Obasanjo and the power withdrawal syndrome

Professor Itse Sagay, in this reaction to former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s remarks on the President Muhammadu Buhari administration, argues that the ex-president is suffering from what he described as power withdrawal syndrome.

The status of an ex-president is one of quiet dignity, respect, discretion, decorum, discipline and restraint.  Obasanjo does not have a single one of these qualities. We have had a number of former Heads of State, namely, Gowon, Shagari, Babangida, Abubakar Salami and Jonathan.  All of these former Heads of State have exercised discretion, restraint and self-discipline in relation to their successors, but not Obasanjo.

Obasanjo’s boisterous, aggressive and hectoring attitude towards succeeding Presidents, strikes me as a case of one who has never recovered from the loss of power.  By his meddlesomeness, rude and uncouth attitude towards later Heads of State, it is clear that he is addicted to a substance called “power”, and is angry and resentful towards any other person exercising it.

Gowon was Obasanjo’s boss from 1966 to 1975 (nine years).  Not once did Gowon utter a public criticism of Obasanjo throughout his two tenures from 1976 – 1979 and 1999 to 2007.  The same thing applies to AbdulSalami Abubakar, who handed over power to Obasanjo in 1999.  Not a single word of public excoriation against Obasanjo was uttered by AbdulSalami Abubakar throughout Obasanjo’s eight years in power.  Abubakar demonstrated only decorum and self-respect.

Babangida had no peace when he was in power with Obasanjo ripping him open with sarcasm at close intervals.  When Yar’Adua was hospitalised in Saudi Arabia, his condition did not restrain Obasnajo from launching a missile against him in his hospital bed.

Then came the epistle of St. Matthew Obasanjo to Jonathan in 2014  It was explosive, even including the allegation that Jonathan was training a squad of snippers.  Now it is Buhari’s turn.  The truth is that Obasanjo has never recovered from his power addiction and in his own mind, he is the President-General of Nigeria for life.

Another strange phenomenon is Obasanjo’s capacity to launch vitriolic attacks on his successors allegedly doing what he Obasanjo did repeatedly as president without a thought of his own gross misdeeds; a clear case of amnesia.

Removal of governors

First, he accuses Buhari of being a dictator like Abacha, brooking no alternative views.  What of Obasanjo?  Was he himself not an African Hitler?

Perhaps the most blatant display of naked fascism and violation of the Constitution, by Obasanjo, was his removal or attempted removal of State Governors which Prof. Ben Nwabueze describes, as coups d’ etat!  The method used by Obasanjo was simple and brutal.  The EFCC (under Ribadu) moves into the State of the targeted Governor in full force.  It arrests all the State legislators and takes them away for detention in Lagos or Abuja.  Whilst in detention they are offered incentives to sign already prepared notices of impeachment of the victim Governor.  Once sufficient signatures are obtained, the Legislators are ferried under armed guard back into their State capital and taken straight to the House of Assembly, already secured by heavily armed police or military personnel.  Once inside the Chambers of the House, they follow a tightly prepared script, involving a compromised Chief Judge who pursuant to a resolution of the captured legislators, appoints a pre-selected panel of partymen with the single mandate of finding the Governor guilty of misconduct.  Without giving the Governor any hearing, the panel finds him guilty as charged, and the hostage legislators are rushed in again to accept the report.  In 5 minutes, it’s all over, the Governor is removed and by a strange coincidence, the EFCC is there on standby to arrest the ex-Governor and take him away to detention.

This is exactly what happened in Bayelsa, and in Plateau States, except that Dariye slipped quietly away whilst the EFCC was playing its power games to remove him.  In Anambra State, Obasanjo actually used an Assistant Inspector-General of Police to arrest the Governor (Dr. Ngige) and compel him under duress to sign a letter of resignation.  In Oyo State, the strong man of Ibadan, Lamidi Adedibu, was the one used in the purported removal of the Governor Ladoja in a beer parlour.  The removal of Governor Fayose of Ekiti State followed the same script, except that the ambitions of the Speaker, of the State House of Assembly and that of the Deputy Governor, to be the Acting Governor, clashed and resulted in a distortion involving equally compromised and shameless members of the Judiciary.

Remember Alamieyeseigha, Governor of Bayelsa?  Obasanjo got him arrested in London a few days after a surgical operation.  Blood was dripping down from his wound as the British Police arrested him at London Heathrow Airport at Obasanjo’s request.

Some pathetic details of what happened to Governor Alamieyeseigha needs to be exposed.  When Governor Alamieyeseigha managed to escape from London back to his State Bayelsa, Obasanjo ordered the EFCC then under Mr. Ribadu to move in on members of the House of Assembly in Bayelsa and arrest all of them.  Following the collective arrest, they were all relocated to a prison in Abuja where they were threatened with dire consequences if they did not sign an impeachment resolution prepared by the EFCC on Obasanjo’s instructions.

Whilst all this was going on, Obasanjo closed down radio Bayelsa and ordered the banks in which the Bayelsa government had accounts to freeze those accounts.  This paralyzed the Bayelsa government, and led to starvation of public servants.

After this, the Assembly men were brought back to Yenogoa were they proceeded to complete the process of impeachment under duress.

Immediately after the brazen illegal impeachment and removal of Alamesiegha, he was arrested by soldiers who had already taken over the whole of Bayelsa for trial and imprisonment.

In Plateau State, Obasanjo using the military force of the EFCC and Ribadu got Governor Dariye of Plateau State removed by 5 members of the House of Assembly, in a house composed of about 28 Legislators.

