2003: Waiting for God
M. O. Ené
egbedaa@aol.com
New Jersey, USA
Monday (Afo) January 28, 2002
PREAMBLE
Is there anyone in the house who still wonders whether God actually sent
President Matthew Aremu Olusegun Obasanjo? Is he the expected Nigerian messiah
who lost his roadmap? Just checking. Personally, I believe that every soul comes
to this world to accomplish some divine-directed duty, something of interest to
humanity: a good or bad act, a lesson for all to learn… something to talk
about long after the soul is no more in our physical realm. This was why I wrote
in "Dear General President: Please talk and walk" on Wednesday,
December 12, 2001: "I agree that you are as God-sent as a Wukari warrior
sent to war. You just have to find out what God sent you to do by working
closely with your Chi."
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I reasoned that God would have given President Obasanjo the roadmap, were he the expected messiah. Instead, he kept telling whomever would listen that he was waiting for God to tell him what to do in 2003! "My fate is in the hands of God, at the right time God will show me the way," he told CNN. Now, with the dawn of drafting delegations to Aso Rock Villa and five groups of Daniel Kanu-like youths yearning earnestly for a second term, something unquestionably smells here, and it is not a strangely stinking something. It smells more and more like the last days of General Sani Abacha. When people begin to "leav' am for God," I know they have run out of steam.
HEAVENS, HEAR!
My religion tells me that he who believeth achieveth. (Onye kwe, chi ya
ekwe.) God created us to use our divine attributes developed and sharpened
by experiences gathered over the years; which is why we do not elect teenagers
into positions of authority. For those in leadership, the holy books bid them to
rule in the fear of the Lord, not wait for God to tell them from which side of
the bed to climb down. No book says we have to wait for God to talk to us or to
give us signs. None of God's great messengers or popular prophets got direct
daily directives. Mere mortals? No way!
You would think this reasoning has settled the matter. Think again. In DAILY TRUST of Tuesday, January 22, 2002 (in "2003: Only God can decide - Obasanjo") Suleiman Mohammed reports: "President Olusegun Obasanjo has declared that he needed God's guidance on whether or not to re-contest his position in the 2003 presidential elections. 'I will take a decision when God points the way,' he said." Speaking to a delegation of the nebulous PDP women's wing led by Mrs. Josephine Anenih, wife of Works and Housing Minister and Obasanjo's Edo-born right-hand henchman, Chief Tony Anenih, President Obasanjo further declared: "The decision will be made by God. Whatever God decides, you can be sure that I will abide by it. Let us work, watch and pray."
QUESTIONS
Do you see why I worry? Do you see why I do not want God to make this
decision for Uncle Sege and his fleet of flatterers? Have you forgotten that the
last time we supposedly let "God" settle our political problems
strange things happened? Is the voice of the people no longer the voice of God?
For goodness sake, couldn't our president make a simple decision to run for
reelection or not to run? If this is not using the name of thy Lord in vain, I
wonder what else qualifies. "God's own" America stops at "In God
we trust" and "God bless America"; their presidents don't ask for
divine directions at every fork in the road. The President's men should stop
selling snake oil; we've bought enough vials. The President must sacrifice his
personal ambitions for the good of the country he swears to love so much, and he
should seriously reconsider and reject the lure of another term of office.
President Obasanjo should take the high road -- talk and walk. He needs to put another fine feather on his cap and retire to his farm. He has done his best. If he wants to save his party and patria, he must NOT run again; he should pass on the touch to the original G-34: Dr. Alex Ekwueme, Alhaji Abubakar Rimi, etc. He cannot afford to make the mistake of archetypal African dictators masquerading as democrats. Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe is not showing the way, as President Obasanjo diplomatically admitted recently in Harare -- where in 1993 he had told the world that Chief M. K. O. Abiola was not the messiah. Former South African President Nelson Mandela has shown the way forward; President Obasanjo should emulate the legendary statesman, conduct first-class elections, and pass on the torch to a new generation.
