My Transition - Jonathan Ebele REMADE (B) Read online

  a fluid transfer of power. Coming from the debilitating effects of

  the Third Term trauma, which the PDP managed to survive, that

  transition marked out a new direction for the country and it was

  one moment the party should have been proud of, but it was

  tremendous credit wasted on a spirited effort to save the party

  from a one-man assault on the Constitution.

  Not quite long after our inauguration, unexpected problems arose

  with the President. I had come in as a Christian, South-southern

  Vice President to a Northern Muslim President who took very ill.

  Now, many who assume they understood Nigeria but do not,

  would miss the huge implications on that ticket's equation. The

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  equation which would have remained quiet if the president's

  health had held. The problem is, the president's health did not

  hold and the ethno/religious equation did not stay calm either. It

  got tragically worse. We will return to that.

  A page to which I would love to flip is Boko Haram. After the

  gruesome fate of their leader (Mohammed Yusuf) in police

  custody about July 2009, the terrorist sect began to project a

  malignant outrage. Our government had to deal urgently with the

  extremely dangerous threat the insurgents posed to national

  security and the well being of our people.

  Government overhauled and virtually reinvented our security

  architecture to confront Boko Haram and its surge. We

  reorganized our security apparatus by re-equipping and fully

  motivating the armed forces afresh. Issues would get further

  complicated with the curious intervention of former president

  Olusegun Obasanjo, whose visit turned out to be the precursor to

  another murder most foul. A brother of Yusuf was slaughtered

  mercilessly.

  Tragically, President Yar 'Adua died! He passed on barely two and

  half years into our tenure. I was sworn in as Head of State in Abuja

  and continued as interim president for the remaining months

  which brought the late president's term to conclusion in 2011. I

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  vowed to continue the late president's policies on the Niger Delta

  peace process, tackle corruption, work on the often (rightly)

  criticized electoral process and fix the country's energy problem.

  In summary, after two years of service as Governor in Bayelsa

  State (2005-2007) and another two years as the Vice President of

  Nigeria (2007-2010) followed by the sad, untimely death of the

  president, I was thrust into a political arena that I had no previous

  intention to participate in.

  As I said earlier, there is a key knowledge to acquire about Nigeria.

  This is the password into the deeper reality of our country. No one

  without this key knowledge could decode the nation. It really does

  not matter how brilliant or intelligent you might be. If you do not

  have it, you would not get it.

  Northern Nigeria (predominantly Muslim) and Southern Nigeria

  (predominantly Christian) have had an aged and still ongoing

  struggle for the control of power in the polity. It is a titanic

  struggle sewn into the foundations of the curious state. I will

  explain briefly.

  When I contested for my first term in 2011, Northern Muslims

  disagreed fiercely. They claimed that it was their turn to fill the

  vacancy in the presidency. They raised a veil of a smoldering

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  argument over the Constitution. They needed one of their own to

  complete the north's term. It was not about Nigeria any longer.

  The reason they gave was that a Southern Christian just left after

  eight years in office. Many people of the northern stock

  (predominantly Muslims) voiced out their reservations about my

  further participation in the race. They wanted me to walk away

  from that Constitutional right.

  It was a moment of correct definition of the country called

  Nigeria. It does not come frequently. This true definition usually

  sleeps beneath a lot of pretence. Sadly, it is on the basis of this

  mendacity that the world sees and assesses Nigeria, our trajectory

  and the conduct of principal actors in this polity. You see, our

  constant discord and disquiet are always traceable to the

  foundation of Nigeria. Even the name of the country is not

  native. Of course, the protagonists would ask, what's in a name?

  The chief inheritors and beneficiaries of the chaos are also the

  past masters of the duplicity game.

  During the 2015 elections, the arguments became further

  inflamed and intense. Northern Muslims insisted power had been

  with Southern Christians for about sixteen years.

  President Yar 'Adua did not complete the North's term because

  of his untimely death, which caused very serious tension even

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  among members of my party. Some even went to the ridiculous

  extent of taking the case to court contesting my nomination on

  the grounds that I took the oath of office as president in 2010 to

  complete the late president's tenure and in 2011. Therefore, they

  claimed I could not take another oath of office as that would mean

  doing three terms. The ridicule in the proposition would appear

  lost because there had been an attempt at messing with the

  Constitution to achieve three terms. This was still in Nigerians'

  recent memory, but the system somehow saw the cheap chicanery.

