered him by the American ambassador to Nigeria when he was to be arrested for fathom coup by Abacha. Obasanjo said some people felt it was a mistake for him to join the army, as he could have died in service. He also believed that he could have been killed by Abacha, after refusing to leave the country, and that his selection of a vice was a mistake, apparently referencing Atiku. One wonders why Obasanjo who claimed have met with God while in prison would make a mistake in taking a political decision that almost demystified him. Certainly, man is fallible!

As Nigeria leadership challenges subsist, with motionless strides, it is disheartening that the statesmen paraded in the country are guilty, with their utterances devoid of restitution for their many mistakes. In their imperfection, they continue to make political legislation. From the Hill-Top Mansion of Babangida, that is now a political Mecca, to the Obasanjo Presidential Library, which was a product of executive financial donations and presumptuousness of government allies during his regime, the youths that were successively described as ‘leaders of tomorrow’ remain in servitude, as the old breeds hold tenaciously to power. The hypocrisy of Obasanjo saw him lamenting the political repression of the younger generation, when he was also guilty of taking their turn, just as Tinubu’s turn-by-turn model is also problematic. 

Analogous to Obasanjo’s mistakes, Nigeria continues to wriggle under the burdensome consequences of incessant military interruptions that did not just militarise the Nigerian space but planted the seed of ethnic mistrusts and annihilation. The errors of the Nigerian Civil War have defied solutions, with a high sense of conquering resonating in the camps of others who still redundantly perceive the vestiges of Biafra as vanquished, in total negation of the Aburi sing-song. The hegemonic northern establishment is believed to have used military regimes to positively skew state and local governments creations to favour the region, with resources allocated at the centre based on such entities. The loud calls for restructuring or the operation of true fiscal federalism in the country are a response to this perceived lopsidedness, even as some states in the southern hemisphere also have disproportional local government areas, compared to others within the region.

The Nigeria military is also said to have been bogged-down by ethno-religious considerations, even as enemies espionages continue to hamper the efforts of the Nigerian army to effectively tackle the amorphous security challenges the country is faced with. Corruption was believed to have been nurtured under successive military regimes, even though the claim of endemic corruption in previous administrations, and pledged fight against corruption was usually one of the highpoints with which every illegitimate military leadership sought acceptance and attained legitimacy.

Regrettably, the fight against terrorism is the new military cash-cow, as exemplified in the controversial Dasuki arms deal saga and the opening of the Pandora box of an alleged military contractor in Abuja recently, whose house is akin to that of Escobar. The Naira continues to tumble as they stack-up scarce hard currencies in their private vaults. Matawalle’s order that Zamfara people should get licensed to carry arms for self-defence clearly shows the failure of respective governments to perform the constitutional role of protecting the citizens. As Nigerians continue to titrate, in the quest for a worthwhile president, it is hoped the conspiracy of the West would not cause the people another ‘mistake’.

Beyond our mistakes, there is the need to rebuild our institutions, and intentionally correct past political errors of: land ownership, state and local governments creations, porous borders, accidental citizenship, religious bigotry, regurgitation in place of education, and the simulation signposted as the needed titration, devoid of exploitation, leading to the closing of the gates of public higher institutions for too long. The titration of the Supreme Court Justices that exposed the alleged errors of Tanko Muhammad, the immediate past CJN, shows that Nigeria is, systemically, a mistake!

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Obasanjo laments mistakesas Nigerians titrate

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Obasanjo laments mistakesas Nigerians titrate

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