It has been sad to watch the past few
months as the PDP disintegrated
month-by-month under the leadership
(or lack thereof) of Goodluck Ebele
Jonathan. The other day, GEJ was at
the Eagle Square, Abuja, for a mini-
convention of the party which was
aimed at reconciling warring factions.
While he was still seated, adorned with
all the paraphernalia and
appurtenances of President and
Commander-in-Chief, Federal
Republic of Nigeria, Atiku Abubakar,
the celebrated fugitive from American
judicial system, led a group of
“dissident” governors on a walk-out.
The most that GEJ could do, reportedly,
was to wear a morose look and shake
his bowed head like a defeated man.
The level of disrespect of this man was
so palpable that many who did not care
about his political fortunes or
misfortunes had to, at least, rise in
defense of the exalted Office of the
President.
No matter what you thought of
Olusegun Obasanjo’s leadership of the
country and the PDP, you almost
wished that OBJ was back in charge;
for he had a strong spine. I cannot
imagine ANY governor walking out on
OBJ. That governor was not yet born
when OBJ ruled. That governor would
have eaten his pounded yam as
ordinary yams. That governor, for good
or ill, would have found himself in so
much trouble he would curse the day
he was elected. And this was the case
largely because OBJ knew his onions.
He paid attention to the minutiae of
government; not just at the Federal
level, but to some degree, even at the
State level. So, when OBJ barked,
governors and ministers trembled
because they knew he could also bite
hard. Those with skeletons in their
cupboards accused him of being too
dictatorial, and that he forgot he was no
longer in the military. It was cheap
blackmail and OBJ saw it as such. He
was not having any of that nonsense.
He believed that Nigeria, at the time,
needed a leader who was “feared
rather than loved”; for Nigerians only
loved if they had something to gain
personally. Those who doubted the
potency of OBJ’s teeth did not live
(politically) to tell the story. Those who
underrated his political acumen did so
at their own peril. Ask Tafa Balogun,
Abubakar Atiku et al.
Almost as broke as a church rat in
1999, OBJ broke out of jail and rode on
the backs of the naïve PDP founders
straight into Aso Rock. All the bigwigs
who founded the party thought OBJ
would show his gratitude by laying low
and accepting the presidency as
Yoruba’s (June 12 mandate) placation
gift. But no sooner had he settled in
office than he rolled up IGP Tafa
Balogun and carted him off to jail,
making him regurgitate most of his loot
on the way out.
When Balogun did not move fast
enough on his way out of the courtroom
on one occasion, his police escorts
beat him to near-pulpiness. Remember,
it was the same Balogun’s police force
that oversaw the massive election
rigging that brought OBJ to power. But
OBJ was smart enough to keep his
hands clean during the exercise, letting
the so-called PDP founders do the dirty
work. OBJ then set up the ICPC and
EFCC. For most of his first term, OBJ
hardly employed either of the two
organizations. He allowed them as free
a reign as possible until the start of his
second term. And by then, many of the
would-be thorns in OBJ’s flesh had so
soiled their hands with corruption that
none could withstand his withering
assaults when they came.
If the senators planned to curb OBJ by
impeaching him, the man was several
steps ahead of them. He started by
making an example of their leader,
Adulphus Wabara. Nuhu Ribadu’s
EFCC accused then Senate Leader
Wabara (and four others) of demanding
and receiving N55 million bribe from
Fabian Osuji, then Minister of
Education. Wabara ostensibly shared
(or planned to share) the money with
other senators as condition for passing
the 2005 education ministry’s budget.
After Wabara got his hands full of
EFCC arrests and invitations and
eventually lost his job in the Senate, all
of the remaining senators became
born-again, and all accepted OBJ as
their Jesus.
To the best of my knowledge, GEJ has
not gotten (and cannot get) nasty with
any of the politicians questioning his
authority. Even with governor Rotimi
Amaechi (Rivers), GEJ had to hire
surrogates (including his wife) to fight
his proxy battle. He has forgotten that if
he wins the proxy battle, he would be
unable to claim the victory directly.
And, therefore, he would still be viewed
as a weakling. GEJ operates as if he is
forever unable to assert his legitimacy
because of his indebtedness to all
those PDP governors that helped him
overcome Turai Yar’Adua’s cabal. That
cabal almost successfully denied him
the presidency when President
Yar’Adua died. That cabal is well and
alive. And because of GEJ’s lack of
confidence, the cabal has grown
exponentially with the infusion of the
Atiku machine.
OBJ was different. OBJ embarked on
the systematic annihilation of his
enemies so that he could govern in
peace. When former Plateau State
governor, Joshua Chibi Dariye, who
worked assiduously for OBJ’s election
in 1999 and his re-election in 2007,
started to flex his muscles, he did not
know what hit him when OBJ’s train
came through. Dariye had helped
himself to, at least, $9 million of his
State’s money. For that, OBJ set the
London Metropolitan Police after
Dariye. They arrested him in London in
2004. The former governor jumped bail
and escaped to Nigeria where, as a
serving governor, he had immunity from
prosecution. OBJ did not relent though.
