PRESIDENTIAL COMMISSION ON SECURITY IS NOT THE ANSWER

By

Professor Omo Omoruyi,

Research Fellow, African Studies Center, Boston University.

I was shocked with the following rendition of the President’s Independence Address to the Nigerian people on October 1, 2001 in the international media:

The BBC says "Obasanjo Admits ‘Enormous’ Problems".

The CNN says, "Obasanjo says Recurring Violence Disgraces Nigeria".

The BBC says, "Obasanjo struggling to Solve Nigeria’s Problems"

This is President Olusegun Obasanjo’s confession after two and half years, with one and half to go in a four-year term. The excuse the President gave was similar to the excuse he gave when he could not deliver on the electricity promise: that he did not know the situation was that bad when he made the promise. On October 1, 2001, President Obasanjo had just come to appreciate, after two and half years in office with one and half to go, ‘the dismal reality’ of the country he took over in May 1999. After two and half years with one and half years to go! Thank you Mr. President for admitting ‘the dismal reality’. But the President is jumping the gun with the approach he proffered on October 1, 2001 when he has yet to accept the nature of the problem that Nigeria is its present form is in search of reexamination.

This is the subject of this comment.

What President told Nigerians on October 1, 2001 reminds one of the sad confession of the last British Colonial Governor General, Sir James Robertson in 1974 after 14 years of British rule in Nigeria when asked if he had any regret with what Britain left behind in Nigeria. He was frank enough to say that ‘Britain underestimated the strength of tribalism in Nigeria’.

One draw back in the administration of President Obasanjo after two and half years with only one and half to go in the first term is that President Obasanjo still has not accepted what he called ‘the dismal reality’ that what we have in Nigeria cannot hold. He still has not accepted the fact that all the problems that Nigeria faces today can be attributed to two aspects of one problems, which are (a) how the Nigerian ethnic/religious communities can live together and (b) how to the plural society is to be governed. This is what I call the twin problem of governing a plural society.

If Britain failed to do this after 46 years of British rule (1914-60) and Nigeria rulers mostly military failed to this after 41 years (1960-2001), something is basically wrong with the approach so far since 1914 or since 1960 or since 1966. Does it not occur to the President that we should get back to the drawing board? This is why people call for a National Conference to deal with the twin problems.

The impression created by the above international media in the international community is that President Obasanjo after two years had failed woefully after over half of his first term in office to deliver on his promise to resolve the Nigerian problems. This is what one could make out of the content of the President’s Independence Address to the Nigerian people and why the President asked Nigerians not celebrate but rather reflect on the country’s problems. The address was no ‘soul food’ for the Nigerian people. Despite this admission, one wonders why the prognosis?

The President’s decision to set up a Presidential Commission on Security is working from an answer; it is not from the knowledge of the question. The setting up of this Commission is not an admission of knowledge of the source of the ‘enormous problems’ or of the ‘Recurring Violence’.

The President has already found an answer; he wants to get tough and would not brook any nonsense from any community from now on. Is this what the Presidential Commission would be asked to do for the administration? The President is only responding to the manifestations of problems yet to be identified.

Nigerians and the international community saw the emergence of Chief Olusegun Obasanjo in 1999 as a welcome relief to the military mismanagement of Nigeria. For the President to throw up his hands on October 1, 2001 as if the twin problems have no solution is no solution. To want to complicate them with yet another Government Agency called Presidential Commission on Security is not a solution.

In the lectures I delivered in the US after the election in 1999, I argued that there was only one function, which Obasanjo’s emergence would have served for Nigeria. It would have been a ‘bridge’ between the past and the present and that before the completion of his first term, one would have thought that he would set in motion the modality for tackling the twin political problems identified above. As a result of the past leaders (civilian and military) inability to come to terms with the twin political problems, Nigeria is faced with their manifestations, such as:

The various ethnic/religious clashes in the north and in the south;

The cry over marginalization in various parts of the country;

The quest for fundamental restructuring;

The Igbo question in Nigerian politics;

The politics of resource control;

The politics of the armed forces;

The arms trafficking;

The politicization of religion; and

The violent crimes and general insecurity in the country.

President, Sir, may I humbly call on you as the President to lead Nigerians to come up with how Nigerians can live together and how Nigeria can be governed.

The President alone cannot solve these problems. Setting up a Presidential Commission on Security is an attempt to copy the US President’s Homeland Security Department in the White House as the domestic counterpart of the National Security Agency. The US had identified the source of the problems; President Obasanjo had not accepted that the problems of Nigeria since 1960 are of the two kinds identified above. If the President accepts this, then the solution is a round table conference with the two subjects on the agenda.

Yesterday it was the use of the traditional rulers; this has never been a solution as many of them have been part of the problems since 1960. They unwittingly make themselves loyal to Any Government In Power. (AGIP)

The National Assembly cannot deal with them because the election under which the National Assembly was constituted before a military-dictated Constitution was forced on it. The National Assembly has since 1999 been in search of a role under an omnipotent or the Imperial Presidency.

The party-system is still emerging; it will take time for Nigeria to have political party system as we know it historically. The solution would have been the complete scrapping of the three so-called political parties and starting all over again. Can what we have today lead to an election in 2003 and have peace after? What would emerge after the 2003 would be frightening to contemplate.

Another Government Agency no matter what it is called, Presidential Commission, is another fire fighting mechanism and it is jumping the gun. Accept the twin problem and then allow Nigerians to dialogue on the solution.

2003 UNREALISTIC WITHOUT A SOLUTION TO TWIN PROBLEMS

Nigerians should not proceed to the 2003 election with out resolving these two problems. We knew what happened in 1964 and in 1983 when one party embarked upon succession, where these two issues were in search of solution. They are still in search of solution today. October 1, 2001 is an opportunity to reflect on them; the 2003 should not be approached without resolving these two issues. This will be Obasanjo’s legacy or something else.

October, 2001