My Transition - Jonathan Ebele REMADE (B), page 5
Nigeria then had a succession of leadership which is as follows:
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M Y T R A N S I T I O N H O U R S
Aguiyi Ironsi, a Nigerian of the Igbo stock was also assassinated
after about 177 days in office.
Yakubu Gowon, a Christian Northerner, who ruled for about nine
years and presided over the civil war. He was overthrown.
Murtala Mohammed,a Northern muslim, was assassinated in a coup.
Olusegun Obasanjo, a Christian Southerner of Yoruba stock
restored civil rule in 1979 and handed over to civilians.
Shehu Shagari, a Northern muslim, became first civilian president.
He was overthrown three months into his second term.
Muhammadu Buhari, a Northern muslim was overthrown barely
months into his headship.
Ibrahim Babangida, a Northern muslim, was forced out after about
eight years of military dictatorship.
Sani Abacha, a Northern muslim died in office after about six years
of dictatorship.
Abdulsalami Abubakar, a Northern muslim handed over power to
civilians in 1999, months after he succeeded Abacha.
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A P O L I T I C A L S T A L E M A T E
Olusegun Obasanjo returned as civilian president in 1999 and spent
two terms of eight years as civil head.
Umoru Musa Yar'Adua, a Northern muslim succeeded Obasanjo
and died a little over two years as civil head.
Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, a Christian Southerner, succeeded Yar
'Adua and was in office as president for about six years.
Muhammadu Buhari returns as civil head.
Let us now pick the list from Alhaji Shehu Shagari who became
president after the restoration of civil rule in 1979 and try to fill up
some gaps with information which a simple list like the one above
could not fill. After four years and three months, military actors
overthrew Shehu Shagari, alleging corruption as the major reason.
General Muhammadu Buhari, who emerged as the chief beneficiary
of the putsch immediately suspended the country's Constitution,
trimmed the powers of judiciary and raised the order of decrees.
This was not unusual in Nigeria's military rules. It was to make it
abundantly clear that the military became reason itself and all else
became unreasonable by the sheer virtue of being military. If we
moan over impunity today, this was its birth bed. The trend of justice
in that military administration is eminently documented.
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M Y T R A N S I T I O N H O U R S
Ibrahim Babangida ousted Buhari in 1985, citing draconian
tendencies, high-handedness and entered with the face of a liberal
military governance. Of course, there was no such thing as a liberal
military dictatorship. He dug into rulership, while promising a return
to civil rule. His regime recorded many deaths and was also alleged to
be a very corrupt government. He was forced out by civil society
protests in 1993, after he annulled MKO Abiola's election which was
adjudged free and fair.
He left Chief Ernest Shonekan in office as head of Interim National
Government (ING). This was against the norm of leaving office
with the entire cabinet and military hierarchy. It was believed that he
left Abacha and other very ambitious soldiers in office to take over
from Shonekan who was weak and completely defenseless against
the soldiers.
General Abacha died in 1998 after years of holding the country
down by force, imprisonment of voices of dissent, terror and a
ceaseless spate of killings.
General abdulsalami, who took over from Abacha somehow delayed
in releasing Chief MKO Abiola until he died in mysterious
circumstances. Abdulsalami returned power to his former boss after
the 1999 elections. The Fourth Republic was born. See my
assumption above.
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A P O L I T I C A L S T A L E M A T E
This abridged history of Nigeria and the North-South power play
should accredit you for entry into the inner recesses of Nigeria's
political dynamics. It would also allow you to easily follow my
narrative with a clearer understanding when i begin to talk elections,
conflicts and how unending protests and demonstrations have
become a way of life in Nigeria.
My leadership was besieged and marred by these contending
primordial forces, with the logos of violence and intrigues. Lining
the crevices of these primordial forces are formidable modern
players who are weakening the bases of their stock's primordial
position for extremely selfish gains. It is very suspect as a political
strategy in the Nigerian melee, but it strangely, was being touted by
the media as the new and best deal. Of course, the media never asks
where the humongous funds which erected that new deal came
from. The media never asks where any money came from, unless,
may be it was payed to ask. The new deal is currently looking like no
deal. I have a feeling it fell through.
