hajia

Obasanjo’s insistence to hang around made me to dust my history books and go through them with a digger and powerful flashlight. I was bent on finding an instance in history where an elected leader chose to stay around after completing his tenure. I wanted to find out such a leader or leaders and especially the role they played in the new government headed by their successors. I even re-read The Prince with a view to finding out whether Machiavelli had given advice to rulers to always hang around their successors and the reasons.

Well my search ended up in vain. No elected leader in history had chosen to remain put after his tenure. Neither did Machiavelli give such an advice. The closest scenario I came up with happened in Haiti where the wife of the deceased president remained in the government house long after her son was sworn-in as president. But soon enough she was kicked out by the new first lady. Then why did Obasanjo decide to transform himself into a Trojan horse inside Aso Rock? Why?

It appears to me there are two reasons:

1. He does not want a replay of Chiluba’s (Zambia's ex-president) drama to happen to him.

2. He wants to make sure that policies and contracts he considers extremely important are not reversed by a new overzealous president.

Well first of all let us be clear about this aberration in politics. It is wrong for Obasanjo to hang around the party or tread in the corridors of power at Aso Rock beyond his term of office. He should have gone back to his farm at Otta and resume raising chickens like he did before he became president.

Secondly the chiluba drama is already playing itself out and we are witnessing reversals of both policies and contracts by Yar'adua now.

Thirdly the party (PDP) has recently appointed a reconciliation committee charged with the responsibility of wooing back party stalwarts who were kicked out by Obasanjo. Foundation members that included people like Abubakar Rimi, Musa Musawa, Iro Danmusa, Ghali NaAbba, Lawai Kaita etc were sidelined by Obasanjo during his tenure. This committee will bring them all back and when that happens, Obasanjo would do well to seek for cover.

These people represent Obasanjo’s nemesis and Achilles heels rolled into one.

# posted by hajia @ 12:43 pm