BEFORE WE RETURN TO 1983 by Dele Momodu

Fellow Nigerians, once again I’m inclined to take you down

memory lane. In a country that has become completely

reticent to both ancient and contemporary history, it is

pertinent to refresh our collective memories once in a while.

The danger of collective amnesia is grave. It may send us

back to where we were decades ago. Only the blind would not

see where we are headed. Without mincing words, we are not

too far from the abyss.

Those who delude themselves that all is well should continue

to live in denial. I was glad when our President himself

captured the mood of the nation in his most profound analysis

to date. Day s ago, after the latest bomb blast in Abuja, Dr

Goodluck Ebele Jonathan said the Boko Haram saga

was worse than the Nigerian civil war that killed millions of

our own brethren. 

For once, I felt our President has now seen

the light and all that is left is for him to be truly born again.

And what does it take to be born again? The Bible says you

have to profess Jesus as your Lord and Saviour. You must go

beyond mere words and emulate Christ and walk in his ways.

I do not have to tell our President what that entails. He

probably knows more than me. We must love our fellow

beings unconditionally. We must forgive our enemies. 

We must not steal what belongs to others. We must not covet.

There so many other injunctions that we must strive to obey.

If our leaders accept and heed some of these biblical

injunctions, the world would be a much better place.

It is good that the President has made such a monumental

confession. His supporters who have been treating this

situation as a joke should wake up and encourage the

President to do what is necessary without further delay. 

The reason the country is blatantly heated up is simple, our

leaders have abandoned governance for politics. They are too

desperately anxious to retain their jobs, and perks of offices

next year, that they no longer give a hoot about what happens

to the country. It is such a pity that they have refused to

learn from our ugly past. So it behoves us to remind them of

where we are coming from.

While I cannot contest the fact that Mr Peter Ayo Fayose won

the Governorship election in Ekiti last week, we must still

protest events that led to the victory. For the Federal

Government, Ekiti was treated like a do or die affair.

Everything and anything possible was thrown into executing

that war. It was so serious that many Nigerians wondered if

we would not have defeated Boko Haram by now if the

menace was similarly attacked. The security in Ekiti was so

water-tight that one wondered why same could not be

achieved in other parts of Nigeria.

While PDP may continue to bask in the euphoria of that

victory, they must try and resist the temptation of seeing

themselves as conquerors. Now that their opponents have

been alerted to what to expect in subsequent elections, PDP

may not find it so easy to intimidate and harass with Federal

might when next tomorrow comes. Instead of over relying on

the use of brute and crude force, PDP should try to wear a

new look and embrace a more responsible attitude. 

The recent all-out attack against the opposition in Ekiti should

never be contemplated or repeated. To do otherwise is to

push the people to the wall and invite their wrath.

This type of braggadocio led to the breakdown of law and

order in 1983. The then National Party of Nigeria, at the peak

of its infamous glory, had attempted to pocket the entire

country in one fell swoop. They succeeded, or so they

thought. The general elections of that troublesome year were

recorded by political historians as a “moon-slide”, which was

the hyperbolic description of what ordinarily should have been

a landslide. The NPN was so self-conceited that it simply

grabbed votes in broad daylight and dared anyone to

challenge its open robbery. 

Prior to the elections, the Federal Government had armed the Nigeria Police Force to the teeth. Headed by Inspector General of Police, Mr Sunday Adewusi, the stage was set for the Police to take on any recalcitrant

politician. Everything seemed normal at first. NPN arbitrarily

declared victory in most unlikely places goaded on by the

enormous power of its security forces as well as street thugs.

But they did not bargain for what happened in Oyo and Ondo

States.

Dr Victor Omololu Sowemimo Olunloyo had managed to sack

the legendary Governor, Chief Bola Ige from the Agodi

Government House while Chief Akin Omoboriowo was also

declared winner in Ondo State against his former boss and

incumbent Governor, Pa Adekunle Ajasin. While Ibadan

witnessed a feeble protest against the declaration of Dr

Olunloyo, the people of Ondo State were incredibly ferocious.

They attacked everything in sight and roasted human beings

alive in an unprecedented orgy of violence. The mayhem was

so widespread that the NPN hurriedly capitulated, dropped the

stolen mandate in Ondo State like the hot potato that it had

become and returned power to Pa Ajasin.

The dust of that election had not fully settled down when the

fearsome duo of Mohammadu Buhari and Tunde Idiagbon

struck and brought Nigeria’s outrageous Second Republic to

an abrupt halt. The cleaning up exercise that followed was

blistering and pervasive. Politicians were hauled into prisons

and many of them never recovered from that trauma. The

country itself bled profusely and was engulfed in all manner of

problems. It was obvious that the politicians had

overstretched their luck through unbridled rascality. Had they

managed their affairs very well, the stage would not have

been set for a military take-over and there would have been

no cast-iron alibi for the coup that swept everyone out of

power. It took the intervention of General Ibrahim Babangida

to relax the iron-grip of Buhari and Idiagbon on Nigeria. But

the damage had been done.