For clarity, i am saying these primordial blocs usually bargain better
with united fronts at the Nigerian table until the new kids on the
block forced a change in the rules of engagement. It was called
tribalism and painted in uninspiring colors, but it appeared the only
time genuine growth registered in the Nigerian fledgling state, even
if by the regions. However, such cultural representatives like the
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M Y T R A N S I T I O N H O U R S
Afenifere and Ohanaeze Ndigbo were politically emasculated and
eventually rendered mere shadows of themselves. However, the
Arewa Consultative Forum thrives because it did not suffer that fate.
We will see how events unfold from here.
If you begin to piece these items together as it plays out among the
three major tribes, you see how difficult it has been for them to get
along despite their prominent seats at the table. Now begin to
imagine an upstart from one of the 'minor' tribes who they could
hardly tolerate. Let me add here that i have never believed the Ijaw
population qualifies to be called minor. Statistical data is not a given
in Nigeria. Who conducts diligent census in creeks, canals and
waterways anyway? Yet, those are the habitations of Ijaws around
southern Nigeria. All the way from Lagos, Ondo, Edo, Delta, Rivers,
Cross River, Akwa Ibom and Bayelsa. I do not push population here,
but very important decisions and calls which should have been made
with at least, near accurate data are forever made on conjectures and
assumptions. Sometimes on deliberately subjective basis.
Most of the intractable problems which bedevil governance in
Nigeria prove endemic and enduring, not simply because they could
not be easily solved or that capacity is in that extreme a condition (it
is bad enough) but because those problems are actually instituted
and defended for primordial sentiments which address power points
preferences.
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A P O L I T I C A L S T A L E M A T E
For instance, why does it turn out to be so herculean to introduce
state police, since the current system has proved and is increasingly
proving to be a monumental failure? Why is it hard to break down a
big problem and solve it in bits? Simple. It is because it serves some
interests to retain the failed system. Do not forget how people would
need state security where they thought they were strong and would
not need to help themselves and how they cry foul over the same
state security where they thought they were weak and would need to
pull some stunts. That sounds twisted? Yes, the equation could be
turned around in a variety of ways. It all depends on the use you want
to put them to and where you were coming from.
It mattered crucially that i strayed into power from a non-royal
ethnic group. A minority. It was worse in their consideration because
i was also not individually blue-blooded. Perhaps it would have been
less insulting to them if i had come from a wealthy background. I
doubt this very much, considering what the likes of MKO Abiola
went through despite his great wealth. Many of his military enemies
were actually doing more than feeding off him. He made many of
them rich. It was not enough.
Emeka Odimegwu Ojukwu was frustrated despite his "blue blood".
His father was probably the richest Nigerian of his time. It did not
help. Those were old and new monies worsted in the power game.
Both royal highnesses Dasuki and Maccido were rubbished in the
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M Y T R A N S I T I O N H O U R S
power games. They got shuffled like cards on a highly revered and
important throne. You must also know that the gun was always a
major reason until i assumed office. There is a place in the memories
of Nigerians which says only the military could run the country.
That i found scary. It does not prove anything yet, but we are on our
way with the second ex-military ruler as democratic president. They
are from the first two major ethnic groups. Is it realistic? That the
ping-pong would remain between them in perpetuity, even when the
others had "dropped" money and were on the queue to play?
We could either improve on this structure now and set everyone at
ease, return to the regions and our old winning ways or prepare
ourselves for the inevitable. It is just that the hard way would be very
unfortunate simply because it would not have been the only way. We
must rebuild Nigeria, and it would take more than individual
integrity. I know.
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C H A P T E R
3
“I have come to launch a campaign of ideas, not
one of calumny. I have come to preach love not
hate. i have come to break you away from
divisive tendencies of the past which has
slowed down our drive to nationhood".
- Goodluck Jonathan
chapter three
DECISION POINTS
Thursday February 12, 2015
11:00 Hours...
Presidential Election Campaign
The purpose of my campaign was to promote democracy and social
equality which encompasses love, peace and togetherness. I did not
preach hate. Other political parties had other ideas and it was pretty
clear as soon as our campaign train entered the North. Young people
were recruited to attack the presidential convoy of Nigeria by
stoning. That never happened in my part of the country. It does not
matter how you treated or twisted it, you came back to see the radical
difference play out again and again. A side of the divide is right and
the other wrong, but not on account of superiority, but perspectives
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M Y T R A N S I T I O N H O U R S
informed by education, respect for the dignity of man and broader
outlook to life. The freedom afforded by enlightenment. It is the
difference between Boko Haram and those who fight against it,
whether in the truth of a man's spirit or in the falsehood of it.
