Falae, Obasanjo and Why Buhari is Goodluck
By Dare Babarinsa
Twenty-four months ago, it may have appeared far-fetched to think of
Nigeria’s immediate future without the role of Goodluck Ebele Jonathan in
it. He was the leader of Africa’s most powerful and richest country. He
was the Commander-in-Chief of the continent’s largest armed forces. He was
propelled to power by the largest and most formidable political party in
Nigerian history which was destined to rule in the first instance for “60
unbroken years.” He had in his grasp, the powers of the Nigerian
Presidency with its near omnipotence and all pervading reach. Then he
started believing in his own invincibility and inviolability, ensnared by
the sirens of sychophants and shackled by his own indysyncratic
preoccupations. He was going full-steam in his “unsinkable Titanic” and
did not see the tip of the iceberg ahead. Now he is home after almost six
years in the sanctum of power, to embrace the creeping sunset. Goodluck to
him.
Yes, Jonathan did a lot to earn himself the red card from the Nigerian
electorate, though he was a beneficiary of a multi-ethnic rainbow coalition
in 2011. He lost his command, almost lost his party and led it to its
first defeat in 16 years of Nigeria’s unbroken democracy. Future
historians may unravel what happened to a man brought to power by uncommon
Goodluck and to with so much roaring support who finally ended his tour of
duty on a note of sorry whisper. Whatever they may unravel however, they
would not but commend him for his dignified carriage which lends solemn
majesty to the ritual of handover to President Muhammadu Buhari, his old
opponent and ultimate Nemesis.
Transition has always been a problem for Nigeria, especially from one elite
group to another. Before General Olusegun Obasanjo handed over power to
elected President Shehu Shagari on October 1, 1979, all Nigerian heads of
government since independence have died in office with the notable
exception of General Yakubu Gowon who was toppled in a military coup on
July 29, 1975. Before then, Alhaji Abubakar Tafawa-Balewa, our country
first and only Prime-Minister, was killed on duty January 15, 1966. His
successor, Major-General Thomas Aguiyi-Ironsi, Nigeria’s first military
Head of Government, was also killed on duty July 29, 1966 and he was
succeeded by Gowon who ruled for nine eventful years. Gowon’s successor,
General Murtala Ramat Muhammed, was also killed on duty February 13, 1976.
After Obasanjo broke the jinx, two other Nigerian rulers have died in
office. General Sani Abacha’s iron rule was brought to an abrupt end when
he died suddenly in June 1998 paving the way for General Abdulsalami
Abubakar. The death of President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, after a lingering
period of illness, ushered in the era of Jonathan. Now Jonathan has taught
us how to have an almost seamless transition with a sitting President
conceding victory to his opponent and then attending to the rigour and
drama of the inauguration rituals.
Jonathan was the man who saved Nigeria from fulfilling its worst nightmare,
especially considering the hate-campaign that characterized the
presidential campaign and the saber-rattling from his so-called militant
supporters. One is happy that President Buhari gave him due recognition
during his inauguration address, commending him for his statesmanship and
grace.
One man who played a similar role was Chief Olu Falae, the presidential
candidate of the defunct All Peoples Party, APP and the defunct Alliance
for Democracy, AD, joint alliance that tackled the behemoth Peoples
Democratic Party in 1999. Falae’s opponent was the redoubtable Chief
Olusegun Obasanjo, Civil War veteran and our country’s most profound
political strategist. The 1999 presidential election was fraught with
irregularities, but in the end Chief Obasanjo was declared the winner by
the electoral commission.
Chief Falae and his supporters were seriously disappointed. Most members
of Idile Odua, the pan-Yoruba group to which I belonged, were supporters of
Falae who was the official candidate of Afenifere, the mainstream Yoruba
political and cultural organization under the leadership of Senator Abraham
Adesanya. After Obasanjo was declared the winner, Falae met with his close
aides and supporters at the Sheraton Hotel, Abuja. Our friend and member
of Idile, Prince Dayo Adeyeye, (the immediate past Jonathan’s Minister of
State for Works) was with them at the Abuja meeting.
While Falae was billed to address a press conference in Abuja, one of our
most prominent leaders, Bayo Adenekan, the deputy leader of Idile and then
the managing director of Capital Oil Plc, called me on the phone (there
were landed phones in those ancient, pre-Obasanjo days!), saying there was
fire on the mountain! I was already dressed up to go to work and the
Adenekan’s phone call changed my intenary for the day. He said Otunba
Solanke Onasanya, one of the most prominent Afenifere leaders, had called
him asking for our intervention in preventing a crisis that may be ignited
by the pending press conference of Chief Falae. Sure enough, Otunba
Onasanya called me and in an agitated voice, requested me to talk to Chief
Falae immediately. “He must not go ahead with that press conference
unless he is willing to amend the content of his statement,” Baba
Onasanya said flatly.
