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Leadership (Abuja)

Nigeria: Yar'Adua, Obasanjo And the PDP Convention

Sam Nda-Isaiah

18 February 2008

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Abuja — At very long last, the PDP, that self-acclaimed biggest party in Africa (big for nothing?), will be holding its national convention on March 8. Along with that is the good news that Dr Ahmadu Ali and his entire team have been compulsorily retired with immediate effect, and they shall, therefore, not have a hand in the process of electing the party's new leaders. In their stead is the team led by Malam Adamu Ciroma, a man whose integrity speaks for him even with all the stench in the PDP and the political class. Adamu Ciroma's committee is not all good news, however. We still have funny people like Ambassador Greg Mbadiwe, who once told us that Nigeria would fall to pieces if Obasanjo failed to get a third term.

For President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua, the coming PDP convention will be the most important test of his controversial presidency. We would also agree if he, in fact, sees it as a matter of life and death, as Obasanjo said of the elections last year. The biggest thing the president has promised Nigerians, nay the world, is electoral reforms in Nigeria . The last free, fair and respectable election in Nigeria was the one conducted by General Abdulsalami Abubakar, the last military leader, in 1999, which paradoxically brought Obasanjo to power. But once Obasanjo got into power, he made sure that democracy remained in a coma throughout his stay in the presidential villa. And, towards the end, he even attempted to give it the final death blow by attempting a life presidency. It didn't matter whether the people voted for him at all. In the eight years that Yar'Adua's predecessor was in power, the people's choices never ascended to power. It was always those he chose, who in most cases didn't get the votes, that got power. Democracy became defined as the government of Obasanjo, by Obasanjo and for Obasanjo, and the cheer leaders of his government cheered on to the total amazement of the world.

Now there is a real opportunity to put all that behind us. Though Yar'Adua was rigged into power after Obasanjo's self-succession agendum had collapsed, he read the situation well and quickly declared, even before he was sworn in as president, that electoral reform was going to be a priority. This had the effect of calming down the polity, especially since Nigerians knew Obasanjo was gone forever. No leader can conceivably be nearly as bad as the outgoing president - hopefully - Nigerians thought.

Yar'Adua's tactical blunder of appointing Justice Muhammadu Lawal Uwais - who was a part of the past the president should be reforming - to head the Electoral Reform Committee was a blow to his sincerity, but it did not completely dampen the expectations. The local government elections held post-May 2007 were a total disaster, and much worse than Professor Maurice Iwu's elections - and this says much - because politicians still do not take the president's electoral reforms talk seriously. For the president to be taken seriously on this matter, he must be seen by everyone, not least the politicians themselves, to walk the talk of the electoral reforms he has been preaching, and the March 8 convention is his chance to make a first impression. The president must also remember the adage that says: You'll never get a second chance to make a first impression.

But there are already ominous hints. Last week, it was reported that aggrieved candidates for the party elections are barred from seeking redress in the courts. According to the guidelines for the convention, all aggrieved candidates for the party's national offices must send their petitions to the Board of Trustees. This is literally sending petitions to Obasanjo to adjudicate on. Is the PDP serious at all? Obasanjo to sit in judgement over cases involving election? This same Obasanjo who destroyed the democracy we received from the military? The same Obasanjo who is now desperately moving from one state capital to another campaigning for Sam Egwu, Tunde Ogbeha and other candidates he thinks will be his stooges? The same Obasanjo that has made it clear that the worst thing that can happen to him is for Anyim Pius Anyim to win the party's chairmanship contest? Are we talking about this same Obasanjo who has totally and absolutely no values and who is so animalistic, barbaric and savage that his sexual mores include sleeping with his daughters and daughters-in-law? So, if there is a dispute between Anyim and Egwu at the end of the convention contest, they will both appear before the Obasanjo-led Board of Trustees for arbitration? Whose funny idea was this?

If Yar'Adua wants us to take him seriously, he should tell us something else. Or else, it will be exactly as Gen. TY said in an interview with The Guardian published yesterday: "Obasanjo is already in his third term because Yar'Adua, though a decent man, has no spine to assume full responsibility as the ruling party leader." And this will be a great pity indeed!

Now This...

Obasanjo Merits A Second Term In Prison, Says Danjuma

General T. Y. Danjuma is one man Nigerians have grown to trust. In spite of his stunning wealth, he has not lost touch. Many rich Nigerians that don't have one-tenth of what he has are too "careful" not to offend government or government people. When Obasanjo attempted a third term, he passed a clear message: "We did not fight the civil war because of one man." Obasanjo who was a soldier himself got the message. Now he has declared in his signature candour that "Obasanjo deserves a second term in prison". This is as good as passing the sentence straight away. President Yar'Adua also got a word. He has so far proven too spineless. Even Yar'Adua himself cannot controvert this. Gen. Danjuma, like many of us, think Yar'Adua is decent but has left his government to Obasanjo's self-serving manipulations.

But what is even more impressive is that a man of TY's station, who should be very "careful" on account of the fact that his company, Sapetro Limited, still controls a portion of Block 246, which has the Akpo Well that has an estimated 1 billion barrels of oil (that makes him worth more than $90 billion at today's value, making him one of the wealthiest in the world even if Forbes magazine hasn't acknowledged that) is not too careful as to shy from speaking truth to the president even if publicly. It's a wise counsel he gave the president. If the president wants to perform well as president, he needs a quick divorce from his benefactor.

Along the way, TY also gave his former friend a new chieftaincy title, the Aremu of Ota, and it fits so well. But the one part that will make Obasanjo shit bricks (excuse my French) is the new message the former army chief just passed across. That Obasanjo is a big thief is not new. But that he (TY) will expose the "dirty details" which he has in his possession is bad news for the former president. "We will make them public," TY said, "to compel even Umaru to do something". This time around he won't be second time lucky to be in Yola. Gashua will be more like it. And one thing I know for certain is that, unlike during Obasanjo's first term in prison, Gen. Danjuma will not visit him at all this time around. Not even Gbenga would!

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