Ghosts
From The Past: Goodluck Jonathan’s Desperation Will Spell
His Downfall
7 March 2010By Aonduna Tondu
Those hailing Goodluck Jonathan's constitution of his
Advisory Council or ‘éminence grise’ as a coup de
maître of sorts had better think again. After the
sorry spectacle of having to endure the ghastly
re-apparitions in Nigeria of discredited former
foreign rulers - the administrative debacle called
George Bush Jnr., and the mendacious and hypocritical
Tony Blair of Britain - in a desperate move to acquire
a dubious external legitimacy, the Nigerian citizenry
is being treated, this time, to an eerily familiar
script consisting in the excavation of cadavers -
revenants whose morbid imprints of reaction and decay
cannot be said to represent a new beginning. And, as
if to further stress his desperation, in the immediate
aftermath of the illegal National Assembly resolutions
of February 9, 2010 declaring him acting president,
Jonathan rushed to reunite with his mentor and
godfather, the ex-tyrant known as Obasanjo.
While conceding that one can perhaps benefit from the
intellectual baggage of Ben Nwabueze, his alliance
with a previous tyranny notwithstanding, the other
members of Jonathan's Gray Brigade or Advisory Council
do represent atavisms that the nation most definitely
does not need at this point in time.
Take ( Rtd. ) General T. Danjuma, for instance. This
Croesus and ex-soldier whose specialty is scheming to
overthrow governments and thereafter benefit from the
spoils is the worst choice possible for adviser to any
regime that is seriously contemplating change of the
progressive kind. Worse still, as minister in charge
of the army during the previous Obasanjo tyranny,
Danjuma must take responsibility for the heinous
massacres by the military in Odi, Zaki-Biam and
surrounding villages in what Amnesty International has
already characterized, at least in the case of
Zaki-Biam, as carefully planned genocide. Under
Danjuma and Obasanjo, the Nigerian equivalent of our
army's "force de frappe" was deliberately down-graded,
all in a vain and vacuous bid to offer an illusory
sense of security for a depraved and hedonistic
despot. Importantly also, Danjuma has reportedly had a
history of mental problems.
Chief Emeka Anyaoku. Anyaoku and his supporters loudly
claim that the man used his position as Commonwealth
Secretary-General to provide an effective diplomatic
rebuke to the late Abacha's dictatorship. May be so.
But were it not for his mysterious demise, Abacha
would have transformed into a civilian ruler in spite
of the Commonwealth's stand. Beyond Abacha, Anyaoku's
posture since leaving his international position has
been one of deeply troubling silence in the face of
terrible assaults on Nigeria's democratic project in
his home state of Anambra and the country in general,
especially under the devious and kleptocratic truancy
of Olusegun Obasanjo (1999- May 29, 2007). As a matter
of fact, Anyaoku was said to be one of the figures
that the Ota tin god could count on to help ward off
opposition to his impunity-seeking reign or terror.
Alhaji M. D. Yusuf, the former IGP. This man is an
enigma. While he was said to be part of the opposition
to Abacha, the ex-police man curiously retired to a
life of seclusion and mutism following the ascendancy
of Obasanjo in 1999. In the mean time, his name has
reportedly been associated with high level scandals in
the award of federal government contracts. His
advanced age and a host of other factors do militate
against his inclusion as a member of Jonathan's
so-called advisory team.
As for the relatively obscure characters intended to
supposedly serve as advisers on economic matters and
other subjects, it would be interesting to know their
track record and especially what links they have had
with the PDP oligarchy. Our recent history has shown
that what has been referred to as Corporate Nigeria,
for instance, is essentially made up of individuals
who are, to a great extent, largely dependent on
government patronage and who, in return, have provided
much of the financial clout used for the PDP's rigging
sprees.
To be frank, what the various press reports are
passing off as Jonathan's political tour de force,
that is his naming of an advisory council, must be
dismissed as a desperate attempt to consolidate a
power grab through a cynical reorganization of the
Nigerian gravy train. It is worthy of note that the
ghosts from the past comprising Mr. Ag. President's
Gray Brigade do instil in us, alternately, derision,
apathy, revulsion and ultimately, an acute sense of
rejection and repudiation. Their respective roles as
agents or accessories of past tyrannies do mark them
out as not being the kind of resources the nation
needs now in order to transcend the PDP-inspired mess
the country is grappling with today.
Yet, what is fast looking like another desperate and
critical faux-pas of the Acting president is his
apparent condoning of what must be considered as the
shameless shenanigans of the Minister of Information,
Mrs. Akunyili. Of late, Madam Rebrand has been making
reckless and unguarded statements intended to impugn
the integrity of Mr. President and his entourage.
Jonathan should not be seen as condoning Akunyili’s
mercenary tactics that are bound to sow disharmony at
the presidency, if not within the nation as a whole.
He should demonstrate that the woman is not acting out
his script by asking her to leave the federal cabinet.
As a government appointee, Akunyili is not paid to
express her personal or partisan opinions. No serious
government should tolerate her acts of reckless
impunity. If she wants to redefine the limits of
political whoredom, that is her cup of tea. But we
must never be made to subsidize that wayward
enterprise.
What we need now, as a matter of urgency, are new and
transparent elections, not more of the same old and
destructive ways of playing politics. This should
provide the citizenry the opportunity to select
credible alternatives to the PDP's misgovernance.
Jonathan represents the status quo and his decision to
inflict on us a pathetic cast of gerontocratic
schemers and deadwood must be seen as disdainful and
unfortunate. So, instead of hailing this obviously bad
joke while remaining obsessed with the intra-party
struggles in the PDP to the extent of taking sides,
self-styled pro-democracy advocates and human rights
militants should devote themselves to helping develop
the structures necessary for the blossoming of a truly
democratic dispensation in Nigeria. Therein lies our
collective salvation.
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