It was alarming that some older, highly placed people would put
innocent children in such cannon fodder situation. Mere
expendables. This is the value they place on the lives of these
children and it does not change, even in the face of rapidly changing
times and the strides of civilization. They push these innocent
children further and further into mental and material poverty just so
they could be summoned as human explosives when the Northern
elites need them. They deserve our sympathy, not hate.
On the day those kids were programmed to stone my convoy, the
instigators were out for two things, the least of which was to
embarrass their president. It was considered a huge mileage for their
campaign. Humiliating the president of their country was fair game.
At that point, they were not thinking Nigeria. The fury of their
power thirst did not allow them to think about the global village.
They did not even think about the power they wanted and the
consequences of diminishing that baton before it gets to them. It
was a single minded recklessness. We could not but stare that history
in the face: the North had never relinquished power in history
without being absolutely unable to hold it any further!
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D E C I S I O N P O I N T S
The other thing they were out for, and which they desperately hoped
would happen, was for any of the kids to be wounded or even killed.
It was a very tense situation. The Boko Haram menace was at its
ugliest. The presidential security could easily have fired at the source
of the missiles, thinking it was the insurgents. These things happen.
But we reacted differently. I have always said it and meant it... nothing i
wanted was worth the blood of a human being, least of all the people i had
the direct charge to protect. The people i swore to serve.
I know of leaders who would certainly have reacted differently. You
could take a cue from the recent military/Shiites clash and that is not
saying the Shiites were right.
Muhammadu Buhari was in my part of the country and nothing of
that sort happened. He was not the president and it would have been
easy to return the compliments. There was no shortage of
courageous young men to carry out such a mission. We could also
have simply denied complicity as they did, but it was not my way.
Besides not being so base by my nature, i would have reduced an
office i held in trust to ridicule. I would have embarrassed my
colleagues in my professional field. I would have seriously
disappointed people in my part of town who hold one to certain
standards and values.
I encouraged my people not to dwell on the issue. We put it behind us
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M Y T R A N S I T I O N H O U R S
and forged ahead with a clean campaign. The opposition was
steeped in negative rhetoric and slurs of all manner. We were not
swayed. We campaigned consistently on what we did, what we were
doing and what we could still do. My concern was for new ideas and
new positive ways of doing things. It was important to delete that do
or die theme from our minds. It would take some time but i knew i
was making a headway in that direction. It showed by the huge drop
in politically motivated assassinations. It simply vanished, because
the leader was not interested in killing for winning.
They raised a chorus on Jonathan must go. They crafted a pseudo-
activist image. They loaded the campaign space with a lot of
corruption allegations they had no proof of. Everything which the
mind could think, the mouth was spewing. The corruption exhibited
by the opposition was infinitely worse than any one they could
imagine and they imagined plenty. The point was to mislead the
ordinary folks against the government. It was even taken to the
ridiculous extent of claiming that i was behind Boko Haram. They
said i planned it in order to reduce the votes in the North. Of course,
it was laughable.
In fact, in one of Chief Olusegun Obasanjo's famous letters (some
say infamous, but i hardly agree) he stated that i had trained a
thousand snipers for assassination purposes. Well, everybody had a
good laugh. Look at the number of victims during Baba's tenure.
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D E C I S I O N P O I N T S
Look at the role of Rogers and the people who needed him. I hardly
fit into that crowd and they know it. Now, we would have to give old
people their honor and refrain from accusing them of lying. We are
also almost old now. Yet, if it becomes a full blown habit, what would
it be called? Baba added a lot of drama to the process, but none cast
in the mould of heritage. Generations ahead deserve a little better.
The assassination story was a hoax as all others.
As funny as that was, it was also quite instructive. It was a point the
people should have realized they were being taken for a ride and I
think some actually did. The problem is in the religious and ethnic
dyes in our politics. The use of violence was also a handicap. People
who were not fooled by the trash would rather stay home.
We truly have to heave a sigh on this because it is ongoing even in an
advanced democracy like the United States. The language of this
Republican campaign has been shockingly rude, crude and abusive.
It has not shown anything close to values identified with the
primaries run. It got hot in the past but not low. It is no excuse for
Africans to misbehave, but at least it could be of some consolation
that we are not the only ones in that mire. I would not be caught in
that situation though.
The elections were scheduled for February 14, 2015. All through the
