January 31, 2010
The latest in today on the shameful concert a-stage in Abuja is from the Arewa Consultative Forum. The ACF would want the clause in the “Constitution” on incapacitation of the President to be respected. It wants Mr. Goodluck Jonathan to be allowed to assume the mantle of power as president given Mr. Musa Yar’Adua’s continuing health-related incapacitation and abdication. I don’t know about you, but even though I’m not a rat, I do smell rat here.
The latest in today on the shameful concert a-stage in Abuja is from the Arewa Consultative Forum. The ACF would want the clause in the “Constitution” on incapacitation of the President to be respected. It wants Mr. Goodluck Jonathan to be allowed to assume the mantle of power as president given Mr. Musa Yar’Adua’s continuing health-related incapacitation and abdication. I don’t know about you, but even though I’m not a rat, I do smell rat here.
It doesn’t take a genius talk less a class in introductory political science for anyone to discern that the same line-up of individuals who hold the realization of genuine democratic transformation in Nigeria hostage are scrambling again to abort the current opportunity to achieve that necessary condition for Nigeria’s progress and development. They all know that the game they play so well is up again. They are ever busy now scrambling to salvage the rump yet another time. Mr. Olusegun Obasanjo’s shameless “God punish me” response to a question in Abuja the other day, and the excursion to Abuja by the so-called Elders last week, are all indicators of the same desperation to abort by the line-up. People of goodwill must not allow them to succeed this time.
That Yar’Adua has been badly compromised on health grounds to hold up the trough that these characters feed off to the detriment of the peoples of Nigeria and their over all destinies is not lost on them. That, has been evident from the time it has taken them to scramble up counting from the day he went out on a stretcher in the middle of the night more than two months ago to Saudi Arabia. Did it slip their minds that the relevant clause that should apply in this case in the “Constitution” they produced in 1999 and brandished in our name must be triggered into effect? They have been busy tinkering to see how much time they can buy to sustain the status quo. The tide has turned on them, and they know it too. That’s why they have signaled their readiness now to move to their next act of holding true democratic transformation in Nigeria hostage. We must stop them this time.
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The army which they used in the past to author coup d’états is no longer in the requisite shape to be useful to them in that regard any more. They are aware of that, which is why they have fallen back on the option that worked for them in 1998 during Sani Abacha’s dictatorship when they realized that sustained recalcitrance would sweep them away out of power for good. That was why they eliminated Abacha and pushed Abdulsalami Abubakar forward as a new face. I was privy to their desperation at the time. The idea of upstaging Obasanjo for a second time was the selling point then. The US was all for it albeit genuinely, I must say, because they made Obasanjo to even agree that he would form a government of National Unity, which would pave the way for the resolution of the Nationalities Question. I was working closely with Chief Enahoro, who’s still alive today, at the time. When he insisted that the only genuine path forward would come through an unfettered Sovereign National Conference of all the peoples and groups in Nigeria, they smoothly undercut him by prying away most of the people around him. I still recall how they sent the late Bola Ige here to lure away those people. I was impressed by the oldman, Chief Enahoro who remained firm and kept saying: Let’s finish this fight once and for all now! The US was beside itself in frustration with Obasanjo after he went into Aso Rock. The US had nudged him on to proceed with the gentleman’s agreement that he reached to bring certain people in. But nay, he wouldn’t listen. After all, Nigeria is indebted to him! His outburst to the people who they sent to him that they should have made Chief Enahoro the president instead if they felt he was better than him was the turning point in his relationship with the US. Although he made them walk away licking their wounds at the time, they got their turn to humiliate him when he let Charles Taylor off, lied about it and headed to visit with George Bush. They caught up with him in New York where they read him the riot act to produce Taylor or…Of course he quickly complied.
Well, the rest is history. The poetic justice aspect of it all is that Ige was consumed by the same Obasanjo whom he vouched for at the time.
