It is a telling commentary that Nigeria’s socio-economic landscape is today blighted by a dizzying array of characters whose conduct is more often than not a direct antithesis of the ideals or convictions they so noisily lay claim to. Our sensibilities are routinely being assaulted by the antics of bible-hugging Pentecostal pastors, fatalism-preaching imams, sleazy and cantankerous pols, corrupt bankers and wayward senior civil servants, not to mention the ordinary citizen who has become adept at robotically quoting from the Bible or the Koran in order to press home unsolicited opinions on contemporary issues. Remarkably, it is not only the clergy that must grapple with the moral albatross of complacency and hollow posturing in our public spaces in recent times.
These days, as the nation confronts the grim consequences of the awful governance which the PDP and its owners have inflicted on the citizenry since 1999, a curious strand of a not-so-new phenomenon of pro-democracy (and human rights) advocacy would seem to have reared its ugly head. As if taking advantage of the relative impotence of the organized pro-democracy movement as it fiddles and gropes in the dark in the face of a determined but incompetent political oligarchy and its allies, a ragtag band of essentially disgruntled, smug, if dangerous former government agents seems inebriated with an idée fixe whose revanchist designs are increasingly assuming the contours of a theocratic injunction.
A cottage industry of sorts, the ‘born again’ pro-democracy catechism is at once shrill and hypocritical in its pretensions. Represented by some of the more colorful elements of the previous Obasanjo regime in the likes of the erstwhile FCT minister, Mallam Nasir el-Rufai and the former EFCC chairman, Nuhu Ribadu, the rhetorical corpus seeking to wrap itself in an halo of intellectual and ethical respectability is by all intents and purposes a boondoggle, a revisionist vehicle for the whitewashing of perhaps the most disastrous administrative legacy in the annals of the country. And to a large extent, the Ribadu-El-Rufai soap opera of the post-Obasanjo era does bear the hall marks of a narcissistic adventure on the part of fragile egos whose delusional fixations do nevertheless stand the risk of being taken seriously by unsuspecting or ill-informed individuals or groups. All that, to say that the political quarantine of not just the el-Rufai/Ribadu duo, but significantly, of the principal actors of the Olusegun Obasanjo tyranny of 1999 – 2007, is long overdue. As I have argued elsewhere , its moral deficit notwithstanding and ironically because of it, the Yar’Adua administration will be doing the nation and itself a big favor by pursuing a deliberate strategy seeking to neutralize and contain the impunity-seeking gangsters of the Obasanjo misrule. It is in our collective and enlightened self-interest not to allow el-Rufai, Ribadu and their political allies within the PDP and beyond to be in a position to lead or influence governance in any part of Nigeria again. Suffice it to say that this stand does not have to assume a partisan outlook. A discreet reading of the state of the nation should convince the more distracted amongst us of the need to politically isolate each and every remorseless apostle of impunity and election rigging. Henceforth, this ought to be the authentic pro-democracy/pro-people gospel for Nigerians.
Asked in a recent Thisday interview to comment on his stewardship under the previous dispensation, el-Rufai preferred to deploy subterfuge by annoyingly and arrogantly harping on his mythical competence. Said he:
”No human being is perfect and one is learning all the time as one gets older and more knowledgeable. But as I have said before, I have not repeated a class in my life, so I hardly look back. I tried to execute any assignment given to me by getting smart people to work with me, empowering them and driving toward execution. I leave the judgment on what we did in both BPE and FCT to posterity”! Yeah, the same gang that gave the nation the PENTASCOPE scandal , amongst others, and whose bosses and their subalterns are the targets of a world-wide manhunt by the EFCC and other agencies!