He knew that Dariye did not steal all
that money by himself. He had to have
had some members of his state’s
Legislature in cahoots with him. OBJ
then applied the “Alamieyeseigha’s
Tactic”: blackmail the corrupt state
legislators with the threat of
prosecution for corruption and promise
them leniency if they would impeach
the governor. Of course, by November
2006, Dariye was impeached and the
odious stench oozing out of Plateau
State was cleaned out. In the same
State, former Second Republic NPP
governor, Solomon Daushep Lar, who
was also Chairman of the PDP Board
of Trustees (BoT) when OBJ was
president, found himself on the
receiving end of OBJ’s koboko (or
bulala, if you are Hausa). Lar supported
then Vice-President Atiku’s quest for
the Presidency, and that was reason
enough for OBJ to get him removed as
Chaiman of BoT.
Lar has since gone into political
oblivion. Even his Vice-President,
because he was so steeped in many
vices, was unable to extricate himself
from OBJ’s trap. Atiku spent most of his
second term under OBJ fighting off the
EFCC, the Interpol, the FBI, or the
Washington DC, Virginia and Maryland
police departments. Atiku had led an
insurrection (much as he is doing right
now) to deny OBJ a second term,
therefore, OBJ set out to teach him a
lesson about insubordination and
disloyalty. That Atiku is not currently
languishing in jail is a testament to his
supreme survival skills.
For much of OBJ’s second term, he
kept the proverbial Sword of Damocles
hanging on the heads of governors
Bola Tinubu (Lagos), Diepreye
Alamieyeseigha (Bayelsa), Ayodele
Fayose (Ekiti), Orji Kalu (Abia),
Chimaraoke Nnamani (Enugu), Peter
Odili (Rivers), Lucky Igbinedion (Edo),
Ahmed Sanni Yerima (Zamfara), Jolly
Nyame (Taraba), Boni Haruna
(Adamawa), George Akume (Benue),
Attahiru Bafarawa (Sokoto), Adamu
Muazu (Bauchi), Victor Attah (Akwa
Ibom), Bukola Saraki (Kwara), and
Rasidi Ladoja (Oyo). They all had to
switch their bedding spots every night
and slept with one eye open in case
OBJ’s EFCC showed up. Only Donald
Duke (Cross River) was openly
absolved by the EFCC at that time.
Also, at some point, IBB’s supporters
egged him on to challenge OBJ’s
stranglehold on the party. And for a
while, it appeared IBB was going to
bite. But once the EFCC arrested his
son, Muhammed, and asked him to
explain how he came about the multi-
billion naira shares he held in
Globacom when he never worked a
day in his life, IBB simmered and
became an apostle of OBJ’s political
catechism.
OBJ had one thing or the other on most
of the governors. They dared not look
him cross-eyed or challenge his
authority in any way, let alone walk out
on him. That respect…that gravitas that
the office of president carries (whether
you are president of the Republic of
Sao Tome and Principe, or you are the
president of the United States of
America), is what GEJ lacks. It does not
require clairvoyance to know that GEJ,
in spite of his adroitness as a politician
(he did not become deputy-governor,
governor, vice-president, and president
in succession all on sheer luck) is a
much maligned and compromised
character. You can tell that most of the
governors know GEJ lacks any moral
authority to threaten them with the
EFCC, or even an ordinary definitive
suspension/expulsion from the party.
Only under GEJ could a person like
Atiku retain the right to call a press
conference in broad daylight, at a
public arena, and make demands.
Under OBJ, Atiku was humiliated and
so marginalized to the point that OBJ
withdrew his official aides! Atiku had to
hire media aides from his personal
purse!! Now this same man has grown
a pair of cajones (testicles) big enough
to challenge GEJ so brazenly. Only
under such an enfeebled and cowered
ruler could the Atikus of PDP still thrive.
It was even reported that the so-called
G-7 governors who staged the walk-out
and later formed their own “New PDP”
had the temerity to demand, as one of
their conditions for making peace with
GEJ, that he orders the EFCC to desist
from probing them! What!! I will not be
surprised if the G-7 announces
tomorrow the expulsion of GEJ himself
from PDP!!!
After begging OBJ to intercede in the
PDP internecine squabbles, GEJ, out
of frustration (and again through
surrogates), now reportedly blames
OBJ for being the fomenter of the many
fratricidal feuds in the party. Who is to
blame if, as the de facto leader of the
nation and the ruling party, GEJ had to
rely on OBJ to periodically help
mediate his many fights? A couple of
Yoruba proverbs here: “I’d rather not be
king if I wield no authority over the
people”; “If you are a hawk and you
can’t scoop up a chick, you are
worthless”. Next time we have a
president, he better be somebody
imbued with limitless courage,
boundless wisdom and a spotless
character so that no one is able to take
him hostage.
By Abiodun Ladepo