Chukwumerije Attacks Obasanjo Over Controversial Letter

Senator Uche Chukwumerije, yesterday, dismissed former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s advice to President Goodluck Jonathan not to seek a second term as one laced with traps against the president.

Chukwumerije in a commentary on the letter by Obasanjo to President Jonathan, dated December 20, 2013, yesterday, said: “We, on the wrong side of Nigeria’s political divide, must thank the powers-that-be for up-dating us on the mood of the establishment and the current thinking of Nigerian system.

General Obasanjo, our revered ex-president, is obviously a major pillar of the powers-that-be or the one-man-powers-that-be or so he sees himself. He has, since after his first stint in Aso Villa, consistently played the role of the Praetorian Guard, pontificating to every successor and awarding marks like a headmaster to each pupil-president.

Every regime, from Shagari through Buhari to Babangida and Abacha, has benefited (or suffered) from the corrective tongue-lashes of the Guard.

Two Key Principles

This time, in a tutorial to Jonathan, ostensibly on the short-comings of -his administration, OBJ expanded every prescription with elaborate postulations on the democratic prerequisites of System Nigeria.

At the base of the Do’s and Don’ts are two key principles. One is the process of selection of what OBJ calls Nigeria’s CEO, a process which he insists must be guided by “the best interests of Nigeria”.

The second is the system’s irreducible demand of a liberal all-inclusive temperament  from a CEO, the pre-requisite of a one-Nigeria and all-Nigerian outlook hospitable to all ethnic indigenes, tolerant of criticisms and open to the demands of transparency in resources management and economic development.

The main concern of this short comment is OBJ’s process of selection of Nigeria’s President. Before I dwell on this, may I briefly comment on his choice of a good leader, especially a good national leader of Nigeria in this phase of her development. It is difficult to fault the wisdom of OBJ’s precepts and the validity of the integrative strength of an accommodating and de-tribalized approach to the management of the federal union. The possession, indeed articulation, of honour, integrity, trust and democratic spirit must be the character signature of any leader who wants to successfully lead the multi-ethnic federation through this phase of transformation to a nation.

Although critics have a point that examples are better than precepts and that OBJ’s long sermon was illuminated more by examples from the sad consequences of his anti-democracy assaults during his rule than the alleged short-comings of President Jonathan’s Administration, the fact of consistency of OBJ’s obsession with the unity and stability of Nigeria cannot be faulted. This sermon is replete with familiar refrains:

He protect and defend our fledgling democracy”,  “with common identity as Nigerians, there is more that binds us than separates us …

“No one knows whose blood would be the last to drop … in such a situation Nigeria may be adversely effected” … “do not mar (Nigeria’s) history …etc, etc.

History will always remember and appreciate Obasanjo for stoutly  standing – at least in theory – and for consistently shouting from the  rooftops for the birth of a prosperous strong Nigerian nation and the  dawn of Africa’s renaissance.

The Selection Principle

But practice is another matter. To this, I return promise of a fruitful road map to his (indeed our) ideal goals of unity and stability is encapsulated in OBJ’s principle of selection of Nigeria’s President.

Through its apocalyptic messiahship, OBJ’s tutorial seems to be teaching us as follows: North-South (regional) dichotomy should remain the mode of selection for election of national leadership. This in his view will foster Nigeria’s best interests.

The mode of final choice of a CEO? Hear OBJ: “It is now not a matter of the turn of any section or geographical area but the best interest of Nigeria and all Nigerians”.

We extract these two points from the generosity of OBl’s expansive apologia pro vita lecture.

When OBJ made a point of praising POP’s selection formula, as “the only party that enshrines federal character, zoning and rotation… and (through this) brought stability and substantial predictability to the polity and to the system …and when he cited this to reinforce a point which he made earlier that “you (President Jonathan) had accepted a one-term presidency to allow for ease of getting support across the board in the North”, OBJ’s delineation of North and South as units of rotation for Nigerian President comes into a bolder relief.

We must also assume that the second point – that is, the challenge of final choice of a leader from a selected region – reserves the pride of place for Guard Obasanjo. This is so because in this letter, the ex-President generously refreshed our memories with history of his key roles in the emergence of his successors as democratic choices, from Shagari through Yar’ Adua to Jonathan.

In summary, OBJ’s view is that a major component of the recipe for the unity and stability of Nigeria is retention of North-South (regional) dichotomy in selection of the federation’s CEO and the continuation of his key role as the eternally wise King Solomon. Against the background of his North-South dichotomy, the choice of the king-maker is clear …as he solemnly proclaims:

“I do not know who will be President of Nigeria after Dr. Goodluck Jonathan. That is in the hand of God. But with POP policy  and practice, I can reasonably guess from where, in term of section of the country, the successor to President Jonathan will come.
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