Onasanya said he was privy to the draft statement to be read by Falae where
he would call for the cancellation of the result of the presidential
election. He said those like Falae (he was also detained by the Abacha
dictatorship) who had been at the vanguard for the restoration of democracy
should not be calling for the cancellation of the presidential result.
“The worst civilian regime is better than the best military government,”
Onasanya said. “Cancellation means annulment. We know what our people
suffered following the annulment of the June 12, 1993 presidential election
won by Chief Moshood Abiola.”
I promised Baba Onasanya that I will carry out the assignment. Chief Falae
was our candidate and he emerged according to our prescription. Our
colleagues wanted the presidential candidate of the AD to be nominated by
the caucus of the leadership of Afenifere and not by open primary. We had
wanted the same for the governors but Senator Adesanya said he had to agree
to hold open primaries because of pressures on him from some of the young
Turks within the movement. This almost led to the emergence of those we
called “Abacha politicians” (those who served in the military government or
participated in the politics of Abacha’s five political parties) as
governorship candidates of AD, especially in Lagos and Ondo State.
Rearguard action restored our favoured candidates, but the damage was
extensive. In Lagos, Senator Bola Tinubu emerged and in Ondo State, Chief
Adebayo Adefarati emerged shutting the door to the formidable Mrs Mobolaji
Osomo, one of the late Chief Adekunle Ajasin’s most trusted lieutenants.
Hence the close caucus primary that led to the emergence of Falae, a
phenomenon that ironically also divided the movement for the supporters of
Chief Bola Ige, first elected Governor of old Oyo State who lost the
contest, believed he was robbed.
Therefore, Chief Falae went to war with a divided army, but we were not
prepared for defeat. Our candidate was a first class bureaucrat who had
ran a presidential campaign before and had a nationwide structure and
acceptance. But he had lost to the old soldier muscle of Chief Obasanjo
whose campaign war-chest was incomparable. When the result was announced,
we believed Obasanjo had won unfairly. What with the critical report of
the international observer teams and the secret reports of the security
agencies? How can Obasanjo and the PDP defeat the combine forces of the AD
and the APP which produced the vice-presidential candidate of the alliance,
Alhaji Umarru Shinkafi, a former Director-General of the Nigerian Security
Organisation, NSO, (now State Security Service, SSS) who were entrenched in
the politics of the old North? We wanted war. Then the call from Baba
Onasanya.
He said if Chief Falae calls for annulment, then he would be playing into
the hands of a clique within the ruling military junta which was not happy
with the transition Programme. He said if Falae rejects the result
outright, then that clique may have an upper hand over the group that
supports General Abdulsalami Abubakar which wants the transition to go on.
I called Adeyeye at the Sheraton and briefed him on the Onasanya
assignment. “We are calling for cancellation because we have been robbed,”
said Adeyeye. “There is nothing wrong with starting again.”
Yes, we may start again, but we don’t know how long the journey would take
and the cost in lives and property. The journey that started after the
annulment of Abiola’s victory in 1993 had been long and costly. We casted
our lot with Falae because he shares our belief that Nigeria needs
constitutional reforms. We want a Federation that would allow the Yoruba
people of Western Nigeria living in Lagos, Oyo, Osun, Ogun, Ekiti and Ondo
State to have one regional government instead of the present six states
government. We believe that “there is only one Yoruba Nation, it has a
common interest and one inescapable destiny.” We are convinced that such a
regional government would have the capacity to promote the political,
cultural and economic interests of our people and this would impact
positively on the fortunes of Nigeria. It would have the capacity to
embark on life-changing programmes like the construction of modern rail
lines, airports, power projects and create a template for relating to other
Yoruba people in Nigeria especially in Kogi, Kwara, Edo and Delta and also
outside Nigeria in Benin, Togo and the American and Caribbean Diaspora. We
believe this could be achieved politically if we have a President who
shared our passion for constitutional reforms. Falae was ours, but the
electorate preferred the old soldier, Chief Obasanjo. Despite the loss, we
were not sure we want to go back to the starting block.
Adeyeye said the press conference would hold in the next 20 minutes. I
told him about our fears of another protracted political crisis. Soon he
was able to get Chief Falae to the phone. It was a long conversation
lasting more than 15 minutes. In the end, Falae addressed the press
conference about two hours behind schedule. He did not call for the
cancellation of the result. Instead, as we counseled, he rejected the
result and promised that he would challenge it at the tribunal. He did.
The following Monday when the ruling junta met at the Aso Rock Villa, the
clique within the junta called for the cancellation of the result based on
the reports of the security agencies and some of the international
observers, but General Abdulsalami was able to wave them aside.
“You cannot weep more than the bereaved,” he was quoted as saying. “Chief
Olu Falae, the man directly involved, has said he would challenge the
result at the tribunal. Let the tribunal do its duty.”
