Dear President Obasanjo, it is slightly more than two years now since my third and last public letter to you. The purpose of that letter (just like that of its predecessors) was to call your attention to the dangerous gap between the high ideals of statesmanship you profess and the low realities of your actual practice; the lofty dreams you stack up for Nigeria and the subversion of those very dreams by many of your actions. When I wrote that letter in 2004, you had just "won" a second term, and your party, a promiscuous behemoth called the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, had just "consolidated" its stranglehold on the country.
My fear then was that the all-conquering PDP was set on railroading Nigeria into a one-party state, while you progressed with the ultimate project of extending your tenure into a life presidency. I was not the only Nigerian who saw the evolving monster in its seminal stage, though I was still ready to temper my hunch with the thought that you were too smart, too wise, too sensitive about the verdict of History, to want to overstay your welcome. But events in the past twelve months have lent credence to my original suspicion and cast serious shadows on the limelight in which I held your virtues. Now, it is becoming glaring even to the blindest person that you and your great Party are, indeed, bent on changing the Nigerian Constitution so as to prolong your tenure and those of your favorite governors. And you seem not bothered by the grave danger this act of treachery poses for our country and your own future as a statesman.
Let me confess right from the beginning that I am aware that there is virtually nothing new left for anyone to say on this matter. In the past one year or so, your Third Term stratagem has seized center stage in our national discourse. Virtually every newspaper in the country has made it the subject of an impassioned editorial; the op-ed pages are fraught with admonitions by opinion leaders and imprecations from countless commentators. World leaders and venerable personalities have registered their warnings. Scholars and conscientious thinkers within and outside Nigeria have labored to remind you of the foulness of your project and the gravity of its consequences. Poets have waxed lyrical on satirical excoriation. Drummers have laced the evening wind with sounds of caution.
You and your Third Term stratagem have now become the issue everywhere two or three Nigerians are gathered: the source of rancor between husband and wife, the bone of contention among former associates, and the flaming dagger in the flesh of the nation. Roadside mechanics now talk about "Thud Tam"; petty traders have woven it into the fabric of their hawking ditties; the mud and dust of our marketplaces recognize it in their sickening miasma; churches and mosques passionately beseech the Almighty to frustrate your design; the shrines and temples are asking the Deity of Moderation to temper your zeal and satiate your appetite for power. Our legislatures at the local and national levels are aloud with law-makers who rip up each other's liver over the Third Term "debate", the bank accounts of those in favor reportedly bursting with bribes from powerful quarters.
I can't remember when last I heard our politicians talk about the state of the country's education, the condition of our roads, especially the erosion-ravaged ones in the Eastern part of the country, the literal meltdown of the country's power-generating capacity, the rampaging hunger in the land coupled with grinding poverty at a time of unprecedented windfalls from the oil sector, the growing cynicism in the land consequent upon the utter corruption of the political system. Not since the time of Sanni Abacha and his killer-squads have Nigerians been so divided, so angry, so perplexed, so achingly apprehensive. Not since the evil days of General Babangida has the regimen of political chicanery and scoundrelry been so rife, so suffocating.
Dear President Obasanjo, your Third Term plot has divided the country you swore to keep together. You have diverted us from our national focus and constituted yourself into the main issue in the Nigerian space. Put another way, your toxic ambition is poisoning the national system. Can't you see its virus at work in the intractable anomie in the Niger Delta; or the sectarian mayhems in different parts of the country? How do you feel when Nigerians say that their country is a fish that rots from the head; that the man who holds the rudder of the national ship is the one who brews a storm in the waters? You preside over a delicate country, President Obasanjo, don't let its pristine porcelain drop from your hand and shatter on the rocky patch around your feet. You were one of the soldiers who fought "To Keep Nigeria One"; let it not be said that the world went adrift in your time.
At this point I would like to remind you about an opinion piece which appeared in one of our national newspapers barely six months into your assumption of office in May 1999. In a perspicaciously prescient vein, the author of that piece had compared you to two important leaders at epochal junctures in the destiny of their respective countries: Abraham Lincoln and Mikhail Gorbachev. According to him, two clear but grave choices opened before you as you once again assumed the reins of power in Nigeria - either you succeeded, like Lincoln, in uniting the wounded blocks of a fragmented nation, or you ended up, like Gorbachev, in putting the knife on the things that held the country together. An utterly chilling choice, you would say, one that would give even the hardest mind a sleepless night.
And, as if poised for the Lincoln Ideal, you swept into office with incredible energy and conviction - the total mission of a recent political prisoner so achingly aware of the values of freedom and the utter desirability of the democratic process. You promised to wage war on corruption, give transparency a clear niche in government affairs, make poverty a thing of the past, make education qualitative and affordable, make life more bearable for Nigerians so bestially violated by many years of military rule. The country read your lips. A desperate citizenry held on to every syllable of your promise. The nation granted your second marriage to power a long and sympathetic honeymoon. But a virulent disillusionment set in soon after as the challenging realities of power took off your mask, and the people began to witness the deadly sins of arrogance, messianic illusion, corruption and the selective 'war' against it, political assassinations, chicanery, rigged elections, persecution of political opponents, and suchlike violations that are the hallmarks of our former rulers. The latest of these political evils is your present stratagem to subvert the commonweal and prolong your stay in office. Now the people are asking: how different is this king from the tyrants that ruled us before him?
