Thinking about some weird events in Nigerian politics in recent days, weeks and months easily bring to mind one of the most startling, but now largely forgotten, revelations that came out of the Watergate scandal in the United States three decades ago. It turned out that sometime in 1971, top officials of President Richard Nixon's administration compiled an "Enemies List" of the White House and proceeded to work out a plan to use government agencies and deal with them selectively.

In the past year, the withholding of Lagos Local Government Council funds despite a Supreme Court order, instigation of the British police against former Governor Diepreye Alamieyeiseigha, the legally questionable impeachments of Governors Alamieyeisei-gha and Rashidi Ladoja, EFCC's arrest and detention of Bayelsa and Taraba lawmakers, the arrest of Alhaji Bashir Dalhatu, the comman-do-style arrest of Chief Mike Adenuga, the capture of Mohammed Babangida, EFCC's invasion of PlatinumHabib Bank in Lagos, SSS's besieging of the National Democratic Project/Atiku cam-paign office in Abuja, EFCC's besieging of an Abuja High Court to capture the Speaker of the Plateau State Assembly, as well as the "Report of the Administrative Panel of Inquiry" against the Vice President that was expeditiously compiled by the President and sent to the National Assembly "for information" together speak of an Enemies List compiled by Aso Rock in Nixonian style.

When Richard Nixon presided over the USA in 1969-74, he did not like any criticism of his administration, internal or external. This attitude was most illustrated by the case of Nixon's Interior Secretary, Walter Hickel, a former welterweight boxing champion, construction magnate and former Governor of Alaska. When Hickel publicly criticised the administra-tion's heavy-handed reaction to student protests that followed its invasion of Cambodia in 1971, Nixon summoned him to a meeting. As Hickel told the story, "He repeatedly referred to me as an adversary. Initially I took this as a compliment, because to me, an adversary within an organisation is a valuable asset.

It was only after the President had used the term many times and with a disapproving inflection that I realised he considered an adversary to be an enemy. I could not understand why he would consider me to be an enemy". When President Obasanjo demanded 100 percent loyalty from the Vice President and severally accused the VP of disloyalty, he was more than on course to imitate Richard Nixon.

As to be expected, Nixon's White House staff took their cue from the President's attitude and, in the summer of 1971, exchanged several memos on the subject of "political enemies". Nixon's Special Counsel, Charles "Chuck" Colson, took charge of what was called The Political Enemies Project. He soon produced a file that was four inches thick. An August 1971 memo from Nixon's Legal Counsel, John Dean, addressed to the President's two top aides, White House Chief of Staff H. R. "Bob" Haldeman and Special Assistant on Domestic Policy John Ehrlichman, summarised the purpose of the project.

Dean wrote, "This memo addresses the matter of how we can maximise the fact of our incumbency in dealing with persons known to be active in their opposition to our administration. Stated a bit more bluntly-how we can use the available federal machinery to screw our political enemies". How was this to be done? Dean wrote, "Key members of staff could be requested to inform us as to who they feel we should be giving a hard time. The project coordinator should then determine what sorts of dealings these individuals have with the Federal Government and how we can best screw them".

The list compiled by Dean and Colson ultimately contained 200 names. According to the writers Chester, MacCrystal, Aris and Shawcross who jointly explored the subject, "The people listed [in the Nixon enemies list] were among the most distinguished in America, including the President of Yale University, the Dean of Harvard Law School, one Nobel and at least four Pulitzer Prize winners, four ex-Cabinet ministers, two ex-Ambassadors, the former chairman of the US Council of Economic Advisors, the chairman of IBM, as well as America's most colourful football player, Joe Namath".

Now, if you assume that the Obasanjo State House has compiled a similar Enemies List, it is likely to be much longer than Nixon's list and should also include some of Nigeria's most distinguished and colourful men. It will certainly include Nigeria's only Nobel laureate, Wole Soyinka, at least three former Heads of State, every former Senate President and House Speaker, most former Army Chiefs and Police IGs, and at least three dozen former ministers, including Mrs Okonjo-Iweala. It will also include the former Chief Justice of Nigeria, who protested that court orders were being flouted, and the former president of the Nigeria Bar Association, who called for Nuhu Ribadu's ouster.

Richard Nixon's list included all the top Democratic Party leaders of the day - Ted Kennedy, Ed Muskie, George McGovern, William Fulbright and the New York Congresswoman Bella Abzug. An Obasanjo enemies list would therefore include all ANPP and AD top shots and almost all promising PDP top shots as well. Nixon's staff added every single member of the Congressional Black Caucus; this is equivalent to Aso Rock listing every Igbo senator as an enemy. Also on Nixon's list was the mayor of New York City, John V. Lindsay, which was just as well, because Obasanjo's enemies list must include the Governor of Lagos State and the Chairman of Eti-Osa Local Government.

