CNN International interview with Nigeria's President Obasanjo and USAfricaonline.com Publisher Chido Nwangwu on Democracy and Security Issues

Vagabonds In Power (VIP) - PART 1
(see part 2 of this insight, below)

By JONATHAN ELENDU
Exclusive commentary for USAfrica The Newspaper, Houston
USAfricaonline.com and Classmagazine.tv

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Regardless of all the propaganda from his local and international agents, Nigeria's Obasanjo, a former military dictator, has lost control of the country, his party and the band of rouges with which he surrounds himself. He has failed at every aspect of governance. The people's business has been left to a band of vagabonds and killers. It has become obvious to the ordinary Nigerian that the political class has chosen the path of self-annihilation.  It is time the President took a much-needed retirement from public life. He should consider resignation for an obvious incapacity to improve the lot of Nigerians, Otherwise, he should be compelled by the National Assembly through impeachment. They should do so, quickly, before Obasanjo and the vagabonds he brought to power and who brought him to power completely ruin our country.

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March 10, 2004:

The tide of political assassinations that is flowing through the Nigerian political landscape is a matter that should concern every Nigerian, every Black person, and indeed, every defender of law, order and democratic values on the face of this earth. Nigeria, as the largest Black nation in the world also has the mantle of the largest "democratic" country on the African continent. Political killings have become an everyday story in Nigerian newspapers. Ordinarily, we would have celebrated this phenomenon but we are not amused by the latest, yet old trend of our tormentors choosing to wipe themselves out because it hurts us at our weakest point-our economic well-being.

President Obasanjo, a retired army General, junkets the world in search of foreign investors. One wonders how he responds when asked about the security of lives and property in Nigeria. Does our President tell them all is well and safe or does he advise them to add the cost of a well-trained security apparatus as part of normal business expenses in Nigeria? Should any Nigerian be surprised that the President's globetrotting has not resulted in any significant presence of foreign investments?

During the Abacha era there were many killings. The difference between then and now is that we had a dictator who was afraid of his own shadow and was willing to do anything to remain at the helm of power.  People were killed and we knew who did the killings. The government of Gen. Sanni Abacha jailed or killed anybody it perceived as a threat in order to maintain power. Some have even argued that the spate of killings since Obasanjo took over reflects a worse mortality rate than under the hated Abacha regime. Obasanjo had ruled, too, as a dictator from 1976-1979.

Who is killing our politicians, especially the top members of the President's party and key members of the opposition? In fact, Nobel prize laureate Prof. Wole Soyinka, Obasanjo's kinsman and a progressive, said that Obasanjo's party, the PDP has "a nest of killers."

We have always heard the worn out excuse, "Democracy is a gradual process and takes time," from the Western world, as a way of putting a positive face on our self-inflicted problems in the democratic process. Unfortunately our politicians have bought into that notion and use it as their excuse for all kinds of malfeasance. Yet, even politicians from the Western world would not call the spate of killings that is flowing through our land a "learning process" in our march towards a sustainable democratic culture.

Today, Nigeria is fundamentally a quasi-democratic state. One would, normally, be thought insane to compare a dictatorship with a democratically elected government. The reality is that Nigerians are poorer today than they were under the regime of the evil Sanni Abacha. The current president and, indeed, our political leaders cannot guarantee the security of lives and property of the average Nigerian. Armed robbery is at an all time high and the government is inept and hopeless in dealing with this menace.

The real benefactors of our so-called democracy are arsonists and hired killers as there are more jobs for them than they can handle. For us in 2004, as it was in the 1960s, politics is not about vibrant debates of ideas but whose hired gun fires first.

The Nigerian political landscape has always been painted with the blood of our people. Our history is replete with senseless killings that culminated in a 30-month Nigeria-Biafra war (1967-1970) that resulted in the loss of over one million Nigerian lives. I do not think it is too much for the world to expect that we have outgrown that way of life in the 21st century. In the forty-four year history of our country as an independent and sovereign nation, military dictatorships have dominated the governance of our country. The military has always stepped in to save us from politicians. The irony here is that as soon as the military boys take over the government, they appoint politicians to help them run-or as some would say-ruin our country.

Only a few days ago into the last week of February 2004, scholar-essayist Prof. Niyi Osundare wrote in a letter to retired Gen. Obasanjo published in USAfricaonline.com: "Dear President, millions of Nigerians see you as the source of their problems. Millions curse you under their breadth. Millions more loudly pronounce their imprecations at the slightest opportunity. You rule over a degraded country, Mr. President; your every act has consistently contributed to that degradation. In the reckoning of most Nigerians, you are the most arrogant, most insensitive, most callous, and most self-righteous and hypocritical ruler that this unfortunate country has ever been saddled with in its hapless saga of misrule.Your words, behaviour, disposition, and general track record seem to justify these negative impressions. Consider these facts: in two years, you have hiked the price of petroleum products two times. You met a litre of petrol selling for 21 naira; it now goes for a whooping 42 naira in a few places and twice as much in many others. As if this were not enough, you topped it all with a N1.50 levy misnamed 'fuel tax.' You started by flaying us with whips; now you fleece us with scorpions."

