THE JONATHAN-bABANGIDA DILEMMA: HAVE WE REACHED A STONE WALL?
Nigerians, especially, the Southerners are like the prisoners described above in the Prisoner’s dilemma. On one hand, ibb is not acceptable to us under any circumstances. On the other hand, Jonathan, a Southerner, whom we could have found solace in, unfortunaterly, is als not a viable alternative for 3 maor reasons:
1. He is a full fledged member of the PDP, the party that has not in any way improved the lives of Nigerians. A party notorious for corruption, incompetence, gross violation of human rights, anarchy, election rigging, barbarism, moral decadence, inability to protect the lives and properties of ordinary Nigerians, inability to provide basic infrastructure, nepotism, tribalism, favouratizm, brutality, visionlessness, e.t.c. A party controlled by the cabal – stinkingly corrupt and morally bankrupt devils in human form that refer to themselves as politicians; civilians and retired military-criminal officers, an overwhelming majority of whom are from the North, who have been frustrating all our efforts to a dignified and decent lives for the past 50 years.
2. With just less than 6 months at the helms of affairs, it’s just glaring and obviouis that Jonathan is nothing but another incompetent, corrupt, visionless and morally bankrupt opportunists like his predecessors. He is not the Messiah from the South that we have been waiting for for 50 who will lead us from the wilderness to freedom and the land full of milk and honey.
3. Even if we are to assume that Jonathan is competent enough and really wants to make a significant difference and impact in our lives and thye country respectively, nevertheless, we still can not take the riskm of voting for Jonathan simply because he is surrounded by the jackals/cabals who will never allow him because serving Nigeria and Nigerians mean going against their selfish interests.
Infact, based on my analysis of Jonathan’s government and the decisions that he has taken so far (captured in my series “Why Jonathanm Aganga and Allison-Madueke must be removed now at any cost and by any means!) I am afraid to say that at the end of the day Jonathan could even be worse than Yaradua! This is unfortunate, but it’s just the bitter truth.
THE LION OR THE CROCODILE: WHICH ONE DO YOU PREFER?
The Jonathan-babangida Prisoner’s dilemma could be depicted with the following unpleasant incident that you found yourself. Imagine a situation whereby you were running towards a river with all your strength in order to escape a lion running after you and wanted to have you for his lunch. However, to your horror, while you thought that you have a chance of escaping from this terrible lion throught the river in your canoe, you saw a very big crocodile sun bathing in the very and only canoe that you planned to use. What then are you going to do at that moment? Since your only escape route has been blocked where will you run
to?
The above depicts exactly the present unpleasant situation that Nigerians especially the Southerners find themselves as regards to babangida, the devil in human form – the lion, and Jonathan – the sun bathing crocodile. At the moment, we don’t seem to have any escape route because the opposition has not come up with a viable candidate. By the word ‘viable,’ I mean a capable and electable candidate who stands a good chance of deafeating Jonathan and/or ibb-the devil. Thus, if care is not taken, at the end ofr the day, we might end in the stomack of the lion or crocodile! We are really in a pathetic .
For each day that passes without the opposition coming up with a viable candidate that could take on Jonathan and/or ibb-the devil, the popularity of the duo keep on increasing and they both get closer to realizing their ambition of occupying Aso rock come 2001 without any hazzles – i.e. in a free and fair election without any rigging!
The JONATHAN-bABANGIDA DILEMMA – EQUATION WITH MANY UNKNOWNS
The Jonathan-babangida dilemma is also like an equation with many unknowns for the following reasons:
1. Jonathan, officially has neither declared his intention to to contest nor been selected by PDP as its official flag bearer. The unknown here is that at the end of the day, for one reaon or the other, Jonathan might eventually decide not to contest. Irrespective of how small the probability of this scenario happening might look or seem, nevertheless, theoretically, it is more than possible for different reasons. Under such a scenario, ibb’s chance of of clinching the PDP ticket is much higher because there may not be aspirants who are strong enough to challenge the devilk for the PDP ticket.
2. Even if Jonathan eventually decides to contest, there is a probability – it exists too even if it is small – that ibb might upstage him at the last moment and win the PDP ticket. Under such a scenario – God forbids -m the whole North irrespective of party affiliates can forget about their differences and rally around the devil.
3. ibb, sensing that he has lost tghe PDP nomination to Jonathan might just to decamp and contest on the platform of another party and the North might dump Jonathan and rally around the devil in order to stop Jonathan, a Southerner, from winning the election.
