‘The poverty of the people is the actual cause of the devastation and ruination of a country and the main cause of the poverty of the people is the desire of its ruler and officers to amass wealth and possessions whether by fair or foul means.’
Ali bn. Abi Talib.
During the 1999 elections, I was in Kebbi state for my National Youth Service. I acted as a polling clerk in one of the polling booths at Kalgo Local Government Area of Kebbi State. The police officer attached to the polling unit and I arrived the village as early as 8.00am in the morning. We arraigned the furnitures, pasted the posters of the two presidential aspirants and settled down to wait for voters to come and exercise their franchise. Since the two presidential aspirants were all from the Southern part of the country, the turnout of voters was low and there was no excitement or competition. The village head was among the first callers, he greeted us in Hausa and we answered with respect. He asked me who among the aspirants is a Northerner; I told him they are all Southerners. He asked me who among the aspirants is a Muslim; I answered him that they are all Christians. He asked me who among the aspirants is a farmer; I pointed to Olusegun Obasanjo, and he said that is the person they will vote for.
The old village sage was right in his judgement because since Obasanjo is a farmer then they have something in common and by extension his government will implement policies and programmes that will advance and enhance farming in Nigeria. But that was not to be because after eight years in power Olusegun Obasanjo did practically nothing to advance farming in the country despite mountain of promises. Olusegen Obasanjo assumed power in 1999 with a lot of goodwill from Nigerians and with great expectations after successive Military dictatorships. The annulment of June 12 election by the Babangida regime had placed a big crack in the heart of unity of the country and the ruthless crackdown of pro-june 12 activist by the Abacha regime worsened the already dicey situation. The Nigerian Nation looked forward to its leader to heal these wounds and place the Nation back to the track of development and progress so that Nigeria can take its rightful place among comity of Nations.
After eight years of Obasanjo’s government all the indices of development and progress were reversed backward. Power generation was at its lowest ebb since the country’s independence despite colossal sum of money spent. Billions of dollars were alleged to have been spent in that sector but the whole of Nigeria was in darkness. Power availability is the foundation of industrialisation because all modern industries depends on power and in its absence even the industries that existed collapsed resulting in the retrenchment of tens of thousands of workers therefore increasing the poverty index of the country. Until this day not a single person was arrested for bringing misery and discomfort to Nigerians. If Babangida’s regime institutionalised corruption in Nigeria the Obasanjo’s government perfected it to the extend that corruption became a norm in government circles. The bribery scandals involving Halliburton and Shell are tips of the iceberg and the fifty million-Naira-per-Legislator bribe during the aborted third term saga was just an introduction. Obasanjo’s government is the most corrupt government this country has ever seen and it conferred sainthood to Babangida’s government that held the record before now.
Honesty and integrity are words not found in the dictionary of that government. Public trust and accountability are words that are alien to that government. Public institutions and corporations were auctioned off to cronies at a give away prices and custom duties were exempted for the richest men in the land .Elections were conducted to a large extent as a formality and those Nigerians who tried to protect their votes were butchered .Maurice Iwu, known to friends and foes as a criminal and a gangster, was the election umpire. Elected positions were arraigned without elections and people ‘win’ elections in accordance to the wimps and caprices of the despot. Votes casted were more than the registered voters and even dead men were ‘resurrected’ to cast their votes. Criminals win elections from prison without campaigning and prostitutes were shamly voted into high elective positions.
As for morality and family values you can only find it in the dustbin of history .Obasanjo’s son sworn an affidavit in a court of law that his father had illicit affair with his wife. Non of the accusers denied this allegation to this day. What do you expect from a man with such a reputation? The immorality and debasement of this man was so glaring that he recently declared that ‘even Jesus Christ [as] cannot conduct free and fair election in Nigeria’. A blasphemy and in my religion [Islam] the life of this man is not suppose to have value .But General Babangida conducted a free and fair elections in this country on June 12,1993.That elections was adjudged to be free and fair by all parties and the losers congratulated the winners. Obasanjo intends to corrupt the name of one of the greatest men in history, a personality whose birth was miraculous and Allah attested to that in the Qur’an .Jesus Christ [as] did things of which science will never have answers to and metaphysical laws became hypothesis.
After his third term bid failed, he anointed two unknown and incapable politicians as his successors and one of them was on the pangs of death .In his short sojourn as President of Nigeria, Umaru Musa spent more time on his sick bed than at his seat of power. This is the reward of a despot to a Nation that was united in rejecting his third term bid. Umaru Musa was succeeded by Jonathan Goodluck-a man of contradictory personality. He said he wanted free and fair election but he also wanted his unelected Aids as delegates to his party’s primaries. What a contradiction? Everybody in this world knows that there was a zoning arrangement in PDP but Obasanjo insisted that it has never existed! This has splited the PDP into two and PDP will never be the same again.
The opposition will be the greatest beneficiary of this feud and they should exploit it to their maximum advantage. Majority of Nigerians want change because the party that is ruling them for the past eleven years had failed woefully .The great people of Nigeria should bury their sentiments and unite to rest power from this evil cabal that had impoverished them and stalled their progress and development. That evil oldman of Otta is part and parcel of this cabal.
Haruna Elbinawi
KADUNA-NIGERIA
elbinawi@yahoo.com.
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