THE IMPARTIAL OBSERVER
Audu Ogbeh’s crime
HANK ESO
Wednesday, 12 January 2005
As
in war, in Nigerian politics the first casualty is the truth; then, the human
casualties and body count follow. And so it has been for the ruling Peoples
Democratic Party (PDP) in Nigeria. Finally, “the come has come to become”
(apologies to K. O. Mbadiwe) for the PDP and its unending saga in Anambra State,
with the ousting of its Chairman, Chief Audu Innocent Ogbeh.
This writer recalls saying quite early in the Anambra State political crisis that no legality can derive from an illegality. The Anambra saga was about a political mandate blatantly stolen and the utter disenfranchisement of the people of that state, to which the complicity of the ruling PDP was unquestionable. As it turns out, Audu Ogbeh is not the first casualty of the Anambra saga and certainly will not be the last. The cycle is just beginning to spin out of control and will be compounded by those who would like to capitalize on it, as part of their scheme towards the 2007 presidential elections. Before Ogbeh resigned, AIG Raphael Ige lost his job, as did a host of others. Recently Anambra State Governor, Dr. Chris Ngige and his alienated political godfather, Chief Chris Uba, were both suspended from PDP and their respective fate still hangs on the balance both politically and legally.
There is a nettle that still needs to be grasped about this unfolding resignation process, which has loomed large in the press for a while now. But that it happened, is hardly surprising. Given that the PDP tags every contentious issue “a family affair”, Ogbeh’s crime is akin to a family member breaking a code of silence by publicly admitting that his family had engaged in incestuous affairs. It also resembles the “you-are-fired- no-I-quit” scenario that is the hallmark of such boss subordinate scenarios.
Chief Ogbeh did the right thing in resigning. But he was wrong in waiting this long to leave, thus allowing his adversaries the pleasure of claiming or denying that they forced him out. In resigning this late, he also eroded the moral high ground from which he would have departed his post and hopefully, been able to turn the table and shock PDP out of its current lethargy. Nonetheless, when Audu Ogbeh finally leaves his post on February 28, 2005, PDP as well as Nigeria would be the ultimate losers, not him. His claim that his resignation was informed by the need to strengthen intra-party harmony is a plausible explanation, but there can hardly be any harmony within PDP, when the party jackals bay at their prospective preys or when they zero in for the kill. The whole issue of whether he resigned under duress or with a gun pointed to his head is moot, as it is tenuous. It has become customary to hear of such things within PDP – but then, it’s all in the family.
The ousting of Chief Ogbeh
became a fait accompli when he publicly went head-to-head with President
Olusegun Obasanjo over the Anambra State crisis. Ogbeh, true to his name, is
innocent of the impudence and disloyalty he is accused of. However, he made
three costly mistakes. First, he forgot where absolute power resides in
Nigerian
politics. Second, forgot that whilst he was the Chairman and titular
head of PDP, President Obasanjo was in actuality, the main leader of the party
and its flag bearer. A fact that is borne out by the fact that since 1999, PDP
has functioned more as a parastatal of the Federal Government than as a
political party. The relationship between the two is so fungible, that there
has hardly been any line of differentiation between the fortunes of the party
and those of the government at the federal level and in the twenty-eight states
controlled by the party. Given the omnipotence of the Government, is not too
farfetched to believe that in Nigeria politics God is always on the side of
those who control the federal might. Finally, he forgot that notwithstanding the
occupant, no one fights Aso Rock openly and survives politically.
Whether Ogheh’s resignation was voluntary would for long remain a mater of conjecture. This much we know: well before he publicly resigned, there had been two attempts to oust him and also he had been dragged to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) by some members of the PDP’s National Executive Council for alleged fraud. This latter effort, coming on the heels of his letter to President Obasanjo, was clearly meant to sully his name and shake him down. Considered differently, his downfall was a reminder to him and others within PDP, that those who leave in glass houses don’t throw stones.
