Obasanjo’s impact on the 4th Republic

In my literature review, I am going to quote copiously from contemporary radio and TV broadcasts and newspaper news reports, commentaries and analyses to show some of the authoritarian steps taken by the former Presidents which have somehow set a tradition of negative behaviour by some of his so far two successors and other prominent […]

In my literature review, I am going to quote copiously from contemporary radio and TV broadcasts and newspaper news reports, commentaries and analyses to show some of the authoritarian steps taken by the former Presidents which have somehow set a tradition of negative behaviour by some of his so far two successors and other prominent actors in the polity.
It is amazing how we humans are so quick to copy bad behaviour and how extremely reluctant to emulate good behaviour. From my observation, many of the wrong things some of our executives inflict on the polity, and in the process gravely undermine our nascent democracy and good governance, seem to have been copied from former President Olusegun Obasanjo. In some cases, they have been improved upon and perfected into a potent tool of vendetta, destabilisation of opponents and advancement of dubious political goals.
I will mention some of them. The insistence by Obasanjo’s successors at the national level and governors at the state level to double as party leaders as well as being head of government in a presidential system in which there ought to be a separation between those who run the party and those who run governmental affairs, is one unhealthy inheritance from Baba. Note that Baba, reportedly at gun point, once asked for and obtained the resignation of the chairman of his party. Compare this to the Second Republic. President Shehu Shagari could not and would not have ever thought of, much less, ask for the resignation of the Chairman of NPN, Chief Augustus Meredith Adisa Akinloye, for any reason. Such a demand would have shocked the nation. It would have been so thoroughly offensive to the noble sensibilities of even the much vilified corrupt, rosy cheeked and potbellied NPN politicians that there would be an open rebellion.
The use of a few number of often unprincipled and greedy lawmakers who are more than willing to be used as tools to unjustly and unconstitutionally impeach speakers, deputy governors and governors and get them out of the way, is another. Alameyiesigha, Dariye and Fayose are the well -known victims of Baba’s inspired impeachment using a few men to stifle the wishes of a majority. Yet another of Baba’s improper use of power which his modern-day copiers have enthusiastically embraced is the employment of the federal police to achieve sinister political projects as seen in Ekiti to ensure that governor Fayose was sworn-in without any funny pronouncements from any court in the state and the failed attempt to impeach Speaker Aminu Waziri Tambuwal.  Another of Baba’s unworthy legacy is to use a state of emergency in manner that is subversive of the letter and spirit of the Constitution. Baba employed it to get Ayo Fayose in his first coming out of the way. It was reported some months back that President Goodluck Jonathan once toyed with the idea of using the state of emergency as a pretext to get the civilian governors of Yobe, Borno and Adamawa replaced by military administrators. If the diligence of the media and the alarm of the opposition party had not dissuaded him from such a move, he would have used stealth and subterfuge, typical of military generals which Baba institutionalized, to acquire political control over two of those opposition party states.
There is also the example of Baba ordering troops to wipe out whole villages in order to get at a few trouble makers as we saw in Zaki-Biam and Odi. Note that it is Yar’Adua’s similar dealing with the Boko Haram sect that led to the radicalization or extreme violence of the group. Mercifully, Jonathan appears too frightened of blood to have perpetuated that legacy.
So influential has Baba been in institutionalizing some negativities in this dispensation that his successors at the federal level and his admirers, imitators or copiers at the state level have been adept in employing some tactics that befit occupants in a colony of vipers. They love to bite and sting each other in an endless battle for self -survival. They employ naked force disregarding the Constitution, and a sense of equity, justice and good conscience.
I often wonder to myself that if these people love Baba so much why are they not similarly disposed to enthusiastically copy his courage, boldness and decisiveness in tackling some intractable social and economic problems for which some of us genuinely love the man?
When Baba sacked some of his ministers for alleged corruption, he did not immediately fill the vacancies created. That, too, seems to have become a tradition copied by his successors in Abuja and the governors at the state. Since October this year, eight ministers resigned from Jonathan’s cabinet to pursue higher ambitions to be governors of their states. Supervising ministers were appointed to oversee affairs in those ministries. And that is how things have remained and is likely to remain until may be June or July next year.
At the state level, the most notorious case is that of CRS. More than 70 per cent of Governor Liyel Imoke’s cabinet members in key ministries and agencies reigned to contest for the position of governor. Each member went to him to tell him they wanted to succeed him. He knew very well that all those men were seeking for a position that can be occupied by only one man yet he mischievously gave each person his ‘’blessing’’ even when he knew he had interest in one person. And they call this politics. And they can it smartness. What is smart in deceiving people and destabilising your own government in the process? If each person in your cabinet wants to succeed you it means that you have done a very poor job which is why everyone is itching to come and correct things.  Imoke never bothered about how he will run a government without an active and functional cabinet.  And since most of the commissioners left, things are at a near stand -still in CRS, a state that is one of the least developed in the federation.
At the risk of sounding rude, this is a clear case of irresponsibility. The impression is created that ministerial and commissionership positions are mere invitations to ‘’come and chop’’. That persons so appointed are never expected to add value to the system. And I think this is not correct. In a system where the bureaucracy is weak and grinds so slowly, you need active political leadership to push development agenda through. In more established systems the bureaucracy can maintain the normal workings of government if the political leadership is even weak or absent. But the same is not the case with us. We need technocratic political leadership to get things moving fast.