Obasanjo’s Last Chance to Save Nigeria
By
Sepribo Lawson-Jack
Texas, USA

When in November 1884 European leaders, notably, from Great Britain, France, Germany, Belgium, Portugal and Spain gathered in Berlin to divide up Africa among themselves, stability or even survival of the countries being so created was not on the top of the agenda. Their primary concern, according to the History books, was to minimize competition among their surrogates and avoid an impending war over the control of Africa’s natural resources. It was an exercise in geometric acrobatics conducted with utter disregard for the ethnic, cultural and linguistic affinity of the African peoples. The resultant effect is what exists today: Africa’s ancient kingdoms, indigenous tribes and communities spread over several countries thereby exacerbating the task of forging viable modern nations. The partitioning of Africa at the Berlin conference has had the second most devastating impact on Africa’s development after Slavery.

In no African country are the challenges of nation building more real and magnified than Nigeria. With a mix of 250 ethnic groups, over 400 languages, multiple religions that include the two most antagonistic, and a growing population of 120 million, the country, arguably, is the most complex political entity on the face of the Earth. Not surprisingly, it has struggled every inch of the way toward nationhood. The obstacles seem insurmountable. Yet, Nigeria’s leaders continue in the uphill struggle to build one nation for reasons that are best known to them.

Of the myriad challenges that face Nigeria, the two most daunting are the age-long problem of protection for minority rights and, since the 1970s, a burgeoning corruption. These two problems have very serious ramifications throughout society and either one of them has the potential to terminate the existence of the country as we know it. The combination of the two ominously leads to one certainty, sooner rather than later.

Enter Chief Olusegun Obasanjo. The man has been abundantly blessed by the Almighty. God has granted him many more challenges and opportunities than most men. He himself has acknowledged that much on several occasions. That is not to say that he has no innate abilities. Chief Olusegun Obansanjo is an intelligent, brave, deliberate and reputedly foxy man. He was the man that received the instrument of surrender from the secessionist Republic of Biafra in January 1970. He was the man that reluctantly took over the reigns of power at Nigeria’s dark hour in February 1976 after the assassination of General Murtala Mohammed. In 1998, he was rescued from Yola prison to become president within a few short months. By the time he leaves office in 2007, Obasanjo would have ruled Nigeria for a total of eleven and a half years, longer than any other Nigerian. He is, in my book, the most influential leader in Nigeria’s forty- four years as a nation, more so than even the independence leaders.

Who, then, is more qualified to save Nigeria from an imminent balkanization?

As a former Co-chairman of the anti-corruption organization Transparency International, the president had made the fight against corruption one of the central goals of his first term in office as he so eloquently stated in his inaugural speech. Granted that he has since pushed the National Assembly to pass the Corrupt Practices and other Related Offences Act and instituted several anti-corruption agencies, including the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC), the reality is that the fight against corruption is yet to yield any appreciable result. While there have been snippets of success, corruption is still a way of life for too many Nigerians, particularly, high government officials and political leaders. The Nigeria Police is still very much the most corrupt and inept police organizations in the world. We may not like what the world is telling us about ourselves, but it happens to be true that Nigeria is one of the most corrupt nations on Earth.

Clearly, combating the pandemic of corruption requires much more than institutional and legal tools. There needs to be a concurrent effort at social re-engineering geared toward re-orientating the public psyche to reject corruption in all of its forms. Such an effort, unlike previous ones, must start from the top. The president must be seen to be personally involved in the fight. He and his top government functionaries as well as National Assembly members must publicly wear a badge of honor that declares “I have won a battle against corruption today”. Otherwise, it would be useless preaching to the masses when the leaders are seen or perceived to be getting away with murder. Surely, the president understands that the fight against corruption is not an easy one but has to be won if Nigeria is to survive.

Being one of the most pluralistic and diverse countries in the world, Nigeria must seriously address the problem of ethnic and religious minority rights. More so, in view of the historical fact that it is a country of several nations and kingdoms clobbered together by Imperial fiat.

Whereas freedom of religion is guaranteed in the constitution, governments and civil society must put in place institutions and measures that protect and safeguard that freedom. The rights of Christians in the predominantly Muslim north must be equally protected as the rights of Moslems in the predominantly Christian south. Shari’a laws being adopted or practiced in some states can not be allowed to apply to non-Moslems or Moslems that do not subscribe to them.

Since the Obasanjo government came into power in May 1999, there have been an estimated 15,000 to 20,000 killings resulting from ethnic, religious or political crises. Several prominent politicians have been gunned down and the Nigeria Police has been demonstrably ineffectual in bringing their killers to justice. This is indicative of an unacceptably high level of violence in the society. Government can not continue to simply react to civil disturbances; a situation that has been described by some as the fire brigade approach. It must have measures in place to prevent such disturbances from occurring in the first place. The primary duty of government is to protect the lives and property of its citizens. No government that fails in that duty deserves to exist.

