The beginning of the Nigerian revolution!
Wednesday, 06 October 2010 01:00
Phillip Eyam-Ozung

One of the highlights of the just-concluded Nigeria's fiftieth anniversary celebrations was the conferment of Golden jubilee Special Presidential Award on fifty distinguished Nigerians and friends of Nigeria. The awardees included six past Nigerian heads of state in the persons of Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, Generals Aguyi-Ironsi, Yakubu Gowon, Obasanjo, and Abdulsalami Abubakar as well as Alhaji Shehu Shagari. The list also included Nigeria's political pioneers such as Herbert Macaulay, Nnamdi Azikiwe, Mallam Aminu Kano and Obafemi Awolowo; Nigeria's literary icons as multiple award-winning Professor Chinua Achebe and Nobel Laureate Professor Wole Soyinka; Nigeria's legal icons such as Justice Udo-Udoma, Justice Adetokunbo Ademola, Professor Taslim Elias and the indefatigable FRA Williams; women's rights activists such Funmilayo Ransom-Kuti and Margaret Ekpo; athletes such as Olympic Gold medallists Chioma Ajunwa and Kanu Nwankwo and entrepreneurs such as Aliko Dangote and Mike Adenuga. The advertorial from the office of the secretary to the government of the Federation specifically indicated that these fifty distinguished Nigerians and friends of Nigeria were being honoured for 'their various roles and contributions to the development of the country.'

I totally align myself with these awards and hereby send my congratulations to all the awardees! President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan also deserves commendation for both initiating this special award and his excellent handling of the actual conferment exercise during which he scored a hat-trick goal by explaining the reason for the exclusion of four former military heads of state who include Murtala Mohammed, Muhammadu Buhari, Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida and Sani Abacha. Though Late General Murtala Mohammed is among the former military heads of state not honoured by President Jonathan, all references to former heads of state not honoured in this article should be understood as excluding Murtala Mohammed because despite the fact that he seized power through a military coup, he is still being acknowledged and celebrated as a true Nigerian national hero who added immense value by initiating both the war against corruption and the reform of the civil service as well as demonstrating visionary and disciplined leadership within the six months he was in office, the remaining three former heads of state more than deserve their exclusion from the golden jubilee honours list!

[b]As casual as President Goodluck Jonathan's explanation for the exclusion of four former military heads of state from the list of golden jubilee awardees seemed, it was the strongest presidential message ever sent by a sitting Nigerian President to his predecessors who seized power through military coups! The first message that the president sent the former military heads of state who were not honoured is that though they successfully stole power through the barrel of the gun, no gun is lethal enough to win them national honours. The second message the president sent the former military heads of state who were not honoured is that each of them took upon himself the reproach of a thief of state power who deserves to be appropriately punished rather than honoured! The third message the president sent the former military heads of state who were not honoured is that regardless of whatever titles they gave themselves and their governments, they remain just who they are-presidential-level power thieves![/b]

The fourth message the president sent the former military heads of state who were not honoured is that based on their ignoble role as military adventurists who seized power through military coups, they lack democratic/political legitimacy and so will only be attempting to eat their cake and have it by dabbling into politics without first taking responsibility for their treasonable sins as self-appointed enemies of democracy! The fifth message the president sent the former military heads of state who were not honoured is that in the fiftieth year of our nationhood, the foundation for the enthronement of accountable public leadership has been laid! Who says it's a light thing for a former military head of state to be pointedly told that he's not worth being conferred with an 18-carat gold medal by his distant civilian successor?

The sixth message the president sent the former military heads of state who were not honoured is that just as all former heads of state are no longer the same, all GCFR medals conferred on them are no longer the same-a revaluation has occurred as part of the new Nigeria that is emerging! I can bet that the criteria which disqualified these former military heads of state from the golden jubilee special presidential awards have achieved the unintended objective of cutting atleast one of them who has spent all the long years since being forced out of office trying to cultivate a larger-than-life image to size! The 'strongman' who once had the power to annul Nigeria's all-time best presidential election lacked the power to annul the golden jubilee special presidential award which excluded him -such is life!

Yours truly, if the former military heads of state who were excluded from the golden jubilee special presidential awards got the gist of the president's explanation of their exclusion, the honourable thing they should do is either head to Court to defend their role and legacy as developers of Nigeria who are deserving of the honour just 'denied' them or in the alternative resign their membership of the council of state on which they sit as former heads of state! To take neither of these steps is to accept the stigma of being only remembered as soldiers who stole state power, messed up the country and left no noble legacy for which present and future generations of Nigerians will remember them! As the Nigerian revolution inadvertently begins, my prayer is God Bless the new Nigeria and the new generation of Nigerian leaders that is about to emerge!

http://www.businessdayonline.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=14130:the-beginning-of-the-nigerian-revolution&catid=96:columnists&Itemid=350

Lovely article.