Given the history of our young nation, one would expect that our Fourth Republic leaders would seek to avoid the mistakes of the past. Sadly, the only way to describe our polity today is, "Dance of the wild" and our rulers are best described as, "Vagabonds In Power!" - to quote one of the titles of the late Fela Kuti's songs. This is humiliating, not only to Nigerians, but also to every Black person in the world.

From Sierra Leone to Liberia, from the Ivory Coast to Haiti, people of the Black race are proving to the world that we are incapable of managing our own affairs without resorting to senseless destruction of lives and property. The Western world, most especially, Great Britain and the United States, stand aside and watch us destroy ourselves. After we exhaust all energy on the orgy of death, they send in troops to patrol our cities and give us first aid.

The previous statement is the reason I was embarrassed and ashamed that the Governor of Abia State, Orji Uzor Kalu, reportedly copied the letter he wrote to Obasanjo to Britain's Tony Blair and America's George W. Bush. If the situation in Nigeria were not so serious, one would have succumbed to uncontrollable laughter at the thought of state governors in Nigeria running scared. Abia's Kalu is the Chief Security Officer for Abia State. And the man is scared for his life. What will the ordinary man on the streets of Aba, Umuahia or Azumini do?

Chris Ngige, the embattled governor of Anambra State is yet to have his security detail restored by the Nigerian Police. The people of Anambra State have chosen to guard their governor. Does Obasanjo not see anything wrong with the conduct of the Inspector General of Police who denied an elected governor his constitutional rights?

Members of the board of trustees of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), which is the ruling party in Nigeria, must be a very anxious lot. Their friends have been killed and no one knows whose turn it will be next. Gov. Kalu, in his March 2003 letter to the President accused Anthony Annenih, the chairman of the PDP board of trustees, of threatening to deal with him -- esentially the same way Bola Ige was dealt with. For those who may have forgotten, Ige was Obasanjo's Minister for Justice and Attorney General when he was killed in his country home.  

Obasanjo should be mortified that his second tenure as the Commander-In-Chief, is bedeviled by the unprecedented scenario of his serving minister of justice being killed; members of his inner caucus being killed off (one after another), and a governor of his party accusing the most powerful man in the party of threatening him with murder. Just like he did in the Ngige saga, the President would plead ignorance of these dastardly acts.

Regardless of all the propaganda from his local and international agents, Obasanjo, a former military dictator, has lost control of the country, his party and the band of rouges with which he surrounds himself. He has failed at every aspect of governance. The people's business has been left to a band of vagabonds.  It is time the President took a much-needed retirement from public life. He should consider resignation for an obvious incapacity to improve the lot of Nigerians, Otherwise, he should be compelled by the National Assembly through impeachment. They should do so, quickly, before Obasanjo and the vagabonds he brought to power and who brought him to power completely ruin our country.
Elendu is a contributing editor of USAfricaonline.com and Classmagazine.tv. He writes every Friday, exclusively for USAfricaonline.com He is President and CEO of Elendu & Associates, Lansing-based PR firm.

March 18, 2004: In the first part of this piece (top of this page, we mentioned the letter written by Gov. Orji Uzor Kalu to Nigeria's President, retired Gen. Olusegun Obasanjo and copied a couple of world leaders, including George Bush, Tony Blair and Kofi Annan. The said letter had mentioned threats to the governor's life, supposedly made by former Works and Housing Minister and current Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Peoples Democratic Party, Anthony Annenih. The said threat was contained in a message given to the governor through his deputy, Chima Nwafor.

Annenih, a former Nigerian police officer, is one of the most powerful men in Nigeria. When Kalu cried out through his letter that Annenih had threatened to deal with him the same way they dealt with Bola Ige, the assassinated former Minister of Justice, I was concerned. Kalu, in his own right, though young, is one of the richest men in Nigeria. He is reported to have claimed to be richer than Abia-the state he now governs. Maybe he is right. Perhaps he is exaggerating his wealth. The point is that the man is rich and capable of buying himself the best security money can buy.

The problem with his allegations against Annenih and its implications for Nigeria is the reason some of us were worried. Annenih may be the chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party Board of Trustees, but to the best of my knowledge, he is a private citizen. For him to have the audacity to threaten to kill the executive Governor of my state (Abia), or an elected official of any state or local government got me riled up.

