X-ray of nigeria's past leaders!

[Berlusconi is accused of giving Ruby cash …
for sex when she was 17 years old and thus
too young under Italian law to be paid as a
prostitute.]
As a public office holder (in particular Heads
of State) this is what is expected in a well
organised economies not the kind of thing
we witness in Nigeria! U don’t try anybody
nor do U conduct public inquiries to know the
truth about any event, crime or the
allegation of one! Every nation does this to
keep in check those to serve the public. In
Israel they sent to jail this month (in March
2011) the ex-President Moshe Katsval for 7
years! Egypt’s Mubarak is now summoned to
appear in Cairo with his sons for charges
about financial improprieties and causing the
deaths of his people! We see also Gadaffi and
his children ore on the line no doubt now
that NATO and the U.S. have joined in a pact
to remove him from office! In Nigeria it is;
Oyaoo, if you can’t steal give way and let me
get on with it since it is a commonplace thing
- after all, they will not prosecute,
‘kpatakpata’ (as long as) I can bargain plead
for them! It is reasonably fair to say that your
leaders get away with‘murder’ by the goings
on in Nigeria, folks! We are not told yet what
happened to stall the Iron and Steel Industry
in Itakpe, Kogi State contract to get it up and
running for Nigeria! Yet, it is supposed to be
part of the major Industries like power,
railways and refineries, for Nigeria!
Your problem in Nigeria regarding
corruption and abuse of office malpractice
(financial rascality or upheavals with
impunity) and all that recorded, it must be
echoed is this; Your Heads of State, on
completion of their tenures in office, return
back to the administrative setting through
the canny or unwholesome plot‘ingrained’
intentionally (intuitively) in the Nigerian
CONSTITUTION in the Council of State as
permanent members! They should be
serving to purpose of emissaries for Nigeria
where necessary as the ex-Presidents in U.S.
and U. K. Prime Ministers do after they leave
office - we have Jimmy Carter as a typical
example for this role; Tony Blair is serving in
the Afghanistan debacle and Gordon Brown
just tipped to serve in the World Bank! Now,
lest you forget the arrangement for Nigeria
portrays that typical euphemism frequently
referred to in circumstances of disbelieve,
thus - as strange bedfellows looking critically
at the points/reasons listed hereunder! They
should vacate the Council to enable the new
person clean out the‘stable’, as it were,
particularly about corruption in Nigeria!
Ø Gen. Dr. Y. Gowon we recall was the Head of
Government after he ousted Gen. Aguiyi
Ironsi, the first military Head of State after
the coup of 1966 and he carried on at the Civil
War up to 1975 when he was toppled by Gen.
M. Muhammed who was, himself
assassinated by Dimka & Co. after which
period,
Ø Gen. O. Obasanjo as Murtala’s Deputy came
to the scene in 1976 and became the Head of
State! Gen. Gowon was then outside of
Nigeria and remained so until 1983 when he
and Col. O. Ojukwu were granted reprieve
tactically on political grounds, under Alhaji
Shehu Shagari’s administration - Dr. Chuba
Okadigbo was part instrumental for the need
(it was part of the political shenanigans in
1983 by NPN to win again) to reprieve the
two of them!
Ø President Shehu Shagari was installed by
Obasanjo in 1980 and we are familiar with
the legal tussle or objections from Chief O
Awolowo then - you will recall the Electoral
College and all the political fracas
(remonstrations) by Chief Awolowo to
manoeuvre Shagari out of it!
Ø By 1983 December Gen. M. Buhari and
Tunde Idiagbon took over from Shagari
through coup-de-tat!
Ø In 1985 IBB and Gen. Sani Abacha ousted
Gen. Buhari through what was regarded as a
Palace coup - Buhari passed on the baton to
IBB, as it were! Now, in the intervening
period we witnessed how Chief E. Shonikan
came to the seat after the June 12th 1993
fiasco, as Chairman of an Interim
Administration!