One would have thought politicians would learn useful lessons

from that unfortunate era but alas nothing seemed to have

been absorbed. Exactly ten years after, in 1993, Babangida’s

endless transition came to a crescendo. The election was so

beautiful that we actually saw a glimpse of paradise. For the

first time in the history of Nigeria, our people voted for a

Muslim-Muslim ticket without anyone raising eyebrows. A

Yorubaman, Chief Moshood Abiola received resounding votes

from every part of Nigeria and no one cared to ask his

birthplace. But tragedy struck when some co-conspirators sat

on Babangida and forced him to terminate that handsome

electoral process. Many could not believe the audacity of

those who turned day into night.

A contraption called the Interim National Government was

hurried packaged an assembled and the winner of that

election was told to go to hell. Chief Ernest ‘Degunle

Shonekan was handpicked to head the fragile institution. Our

politicians thinking they had perfected their act soon

discovered that what awaited us at the other side of midnight

was not going to be palatable. Rather than deepen our

democracy, it killed it again. And General Sani Abacha simply

sauntered into power without firing a single shot in anger.

Power was handed to him on a platter of gold. Nigeria would

soon explode into another round of interminable suffering.

This went on from 1993 to 1998. Some got killed, jailed or

forced into exile. Both the military ruler, Abacha, and the

winner of the wonderful election, Abiola, died within one

month of each other under mysterious circumstances. No one

bothered to ask too many questions not to talk of getting

answers to what truly transpired. Life just moved on as usual.

General Abdul-salami Abubakar came on the scene and

started his own sojourn in power. Unlike others, he had no

plans to stay on permanently in office after the death of

Abacha. The only problem was how Abiola suddenly died

under what should have been his close watch. But life still

moved on. Nigerians have infinite capacity to endure pain and

insults. General Abubakar’s transition was apparently tailor-

made to return General Olusegun Obasanjo to power. Before

our very eyes Obasanjo became the first and only former

military ruler to transfigure into civilian President. We expected

Nigeria to become an Eldorado under the master of the game

of power, Obasanjo. But our hopes were soon dashed again.

Obasanjo left in 2007 after an election that produced a

critically ill President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua and his very quiet

deputy, Dr Jonathan. Before we could say Umaru, the

President had virtually collapsed and was hidden for months

by his acolytes. He eventually died and Dr Jonathan was

thrown up by fate. It was one of the greatest miracles of our

time. Again we thought our President would work assiduously

to douse tension and restore glory to our nation. But our

optimism seemed to have been misplaced as we waltzed from

one debilitating crisis to another. Today, Nigeria is at its

lowest ebb. Our country has virtually taken over from Iraq,

Afghanistan, Yemen, Libya and others as the headquarters of

terror. While this senseless killings are going on our leaders

seem incapable of ever being moved by human misery.

Politics and winning elections are much more important to

them. They have studiously ignored the dangers ahead.

I’m very worried like many concerned Nigerians that our

leaders are once again sowing seeds of discord and setting

the stage for enemies of democracy who litter our political

firmament. It is a great pity that we have not learnt anything

from our bizarre existence.

We appear to have come full circle again. This is very

dangerous and I will go on to give my free suggestions and

solutions again. I hope those who can take the necessary

steps would not dismiss this patriotic act as coming from an

interloper. I do not want my country to go down again. It is

our responsibility to ensure that those beating the drums of

war are not allowed to succeed.

I believe the President alone can kill this fire if he finds the

courage to ignore his self-appointed warriors. The President

should alter his body language by showing that he’s not

desperate for power. The reason his enemies appear to be

getting more daring is that they see that he appears ready to

sacrifice the nation for his personal ambition. The President

as a true Christian should embrace the spirit of true

reconciliation like Nelson Mandela. He should work actively for

peace. Under him, Nigeria has become endlessly polarised. He

should urgently bring the Governors back under the same

Forum like it used to be. He should recognise the faction that

won and encourage his own side to do same.

A good statesman would ordinarily bring his nation together

and President Jonathan can do this by rising above politics to

unite the country. He should recognise The Emir of Kano,

Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, in the spirit of the Muslim Ramadan

and pay a visit to his palace. He has more to gain as the

father of the nation and nothing to lose by offering this olive

branch. The President should set in motion the process of

identifying those who can force the leadership of Boko Haram

to the table for dialogue. These irrational killings and

kidnappings must be stopped by any means necessary.

Nothing is too much to sacrifice for the sake of ending this

bloodbath. Even if he needs to sacrifice himself by not seeking

a re-election and supporting someone else, the President

should seriously consider this. I know what the reaction of

those profiting from the present arrangement would be but

the President is the one carrying all the pressure and blame.

He should not allow people to use his head to break coconut

because those who did so in the past did not partake in the

eating.

The President should concern himself more with the work he

was voted to do. To whom much is given much is always

expected. The responsibility thrust upon him is heavier than

an elephant. He would not be remembered by how long he

spent in power but by how well he governed. The President

must restore peace in our Polytechnics. How can students be

at home for nearly one year? The Education Ministry needs a

total overhaul and urgently too. The future of our kids is

endangered with the lackadaisical approach to incessant

closures of higher institutions.

The President still has close to a year to prove his mettle and

achieve something monumental. It is sad that he has allowed

himself to be sucked totally into this incomprehensible rat

race that would end up doing more harm than good. There is

so much to accomplish and I have no doubts it is doable if

the President can spend more time at his desk working for

Nigeria instead of a privileged few who wish to retain power

for themselves at all costs and not for the people.

Let us pray.