President Nixon's staff added people to the enemies list who had even the faintest association with the opposition. IBM Chairman James Watson, for example, was added to the list because he donated some money to Senator Edmund Muskie's campaign in 1968, even though he also gave Nixon $300,000. This means that NICON Insurance Corporation chairman Jimoh Ibrahim, who contributed money to General Muhammadu Buhari's campaign in 2003, must be on the State House enemies list. The eminent lawyer Clark Clifford, who was President Lyndon Johnson's Secretary of Defence, was added to Nixon's enemies list, meaning General Domkat Bali, who was Babangida's Defence Minister for a time, must be on the State House enemies list, Vatsa turnaround or no.

Also on Nixon's list was Eugene Carson Blake, then General Secretary of the World Council of Churches. This means that Reverend Father Mathew Hassan Kukah, who refused to accept Professor Jerry Gana's pro-third term memo at the National Political Reform Conference, must be on Obasanjo's list despite his having delivered the sermon at Mrs Stella Obasanjo's funeral. Even Cardinal Arinze's high Vatican office cannot enable him to escape this list, as the Nixon men have shown the way. The Nixon White House enemies list also mentioned three major newspapers by name, the New York Times, the Washington Post and the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

Now, now, when the Obasanjo staff comes around to draw up their own media enemies list, almost every newspaper and magazine in Nigeria, big and small, will feature for da-ring to oppose tenure elongation. Most probably, however, Thisday, Punch, Daily Trust and Leadership will receive special priority mention. The Nixon enemies list contained the names of a total 57 reporters, columnists, editors, television commentators and occasional pundits. One American newspaperman who was specially mentioned was Ed Guthman, managing editor of the Los Angeles Times. John Dean's secret enemies memo said of Guthman, "A former Kennedy aide, he was a highly sophisticated hatchet man against us in 1968. It is obvious he is the prime mover behind the current Key Biscayne effort". When reporters later asked Guthman what was the "Key -Biscayne effort" that he was supposed to direct, he said, "I have no idea". You see, if ever the managing editor of Media Trust were to turn up on the Obasanjo enemies list and reporters were to ask why he is there, he may very well say that he has no idea.

Not only media men; the Nixon enemies list also cont-ained the name of Leonard Woodcock, president of the United Auto Workers. In the secret Dean memo, beside Woodcock's name, in the column for reasons was written, "No comments nece-ssary". If ASUU National President Dr Abdullahi Sule-Kano's name is ever found on the State House enemies list, most certainly there will be beside it the remark, "No comment necessary". Nix-on's men also added Texas Congressman Wright Patman's name. Patman spoiled a $200 million loan guarantee offered by the Nixon admini-stration to Penn Central Rail-road Company when he rev-ealed that the company's law-yers were from Mudge Rose, the law firm of both President Nixon and Attorney General John Mitchell.

Anyway, no one should blame Attorney General Bayo Ojo for chairing a kangaroo panel to indict the Vice President. John Mitchell was not only Nixon's law partner and former Campaign Man-ager, but as Attorney Gen-eral, he also chaired the Com-mittee to Re-elect the Presi-dent [CREEP] in 1971-72. It was CREEP that ordered the burglary of Democratic Party chairman Larry O'Brien's office in the Watergate Com-plex, for which Mitchell later served many years in jail.

Also to be found in Nixon's list were several organisations, including the Black Panthers, Common Cause, National Students Association, the Brookings Institution, Farmers Union and the National Education Association. Since our State House must borrow a leaf from Nixon's men, they must include the Nigeria Labour Congress, ASUU, NANS, the Northern Governors Forum, the Conference of Northern Speakers, Northern Senators Forum, Niger Delta Volunteer Force, Egbe Afenifere, Northern Union, Arewa Consultative Forum, Middle Belt Congress and the Civil Liberties Organisation among their enemies.

How did President Nixon's White House "screw" the enemies on the list? It was not very easy to order American civil servants to inflict selective justice, but they on several occasions instigated the FBI then led by John Edgar Hoover to discreetly investigate some of the enemies. The Nixon men also tried several times to instigate the Inland Revenue Service [IRS] to do a sudden "tax audit" at an enemy. Things must be a heck easier for the Obasanjo men in directing federal agencies to deal with political enemies. To varying degrees, they can use the Nigeria Police, State Security Service, ICPC, EFCC, Customs, Immigration, Prisons Service, Road Safety Corps, Federal Tenders Board, NDLEA, Airports Authority, NEMA, Civil Defence Corps, INEC, Nigeria Press Council, Nigeria Broadcasting Commission, Board of Film Censors, etc.

Now, if the regular federal agencies do not measure up, the Obasanjo State House can set up its own personal police force. In fact, the Nixon White House had its own private detective agency of former CIA and FBI agents known as the Room 16 Project. Led by Gordon Liddy and Jim McCord, they were the guys who entered the Watergate Hotel complex in June 1972 and started a scandal that ultimately consumed President Richard Nixon, but it's worth a try here.