Declaration of Illegal

States of Emergency

The declaration of States of Emergency by the Obasanjo Federal Government in Plateau and Ekiti States, were prime illustrations of Obasanjo’s gross subversion of Nigeria’s federal system.  Not only did Obasanjo fail to comply with the conditions precedent for the declaration of a State of Emergency, even if the declarations were valid, the exercise of power under the declaration was grossly ultra vires the Federal Government, unconstitutional and illegal.

A state of emergency can only be declared if as stated in section 305 (3); (a) the Federation is at war, or (b) in imminent danger of invasion, or involvement in a State of War, or (c) there is actual breakdown of law and order and public safety in the Federation or any part thereof to such an extent as to require extra ordinary measures to restore peace and security, or (d) a clear and present danger of (c) above, or (e) there is a disaster or natural calamity affecting a community or part of it, or (f) threat to the existence of the Federation, or (g) request by a State Governor for such a declaration over his or her state, as a result of a situation similar to (c) and (e) above.

The infringements of the Constitution in the two declarations of emergency are legion.  In the first place, the factual situation that must exist as a condition precedent did not exist.  There was no breakdown of public order and public safety at any time in Plateau or Ekiti States, “to such an extent as to require extraordinary measures to restore peace and security”.  Infact the whole tenor of section 11 of the Constitution, (which is the section containing all the powers exercisable during an emergency) shows that an emergency declaration is intended to be a cooperative endeavour between the Federal Government and a state Government whose organs, Governors, House of Assembly and Judiciary, are fully functioning.  Section 11(2) provides that nothing in that section should preclude a House of Assembly from making laws in respect of the maintenance and securing of public safety and public order, etc, in an emergency, just like the National Assembly.  Section 11(4) prohibits the National Assembly from performing the work of a State House of Assembly, as long as the House can hold a meeting and transact business.  The same section prohibits the National Assembly from removing a Governor from office at any time.  Nowhere is power conferred on anyone to suspend a Governor or House of Assembly.

Read also: Buhari, Obasanjo meet at Villa

Thus, the removal of Fayose (Ekiti) and Dariye (Plateau) by declaration of a State of Emergency was blatantly illegal and unconstitutional.  President Jonathan complied with the Constitution when he declared a State of Emergency in Borno, Adamawa and Yobe States in 2013.  The positions of the Governors and State Houses of Assembly were not affected.  But Obasanjo, the great Dictator swept away Governors and State Houses of Assembly when he declared his States of Emergency; Law or no Law, Constitution or no Constitution.  Obasanjo was higher than both Law and Constitution.

The same Obasanjo  who says Buhari  is not entitled to his constitutional second term , enjoyed two terms after which he attempted to arm-twist the National Assembly and Nigeria in general, into permitting him to go in for an unconstitutional third term.

Can we forget how Obasanjo in the period 2004 to 2006 unconstitutionally seized the Federal Allocated Funds for Lagos State?

Reckless Abuse of Power

Obasanjo treated fellow politicians in his own party with contempt and disdain.  He installed and removed PDP party Chairmen as if they were his personal cooks and stewards.  Solomon Lar, Barnabas Gemade and Audu Ogbe, had bitter stories of remorseless exercise of Presidential terror to tell about their sudden and peremptory removal as PDP party Chairmen by Obasanjo, without reference to the Constitution of the party.

What about Senate Presidents, Evans Enwerem and Chuba Okadigbo who were forced out of the Senate Presidency by Obasanjo without any reference to the Members of Senate in a situation requiring two-thirds majority of their members.  Saraki is a very lucky man that Buhari, not Obasanjo, was President, when he stole the Senate Presidency on June 9, 2015.

Genocidal slaughter

Nigerians will never forget how Obasanjo ordered troops to level the town of Odi In Bayelsa State in November 20, 1999.   Both the human population and their homes were brought down by military force.  Hundreds were slaughtered in cold blood.

The same thing happened in Zaki Bian on October 22, 2001 when out of displeasure with General Malu, who came from the town, he dispatched heavily armed troops again to level both the human population and structures in that small town.  These crimes against humanity have been ignored by the local and international community, leaving Obasanjo strutting all over the place in his full pride and vanity.

Election rigging

The very idea of Obasanjo suggesting that Buhari plans to rig an election constitutes unsurpassed irony.  Obasanjo rigged out Mr. Olu Falaye in the 1999 Presidential elections.  He rigged out Buhari in the 2003 election.  He committed the mother of all rigging in 2007 when Nigeria suffered the worst elections in its political history. The Governorship election results were nullified in Cross River, Rivers, Bayelsa, Delta, Edo, Ondo, Ekiti, Osun, Adamawa, Kogi and Sokoto States; eleven States.  All this occurred under Obasanjo’s “Do or Die” war cry against free and fair elections.  In fact, Yar’Adua, beneficiary of this rigging acknowledged it, felt repentant and set up the Uwais Committee to proffer fundamental changes in our electoral system in order to avoid Obasanjo’s do or die type of elections in 2011.

Outraged by this endless series of brutal exercise of power and inordinate love of it, the renowned Prof. Ben Nwabueze, wrote a whole book entitled How Obasanjo subverted the Democracy and the Rule of Law. 

As I stated earlier, Obasanjo believes that he can break all rules and ethics but it is a crime for others to even appear to follow his footsteps in that regard.

He is a man who is not conscious of a sense of wrong doing and is probably unaware of the long list of depredations trailing his footsteps.  The man is not just immoral, he is worse; he is amoral, i.e., he lacks a sense of right or wrong.

Obasanjo is now an old man.  It is now imperative that he learns to exercise some discretion and restraint in his public statements.  His bombastic, false, misleading and destructive outbursts, are not befitting of a so-called elder stateman. Even more less of a former president.

Obasanjo, let Nigeria be!  Go to Owu and rest!