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JUNE 11, 2007 VOL. 21, NO. 9

Hand-over Theatrics

**General Ibrahim Babangida**

Behind the scene occurrences during last week’s handing over ceremonies across the country, indicate that some former leaders may not have come to terms with their new stations in life
By Bayo Bernard
Last Tuesday, May 29, 2007 during the handing over rituals across the country, it was indeed apparent that many leaders across party and ethnic divides whose tenure terminated on that historic date, could not come to terms with the stark reality that they were leaving office. This may ostensibly explain why some governors stayed away from the ceremonies.
From Abuja, the mighty seat of power to the South, which is relinquishing power after eight years, at the helm, to the North which is the beneficiary of the power shift, the story was the same, former office holders, if possible, would have begged that they be allowed to stay, at least a more day in office. How time flies!
In Abuja, former President Olusegun Obasanjo was still relishing the paraphemilia of office, at exactly 11.29 when he handed over the instruments of office to Yar’Adua. But protocol problems started almost immediately. As he (Obasanjo) was returning to his seat, he forgot that the seat he had vacated to hand over to his successor was no longer his. The former leader was adjusting his agbada to take his old seat, when a protocol officer on hand swiftly moved to guide him to his new seat.
If Obasanjo found it hard to grapple with the stark reality that power has finally changed hands, the man who is the major beneficiary of the change of guards did not fare any better in the same regard. President Yar’Adua obviously was yet to come to terms with his new position as he had to contend with how to address the former President, Obasanjo in line with the order of national protocol.
During his inaugural speech, the former Katsina State Governor unwittingly left out the name of his predecessor, after he had mentioned the Vice President, the Senate President, the Speaker and the Chief Justice of Nigeria in that order. However, as the president stopped to address his predecessor, on his way back to his seat, he apparently addressed him as “President Obasanjo,” making listeners to wonder at his discretion.
In Calabar, Cross River State, it was the nine-year-old daughter of former Governor Donald Duke that reminded the ‘Tinapa’ governor of the reality of leaving office after eight years. Little Dona Duke in an emotional-laden voice had appealed to his father not to hand over to his successor and family friend, Senator Liyel Imoke. Minutes before power changed hands the little Duke apparently aware of the implications of her father handing over to Imoke turned to her dad and said “Daddy, do not hand over to him.” Hearing this, everyone around burst into laughter.
In Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, it was the usual cat-and-mouse game, the former Governor Rasheed Ladoja, who had earlier vouched not to handover to his estranged former deputy lived up to his words as he, like other prominent politicians in the pacesetter State, distanced themselves from the elaborate event held at the Liberty Stadium. To, perhaps, fill the vacuum as well as prevent the breakdown of law and order, the state’s Head of Service, Mrs. Bola Obileye was later dispatched to perform the ceremony, which later took place at the executive chamber of the office of the Governor.
For former President Ibrahim Babangida, the only former leader whose name was missing in the roll- call at the inauguration of President Yar’Adua in Abuja, his surprise appearance in company of his wife, Maryam at the swearing-in of Governor Mu’azu Babangida in Minna, Niger State, was anything but a blessing. The new Niger State helmsman had used the occasion of his first public address to deny the former military president, claiming he was not his political godfather.
In Lagos, former Governor Bola Tinubu was still relishing the victory of his party, Action Congress, AC, in the April 14 governorship election so much so that the bespectacled governor was beaming with smiles as he acknowledged cheers from his teeming supporters that thronged the Tafawa Balewa Square, TBS, to bid ‘the Lion of the Fourth Republic’ – as Tinubu is now addressed – farewell from office. But for those who think the erstwhile helmsman will flee the country so as to escape the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, onslaught, he has this to say: “Don’t listen to any rumour that I am leaving Lagos. I am going to be around in active politics: don’t listen to rumour. I am going nowhere.”
Of all the former governors, the exit of Chief Lucky Igbinedion, the erstwhile chief executive of Edo State was the most unceremonious, it turned out to be an inglorious event for the man who have ruled the “Heart Beat” state for eight years.
At the Samuel Ogbemudia Stadium last Tuesday the Igbinedion was massively booed and called names during the swearing-in of his successor Professor Oserheimen Osunbor. Hardly had Governor Osunbor concluded his address than the crowd descended on the jeep ferrying Igbinedion and his wife, Eki, throwing pure water satchets, bottled water and other missiles on it; it took the security men, intervention, who in a commando-style whisked the former governor and his wife away from the scene, to avoid being maimed. In both Zamfara and Kebbi States, the high point of the event was the resolve by Governors Mahmud Aliyu Shinkafi and Saidu Usman Dakingar, respectively to continue with the implementation of Sharia legal system.
While residents of Ogun State, especially first class traditional rulers were more visible and given prominent roles in the event that ushered in Governor Gbenga Daniel’s second term in office– which incidentally coincided with the home coming of former President Obasanjo, the same cannot be said of Yar’Adua’s in Abuja where prominent royal fathers were shut-out of the VIP lounge. Only the Sultan of Sokoto was allowed to rub shoulders with the VIPs, leaving other traditional rulers not in the pedigree of the Sultan to sit outside in the common pavilions near the air conditioned lounge.
Remarkably, the Abuja ceremony was bereft of normal party celebration as the PDP whose candidate was being sworn-in as the nation’s 13th Head of State remained unusually quiet throughout the event. Apart from Vice President Goodluck’s posters inside the Eagle Square, other officials of the party were apparently anonymous. They were, in fact, complete strangers in their own house, raising fears in some quarters that ‘their’own President may probably put his partymen and women at arm’s length as he tries to assert himself in power in the months ahead. Notably, the former Katsina State governor said in an interview with the Financial Times of London early in the year that “PDP is a stranger to the constitution.” Worse still, he also told the paper that he would not run the country as a PDP president.