  As the storm gathered, intrigue was in abundance. The region and

  religion pushers in my party argued that I should not seek re-

  election. Many were torn between supporting me and standing up

  for their region and religion, which meant a whole lot. When some

  individuals alight to preach one Nigeria, those who know them

  better simply chuckle. One Nigeria is what I believe is best for the

  people of this country. That is my belief and act. However, it

  assumes profound differences depending on who is sloganeering

  and who actually means it. For some people, one Nigeria is an

  organism with mutative powers. Nothing constant. It is a virtual

  reality device which they altered and upgraded, depending on the

  trend and their "enlightened" personal interest.

  The intrigue and tension rose roof high, such that those who

  feigned support for me in public glare dived the depths to work

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  against me ostensibly out of sight. As I said before, very few

  political intrigues are hidden from the president. Those who

  appeared to be upstanding faced enormous pressure from their

  various constituencies. This was followed by major and minor

  betrayals and treachery. Many key party members fell under the

  compulsion to cross over to the opposition party. I would attend

  to this in Chapter Three in greater detail.

  The pressure was sustained and even increased right into the

  campaign. By the time of elections proper, it was practically

  impossible for my supporters in the north to come out and vote.
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  If you knew a thing about Nigerian elections, you just knew that

  violence plays a massive role in determining who comes out

  victorious and who loses. It was a very sad commentary on the

  political setting which passed the baton to us. There were too

  many deaths. Too many profanities thrown into the political space

  by otherwise eminent personality. There were extremely reckless

  phrases like "do or die, garrison commander etc. They all

  militarized the political space to the extent that peace was in full

  flight. It took our tenure in the presidency to rid the polity and

  politicians of that mindset.

  This fact easily bends the argument one way or the other over the

  deployment of armed forces during elections. The more

  vociferous antagonists are usually the ones ready with local

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  muscles fully armed for the elections. They would not want

  soldiers to spoil the party. What the soldiers do was to give voters

  the courage to come out and vote. These are voters who would

  have stayed home as warned by their neighborhood thugs. All they

  needed to do was a slight display of weapons and psychological

  intimidation.

  The North is a totally different ball game. There has always been

  an order of violence which became useful at several moments of

  decision. This violence is usually wrapped in religion and ethnic

  robes. For a long time, it was dignified in a shield of military

  camouflage.

  One of the most traumatizing moments of my presidency was the

  cold blooded murders of youth corpers in the north following our

  victory in 2011. I thought long and hard over the waste. It just did

  not make any sense. How does a parent lose everything like this?

  How does a nation kill its future in this manner? I still recall the

  spread of their names in the papers. The promise of a very close

  tomorrow. They were graduates already. Almost all of them from

  the South, and one from North Central... Kogi.

  That was a sure threat which told some voters to stay away from

  the polling booth. It was one potent threat everyone knew would

  be carried out if it caught their fancy. The statement issued before

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  and after the elections on dog and baboon served two purposes. It

  raised tension before the elections and emboldened wanton

  destruction and waste of lives afterwards. The corpers were the

  highlight, but many more people died than was reported. For

  lovers of peace and country, we never could win. It was a catch 22

  situation.

  If this was explicable in some evil way, what about the statement

  issued by the ACF in the middle of the 2015 campaigns? One

  Engineer Abubakar Umar warned Igbos, Yorubas and South-

  southerners in the north to be careful of their handling of

  northerners in the East. He warned that northerners should be

  treated like kings and queens, or else...

  Now, this part of his submission is not the tragic definition of

  Nigeria. It was not even the brazen seizure of the law by the

  deputy scribe of ACF. It was the recount of an earlier carnage.

  Abubakar goes on to remind everyone of the wanton waste of the

  post-2011 election.

  "...Yorubas suffered 480 billion Naira loss in investments

  destroyed. Igbo lost 410 billion and the South-south 970

  billion...we know these statistics. We have these statistics, so we

  expect the Igbos to treat our kinsmen as kings and queens".

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  A president does not bare his mind on this in the saddle no matter

  how deep the pain runs. This is the kind of threat we speak about.

  You do not hear these things and look forward to voting. Indeed,

  another threat was coming on the palace terrace of the revered

  Kano stool. Some young boys were issuing marching orders to

  southerners with a proclaimed ultimatum.

  There were the Jumat rages which happened like flash-floods.