This time around, the task before us should not be about making Jonathan Goodluck president and the case would close. Goodluck’s character and capacity are well known. We all know that a President Goodluck cannot resolve the status quo ante to put us on the path to genuine democratic transformation in Nigeria. Our agitation and quest must rightly continue beyond the clauses of the 1999 “Constitution”. A Sovereign National Conference must be in the core of the demands that every demonstration and march must make. Make no mistake about it; the same rat is around once again. We smell it, let’s get rid of it this time once and for all.
● E. C. Ejiogu, PhD is a political sociologist.
It doesn’t take a genius talk less a class in introductory political science for anyone to discern that the same line-up of individuals who hold the realization of genuine democratic transformation in Nigeria hostage are scrambling again to abort the current opportunity to achieve that necessary condition for Nigeria’s progress and development. They all know that the game they play so well is up again. They are ever busy now scrambling to salvage the rump yet another time. Mr. Olusegun Obasanjo’s shameless “God punish me” response to a question in Abuja the other day, and the excursion to Abuja by the so-called Elders last week, are all indicators of the same desperation to abort by the line-up. People of goodwill must not allow them to succeed this time.
That Yar’Adua has been badly compromised on health grounds to hold up the trough that these characters feed off to the detriment of the peoples of Nigeria and their over all destinies is not lost on them. That, has been evident from the time it has taken them to scramble up counting from the day he went out on a stretcher in the middle of the night more than two months ago to Saudi Arabia. Did it slip their minds that the relevant clause that should apply in this case in the “Constitution” they produced in 1999 and brandished in our name must be triggered into effect? They have been busy tinkering to see how much time they can buy to sustain the status quo. The tide has turned on them, and they know it too. That’s why they have signaled their readiness now to move to their next act of holding true democratic transformation in Nigeria hostage. We must stop them this time.
articleadsbanner
The army which they used in the past to author coup d’états is no longer in the requisite shape to be useful to them in that regard any more. They are aware of that, which is why they have fallen back on the option that worked for them in 1998 during Sani Abacha’s dictatorship when they realized that sustained recalcitrance would sweep them away out of power for good. That was why they eliminated Abacha and pushed Abdulsalami Abubakar forward as a new face. I was privy to their desperation at the time. The idea of upstaging Obasanjo for a second time was the selling point then. The US was all for it albeit genuinely, I must say, because they made Obasanjo to even agree that he would form a government of National Unity, which would pave the way for the resolution of the Nationalities Question. I was working closely with Chief Enahoro, who’s still alive today, at the time. When he insisted that the only genuine path forward would come through an unfettered Sovereign National Conference of all the peoples and groups in Nigeria, they smoothly undercut him by prying away most of the people around him. I still recall how they sent the late Bola Ige here to lure away those people. I was impressed by the oldman, Chief Enahoro who remained firm and kept saying: Let’s finish this fight once and for all now! The US was beside itself in frustration with Obasanjo after he went into Aso Rock. The US had nudged him on to proceed with the gentleman’s agreement that he reached to bring certain people in. But nay, he wouldn’t listen. After all, Nigeria is indebted to him! His outburst to the people who they sent to him that they should have made Chief Enahoro the president instead if they felt he was better than him was the turning point in his relationship with the US. Although he made them walk away licking their wounds at the time, they got their turn to humiliate him when he let Charles Taylor off, lied about it and headed to visit with George Bush. They caught up with him in New York where they read him the riot act to produce Taylor or…Of course he quickly complied.
Well, the rest is history. The poetic justice aspect of it all is that Ige was consumed by the same Obasanjo whom he vouched for at the time.
This time around, the task before us should not be about making Jonathan Goodluck president and the case would close. Goodluck’s character and capacity are well known. We all know that a President Goodluck cannot resolve the status quo ante to put us on the path to genuine democratic transformation in Nigeria. Our agitation and quest must rightly continue beyond the clauses of the 1999 “Constitution”. A Sovereign National Conference must be in the core of the demands that every demonstration and march must make. Make no mistake about it; the same rat is around once again. We smell it, let’s get rid of it this time once and for all.
● E. C. Ejiogu, PhD is a political sociologist.
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