Nigeria by Campbell John

Author:Campbell, John
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: undefined
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc.
Published: 2012-08-15T00:00:00+00:00

Power Alternation or “Zoning”

Nigerians who were engaged in that transition have all told me essentially the same story: the understanding in 1998–99 was that henceforth the presidency would alternate between the North and the South, between Christian and Muslim; its rotation would be a manifestation of Federal Character. After one term, Obasanjo would step aside for his vice president, Atiku Abubakar.

Obasanjo spent much of his first presidential term rebuilding his own patron-client network and restoring Nigeria’s international standing. With both he was remarkably successful. His efforts on behalf of international peacekeeping and conflict resolution burnished his already high international reputation, while he purged the military and the security services of Abacha’s “political appointees,” who were mostly Northern Muslims, replacing them with those who became part of his own network. On the other hand, his relations with the National Assembly were bad in large part because he was insensitive to its prerogatives, and the latter made repeated, unsuccessful attempts to impeach him. Other than lip service, he did little or nothing about corruption, and, despite substantial oil revenues, he did not address Nigeria’s fundamental domestic problems, ranging from disaffection in the Delta and the North to the growth of poverty.

During his administration, Obasanjo became increasingly unpopular at home, as much because of his military and autocratic style as his unwillingness or, more often, inability to address difficult domestic matters.[14] In a society that expects “big men” to personally distribute largesse to their servants and supporters, his stinginess with his own money was notorious and was regularly contrasted with Vice President Atiku Abubakar’s liberality.

In 2003, rather than stepping aside in favor of Atiku, Obasanjo sought the presidency a second time. In the North, there was a widespread view that he was reneging on the understood agreement that the presidency would rotate. His relationship with Atiku Abubakar was also deteriorating, though the final break did not occur until near the end of his second term. Nevertheless, there was the strength of his resurrected patron-client network and his international support and prestige; he finally secured the PDP 2003 presidential renomination, though with difficulty and only with the last-minute help of Atiku Abubakar who sought to avoid a full-blown succession crisis. In return for his support in 2003, the vice president asked for, and apparently received, Obasanjo’s assurances that he would support the former’s candidacy for the presidency in 2007. But, already, some political operatives were concerned that Obasanjo intended to remain president for life.

Obasanjo’s presidential opposition in 2003 was Muhammadu Buhari, also a former military dictator. Buhari is austere, and his image is that he is incorruptible. His house in Kaduna is modest; when I would call on him, he would answer the door himself, and the legion of servants and retainers that usually surround ogas was absent. While he was chief of state following his 1983 coup against Shagari, he waged a famous “war against indiscipline” that included high-profile measures to improve the notorious lack of sanitation in Lagos. He was popularly associated

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