Against the backdrop of the prevailing general insecurity in the polity, Abiodun Awolaja juxtaposes the preferred roles of Nigerian statesmen with the seeming inertia, political balkanisation and geo-ethnic colourations commonly exhibited by many of them.NATION states and countries the world over survive partly because of the roles played by their statesmen. Statesmen stand out with their ability to organically bind people together as respected elders, and to exhibit qualities of statesmanship at critical periods.For instance, in Liberia, which recently witnessed a disputed presidential election, the leading opposition candidate, Mr. Winston Tubman, who ran on the platform of the Congress for Democratic Change (CDC), sprang surprises by appearing at the inauguration of President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf of the Unity Party for a second term of office. This was in spite of the very unpalatable remarks he (Tubman) had made about Sirleaf. While claiming that the presidential election had been rigged in favour of Sirleaf, he had cited the letter his party received from the electoral commission as evidence that he actually won the first round of the election by 43.9 per cent, incidentally the same figure given to Sirleaf by the commission.Although the commission later came out to say that its letter to the CDC emanated from a typographical error and sacked its head of communications, while its chairman resigned before the run off, not too many CDC supporters were excited about the run off which recorded a marginal 38 per cent of voters and 90 per cent of this figure for the incumbent. Tubman had called for total boycott of the run off, and it was in this light that the action of the former Justice Minister in appearing at Sirleaf's inauguration was seen by many as a big boost to the democratic process in the country, and many have, in fact, described the action as statesman-like.However in Nigeria, many national leaders tend to revert to their ethnic cocoons or flaunt their political affiliations in times of national crisis, rather than helping in proffering viable solutions anchored strictly on the national interest. Specifically in the context of the current general unrest in the country, not a few have wondered what the perceived silence of elder statesmen in the country portend for the polity. In essence, what roles are the likes of Generals Yakubu Gowon, Abdulsalami Abubakar, Olusegun Obasanjo, Ibrahim Babangida, Domkat Bali, Jeremiah Useni; Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, Alhaji Shehu Shagari, Chief Ernest Shonekan, Chief Edwin Clark, Sultan Sa'ad Abubakar, Pastor Ayo Orisejafor, Commodore Ebitu Ukiwe, Alhaji Maitama Sule, among others, playing in dousing the current tension in the country, particularly issues relating to the persistent Boko Haram criminality in the North, the recent fuel subsidy removal protests by the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) which was hijacked by some politicians calling for regime change, and the Plateau crisis, among others'Chief Olusegun ObasanjoIt appears that many of the elder statesmen are too closely linked with the big political parties to be seen as playing sufficiently neutral roles in the polity. Since leaving Aso Rock in 2007, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo has, for instance, been busy as a party man, refusing to be schemed out as chair of its Borard of Trustees (BoT). Still, OBJ has gone beyond making public statements, and represents something of a model statesman in the country, whatever his failings as an individual.The Owu high chief was in Plateu State on 14 September, 2011 as part of efforts to find a workable solution to the Fulani/Berom crisis which has become the defining issue in the state. Indeed, OBJ's visit stoked fires on the perceived inertia of statesmen in the state such as Bali and Useni, General Joshua Dogonyaro, General John Shagaya, Chief Solomon Lar, Senator Ibrahim Mantu and Air Vice Marshall Jonah Wuyep, among others. However, the reaction of one of the retired military top guns who spoke with the Nigerian Tribune in Jos perhaps provides a window into their attitude to security issues. He said: 'As retired military officers, we know the magnitude and implications of the problem more than any other segment of society. We have to tread cautiously and consider the unity and stability of the country. So we are not sitting on the fence as claimed by some people. We are part of the team trying to find solutions to the crisis.'' However, investigations by the Nigerian Tribune showed that the leaders were not willing to work together to find solutions to the crisis as a result of political differences.After his Jos visit,Obasanjo proceeded to the home of the in-law of the slain Boko Haram leader, Mohammed Yusuf, in Borno State, to commiserate with the family and broker a deal which would see members of the sect agreeing to negotiate with the Federal Government. But internal split within the sect aborted whatever successes the general might hope to have made.General Ibrahim BabangidaGeneral Ibrahim Babangida (IBB) could be credited with statements emanating from the general insecurity in the country, but nothing more. His recent position on the fuel subsidy removal and other issues was dismissed by President Goodluck Jonathan's sympathisers, but it contained frank recommendations on policy changes through which the president could