Why do they hate us so much? This question has been consistently asked by victims of xenophobia and other forms of violence since time immemorial. The Jews, the Koreans, the Kosovo Albanians, the Serbs, the Armenians, the Tutsis, the Christians, the Muslims have all at one time or the other subjected this question to critical interrogation.
Why do they hate us so much? This question has been consistently asked by victims of xenophobia and other forms of violence since time immemorial. The Jews, the Koreans, the Kosovo Albanians, the Serbs, the Armenians, the Tutsis, the Christians, the Muslims have all at one time or the other subjected this question to critical interrogation.
I have often myself interrogated the concepts of love and hate especially against the background of a highly divisive social and political environment like Nigeria characterized by the ascendancy of dubious columnists, pseudo-analysts, pseudo-writers, ersatz intellectuals and lily-livered editors with access to the columns and the front and back pages which they have used to advance untruths, fallacies, discontent, anarchy and outright lies. In a country where the ownership of the media is mostly in the hands of economic buccaneers with disconcerting links and linkages with an ethically debased political system dominated by morally deficient politicians, the end product has over time been a media that has been used to settle political scores, dehumanize personal and political opponents and criminalize those who have little or no access to the media.
I have watched over the last few years with an admixture of distress, disbelief and irritation the deliberate and well-calculated attempt by a section of the Nigerian press to “de-historify” the legacy and achievements of President Olusegun Obasanjo’ administration well as dehumanize and criminalize his person, personality and family through a salad of lies, untruths, fabrication, fallacies, distortions and overtones garnished with the barest of truth and spiced with gargantuan salacity. Going through the sulfurous output of these axis of hate; a coalition of latter-day democrats, petty thieves who as Governors stole their states blind, Gani Fawehinmi wannabes, and columnists, in the media, it is as if the entire eight years of the Obasanjo administration made practically no impact on Nigeria and Nigerians, it is as if the eight years of Olusegun Obasanjo passed us by while we as a nation and a people remained stuck in the 1990s. Yet the indices tell a different story and the available facts expose a different picture from that tabulated and presented by this axis of hate which have emerged over time as a highly dedicated, rabid and vengeful Obasanjo haters.
The Daily Trust, Leadership, The Sun and The Independent newspapers dominate this axis of hate. Why do they hate him so much? They hate him because their owners and benefactors hate him. The Sun Newspaper is owned by Orji Uzor Kalu while The Independent Newspaper is owned by James Ibori both of whom have been accused to raping their states and amassing unspeakable wealth as a result. Both are today standing trial for sundry high crimes and misdemeanors. When one bothers to scan through the Media Trust publications including Daily Trust, one senses the strength of bitterness that permeates and exists within the consciousness of the editorial team. Daily Trust’s major grouse with OBJ is that he won the 2003 presidential elections and easily got his protégé Umaru Musa Yar’adua elected in 2007 thus denying Major-General Muhammadu Buhari, the patron saint of Daily Trust the opportunity of ruling the country. It is not for nothing that Media Trust and their up-country cohorts are derisively referred to as the Buhari Old Boys Association especially since most of them including the founding team of Trust are believed to have made their fortune under Buhari as consultants, Special Assistants and contractors to Buhari when he headed the Petroleum Trust Fund.
While their disappointment over the inability of their patron saint to access power in a democratic environment is quite understandable, what is most odious and nauseating about Daily Trust and its cohorts is the incivility, gross bias and opprobrium with which they treat and scrutinize the person and legacy of Obasanjo. Nothing about Obasanjo is sacrosanct in the Trust, practically every story about him drips with venom and acid with the most ignominious of expressions used to depict him and the most gory of colours used to coat and smear him. Since Goodluck Jonathan became president, the Trust has also waged a not too dissimilar campaign of calumny against him. The most derogatory of terminologies are persistently used to portray him. Jonathan has even been called uneducated and uncouth by practically all of the Trust’ columnists. If anybody doubts me, try suffering yourself through the daily columns and front pages of Daily Trust and you will appreciate the obvious. The obvious is that in the eyes of the Daily Trust and its cohorts, only a particular ethnic if not religious group should rule this country. The paper’s philosophy is no doubt anti-South, anti-Christian and anti-Women.
Take a peek at the Leadership newspaper founded by another Buhari acolyte and one is assaulted at all times by bacterial analysis choleric editorials and virulent news reports about Olusegun Obasanjo. An editorial content analysis of the Leadership newspaper portrays a picture of a paper that has declared an all out war against Obasanjo which unfortunately for the paper it is incapable of winning. Leadership’ guns are out blazing and daily shooting senile opprobrium and magnified tales when the issue is Obasanjo. A tormenting sortie through the Monday column of Leadership’ founder, Sam Nda-Isaiah leaves one wondering if Uncle Sam does not have an unhealthy if not voyeuristic obsession with Obasanjo. This sickening obsession with Obasanjo by Sam and his newspaper has over time continued to vitiate the credibility of the paper in the eyes of the silent majority who try to be guided always by reason and objectivity. Sam has even tried calling Obasanjo Nigeria’ most corrupt leader, no doubt a most laughable and most dismissible appellation. Every Nigerian knows who the most corrupt leader Nigeria has ever produced is and they know it is not Obasanjo. They know where he is and they know he comes from Sam’s neck of the corner. The other day, Sam’s Leadership reported with glee and colours that Obasanjo had been locked out of the United Nations building yet they knew it was not true. How petty can one get? How do you lock out a U.N Special Envoy from the U.N building? Can hatred take so much hold of reason?