Given media reports that Chima Nwafor has denied such a threat was ever made by Annenih, nor that he told Kalu anything of such, makes one wonder what is going on in Abia State? What is with Kalu and the people who work for him? During his first term as the governor of Abia State, Kalu had so many problems with his then deputy, Enyinnaya Abaribe. The deputy governor had to resign to run against Kalu on the platform of the rival All Nigeria's Peoples Party, ANPP. Despite the former deputy governor's resignation, and obviously prompted by the governor, the Abia House of Assembly impeached him.

Orji Uzo Kalu won reelection for governor with Dr. Chima Nwafor as his running mate. My thoughts were that the governor found a better partner this time around.  So, when the Governor told the whole world that Annenih had passed on a message of threat to him through his Deputy Governor, I believed him completely. When some newspapers suggested that the Governor's allegations against Anthony Annenih were lies, deputy governor Nwafor quickly sent out a press release standing by his earlier story and the Governor's claims.

Now the Nigerian media is saturated with stories of the deputy governor's denial. Suddenly the man has an epiphany and cannot recall telling Gov. Kalu that Annenih had threatened to mete out the Bola Ige treatment to the Governor. I am sure the question on your mind is the same as mine: What is going on in Umuahia? And why is the Nigerian media not carrying out investigations to discover the truth, but instead are relying on the politicians for their stories?

The Governor even went as far as declassifying a memo from the Deputy Governor to him, which was supposed to contain the threats from Annenih. That has not helped matters in any way. This issue is fast becoming another Nigerian phenomenon of "the more you look, the less you see." Is this another ruse from Kalu to garner political support of Ndigbo or is there some veracity to this story? Why did the deputy governor allow the story to get so much mileage in the media before recanting it? And why did he choose Abuja as the place to recant? Is there a Chima Nwafor secret agenda here? These questions beg for answers.

It is fair to say that Kalu, in his short political career, has demonstrated that he is capable of playing both sides of an issue or philosophy. He was one of Obasanjo's champions in the General's bid to become an elected President in 1998. Not too long after Obasanjo was sworn in as President and Kalu as governor of Abia State, Kalu publicly withdrew his support for the President.

I remember attending a meeting of Igbos in Okemos, suburb of Lansing, the capital of the State of Michigan. The issue of Kalu's "fight" with the President was raised. Some of the young Igbo professionals at the meeting were rejoicing at Orji's messiah role in the Igbo cause. I told those who cared to listen that it was all a game by a smart young man. Some people at the meeting called me an "anti-Igbo Igbo man." Needless to say that a few months later, the tide changed as the governor was back in his role as the President's chief praise singer.

Nigerians must be growing weary of the shenanigans of the political class. The Ngige saga has yet to be resolved. The President has refused to take a public stand on the crisis in Anambra State, though by his silence he has telegraphed his private feelings on the issue. Another Igbo Governor is supposedly being threatened by the President's friend and long time political soul mate. What is going on with the Peoples Democratic Party? How can a house so divided control the mantle of leadership of a country as big and important as Nigeria?

I have asked these questions before and at the risk of sounding like a broken record, I will repeat my question: Where is the outrage of the Nigerian people? Why are we so docile, lackadaisical and timid? Could it be that we are so concerned with daily bread that we have lost our honor and sense of pride and therefore no longer care for the future of our country? When are we going to take back our country from these vagabonds that masquerade themselves as our political leaders even as they plunder our nation's wealth?

It is about time that we the people of Nigeria demand some responsibility and respect from our politicians. The allegation made by Kalu, against Anthony Annenih, is a very serious one. The National Assembly and the Nigerian Police should carry out independent and simultaneous investigations to uncover the truth in this matter. The results of the investigations should be made public. Whoever is found culpable should face the full wrath of the law. Rule of law should not only be thrown at the poor and less privileged. Our democracy cannot blossom until all are made to feel equal before the law. Our nation cannot continue as a country where there are different sets of laws for different classes of people.

Obasanjo claims to be an honest born-again Christian. This is the time to prove it to Nigerians. He must authorize, without delay, an investigation into Kalu's claims. Did the Governor lie or is Annenih another thug who wants to assassinate a sitting Governor? We need to know. Let the chips fall where they may.

Mr. President should direct his Justice Minister - despite the fact the president's h

enchmen like Chris Uba are combatants - to prosecute those who committed treason in Anambra State on July 10, 2003.  
Elendu is a contributing editor of USAfricaonline.com and Classmagazine.tv. He writes every Friday, exclusively for USAfricaonline.com He is President and CEO of Elendu & Associates, Lansing-based PR firm.

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