It cannot be remembered the last time Nigeria had this level of national apprehension, convulsing with formlessness, gradually sliding into a state of stasis.
In little groups, congregations and every manner of gathering only one topic now matters: President Umaru Yar’Adua’s health and what capital those closest to him – his wife and a few acolytes – are trying to make of it. One has had to stop momentarily to wonder what manner of democracy we practice, when it is difficult to establish that no individual is greater than the nation and its institutions. Why do our leaders grow into monsters immune to the moderating control of the nation’s laws and democratic best practices? It is trite then to ask: upon what constitutional authority is the first family, in cahoots with a few sycophants holding the nation to ransom?
Nigeria is at a crossroads, no doubt. And the world watches in awe as we try to redefine democracy. Not that we can pretend to be its showpiece, nor can we even pretend not to know that we are nowhere near practicing it. The best we have done, and can be seen to be doing, is acting the part just to impress the West, with unflattering effect. Despite its own democratic contradictions, the West, especially America and Britain, have maintained an unassailable protectoral influence in the Third World, especially in sub-Saharan Africa, with Nigeria as head-pupil.
Confusion has assailed us at the topmost lair. And, like a headstream, it is beginning to flow downwards, with erosive dynamic. What’s really going on? Let’s just take a brief inventory.
We were denied democracy when it was due us in 1993; when a most peaceful, most credible election gave us a leader. It was another six years before the military were nudged back to the barracks, thus loosening their stranglehold on power and governance. A democratic dispensation was thus cobbled together. Under a president saved by fate from the hangman, left for dead in the wintry embrace of destitution, our democracy huffed and puffed. At double-quick pace the initial promise it showed just fizzled out a few years on. In no time the rehabilitating leader, full of conciliatory preachments at first, morphed into an absolute monarch, in fact a pernicious ruler, so engrossed in filling out the wasted muscular tissues and replenishing the empty cash catche, went on self-adulatory overdrive and didn’t know when his time ran out. Nigeria was nearly beaten out of shape in order to carve out customized tenure extension for the burgeoning tin-god.
Meanwhile, selection had literally replaced election, with the electorate mere onlookers devoid of any influence at all. This situation was sometimes ennobled by the overused cliché: victory won by the ‘special grace of God’, which translated to special disgrace by man. No good man ever got selected. Only the crooked; only persons without moral capital. The more unpopular they were with the electorate the surer for them to make the cut. The more vicious they were the better suited to the programmed anti-people role. Nigeria was thus vanquished. Not in the battlefield by some regional enemy, but rather in a democratic platform by one of its favoured former Generals. Budgetary allocations were misused and wheeling and dealing became the new face of statecraft. To add salt, a selective sanitization process was commenced to hound out mostly those who fell out of line. The manner of execution was grueling and gruesome enough to vaporize the rebellious streak and zeal in any naysayer. Virtually every state in Nigeria became a haven of villainy and lawbreaking. And the fiefdom of the most depraved species of humanity. Treasury looting became a retrace, and has remained just that ever since.
We were made to remember always the face marks and tattoos of authoritarianism by the serial elimination of many great minds and principled politicians who raised their voices a few decibels above the subdued din. The Bola Iges, the Funsho Williams, the Harry Marshals, the Chuba Okadigbos et al were a few among the best-known. They paid the supreme price. Cut down by the unforgiving strike of neo-colonial fascism.
At the presidency, the abject failure of the tenure extension project could not be forgiven without reprisal. A dying nation was thus saddled with a dying successor, for equal measure. Two tragedies for the price of one! In no time the gridlock to come became predictable and did not disappoint. The ship of state was made to sail with a sea-sick captain, through turbulent waters.
Obasanjo was mostly an absentee president because of his delusions of grandeur. And Yar’Adua because of ill-health. Our presidents are self-accounting because they are lofted high, over and above the populace. Yes, again by the special grace of God! They operate at an unassailable, inviolate realm. So nobody asked questions. Even when a few did, they deserved no answers, and got none. The nation thus drifted toward a precipice.
