24052019 = May 29: Tribunal declines to stop Buhari’s inauguration

Vanguard, FRIDAY, MAY 24, 2019—23
Edited by
OSA MBONU-AMADI
08070524223
osaamadi@yahoo.com
Patito’s Gang, the
risks and close
brushes with death
Continues from page 22
group chose to debate the
matter.
In the end it was agreed that
the traditional political class
whose direction for the country
was truncated when the
military intervention in
December 1983 took place
should be preferred, lest we
be seen as opportunists that
came to do citizens-duty but
got caught the “greed bug.”
One of those who did not
agree with the position which
I had supported, was Donald
Duke. He quietly told me he
was going to build a platform
to shape Cross River State.
With two others, he
successfully took over.
It did not take long for many
of us to realise that we had
made a big mistake. First, the
traditional politicians with
some sense of service and
compassion for the people had
been reluctant to engage
believing the military was just
making a tactical retreat and
would find some excuse to
return in a not too distant
future so they refused to
participate. This left the room
for the money-bag sponsors of
the politicians just out of
military uniform, cult boys
who did not fear to dare, and
many who had nothing to lose,
to enter the political arena.
Even General Obasanjo
could not run things without
plenty of damage. To make
things worse, oil prices went
through the roof from a crash
into single digits in 1998 to
triple digits. The new lords of
the manor simply pillaged the
resources flowing in and used
money to erect barriers against
entry into politics.
The downhill journey since
then has been a burden on my
and columns. At times it was
a lonely struggle. At other
times many joined in.
When this burden came to a
head, I agreed to run for
President in 2007 in order to
reset the agenda. One of those
that reacted to that choice was
Chief Ayo Adebanjo, the
untiring Awolowo faithful. He
was the one, who on the edge
of his 90th birthday, crisscrossed
the country
canvassing a restructuring of
the federation to return to the
agreement reached by the
independence fathers of the
nation which had been altered
under military rule. Chief
Adebanjo had through the
years tried to persuade me that
a transition from activist to
being a politician was
necessary if one wanted to
make significant impact and
leave a lasting legacy. He
seized the moment and
pressed home the point.
How can we save Nigeria, I
asked? His response was let’s
mobilise people into a
movement of progressives and
with a party at the heart of that
movement, find a way forward
for Nigeria. In the meantime,
Chief Anthony Enahoro, the
veteran nationalist, had called
me to a meeting during which
he urged that I take active part
in fashioning a movement of
progressives.
Chief Enahoro died not too
long after and the movement
was formed. The Social
Democratic mega movement
would, under the guidance of
Chief Olu Falae, become the
Social Democratic Mega
party. For reasons best known
to the party elders, I was
chosen to be chairman of the
party whilst I was out of the
country. In a similar manner,
Chief Adebanjo never gave up on trying
to let me know the challenge in trusting
the Tinubu group; he kept pointing to
Tinubu’s obsession with self-interest and
his challenged ethics
conscience so that when in the
exercise of best short-term
self-interest, I am better off
staving away from the
political arena, while
leveraging my reputation to
make a personal fortune in
business, I have often
challenged the status quo.
This has been either from civil
society initiative, as a socalled
public intellectual, on
the lecture circuit, or from the
media through Patito’s Gang
and my frequent op-ed pieces
I was also picked to be the
presidential candidate whilst
away from the country. My
choice, I was informed by
Wale Okunniyi, the chief foot
soldier, was because it was
thought that I was the least
divisive of the potential
candidates and one most likely
to put self aside in forgoing
the choice of a consensus
candidate amongst all the
presidential candidates.
The lasting lesson, for me,
was the motives behind my
inability to bring together the
original Yoruba leaders, Awo
champions, with the former
Governor of Lagos State, Bola
Ahmed Tinubu. I had tried to
encourage Chief Falae and
Tinubu to cooperate and work
together and then create a
new Pan Nigerian Coalition.
