Nigeria: An analysis of that rigging document

A very fascinating document

Having just read a document, I cannot say if I should be amused, amazed, annoyed or apathetic but I am impressed with the organisational abilities of the Jonathan/Sambo presidential bid vehicle though they could do with using a spelling checker to give their scheming ways a sense of professionalism.

Sahara Reporters appears to have come into possession of what they call a rigging document which from my reading constitutes a strategy to infiltrate, persuade, cajole, compel and suborn the delegate selection process.

Introducing Mr. Fox

In a document titled The Man – Mr. Fox – a PDF file download; probably to depict cunningness and wiliness with the possibility that each dawn chicken count in your barn would have suffered a missing fowl for the table and palate of the fox, this makes quite interesting reading.

Mr. Fox is Atiku Abubakar, the vice-president during the two terms of presidency of Olusegun Obasanjo from 1999-2007 who was passed over for Umaru Yar’Adua.

This is a WikiLeaks-type scoop, a whistle-blower has revealed an internal strategy document meant to wade through the cesspool of Nigerian politics, most especially the snake-pit of the ruling party’s delegate congress, though it seems the document was exposed to Mr. Fox’s organisation who has taken the opportunity to circulate it far and wide with the hope that the President’s underhand tactics would be condemned.

And so?

I am not surprised by the content of the document, however, the fact that it has such great detail is progress in terms of planning, organisation and documentation in Nigerian terms.

Just before we rise in righteous indignation against the Jonathan/Sambo Organisation, Mr. Fox no doubt desperately wants to lead Nigeria, this document reveals enough about his person, his character and his motives to show that the exposure of this document is just as much for political advantage than for a free and fair fight to represent the ruling party as the presidential candidate.

One could well say that Mr. Fox is just as Machiavellian in his scheming but has left no smoking guns and dead bodies, but there could well be a cupboard somewhere with skeletons a mile deep.

A compendium of Nigerian politics

This is Nigerian politics, the power of the incumbency, the display, the use and abuse of power and the ability to use power to tease and persuade people to one’s side, none of which makes this right by any stretch of the imagination but it reveals how juvenile our political system is, why it is still about personalities than ideas and how the force of momentum is not created by the discussion or argument but by the herding of the crowd who are sheep needing shepherds.

It is a shame that the document does not have a table of contents or an index so you have to read through 139 pages of the stuff and really, I was left thinking what is new at the end?

Kingmakers and influence peddling

Nigeria is divvied up into constituencies of cohesive aggregation towards key figures in society who can be engaged through other political heavyweights chief amongst whom is Olusegun Obasanjo – who would have thought?

But this gives it context, people who have held power before need to maintain influence by being accorded the role of kingmaker, those who appear to have platforms in the media, in entertainment, in religion, in tradition, in business, in the states, in law enforcement, in the military and even in the judiciary need to be given the sense of proximity to power, feted at dinners, granted audiences with the President, given courtesy calls and every ego-massaging elixir to deliver their support and herds to the door of the President’s ambitions – it is a popularity contest and the one with the greatest numbers speaking up has the best chance of taking the spoils.

In the gift of the President are political appointees in key offices and rewards for those who show unswerving loyalty, patronage is paramount, Mr. Fox does have an uphill battle, he is to be annihilated at best.

The game at play

The issue then becomes whether delegates have an independence of mind to judge each candidate by their merits and potential not forgetting the murky baggage each candidate carries because none has clean hands.

There are many names in this document which might well be souls bought and sold not to talk of votes that are in the bag, money having changed hands.

It is very possible that this scheme would be extrapolated to the national polls in April 2011, I think it is a given that whoever leads the ruling party would become the next President of Nigeria, the real contest is in delegate aggregation, if the contestants are this bad, it simply means we have been dealt a really bad hand.

The picture that appeared last week of the President kneeling before a church leader for prayers and blessing is a political coup if I ever saw one and that is just one tick on Page 44.

Getting the meat out of this

In this morass, one must not miss the gems of wisdom, an understanding of the problems Nigeria is facing, actions to be taken to address them, the reasons the ruling party is losing traction in the South-West of Nigeria - the big revelation being the governors were not performing and contrasted with the governor of Lagos State they were woeful failures.

Whilst the earnest wish of the ruling party is to have quality candidates that become good governors, the grasp on power of these dead-weights has the party hamstrung; the President appears to have no choice but to support every dog in place.

If anything should be learnt from this document, it is to educate oneself about what ideas and policies these people bring to power and the decision to refuse to follow leaders just because they lead, people should ask difficult questions, seeking convincing answers, challenge the status quo and keep out of the mob, if you are in a crowd make sure it is informed, knowledgeable and continually discussing the key issues.

