The Monkey's Fateful Day in the Marketplace

“One day be one day when monkey go go market i no go return” (It will be on a fateful day that the monkey will not return from a trip to the marketplace) is common pidgin English wise crack amongst Nigerians. The shame that Mr. Olusegun Obasanjo made of what should have been general elections that were meant to usher in a successor government to the one he currently heads has sufficiently qualified him as the proverbial monkey mentioned above. His brazen violation of all decency in his style of governance during the past eight years has brought him to the proverbial day when he wouldn’t return from the marketplace. The elections that he manipulated so assiduously from the outset have produced a “win” for his PDP. But it has rightly been roundly condemned by all local and international observers. The condemnation has been so extensive that three days after Mr. Umar Yar’Adua who he hand-picked to run on the PDP platform was declared the winner by the largely discredited INEC, not even a single message of congratulation has come his way from any world leader.

Mr. Obasanjo is the deep-dyed dictator who has straddled and frustrated genuine socio-political evolution amongst the peoples of Nigeria in the periods 1976-1979 and 1999-2007. But he has no doubt out-played his hands this time. The feeble excuses he has been making about the inherent imperfections in elections conducted on Nigerian-type societies haven’t gotten any traction at all. The swift manner with which the National Assembly jettisoned the emergency rule extension that he imposed a few days ago on Ekiti state is clear signal that his return from the marketplace is not imminent. He should indeed be sent back to his Temperance Farms at Ota from there. The Senate’s prompt vote of confidence on its President Kenechukwu Nnamani who Mr. Obasanjo sent his upstart Information Minister, Mr. Frank Nweke to vilify for his condemnation of the flawed electoral exercise, is another pointer to the fact of his long day in the marketplace. There’s no doubt that Mr. Nweke’s act was meant to intimidate the National Assembly.

The National Assembly must not hesitate to accord Mr. Obasanjo an underserved reprieve at all. Mr. Obasanjo’s extended stay in the marketplace is indicative of his exhausted arrogance and bluster. This is the time to embark on a comprehensive legislative effort to ensure that Mr. Yar’Adua’s illegitimate victory is not actualized. That effort could begin with an immediate scrutiny of the flawed elections to find the proper way to invalidate them. If that proper way will lead to fresh elections, they must be organized by a restructured INEC without Mr. Maurice Iwu, who has established his bone fide as Mr. Obasanjo’s baggage man. That proper way must also include the ouster of Mr. Ribadu from the EFCC or any public establishment that he may have been sent to by Mr. Obasanjo.

Those will not be all. There’s everything wrong with Nigeria as it is presently structured. The unresolved question of state building in what exists as Nigeria must be tabled and resolved once and for all by the nationalities. The logic must be to ensure that Mr. Olusegun Obasanjo is that last dictator that walks Nigeria’s political landscape.