Tuesday 9 April 2013

Candid Reflections’ With Debo Adejugbe: Power, Politics And Poverty


Candid Reflections’ With Debo Adejugbe: Power, Politics And Poverty


debo
Reading through Olusegun Adeniyi’s “Power, Politics and Death”, one cannot but wonder how we got here. The disdain and selfishness with which our elites and supposed leaders treat governance and the governed is so worrisome that, as you leafed through the pages, it became harder to fathom objectively.
The author tried his best to be kind to the memory of late Umaru Musa Yar’Adua but did not mince words in exposing what went on, how he felt and in certain situations, what could have been done better in hindsight. Good book, I must say and the fact that it took me this long to read it is inexcusable.
Several things struck me in the grand hypocrisy that littered the book. From the person of the late President, to his VP, his wife, AGF, CSO, ADC, The National Assembly, The Governors Forum, Organized Labour and the several others mentioned in the book; you could see they were all there to water their lawns and make ends meet while making sure we remain poor.
Decisions were made to the detriment of the state. The rule of law, for which Yar’Adua pledged allegiance and total compliance, became just a byword in the grand scheme of shielding Nigerians from the truth about his health. The “honest” man as dubbed caved in to his handlers and by extension, made Nigerians the scapegoat.
Nothing screams hypocrisy more than the sight of a sick President, who couldn’t discharge fully (even up to 30%) the demands of the office he occupied, and yet failed to resign to tend to his health and save the nation from the several chess games we witnessed during that dark era. The fact that during his campaign train, he had to be rushed out of the country to receive treatment, further buttressed my opinion of the late President as selfish.
As if having a sick and non-functional President in place wasn’t bad enough, he was (un)ably assisted by an AGF who became the personal Lawyer to the most wanted criminal in the country. Ibori became law and the servant leader gulped every morsel he fed him without asking questions. He ceded power (willingly or not) to a tiny group of individuals who had no meaningful plan for the country other than to encourage disunity among the populace.
Then, came his VP. The Goodluck Jonathan portrayed in that book is anything but clueless. That is my major point in this piece. We have erroneously termed this calculative and ruthlessly efficient politician as clueless and he is always happy to play along. He paints a picture ofsomeone who doesn’t understand anything and willing to play along as long as his objectives were being realized.
On page 193 of the book, Olusegun Adeniyi while speaking on the several pleas and counter pleas made to President Yar’Adua to write the National Assembly on the transference of power to the VP while away in Saudi Arabia and the intervention letter written by the AGF to the VP, wrote: “I said I had just been given a copy of a letter written to him, producing same as I spoke. He dismissed the letter out of hand, repeating the question, “why would he write me a letter?” He appeared angry, but I nonetheless pleaded with him to read the letter. Reluctantly, he accepted the letter from me, and as he went through, I could see that he had actually read the letter before.”
He continued: “when he got to the part on the Supreme Court interpretation, he read aloud the phrase “the president is required toexercise such executive powers conferred on him either directly or through the vice president and minister of the government….,” he looked up and said, “That can mean anybody, even you. This is a very stupid letter, which says nothing.”
Jump to page 195 and you will see where Jonathan rebuffed all entreaties to him to sign the 2009 supplementary budget on the ground that “he had it on good authority that if he signed the budget, he would be impeached by the National Assembly”. Say what you will, but I will maintain that President Jonathan is not clueless. Everything he has been doing is well planned, rehearsed and dispatched with ruthless efficiency. We run the risk of losing again in 2015 if we still garb him in the clueless cloak.
From the little extract above, few things were glaring. Jonathan is, like most politicians, very cunning. He feigned ignorance at a letter he had already read. He showed his anger at not being made the acting President contrary to the public persona he radiated at that time – that of a clueless person. He played his game well and made sure he never gave the National Assembly any reason to discard him on the flimsy excuse of signing a supplementary budget. He even marshalled the FEC through a process of invoking section 144 of the constitution – declaring Yar’Adua incapacitated!
When he became substantive president, he racked up more bills than Aruma Oteh could ever get by sourcing his campaign (and bribe monies) funds from the subsidy account in advance. That was followed up with an unprecedented subsidy regime that has far-reaching effect on our future. Hear this: Jonathan is not clueless.
We can sum up the mission of those at the helm of affairs with Goodluck in simple terms and it is: using the Power they have been given to play dangerous Politics with our lives while appealing to our human and sensitive side to give them four more years to sink us further into Poverty.
Simply: Power, Politics and Poverty.
It is in your Power to stop this Politics of Poverty. ‘Whatcha’ say?
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Here’s a belated birthday wish to my pretty daughter, ‘Madam’ Hailey Adejugbe Adebowale who was a year older last Sunday. My promise, Dear Hailey, is to be the world’s best Dad for as long as we both live. I. LOVE. YOU.
And to all my friends and well wishers who took time out to honour Hailey via BBM Display Pictures, avatars and messages, may God continually bless you.
I’m @deboadejugbe

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