Nigeria's Reluctant Presidents And Effect On Development By Law Mefor

By Law Mefor
Nigeria's leadership has never thrived on individuals' aspiration, as
the recruitment process veers off weirdly from normal. It has always
been some mutative force casting aside whoever nursed the ambition to
whoever they please. It is a nation that has survived on the blood of
sacrificial lambs, to leave the country in the hands of who never
wanted to rule, a classical case of conspiracy of an evil hue.
President Goodluck Ebele Azikiwe Jonathan has been a child of
circumstance from the start, rising, politically speaking, from
obscurity to become whatever any man alive or dead would wish. He
confessed that he never dreamt of becoming the president of Nigeria.
Awo, on the other hand, would have given a limb to be in Jonathan's
shoes. Or at the very least, wished for the same destiny for himself
but it never came his way. Awo wanted to be Nigeria's president. Some
historians believe his betrayal of Biafra was part of his calculations
to get there. Yet, everything ended as a daydream for the late sage.
Obasanjo derided the late Awo as an example of this sad Nigerian
reality when he said many years ago: "A man whose life ambition eluded
him deserves my sympathy", further noting rather uncharitably that he
achieved when he was barely forty what Awo laboured for life and
failed to accomplish – to rule Nigeria.
Power is not like wealth, which they say chooses its own path and its
entrya mystery as its exit in a man's life. Some have mastered power
in Nigeria and its art, thus appear to have conquered it of their own
accord. That may explain why Margret Thatcher had to say, "Being in
power is like being a lady; if you have to say you are you aren't".
Great men and women court power. In Nigeria particularly, it has
remained most elusive to those who needed it the most, forcing many to
insist that the Nigerian nation has never had its ownleader.
Indeed the bewildering inability of the late sage (Awo) to rule
Nigeria even for 24 hours as he was known to have once begged may
remain legendary. It denotes the unwavering 'providence' standing
accused for taking it upon itself to select the nation's leaders and
what is more, making a mess of it. It has always saddled the country
with the wrong kind of leaders and underdevelopment is the result.
It is indeed the Nigerian story: those who wanted to rule the nation
never came close to power: Zik, Awo, Ahmadu Bello, and many more tired
out trying and woefully failing, and may have all died feeling
politically unfulfilled. Only reluctant leaders, both military and
civilians, suddenly found themselves there without any vision and
sense of mission for the nation.
Obasanjo remains the most incrediblecase study in any attempt to put
this phenomenon in perspective. He holdsa Guinness Book record as a 2
-era President of a country purely by accident, contributing nothing
to each occasion to ascend the apex power except perhaps saying yes to
this providential beckon. He was said to be crying when he was
prevailed upon to succeed Ramat Murtala Muhammad when the latter fell
underthe hail of Dimka's bullets. That was how the nation came about
the double-barrel history of Murtala-Obasanjo regime in 1976.
Again, in 1999, the nation was saddledwith another reluctant Obasanjo.
He was asked by journalists when he wasbrought out of Yola prison if
he wouldaspire to lead Nigeria again. Shocked, Obasanjo retorted: "How
many Presidents do you want to make out of me?" But few months later,
Nigeria was busy making another President out of a reluctant Obasanjo.
Today, the history is not different. President Goodluck Ebele Azikiwe
Jonathan left it to be decided as usual.After all, like past Nigerian
leaders, henever harbored any personal ambition all along, so it will
be mean-spirited to suggest he should not have allowed himself to be
goaded into it or allowing the force tosustain his presidency beyond
2015. The President is true to form for remaining at the mercy of the
providence that has been producing reluctant Presidents for Nigeria.
The President became Vice President because an Obasanjo said so, and
President because the constitution imposed it and likely to return in
2015because the Ijaw nation insists. Theseare all forces beyond and
outside the incumbent.
Historically, we can also say such unseen hands produced an Alhaji
Tafawa Balewa as Prime Minister of Nigeria (1959 -1966) even when he
was not the leader of his party (Northern People's Congress). In
parliamentary practice and tradition, for not being the leader of the
NPC, it was unusual for Tafawa Balewa to become prime minister. The
same force produced Generals JTU Aguiyi- Ironsi and Yakubu Gowon as
heads of state, even when they hatched no coups. It nearly made a
mistake with Murtala who really came with the ambition and desire to
rule Nigeria and make a difference. But the force quickly corrected
the 'Murtala error' by violently replacing him with a reluctant
General Olusegun Obasanjo.Then also, a certain Shehu Shagari printed
his beautiful posters to go to the Nigerian Senate. But the same
'providence' said: "No, thou art Mr. President Sir!" One Muhammad
Buhari came knocking with an ambition to rule and got knocked off
quickly by one experimentalist I.B. Babangida who appeared surprised
that power had been that close without knowing it even after risking
his life to ease out Dimka and his weird dream. (IBB was said to be on
a mission to rescue his own military career following a looming probe.
His coming to power therefore could be the same way Eyadema of Togo
and Samuel Doe of Liberia shot their ways to power to save their skins
and career!)
Then came in one far more reluctant Ernest Shonekan in the interim who
told 'them' to come for the mantle anytime they wanted it back since
he was only a defacto head ab-initio. So, when Shonekan saw
dark-goggled Sani Abacha escorted to his Aguda House by some young
officers, he handed him his pre-signed resignation and prerecorded
video tape from the window. Abacha, another providential head of state
of Nigeria had emerged, anointed and planted as head of
state-in-waiting, by an IBB that was stepping aside, and, courtesy of
the same providence,as others, he went into power to represent the
interest rather than nation. When he started getting ideasof his own
with his transmutation plan with 'the five fingers of a leproushand'
(as Ige described our political parties then), same strange force
tookhim out of the scene too.
Of course Abdusalami Abubakar wept profusely for the death of Abacha
and ran scared for the 11 months he precariously hung on the throne
before the second return of a recurring, reluctant Obasanjo. Obasanjo
however wanted power by himself with his Third-Term gambit but the
project, despite gulping billions, still collapsed like a castle of
sand by the grace of the same forces.

Then, the same Obasanjo, acting Godand electorates combined,
singlehandedly produced a President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua, a sick man
with well-known history of kidney dialysis,who had secured an
appointment to teach Chemistry after his tenure as governor of
Katsina, and an amazed Goodluck Jonathan became his deputy. But death
came and good luck or providence or both smiled on Jonathan to become
the President of the most populous black nation on earth!
The real problem is not whether or not the president continues beyond
2015 but what happens to a nation where its leaders have no vision and
sense of mission. The Holy Scripture says that without vision a
nation/people perish. So, even religion recognizes that a strong
correlation exists between vision andprogress of a people or nation.
Part of the fundamental problems of Nigeria is the fact that those to
make the difference are never allowed to positions. Imagine where
Nigeria would have been if Zik, Awo, or Ahmadu Bello had ruled.
Instead, theywere all brushed aside by the strangeforce forging past,
present and future of the Nigerian nation and its destiny.

This force has colonial origin and was inherited and sustained by the
military. It is a counteracting force thenation must shake off,
through genuine democratic practice, if she will thrive and end her
endless tales of woes.
• Law Mefor, author, forensic psychologist and journalist, is National
Coordinator Transform Nigeria Movement (TNM), Abuja.+803-787-2893;
email:lawmefor@ gmail.com