In the Grandiose Parlor…

I had the opportunity to witness the voters’ registration exercise in some cities during my visit to Nigeria. The turnout was impressive and the people committed in getting registered for the polls despite the inadequacies of the electoral commission. If the response of the Nigerian electorate to the exercise is used as a yard-stick, there will be an equally impressive turnout of voters, and the polls will be closely monitored by the masses too.

However, there are heavy clouds in the horizon as some unscrupulous entities are hell-bent in making mockery of the electoral process – either through fraud, or blatantly intimidating their political opponents. Intimidation tactics are not new in politics, particularly among Nigerian political class, however, this strategy took an unusual course earlier this week in Akure during a political rally of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) – President Obasanjo’s party and the ruling party in Nigeria.

In an attempt to the boost the dwindling stock of the incumbent governor of the state, Dr Agagu, Mr president committed a political faux pas by publicly threatening to send the EFCC after the opposing candidate, Dr Mimiko. The EFCC is the anti-corruption agency instituted by Obasanjo, and many Nigerians have come to believe it’s being used to witch-hunt those not in the good books of the president. Mimiko was a former PDP member and served as a minister in the current administration, but he moved over to the Labor Party in order to contest the gubernatorial election against the PDP incumbent. if indeed Mimiko’s corrupt, why did the president wait to make his allegation known until he came to town for in a political rally? When did the president become the spokesperson for the EFCC?

Several news dailies quoted Obasanjo as follows:

“When he (Mimiko) came to me that he wanted to contest, I advised him against it but he insisted saying that if he refused to contest his supporters would kill him. This is a man that joined the party from Alliance for Democracy [one of the political parties in Nigeria] and we decided to carry them along and he was even made the Secretary to the State Government which l supported even when party leaders in the state kicked against it. I even made him minister without the knowledge of Agagu yet he said he wanted to contest. I even begged him to support Agagu for second term but he was adamant. But unfortunately, when he was the minister he misbehaved and the EFCC would soon investigate him.” -via Nigerian Vanguard

What the newspapers didn’t mention if the fact that the president even went as far as making some derogatory statements about Mimiko’s parents!
Despite the president’s allegation, Mimiko’s name did not appear in the list of candidates being investigated by the EFCC. The list was released severals days after the president’s allegation!

For the president to have resolved to “begging” Mimiko not to contest the election shows the kind of person Nigerians have as their president.

While the statement of the president did confirm that the EFCC is being used as an apparatus to settle political scores, it also lent more credence to the believe that the face-off between Obasanjo and Atiku (the deputy president), is politically motivated.

Although Agagu may have the blessings of his master, Obasanjo, and has scored a very cheap political goal, I wouldn’t be too confident if I were him: there have been unprecedented public outcry after Obasanjo’s verbal diarrhea, which even spilled into the cyberspace. And if this report on Sahara Reporters is anything to go by, and if Nigeria is a place where probity rules, Agagu, not Mimiko, should be investigated by the EFCC!

The fact remains that the political and economic misfortune of the Nigerian nation is partly due to the unethical political maneuvers of those elected as leaders and vanguards of democracy. After several failed attempts, and 8 tumulus years of nurturing and building a democratic system, it is troubling that the embodiment of this institution, President Obasanjo – a self-acclaimed reformist – is using his office, and his person, to undermine the institution by openly, crudely, forcefully, and unethically swaying public opinion in favor of his political party and cronies. It is my hope that the Nigerian electorate can see through the smoke.