REALITY
Beyond Obasanjo, for Nigeria to stabilize and to pull in the entire ECOWAS
region into its potentially prosperous sphere, the various ethnic nations must
sit down and fashion out a structure for constructive coexistence. We have one
from political philosophers: the six-zone structure. The Igbo southeast and
whoever want to join could bundle in Aladimma Republic; the Islamic Arewa
Republic would flourish in the northwest; the Oduduwa is all set to go -- with
flag, constitution, and cash; Niger-Delta, Middle Belt, and Kanem Bornu are
congealing. We would have a de-fanged and de-winged Abuja for all. If need be
for a different arrangement (I actually prefer an eight-way structure favoring
the so-called minorities), this and other issues of resource control and
proportional representation in a substantially slimed central government could
be resolved at the national conference. Those who are afraid of the conference
should be reassured that the alternative to the status quo is an eventual
damning demise. As Ikemba Nnewi told the BBC on Friday, May 30, 1997, we must
stay slightly apart or be consumed by the friction of our togetherness.
The 2001 Nobel Prize winner for economics, Professor Joseph E. Stiglitz, has made the case, warning "that central control of the resources of the nation encourages unbridled corruption and undermines a sense of unity." [See The Guardian, Business; Wednesday, January 23, 2002.] Speaking as guest lecturer in Enugu, Nigeria, at the maiden memorial lecture honoring foremost Nigerian economist Dr. Pius Okigbo, the former chief economic adviser to President Bill Clinton stated the dangers of centralization of economic and political power: gross dangers of abuse of power, corruption, injustice, suppression of rights, especially those of minorities, and the fanning of embers of disunity and crises.
PARANORMAL PHILOSOPHY
What really gets my goat is the heaping of our screaming stupidity and
senselessness on the Almighty. It is beginning to sound ridiculously hollow. One
of these days, the Supreme Force will let us know that enough is enough, that we
need to use our divine-endowed brains for the good of our fellow human beings.
It is becoming bizarre that adults deceive themselves by attributing their
inadequacies to the Force that created a perfect paradise on earth. Oh yes,
forget the 72 olive-eyed virgins; life on earth is good. Earthlings just don't
know how to keep it and enjoy it.
President Obasanjo himself started the trend with: "My government is ordained by God"! Says who? Where? When? Before anyone could say Osama bin Laden, the idea caught on. Federal Ministers tell audiences that their boss was "God-sent." Governors, even such opposition-party governors as Oyo State's Alhaji Lam Adesina (AD) and Zamfara's Alhaji Ahmed Sani Yerima (APP), joined the chorus. Then came the army of political animals, confirmed congratulators, crooked contractors, dubious dealers, flimflam frauds, innocuous influence peddlers, kingmakers and king-killers, lawless lawmakers, ominous opportunists, professional pilfers, political parasites and prostitutes, uninformed uniformed thugs and uncouth upstarts -- all singing the "God-sent" alleluia.
MORE QUESTIONS
Did God direct General Babangida to draft Obasanjo in 1998? Did God direct
Solomon Lar to ambush Obasanjo with a party (PDP) card? Did God direct Obasanjo
to bare his alleged Biafran scars and scare poor northerners with an impending
war if he was not (s)elected? Did God promise Abubakar Rimi the VP position and
Jim Nwobodo the Senate presidency? Did God pay Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu to concede to
Chief Olu Falae, after soiling the stream for Chief Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu? Did God
convert 60 votes to 6000 while former US President Jimmy Carter used the rest
room? Did God tell Chief Olu Falae to stop fighting the military manipulation of
Obasanjo's selection? Did God punish all Nigerians who voted against Obasanjo…
and they were legion? Our problems are rooted in the evils of 1999. Vox populi,
vox Dei. If President Obasanjo has not heard the voice of the people by now, he
may never ever hear it.
Since God has always been the ruler of our universe, did Satan send Obasanjo in 1976-1979? What about others after him, including President Shehu Shagari, Generals Muhammadu Buhari, Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida (IBB) and Sani Abachi? What about those who came before Obasanjo's first coming? Did God kill General Murtala Muhammad for Obasanjo to ascend? Did God kill General Aguiyi-Ironsi to midwife the eventual reign of Murtala? If so, then the good Lord could send IBB back to the Villa he built! Why not? You don't want it? Okay, bring on Buhari and his Muslim movement? Why not? Oh, so you REALLY want IBB? No? Now, you must be fighting God… according to the books of St. Aremu!
