Mr President democracy says 2007 starts in 2003

Mr. President, democracy says '2007' starts in '2003’!

Can a democratically elected President in a democracy freeze politics? This is the question that Nigerians, especially those who believe that they have an alternative vision to that of President Obasanjo are asking? This question arises from the attitude of President Obasanjo and Dr. Chuba Okadigbo to the Nigerians that are planning for 2007. Don’t Nigerians have the right to do so? Do they need any permission from the President or the Opposition party or anybody for that matter to do so? Is there anytime under the Constitution or under any law enacted by the National Assembly when the whistle should be blown for the would-be competitors to President Obasanjo to commence their quest? President Obasanjo and Dr. Okadigbo are through their recent action stifling genuine political activities in a democracy. If they do not know that is the implication of their recent utterances.

One would recall that President Obasanjo recently told the Nigerian politicians who are planning for 2007 to stop. Is he right to do so? His argument is that their campaign activities “are divisive, diversionary, and have the capability of overheating the polity.” As if that was not bad enough, an opposition spokesman, Dr. Okadigbo, who should welcome political activities, said that those who were engaging in the political activities of 2007 were “irresponsible.” In Dr. Okadigbo’s words, “I think it is pertinently irresponsible talking about 2007 when you have not finished 2003.”

One would recall that President Obasanjo complained that the political activities of the handlers of the duo of General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida and Vice President Abubakar Atiku were undermining his capacity to form his government and in fact, take off. Did the President mean this? What is conveying to the world? He is saying that the activities of political contenders to his office in 2007 impair his capacity to function. One would have thought that before his election or immediately after he was declared the winner he would have been ready with his team. In fact, on the day of his swearing-in, he would have announced to the country and the world his vision for the second term and stick with it. Instead, Nigerians were greeted with crisis in the oil sector.

Dr. Okadigbo, on the other hand complained that “Right now, all cases are in the tribunal, in the courts”, meaning that 2003 was still an issue and that there was no winner yet as long as the matter was still being litigated. Is Dr. Okadigbo really serious? Who is to blame? Dr. Okadigbo and his colleagues of the National Assembly 1999-2003 ought to have known that the country was given such a bad law under which litigations arising from the election were not to be concluded before the swearing-in of the President and other elected persons.

The way the President got General Babangida and Alhaji Atiku to halt their campaign made me recall the way the military under General Obasanjo used the security agents to hound those who were holding political meetings in mid-1970s in preparation for the 1979 handing over. General Obasanjo argument then was that political activities were banned. I recall that Members of the Constituent Assembly could not even hold meeting with the people they represented to discuss with them the issues in the Constituent Assembly because according to Obasanjo military regime that would fall under the banned political activities. What is constitution making if it is not a political activity?

I recall when my house in Benin was invaded by the police and my wife interrogated because the newspapers said that Club 19 was successfully launched in my house in Benin. I also recall when Members of the Constituent Assembly as guests of Chief M.T. Mbu were chased from one location to another in Calabar by the police on the order of the military regime that said that we could not meet to discuss what our role would be after the Assembly. I also recall when Chief S.D. Lar had to convert the wedding ceremony of his brother in law to the occasion to bring some of us to Jos to launch the Club 19.

President Obasanjo, Sir, Nigeria is now a democracy

What is making me recall all these incidents is that it was General Obasanjo as the Military Head of State who could not understand why political activities was consistent with the plan of the military regime’s commitment to a democratic transition. But today, we have Chief Obasanjo, a committed democrat and a twice-elected President 1999 and 2003. He should allow Nigerians to play politics. We need professional politicians with a stomach for competitive politics.

Nigerians expect that President Obasanjo of 2003 would be different from Head of State Obasanjo of 1976. Nigerians expect that the elected President Obasanjo would not use the language of the military regime under General Obasanjo in the 1970s to characterize politics, political activities and politicians today under a democracy under Chief Obasanjo.

Clinton, Blair and Mbeki are ‘professional politicians’

Nigerians are amazed that President Obasanjo fails to appreciate that all those international leaders he hobnobs with in the international arena who are calling him a democrat, such as Bill Clinton, Tony Blair and Thabo Mbeki are professional politicians. Has the Nigerian President ever stopped to ponder over the career profile of these leaders? They are no different from the Nigerians he calls professional politicians who take politics as an industry or ‘a vocation’. That is how it should be in a democracy. If President does not know “politics is an industry.” It is a profession, noble one at that, which has many adherents in all democracies to which Nigeria should be made to be one, if the like of President Obasanjo and Dr. Okadigbo would allow that to happen. Now to the original question, can you freeze politics in a democracy? The answer is resoundingly NO! What bothers one is the lack of a PDP policy on oil. Should another politician come up with an alternative vision to that of President Obasanjo for the oil producing areas today in preparation for 2007? Would President Obasanjo and Dr. Okadigbo call such an activity ‘divisive’, ‘diversionary’ and ‘irresponsible’ and the work of those who want to turn politics into an industry?One recalls that the Minister of Finance said that the economy of President Obasanjo’s Vision would need or take ten years to stabilise. Suppose somebody comes up with an alternative Vision that it could take less, would that be allowed under the injunction of President Obasanjo? Is that not what politics is all about?

The method he used to silence General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida and Alhaji Abubakar Atiku is unethical. It is not in furtherance of the democratic growth in Nigeria. The way these two Nigerians responded in unison to the President’s anti-democratic simply demonstrates that they do not have an alternative Vision to that of President Obasanjo that they would like to market today in preparation for 2007.

September 2003