Dear President Obasanjo, by raising our hopes so high and dashing them so callously, you are fueling the flames of cynicism, a source of political paralysis already so ubiquitous in our country: ALL POLITICIANS ARE CORRUPT AND CORRUPTING. POLITICS IS A GAME OF LIARS AND CUT-THROATS. TRUST POLITICIANS AT YOUR OWN PERIL. This mantra has its fatal corollaries: THERE ARE NO HONEST PEOPLE IN NIGERIA. NIGERIA IS IMPOSSIBLE TO RULE. NIGERIA IS A DOOMED COUNTRY. Without a doubt, your on-going scheme to change the rules of the game mid-play and subvert the country's constitution to feed what many already see as your addiction to power, is putting a big question mark on the precarious entity we call Nigeria. Your plot to extend your tenure is a clear threat to the moral and territorial integrity of the country you want to keep on ruling. The link between the present Third Term campaign and the escalation in the struggle (some people call it 'crisis') in the Niger Delta is as clear as the gas flares that consume the night in that barbarously exploited base of the Nigerian fortune. There are also fears that the extension of your rule would upset the delicate apple cart of the zoning system, and plunge the country into another anomie.
And what about all these rumors about oil blocks being traded as exchange for support of the Third Term plot? What about the billions of naira reportedly changing hands in legislative quarters in order to secure those votes you need to amend the country's constitution and extend your rule? I thought you promised the end of the era of 'Ghana-Must-Go' when, on May 29 1999, you mounted the podium at the Eagle Square and unfolded your dreams to a joyously expectant country. When you see political thugs dethroning constitutionally elected governors, or harassing lawful citizens who gather to register their opposition to your Third Term plot, (while the police look the other way), do you remember images of Western Nigeria circa 1965; June 12 1993; Abacha 1993-98? Do you remember your term in Abacha's prison for a trumped-up charge that would have cost you your life if the Human Rights community has not come to your aid? Dear Professor Obasanjo, do you still remember The Animal Called Man?
Those dying to have you stay on in power beyond your present legitimate mandate love you little and love the country less. They are quick to tout your indispensability as if without you, the country would simply collapse. A liberating blend of humility and wisdom should see you out of that trap. Mr. President, Nigeria existed before your Presidency; it will continue to do so long after you (like the rest of us) are gone. You are just ONE (lucky though) out of 120 million of us. And as the Yoruba say, Asiwere lo npe eni bi toun ko si (It is only the insane person that boasts that there is no other person like him/her). Look very closely: many of those now painting the streets red with banners of your Third Term campaign once did the same for General Babangida; they were the same persuaders who told General Abacha (remember him?) that he was the sole and perpetual solution to the Nigerian problem. These are the characters ingeniously dubbed "the professional facilitators of dictatorship" in a recent article by Dr. G.A. Akinola of Ibadan Univeristy's History Department.
President Obasanjo, it is more in your own interest than in the country's that you play the game according to the laid down rules, complete your present term, and take your leave. You did so in 1979 when you had the military muscle to extend your stay, and handed over the baton to a civilian successor. That singular act shot you into international limelight, and earned you a resounding acclaim. All so quickly, a former obscure military dictator became the toast of the distinguished clan of retired world leaders, the exemplar of democratic engineering. Your willing relinquishment of power became a positive showpiece for a sadly misgoverned continent. You became a member of the Eminent Personalities Group, and played some role in the termination of Apartheid.
Back home in Nigeria, you grew larger than yourself; spoke "truth to power" by your constant, relentless assault on General Babangida's political and economic agenda. When General Abacha the Goggled Fiend took over the reins, your railing was no less loud and sincere. This is why when you ended up in Abacha’s jail, the whole world rose in your defence. It was these credentials that earned you a return to the seat of power in May 1999. Have you forgotten all this?
President Obasanjo, the terrible thing about public men and women is that they have a past we can always compare with their present. Many of your eminent colleagues abroad are wondering whether the blunt, straight-shooting person they used to know is the same as the present tergiversator and manipulator of dirty maneuvers. Some are wondering if they really knew you as well as they thought. You can see the world is beginning to shun your embrace and avert your gaze. You look very much to me like the kind of person who likes to be recognized as a statesman of international repute. But charity begins at home. That home has been turned into a hotbed of thorns and bristles by your Third Term plot.
President Obasanjo, the Nigerian people are voicing their aversion to your plan to change the constitution so as to extend your rule. Listen to them. As a soldier and politician with considerable experience, you know it is dangerous for a ruler to insist on ruling without the people's consent. Dear President, start making your plans for the relinquishment of power next year.
Start today. By May 2007 you will have ruled this country for a total of eleven years. That is about too much for one man to ask for in a country of 120 million human beings. Don't tempt Fate with your overweening ambition. Remove the millstone of your power-craving from our necks so that the country can breathe again. The ovation is fading fast; jeers and boos are taking over the public arena. Let Temperance (remember that word?) redeem your appetite. Let History treat your name as one evoked with reverence, not spat out with a gob of bile. With the thriving Otta Farms and chiming Bells University competing for your attention, you will have more than enough to keep your retirement busy. Stop this Thud Tam evil today. Let our country live.
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