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Decoding Kuku's Dire Consequences Hypothesis By Babajide Balogun

Once again Nigeria is back to the musical chairs of disruptive politics. As was the case during the period when former military dictator and Head of State, General Sani Abacha wanted to transmute from a military leader to a democratically elected president, certain agents provocateur within the polity are beginning to sell the odious message that the corporate survival of Nigeria would come under heavy threats if President Goodluck Jonathan is not returned to office in the 2015 elections.

Once again Nigeria is back to the musical chairs of disruptive politics. As was the case during the period when former military dictator and Head of State, General Sani Abacha wanted to transmute from a military leader to a democratically elected president, certain agents provocateur within the polity are beginning to sell the odious message that the corporate survival of Nigeria would come under heavy threats if President Goodluck Jonathan is not returned to office in the 2015 elections.

Since that failed attempt by General Abacha, successive governments in Nigeria, with only the exception of General Abdulsalam led transitional administration, have employed the institutionalization of fear as the only mechanism of perpetuating themselves in government.

Usually, the pattern is to weave a situation of national security importance as the major reason why the incumbent should remain in office. It is a sort of improvement upon the sit-tight syndrome in which African leaders used brute force to repress dissenting voices in perpetuating themselves in office during the past decade.

Under the new method of sit-tightism, the state either through error or omission, creates a scenario which makes the incumbent government seem somewhat indispensable.

During the General Abacha's episode, the tune was that only the dark goggled General held the key to keeping the military at bay in other to allow the emerging democratic experimentation to flourish. Paradoxically, it was even the political actors in the political contraption of that era, of which the late Cicero and pro-democracy activist, Chief Bola Ige, coined five fingers of leprous hand ( an euphemism of the five registered, state-controlled political parties) that were beaconing at Abacha to pick up their presidential ticket. Ironically too, it was the men who were behind the push for Abacha's presidential candidature and General Olusegun Obasanjo's third term adventure, that are also today behind the either-Goodluck Jonathan-or-nothing 2015 campaign. In a political system where politics attracts a lot of economic gains, it is hardly surprising lobbying to keep the president in office has become an industry and men like Kingsley Kuku, Tony Anenih have devised a professional career along that industry.

During the third term adventure of President Olusegun Obasanjo, it was convenient for the promoters of the agenda to say that Obasanjo was the only citizen Nigeria had, who could muscle it out with the monster of corruption. And they didn't just come about that theory accidentally.
The Obasanjo government had carefully weeded out all its perceived political opponent through an orchestrated process of official labeling of those opponents by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) as corrupt politicians. The EFCC even came up with a stratagem, which was to disqualify victims of Obasanjo's quasi anti corruption crusade from participating in the 2007 elections. As a matter of fact, the annihilation of politicians from political contest by the Obasanjo government can only be compared to what General Ibrahim Babangida did when he barred all top politicians in the country from participating in 1993 presidential election.

Coming to the Jonathan administration, it has appeared that some officials of governments have begun the process of deifying President Jonathan as the only solution to keeping the country together. This time around, the catch-word is to say that without a President Jonathan, militancy will return to the Niger-Delta region. That was the odious message that the Special Adviser to the President on Niger Delta, Chief Kuku sold to officials of the United States of America recently. He said, “It is true that the presidential amnesty programme has engendered peace, safety and security in the sensitive and strategic Niger Delta. Permit me to add that the peace that currently prevails in the zone is largely because Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, who is from that same place, is the President of Nigeria. That is the truth.

“It is only a Jonathan presidency that can guarantee continued peace and energy security in the Niger Delta.

“Terrorism is a global phenomenon. President Jonathan inherited the situation in northern Nigeria and he has adopted a multifaceted approach to tackle this unfortunate situation. So far, profound results are being achieved. “But I insist that this must not distract the U.S. and the international community from giving the Niger Delta region of Nigeria the requisite attention.” “I hope the U.S. is aware that with peace and stability in the Niger Delta, Nigeria’s economy will remain buoyant enough to empower the Federal Government to contend with terrorism and other forms of insecurity in other parts of the country.

“However if we allow anything to hurt the peace in the Niger Delta, Nigeria’s economy will be endangered and energy security in Nigeria and even America will not be guaranteed. The attention and interest of the U.S. in Nigeria must remain the stability of the Niger Delta and the easiest way to ensure this is to encourage President Jonathan to complete an eight-year term." Although the statement made by Kuku is as embarrassing as it is disturbing, but where the worry is, is that certain actions of the government in recent time tend to lend credence to the suspicion that this administration seeks to make a political capital out of the pervasive mood of insecurity in the land.

For instance, why would Kuku make such an outrageous statement just few days after government proposed the composition of a committee to look into the issue of granting amnesty to the dreaded Boko Haram sect? Or, when the major opposition party in the country, the Action Congress of Nigeria is accusing the government of surreptitiously reviving another militant organization, the Odua Peoples Congress (OPC) in the Southwest of the country. Just recently too, the police in Lagos State discovered that the building being used to manufacture bombs by suspected Boko Haram members belonged to the Bayelsa State government.

It seems, although without concrete proof, that the government is flirting with these various militia groups so that they will be the ones issuing threats that the only panacea for them not to revert to terrorism and violence is for Jonathan to remain in office after 2015.

Already, there are speculations in some quarters that there is a political faction of the Boko Haram sect. It is not improbable that with the setting up of a committee on amnesty for the sect, this so-called political faction of the sect will emerge to accept the amnesty offer and goes on to state that part of its terms for the amnesty is a continuation of the Goodluck Jonathan presidency.

The country has been used to this type of divisive politics, but the most interesting outcome of it is that the promoters of the perpetuation plots have never been successful at it. Not just that. It has also become public knowledge that the nation has fared better without them around such issues where they weaved the plot of their indispensability. Nigeria did better in democracy without a president Abacha; Nigerians knew better what manner of anti-corruption crusader Obasanjo was when he failed in his tenure elongation bid. Perhaps the same way Nigerians will get to know better that we can do better with the fight against terrorism and militancy without a President Jonathan.
 
 
Balogun sent this piece from FCT, Abuja
 

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of SaharaReporters

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