NigerianNews - SPECIAL ISSUES

Special Issues

NigerianNews

Babatunde Adenodi
Pharmacist

East Orange,
New Jersey
USA

It is instructive that the Yoruba people form the arrow-head of criticism against General Obasanjo. The criticism is strident and sustained. It can be constructive but can also be down-right malicious. This arises from unique Yoruba idiosyncrasy: The belief on high principles which have consistently been the hallmark of Yoruba attitude to all governments in Nigeria regardless of the individual who heads the government. They are always reluctant to sacrifice their principles on the alter of political expediency.

My Dictator Is Better Than Yours
by Tunde Adenodi.

Let me re-phrase this title: A dictator is good as long as he is from my tribe; as long as he is my dictator! This is the acceptable schism in Nigeria. So, it is acceptable to have a dictator as long as he is from our side of the country! The corollary is obvious: Dictators that are not from my ethnic origin are not acceptable.

Except for the periods of Balewa and Shagari and part of Obasanjo’s administration in the early stages, we have always had dictators as our leaders. The benevolent ones are Gowon and Murtala. The malevolent ones are Buhari, Babangida and Abacha. Shonekan’s was an illegal government, at least, so the court ruled. As for Abdusalami Abubakar; if he had as much opportunity and power to release Abiola or at least reduce his sentence to house arrest as he did, but chose to preside over the death of the acclaimed winner of the June 12, 1992 elections, then, a dictator, he is! General Obasanjo is also moderately benevolent as well as malevolent. But, a dictator, he is all the same!

This is not to say that Balewa and Shagari are not to be classified as dictators. The difference is that they used the courts to back up some of their dictatorial tendencies. And this probably stems from the fact that they had no military pedigree in their resume.

The people of the East have not seen anything wrong with the lopsided coup of Major Nzeogwu 40 years after the event! They have not realized that this single event has informed the attitude of the Hausa/Fulani to the Igbo and indeed other ethnic nationalities of the north till today! Nor have they realized that it is also a major part of the Yoruba attitude either! And if they have realized it, they have not addressed this fear of other nationalities to Nzeogwu’s coup of January 1966. Not to forget the reaction of the people of the Mid-West to the murder of Festus Okotie-Eboh by Nzeogwu loyalists. So, to the Igbo, Major Nzeogwu’s coup was good because he was Igbo! Nzeogwu’s dictatorship was right because he was Igbo. Aguiyi-Ironsi’s dictatorship was also OK to the Igbo. He could not possibly be wrong! He was adorable because he was their dictator!

Ojukwu’s heavy-handed style of administration of the state of Biafra was good to the Igbo because he was their son. He is not to be questioned as long as he is their dictator! As despicable as the political activities of Chief Arthur Nzeribe were and still are, he was considered fit to represent his constituency of Oguta for many years! And his people voted solidly for him! But Nigerians, especially of the Yoruba stock, will not forget him in a hurry!

The north has produced the greatest number of Nigerian dictators. It is debatable who amongst the lot can be regarded as the worst of them all. Is it Babangida who annulled a free and fair election that was conducted under rules set up by him? Is it Abacha who repressed in a brutal manner all who protested the annulment? Is it Abdusalami Abubakar who presided over the death of the acclaimed winner of that election? Or Buhari who enforced his laws in a selective manner that left a bad–blood in the polity and commenced the brain-drain and did not even allow any discussion about civilian participatory democracy?

In any case, the attitude of “their people” to these dictators is that they can do no wrong especially while they are in power. And they are not to be criticized. Criticism is tantamount to subversion and charges of tribalism and should not be tolerated. Most importantly, the more their dictator is repressive of Nigerians other than their ethnic group, the more their support for that leader.

General Babangida is regarded as the one who dealt a blow to aspirations of other Nigerians for the highest office of President. For this, his core support base is the North with a sprinkling of renegade sell-outs from other parts of the country especially in the South-West. His capacity for mischief is limitless and he is not short of hangers-on who urge him on. He is their dictator and therefore can do no wrong!

General Buhari is running for president. He is the most “popular” among northerners running even perhaps more popular than his Katsina compatriot-Umar Yar’Adua. It appears that he had cast on some notable Nigerians the spell of amnesia. Even the irrepressible Gani Fawehinmi put in a word in favor of Buhari. Gani had forgotten that Buhari enacted a retroactive law that caused the execution of the three drug couriers of 1985. He forgot Buhari’s repression of the press. He had forgotten the harassment of the academia that set-off a massive brain-drain. He forgot the selective implementation of the foreign exchange law that jailed Fela for bringing in his own hard-earned USD5000.00 while standing guard for an Emir’s 53 suitcases! He also forgot the one-sided implementation of projects in the north while Buhari was Chairman of the Petroleum Trust Fund under Abacha. Most importantly, Gani forgot the greatest danger posed by Buhari’s statement which has not yet been denied: “that muslims should only vote for muslims”! He is considered their dictator and must be given another chance to come back to whip southerners in line as he did during his first time out! He is loved because he has the charisma necessary to put the rest of the country in check. He had done it successfully before. He can do it again. The supporters are now saying IBB was wrong to have removed Buhari in 1985. He is indeed their dictator.