4. It is also very possible that ibb might not really be planning to be the president knowing very well that he has a very slim chance of defeating Jonathan, the incumbent, in a free and fair election. The devil might just want to use his so called presidential ambition as a strategy to negotiate for some kind of privilege or deal from Jonathan and the PDP in order to step down for Jonathan. The deal may include immunity from prosecution for different crimes – including murder which deserve execution – committed by the devil while in power.
5. The whole idea of ibb contesting for the election might even be a strategy worked out for him and Jonathan by the Americans and British respectively. The strategy might involve ibb fending off potential aspirants from contesting in order to reduce the pressure on Jonathan, increase his chances of clinching the PDP ticket and give him enough time to boost his popularity and win the election. As we can notice now, all attention is on ibb-the devil who is taking all the heat, instead of Jonathan, a potential aspirant who is yet to make his intention known officially. While we concentrate on ibb, the popularity of Jonathan is increasing daily and he is making all the necessary preparation for the election. The devil might step down for Jonathan at the last moment or leg of the battle for PDP ticket. By that time, the popularity of Jonathan will be very high and it may be practically impossible for a candidate from the opposition to catch up. We really need to take this scenario seriously and be prepared for it.
6. A A dark horse or an underdog, most likely from the North, might upstage both Jonathan and ibb for the PDP ticket at the last moment. This is the worst scenario. We really (the opposition) need to take this scenario seriously and be prepared for it too.
WILL THE OPPOSITION CO-OPERATE FOR A COMMON GOOD?
The prisoner’s dilemma in the 2011 are in many folds. Here is another. In order to defeat Jonathan, ibb and/or any PDP candidate in the 2011 election, obviously, the most sensible thing for the opposition and leading politicians who are not members of the PDD to do is to forget about their differences, religious affiliates, ethnic groups and individual political ambitions, and come together to form a united and formiddable front, party or coalition against the PDP. The one billion dollar question is ‘Will leading and influential Southern politicians be matured enough to co-operate: come under one umbrella with Northern politicians in order to spoil(?) the chance of Jonathan, a southerner from becoming the president based str+ictly on ideological grounds?
In a nutshell ‘Will the opposition be able to reach a consensus in
the name of strenghtening democracy and wrestling power from the PDP?
The opposition, if they decide to co-operate by uniting, can only produce one presidential and Vice-presidential candidate respectively – no more,no less. At the present moment, there are more than 10 registered political parties apart from the PDP. The one billion dollar question now is ‘Will the opposition +Which party(ies) should produce the presidential and Vice-presiden+tial candidates respectively? What criteria will be used in choosing these candidates? Will the criteria be accepted by all the parties even if they know from the onset that the result will not be favourable to +their parties? Will the whole process of choosing the presidential and Vice-presidential candidates go smoothly and be trasparent? Will other parties who have lost out agree to put put their bitterness aside and rally around the candidates of the opposition in order to securea victory at the 2011 election or reject the result and produce their own candidates thereby decreasing the chances of the opposition parties at the elections? Undoubtedly, these are some of the hard nuts that need to be cracked by the opposition in the nearest future.
SOYINKA’S NEW POLITICAL PARTY: SOLUTION OR COMPLICATION OF THE jONATHAN-iBB DILEMMA?
Soyinka’s new party that is slated for launching in September may seem to be the long awaited solution to the state of impasse and incapacitation that the opposition have reached. But,that’s only at a first glance. The irony,in my opinion, is that,if care is +not taken, Soyinka’s noble intention could even lead to more problems than solutions.
Undoubtedly, Soyinka’s almost undented reputation and authority could be the catalyst and galvanizing factor that will not only make the coming together of allopposition parties a reality,but as well speed+ up the whole process of forming alliance. However, my major fear as +regards to Soyinka’s latest +political venture are in 2 folds. The first has to do with logistics and financial aspect. I +am concerned about the following in particular: Taking into consideration the limited amount of time at their disposal, (before the election) does Soyinka and his associates have enough financial resources at their disposal to launch a party that will be well represented in all the 36 states and Abuja?
My second and greater fear, ironically, is the ability of Soyinka to convince other parties to pack up and join his own party. My fear is based on the fact that some leaders of the opposition parties because of ego might not want to join Soyinka’s party and allow him to direct or dictate – any how you might want to call it, the general policy or programme of the opposition because they believe that their own parties h+ave been arou+nd much+ earlier and tested in political battles and/or elections unlike Soyinka’s new party. Som+e of these parties, like AC for example, might resist Soyinka or believe that he ought to merge with them and not with him because they already have some states under their control.