Ø Gen Sani Abach came into the scene after
the 12th June Moshood Obiola’s election
debacle after sacking the Interim
Administration of Shonekan in 1993
November! Gen. Sani Abacaha remained in
charge and did assigned to Gen. M. Buhari the
Ministry of Petroleum, in effect - PTF, until his
eventual demise even so, which thereafter
brought,
Ø Gen. Abdulsalamin to power in 1998. Again
in the intervening rigmarole, the 1979/99
Constitution was evolved making it possible
that past Heads of State should be part
members of the Council of State! Ge. M.
Buhari was still holding onto his PTF
appointment and also attended the Council’s
meetings at the period!
Ø Now OBJ became President again for
Nigeria in 1999 up to 2007; the reason why
was very glaring to us - a beneficiary of the
12th June annulment! He however,
disbanded the PTF Ministry and thus
extinguished the appointment of Gen. Buhari
- observers believed the decision was born
out of an old score with Buhari; he Buhari
had served under Obasanjo in the 1976 - 80
administration! At the end of OBJ’s tenure of
2007, after the attempted third term
‘imbroglio’,
Ø Alhaji Musa Ya’Adua became President
under PDP’s ticket and we recall the legal
tussle about the scheming spearheaded by
Gen. Buhari same as was the case by Chief O.
Awolowo at the instance of Shehu Shagari’s
succeeding OBJ in 1980! It did not end here
because after the demise of Yar’Adua we saw
Ø Dr. G. Jonathan on the seat as the
substantive President of Nigeria by what was
circumstantially termed‘DOCTRINE of
NECESSITY’, folks!
Ø Lest we forget; in the Council, Sec. 153 of
the Constitution seats the Governors also - 19
from the North, Federal Court Judges and the
other government dignitaries (functionaries)
considered important in Nigeria! In all of
these, the North dominated the
memberships - a thing considered a
deliberate canny arrangement for Nigeria’s
political setting!
Now, cast your mind on the Council and see if
you can decipher or visualise what the
atmosphere (if you can picture the schisms
and suspicions) could be in the Council when
the members discuss any political, social or
culpable matters related to any of them and
in particular the past Heads of State vis-à-vis
what the situation is currently, in Nigeria
regarding alleged crimes and or
misdemeanours going on in the country!
Now, with the kind of scenario in the Council
depicted, think for a moment whether they
can deal with all matters arising us in Nigeria
freely, uninhibited or unabashed? In spite of
this anomaly in the Constitution, they still
have not considered a change or
modification necessary in that Sec. 308 of the
Constitution! We heard Gen. M. Buhari spoke
of doing something about the‘Immunity
clause’ in the Constitution as if he was going
to operate under Military fiat - surely it is a
question of‘easier said than done!’ What
about the ‘moat/beam’ on your own eyes as
a result of the Council of State permanent
membership even though a coup leaders? I
just wonder how many of you, including the
high sounding legal luminaries in Nigeria,
have sat down to consider the effect of this
strange (unprecedented) arrangement/
microcosm for Nigeria and how it impacts
(muddle up) adversely on all that we are
doing or can do with the arrangement if still
allowed to persist - if nothing is done about
it! I have even queried; Did our founding
fathers have this in our Independence
Constitution, folks?
Note that recently we are told that the NSS
approved pensions for the past Heads of
State to include for their spouses and
children, as if they were all legitimately
elected to the post as in other nations, in the
first place! And worse still is, the in-
extinguishable ambitions in these to become
President over and over again in Nigeria, in
spite of the misdemeanours reported about
them! For example, Gen. M. Buhari who
ousted the civilian President Alhaji Shehu
Shagari; rather than the Northern leaders
forum (NPLF) put forward (urge) Shehu
Shagari to now complete the so-wished
‘Northern term’ with Dr., Jonathan as running
mate for the 2011, from all rational
considerations so as to complete his own
term in office which was brought to an end
abruptly by Buhari in that Northern interest
desire, it turned out (culminated) that it was
Alhaji Atiku and or Gen. M. Buhari was fielded
to return to the seat instead! You can easily
see the ironies in Nigeria’s political setting at
play here! I thought this arrangement could
have satisfied Nigerians and Dr. Jonathan by
way of a compromise - such that occurred in
the U.K. between Mr. Butler and Rt. Hon.
