Spitting on Yar’Adua’s Grave

Comfort Obi

The dead stay dead. And nothing confirms this than what happened penultimate week, in Abuja, during a lecture in honour of late Major-General Shehu Musa Yar’Adua. His associates chose that day to publicly spit on his grave. The President of Rwanda, Paul Kagame, who was the guest lecturer was seated. Before him, they behaved like adult deliquents, and exposed themselves before the world. If the dead could do anything, Shehu Yar’Adua could have either cursed them, slapped them, or both, for desecrating his name.
Nigerians always knew that the guys who disgraced themselves that day not only played with our emotion, but our wealth. We always knew that their interest in us starts, and ends with their personal interests. But nobody guessed that they could make such a disgraceful public spectacle of themselves. Here is the story.
Chief Tony Anenih, former Minister for Works, former Chairman of the PDP Board of Trustees, was asked to say the opening prayer at the ceremony. Anenih, by the way, was an associate of the late Yar’Adua in the PDM. I now wonder who called on Anenih to say the prayers. And why? Were there no priests there? Or Imams. But I digress. So, Anenih was asked to pray. Instead of saying a simple prayer for the success of the event for which they had gathered, and for the repose of the soul of the late Yar’Adua, he began to play politics. Anenih: “Thank God for the President we have now. We pray that God will give you the courage, wisdom and political will to clear the rot you inherited from the previous administration.” That certainly was not a prayer. He was throwing jabs at his former friend, former President Olusegun Obasanjo. He was not asked to assess the past regime. But more on this later.
As Anenih sat down, Obasanjo, another associate of the late Yar’Adua, and the chairman of the Yar’Adua Foundation, stood up to read his address. Not one to let a jab go unanswered, he told Nigerians how their money was stolen. He talked about those who betrayed the late Yar’Adua. Obasanjo: “Some people stood by the late Tafida (Shehu Yar’Adua) in his hour-of-need, while some chose to abandon him… If not for Yar’Adua, those seated here would not be here to talk of corrupting themselves or self-aggrandisement.”
Obasanjo was clearly replying Anenih, and at the same time throwing a dagger at former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, another Yar’Adua associate who was also present. Obasanjo was referring to the late General Sani Abacha era when Anenih played a major role in stabilising the government. At the time, the late Yar’Adua, using his PDM, had, along with his colleagues, asked Abacha to quit within one year. Yar’Adua was a member of the National Constitutional Conference. But as he was setting that agenda, Anenih was mobilising members of the conference to campaign for Abacha's continuation in office. He succeeded. Abacha continued in office, threw Yar’Adua into jail, from where he never came out alive. And Obasanjo was clearly calling a couple of people there corrupt.
Atiku’s submissions came next. He stopped short of calling Obasanjo Nigeria's Hitler. He said he intimidated opponents. He dismissed him as a divisive person. He said Obasanjo couldn’t organise a free and fair election. Atiku: “Late Yar’Adua stood for good governance, free and fair elections, and did not use power to intimidate anybody, even his opponents, and saw politics as a means of bringing people together for the common good.”
The three men – Obasanjo, Atiku, Anenih – are good copy. They all have, in their bags, the secrets of one another. But we must be wary of what they are telling us. They are talking at our expense, and making jokes of us. Once, they did everything together, including the sharing of the national cake. When they were sharing it, they didn’t share it in public. So, why should they now inflict their shame on us? If they didn’t quarrel over the spoils of war, nobody would have told us, like Anenih did, that Obasanjo’s government was a rotten one. When did he know that? Was this not the same Anenih, who in 2002, long before the 2003 general elections which heralded Obasanjo’s second term in office, told us that there was no vacancy in Aso Rock? That every other contestant was wasting time? Is it not the same Anenih, who became popular as “Mr-Fix-It” because he could fix anything for Obasanjo – the leadership of the National Assembly, the changes in the National Chairmanship of the PDP? Was Anenih not part of Obasanjo’s government? For three years, he was the minister for works, during which period, Nigerians insist the roads became worse than ever? If Obasanjo didn’t sack him as the Minister for Works, removed him as the PDP Board of Trustees chairman, would Anenih be talking about the rot in Obasanjo’s government. He was part of the rot.
Obasanjo talked about corruption, and those who betrayed Tafida. Is he just knowing that? Why did he work with Anenih? Why was Anenih his points – man if he knew he couldn’t be trusted? Why did he appoint a man he now claims couldn’t be trusted, as the chairman of his re-election committee? When did he find out that Anenih was corrupt? And why did he not, as was his pastime, hand him over to the EFCC? Or was Anenih too hot to handle. Why did he not probe what happened to the roads under Anenih? My verdict: Obasanjo was acting out the same script he is known for – use and dump.
As for Atiku, what is the difference between 12 and a dozen? For the period – first four years of their administration – when he was the most powerful Vice President in the world, nobody heard of Obasanjo intimidating political opponents. When Obasanjo put him in charge of everything, nobody heard of Obasanjo’s wickedness. When he and Obasanjo won in 1999 and 2003, nobody heard of Obasanjo not standing for good governance, free and fair elections. We are hearing all those now because they quarrelled over the spoils of war.
My final verdict: Nobody should bother when these guys abuse one another. Let them continue disgracing themselves. Soon, they will cancel one another out. That is when we will thank God for little mercies.