In a nutshell, the opposition may not want to conceed control of their parties or the opposition to Soyinka based on the fear that he might want to impose his own candidates on them. This development might even prolong the capability of the opposition to reach a consensus quickly in order to have enough time for a well organized campaign.
In my opinion, perhaps, Soyinka would have b+een much better off not launching a new political party now, but acting as a sort of FACILIATOR for all already existing parties to come together and reach a consensus quickly in order to have enough time to raise funds and conduct close to perfect campaigns and be well prepared for the elections in general.
Since Soyinka has a very high opinion of Babatunde Fashola, the action governor of Lagos state from A.C. all Soyinka should have done is to use these political+ forms – including that of Peter Obi’s party+, to bring the whole opposition together. In any case, I hope and pray that things will go smoothly and+wish Soyinka all the best in his n+ew venture.
Finally, t+aking into con+sideration the peculiarity of Nigeria’spolitics in all sense of the word, my advise to Prof. Wole Soyinka, after the announcement of the formation of a political party, is to be very careful and be conscious of his personal security. He now pozes a very serious threat to the cabal who include Western imperialists and heartless Nigerian politicians led by babangida-the devil. These people can not be trusted and will do and undo in order to achieve their political ambition.
THE CLOWN APPROACH TO SOLVING THE bABANGIDA-JONATHAN DILEMMA.
First before discussing how to resolve the Jonathan-babangida dilemma or how to stop the duo of IBB and Jonathan from capturing Aso rock, let us first discuss the wrong and ineffective methods that have or are being used so far to nip in the bud babangida’s unhealthy political ambition. Uncountable number of articles have appeared in the media with tons of arguments on why babangida is not fit to be the president. Some Nigerians, mainly based in the North America who consider themselves Nigeria’s leading intellectuals – but whom I would rather refer to as clowns – came together to form civil society groups with different funny abbreviations like Respected Nigerians went as far as writing petitions to the American president Barack Obama to intervene and save Nigerians from ibb. These clowns, some of whom are owners and administrators of on line (internet) media published their petitions on their site(s). They hold regular conferences, discussion groups, in most cases organized and controlled by the U.S. and/or British governments to vent their anger on the Nigerian government.
Recently, not satisfied with their regular self-image boosting meetings, some of these comics even came up with the idea of writing bimonthly editorial for the Nigerian government. They believe that their site is so popular and influential to the extent that all Jonathan needs to do first thing in the morning before even having his break-fast and putting on his hat is to log on to their site, read their editorials and give orders to his aides, ministers to start implimenting the recommendations given with immediate effect – if at all there is any recommendation. Frankly speaking, these clowns did not disappoint me. The first editorial was a big lecture to Jonathan on democracy and ended with a request ‘to hurry up’ without any specification where precisely visionless Jonathan, Obasanjo’s stooge, who has absolutely no clues about administration is supposed to hurry up to.
These comics naively think that by writing editorials full of big big big grammar, they, the ‘annointed ones’ could change the mind and thinking of heartless, incompetent, corrupt, visionless and morally bankrupt Nigerian politicians presently led by Badluck Jonathan.
First, what these clowns who assume that they are knowledgeable and assign to themselves the role of ‘democracy advocates, fail to understand is that the U.S. and/or British government are the last place on earth they need to take their petition to for the following reasons:
1. Since these Western imperialists have vested interests in the Nigerian economy especially the oil and gas, they just can not be impartial;
2. The major source of the political, social and economic problems in Nigeria could be traced to the imperialists who have taken over practically all our resources and deny us, Nigerians and Africa, the right to use them for own development;
3. The main backers of babangida and Jonathan are these imperialists;
4. Babangida, with all seriousness and without any exaggeration, is the no. 1 agent of the C.I.A. in Nigeria and they have used him and still using him to sabotage all our efforts to building a democratic, strong, peaceful and prosperous country;
5. In actual fact, the West are not interested in Nigeria and Africa as a whole having a true democracy because it
will eventually give us competent, dedicated, patriotic and uncorrupt leaders who will never allow the West to continue exploiting us – as they do now. This is their greatest fear.
6. The West do not really care even if it is a goat that rules Nigeria as far as their selfish interests which are opposite of Nigeria’s interests, are satisfied;
7. The C.I,A. planned and carried out the calous murder of Abiola, the winner of the June 12, 1993 election conducted by babangida and regarded as the freest and fairest election ever held in Nigeria’s history.
8. It was the American government that ordered babangida not to hand over to Abiola because they feared that they might not be able to order him around and because he was campaigning for reparation from the West for slavery, free African labour and exploitation.