The lack of protection for ethnic minority rights poses the greatest danger to the corporate existence of Nigeria. This has been a major issue long before the country gained political independence from Britain.  Attempts to address it either through the creation of Special Areas as recommended by the Willink’s commission of 1958 or the creation of states starting from 1967 by the General Yakubu Gowon government have failed woefully. In the former case principally because of the desire to dominate by the majority tribes in the regional governments and in the later case because of the further concentration of economic and political power in the central government.

Over the years, the Middle Belt and the Niger Delta have been the flash points for agitation for the rights of ethnic minorities as exemplified by the Tiv riots of 1962-1965 and the rebellion of Isaac Adaka Boro and his Niger Delta Volunteer Force in 1965. The last two major failed military coups – Dimka’s in 1976 and Orka’s in 1990 - followed the same pattern for the same reasons.

It must be obvious to all by now that it has become untenable for the country to hold its balance any longer on the Hausa/Fulani, Yoruba and Ibo hegemonic tripod. Democracy is not just about the rule of the majority; it is even more about the protection of minority rights within that majority rule. Today, the pseudo-federal state of Nigeria is at crossroads.

The peoples of the Niger Delta continue to bear the full brunt of Nigeria’s lopsided federalism. Historically, this area had consisted of several independent city states and communities before British colonization. Their agitation for a separate country or region or state at the constitutional conferences led to the setting up of the Henry Willink commission in 1958 by the colonial government. In spite of British grand designs and economic interest, the commission recognized the peculiarity of the region and recommended specially focused developmental efforts there by both the Eastern Regional and Federal governments. That recommendation was never taken seriously. Instead, at the time of great national crises, the General Gowon government exploited the same recommendation as the basis for breaking up the Eastern Region into three states.

The discovery, exploration and exploitation of crude oil in the Niger Delta have greatly exacerbated the situation in the region. The activities of multinational oil companies have so polluted the water and land that the people can no longer engage in their traditional occupation of fishing and farming. There has been a countless number of oil spills amounting to millions of barrels and in many cases no attempts are made to clean up the spills. The unconscionable flaring of hydrocarbons over a period of forty years has so polluted the air that a vast number of children suffer from asthma and other air-borne diseases. An equally vast number of adults suffer from cataract and other eye diseases. After 40 years of oil exploration, not a single environmental remediation or restoration project has been established; not a single health project has been initiated to study the effects on the population.

Meanwhile, a conservative estimate puts the money Nigeria has earned from crude oil at more than 500 billion US dollars and over $120 billion in the last five years alone. Of this amount, not even $1 billion has been spent on infrastructural development in the region. The communities in the creeks and swamps of the Niger Delta are still as isolated as they were fifty years ago. There is no electricity or safe drinking water for 95 per cent of the population. There are no health clinics for the sick or employment for the youth. Foreign oil companies executives and employees live in enclaves where they enjoy all the modern amenities of Western Europe and America.

According to recent news reports, President Obasanjo was not happy when told by his own commission, the NDDC, that the poverty level in the Niger Delta has increased to 70 per cent. The president’s argument seems to be that the source of the statistic, the African Development Bank, had put the poverty level for the country at 42 per cent in 1992 and nothing tragic has happened since then to warrant the increase to 70 per cent. What the president has refused to accept is the growing disparity in poverty level between the Niger Delta and the rest of the country. Indeed, there is abject poverty in the Niger Delta. It is very unfortunate that the president ordered the NDDC to remove from its report the figure that was based on a study of the situation on the ground.

Now, when you put together the monumental environmental degradation and the glaring fact that the people have not benefited economically from the exploitation of crude oil from their land you might just begin to understand the despair and desperation in the Niger Delta. The people, by many measures, are living under some sort of internal colonization.

The prevailing conditions in the Niger Delta have inevitably led to a very precarious security situation for Nigeria. Anyone who sees it differently, is either dumb or in denial. There is a simmering mass rebellion. The intensity of the feeling of neglect and injustice is comparable to that felt by the Igbo after the massacres of 1966. The possibility of a determined and calculating individual exploiting this mass feeling of hurt to launch the region into a full scale war with Nigeria is very real. Alhaji Asari Dokubo may not be that leader but his emergence has clearly demonstrated the perniciousness of the situation.

But Nigeria must stop the situation from deteriorating any further. What we have in the Niger Delta is a national crisis and must be addressed as such. The political stakes are too high for the country to continue business as usual. If a war breaks out, the outcome will be totally unpredictable. Not for the reason that the region can withstand the Federal military might. But for the simple reason that a war over the control of oil and gas resources of the Niger Delta would be of great interest to both friends and foes of Nigeria around the world. 

As one of the principal actors in the last war, I pray that the president will do everything in his power to prevent another war in Nigeria. He can begin to move in that direction by talking to all stake holders in the Niger Delta region. Nothing can be off the table, including a national conference, resource control or even sovereignty for the region. The president must not elevate the task of “keeping Nigeria one” over and above his godly duty to serve the cause of justice. For in the end Nigeria shall break up if this large-scale injustice persists.

Here, then, is Chief Olusegun Obasanjo’s last chance to save Nigeria

Sepribo Lawson-Jack, Texas - USA