Douglas Home after Macmillan’s exit; with of
course Dr. Jonathan to run for the 2015
elections! This could have been more
salutary for Nigeria but they did not think
that way! I am sure this arrangement could
have satisfied even the most obdurate
Northerners! This aside, I am of the opinion
going by what we have witnessed during the
Yar’Adua’s exit, that the methods/approach
to our politicking in Nigeria still needs a soul
searching considerations!
No country has this kind of arrangement in
their Constitution - at least we saw Rt. Hon.
Gordon Brown, left No. 10 Downing Street
with his family on foot in the last election in
the United Kingdom, no ‘motorcade riders’
and Rt. Hon. Tony Blair was subpoenaed two
times to testify in a parliamentary or judicial
public inquiries about Iraq and by the
‘Scotland Yard’ about financial improprieties
associated with Lord Levy, though in closed
door - not to talk about the other past Prime
Ministers regarding the Sunday Tribunal for
Northern Ireland! In the U.S. we have past
Presidents like Jimmy Cater, Bush Snr. and
the Jnr, Bill Clinton, all still living ex-
Presidents but none attends such Council
arrangement in the U.S. where we borrowed
our Constitution! Even if they do, the law is
such that provides that none of them must
be above it or be entitled to a special
privilege in total contrast to what we are
‘hoodwinked/goaded’ to be doing in Nigeria!
Hence the results or the strict observance of
the laws in Italy and Israeli Prime Ministers!
Egypt’s Mubarack has just been charged and
his children detained in the prisons for
financial improprieties, folks!
Now, this is the major bane of the system in
Nigeria - it does not allow you a free and
unadulterated (unabashed) and undue
interference in what you are doing policy-
wise, folks! They are in the Council
permanently like the‘colossus or albatrosses’
- dogs-in-manger, bestriding all that a New
Head of State wants or can do in Nigeria for
the common man! I have heard Dr. G.
Jonathan vows he would not interfere with
the law enforcement Agencies in his tenure
of office! I just wish, considering his
antecedents - Yes, he can! Your Constitutional
and legal luminaries like Barr Felana and
others should know and be weary about this
mendacity in your Constitution!
I want to end this submission with this note
for all those overzealous Nigerians, thus; I
have written in the hope that Nigerians
within and in the DIASPORA are sincerely
looking for ways to help and solve both the
social and political problems in our country
in the same ways and manner that those in
Europe, the U.S. and in the Far East have or
are doing - accordingly in their heritage
pronouncements like;“We strove (all that we
have done or achieved) in the past - the
wars, the social benefit programmes and the
rest of them, so that our new/future
generations can live!” Moreover, as President
J. F. Kennedy urged his countrymen; “Think
you about what you can do for your country
and not what your country can do for you!”
In other words, in consonance with that
motto; Nun sibi sed aliis! Perhaps when we
start thinking seriously about what will be
written on our Head Stones, we shall begin to
see this human pitfalls associated with
leaders Institution, complained about us in
Nigeria, folks!
Above all this - for that 38 years of our post
Independence is the curious discovery in the
deliberate political scheming, prevarication
and or shenanigans (high junks) in Nigeria!
That is, the knowledge that there has never
been any representation in the Council, as an
ex-Head of State from the Old Eastern Nigeria
but for the resent success recorded by Dr. G.
E. Jonathan now, should be worrying to right
thinking Nigerians particularly to those in the
East, from where the resources for the up
keep of Nigeria to date, is sourced! Talking
about a fair or rational political participation
or representation for Nigeria, my‘zoning
formula’ will no doubt stand out as the way
forward (solution) - a mitigating factor to the
anomaly inherent in the setting! The often
offer for Vice president to the Eastern region
- the‘beautiful bride’ mendacity, must be
regarded as a misnomer and all those caught
in that kind of confused web (arrangement)
need a rethinking in the context of what
Nigerians in that Council should mean/
represent! It is both our Human and
Constitutional Rights to be represented in
that Council in a proportional way! Therefore
we must sue for the‘zoning’ as I have
suggested it, folks!