By Dele Sobowale
“I think we are getting to a stage when he (Obasanjo) gets back from his overseas tour, we shall approach him to accept the presidency.”

Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, September 22, 1998
Alhaji Atiku was only expressing the Northern agenda at the time which had been planned by the four generals – Babangida, Danjuma, Gusau and the then Head of State, Abdulsalami. I called them The gang of four.

It was supposed to appear as if the Southwest was being compensated for June 12, 1993 and the death of Chief Abiola while, indeed, it was a slap in the face of the zone. Left to themselves, Obasanjo was the last person Yoruba people would vote for President because they knew him better than Northerners.

His imposition, first as PDP flag-bearer and then President, was achieved through fraud and force. Obasanjo, fresh from prison and almost destitute suddenly stormed a PDP fund-raising and donated N130 million. No questions asked as to the source.

Once partly bought, for N130m, the new “owners” of PDP wasted no time in getting the party to violate two sections of its own constitution. One, Obasanjo had not been a member long enough to be a contender for any office; let alone the highest office. Two, a contestant for President must have helped his party to win the elections in his state, local government area and ward. PDP lost in Ogun State, all the local governments, Obasanjo’s ward and probably in his house. Obasanjo should never have been a candidate.

Quite clearly, a so-called political party which started out by accepting to be bought and which violated its own constitution will have no respect for the Nigerian Constitution which its elected members are called to uphold. And, since PDP set out in 1999 as a conspiracy against its own constitution and the Nigerian people, it was only a matter of time before the conspiracy unraveled.

The first major step Obasanjo took on assumption of office was to plot to remove Chief Solomon Lar as Chairman because Lar was considered “too independent.” That is akin to firing a winning coach. He was replaced with Gemade who had no political base of his own.

The second was to create a position which is not recognised in the PDP constitution –Party Leader – with which Chief Anenih was vested empowering him to interfere in party affairs on behalf of Obasanjo; even if it meant sidelining the party structure. Later he brought in the real strong arm people – Bode George and Ahmadu Ali – retired officers who never question superior officers. They were called Garrison Commanders; others would call then political gangsters in designer suits. The capture of PDP was complete and with it came near absolute immunity and murderous impunity.

It was only a matter of time before that structure crumpled…

JOS EXPLOSIONS: HARBINGERS OF THINGS TO COME –2

“But be warned, if you have tears for Nigeria prepare to shed them.”
-Dele Sobowale, SUNDAY VANGUARD, December 26, 2010.
“There are others (bombs) waiting to explode.”

-Dele Sobowale, written December 27, 2010, published in SUNDAY VANGUARD, January 2, 2011.
And, there are more explosions to follow. The Nigerian government and the security forces are always several steps behind the terrorists. While the Chief of General Staff, Seyi Petirin, was in Jos assuring the inhabitants, of that city in particular, and Nigerians in general, about government’s determination to “fish out the culprits” of the Jos bombings, others were busy in their bomb factories with other targets in mind.

The second target, it turned out, was Abuja again. And, just in case our flat-footed security forces cannot read the hand-writing on the Nigerian wall, let me spell it out for them.

When the “bombs of October 1, 2010” exploded in Abuja, the President of Nigeria did the worst thing any President could have done under the circumstances. He at once exonerated a group, MEND, and, he also ethnicised the terrorist act by casting the blame on “individuals known to government.” Today, the people being prosecuted for the bombing are exactly those he exonerated. Without realising it, MEND had sent out a powerful challenge which Jonathan failed to understand.

That message, as one Northern source told me, was this: “MEND has told us that they are ready to strike targets in the North, starting with Abuja if our brother Jonathan is not allowed to continue.” The President’s statement, within that context, was interpreted as an endorsement of that policy.

In politics, as in war, once a party to any conflict is presumed to be accumulating arms and escalating the conflict, the other party has one of two choices: surrender or fight back by also acquiring equally deadly weapons.

The group claiming responsibility for the Jos bombings merely reflect the three ugly faces of politics, religion and tribalism; which at the moment are so inextricably linked. It is difficult to know where one stops and the other starts. The Abuja bombings, in some ways, represent the beginning of the Northern answer to MEND.

In plain words it says, nobody has a monopoly of the weapons of mass destruction. Implied, although not stated, is the other warning. “your brother” now lives here in Abuja.

The terrorists operate with one distinct advantage over government – the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, President Jonathan, has got himself entangled in a life and death struggle for re-election and he is totally distracted. So, he can provide no leadership – even when the corporate existence of Nigeria is threatened.

The terrorists are not so shackled. They have no government to run, no budget to defend and they pursue only one agenda – to make the country ungovernable for Jonathan. Fighting on two fronts, as Napoleon Bonaparte, 1769-1821, and Adolf Hitler,1889-1945, discovered, too late, can produce disastrous consequences for the Commander-in- Chief and his people.God help us.