Be sheep no more, do not be herded like goats into the pen just because they have planned to have you penned in there.

Enjoy reading the document but put it in context.

The source

The Man – Mr. Fox [PDF download]

Nigeria: The "success" of the Jeddah delegation

The search party

The Human Rights Writers’ Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) risks a state of myopic closed-mindedness having first spearheaded the consideration that the President be declared missing on medical grounds and search party be instituted to ascertain his whereabouts.

The Federal House of Representatives instituted a “search party” of sorts to seek out the President comprised of members of the House rather than some special composition prescribed by HURIWA.

All but one of the selected members were able to make the journey to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, the one being an unmarried lady would have been disqualified for visa requirements to Saudi Arabia even if she had presented her diplomatic passport rather than her Nigerian passport, but that was beside the point.

The host of delegates and President

The team arrived in Jeddah and would have by reasons of protocol been guests of the most senior Nigerian official in Saudi Arabia, that being the Nigerian Ambassador to Saudi Arabia.

The Ambassador would also have been the recognised host of the Nigerian President by our standards of protocol just as the President would have been a guest of the Saudi Arabian government by reason of his visiting the country in his capacity as the Nigerian President with the purported aim of opening a university in Saudi Arabia when he made his journey in November 2009.

As representatives of the Nigerian legislature visiting Saudi Arabia, the Ambassador would have known the main purpose of that entourage, to have at most an audience with the President of Nigeria or at least an observation of the President.

Inability to facilitate

For the first three days of that visit, the Ambassador who politically, legally and technically was host to the Nigerian President and the delegation from the House of Representatives could not facilitate an audience, an observation, a conversation or contact by all seemingly possible means with the Nigerian President.

As the reports go, the Ambassador tried to distract the delegation from their tasks by offering better accommodation, religious perks and tourist attractions which the delegation ably declined so as not be to distracted from their purpose and be compromised on their mission – that might call for some commendation.

Juliet not Jezebel

In any case, they eventually met with the First Lady, Hajia Turai Yar’Adua who from all indications was forlorn but hopeful, distressed but prayerful and so very aware of the condition of her husband.

The condition we can safely say could not be observed by persons who were not close family, by deduction one might surmise and aver that the President was in no condition to be seen for an audience or basic observation and probably in intensive care of some sort.

It is even possible that the President might not even be in the condition to see his wife, recognise her and consequently converse coherently with her – the picture painted of the situation reveals a lady who is a Juliet rather than a Jezebel – this is no woman scheming to retain the trappings of power and influence, I would suggest this lady just wants her Romeo back, alive, strong, able and responsive.

Those opportunists

The unfortunate thing is the faceless mandarins pulling the levers of power were already aware of her preoccupation with the health of her husband but conveniently co-opted her name and supposed influence to mask their conspiratorial Machiavellian activities.

It cannot be safely said those people were rooting for President Yar’Adua by any stretch of the imagination, but as long as they could keep us all in limbo about the state of the President they could pretend to have the eyes, ears and blessing of the President and his wife to run roughshod over the Nigerian Constitution and the Nigerian people.

A useful visit

That delegation by not being able to see the President through lawfully constituted provisions of assignment, protocol and purpose proved that the President not being available to meet under every possible circumstance was probably too incapacitated for himself, talk less of the office he had so far held.

For that reason, I do not believe that meeting was a wasteful and fruitless journey as HURIWA clamours. Regardless of the developments that have since ensued, the deduction HURIWA should have made should have been closer to recognising these circumstances rather than raising an unnecessary ruse which in my view leaves them open to myopic closed-mindedness as I said in my introduction.

God bless Nigeria

Until President Yar’Adua can be presented for observation, conversation and audience in contemporary settings as I suggested in my blog of January the twelfth Nigeria: Put Yar’Adua on screen today! – he is just incapable of appearing in public, he is also incapable of his public and his inability to be a public figure for what other unstated reasons means he is currently unable to be President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

We still genuinely wish him a speedy and full recovery, but the ship of state cannot be permanently moored in foreign docks, there are stormy seas to traverse with essential cargo for the purpose of building the motherland – Nigeria needs to move on.

God save the President, but more so, God bless Nigeria with capable leaders.

General Sources

(1) SaharaReporters – HURIWA asks Speaker Dimeji Bankole to refund Saudi trip’s expenses

(2) SaharaReporters – House delegation returns empty-handed: Yar'Adua very sick, isolated and abandoned in Jeddah

(3) 234Next – Lawmakers to account for failed mission

(4) Akin.blog-city.com - Nigeria: Put Yar’Adua on screen today!