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NIGERIA'S BANANA DEMOCRACY AND BUHARI'S OPTIONS By Independent Scholar, Institute for Contemporary Research, (ICR) Kano Nigeria Chief Olusegun Obasanjo (OBJ) has been declared winner of the April 19 Presidential election by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) despite the widespread irregularities and the total condemnation of the election by most of the independent and credible observers.
The election earned the acronym of “419” after the notorious crime in Nigeria because it was conducted on April 19th (4/19), just as the September 11th episode in the U.S. became widely known as 911. The European Union monitoring team “witnessed and obtained evidence of widespread election fraud in 13 states” the group further added that “the presidential and a number of gubernatorial elections were marred by serious irregularities and fraud – in a certain number of states, minimum standards for democratic elections were not met”.
Although the discredited ruling party (PDP) tried to justify its fraud by claiming that the opposition also rigged, the EU monitoring group indicted this fraudulent party by stating that: “in six states where President Obasanjo won, the ballot box stuffing and other cheating was so widespread that the results lack credibility” (BBC NEWS April 22, 2003). It is only in a banana democracy that any party could be proud to win such a fraudulent election. One of the PDP national propagandists in a BBC Hausa Service program was so shameless to compare U.S. elections and the Nigerian elections because of the incidence in Florida.
In Nigeria the fraud was widespread an uncomparable phenomena with the U.S. where the people trust themselves and their institutions. Many people were not surprised with the outcome of the elections they had always expected that based on Nigeria’s history the elections would be rigged as all previous elections. And that it is part of Nigeria’s life more especially with its status as the second most corrupt country in the world, an inglorious position it earned courtesy of the present civilian dispensation.
Nigeria’s political structure is a major contributory factor to this culture of rigging elections. The stakes are high and the bankrupt political elites always exploit the differences of the people to loot the treasury. The political structure of Nigeria made it possible that despite the worst performance ever in Nigeria’s history by the incumbent PDP in the major spheres of governance; security of life and property, survival-health and agriculture and development-education, the corrupt PDP has been able to co-opt regional elites into its fold to perpetuate the plunder of Nigeria.
Except in a banana democracy like Nigeria an incumbent whose government spent lower proportion of its budget on health and education than “the previous military regimes” (see The Economist of July 28-August 3 2001) could ever be re-elected. The same government spent more on stadium than on the infrastructure of the whole of the nations federal universities in four years. It is only in a banana democracy that the government acclaimed to be one of the most corrupt in the world would ever be re-elected. It is only in a banana democracy, which has one of the highest rates of bank robberies, where political opponents a! re eliminated sometimes by armed robbers who have now become bold to attack the first daughter (Reuters April 22, 2003) could the incumbent government be re-elected.
The structure of the country is one of the main reasons of this banana democracy. This structure made it possible for most of the power elites of the southern states to be co-opted and they allowed the PDP to rig the elections in those states. Because how could a government that has committed human rights abuses in the Niger Delta be allowed by the elites in that region to rig the elections in that area. Even if they do not want Buhari it was not an excuse because there are other contestants who are better than Obasanjo why can’t the people be allowed to vote for them.
As for the South West, the reasons are clear the “Yoruba remain the only ethnic group in Nigeria that has never voted for any ethnic group” and they have mob mentality. As illustrated in an episode on NTA in which Chief Ebenezer Babatope during his sojourn in power under military dictatorship indicated that: “Professor Wole Soyinka had once advised him that no matter or how he responded to the situation, the Yoruba thing must be kept. Herein the crux of the Yoruba mode of operation with others. It is a t’enwa t’enwa-it is our own is ours predominated thinking habit and lifestyle; even where it requires a higher sense of magnanimity and generosity” (Ofili, Daily Trust April 16 2003).
The Yoruba mob mentality denied Nigeria the wisdom of many illustrious Yoruba people for example the late sage Chief Awolowo admitted in his autobiography My March Through Prison pages 314-315 that he was mobbed into being a tribal leader against his wish by this mob. Chief Obasanjo was also mobbed into this tribal thing by the mob. He had always aspired to be the great leader of Africa’s greatest nation, he had all the opportunities to become one until he was mobbed by this mob. As an optimist I do not loose hope since the fellow is still alive and he has the chance to take correct decisions in the interest of all Nigerians and not only his “own” people. They use the mob mentality to discredit any person who is not Yoruba or any Yoruba man whose actions will not favor the Yoruba.
For example despite the fact that Obasanjo committed the worst human right atrocity by any elected president because it was during his first tenure that the military massacred civilians at Odi and Zaki Biam he is never condemned as they always condemn others because of the atrocities committed during their regimes. It was the execution of drug convicts under the military administration of Buhari that is giving prominence. It is because of the human rights abuses by the military that the U.S. withdrew its military technical assistance.
Also another example is that of Wole Soyinka who “shockingly….has refused to speak in condemnation of these butchers (OPC). He is even speaking in tacit defense of their act of lawlessness”. Both Buhari and Chief Ojukwu are stigmatized by the Yoruba because of their “past” while Wole Soyinka’s past which has perpetuate! d one of the worst atrocities in our national life is obscured. These gentlemen are called names because of their past, Buhari, a disciplinarian and the most incorruptible leader in Nigeria’s history is only remembered as a dictator while Ojukwu, a brilliant man is only remembered as a rebel leader. But Wole Soyinka “is never called a cultist for his more lasting legacy of derailing education on our campuses; for pirating learning from our higher institutions with his cultic confraternity” (Ofili, Daily Trust 16 April 2003).