The Nigerian media has never being fair to Obasanjo. As a teen in the 1980s, I grew up believing that Obasanjo together with Buhari who was his petroleum Minister had stolen over two billion dollars from the Petroleum Ministry. That was what the papers I read constantly alluded. When I got older and able to reason better and reach rational independent conclusions, I appreciated better the Goebellian doctrine; repeat a lie over and over and it becomes believable.
Sometime in 2007, President Umaru Musa Yar’adua in an act of deceit occasioned by politics asserted that the Obasanjo administration had spent ten billion dollars on the nation’s power sector with nothing to show for it. When he was informed that the figure he quoted was incorrect by one of his advisers who knew better, the poor fellow was promptly sacked. Not to be outdone in that season of “Operation Destroy Obasanjo”, Speaker Dimeji Bankole imperiously pronounced before newsmen and legislators that the President was wrong in his figures. Obasanjo, Bankole claimed had poured twelve billion dollars with no commensurate returns. A week later, Bankole asserted before the same audience that he had discovered that his own initial figure of twelve billion dollars had been false. Obasanjo, he said had actually spent sixteen billion dollars. He promptly set up the now infamous power probe panel headed by the now infamous Ndidi Elumelu. The Three Arm Zone inquisition that it turned out to be directed by Elumelu was perhaps the finest yet most sordid tragic-comedy open air theatric play ever performed by the National Assembly. Despite the fact that those who should know and did know all about the monies spent by government including Governor Soludo of the Central Bank and the Accountant-General of the Federation coming out loud and clear on national Television at the panel to say that only 3.6 billion dollars had been released as at 2008 for the National Independent Power Projects, the media continued to assert and still lie today that Obasanjo spent 16 billion dollars on the NIP projects. The beauty of it however is that the NIPP programme designed and implemented by Obasanjo, derided by the then government and his enemies is today the corner stone of the government’ energy policy. Today Obasanjo can beat his chest with pride despite the gathering of his foes.
So what is it that Obasanjo did not achieve as the haters propangandise? This week President Goodluck Jonathan commissioned the Total Radar Coverage project which brought the entire Nigerian airspace including those of some of our neighbours under the security coverage of high tech radar systems. For the first time in the history of Nigeria, our airspace is secure and well monitored. In the whole of Africa, only Egypt and South Africa possess similar capacities. Obasanjo started it, awarded the contracts and began its implementation in 2005. Of course in the eyes of the haters, it is not an achievement because the glory should never go to Obasanjo. When Obasanjo assumed office in 1999, the Nigerian Stock Exchange had a capitalized value of less than a trillion naira, by the time he left office eight years later the NSE’ atmospheric growth was so outstanding that the Exchange’ stocks was one of the most sought after in the emerging markets and the Exchange itself had a capitalized value of over 16 trillion naira. Less than two years after he left office, his predecessor and his team so mismanaged the gains of eight years that investors took their monies and fled the country. Today the value of the NSE is a little over five trillion naira. The Nigerian Space progamme which we are so proud of was initiated by Obasanjo. That we have satellites in space today is due to the leadership of Obasanjo. That we are the second fastest growing telecoms market in the world today is due to Obasanjo.
Obasanjo will always be remembered as the only Nigerian leader who unchained his country from the debt burden she owed to international creditors. He met a debt of thirty-two billion dollars when he assumed office in 1999 and left a debt of less than three billion dollars when he left office in 2007. It is an achievement unsurpassed in history; it is an achievement his opponents cannot take from him. Under him, Nigeria’s economy had a sustained growth of 5.5% annually with foreign capital investments flowing in to the manufacturing, telecoms, oil and gas and service sectors. The success and growth of local players like Oando, Dangote Industries, Global Fleet and others who today employ tens of thousands of Nigerians cannot be divorced from Obasanjo’ economic policies and leadership. It was Obasanjo who recreated the middle class destroyed by the administrations of Buhari and Babangida. Who are the middle class? They are the salary earners at Oando, Dangote, MTN, Globacom, Zain, The Nigerian Space Agency, the Banks, Nigerian Breweries and other companies who spend their income to generate economic growth. Obasanjo’ privatization programme remains a reference point in global political economy. By 2006, the Nigerian government had raked in over seven billion dollars as income from the sale of many state own companies. The best of all is the prudent manner the Obasanjo administration managed the windfall from high commodity prices saving over 42 billion dollars in the foreign reserve and over 26 billion dollars in the excess crude reserve. This was what saved our economy from collapse when the global economy crashed in 2008 and insulated us from the effects of the global economic crises. This is a direct contrast with the Babangida administration in the 1990s which enjoyed similar windfalls but the monies suddenly developed wings never to be seen. The banking sector thrived under Obasanjo, with exponential growth and expansion across Africa. Until Lamido Sanusi came with his agenda and destroyed them, Nigerian banks created hundreds of thousands of direct and indirect jobs and helped to propel economic growth.
That the Nigerian Air Force is today back in the skies with sophiscated fighter Jets is thanks to Obasanjo’ leadership. That the Nigerian Navy is today a blue sea Navy is also thanks to Obasanjo’ leadership. He initiated a programme of weapons acquisition and training otherwise denied the military by preceding administrations that viewed a well weaponised army, air force and Navy as a threat to their hold on power and hence pursued a deliberate policy of de-arming the armed forces.
Love him or hate him, his achievements speak loud and clear. The haters can continue to hate but like President Goodluck Jonathan said of Obasanjo, “No one else in Nigeria can rival you with those achievements. Some people are only attempting to do so”
Nosa James-Igbinadolor wrote in from Abuja. He can be reached at [email protected]
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