  There were the moments of amputation in Zamfara. There was

  the gory Akaluka stake. A lot strings all the way back to Maitatsine.

  Many of these would appear far from elections, but they never

  strayed so far from power pursuits and supremacy struggles. As

  cattle herders spread all over the country with death and

  destruction over resource, so did some leadership in history align

  to this by acts. The Ogoni murders, Odi massacre, Zaki Biam,

  Bakolori, the Middle Belt current killings and others too

  numerous to mention. I mean, how many murders did the choking

  Delta waters witness with their oily shimmering eyes? How many

  of the children these waters succored returned to their bosoms

  with their bloods drawing painful crimson maps on their oily

  surfaces. The fish could not witness. A forlorn, altered marine.

  No one could possibly forget how the "doctrine of necessity"

  came about, following the unnecessary stalemate manufactured

  by an anti-constitution, ethno-religious champions who

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  masqueraded as democrats and patriots. The tension I saw in the

  presidency was about religion and the North-South divide.

  Muslim youths were mobilized to frighten PDP members and the

  ones who stood firm were simply disenfranchised. These

  ceaseless conflicts at the time involving power sharing and power

  shifting accounted for the turbulence which would follow and

  remain sustained during my tenure.

  My Transition Hours is a combination of stories and facts

  accurately stated in my words. In this book, I shall focus in depth

  on the political platform in Nigeria and the 2015 elections, with a

  day by day account of my decisions, personal feelings and

  international responses.

  Our nation and citizens faced a cascade of challenges over the past

  four years (2011-2015). The worst was the vastly increased

  menace of Boko Haram with their mindless terror, insane mass

  killings, utter savagery, kidnappings of innocent children and

  other despicable acts of brutality. The Abduction of Schoolgirls

  by Boko Haram Terrorists.

  Monday, April 15, 2014

  01:00 Hours -

  The notification came that heavily armed Boko Haram Islamists

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  had arrived in open trucks and quietly abducted about two

  hundred girls from a boarding school in Chibok, Borno State in

  North-Eastern Nigeria, which is about two hours drive from

  Nigeria's border with Cameroon.

  On a Monday night, as students slept in their dormitories, gunmen

  stormed the Government Girls Secondary School in Chibok. The

  school had earlier closed because of the danger posed by Boko

  Haram terrorists. However, some students were asked to stay

  behind because of the ongoing Secondary School Certificate

  Examinations (SSCE). They were supposed to take their physics

  paper the following day. My wife and I were devastated on

  receiving the intelligence report. The country was numb with

  shock.
Why did this happen? How did it happen? The girls were

  only a bunch of innocent teenagers. A lame question laid heavy on

  my mind...wasn't a school supposed to be safe?

  Before now, the terrorists had struck in schools in Borno and

  criminally murdered kids, but two hundred! It was devastating, to

  say the least. This North-East which was the headquarters of the

  terrorists was where we also had military men on ground. This is

  why the revolting development was very disturbing.

  I began to question why these girls were abducted in the night and

  taken away in open trucks. Why was it that none of the girls ran

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  away? My curiosity was further roused by the information that the

  girls left in a very orderly fashion and there were no reports of

  gunshots. Was that possible?

  My mind was ravaged by a torrent of questions:

  Why was there not a teacher or the principal around? The girls

  were left all on their own? Who leaves such young girls alone like

  that? Where is it done? Someone must have given the girls some

  assurance that they were going to a safe place?

  What was the significance of transporting the girls through the

  forest and not a tarred road?

  Why did the girls not jump and run for it at the times that truck

  must have slowed down?

  Most importantly, what prevented any shootings?

  It was a very complicated story. Reports indicated that there was a

  broil between the police and terrorists that night, some distance

  from the school. Was that a decoy?

  Would that not have spooked the girls enough to make them run,

  since they all knew the drill in a seriously murderous environment

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  like theirs? In my secondary school days, everyone ran on catching

  wind of any crisis.

  Not one of the security agencies sighted the truck in the dead of

  the night carrying two hundred little girls? Not the military, police

  or secret service? None?

  As if on cue, protests broke out broke out within hours. They were

  tightly choreographed and nicely distributed around the country.

  They were popping up like poxes on a body prime for it. It was too

  fast and too good to be true. Whoever knows the nature of

  protests would see through these. Yes, many joined of their own

  freewill and many in the bliss of ignorance, just doing good. The

  heart of it bore the machination. We should not get this wrong. I