The teeming voters in the northern part of the country who voted for Buhari should not feel disappointed and fear that vengeful Obasanjo would fulfill his evangelical vengeance as indicated by his running mate who said if the Sokoto voters refuse to vote for the corrupt PDP he would never visit that state. As for Obasanjo he cannot do worst than what he did when he was voted by the north even though he was rejected by his people by for example spending #26 million on a teaching hospital in the north while spending a billion naira on a teaching hospital in the south west. As a civilian government he is free to try even the Orkar option. His hedonist and semi-educated agents who are appointed for plum jobs in the north can also not blackmail any one any more that if he were not voted there would be resource control and sovereign national conference. If he does that most of his Yoruba states cannot even pay salaries. But I would not be surprised in a country with the highest rate of bank robberies if the number of opposition politicians being continuously murdered by armed robbers increases as a result of frustrations of the ruling government.
Now that the ruling party has rigged out Buhari the main opposition candidate what are the options available to him? The only available constitutional option is for him to challenge the results in court. In a BBC Hausa program on Tuesday April 22, 2003, one of the speakers expressed fear that executive intimidates the Nigerian judiciary. This should not deter Buhari that is the only way to build confidence in the rule of law. If the courts rule against his challenge then he should stop there and that is the end of his responsibility and posterity will judge.
African societies must build trust in their institutions especially the judiciary and Nigeria should show example, if not we will never progress. It is the responsibility of public affairs commentators to promote peaceful resolution of all issues rather than show that such promotion only serves the status quo and the ruling class and that the same times give no other option except despair. It is the responsibility of the! civil society to ensure that there is rule of law.
If the civil society, especially the bar, students and labor unions exert pressure through constitutional means nobody can compromise the judiciary. Thereafter Buhari should provide moral leadership by ensuring that all the candidates of his party, live above board because most of them owe their victory to him, so it is his responsibility, to ensure that they follow his footsteps of incorruptibility and for this he would be better remembered than the present corrupt PDP leadership.
A time will come when it would be impossible for this bunch of unpatriotic people to rig the elections as it has been shown in some places in Nigeria even during this last election where the people resisted peacefully. Lies will never last; the people of the South East and the Niger Delta would realize how they were tricked and they would defend their votes next time if they see success of those who work under Buhari’s watchful eyes.
The power elites who were co-opted in the South excluding those from the mob area would also realize their failure because all what the current mob leader promised them such as Igbo presidency in 2007 will not be achieved and there is a limit to lies. They should be left to their fate since they did not learn from deception of 1967 when the last mob leader promised them that his tribal folks would secede along with them. But when Biafra was announced he advised the federal government to starve them and he gave his people the crumbs that the Igbos left behind.
They should be reminded that the current mob leader has never fulfilled his promises. Mob action also has its limits. It has led to the collapse of AD and they are complaining this is a lesson for all those who think they can continue deceiving people. Just compare them with Bauchi and Katsina. These blinded people lack the political education to educate their people to vote or “rig” as they always do for one party in one election and another party in another election hence the total failure of AD and death of Afenifere. With time these groups will certainly die, because deceit has its limits especially when confronted with superior moral power of the sanctity of the rule of law by exercising all the means of protest through the courts.
We cannot expect people blinded by ethnicity to be easily incorporated into cosmopolitan plurality overnight this takes time, not just a few years. It is worthy a sacrifice for Nigerians to see the lies of Omo Oduduwa, NADECO, Afenifere, their clamor for restructuring and sovereign national conference all demolished in four years by their greed to loot through the PDP. One-day historians will recollect their inglorious history in the charcoal. Certainly these are better options than anything that could lead to chaos and the emergence of military dictatorship, this is a departure from the past whereby the opposition, which was then led by the mob, always called for violence.
It is now time to show there is a difference. There must be a departure from the past, civility and not threat or incitement to violence must be used to fight blatant abuse of power by bankrupt leadership. The cycle of election rigging by the ruling party and chaos by the opposition that leads to derailment of democracy must be replaced with long-term strategies. Buhari must work towards this. As for the international community the best way to check this corruption and assist Nigeria is to impose personal sanctions on the members of the ruling party. They and their hedonist families should be denied visas to visit their paradises, this is the only way they would be punished for their corruption and the democracy would be promoted.
Mr. Obasanjo will never stop visiting the West even though he has been subjected to embarrassment of being received sometimes by officials below the rank of cabinet ministers only these sanctions can save Nigeria from the waste of public funds. Already U.S. has provided the leadership by withdrawing military assistance because of human rights abuses. Other Western nations should follow these footsteps and come up with a number of sanctions against this corrupt government since the EU observers have confirmed irregularities that made the elections illegitimate because the process did not meet minimum requirements of democracy.
As usual the evangelical propagandist minister of information should be ignored and confined to his propaganda of religious bigotry. This professional propagandist was reported to have stated that the foreign media have not been favorable to the ruling corrupt PDP. It should be recollected that Gana attempted to bribe the foreign media but failed hence he believes any one could be co-opted. Now he is trying to intimidate the foreign media especially CNN and BBC Hausa Service.
April 2003
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