By Ochereome Nnanna
We may soon start paying a heavy price for electing a man who first ruled us 30 years ago. We may be headed for a gerontocracy; a government populated by old men and women. If these oldies had served our country well, we would have been among the developed countries in the world. But right now, we are not even one of the developed countries in Africa. We are merely the largest economy in Africa by virtue of the abundant gifts of God. Some of the guys who were always in the picture in one capacity or the other in the past 40 years are set to be recycled when most of them are nearly, or even above 80!

Our President-elect, General Muhammadu Buhari – the second ex-ruler we brought back to continue from where he stopped in 1985 when about half the population of this country had not been born – shocked us when he appointed Dr Ahmed Joda as the head of his 16-man Transition

Buhari and Obasanjo

Committee. Joda has been there when it comes to the governance of Nigeria from the 1960s. He was one of the so-called “Super-permanent Secretaries” whom General Gowon depended upon to run Nigeria and thus alienated his colleagues in the military who removed him from power in 1975. This man completed his secondary school 67 years ago! He is even older than Buhari by official age. This man and other fossilised remains from our ignoble past should be at home watching TV and playing with their great-grand children rather than occupying the opportunities meant for today’s people.

Not done yet, Buhari only last week went public with a complaint I found rather queer. He said that our out-going President, Dr Goodluck Jonathan, had not offered a single idea to him about how his administration should take off! That is shocking, for many reasons. Number one, General Buhari has been our Head of State. When he assumed power on December 31, 1983, he did not seem to need anyone to teach him how to start governing. Perhaps, it was his Deputy, then Brigadier Tunde Idiagbon, who helped government to start? Are there not enough experienced hands in his party, the All Progressives Congress, APC, to help him? The National Chairman of his Party, Dr John Odigie-Oyegun, is a retired Federal Permanent Secretary.

Secondly, General Buhari had contested for the presidency three previous times. He surely ought to have a clear picture of what he wants to do when given the opportunity to rule a second time? Certainly, Obasanjo, the first fossil we plucked out of the freezer to rule us under democracy after ruling us as a military man, knew exactly how to start in 1999. He knew that the military was a threat to our democracy and he purged it as soon as he took over. He knew those who gave him money to run for election, and he immediately awarded emergency contracts to them, such as the Abuja National Stadium which Julius Berger was given over N12 billion from outside the budget to start a few days into Obasanjo’s return to power. I thought the right attitude was for Jonathan to hand over governance and give way completely. I never knew Buhari would need tips from him.

Well, apropos of tips, there is a man who did not wait to be asked. And that is the third shock of the matter. Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, our two-time president and one-time military head of state, last week sent one of his lackeys to submit what was termed a “development agenda” to Buhari. Obasanjo was quoted as saying he set up the committee about four months ago. That was in January 2015. Does it mean Obasanjo knew Jonathan would not be president FOUR months ago!? I ask this question in view of the fact that he had fallen out with Jonathan irretrievably, to the point of theatrically tearing his PDP meal ticket (membership card) in public. Very interesting, for those who say there was more to this election that meets the eye.

Even more interesting were the people who reportedly worked in the Obasanjo Development Committee. Names like Professor Akin Mabogunje, Dr Kalu Idika Kalu and Dr Christopher Kolade, were mentioned. Another group from our past. At 75, KIK is the youngest of the trio, and apart from KIK the rest have been in, or worked for, the Federal Government since 1970s. That Buhari received the Obasanjo Committee report with such fanfare could mean he will attach some importance to it. Usually, when people compose an agenda, they are asked to play a role in actualising it. Shouldn’t Mabogunje, Kalu, Kolade and Professor Tam David-West be allowed to stay at home in retirement, watch TV and play with their great-grand children? What manner of “change” can Buhari achieve by bringing back these oldies?

And, for that matter, isn’t it time that we forcefully retired Obasanjo from our lives? Isn’t it amazing that Buhari, who is seen as a serious-minded leader, should allow himself to be cornered by this man who imposed the late President Umaru Yar’ Adua and the out-going President Goodluck Jonathan on the nation to feather his personal nest, failing which he declared wars against them? Why is Buhari allowing Obasanjo to hoodwink him with reminiscences of their military (especially civil war) comradeship and using it to come into the “eighteen yard box” of an impending government that we expect to change Nigeria for the better? Obasanjo is like a mad wrestler. Anybody who wrestles with him comes out with his entire body covered with sand!

I am wondering what “development plan” Obasanjo presented to Buhari which he was unable to implement in his total of 12 years as Nigeria’s ruler? In his second coming, apart from reforming the military to rid it of coup-plotting, selling licences to bring in the GSM services and using Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala’s connections in the World Bank to obtain the debt deal with the Paris Club, not much can be remembered of what Obasanjo’s eight years as elected president added to Nigeria’s advancement.

Instead, we can list failures of governance in the areas of security (with many unsolved murders of highly placed Nigerians, including his Minister, Bola Ige), energy (failed National Integrated Power Projects that gulped over $16 billion, and the wasted billions in failed revamp of refineries), economic reforms, rule of law, development of our democracy (serial sabotage of the National Assembly, destruction of both the PDP and opposition parties) and the war on corruption. Obasanjo went into government broke in 1999 and came out as one of the wealthiest Nigerians in 2007. He has not given us an account of how he singlehandedly ran the Ministry of Petroleum Resources for six years of our second oil boom when he was president. His government is rated by Transparency International, TI, as the “most corrupt” federal government, based on data it collected between 1979 and 2014. Ironically, the much touted Goodluck Jonathan administration was rated as the least corrupt; far less corrupt than that of General Buhari in 1984/85! Remember that Obasanjo was once a member of the Board of Transparency International before he was jailed by General Sani Abacha. They cannot be accused of being biased against their former Director or in favour of Jonathan.

Usually, only young people are able to bring about change. The only change old people are capable of bringing about is to take us back to what they knew in their time. In the next four years we may be heading for something we never bargained for!