And so our president can leave our shores, abandon governance in search of life, or its pleasure, and return to pick us up from where he left us, just like that. Just like toys! That’s what Lady Turai and co are trying to tell us.
While it may be true that seriousness was banned from governance long ago, since the days of Babangida, but never before has it gotten to the point of presidency by surrogacy. Not even in the days of Shonekan. Now new national ‘heroes and heroines’ are thrown up by the minute. From the Presidents missus Turai to Dora Akunyili. From Oaandoka (SAN) through Yayale to one Adeniyi, which is sickening enough. Now look at what a charade they have made of our presidency: a deceit well choreographed. They have all traversed the whole spectrum of governance as advisers and spokespersons one minute, then conspirators and policymakers the next. They have also shown the potential Nollywood star in the average Nigerian, especially in tragicomic roles. Or what else is soap but make-believe and body language? For our path we are consigned to the role of lip-readers and citizens by imagination only. Our views and sensibilities do not count one bit!
The press has not been left out either. In the tragic absence of guileless information management they have filled the gaps with professional fecundity. After all news, like nature, abhors a vacuum. The dividing line between fact and fiction has become razor-thin, because the ailing president’s spouse in cahoots with a coterie called kitchen cabinet cannot imagine life without power. We are, therefore, left with too many hands of Esau and voices of Jacob. An Igbo wisecrack says it all: the initiated knows there is a difference between the putative mouth of a masquerade and its mouthpiece.
From all indications, President Yar’Adua is too indisposed to call the shots. This much we now know. So what is wrong if his deputy, the Vice-President who rode on the same ticket with him, stands in for him as acting President. In any case, even with all the compassion we can muster, should we abandon our constitution if Yar’Adua’s Maker calls him home? Will Nigeria cease to be?
Yes! Left to Hajia Turai and co. For once the President’s people have conveniently parted ways with the basis of all religion, which is that God gives and takes away. After dumping so many lies on the national landscape and causing so much distraction and confusion in their wake, they are still hell-bent on doing more harm. Everyone is kept guessing with all these attempts to subvert the considerable gains of the recent legislative intervention.
Of course, it is now clear the only reason why they ferried a very sick man home was to score a cheap political point. To get us to remember, not to forget, that no matter what, no one should contemplate hoisting Goodluck Jonathan beyond an acting capacity. That was a menacingly threatening connotation which is strictly self-serving and not even in sync with what can be extrapolated from Yar’Adua’s character as gleaned from his cameo presidency. For all that is obvious, he comes across as humble, law-abiding and god-fearing – a good Moslem not given to worldly stickiness at all. Anything done in his name without these ingredients, therefore, serves only the narrow interests of those who shield the man’s true health situation from the nation.
All men know that most times we don’t get wives that approximate to us. It is not surprising, therefore, that Mrs Yar’Adua appears so desperate, which is why she is not mindful of the harm she is doing to the nation, and thus putting in jeopardy the outpouring of public empathy for her unassuming hubby from across Nigeria. The easy conclusion is that there must be something about Nigeria’s brand of presidency that once the bug bites, the debilitation becomes incurable. It is the end of all ends!
A few words for Lady Turai and the band of opportunists in her team: Nigeria is a constitutional democracy, backward alright but evolving.
They have suffered enough not to rebound, meaning their patience is wearing thin. They are also wondering, with the furious motion around her, what time she devotes to her ailing man. Is she not too distracted by the quest for power to play her wifely role?
The presidency was not made in anyone’s image. Affectations of indispensability are old-fashioned and will be offensive in today’s Nigeria. Her Excellency should retrace her steps before she bites more than she can chew; and before the raging storm unravels. Nigerians are no fools. And no one, not even Turai can change destiny! Obasanjo, his failed tenure elongation project and the backlash are still fresh enough to clear any lingering doubts. A prayer for the ailing president and equally ailing nation might be just apt.