The one and only time the north denied the dictators was when it was apparent that the presidency might elude them in 2007. Then there was this dishonest argument that the dictators were acting on their own; that they merely represented themselves but not the interests of their part of the country; that they were military personnel representing northerners in the military not representing all northerners.

This argument is flawed, fundamentally; and is unacceptable. It is unacceptable to embrace the dictators when they are in office only to turn around and deny them in difficult times. More importantly is the fact that they, the northern ruling class, were the ones who installed Obasanjo, not once, but twice as the president of Nigeria “representing” the Yoruba people; especially during his second coming. He was imposed on the Yoruba even when their choice was Olu Falae. If Obasanjo is considered a representative of his Yoruba ethnic group, then Shagari, IBB, Buhari, Abacha and the rest of them must by implication be the representative of their ethnic groups.

The Oba of Yoruba towns used to exercise a lot of political powers in their domains. But the Yoruba had ways of protesting against bad decisions of their Oba. Every year, some nights are set aside for nothing but demonstrations and protest songs against their Obas. These songs are generally satirical, but sometimes can be down-right abusive. They are generally peaceful but sometimes can be violent. Whichever way it turns out, their Oba never fails to notice the protests. This keeps them abreast of the opinions of their subjects. And they take appropriate actions to redress their anger.

It is instructive that the Yoruba people form the arrow-head of criticism against General Obasanjo. The criticism is strident and sustained. It can be constructive but can also be down-right malicious. This arises from unique Yoruba idiosyncrasy: The belief on high principles which have consistently been the hallmark of Yoruba attitude to all governments in Nigeria regardless of the individual who heads the government. They are always reluctant to sacrifice their principles on the alter of political expediency. Some examples will prove this point:

MKO Abiola won the 1992 presidential elections fair and square. Babangida annulled it and put Earnest Shonekan there as puppet Head of State hoping that this action was enough to placate the Yoruba people. “Not in your life”, say the Yoruba people. They with-held their support for Shonekan and worked tirelessly to frustrate his government.

Then Babangida, through his proxy-Abdusalami Abubakar handed the presidency to Obasanjo on the platter of gold. No dice! Obasanjo is not Abiola, they say, and did not

start showing their support for Obasanjo reluctantly until the 2003 elections. And this support was conditional. Let us go back several decades earlier.

Earlier, Akintola’s co-operation with Balewa to frustrate Awolowo was seen as an act of betrayal. They withheld their support from Akintola’s government. Owo is perhaps a minority city in Ondo state. But the Ondo people had voted for Ajasin. So, when Shagari manipulated the results and declared Omoboriowo the winner in 1983 gubernatorial election, the people went on the rampage! Shagari had no other choice than to reinstate Ajasin as the rightful winner of that election.

At the tremendous risk to his life, Colonel Adekunle Fajuyi literally submitted himself for execution in the hands of then Major Danjuma and his team when he insisted he had to go with his guest General JTU Aguiyi-Ironsi. Prior to this was Alhaji Tafawa Balewa attempt to propitiate the Yoruba people with his Federal support for Ladoke Akintola renegade government in Western Region. He even installed his personal physician- Dr Moses Majekodunmi as the Admininstrator of the West. They did not support Majekodunmi. The Yoruba people did not buy into Balewa’s political antics against Obafemi Awolowo. So it is very un-Yoruba to say that my dictator is better than yours.

Then Babangida, through his proxy-Abdusalami Abubakar handed the presidency to Obasanjo on the platter of gold. No dice! Obasanjo is not Abiola, they say, and did not start showing their support for Obasanjo reluctantly until the 2003 elections. And this support was conditional.

This is not to say that the Yoruba had never accepted Obasanjo as their dictator. In the period leading to the 2003 presidential election, he was reluctantly accepted as theirs, worthy of being defended. They were to give him support for his bid for re-election on the condition that he left the AD in control of the states in their region They did not do this out of love for Obasanjo. They had seen his support base eroded in the north as a result of the north’s perception (rightly or wrongly) of being “marginalized” by the government of Obasanjo. The Yoruba were not about to let theirs down by competing against him. Not that they had any chance of winning the presidency if they did. They wanted the north and indeed the rest of the country to know that a mad man does have relatives! As a result, the AD did not field any candidate for president in 2003. But Obasanjo reneged on this deal and routed the AD from their stronghold declaring PDP the winner in all but one of the Yoruba states. Then, the undeclared war continued!

The Yoruba are now in AD, AC, DPP, PDP even when their so-called leader is the president and leader of the PDP! It is absolutely clear that Obasanjo is NOT their dictator and in fact, the Yoruba now believes, rightly or wrongly, that Obasanjo is not capable of doing anything right! This is the high-point of Yoruba liberalism and I dare say- political development.

A dictator is a dictator regardless of his ethnic origin. And, no dictator should be acceptable to anyone! Period.