11 June 2008
interview
Lagos — WHAT is the cost of annulled June 12, 1993 presidential election on Nigeria?
The real cost of annulment of June 12, 1993 election is the stunting of the growth of our democracy. We have just watched the US Democratic Primaries and how Barak Obama emerged as the candidate. This should tell us clearly that something is wrong with our system.
We got a chance on June 12, 1993 to put behind us some dodgy efforts at democratic construction. If we had moved forward, if Chief M.K.O Abiola had been sworn in, whatever shortcomings he may have and our system may have we would have overcome by now, all the learning process.
But we had to start afresh. And we started afresh after a prolonged period of military interregunum - between 1993 and 1999 handover. There was a lot of trauma in between - the Abacha years.
We did not start from 1999, we went further back because many of the people who could have moved forward, were suspicious of the motive of the military transition. So the right people did not show interest.
What happen when the right people do not show interest in governance? People who have nothing else to do will jump in. We can see it from the general evaluation of those who were governors in the last eight years. We got it very very wrong. The people who should never have gone near political office were the ones who were there.
The country has been set back in severe manner because in terms of revenue that accrued to our country, those last eight years were the best but they were squandered.
If you take a picture of what the country is suffering, you will appreciate what I am saying. I mean, if you look at Anambra state, at a point, nothing was working, schools closed down, no salary for workers, pensioners not paid, you understand what I am saying.
Along the line Chris Ngige, through one way or the other was brought to office, the people of the state was shocked to see many of their roads being tarred and his administration doing some other things.
The revenue has doubled but Nigerians are suffering and that is simply because we don't have faithful leadership.
We have blown the windows of opportunity that we have, and those windows don't open too many times in a life time. We have squandered many opportunities and that is just because we missed the opportunity June 12 offered to the country.
It would have enabled the country to stamp a good democractic process, rather than this culture of people who seek power to serve themselves.
Obasanjo was considered a vastly experienced political leader, why was it impossible for him to close the gap which June 12 annulment opened?
You see I don't like discussing Obasanjo; Why don't I like discussing Obasanjo? It is because I think that we can get obsessed with yesterday and fail to look at tomorrow.
Secondly, because Obasanjo was such a character so vindictive that if you discuss him, it might look like you are trying to get back one because of his own vindictiveness. And I don't want to see myself doing that. So the best thing to do is to just forget about the Obasanjo era.
The more we talk about Obasanjo, the more we make him feel relevant and the less good we do ourselves. But since we must involve in some intellectual activity and this falls into that domain, I will then say that democracy thrives when there is a connection between the people and the leadership. It thrives when the leadership feels the pain of the people and they take decision based on how they feel the pain of the people, how they want to alleviate it and how they create opportunities so that people will have a better life.
Somebody like Obasanjo, it takes military gamble. Gamble on the fact that his ego will drive him to do something that is out of place. Obasanjo is at best completely out of touch with other human beings, he is disconnected with the people, because he has this messanich feeling.
There is no basis in any reality of his capacity to do anything good. But he believes that he is the greatest leader, the best thinker, that he knows everything. So those people who are ready to tolerate that kind of malfunction, are the one who are around him. But you know such person will not get what people want on the one hand, he will not get the right people who will give him advice to do what people want. So you are now left with the option that ego is the right way of life.
That was what marked the Obasanjo years. He was full of himself, think only about himself.
Talking about June 12 and all that went wrong, would you say that politicians have themselves learnt any lesson?
We misuse language in our country. Some of these people we call politicians are not politicians. They are contractors in power, people who see power as a means of making selfish gains. Most of the people that move around are not politicians.
Politicians have vision of their country, vision of their parties and they seek power to actualize these visions. But how many of our politicians know the vision of their parties, of Nigeria?
Our parties don't have vision, some that have anything written down is just that some people sat down to do that. Ask any PDP member what the vision of the party is, he wont tell you.
So, how would such politician learn anything. They are not driven by any vision, they are not there. It is when people are there for a particular purpose that they will learn. But when people are there as power hunters, how do you expect them to learn.
Now, how do you expect a National Assembly who said it does not want a Freedom of Information FOIB to do well. You I know that anybody who is interested in good governance, the first thing he will do is to support such bill that will bring transparency into the system. But these people don't care. They see their position as having captured the antelope and should be there to chop and you moroon are asking them to do something that will make them not to cut the antelope as they want.
Until we create a political class, people who are committed to public service, passionate leaders, we will not do the kind of thing you are talking about.
Are we actually working towards that?
It is left for you and I. If you in the media, for example, will lead a campaign to recall everybody in the House of Representatives because they are not there in the interest of Nigerian people, if your people, pick up the campaign that Nigeria does not need a full time National Assembly, that what we need is a sitting legislature where serious professional people like lawyers etc can take two months out of their time, maybe one month in January and another in November and not being in Abuja looking for contracts, things will be okay.
We don't nee d a full time National Assembly. Things are the way they are because maybe you are not doing your part and I am not doing my part. We need to join forces positively to change things.
You said that in 1999 only political adventures participated in the transition and got elected because many people were suspicious of the transition, why have the good men not yet being able to take over the political space till date?
You see, unfortunately we can always go back to rationalize things. We had adventurers in 1999, who are the Ghana Must Go Big" politicians. The built up castles of Ghana Must Go Bag. It became even more tight for normal and credible people to engage in politics.
The truth is that either through natural attrition, revolution, etc, if we don't get these people out, Nigeria will suffer for a long time. It might lead to the collapse of Nigeria's economy. They are only there to devour our resources regardless of the plight of ordinary Nigerians.
What in your mind is the greatest challenge facing Nigeria, taking from your campaign tour to different parts of the country?
No one person will have a final conclusion or solution but I do know what the Nigerian challenge is. The ordinary people are not expecting so much, they only want those in government to make the environment conducive for personal enterprise. Fix roads, give them electricity and equip their schools.
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