In the end, I argued that size
mattered and that since
Tinubu had more of the
leaders in the south-west with
him, I would continue to water
my relationship with his
group while deepening the
effort to bring the groups
together. Chief Adebanjo
never gave up on trying to let
me know the challenge in
trusting the Tinubu group. He
kept pointing to Tinubu’s
obsession with self-interest
and his challenged ethics.
How best to discharge the
burden of guilt that all of this
effort may have been
unnecessary, if I simply voted
for those that wanted the
concerned professionals to
step into the fray in 1998 and
show the way continued to
define me. With the benefit of
hindsight, it may have been a
better track because I was
close enough to former Vice-
President Alex Ekwueme who
led the G34 that would
ultimately birth the Peoples
Democratic Party, PDP.
On many occasions, I still
ponder on what path the
country could have travelled
had the kind of quality in the
concerned professionals’
group been the principal
organisers of a party in which
Alex Ekwueme, an
enlightened leader, was
candidate for president in
1999. But would the
champions of state capture
who installed Obasanjo have
accepted such?
I guess the answer will keep
blowing in the wind, but the
guilt was steady in me. The
why not, in response to the
question of why run, was
partly about that guilt. In the
end I was glad I said ‘why not’
because I could not have
found out how rotten the apple
was and how close Nigeria is
to a criminal hijack of the
political parties by the three
gangs of actors. These are,
those in the enterprise of
transacting around public
office for material gain; the
cultists who have bullying as
their way and hope to
intimidate others; and the new
fascists whose high comes
from total domination of
others. For the last group to
oppress others probably
provides an Adrenaline surge.
Their ways were emerging as
the norm in politics.
All of these groups pose
grave and present danger to
the democratic process in
Nigeria.
The danger they constitute
comes significantly from the
sense of entitlement that they
have developed from the
imposition of their will on
others and dominating them.
This new fascism is palpable
in their loss of sense of shame
regarding their inability to
serve well those in whose
name they exercise this
entitlement.
My not feeling any
discomfort at the gale-storm I
ran into into in choosing to run
rather than keep my personal
peace flows largely from my
belief that the time has come
to confront this shameless
group. They take up public
office, pay themselves
obnoxious amounts of money
directly and indirectly. These
public officials through all
kinds of spurious allowances,
in the name of elected and
appointed agents of tens of
millions of people who inhabit
arguably the most miserable
place to live on this planet
earth, appropriate for
protocols for their comfort
monies that will amaze
leaders of truly wealthy
nations and then turn a deaf
ear to discuss them.
It is ranked the second most
terrible country for open
defecation in the world, with
all kinds of attendant health
consequences, it is a country
that has now overtaken India
as the biggest collection of the
absolute poor on earth
according to the 2018 study of
the Brookings Institution.
This is coupled with a
terrible laggard position on all
Sustainable Development
Goals of the United Nations
whilst earning significant
revenues from oil. I had had
enough of Nigeria’s elite. And
a broader canvas to confront
was attractive. This power elite
is clearly an embarrassment to
the human community.
That they feel no shame
running around in multicar
motorcades and squandering
resources that could help
millions escape misery, on
I was glad I said ‘why not’ because I could not
have found out how rotten the apple was and how
close Nigeria is to a criminal hijack of the political
parties by the three gangs of actors. These are,
those in the enterprise of transacting around
public office for material gain; the cultists who
have bullying as their way and hope to intimidate
others; and the new fascists whose high comes
from total domination of others
foreign traps from which they
seem to learn nothing,
qualifies them for public scorn.
Confronting the impunity with
which they use the system to
frustrate anybody they think is
not a brigand like themselves
or available to be used to
further compound the
beggarly conditions of the
people, suggest a duty on the
part of patriots that are still
left, to challenge them and
help the people find their
voice.
TOMORROW...
Pat Utomi continues
profiling the disgusting
characters, the criminals
who rule us by tricks. He
tells sordid tales about
their weird and fetish
lifestyles and how those
lifestyles diminish our
own quality of life.