|
Nigeria - Eleven
Years of Transition from Military to Civilian Rule: Why We
Have Failed
12 June 2010 By Adebiyi Jelili Abudugana
Regardless of its historio-moral contestations, the
controversial May 29 1999 marked a day when for the
second time in its post-independence history, Nigeria
transited from Military to the Civilian rule. This day
remains historically significant due to some
momentous, yet, tumultuous developments that trailed
its dawn. The most significant of these developments
were the challenges that evolved as a result of the
cancellation of June 12 elections. How our response to
these challenges, relative the evolution of May 29
constitutes the reason why we have failed is what this
article sets out to interrogate.
The journey to May 29 had begun with the cancellation
of the June 12, 1993 presidential election, the most
credible election ever in Nigeria’s history, which,
for vested reasons, was cancelled by the despotic
IBB’s regime. The cancellation of the election that
was overwhelmingly won by the Social Democratic Party
presidential flag bearers, Bashorun M.K.O Abiola and
Amb. Baba Gana Kingibe was as result of some intrigues
which involved some military gangsters and civilian
bigots. These civilian chauvinists include, from
different parts of the country, a cross section of
individuals, and “Royal” fathers who are still playing
critical roles in the affairs of our nation. Why did
this people conspire against Abiola and the masses
that elected him, one may wish to know? There are many
ways this could be explained but for the purpose of
clarity, it seems more logical to intricate a concise
response by first explaining why Abiola won the
elections with a landslide margin and later, spell out
why this worked against his mandate?
One of the major reasons why Abiola won was his
extraordinary philanthropic spirit. Abiola’s large
heartedness benefitted Muslims and non-Muslims of
diverse tribal spread across different geo-political
zones of the country. This endeared him to the
Nigerian masses who felt he was a special creature of
God, who had been anointed and entrusted with the
custodianship of ever replenishing warehouse of wealth
for which humanity is to benefit without any
inhibition. He neither betrayed the trust nor the
impoverished, thus, his unequalled popularity as a
house hold name in Nigeria.
Also, Abiola was all through his life, known to be a
detribalized Nigerian. Unlike most Nigerian
politicians, particularly those of the Yoruba
extraction from which Abiola hailed, he lived and
practised the project and politics, Truly Nigeria.
This was to work in his favour when he chose to
contest the presidency as there was no controversy
about his established federating personality. In other
words, all regions of the country, minority and the
majority saw him as an able representation of their
interests. Thus, this was why his ticket could not be
interpreted subject to neither Yoruba nor Southern
dichotomies. For related reasons, the electorates were
not bugged by the Muslim-Muslim ticket on which he
vied for the number one post in the land.
Besides, the delightful ability of Abiola to analyze
issues using the tool of logic, and intellectual
persuasion, reeling off-hand, hard and genuine facts
to back up his claim, placed him far and above other
millionaire and political colleagues of his. This was
a great asset which won Bahorun Abiola the hearts of
intellectuals during the presidential debate between
him and Alhaji Bashir Tofa, his National Republican
Convention’s counterpart.
The highlighted factors, combined with the clout which
Abiola wielded among those that matters coupled with
his financial chest made him a toast of the electorate
who had no misgiving that he, Abiola, the Saviour of
the Masses, would truly bail the country out of its
perennial problems. In the consequence, he emerged
victorious by dwarfing Tofa with a mouth agaping
margin. This victory meant different things to
different people, therefore, the grand conspiracy that
led to the election’s eventual annulment.
The hard fact is that most people that pretended to be
protagonist of the restoration of Abiola’s mandate
were hypocrites who were either playing the vengeance
card or driven by aggrandizing obsession. To those
whose voice dominates the South-West politics,
especially the core Awoist, Abiola’s emergence made
them develop cold feet. His, they perceived, would
encroach on their political foothold and possibly,
banish them to the fringe of the Southwestern
political map. This reaction has its historical root
in the Abiola-Awolowo’s political face-off of the
first and second Republic. Another justification for
this claim is that with Abiola’s overwhelming
acceptance by the Yorubas, it would have been easier
for him to redraw the Yoruba map of political alliance
by creating a more viable, and inclusive alternative
political as opposed to the largely ethicized and
exclusivist Awoist camp. My intention should not be
mistaken as comparing or ridiculing the higly revered
Pa Awo, rather, I am making a bold attempt to
deconstruct how the core Awoist reacted to Abiola’s
victory based on its implication on the political
future of their camp. There is also the need to
clarify that Abiola’s acceptance by the Yorubas was in
fact not because his candidature was sold to them by
the Yoruba leaders. Rather, it was based on the
earlier enumerated factors that he won the hearts of
the Yorubas as it was with the case with the people of
other tribal extraction. However, little did Abiola
know that
those whose political fortunes are threatened by his
phenomena political rise will never sleep until their
perceived his political fall is achieved.