Now, in their current incarnation, the enfants terribles of the Obasanjo era would have us believe that they are latter-day democrats imbued with zero-tolerance of administrative incompetence and banditry. Through recent activities, the new saints of Nigerian democracy have cursed, pilloried, castigated and basically hallucinated regarding what they perceive as the transgressions of their tormentors, that is, their PDP buddies now holding sway at Aso Rock. As can be seen in critical commentaries in the media and conferences, amongst other modes of intervention, these pretenders seem to be having a field day and relishing every bit of it. In a recent European outing, supposedly on the “challenges of governance in Nigeria at 49”, el-Rufai, Ribadu and the latter’s ardent admirer, Pat Utomi, did engage in exchanges that came across, unfortunately, as sounding boards of one another. In what were obviously masturbatory monologues about their respective roles during the last Obasanjo regime, el-Rufai and Nuhu Ribadu desperately tried to paint a glowing picture of their reign of terror which, thankfully, came to and end on May 29, 2007.
Also, almost as if intoxicated by their new-found mantra, our pro-democracy and human rights gurus have whipped themselves into a frenzy of political crusading and do want fellow citizens and the world at large to embrace their enthusiasm. The latter are called upon to “ do something to effect change they want”. This call to arms is vantage el-Rufai. “If we really want things to change in Nigeria, we will have to confront heads on members of the cabal that is holding Nigeria to ransom…We must not willingly be overcome by evil forces, we have to challenge them” (El-Rufai, ‘The Moral Of The Story’, NVS). Strange talk, indeed, for the last time we checked, the likes of el-Rufai, Ribadu, their mentor and master, Obasanjo, Bode George and Anenih were part and parcel of the “evil forces” within the PDP whose criminal impunity and perfidy have caused irreparable damage on the polity!
The point has to be made that the same ‘born-again’ pro-democracy rhetoric that is preaching change and opposition to the Yar’Adua regime is also busy telling Nigerians that the desecration by el-Rufai, Ribadu and their PDP confederates led by the former tyrant, Obasanjo, of the sanctity of the sovereign will of the people to elect their representatives was legitimate and an act God! The rigging into office of Yar’Adua in 2007 is thus presented as a noble and patriotic gesture by a God-fearing messiah and his team of ‘reformers’. “… Nigerians have been patient enough and they know that the reason for their sufferings are not with Nuhu Ribadu or Nasir El’rufai but with an administration that promised to declare an emergency on power but whose only emergency has been the emergency of containing the imaginary enemies of an insecure leader who found himself in a position as a result of our Beneficient Creator who used a man who never forgot the loyatly and respect shown him by the late Tafida, Gen. Shehu Musa Yar’adua, a man with enough sagacity to remember those he met on his way up knowing that he will also meet them on his way down. President Yar’adua may wish to remember the proverb that those whose kola nuts have been broken for them by a benevolent spirit ought to be appreciative” (El-Rufai, “ A Troubling Fixation”, NVS)! The heretical import of the egregious outburst is not lost on us. That offensive remark alone is enough to write-off as mendacious the self-proclaimed progressive identity of the sponsors of the new pro-democracy insurgency. That el-Rufai and his co-travelers have consistently failed to understand that most Nigerians, that is, the victims of their administrative truancy and recklessness, do find their rambling and after-thought remonstrations in bad taste does speak volumes as to the fool’s paradise these new converts to the human rights credo must be living in. Crucially, it is the insincerity and profound lack of appreciation of the suffering of the citizenry on the part of our reformed “democrats” that are exposed by the philosophical contradictions that are starkly on display in the on-going propaganda campaign by the former FCT minister and his partners.