But that was not to be the end of the matter. Few weeks later, the
tribunal was siting in Abuja. One of the witnesses from the government
side said he was not aware that Chief Obasanjo had been pardoned by the
military government. He said there was no instrument of pardon which could
only have been signed by the Head of the Junta, General Abubakar. This was
a critical development. A friend of ours close to the tribunal said
without the instrument, then Obasanjo would be declared ineligible to
contest and therefore, the tribunal would have no choice than to cancel the
result of the presidential election. He said it was not certain that it
would declare Chief Falae elected by default.
There were only two options. We should get the instrument of pardon and
present same to the tribunal. Or we could get Chief Falae to withdraw his
petition and save the entire process. It was late afternoon when we got
this information. We decided to act on it immediately. Two of my
colleagues Bayo Adenekan and Prince Adedokun Abolarin, now our royal
father, the Orangun of Oke-Ila, Osun State, were dispatched to see Senator
Adesanya in Ijebu-Igbo, and discuss the options with him. Senator Adesanya
immediately invited then to a meeting of the caucus at the palace of Oba
Sikiru Adetona, the Awujale of Ijebu-land.
The meeting became an all night one. Present along with Adesanya were many
of the leaders of Afenifere including Baba Onasanya, Sir Olaniwun Ajayi and
Chief Ayo Adebanjo. Kabiyesi Awujale and some of his chiefs were also
present. Senator Adesanya said the best thing to do was to inform Obasanjo
and Falae immediately about the new development. A few phone calls
confirmed that Obasanjo was somewhere abroad in South America. Chief Falae
was in London as a guest of the international businessman, Chief Harry
Akande.
In the end, it was decided that the best option was to prevail on Chief
Falae to withdraw his petition and save the embrayonic democracy. A call
was put through to Chief Falae and his host. Chief Falae said he was in
the dark about this development and that only his lawyer could brief him
properly. His lawyer was in Nigeria and Falae believed he was competent to
handle any development. The lawyer was called in the middle of the night.
He listened patiently to Baba Adesanya and then said he can only take
instructions from his client, Chief Falae. Another call was put through to
Falae who said he cannot give instructions on the phone without a proper
discussion with his lawyer. Senator Adesanya requested that Chief Falae
should return immediately. Chief Akande then promised to bring Falae home
in his private jet.
In the end events took an unexpected turn. The top official who claimed he
could not find the instrument of pardon later changed his testimony and
tendered the instrument to the tribunal during a subsequent sitting.
What was clear was that Chief Falae, despite his being the aggrieved party,
was ready to make all necessary sacrifice to save the system and protect
the institutions of democracy. Those institutions have survived in various
forms since that eventful night at the Awujale Palace. Since then,
Adesanya, Onasanya, Bola Ige, Chief Anthony Enahoro, Chief Solomon Lar and
many of the great veterans of the anti-Abacha struggle that gave our great
country the current democratic dispensation, have since passed to the great
beyond. Their sacrifices made our freedom possible.
Like Falae did in 1999, we have seen again how the statesmanship of
Goodluck Jonathan may have prevented the fulfillment of our worst
nightmare. Africa’s greatest nation has passed an historic test. It is
now the good fortune of President Buhari to ensure competent men and women
to man national institutions to ensure the growth and prosperity of our
great country. We are on the threshold when new demands would be made, for
there are outstanding issues, especially constitutional issues that have
not been addressed since 1999, and only competent persons could handle them.
Nigeria is lucky to have Buhari as President. His passion and patriotism
are necessary ingredients to take necessary action to make Nigeria continue
on an irreversible journey to stability and progress. He was military
ruler when Nigeria had only 19 states and 20 governments. Now we have 36
states and 37 governments including that of the FCT and the Federal
Government. There is a need to visit the demand for constitutional reforms
so that those zones that want their own regions can have them. If unity is
good for Nigeria, it cannot be bad for the regions.
We are lucky too that Jonathan is back in Otuoke in good health if not in
high spirit. God is good to Nigeria and our leaders are no longer going
home in body bags. Jonathan has now joined the most exclusive Boys Club in
Nigeria, the club of retired Heads of Government. He, President Shagari and
Chief Ernest Shonekan are the only civilians there. The others: Gowon,
Obasanjo, Babangida and Abubakar are old soldiers. A job is also waiting
for him as the next chairman of the PDP’s Board of Trustees. I hope now he
would find time to reply most of his letters and write new ones. I am sure
if the new tenant of Aso Rock does not reply his letters, he would not be
surprised, and find the good humour to take it in his stride.
Babarinsa, journalist, media entrepreneur and author, is the Chairman and
Editor-in-Chief of Gaskia Media Limited.
Credits: Dare Babarinsa, Ekiti Forum.