PDP has always been crisis-prone and given to self-immolation. But indeed, for those who follow Nigerian politics closely, none of this is new or surprising. The present episode mimics uncannily what transpired once between Prof. Tam David-West and President Babangida. Prof. David-West became an irritant to the IBB regime when he publicly alluded to the vast difference in probity between his former boss, Gen. Buhari, and his current boss, Gen. Babangida, by saying that Gen. Buhari never sent him a note when he served as his petroleum minister. The insinuations were clear and he paid a price for it. After making that public statement, Prof. David-West was not only ousted from office but was humiliated and made to face the law for allegedly “drinking tea and accepting the gift of a wristwatch over negotiations that brought a certain company business amounting to several million dollars.” It proved that when Nigeria's rulers wish, they could and do throw the books at erring public officers who prove to be self-righteous or irritants. This may yet be Chief Ogbeh’s fate. Though a PDP powerbroker himself, Chief Ogbeh has unquestionably become an irritant to the PDP leadership cabal, thus his ouster.
Asked why he resigned, Chief Ogbeh said: “I have been reflecting on it. Let there be peace in the party, let the party grow and assert itself; and I want the party to move on in harmony, not in disarray. So that is my reason.” In some quarters, it is believed that his resignation was part of an arranged deal that would offer him a “soft landing” and shield him from possible prosecution if found to have mishandled public funds as some within the PDP are already alleging. President Obasanjo’s minders, however, saw it differently. It is not surprising, therefore, that his Special Assistant for Public Affairs, Mr. Femi Fani-Kayode, reacted thus to Ogbeh’s resignation. “We believe he (Ogbeh) did the right thing, the honourable thing and we wish him well. I believe that the party has come out of this difficult period intact and united and I believe that the country has also done the same.”
The State of play
I believe that we have not seen the end to the Anambra State saga, but we have definitely reached an appalling nadir, when those within PDP, who speak up publicly on the crisis or indeed any other national crisis are bound to be forced out. It has thus become clear what President Obasanjo was referring to in his 12 December 2004 reply to Chief Ogbeh, wherein he accused his party chairman of “incompetence,” “insubordination,” and “mischief making.” When any political chieftain has been so tarred and feathered by the president, his downfall becomes a forgone conclusion
Audu Ogbeh might be gone from the leadership rank of PDP. But his ouster should bother every well-thinking Nigerian. There is no argument against the logic of those who believe that he overreached himself by going public. To them, a man who has an unfettered access to President Obasanjo should not have stooped so low, for the sake of cheap popularity in making public his letter. True, but what if this was his last resort, since his access to the president was not really as unfettered as we would have been made to believe. Come to think of it, those within PDP who know the President well enough have also publicly described him as “stubborn” and “unheeding” of counsel. So, what makes Chief Ogbeh’s fate and his dealing with the President different? What Ogbeh, should have done is state the following clearly in his letter.
“Since you Mr. President have not heeded my personal and private entreaties on this critical matter, I am left no choice, as the Chairman of the party to put my views to you in writing and make my concerns publicly known in the national interest. Having done this, I will tender my resignation immediately.”
He would then have absolved himself the fallout from the Anambra crisis, taken the moral high ground to which he is entitled for speaking out, and put the onus and the “bucks” squarely on the President desk, where it rightly belongs.
Ogbeh’s real crime
But having made this observation about the interaction between Chief Ogbeh and the President on the Anambra saga, something else needs to be said clearly. It has never been and will never be wrong to challenge the highest authority -- in this case our president -- when he personally or in the conduct of his official duties -- by acts of commission or omission inflict moral wrong, as is now clearly the case in Anambra State. I do not believe that Ogbeh was ousted merely for challenging the president, but for confirming what we all already knew to be that truth – that PDP stole the mandate in Anambra States and may have done the same in other States and at the federal level.