It is worth mentioning the fact that the “democrats” of the PDP hue have gone beyond declaring an ‘intifada’, figuratively speaking, of course. They have pronounced the political equivalent of a ‘fatwa” against President Yar’Adua and fellow members of what they say is “the cabal that is holding Nigeria to ransom”. Yar’Adua will not be allowed to have a second term and so, el-Rufai and his co-conspirators reportedly have plans to put in place political structures to ensure that outcome. In a Daily Trust interview of Oct. 22, 2009, the diminutive erstwhile FCT ‘big oga’ declares: “ My priority now is to organise and reach out to as many people as possible that agree Nigeria needs leadership change. I am ready to work with anybody. I am ready to work with AC, Labour Party; I am ready to work with any party. I am ready to work even with the progressive elements within the PDP that agree that Nigeria is badly governed. What we are doing is reaching out to people like that in all parties, with the view that we will all come together and agree what (to do) next. We may agree that AC is the best platform to confront Yar’adua. We may agree that another party is the best platform. But that is for the group to agree democratically, not for one person (to decide). Since these consultations and discussions are still going on, I can’t say for sure what will happen. All I know is that I am ready to work with anybody, including (former vice-president) Atiku Abubakar, to come together and confront what I think is a bigger evil, which is Yar’adua continuing in office beyond 2011”! Elsewhere, it is said that the ‘revolutionaries’ have joined forces with the likes of T. Y. Danjuma by creating another body called Best Practices Initiative. Its reported agenda: “Nasir El Rufai can confirm that Nuhu and I are supporting a broad-based, national political movement aimed at creating an internally-democratic, people-oriented platform to give Nigerians good governance - and credible alternative to the incompetent Yar’Adua administration”. As usual, there is no talk of programmes or a coherent ideology. What we are faced with is the raw craving for power for mainly selfish considerations.
The fuzzy, half-baked schemes (not to mention the drab rhetoric around them) of the new pro-democracy intifada whose primary objective is no doubt the lust for political relevance would be laughable were it not for the possibility that some poor souls somewhere may be tempted to ascribe noble motives to them. Beyond that, there is the well-founded suspicion that a lot of the playing to the gallery on the part of the heretics is also aimed at providing themselves with emotional alibis in their bid to extricate themselves from the legal troubles awaiting them in Nigeria. Significantly, the antecedents of Ribadu and el-Rufai as agents of impunity and tyranny under a supposed democratic dispensation do not help their case. So, what useful lessons can the long-suffering people of Nigeria glean from the pernicious enterprise of the new pro-democracy intifada as they ponder 2011 and the state of the nation in general?
The first readily available answer is that we must be wary of those wanting to pass off their internecine PDP squabbles as principled fights for good governance. By and large, the individuals congregating under the eerie canopy of the ironically baptized People’s Democratic Party (PDP) have demonstrated time and time again their profound disdain for the citizenry and its welfare. The PDP under the violent and kleptocratic despotism of Olusegun Obasanjo and his henchmen in the el-Rufai and Ribadu mould did unleash untold atrocities on the nation and its people. We are today living witnesses to the legacy of the mayhem caused by these medieval lunatics posing as leaders. The mere thought of these monsters conspiring to rule or influence governance again should be reason enough for decent men and women to rise and help put the barbarians in their place, once and for all. As it is presently constituted, the PDP is beyond redemption and everything should be done to put the outfit and its self-important members out of business. The recent happenings in Ekiti and Anambra should serve as further incentives for genuine democrats to take to the ramparts in the bid to salvage the country.
The second critical lesson must be seen as a cautionary tale for pro-democracy advocacy in Nigeria. A few years ago, when Alex Ekwueme, the former vice-president under Shehu Shagari , was brooding over the undemocratic and crude manner he was prevented by the “do or die” tin god and his errand boys from decently contesting to be the PDP flag-bearer in the presidential election of 2003, I wrote to indict the episodic and sectarian nature of much of the pro-democracy militancy in Nigeria today. Entitled “Ekwueme: The Abdication of Nigeria’s Democrats”, the document is available on The Nigerian Village Square (NVS). True democrats do stand the risk of denting their credibility by uncritically jumping on the new intifada bandwagon as represented by the ranting of an Obasanjo surrogate called el-Rufai. A few weeks ago, we were confronted with some of the inconsistencies of our pro-democracy activists when otherwise respectable individuals loudly embraced the passport renewal issue involving the latter as a cause célèbre of sorts. In that shameful episode, there was hardly any hint on the part of the human rights crusaders of the need to compel an indicted citizen, no matter how highly placed, to submit himself to the nation’s constituted authorities and account for his stewardship while in government. The selective and myopic pursuit of human rights and the democratic ideal must be considered as quite damaging in the long run.
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