For similar or related reasons, other tiny but
powerful civilian political cabals saw the man’s
emergence as a doom that should be averted. The
Northern pro-June 12 cancellation cabal which though
centrifuged round the influence of IBB was coordinated
by Sultan Dasuki, while Arthuz
Nzeribe and Emmanuel Iwuanyawu combined to
coordinate the pro- June 12 forces which comprised
those who were from the South-East and South-South. It
was these Lazarus who constitute the known and hidden
hidden hands who gave IBB the moral backing needed to
announce the cancellation of the June 12 elections.
Some of these individuals were quick to lead protests
that were to take place after the IBB infamous
stepping aside speech.
The true identity of some of these betrayals of the
June 12 election was to soon manifest when they
mandated some of their trusted and refined minds to
work with the late despot, General Sani Abacha. Among
these were those whose membership of the Abacha’s
regime had the approval of those who has constituted
themselves as the Yoruba’s tinny political gods. This
was also the case with those groups from other regions
who had earlier joined hands with IBB to act the
ignoble cancelation script as they also had their
inputs into the illegal administration of Abacha. Some
of these betrayals who are still active in the
political process have earned themselves the
nomenclature, Abacha politicians.
After destiny dwelled a decisive blow on Abacha when
he succumbed to the cold hands of death, it was much
anticipated that Abiola’s mandate would be restored.
One would have expected those active players who were
known to have been canvassing for the restoration of
the June 12 mandate to have ceased this opportunity to
force the AbduSalam Abubakar’s regime to reinstate
Abiola’s mandate. This was never the case. Though one
cannot make a generalizing claim, the bitter truth is
that the activism tempo decreased. Instead, moral
supports was covertly or overtly offered for those who
were pressurizing Abiola to relinquish his mandate. It
was while this was going on, to balance the equation
and clear the way, Abiola was eliminated following a
well planned conspiracy known to have international
blessing. After this happened, there was neither any
sustained demonstration nor any tangible effort to
seek redress especially from the active layers who
were ahead in leading “pro-June 12” rallies. A good
student of politics with a background experience of
revolutionary or barricade struggle may be in a better
position to know that something had gone wrong. This
raises big question about the personalities of those
within the active layer and their real motive.
Shape of things to come was to follow the politics of
realignment and convergence as General AbduSalam
Abubakar unveiled his transition agenda. This ushered
in a democratic era which produced Obasanjo as the
president. Those who determined Obasanjo’s mandate
where those who annulled the June 12 elections. It was
well thought that one of them, Obasanjo should be
allowed to rule, more so that he hails from the
South-West as it was with the late Abiola. It was this
group and those with similar background that, directly
or indirectly also determined to a reasonable extent,
and in one form or the other, those who were to rule
in various states as governors, local government
chairpersons and counselors. So, it can be said that
we only continued with those group of individuals who
not only sabotaged the June 12 elections but are known
to have failed the nation. The new entrants who rode
on the back of these groups can in no way be divorced
from the ways of these tinny lords, therefore, one
reason why those who have been ruling us until now
cannot be said to be responsible and responsive
leaders laden with the visionary instinct that is
required to rule us.
On a specific note, if a stock is to be taken of those
who in various capacities emerged victorious in the
1999 elections, it will be realized that just few
among them obtained their party’s ticket based on
merit. In other words, between 90 and 90% of those in
elected positions obtained their tickets through
questionable and skewed process. For those within this
significant brace from the South-West, money and
loyalty to the AD party hierarchy, and Afenifere,
especially Pa Abraham Adesanya determined who got
what. Although few got their tickets based on proven
track records, neither substance, manifestorial
package nor the people were allowed to decide via the
primaries, those who were to flag the party’s ticket.
In the north, money, religious, godfatherism were also
the deciding factors that determined who got what.
Others were those who benefited from the large heart
of those who scuttled the June 12 elections as their
anointed candidates merely worked over the primaries,
which in most instances as it was with the South-West,
candidates were handpicked and imposed on the party
and people by the godfathers. Money and godfatherism
contoured the terrain in the South-South and
South-East. So, the 1999 elections was that which
pitched against one another, products of money,
godfathering, and religious politics, therefore
leaving the masses with no real credible action from
which leaders were to be selected from.