Audu
Ogbeh’s alleged crime reminds me of a Russian political anecdote, where a man
ran down the streets of Moscow screaming repeatedly. “President Brezhnev is
a fool! President Brezhnev is a fool.” The man was promptly arrested and
hauled off before a magistrate for disturbing public peace. Once there, the
magistrate sentenced him to thirty days in the gulag – one day for disturbing
public peace and twenty-nine days for revealing a national secret. Ogbeh is
being punished for confirming and revealing PDP’s secret of having rigged the
gubernatorial election in Anambra State. That, indeed was Audu Ogbeh’s crime.
Like some before him Audu Ogbeh might have become another PDP sacrificial lamb. But he is also an example that those who ride on the back of the tiger must never try to dismount. When they do, the consequences are inevitably ominous. This entire saga offers a vast learning process to Nigerians. First, we are still not committed to honesty and transparency in governance. Second, we still have a long way to go on the matter of applying the rule of law. And third, those who as advisers, are prone to speak up honestly in public have no place in Nigeria’s governance. There do so to their peril.
With this political development, we have been reminded yet again, that the trouble with Nigeria comes from our leaders rather than from the masses. We have been apprised once again, that Nigerian politicians and bureaucrats who erode accountability are more likely to be rewarded than those who try to sanitize our corrupt system are. Ultimately, there should be no second guessing from Nigerians, that we continue to have a leadership that mouth off their endless lip service to the rule of law, but dither when it comes to vowing their allegiance to the rule of law. What a pity?
I can imagine and I have read that there are already several people angling to replace Audu Ogbeh. What is it that they aspire to? And what will they bring to the table? Like late Dr. Chuba Okadigbo, Chief Ogbeh is not an un-savvy or unsavory politician. He is also not a political neophyte. He brought to the table his experience, integrity and courage. I sincerely believe that he believed convincingly, and worked assiduously on the ongoing efforts to set Nigeria truly on the part to democracy. These are worthy credentials. It is, therefore, ironical that for standing up for what be believed in he is being ousted. The danger in such a situation is that anyone, who will succeed him, will only survive the office, if they do not speak up or take a stand, even in the face of obvious tyranny. That, by itself, is a disservice to PDP and to Nigeria as a whole. It portends great danger for our nascent democracy.
As far as PDP macabre politics goes, there may be an inventively hidden agenda to Ogbeh’s ousting. The political stakes as to who controls PDP in the run-up to the 2007 presidential elections is becoming steep. The forces are already aligning along those loyal to Vice President Atiku Abubakar and those who have a vested interest in the emergence of General Ibrahim Babangida as the PDP nominee. Both camps will now fight to ensure that a candidate sympathetic to their cause is will emerge as Audu Ogbeh’s successor. But the game is far from over. Indeed, as invincible and cohesive as PDP might seem, Ogbeh’s ouster represents a disquieting crack in the PDP façade. For now, it is just a crack but one which may soon become a yawning chasm now that PDP has crossed its fault line. When that happens, we can surely look for some key PDP elements to jump ship and cross carpet – assuming the party does not totally self-destruct.
Finally, for a political party which has explained many of its foibles and transgressions and a “family affair,” it boggles the mind that they have become so unforgiving as to oust the “head of the family” for an impolitic conduct and presumed bad judgment. Audu Ogbeh’s public censure of the President in the name of the party and the nation should not be a political career-ending event. After all there is always that crystallizing moment when delusion meets reality. In a democracy, such acts -- which are equivalent to public dissent -- are the norm rather than the exception. But then, Nigerian politics is replete with strange happenings. Perhaps, finally, the ruling PDP is beginning to show its true family colors. Will PDP survive the “ghost” of Audu Ogbeh ouster when coupled with the “ghost” of stolen mandate in Anambra State? Only time will tell.
With neither anger nor partiality, until next time, keep the law, stay impartial, and observe closely.
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Hank Eso, is a columnist for Kwenu.com. Since 1982 his political commentaries on Nigerian politics and global issues have appeared in The New Times (Lagos), African Profile International (New York), The Nigerian And Africa Abroad (New York) and in Gamji.com.
© Hank Eso, Wednesday 12 January 2005.
Email: hankeso@aol.com