How Obasanjo handles Ige's murder will be telling

 By Dr. Acho Emeruwa

 Special to USAfrica The Newspaper, Houston
USAfricaonline.com,
NigeriaCentral.com

Bola Ige's assasination is evidence of gross leadership failure on the part of President Obasanjo. Since Obasanjo took over the government of Nigeria in May 1999, the police has been attacked in Odi, his soldiers have been butchered in the Middle Belt and his Attorney-General (Ige) was first assaulted by a mob in Ife, and a few weeks later, murdered in (in Ibadan) a few miles from Ife.

As a retired army General one would think that his strongest suit would be general security intelligence and protecting his law enforcement officers. Well, obviously he can't even do that. He has also failed to protect the Igbos, Nigeria's ethnic minorities and other Nigerian citizens from mob hysteria, religious zealots and xenophobics and extreme acts by the law enforcement agencies.

But we know that one area he has done well is travel the whole world, ostensibly to continue to build his international stature rather than stay in Nigeria and do the work he was elected to perfrom.

We are now waiting to see what he will do next on the Ige issue.

I recall that when some Nigerian police men were killed in Odi by a handful of hoodlums, Obasanjo sent his soldiers to raze the community almost into a parking lot. The town was sacked and destroyed. When Nigerian soldiers were attacked in the Middle Belt he sent his soldier to teach them "a strong lesson" and advised retired Gen. Victor Malu not to take it "personally" after his home was destroyed and his relatives and neighbors killed. Now, we are waiting to see what he will do to teach those who assasinated his Attorney General a lesson in his Ibadan (or wherever they came from).

 For the rest of us we have to start thinking of post-Obasanjo Nigeria.

 Who can we find to take over from Obasanjo?
Given the current climate, the Western world does not have time for any crises in Nigeria. Their hands are full with the War on terrorism, the Middle East and the India-Pakistan tension. It would suit the West just as well to have a strongman take over and keep Nigeria from boiling over just for awhile.

I am saddened and dissappointed by President Obasanjo whom I have always supported as the best transition figure for Nigeria. I equally thought of the Yorubas of southwest Nigeria as very educated but obviously all the education does not teach nonviolent conflict resolution and belief in the rule of law.
Emeruwa, a practising physician in Riverside, California, also serves as the Executive Director of the Association of Nigerian Physician in the Americas. He plans to contribute editorial views on health issues and news events for USAfricaonline.com and USAfrica The Newspaper.

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