As a fall out, those who emerged through this flawed
democratic process abandoned the masses interest by
pursuing vested agenda. Pursuance to this, most of
these individuals wasted no time in rescuing
themselves from the bondage of their godfathers,
therefore, the major reason why in the fourth
republic, political gangstersism, and party
in-fighting, caused by the fall out between political
sons and their godfathers were a recurrent and
dominant trend among all the political parties that
won elective posts. This was one of the major factors
that led to the collapse of AD, and the split of the
Afenifere into dissenting rows and columns,
consequently, making its once mighty political powers
to be dwarfed. The South-East and South-South as well
as the North had their own share of such upheavals.
This merely consumed some political actors and
dissident political sons but did not herald the demise
of any major visible regional political party.
It is these intervening factors that explain the level
of wealth plundering and abandonment of the onerous
state building responsibilities that were witnessed
between 1999 and 2003. The worst of pillaging was to
take place at the local government levels where local
government chairpersons and counselors whose emergence
in the first instance, were dominantly at the mercy of
their state governors, were mainly conduit pipes
through which the latter were siphoning money. At the
state level, going by the role played by money in
obtaining tickets, the need to fulfill the contractual
terms signed with the godfathers, through oiling their
political machinery with stolen money and by awarding
them juicy contracts, corruption rose to a record
high. The investors needed to make whopping profit,
and the only way this could be done was to loot the
treasury, an act which the godfathers and political
sons got enmeshed in. More than the godfathers, the
political sons needed the financial chest to free
themselves from the godfathers’ domineering
influences, so, the estrangement that was to take
place between the duo.
This pathetic scenario was to sustain itself in the
2003 elections as primaries conducted by most
political parties were, on a more notorious scale,
fraught with the aforementioned factors. However, one
must highlight that the 2003 electoral process was
worse than that of the 1999. So, the disaster that was
to befall the electorate after the 2003 elections was
of greater disillusion. The Awoist lost the South-West
to the exception of Lagos as they were outflanked by
Obasanjo, one of the anti-June 12 elements.
Gangesterism became definitive of the political
leadership, hence, the reasons why some bastards held
their states to ransom because of self-vested pledges
that were not fulfilled. Adedibu and Chris Uba make a
good example of the post-2003 election case study
while the Sarakites-Lawalites fratricidal tussle
exemplifies the example of how gangstersim took over
the 2003 electoral process.
Since victory in 2003 elections cost more resources
than in 1999, so, one is less perturbed by the level
of treasury looting that was to subsequently take
place both at the national and state level. While
Obasanjo led the national pillaging efforts, the state
governors were in charge of liquidating their state
resources. Developmental efforts became summarily
halted, hence, the near collapse of basic amenities in
virtually all the states of the federation. With the
fallout between Obasanjo and Atiku, coupled with a
host of other factors, the infamous do-or-die
electoral method was resorted to by Obasanjo and the
PDP as a means of sustaining their wish at all costs.
Other major political parties followed suit, so, the
level of barbarity that trailed the conduct of 2007
elections, the worst in Nigeria’s political history.
The aftermath of this is the increasing state of
depravity in the land, although, two or three one-eyed
individuals can be considered as kings among the
blinds.
It may at this point be categorically stated, that,
the factors which orchestrated the cancelation of the
June 12 elections, our immediate reaction and how the
post-June challenges were taken over and exploited to
achieve vested political interests by tinny groups of
powerful cabals laid down the foundation of why
democracy has failed in solving our perennial
problems. With the ongoing trend within the opposition
and ruling parties, the hope is dim that democracy
will usher in those dividends that are much expected.
Like a wild dog, the godfathers are on the loose;
menacingly transversing the political landscape and
plotting to see their political machinations for the
forth coming 2011elections land them the much
anticipated victory. These self perpetuating reasons
which explain in part why we have failed will need to
be attended to if we are to experience a reversal of
the travails which our nation is experiencing now.
More than ever, the masses need to determine those
that lead them at all stages of the electoral process
and must evolve credible opposition unlike the
diabolic ones that are presently playing this role.
How to do this, is an issue that will be addressed in
one of my forth coming articles.
The writer, Mr. Adebiyi Jelili Abudugana, a former
UNILAG student union leader can be reached through
abudugana2000@yahoo.com
EsinIslam.Com  Add Comments | |
Save