It would be laughable, if it were not such a serious governance issue. I mean the current debate on who is in charge in Nigeria today. Newspaper editorials, informed commentaries and punchy letters to the editor are all asking the same questions: Who is in charge, Yar’Adua or Obasanjo? Do we have two presidents? Is Obasanjo a kind of senior president? And I ask: Are you kidding me? Or are we all a pack of Rip Van Winkles, just waking up from a long slumber (with apologies to Angryman Michael John)?
Please replay the drama of the last one year or so in your mind. One man loves Nigeria so much he couldn’t see a future for her without him. So, he decided to throw away his own future; a guaranteed future of international respect and world statesmanship status. You call it the third-term agenda, I call it mindless self-immolation. When that agenda failed, he decided to find Nigeria another lover created in his own image and his own likeness. In order to ensure that this disinterested new lover wins Nigeria’s heart, he put together a boxing contest, recruited a loyal referee and malleable judges and handed them instructions to ensure victory for his preferred suitor. He declared the contest a matter of life and death; joined the man on the scale at the pre-match weigh-in to leave no one in doubt that his massive weight was not just behind the surrogate lover-boy but the weight was in him as in “Christ in you”.
Of course, the fight degenerated into a mess, featuring so many below-the-belt punches, head butts and even ear-chewing. The original lover-boy occasionally went into the roped square to hold the hands and legs of one of the more determined opponents of his protégé. The referee lent his hands too. Fela Anikulapo-Kuti would have called it “roforofo” fight. All these happened in the full view of the spectators; some of them officially certified ring-siders who know a good boxing match when they see one. They were so disgusted they left damning reports before huffing away to their various homes, to await invitation to the next fisticuff festival somewhere else in the world.
Anyway, the referee, in exercise of the powers conferred on him, proceeded to raise the hands and legs of the winner and decorated him with the championship belt. Of course when everybody else had gone home, the new lover who styled himself servant-lover promptly handed the belt over to original lover-boy who proudly placed it where everybody who visits his famous farm-house would see it. Of course he is magnanimous enough to allow servant-lover to wear it each time he has to make a public appearance; but with a stern warning to return it in good shape immediately thereafter.
Now some spectators are crying foul. Some are yelling, green-white-green (not blue) murder. Some are shouting themselves hoarse that the new lover should be left alone to consummate his illicit affair with the bride. And again, I ask: are you kidding me? Does anybody really expect differently? Not me! All is said to be fair in love and in war and this was both! Obasanjo fought for and won the presidency with everything that he had, including his future and even his peace of mind. He did it for himself, not for Yar’Adua. So anyone expecting him to go home quietly and leave Yar’Adua to live with the bride and be happy forever after cannot be realistic.
Smart man, he took many steps to ensure that that does not happen. And while he was taking those steps, many were cheering him lustily on. He fixed “Mr Fix-It” long before he re-stepped in by proxy, and it only took the reverberating effect of that to give “Surgeon, the educated Ali” a few months of grace in the grass. The legislators have him to contend with. Whosoever steps out of the legislative agenda being drawn up at Ota would be promptly whipped into line. And the governors also have to answer to him or else. Welcome to OBJ’s Nigeria!
These days Obasanjo must be singing merrily in his bathroom every morning, or afternoon, or evening, or whenever it is that retired but not tired generals and presidents find time to do such un-presidential things: “I did it my way.” Frank Sinatra would be pleased. He might add a chorus, “In my pocket, in my pocket, I have them all in my pocket”. The melody may not be too soothing, the rhythm may be jerky, but the lyrics would be correct. It would reflect the status quo in today’s Nigeria. And I am laughing.
I am laughing, because I know this is only correct for a season. I am laughing because of the sheer folly of men wanting to play God. I am laughing because I am fully persuaded that ONLY God the Almighty is God and he would not share his glory with any man. I am laughing because I know that the dominion God gave man over the works of his hands does not include dominion over his kind. I am laughing because our nation’s political history is replete with examples of the surrogate gone smart.
Let me give one example that still rankles with me till today. At the commencement of political activities in 1978 preparatory to the return of civil rule the following year, Chief Obafemi Awolowo put in place a very efficient political machine that I know ranks favourably with any one of its kind anywhere else in the world. Now, Awolowo was nothing if not a consummate planner and competent administrator. He was a leader per excellence whose heart was with his people. He called that machine, Unity Party of Nigeria, UPN, with the party slogan as “UP NIGERIA”. The party had a winning platform built around four cardinal programmes including free education at all levels free medical services and integrated rural development. UPN was the party to beat nationally but particularly in the south-western part of Nigeria. As a result, even if a goat got the ticket of UPN, it was bound to win fair and square in that region. Note that please: win, fair and square. And win virtually all that got the ticket did.
In the event, people who contributed next-to-nothing to their own victories and who were certainly truly beholden unto the party and its leader found themselves in the legislatures across what was then known as the LOOBO states; that being acronym for Lagos, Ogun, Oyo, Bendel and Ondo. They were loyal party men until their personal interests clashed with that of the party and the nation!
I recall how the UPN Parliamentary Council consisting of all legislators on the party’s platform met with the leadership and agreed on what was considered as a reasonable level of salaries and allowances for legislators at all levels. They were directed to present those figures at the various assemblies and resist anything higher. It just so happened that the National Party of Nigeria came up with higher figures which were generally considered as scandalous at the National Assembly and before you could say “UP ME”, UPN parliamentarians had broken ranks with their party and its leadership. The party kicked. The UPN Director of Organisation had responsibility to move in and get the men to tow the line. He almost paid for it with his life! Thankfully, Ebino Topsy, Chief Ebenezer Babatope, is alive to tell the story.
This is not nearly like today’s situation, but it tells the story all the same. One very perceptive columnist put it this way: when will Yar’Adua and Obasanjo fight? And the answer is simple: when Yar’Adua’s interests truly clash with those of Obasanjo.
But as I said earlier, the peace that I have in all of these is I know both sides are acting the pawn on God’s own giant chess board. At the risk of sounding like a broken record – scratched compact disc, if you like – a flood is coming. The tide of evil in our nation will be stemmed; a flood of righteousness will take its place. The question is, are you prepared for the flood?
The Lord Jesus, always right on the mark, had this description of the wise man, the one who is ready for the flood: “He is like a man which built an house, and digged deep, and laid the foundation on a rock: and when the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently upon that house, and could not shake it: for it was founded upon a rock” (Luke 6: 48).
And you ask, what is the rock? How do I build on the rock? The rock is truth; it is righteousness; it is playing by the rules, not manipulating it. The bible describes the man who will stand “when the come comes to become”, as the late Ozumba Mbadiwe would have put it: “He that walketh righteously, and speaketh uprightly; he that despiseth the gain of oppressions, that shaketh his hands from holding of bribes, that stoppeth his ears from hearing of blood, and shutteth his eyes from seeing evil”
(Isaiah 33:15). The actors in this national tragic-comedy must check if they fit.
No I do not judge Obasanjo or Yar’Adua. Who am I to judge another’s servant! But the prophet Isaiah said in a not-so-dissimilar context: “And thine ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying, This is the way, walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right hand, and when ye turn to the left” (Isaiah 30:21). Perhaps Kingdom Perspective is echoing that voice.
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