Battle of the retired Generals

Battle of the retired Generals

It is often tactless to pick a fight with one's friends. You might need them tomorrow. In military politics however, there are no permanent friends and no permanent enemies but permanent selfish interests. That's the scenario in the Nigerian political landscape. But President Olusegun Obasanjo is determined to change all that. Obasanjo is not happy with the nocturnal political maneuvers of his former military colleagues. This much was revealed at his recent Washington press conference. Although not categorically stated at the press conference, Obasanjo seems determined to dismantle the political ambitions of retired military officers by engaging them in a moral battle in the court of public opinion.

Everyone who experienced military rule in Nigeria, with the exception of direct beneficiaries of military dictatorship, must share Obasanjo's disgust at the planned second coming of the military. Former military officers, particularly those who once served as heads of state, have no moral fibre to seek presidential ambitions. They messed up the economy and the nation when they had unquestioned powers to make life easy for everyone in Nigeria. They abused their office. They also abused human rights. At best they ruled with iron fist.

Obasanjo's critique of retired military officers also presents him and the nation with a moral dilemma about his own personal credentials. In his uneasiness over the retired military officers' involvement in politics, Obasanjo told a truth that not only discredited former military officers but also aggravated his personal credibility as a former military head of state. The logic is that if former military leaders misled the nation, Obasanjo as a former head of state must cop the blame too. In fact, on the basis of his argument, one would insist that Obasanjo has no business being in politics. He cannot discredit his former military constituency and expect the public to welcome him with garlands.

After two years in office, Obasanjo's main concern would appear to be how to survive in office, how to win re-election in 2003 and subsequently derail the political ambitions of the restless cohort of retired Generals. The growing activities of retired Generals are a source of worry to Obasanjo and ought to be a source of concern to the nation too. In Washington, Obasanjo could not hide his contempt for his former professional colleagues, preferring to describe their political activities as the "height of insensitivity". Obasanjo did not stop there. He argued that the military had no place in politics at the national level in view of "what the military has done in Nigeria." To borrow a familiar proverb, Obasanjo's whining about military involvement in politics is like a kettle calling a pot black. Obasanjo was once a military head of state, we must not forget. In Washington, he queried: "They want to come back to do what, where and over whom?" If I were one of the retired Generals, I know exactly what my response would be. My response will be that I want to come back to do what Obasanjo came to do as a civilian. More pointedly, I want to come back to do what Obasanjo's civilian government could not achieve in two years. Whatever drives Obasanjo's political ambition must be the same factor that is galvanising the ambitions of members of his military constituency.

I was particularly enthralled by President Obasanjo's answers to questions thrown at him by journalists at the Washington press conference, particularly questions that dealt with many depressing national issues - the state of the economy, the depreciating value of the naira and the importation of foreign goods into Nigeria. Obasanjo's responses to these questions betrayed the inner thoughts of the President on a range of national issues. When he was asked about the achievements of his government in nearly two years of governance, he responded with a one-liner: "Nigeria is still one". Journalists at the press conference must have been disappointed. Obasanjo and the journalists knew that was an evasive response. Being economical with words often obfuscates rather than illuminate issues. Obasanjo was presented with an opportunity to blow the trumpet of his administration but he blew the chance instead. In whatever way you choose to analyse the president's response, it is simply short of expectation. Obasanjo was not elected solely to weld together the falling pack of cards called Nigeria. That is a constitutional responsibility which Obasanjo and his predecessors (bar the un-elected military dictators) swore to uphold.

When Nigerians voted Obasanjo into office in 1999, they expected him to find solutions -- immediate or long-term -- to many national problems, namely economic, political, social, health and the myriad of problems confronting Nigeria. Obasanjo needs to be reminded that he was elected to alleviate poverty and to wipe off despondency on the faces of Nigerians. So far, all that Nigerians have seen is poverty alleviation as it exists on the pages of newspapers, very much like the charade run by Maryam Babangida as the "Better Life for Rural Women" programme. Two years on, poverty has neither been alleviated nor eliminated. If anything, it has only been re-baptised by Jerry Gana.

President Obasanjo was also elected to put an end to the national disgrace known as NEPA. Two years on, Nigerians are still groping in the dark, literally and metaphorically, so much so that when NEPA provides electricity, people rejoice in the streets as if their national soccer team has qualified for the 2002 World Cup final.

Obasanjo was elected to halt the free fall of the naira in the foreign exchange market. After two years, nothing in terms of fiscal policy seems to be in place to stop the naira from reaching all-time lows against the major world currencies. Obasanjo was elected to revive national interest in agricultural production and to end Nigeria's dependence on petroleum products as the country's chief foreign exchange earner. Two years on, gari, once the common people's staple, is now as expensive and precious as rice used to be in the Shagari days when Umaru Dikko argued there was plenty of food in the market, even when grinding poverty prevented people from buying what they saw on supermarket shelves.

Surely, a president is not expected to possess the strength of a superman or the heart of a lion to tackle all these problems in two years. But the nation expects that, after two years in office, the president should be able to present concrete achievements of his government on the basis of which he can either seek further mandate or ask for patience and understanding. If holding the nation together is the key achievement of Obasanjo's government in 24 months, someone needs to tell the government that it's a pretty poor report card. The nation expects more than that. It's no big deal.