9. The C.I.A. helped ibb to organize the coup that toppled Buhari and Idiagbon because they were not dancing to the tune of the American government and were sincerely determined to serve Nigeria and Nigerians;
10. The C.I.A. used babangida to traffic cocaine through Nigeria and the proceeds as used to finance the war in other countries without the knowledge of the congress;
11. The C.I.A. with the help of babangida laundered billions of dollars through Nigeria. A special bank was set up for this purpose;
12. The C.I.A. and babangida murdered Dele Giwa, an investigative journalist, because during his investigation he came across highly classified information/evidence that implicated the C.I.A. and proved that babangida collaborated with the agency to traffic cocaine through Nigeria.
13. The West don’t want Nigerians to choose their president themselves . They want to be involved directly in the process so that they can have the opportunity to impose another puppet who will continue dancing to their tunes and sell the interests of Nigeria and Nigerians to them for peanuts;
14. babangida is/are the official candidate of the West in the 2011 election. Jonathan is their back-up candidate.
In a nutshell, these clowns fail to understand some simple and basic fact which is the fact that the United States is not interested in rocking the boat and only want to maintain the status-quo in Nigeria. No more no less! How I wished that these clowns are aware of the fact that the last thing the West want or pray for is a democratic, strong, independent and prosperous Nigeria and Africa as a whole that will threaten their economic interests which are incompactible with our own interests. How I wished these clowns knew all of the above.
When I first read the petition written by these clowns, the first question that came to my mind was ‘What do these comics really want from Obama?’ ‘Are they just seeking some cheap popularity for themselves or just want to be invited to The White House and/or 10 Downing street for handshakes, photo sessions, breakfast, lunch or dinner with B+arack Obama or/and David Cameron?
Do these clowns expect Obama and/or Cameron to ring up Jonathan and order him to stop babangida from contesting for the election? Perhaps, I could understand and even possibly forgive these clowns if they had directed their petitions, requests or complaints to Jonathan – never mind the fact that we never voted for him in the first place but was hand picked by Obasanjo and got to Aso rock through the back door thanks to the death of his boss, Tuwo Yaradua, a.k.a. ‘ mr. tortoise,’who was rigged to power by the latter.
I just can’t understand why these clowns had to stoop so slow to the extent of appealing to the West, who colonised, raped, exploited us and are still milking us, to bail us out 50 years after the so called independence.
I was just wondering if these clowns were really bold, and not cowards and really mean business, then why not take the bull by the horns and confront babangida directly in Nigeria and tell him face to face what they think of him. It’s a misery for me why these clowns are hiding in London, Chicago, New York, Washington, e.t.c. and telling ibb not to contest. Wouldn’t it be more effective if they just go down to Nigeria and organize a strong opposition to ibb from the grass-roots.
ACTION SPEAK LOUDER THAN WORDS AND CHARITY SHOULD BEGIN FIRST AT HOME.
OR HOW NOT TO PROMOTE DEMOCRACY THROUGH ‘DO WHAT I SAY AND NOT WHAT I DO.’
To my greatest surprise, disappointment and embarrassment, I have just discovered that these comics who talk or write about democracy in their editorial opinion and want Jonathan to practise it, don’t even believe in or practise themselves an iota of what they preach. To my greatest horror, I have just discovered that these comics who are fond of lecturing the Nigerian government about democracy could even be worse than Abacha and babangida combined if power is entusted on them or if they find themselves in position of authority.
If I could be permitted some digression – actually, it is not a digression because the matter is related somehow to the topic under discussion, a good example needs to be given in order to substantiate the above. I sent one of my articles for publication to an electronic media run by one of these comics. But to my greatest surprise, when the article was published on the main page of the site, I hardly could believe that it was my article because the title had been changed to the extent that I could barely recognise it.
Suffice to say that the length of the title of the article in question did not in any way exceed the space limit stipulated by the administration of this site. When I wrote to the administration of the site to draw his attention to this omission – you will surely agree with me that this was the most sensible thing to do on my part – I was completely ignored. I did not even get any acknowledgement to my complaint talkess of my complaint been addressed. I decided to let the matter rest without taking any further action or protest.
But when this ugly situation repeated itself again the third time; this time around with part 1 of this very series and I wrote again to draw the attention of the site’s administrator to this unpleasant development, instead of acting professionally by doing the right thing by either restalling the original title or writing me to come up with a shorter and acceptable title (although that should not be the case here since the original title did not exist the stipulated space limit), to my surprise, the administarator of the site decided to remove the entire article less than 5 minutes after lodging my complaint!
