Monday 17 December 2012

Who cares about obasanjo's gangnam style


Who Cares About Obasanjo’s ‘Gangnam Style’?–By Jude Egbas


Obasanjo does the ‘Gangnam Style’ In Ghana
I know at least one man who shouldn’t have been allowed anywhere near Ghana two weeks ago, in the guise of an election observer.
As he waltzed to the pulsating beats of ‘Gangnam Style’ in the humid Ghanaian temperatures ; his rotund figure making a dent on his ECOWAS (Economic Community Of West African States) gear, stacks of Obasanjo’s crude election records back home in Nigeria for eight odd years, stood up in defiant repugnance.
Twitter sneered in unison—Chinedu called the appointment of Nigeria’s former President as an ECOWAS election observer an ‘irony’. Omojuwa gasped in sheer disbelief. And Aninoritse’s trademark chuckles resonated from across the British Islesdripping withcharacteristic sarcasm.
ECOWAS was no less scathing. Apparently still licking its wounds from including Obasanjo in its election party, one senior official of ECOWAS confided in Sahara Reporters:
“Our meeting this evening has resolved, and this will be communicated to the political leadership of ECOWAS, that Chief Obasanjo should be saved the trouble of trying to give what he doesn’t have.
“You know Obasanjo is a loose cannon. He becomes uncontrollable once bestowed with power. We regret this appointment and vowed never to have the man invited to head missions again.
“ECOWAS was only fortunate to have [been] at an election of an advanced and stable democracy. Were it to be a volatile country, his disposition, recommendations and utterances are not only capable of truncating the electoral process, they are capable of jeopardizing the security and safety of our 250 monitors mobilized from across the sub-region.”
Obasanjo cannot spell ‘free and fair elections’ on a white marker board and ECOWAS should have known this. It was Obasanjo who handed Maurice Iwu, Nigeria’s former electoral umpire, the carte blanche to inflate election figures with the dexterity of a 21st century magician. It was Olusegun Obasanjo who expounded the ‘Amala’ brand of Politics which found brute expression in the likes of the late Adedibu and his ilk. It was Obasanjo who handed the reins of his Party to the likes of Bode George, Peter Odili and Tony Anenih—characters who stood for everything else but free and fair elections. It was Obasanjo who discovered Umaru Musa Yar’adua and a certain Goodluck Jonathan and foisted them on Nigerians; deploying all the sleight of hand in the copybook. Apparently, the man doesn’t know ‘jack’ about transparent polls.
And so when ECOWAS handpicked the same Obasanjo to oversee its elections, it should have known that it was doing Ghanaians and the continent a huge disservice.
ECOWAS must realize that they are but a sprinkling of past and present African leaders who belong to the noble ‘Class’ of Democratic Torch-bearers. Obasanjo twice flunked that ‘Class’, it has to be noted, in ‘Gangnam Style’.
The writer treats his followers to the authentic ‘Gangnam Style’ steps on Twitter daily @egbas

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