confront head on, the challenges which currently threaten to render his government prostrate if left to fester.The former military president wanted President Jonathan to ignore attention-seekers in the polity, but his statement that the fuel subsidy removal on January 1 was ill-advised made his critics to dig up the atrocities allegedly committed by him as president, and to portray him as a political hypocrite and presumably a disloyal party man. He had said: 'If my opinion will not be misconstrued again by government spin-doctors and naysayers, I would rather call on President Goodluck Jonathan to seize the moment by legitimately embarking on complete restructuring of the country in order to put into practice the real principles of a federation. Under our present arrangement, our skewed federalist status has brought about series of role conflicts between the Federal Government and the federating units.'I have studied government's blueprint on how it intends to utilise the 'gains' of subsidy removal, but I have reservations for the deep level of involvement of the Federal Government at implementing the blueprint as opposed to the states and local g.overnments. Under a true federation, for example, the Federal Government has no business in providing primary healthcare services or renovation of primary schools when that ought to be in the purview of the states and local governments. Brazil suffered this structural imbalance some two decades ago, but its ability to confront the challenge, has placed Brazil on the threshold as one of the world's performing economies.''The anti-Babangida rave was in the context of the fact that he could have made his position known to the president in a secret parley if he had so wished, since he presumably could not be denied access to the president given his status in the polity. More importantly, he is one of those national figures whom the president himself admitted that he often held consultations with.Also speaking in an interview with the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) Hausa programme monitored in Kaduna, last Thursday, IBB said that the most important thing before him at the moment, with all those who fought during the Nigerian civil war (1967-70), was the unity of the country. Hear him: 'I am assuring you, if some people want Nigeria to divide and the government says the country must remain united, I'm telling you I am going to put on my uniform to fight for the unity of Nigeria.''General Muhammadu BuhariGeneral Muhammadu Buhari has arguably adopted a presidential ambition as his first love since the return to civil rule in 1999. Indeed, of the former Heads of State, Buhari seems to stand out strictly as an opposition figure to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)-led governments (of Obasanjo, Umaru Yar'Adua and the incumbent Goodluck Jonathan), and has played no neutral role in national politics. During the last labour unrest in the country, following the ill-advised decision of the Federal Government to remove fuel subsidy on New Year Day, Buhari's utterances were interpreted by members of the ruling party as being largely within the province of his party, the Congress for Democratic Change (CPC).Sultan Sa'ad AbubakarThe Sultan of Sokoto has, by virtue of his position as the President General of Nigeria Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCI) and chairman of the Nigeria Interreligious Council (NIREC), had to traverse the country, preaching peace among Christian and Muslim faithful. Established as a non-governmental organisation in 1999, NIREC has the objective of promoting religious harmony in the country. It aims to promote religious morals, ethics and cultural values for the rebuilding of the country.However, even if NIREC's activities have engineered any change in inter-faith relations in the country, the fact that religion per se is not the country's problem has tended to limit the Sultan's activities strictly within the realm of rhetoric. This is in the context of the fact that his constant defence of Muslims and their rights in the country places him in the frame of a northern Islamic leader since southern Muslims are traditionally at peace with their Christian neighbours, while northern Muslims hide under the cloak of religion to perpetrate heinous crimes, including, in recent times, burning of churches and killing of innocent National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) members when the result of the April 2011 presidential election were announced.The Sultan's efforts as a statesman were further challenged by the claim by the National Assembly members from Plateau State that his recent call for the implementation of the Solomon Lar report in Plateau State in the wake of Boko Haram criminality in Borno State was very strange. All in all, the unspoken charge is that the sultan is merely the leader of Hausa-Fulani Muslims, rather than a statesman.Pastor Ayo OritsejaforPresident of the Christian Association of Nigeria, Oritsejafor has been at the centre of activities of NIREC, trying to forge harmonious co-existence among members of the two major faiths in the country. Indeed, Oritsejafor has been a lone voice for the oppressed northern Christian faithful and has spoken out strongly against the silence of the big men on Boko Haram, pitched against their loud shrieks on fuel subsidy, as he asked rhetorically in a recent interview with the Nigerian Tribune: 'Are you trying