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Atiku and Obasanjo's rough power-play places Nigeria's democracy on dicey road, again

Special to USAfrica The Newspaper, Houston, CLASS magazine, USAfricaonline.com and The Black Business Journal

By Chido Nwangwu (Founder and Publisher, USAfricaonline.com)

It all too familiar in the raw quest to hold on to power that the incumbents in Nigeria and other parts of the developing (?) world accuse their opponents of planning to "overthrow" the state/government.

The month of February 2007 has since awakened to Nigeria's government led by retired army general Olusegun Obasanjo taking an unusual, sensitive turn to allege that it had "uncovered a plot" by embattled Vice President Atiku Abubakar to "undermine" the security of the nation. Obasanjo's special assistamt Malam Sani Uba who spoke to journalists in Abuja February 2, 2007 said Vice President Atiku had "personally made the point of avoiding all forms of interaction with the military personnel both serving and retired, knowing the kind of President that we have" but the Federal Government is in possession of some "classified documents" from the military, which claims Atiku and a mole he had planted in the army planned to use in carrying out the alleged acts.

Atiku -whose political machine wa s key to Obasanjo ride into power in 1999- has also been the leading stalwart who foiled the various efforts by Obasanjo and his supporters to enact an unprecedented, unconstitutional third term for Obasanjo (the latter has been ruling Nigeria since 1999-May 2007; and was a miliatry dictator from February 13, 1976 to October 1, 1979).

Interestingly, a week or more before Obasanjo's team announcement, Atiku had alerted the nation and the international community that Obasanjo will allege he (Atiku) was involved in a military plot. His media consultant, Garba Shehu said "the Vice President has already predicted this line of action by President Olusegun Obasanjo; that when all help failed in the bid to stop him from running in the forthcoming presidential elections, he (Obasanjo) would resort into roping him in a phantom coup."

He added that Atiku"would seek powers through constitutional means."Also, end of January 2007, Atiku himself said that "a few weeks ago, this government approved over $2 billion to buy weapons to suppress the people of Niger Delta, not to develop the area. I will channel that money to the development of the area because if the area is developed, the people will not carry arms." If the Obasanjo-Atiku naked partisan fights continue, the end game of this heady and complicated showdown will have critical implications for Nigeria's April 2007 elections. Obasanjo and Atiku have accused each other of corruption and abuse of government power. Meanwhile, killings for party nominations, brigandage and stolen mandates/elections and rigging have since made nonsense of voting and the game of politics since the "winners" are arbitrarily removed by the ruling party or by retired Gen. Obasanjo, himself. Nigeria, the cycle of primitive politics, mediocrity, hand-picked patronage and wanton manipulation by the "powers that be" continue. It seems such a long way to April-May 2007. Such a long way; who will make it, and who won't....

In comparison, while Liberia's Madam President Sirleaf represents the manifestation of the triumph of popular constitutional methods and emerging institutional democratic values in Africa, retired General Obasanjo's imperious, know-it-all, emerging project for a sit-tight  presidency in Nigeria remind us all of the 1970s old Africa where constitution-tweaking soldiers (his colleagues) and power drunks  funnily believed their country's sun rose and shone at their hideous and idiosyncratic say-so. We won't go back there; no; not now that we  have the great Nelson Mandela as our icon, historical benchmark and reference point. Obasanjo makes it difficult for Obasanjo to be a statesman; no doubt, he's a regional leader.

As a specialist on US. and Africa public policy and cultural issues, here are things I'll suggest President Bush tell President Obasanjo, in a short, sweet but realistic summary: Full commentary here

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