Only if I knew that I was committing a big and unforgivable crime for having the audacity to complaint to the administrator that the title of my article had been tampered with and a redress was desirable. To the best of my understanding, the administrator of this site felt that it is much wiser and reasonable to delete my article rather than going through the hazzles of carrying out a simple and humble request of mine to reinstal the original title.
For the administration of that site that proclaims democracy as his emblem and watch word, where a bunch of comics have just written about democracy as their editorial opinion, it is much easier, better, wiser and democratic to remove the author’s article devoted to the 2011 presidential election – undoubtedly a very crucial subject to Nigeria and Africa, which he has spent so much energy, pain and time to write and type – than carry out a simple and humble request to maintain the original heading of his article. This is their understanding of democracy and this is the kind of democracy that they will practise when they get to power. Action, as the saying goes, speak much louder than words. They are guided by the slogan ‘Do what we say and not what we do.’
In order to understand the gravity of this case, imagine a situation whereby you sent a book to your publisher for publication. But to your surprise, when the book was released eventually, you discovered that the title was comp
letely different from yours, the author. You were even more surprised and disappointed with the fact that the publisher did not feel that it was necessary to contact you and seek your approval before changing the title of your book. After over-coming the shock, you eventually summoned the courage and drew the attention of your publisher to this omission. However, to your surprise, instead of apologising and making the necessary correction, he decided to withdraw your books from circulation and not publish it anymore and even severed communication with you.
TALKING ABOUT MORAL VALUES, RIGHTS AND DEMOCRACY…
If an understanding or interpretation of democracy is what was demonstrated by the administrator of this electronic media to the author who had taken the pain and time to write a number of articles about democracy and other political and economic issues of high importance to the country in order to enlighten Nigerians and as part of his own modest contribution to the evolving democratic process in the country, the natural question we need to ask ourselves is ‘WHAT MORAL VALUES DOES SUCH AN ELECTRONIC MEDIA HAS TO CRITICIZE bABANGIDA, JONATHAN OR ANY UNDEMOCRATIC ACTS DISPLAYED/PERPETUATED BY ANY NIGERIAN/AFRICAN POLITICIAN, SENIOR GOVERNMENT OFFICIAL, GOVERNMENTAL INSTITUTION?’ WHAT KIND OF ADVISE OR CONSULTATION DO WE EXPECT FROM PEOPLE WHO COULD DO UNDEMOCRATIC AND BARBARIC THINGS LIKE THIS TO A GENTLEMAN LIKE ME GIVE TO THE NIGERIAN GOVERNMENT? Your guess is as good as mine. What is obvious now is that this bunch of comics have not only lost the moral right to criticize, talk about democracy in any form or gathering simply because they are not in any way better than the people that they criticize. Infact, to be honest, they are worse! This is the bitter truth!
If a publisher removes your article or withdraws your books from circulation and refuses to republish it under the original heading/title just because you complained to him that the title of your article/book has been changed, then please try to imagine if such a person/publisher or people become(s) – God forbids, say a government official – he can never be a governor, minister, ambassador nor president – what will he do to you if you approach him with a genuine problem to solve?
There is a Yoruba that says “Ki a koko yo ipin ti o wa ni oju wa ki a to yo ti elomiran.” In essence, what this proverb is saying is thart we should first of all put ourselves and house in order or get rid of our own bad/immoral habits before we could have the guts or moral right to criticize and correct others.
In other words, show basic courtesy and respect to your authors and practise true democracy in your media by your actions and not words nor writings before going out to criticize and/or preach democracy to Jonathan, Nigerian government, public office holder or any other person.
Practise what you preach before asking others to do the same!
YOU CAN MAKE A BIG DIFFERENCE.
Send this article to at least 25 people of diversified professional backgrounds: civil rights activists, politicians, colleagues, e.t.c., discuss it either on the phone or in person with at least two people and ask them to do the same. You are free to publish it on a social networks. Go ahead right now. Don’t procrastinate or delay. Thank you.
* In order to have a complete understanding of this article/series, the reader is advised to read related articles. They are:
1. U.S meeting with Babangida, condition for terrorist’s list delisting: An affront, blackmail and treat to Nigeria’s soveringnty, democratization process and development.
2. Why Jonathan, Aganga and Allison-Madueke must be removed at any cost and by any means now!
3.Sovereignty, Economic Security, Barrack Obama’s Visit, Jonathan, 2011 Election And The Development of Nigeria: Correlation.
DISCLAMATION. This article and/or series does not in any way mean that the author believes in one Nigeria or has changed his position.
