"The challenge before Nigeria today is the same as it was yesterday: to find a leader who puts Nigeria first. Nobody who has had no compunction imposing a Misfit/Misfit or a Military/Military menace on Nigeria is qualified to answer this question."
"Statesmen and real leaders look for the best and most qualified to appoint to an office or to encourage for public office. They think in terms of unity, and never divide the people or suppress their best talents. They do not use emotion, ethnicity, gender or religion to mystify or manipulate." Sonala Olumhense
BLOGGER'S COMMENT:
Owanlen (Egbon) Sonala, I share your view in good faith wholeheartedly. It is high time we jettison the culture of undue deference to ethnic considerations or religious quota in selecting our public office employees and political leaders. Just as I would willingly endorse a Muslim/Muslim ticket, if they meet leadership test in the eyes of, not just a reasonable man, but that of ordinary Nigerians, I wouldn't hesitate to endorse a Christian/Christian ticket, if they meet the same leadership test.
It is gravelly disheartening that at this point in our political history, a former President of Obasanjo caliber, with all his globally acclaimed elder status and military credentials, is still very much embroiled in pandering to our religious divide.
I know some readers would readily espouse President Obasanjo's view, arguing he is being realistic, in light of the sectarian insurgency in the past few years. In other words, he is excused, because Nigeria is religiously polarized. That is the narrative they are forcing down our throat. But who polarized it? Mr. Obasanjo and his chosen leaders did.
It was under his watch that Sharia Law took the center stage in Northern Nigerian legal system for the first time in Nigerian history. In fact, the Sharia initiative was championed by Governors of his own political party, the People Democratic Party.
It was under his watch that Sharia Law took the center stage in Northern Nigerian legal system for the first time in Nigerian history. In fact, the Sharia initiative was championed by Governors of his own political party, the People Democratic Party.
His mouthpiece of eight years; the Rabble-rouser-In-Chief, Mr. Femi Fani Kayode, a guy I was beginning to admire of late, has polluted Nigerian social media scene with his antediluvian religious jabs to the extent that the irrepressible Islamic guru, Dr. Gumi, is now being considered a saint. So far, he has succeeded in branding the major opposition political party, the APC, as the party for Islamic fundamentalists. Is Obasanjo concerned about that? Not at all. In the words of late Pa Awo, show me your friend, and I will tell you who you are.
President Obasanjo has been the main story, the dominant character within the Nigerian leadership landscape since the end of the civil war.
Adherents of the various religious groups gravitate towards religion and religious divide for, sad to say, unreachable salvation and unreachable economic emancipation because political leaders are deficient in true leadership attributes. And Obasanjo is a quintessential component of that leadership class.
Adherents of the various religious groups gravitate towards religion and religious divide for, sad to say, unreachable salvation and unreachable economic emancipation because political leaders are deficient in true leadership attributes. And Obasanjo is a quintessential component of that leadership class.
That this man nurses resentment towards the bold, the smart, and the beautiful is no exaggeration. His paid advisers called him Baba. Those who were not overtly subservient were branded enemies of the State. Vice President Atiku, the best prepared Presidential aspirant since the death of Pa Awo, is still paying for his complicity in challenging or collaborating to impede Obasanjo's third term gamble.
Nigerians want uninterrupted power supply, uninterrupted academic calendar, affordable and easily accessible healthcare services, tolerance and peaceful coexistence, good roads, security, and enabling a socio-economic environment for empowerment and self-growth. Those are the benchmarks and should be the test. Not religion.
Under the leadership he nurtured and bequeathed on us, a ragtag bunch of mercenaries - ill-equipped, ill-fed, ill-trained, and barely literate - turned an insurgent of global reckoning overnight; turning the tables on Nigerian Armed Forces, confiscating their weapons, taking control of Army and Police locations, and colonizing sizable Nigerian villages and towns in the process.
What was the problem with Governor Donald Duke and Dr. Ibrahim Ayagi? The first is Ivy League trained. An outstanding lawyer, a Governor with unblemished credentials, and above all, a performer is given a clean bill by Obasanjo's EFCC. The latter was a Banker of repute. He served Obasanjo in an advisory capacity.
Under the leadership he nurtured and bequeathed on us, a ragtag bunch of mercenaries - ill-equipped, ill-fed, ill-trained, and barely literate - turned an insurgent of global reckoning overnight; turning the tables on Nigerian Armed Forces, confiscating their weapons, taking control of Army and Police locations, and colonizing sizable Nigerian villages and towns in the process.
What was the problem with Governor Donald Duke and Dr. Ibrahim Ayagi? The first is Ivy League trained. An outstanding lawyer, a Governor with unblemished credentials, and above all, a performer is given a clean bill by Obasanjo's EFCC. The latter was a Banker of repute. He served Obasanjo in an advisory capacity.
Imagine a Fashola/el'Rufai ticket or an Oby/Sam Nada-Isaiah ticket; the political scene would by now be abuzz with scintillating rhythms and unqualified razzmatazz. No, not in Obasanjo's own country, where the stale and the jejune loom large at the helm of affairs.
Thanks to Obasanjo, with his years of unbridled dictatorship and arbitrary selection of political leaders, Nigeria is yet to grow out of Misfit/Misfit leadership phenomenon and culture of low expectations.
Where are we today, economically speaking? We are fixing roads and airports and building sporting edifices. And those are now the marks of excellence.
The economy of the old Western Region that Chief Obafemi Awolowo and his fellow action groupers built before Nigerian independence was comparable to any Western or advanced economy of that era.
Thanks to Obasanjo, with his years of unbridled dictatorship and arbitrary selection of political leaders, Nigeria is yet to grow out of Misfit/Misfit leadership phenomenon and culture of low expectations.
Where are we today, economically speaking? We are fixing roads and airports and building sporting edifices. And those are now the marks of excellence.
The economy of the old Western Region that Chief Obafemi Awolowo and his fellow action groupers built before Nigerian independence was comparable to any Western or advanced economy of that era.
In Nigeria, presidential aspiration is no longer defined by motivations in power - what you are bringing to the table or why Nigerians must trust you with their votes - but about the nature of God presidential aspirants worship.
President Obasanjo's had a balanced ticket (a Christian President and a Muslim Vice President), but the romance lasted for only the first term of his eight years at Aso Rock. It was a divided house throughout his second term. Was religion responsible for his blacklisting of Vice President Atiku?
A country that produced Awo, Zik, Balewa, Bello, Macaulay, Ikoli, Ibiam, and Kano, just to name a few, is now groping in the dark searching for credible leadership from a bunch of incoherent, unprepared neophytes, killing, maiming and looting to acquire more power and more wealth. Obasanjo, no matter how articulate or brutally forthcoming he appears, cannot talk his way out of the sorry state of our polity and the suffocating influence of religion that heralded his second coming. I beg to move.
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