to tell me that petrol is more important than human life'''To his critics, however, Oritsejafor's perceived closeness to Aso Rock is a drawback. In the wake of his call for the arrest of Buhari and his running mate, Pastor Tunde Bakare, following the post-election violence witnessed in the country in April and Buhari's perceived inflammatory statements, spokesman of Buhari, Yinka Odumakin, described him as a politician, PDP contractor and a charlatan.To Odumakin, Oristejafor's constant presence in Aso Rock meant that he could not take an objective look at the Jonathan presidency and thus could not be trusted. He said: 'The ridiculous claim by the cleric that Buhari is culpable because there were disturbances where he won is like calling Oritsejafor a hemp-smoker because someone is seen smoking marijuana around the premises of Word of Life Bible Church. Absurdity! While we concede to the Villa Priest who is widely believed to be a beneficiary of the rot that presently defines governance in Nigeria the right to defend the tainted victory of the PDP, we frown at the use of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) mask to prosecute his Aso Rock brief.'Our collective memory is not so short as not to know that, unlike other revered men of God who have been on that exalted seat and spoke (sic) truth to power in the order of Samuel who put God's command above the fat of oxen, we don't have a quote of Pastor Oritsejafor on the unbridled corruption and open banditry that has been the defining rule of governance in the country. The images of him the people have is roaming the Villa corridors and parading government houses across Nigeria, giving spiritual succour to treasury looters.''However, Oritsejafor has consistently proffered solutions to the nation's myriads of problems and defended Christian faithful, even while calling for a cessation to hostilities by northern Muslims.Ukiwe, Lar, Sule and Useni Paradoxically, while Babangida is always in the news for good or bad, his former deputy, former Chief of General Staff (CGS), Ebitu Ukiwe, beyond being in the news during his 70th birthday ceremony, has maintained a studied silence on national issues. He is joined in this posture by the likes of Lt-General Jeremiah Useni, former Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Minister. However, the pioneer chair of the PDP and former Plateau State governor, Chief Solomon Lar, partly on the strength of his being a Christian from a marginalised zone in the North, has functioned as a powerful bridge between the North and the South, throwing his weight behind the Jonathan presidency. Thus, his silence on the current situation is unusual.Former Vice-Presidents Alex Ekwueme and Atiku AbubakarChief Alex Ekwueme is not known for intervening in the nation's critical situations since the outset of the current Republic in 1999. Indeed, his critics say that, even in his home state of Anambra, he has exerted no influence. He is also accused of refusing to deploy his wide connections in the polity to advance the cause of Igbo presidency by 2015.In a similar vein, Atiku has refused to play the statesman, being principally interested in his presidential ambition since 1999. Though he has been talking of late, most of his statements were tainted with politics. Despite his being a member of the PDP, it took former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar a period of intense criticism before congratulating President Goodluck Jonathan on his recent election as president.However, when he finally did, he said 'all elected leaders and fellow countrymen should get to work in earnest to deliver the much-needed democratic dividends to Nigerians,'' and advised Jonathan to begin an urgent healing process in the entire country and within the PDP family as well. According to Atiku, the future and unity of the nation should be uppermost in the mind of every statesman.Politics apart, however, geo-ethnic loyalty has tended to overshadow whatever pretences to a pan-Nigerian agenda the majority of the statesmen might lay claim to. Former President Shehu Shagari, at his age, cannot be expected to be as travelled as the likes of IBB or OBJ. Not many analysts are of the view that he is eminently qualified to convoke a meeting of the elder statesmen to make concrete interventions in the polity. Indeed, while Shagari shares the record of non-involvement in partisan politicking with General Yakubu Gowon as a former Head of State, he has the added advantage of being a Muslim from the core North, which can prove very vital in resolving the Boko Haram debacle.All in all, however, functional statesmen are a rarity in current politicking and this partly accounts for why the crises in the country continue to fester. Given their wealth of connections and experiences garnered over the years, the nation's statesmen, though they hold no magic wand, can nevertheless contribute to resolving/reducing the perpetual tension between the North and the South, the constant question whether Nigerian can work. But perhaps the position of another statesman in his own right, Chief Reuben Famuyibo, a former presidential aspirant, during an interview with the Nigerian Tribune, last Tuesday, is typical of the perception of the inertia of national leaders in the country within the context of current challenges: 'There are no statesmen now. Statesmen are dead in this country.
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