First, a plane flies to Ota in Abeokuta, Ogun State from where Chief Olusegun Obasanjo is picked up and brought to Abuja. Another plane does so with respect to General TY Danjuma, bringing him also to Abuja. Then President Buhari is asked to join them. Of course, whoever is superintending this would have read the riot act to the three of them which is that whenever the three of them have reflected among themselves and discovered the answer to the current crisis, they should call the conveners on the only telephone line that they would have been left with.
A Mandela is what we make of one. No more going to Sokoto when what we need is in our kaftans
This would be the beginning of a simple operation aimed at saving the Nigerian State from collapsing, a task that must be done. The Nigerian State is not just another state but the guardian of the African Civilisation. The guardian of the African Civilisation cannot be allowed to scatter to the politics of cows. A very simple operation is thus required, involving element of compulsion for some of Nigeria’s most senior citizens.
Why might resolving the crisis be the responsibility of these three in a country of over 200 million? It has to because we cannot be looking for Mandela in South Africa when we have our own variants here. A Mandela is what we make of one. Secondly, most of the crises manifesting today took roots when they were in power. Thirdly, they are the ones with the most details of what have happened. So, why waste time looking for the answers where such answers do not exist? Fourth, neither the governors nor the National Assembly, the media or the larger civil society have advanced to be recognised in terms of plausible ways out. Yet, time is of essence! Above all, it is clear from a survey of the standpoint politics on the herdsmen crisis that the problem the country is dealing with is NOTHING but elite fragmentation. So, locking the three most symbolic expressions of the elite constellations in the country now in a room until they reappraise themselves is the only way out. If their military orientation has made it impossible for them to fight and reach consensus behind the scene, then the society has to compel them to learn that. Only Gen Gowon is excused from this taskforce on ground of age and respect for his person!
The question of finding rugged enough enforcers who can tactfully compel the difficult individuals who are to be members of the taskforce of G-3/4 remains. But there are certainly concerned, patriotic and independent minded Nigerians who can bring the G-3/4 together. Names that readily comes to mind stretches from the Sultan of Sokoto; the Ooni of Ife; John Cardinal Onaiyekan and Aliko Dangote. Others may have one or two more names to this list as conveners such as Dr. Goodluck Jonathan. He looks an attractive name to add except that there is need to shield this exercise from people who are still politically involved. We wish the conveners luck because their road may be rough but they have a task that can be accomplished.
Thank God, we have these men around
Additional to the riot act would be Brief left for them in the room, detailing how they might wish to regain their freedom. The first item there is Buhari profusely and deeply apologizing to his two other seniors for causing the crisis. He explains how he is the cause of the crisis to the extent that as president, as APC leader and as a Nigerian leader of Fulani extraction, he is implicated in all cases. That is, whether the crisis now is traceable to un-strategic dispersal of Boko Haram insurgents following their dislodgment from Sambissa, he is complicit to the extent that he is the C-in-C. He is also complicit if the crisis is due to imported Fulani militia for electoral advantage in 2015 because, whether he was party to it or not, he is the leader of the APC. Last is his complicity should the Fulani ‘herdsmen’ showing up in forests across the country are avenging neglect, Buhari being a Fulani who has been a one-time Head of State and now the incumbent. So, that’s why the crucial meeting of the G-3 would start with Buhari’s apology.
The second item on the Brief should be the unconditional acceptance of the apology by the two others. They have to because there are no reasons why Nigeria should collapse or collapse on the heads of an Obasanjo and TY. As individuals, they have got the best that Nigeria can offer. As leaders, they cannot be around and a tragedy of that magnitude would be allowed when they have the capacity to unmake it. Above all, collapse of Nigeria will prove so much of the perceived inherent incompetence of the black man to organise the state, notwithstanding extenuating circumstances underpinning that reality. So, they have to accept Buhari’s apology.
Chief Obasanjo in a New York Times pix
President Buhari in a New York Times pix
Next to the apology and the acceptance of the apology is another cup of tea for each of the three big guys, followed by Obasanjo’s flight to world capitals. While out there, he will make it abundantly clear to everyone that Nigeria is back from the brinks and that all those mirror-imaging and simulating Nigeria’s implosion should stop wasting their time because Nigeria is not about imploding. Doing this is not any challenge to Obasanjo. His next assignment still out there is stringing together the coalition of honest brokers who will assist Nigeria to sort out the forest occupation in a month or less instead of waiting for Gen. Buratai’s 20 years. Again, Obasanjo is located in such a manner that he can construct a coalition of that sort. Then he returns home to rejoin Gen Danjuma who would have been doing at home exactly what Obasanjo was doing outside. The three of them – Obasanjo, TY and Buhari – would use the next few weeks in rousing the nation to oneness, shame bigots, chauvinists, irredentists and prophets of doom. They would have been joined at this point by Gen Abdulsalami Abubakar who would have completed his seminars re-grooming the governors on how to be governors.
Transformed now from G-3 into the G-4, their sole task this time is how the country will comprehensively be restructured. It needs to be restructured to account for why, for instance, securing the forests were not part of the national security template as to have left the forests available to be occupied by some stragglers. It has to be restructured to account for why certain people found their way into power at all levels. It has to be restructured in so many other ways. The G-4 would crack their brain on all these, including calling in their own trusted intellectuals.
What is the guarantee that they will come down to talking to themselves? Common on! Don’t forget they are in detention and they can only secure their freedom by resolving the crisis.
