Obasanjo and Atiku’s Danse Macabre

The recent news making the rounds in Nigeria, indicate the existence and widening of a rift between President Obasanjo and his Vice, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar. The details of this rift and way and manner in which it was brought to the fore and how it is being played out are clear pointers to the fact that Nigeria and Nigerians are still a long way from adopting the tenets of true democracy.

The fact that individuals, and seemingly important and intelligent individuals at that, openly acknowledge and proclaim President Obasanjo to be the defacto head of the PDP, and can do anything he wants to his Vice President, show that the country is run in pretty much the same way as Obasanjo’s ruled it during his first coming in 1976. The only difference is that this time, we have the infrastructure (more like charade) of democracy in place, but without the spirit.

When a nation finds itself with a president who can openly decide which rulings of the Supreme Court are worth complying with; a president who removes Senate Presidents at will (in 6.5 years, we have had 5 Senate presidents and three Speakers of the House of Representatives, now we are gunning for a 2nd Vice President!). When you also have a president who believes that he deserves nothing but fawning, sycophantic obeisance from everybody, including own his vice president, then you have a democracy in need of intensive care.

I do not hold brief for Vice President Atiku Abubakar. I am very much aware that he does not have the cleanest of reputations, especially when issues of probity and financial rectitude are concerned. However, irrespective of my feelings towards him, Alhaji Abubakar remains the Vice President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. There is a saying that you cannot keep a man down without remaining down with him. By subjecting the Vice President of Nigeria to public opprobrium both within and outside the country, the President is indirectly preparing the ground for his own day of disgrace in the future.

The news from the President is that the Vice President has displayed disloyalty to him and his office. Even if these allegations were true, I don’t think the NTA or the pages of national newspapers are the appropriate places for him to make his allegations or deal with his Vice President. We do not hear of thee kinds of public disagreements/debasements in other climes. This doesn’t mean that Presidents and their Vices in these places never disagree, but rather they resolve their differences in more civilised ways.

Those in the legal profession are very much aware of the importance of precedence. Methinks that the precedence President Obasanjo is laying does not bode well for the development of our democracy and our future as a nation. The president must begin to think of the examples that he is setting for future heads of state/presidents, some of whom may take a cue from him and even end up making his own excesses seem like child’s play. The many evils committed by General Ibrahim Babangida and the manners in which Sani Abacha exceeded them all are a good example we all to easily and painfully remember.

President Obasanjo must therefore stop thinking of himself as the alpha and omega of Nigeria. Assuming that the best way he can rebuild the country is to first muzzle all forms of opposition towards him and his policies is to weaken the very foundations of what he is building in the first place. There is nothing more dangerous for a nation than a head of state nobody can talk to, refuse or correct.