It was sometime in May 1999 that I dared venture to visit my country, Nigeria, after over nine years in the UK. Olusegun Obasanjo, ex-military Head of State, retired Army general and Civil War hero, convicted of treason and incarcerated, nearly executed by the detested dictator, now dead, Sanni Abacha, and brought out of incarceration and nominated as the Presidential Candidate of the People’s Democratic Party, and has now won the Presidential election to become Nigeria’s President being sworn in this May 1999, to flag off a prosperous era for the so called 4th Republic and democratic dispensation.
I was full of joy and hope. Obasanjo had ruled Nigeria over twenty four years before as a military head of state. He is widely believed to be a much disciplined soldier; a nationalist to the core. Even at the airport that humid day, the customs and immigration officers, noting my long absence from the country, were full of smiles and telling all visitors that Nigeria has changed already, with a new democratic government, and that this would no longer be an experiment in democracy as we have had, but this is the real, sustained thing. They projected to me, from their actions that day a country and a people full of hope, ready for change. I could almost kiss the immigration, customs, NDLEA and police officers at the airport that day.
I was elated and optimistic. On Inauguration Day, as I watched on national TV, tears welled up in my eyes. I was tearful to see Obasanjo sworn in, for the second time in Nigeria, as the leader of this great nation. Another reason why I believed that perhaps, Nigeria’s Messiah has come is the fact that Obasanjo, in the history of the world (correct me if I have erred) has become only the second man to serve two non-consecutive terms as president of any country; Grover Cleveland served as President of the USA twice, 1885 to 1889 and then again from 1893 to 1897, thus become the 22nd and 24th president of the US.
Grover Cleveland only had 4 years before he served a second term; Obasanjo had 20 years in between and was on the brink of death by execution. I was convinced God had deliberately spared Obasanjo’s life for Nigeria, and has chosen him a second time to lead this country to greatness. Or at least, God has given him a second chance to make good and correct the mistakes he made when he was military ruler 20 years before. I was convinced he would do well; put Nigeria on the right path, clean up as much as he could of corruption and indiscipline and generally effect the desired change. If anybody had told me that by 2013, Nigerians would be still cursing their leaders and Obasanjo amongst them, I would have bet a million dollars against it.
But there we are! After eight years of Obasanjo (and he even tried to amend the Constitution to get a Third Term, a typically sit-tight African leader syndrome) and fourteen years later, many right-thinking and truly patriotic Nigerians are shaking their heads in absolute disgust, helplessness, frustration and anger at the devastation, degradation, deprivation and dearth of progress that have been visited upon us in that short space of time. Like I always like to quip and paraphrase the late Malcolm X, “Nigerians did not land on Aso Rock (the seat of power in Nigeria), Aso Rock landed on us”.
