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People and Politics: Alas! This Emperor is Naked (1)

Vanguard (Lagos)
COLUMN
December 20, 2004
Posted to the web December 20, 2004

By Ochereome Nnanna

WHEN the Anambra crises first blew up on July 10, 2003, our fingers pointed in
the direction of President Olusegun Obasanjo as the sponsor and guarantor of
the plot to destroy Anambra State. However, while some other Nigerians were
willing to admit the outrage of the abduction of a governor by political thugs
who openly used the services of the Nigeria Police Force, they froze from the
naming of Obasanjo as the power behind the perpetrators.
Some chose to describe it as one further proof that the Igbo people are
incapable of handling politics as well as they can handle commerce. Some said
it was trading taken too far into the hallowed recesses of political
leadership, where politics has become a commodity for buying and selling for
profit. Some told the Igbo to go and put their house in order, rather than
blaming Obasanjo for every political problem they run into. The truth was,
however, there for all to see. The problem was that some Nigerians, out of
their selfish political motives, simply chose not to see it for what it was.
The recent exchange of hot letters between the National Chairman of the
People's Democratic Party (PDP), Chief Audu Ogbeh, and Obasanjo has exposed the
truth beyond any reasonable doubt, even to Doubting Thomases. The said Anambra
crises have gone through three phases. The first was the July 10, 2003
abduction of Governor Chris Ngige by his so-called political godfather, Chris
Ubah and his henchmen, who used the Nigeria Police to carry it out. The second
was the January 2, 2003 attempt to use the Enugu High Court presided over by
the now disgraced Justice Nnaji, to remove Ngige from office. The failure of
that plot resulted in the withdrawal of police security from Ngige by the
Federal Government. The third phase was the sponsored invasion of Anambra State
by thugs, who proceeded to burn and loot government offices and property. The
idea behind this was to stage a breakdown of law and order and give an alibi
for the declaration of a state of emergency. As usual, the police gave covering
fire to the arsonists and brigands as they went about their crime.
THE December 6 letter to the President by Ogbeh was an indication by Ogbeh and
other members of the PDP National Working Committee (NWC) that they had had
enough of Obasanjo's ungodly designs over Anambra State. For once, the PDP
National Working Committee saw the danger posed against our democracy and our
nation as a whole by the goings-on in Anambra State, and decided to cry out. If
this was an admission that the ruling Party and the President have failed in
their constitutional duties to Anambra State, Obasanjo's typical cantankerous
rejoinder further illustrated the nation's number one citizen's abject lack of
leadership capacity to run the political affairs of this country, just as a
similar lack in the economic area has long been exposed. It was not only a
tissue of bare-faced falsehoods but also full of disingenuous sepulcher
whitening, which put to question Obasanjo's quality of reasoning that has
handled the nation's affairs for an aggregate of nine years. It also put to
doubt the President's credibility as a moral crusader. Let us take instances
from his letter.
What he calls Dr. Chinwoke Mbadinuju's "unmitigated failure" had little or
nothing to do with failure to pay salaries. Other PDP governors also owed
salaries but were still given their second term tickets. Besides, Obasanjo is
on record to have given Mbadinuju pass marks when he visited Anambra and
commissioned projects. He only accused Mbadinuju of being "stubborn", whatever
he meant by that. Admittedly, Mbadinuju's mistakes were many, and these had a
lot to do with the former governor's decision to "manage" the godfather threat
by pacifying them with monthly payoffs from the treasury of Anambra State. The
monthly "Irreversible Standing Payment Orders", deductible from source, were so
heavy that Mbadinuju fell behind in his obligations to the people of Anambra
State, especially in salary payment and the running of the laudable educational
programmes he had initiated. Chris Ubah was one of the beneficiaries of the
ISPOs, but the main "political godfather" that menaced the Mbadinuju regime was
Chief Emeka Offor.
The real reason for Obasanjo's refusal to endorse Mbadinuju for a second term
was that Chris Ubah, his in-law and younger brother to his devoted domestic
servant, Andy Ubah, expressed his interest in displacing Emeka Offor and
emerging as the new "godfather" of Anambra State. Ubah's ambition came in handy
for Obasanjo because he wanted his personal loyalist in Anambra who could be
trusted not to bolt with loyalty midway, as Chief Anyim Pius Anyim, whom
Obasanjo has sponsored to the position of the President of the Senate, had
done. Perhaps, Ubah had not shown interest, Obasanjo would have supported Jerry
Ugokwe.
TO enable him take over the machinery of Anambra State, Ubah was allowed
unlimited access to the structures of the Nigeria Police Force and the
Electoral Commission both at the state and national levels. These were the
institutions of state that the ruling Party, including the President, had fully
depended upon for their reelection in 2003. Ubah personally picked Ngige, who
seemed weak and easy, to be the governor. He created almost impossible
conditions which did not allow the state's Chief Executive any iota of space
for independent thought and action. Ngige wasn't even allowed to appoint his
personal aides. The President also did not allow Ngige any breathing space. He
slammed the Igwe Nwokedi advisory committee on the Governor and funded their
activities from Abuja. Pray, which constitutional provision gives the President
the powers to attempt to manipulate an "elected" chief executive in this way?
Ngige's rebellion was therefore against both the President and Ubah's plots to
tie him into a knot and pocket him and the State. These were the two principal
reasons why Obasanjo took it personal and explored every opportunity to
dislodge the "rebel" and reestablish his son in-law as his controller of the
Anambra political franchise. We will complete this exercise next edition.

   

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