PRESIDENTIAL PROPHECY
At a church service held at the Aso Rock Villa Chapel early in this regime,
Obasanjo declared: "God has said yes to Nigeria and if God says yes, I
don't think there is anybody that can say no. …. I just believe that God has
rescued this country forever, politically, socially, economically and even
spiritually. …I pray to God that by this time next year, things will be much
much better in the country." Take a fleeting look at Nigeria today and tell
me what you see. It is sad. Do we now blame God? Do we blame God for Tuesday,
September 11, 2001? Did God tell President Bush to go to war? Do we blame God
for the murder of the country's Minister of Justice Bola Ige on Sunday, December
23, 2001? Do we blame God for the numerous atrocities committed in the name
ethnic and religious purity? Does God regularly assign about twenty to forty
paramilitary policemen to Anambra's Emeka Offor alone, leaving the rest of the
citizens to the reign of rogues? Don't bother: We know the answers.
Basking in the euphoria of his ascension to senate presidency, following the unceremonious removal of Dr. Chuba Okadigbo, Chief Anyim Pius Anyim said: "Our election cannot be described in anyway less than to say it is an act of God, considering the circumstances surrounding it." Wait a minute, so God also instituted "the crisis that had bedeviled the Senate which culminated in the change of leadership twice"? The song has trickled down to state governors. Those who oppose them are devil-driven dregs and must be eliminated. Next in line would be local government chairmen; councilors won't be too far behind. God is guarding and guiding them, so anyone who challenges them is against God. And you were thinking this was a democracy, not a theocracy? Me too! And you were fighting the introduction of Sharia Zamfarana? Well, you now know better. It has come back full-circle. Newly installed PDP Chairman Audu Ogbeh assured Obasanjo (Vanguard, January 24, 2002): "By the grace of God, we shall back you strongly in the next general elections." The head of fish is rotten, anyone for dinner?
POLITICAL PROPHECY
On Tuesday, July 17, 2001 -- in Vanguard's report (Obasanjo disowns
Olabayo's prophecy) -- the Presidency denied claims by Primate Theophilus
Olabayo that President Obasanjo visited him at 1 AM to know his fate in
politics! Obasanjo was furious. He called Olabayo a false prophet, and quoted
Matthew 7:15: "Beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep's
clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves." He further spiced his
damnation with quotes from Ezekiel 13:6 and Jeremiah 14:14. He [Obasanjo]
"wondered why those who see visions about others never see ahead or talk
about adverse developments capable of affecting themselves." Good point.
But the story is not whether Olabayo is kosher or "419"; the question is whether or not the President of Nigeria went seeking the reassurance of a Pentecostal prophet, got the wrong message, and went ballistic when the man let wind into the bag. So what did the man of cloth say? He warned of serious "election troubles, kidnapping, killing and casualties before and during the next election in an interview with a national newspaper." Ah ha, that was why Jeremiah 14:14 applied: "I have not sent them, commanded them, nor spoken to them, they prophesy to you a false vision, divination, a worthless thing and the deceit of their heart," the Lord said"! But Rev. Olabayo is not off the mark. Before the reemergence of "wild wild West" early last December, a legislator was kidnapped in the east; illegal detentions, arsons, and killings were already common countrywide. We are yet to get into the elections and towering trees are falling. Evidently, according to St. Aremu, prophecy is only valid when it fits our mindset.
FINALLY…
Dismissing the whole idea of God talking to people through intermediaries,
President Obasanjo reportedly said: "When the time comes, I will decide and
announce my political intention regarding year 2003. I will do so, not because
of a false prophet; or any prophet for that matter; or because of any advice
from the likes of Olabayo." The time has come to stop waiting for God and
for the President to declare not to run. There will be no need to
"disown" this statement; it is not a prophecy, and it is free from
deep down my being. He who walks before his Chi runs the race of his life. With
no road maps, this messiah has lost his bearings. It's time to beat a retreat.
May God not make this decision for President Olusegun Obasanjo! Everything else is embellishment.
LAST WORDS
We glean from recent reports (Census 2004 to cost 13 billion naira; NEPA to
deliver in 2005; whispered cabinet changes; choreographed drafting delegations;
anti-UNDP posturing; etc.), that Obasanjo still "de kampe"; he is bent
on weathering the storm. There is still time to reconsider and to do the right
thing. Obasanjo and VP Abubakar Atiku have nothing to run on but the billions of
naira stashed away for the big battle. As my ancestors said: He who sets a trap
with an elephant shall see what it will ensnare.
Cikena! Okwu agwu! Opare!
