Back in the day when Abacha held sway and during periods when the frustration level of Nigerians with his government was at the highest pitch, Ojo Maduekwe was part of the kitchen cabinet that churned out much of the nasty policies Nigerians and the international community railed against. Whether in the mean-spirited intellectual pursuit of NADECO and other pro-democracy activists or with rendering of advice to government on how to get meaner with the masses or in making reckless public remarks that riled to no end, Ojo was there – the epicentre of all that was wrong with the much dreaded Abacha regime.
How then he found some favor with PDP at its formation was the ultimate poser to many. But discerning minds were quick to figure that besides his many unsavoury traits, Ojo was also as wily as they come in the politics of eating one of his own to pave way for himself. So, it happened that he survived many purges of the Obasanjo era, owing largely to the rumour that he spied on his fellow Igbos and garnished what he learned all the way to the Villa, dressed as intelligence. Thus, in essence, just like Ojo was part of why Abacha remained unpopular throughout, he was also why Igbos never trusted Obasanjo and accused him of stoking treachery. In essence, a few pro-Igbo policies of the Obasanjo era were lost in the din of tribal self-hate Ojo polluted all around the Villa. Recall that it was Ojo that called his own people – the Igbos idiots and all that, and he never apologized.
Recall also that the main reason Orji Uzor Kalu engaged Ojo was because vintage Orji, fighting for Igbos (and the masses) like he always does, could not suffer witches lightly. Beyond that, Ojo was more like a warlock that turned into various winged monsters at night to suck the life-blood of his own people. Orji saw through it all and decided that the only option was to stop the man from winning any election in their native Abia state. Orji was in good company because much of Abia people and entire Igboland have since reckoned with the sort of self-hating breed Ojo was made of and thus had no problem in handing him defeat after defeat at all the elections he contested.
When Ojo was national secretary of PDP, he garnered more credit for the great number of people he angered, sought to destroy their political career; and he generally strutted around with such arrogant carriage that made people wonder if the man is the very dreaded Ice-man – that had no feelings, no affection, no compassion. Yet, survive and garner more appointments he did, partly because every government, every large organization sometimes needs a mean lone ranger like Ojo to undertake dirty tasks requiring a certain level of wickedness that can only come from a very lonely and treacherous man. Which is part of the reason Edgar Hoover excelled as the ‘greatest’ FBI Director in history, yet, to this day, his fellow Americans still hate him and remember him with a shudder.
So, if Ojo were to become PDP’s hatchet man to take on the likes of acerbic Lai Mohammed of AC or pesky Victor Umeh of APGA, no one will ever notice him, simply because he would have been in good company and back corridors, executing dirty jobs cut out for him by nature. Still, from the way he engaged, and subdued Rotimi (the still-birth Nigerian Ambassador to the US) and his fellow party member, one cannot help but surmise that Ojo did not care who he hurts provided he hurt somebody. Whether it is his own party, the PDP and President Yar’Adua that he recently claimed to have admitted to a fraudulent mandate; or in kissing the ass of junior American (and other white diplomats); or in making up stories of disloyalty against his fellow Igbo people, Ojo would have proven himself a man set on a course of self-immolation, intent on taking some people with him.
Since he made Foreign Minister, Ojo has made controversy and embarrassing Nigeria his second nature. If he was not fighting an Ambassador and introducing Biafra into it, he is trying so hard not to get one accredited. If he is not crashing into Obama’s inauguration ahead of Anyaoku (the accredited head of delegation), he is showing up uninvited and unannounced in foreign countries where Nigeria can hardly be said to have any serious diplomatic business. If he is not fighting with Ogbulafor, he is busy trying so hard to crawl to Orji Kalu because he suddenly needs Orji badly to undo an Ogbulafor (or Ugochukwu) he has always been jealous of because of their noble parentage. And if he is not busy butting into the responsibility of other Ministers, he is busy thrashing around outside the federal cabinet looking for other persons to blame for the rumour that President Yar’Adua is intent on sacking him.
Recall when Ojo singlehandedly travelled to Washington and covertly awarded a contract, without due process, for Nigeria’s image-making to a former congressman who was said to be a former schoolmate of Ojo’s relative. At the time, John Odey was the information minister and the general orders of the cabinet squarely placed such contracts under him. Yet, Ojo went over Odey’s head and awarded anyway – at usurious fees, and dared the heavens to fall. Add the fact that the former congressman was a ultra-rightist Republican in an era of an incoming liberal Democratic administration, then you have a situation where Nigeria’s image-making was sure to die at the steps of the US Capitol. Nigerians in Diaspora railed and that was part of the beginning of the schism that has since existed between them and President Yar’Adua; and which has now extended to Americans and other Western nations, piecemeal.
And that’s not all. Diplomats everywhere will tell you that a government’s global standing is as good (or bad) as the man at the helms of its foreign ministry. And if such a man possesses a prodigious amount of inferiority complex (and lack of charm) that Ojo is known to be afflicted with, then you can kiss goodbye to any serious effort to burnish Nigeria’s image. White people, especially Americans, do not take seriously any Blackman that so much bends backwards to kiss their ass. Not any Blackman amongst them, not any Blackman representing the greatest black nation on earth. It is worse when such societies, like America, have large black populations that cringe each time such a man, like Ojo, is clambering around the halls of American policy citadels, ingratiating and grovelling to white folks.
Leaving Ojo Maduekwe for a moment to struggle with his many self-doubts, let’s now turn to making some recommendations to President Yar’Adua; and here are some: sack Ojo now before he does more damage to your government and the people of Nigeria. Second, don’t ever re-appoint him because the man can’t even deliver his ward for you in 2011, and might even become a huge electoral liability if voters see him hanging around you. Third, place him under surveillance to check him from spilling Nigeria’s secrets to some cabal of white folks he loves to please to no end. So, that means that, as former foreign Minister, he must also be barred (for ten years) from taking any appointments from foreign governments or even opening one of those suspicious think tanks that litter Abuja and which freely employ shifty former foreign diplomats rumoured to have intelligence links hostile to Nigeria, while at the same time posturing to be sincerely advising Nigeria on how to run affairs around here.
And finally, to Madam Dora: if you are serious about re-branding Nigeria (I’m sure you are), then you must immediately reign in on Ojo Maduekwe and subdue him, like you did with the bootlegger drug barons. If you can’t cage Ojo, then you might as well kiss the re-branding idea goodbye. With Ojo butting in everywhere, breaching the cannons of diplomatese and making embarrassing remarks about his President in foreign lands, Nigeria does not need any other fodder to its waning diplomatic standing.
Osunbor wrote is a social critic
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