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Obasanjo: Neither coup nor impeachment
If anybody is in doubt that our country, Nigeria, is in a bind,
recent pronouncements and counter-pronouncements by some members
of the elite must have erased all that. Right now, it appears we
a confused lot. Our country is enveloped by all sorts of problems
– political, economic, social, religious, etc. But our leaders,
not just those in government, are confused as to what to do. What
they have resorted to is guess work and allusions to hackneyed expressions.
We witnessed, recently, the confessions of the immediate-past Minister
of Defence, General Theophilus Danjuma (retd), to the effect that
his four years’ stay in President Obasanjo’s administrations
proved a disaster for him. To cut an overflogged story short, Danjuma
was virtually begging Nigerians to absolve him from the iniquities
of the Obasanjo regime. Nigerians were aghast. Up till now, they
are still wondering. Almost at the same period, ex-Biafran warlord,
Chief Emeka Ojukwu, exploded with his "surgical operation"
theory. According to Ojukwu, President Obasanjo is "evil"
and should be "extracted" from Nigeria if she must make
progress. Then came the front–page editorial commentary by
the Abuja-based Daily Trust, titled, "Nigeria’s Crisis
of Democracy". In it, the newspaper was of the opinion that
Nigerians are desirous of another military intervention to stem
the national drift occasioned by Obasanjo’s bad leadership.
The same week, the Daily Trust editorial was published, irrepressible
social crusader, Chief Gani Fawehinmi, said in an interview with
a Lagos–based weekly magazine that President Obasajo has to
be removed "by every means possible". The following week,
flak came from a most unexpected quarter. President of the Yoruba
Elders’ Forum, retired Justice Adewale Thompson, pointedly
asked for Obasanjo’s impeachenment by the National Assembly.
The next day, another Yoruba leader, Chief Abraham Adesanya, at
a press conference in Lagos, sounded loud and clear that Obasanjo’s
regime is headed for a disaster.
The same week, the formidable pro-democracy group, the United Action
for Democracy (UAD), which fought the late Sani Abacha’s regime
to a standstill, staged an Obasanjo–must–go rally in Lagos.
Although the rally was prevented by the police, the message was
sent. Of course, there have been other fiercely anti-Obasanjo calls,
perhaps too numerous to be recounted here.
Not unexpectedly, there has been a condemnation of the Daily Trust’s
veiled call for a military intervention. Two key editors of an influential
Lagos–based national newspaper took turns to level with their
Abuja-based counterparts on the matter. At the weekend, Adesanya
took a swipe at the Daily Trust. In fact, Adesanya called for the
arrest and trial of the Daily Trust editors for treason.
As far as I am concerned, however, the outburst against the so-called
coup advocates is uncalled for. Contrary to the arguments of Adesanya
and the so-called anti-coup commentators and writers, it is wrong
to ask for the heads of the former. I don’t think Nigerians
see it as an issue. In other words, I don’t believe Nigerians
are scared of military coups and their consequences. After all,
how many have we witnessed before? I am rather of the view that
military coups in Nigeria have been so demystified that there is
nothing special about a call for one. Personally, I can’t see
anything sacrosanct about the opinion expressed by the Daily Trust.
Rather, I see the position taken by the newspaper as too ordinary
to warrant any special attention. As a corollary, I see the position
of Pa Adesanya and the Lagos editors as an over-reaction. In fact,
the argument they went into in trying to counter the Abuja-based
newspaper is trite. The fact that military regimes didn’t do
well is not enough reason to stop another coup. I don’t think
Nigerians can lose sleep over the possibility of another military
coup. At worst, they are simply indifferent. The reason is simple.
Military coup means nothing to Nigerians anymore. Why should it
be after they, Nigerians, had not only witnessed but also made to
‘participate’ in at least 11 coups and coup attempts.
Perhaps, apart from the two coups in 1966, I don’t think there
has been any military coup in Nigeria in which civilians were not
allegedly involved, judging by the number of civilians arrested
and tried for those incidents. Indeed, the last two so-called coup
attempts of 1995 and 1997 appeared to have had more civilians than
military collaborators. In the 1995 case, we had at least five top
Nigerian journalists charged along with their military counterparts!
Then, of course, came the first civilian coup of July 10, 2003,
in Awka, Anambra State. I don’t even know why anybody thinks
that it must have to be a military coup this time around. The Anambra
incident has shown that we may be looking in the wrong direction
for a coup. I have since stopped worrying about the implications
of the Awka coup attempt of July 10 because I believe that the official
federal connivance will be repaid in the same coin somewhere, somehow,
someday.
Happily as Chief Adesanya pointed out once again, the Anambra case
has demonstrated that at least morally, Nigeria under President
Obasanjo has come to accept that anybody – military or civilian
– can choose to forcefully eject any of the governments in
the country – including the Federal – without any dire
consequences. In other words, since we have accepted as a people
to live with that type of thing, I can’t see what is new about
the view expressed by the Daily Trust and what is so special about
those being expressed, especially from the Lagos axis, to counter
it. I am indifferent to the views expressed by both the newspaper
and its critics.
The arguments from both sides are the same: Something urgent and
drastic needs to be done to save the country from an imminent major
crisis. It is a matter of semantics that some are talking about
coups. Others like Justices Thompson have called for the president’s
impeachment. But between military coup and impeachment, I see the
latter are having greater potentials for instability. One, the outcome
of a successful impeachment of Obasanjo is given: his deputy, Atiku
Abubarka, a northerner, will take over, a development I cannot vow
that will be too comfortable even for Adewale Thompson. On the other
hand, who to take over after a military coup will certainly be subject
to negotiation among those carrying out the deal. In the end, due
to sheer exigencies, a non-northerner, in fact a Yoruba, may emerge
as Obasanjo’s successor through a coup. In fact, Obasanjo can
negotiate his own successor in the case of a coup but not so for
impeachment. A resignation will have the same effect as an impeachment.
This is why I think that the more some people try to shout down
others over the matter of coup, the more we reduce the chances of
negotiating a middle ground in case of any eventuality. I have said
nothing to suggest that I am an advocate of either a military or
civilian coup. In fact, I do not even sanction Obasanjo’s impeachment
for other reasons apart from the one pointed out above.
The point one is trying to make, therefore, is that there can hardly
be found any solution to the problem through either the call for
a coup or impeachment or a mere counter position to such ideas.
We have to go beyond this level of argument. As I said earlier,
something tells me that the elite is looking in the wrong direction.
For me, reducing the matter to that of an Obasanjo–must-go
trivializes the entire thing. In at least two previous articles
in this column, I had argued that the problem is mainly that of
the failure of an entire generation, which had the privilege of
running this country at a period that was the easiest thing to turn
it around. Under that generation was the period of oil boom and
other rare opportunities their counterparts elsewhere never had.
President Obasanjo may be stubborn, but I don’t think the matter
should be reduced to that of him versus the rest of Nigeria. It
would be a mistake. I advocate that members of his generation which
include his former colleagues in the military as well as those with
whom he now practises the political theatrics, should once again
endeavour to engage him in some constructive dialogue. The Patriots
tried to do something like that the other time. But it was at a
time the President was too desperate for a second term to listen
to anybody. Let that forum be expanded to enable more Nigerians
of his generation present him with options that do not entail suggesting
that he should either quit now or be booted out.
Chief Adesanya was part of The Patriots. Like all of us, he does
not accept a military or, in fact, a civilian coup. But I don’t
see him or any other Yoruba accepting the outcome of an impeachment
as advocated by Justice Adewale Thompson. This is a big dilemma
which requires no tough talking or emotional outpouring but an objective
review of events.
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