AS OBASANJO VISITS AMERICA, LET HIM FACE NEW WAYS TO HEAL NIGERIA 

PHOTO: GENERAL OLUSEGUN OBASANJO.

The current perception about Nigeria is that it has been persistently distressed since the last three years, certainly, not in its status as a people, but as a body of institutions, entities and structures.

Even if the virus was to some extent latent or hidden between 1999 and 2007, during the Obasanjo time in power, what extraneous factors suddenly popped up in the environment that are flattening the nation, currently?

Has the end of Nigeria as a democratic entity come to a state of permanent or near harm, especially when the harm is by way of self-abuse?

It is a fact that every nation including America and Britain went through negative and deadly transitions as they related to corruption or ethnic or even religious issues.

But what appears to make that of Nigeria distinct is the intoxicating state of institutional behaviors, the shallow pattern of leadership and the constant display of mass unsteadiness. 

The collective result is the uncomforting state and panicky condition on the part of the mass of people.

As long as Nigeria, a heterogeneous society by nature, remain managed by a governmental entity that revolves around the office of a one man presidency, as in the U. S. A, adjustment from the Nigerian collective germ could take time. What is it about the nature of a presidential type of political system that causes more complications for Nigeria?

Obasanjo’s period was that of an 8 year-experimental presidency and was on a trial and error commencement when the 2007 presidential election came.

So what should have followed, with guidance from Obasanjo and other bold-face Nigerians was the choice by the people of a world-shattering type of president, even within the context of the so called rotational or shift-oriented regional system of presidency. That is, a man or woman with revolutionary character.

Obasanjo, no matter how he is viewed today, portrayed a persona of charisma, wit, boldness, get-up-and-go, and displayed a style of international attraction and popularity. For these roster of survival and renovation oriented actions, Nigeria re adjusted itself, at least to some extent. Then the unusual occurred.

Either by accident or design, Obasanjo and his close associates paved the way for a man known for non- heroic or daring ways. Actually what this man exhibited was in the line of a good polytechnic chemistry tutor, a slow moving persona, and a man who abhorred extraordinary attention.  He was once a Katsina State Governor, known as one of the first Governors to institute Islamic Sharia law in a Nigerian State.

His name now stands out as President Umaru Yar’ Adua, a man reportedly known for these yielding dispositions or declarations. Yet, he was expected to aggressively patch up a society going through institutional ailments of various degrees. This occurrence remains an open question to Obasanjo especially.

Nevertheless, Yar’ Adua is officially the President, whether in sickness or in health, and he will not be the first in his current ailing state to remain in the presidency. The 32^nd American president, Franklin Delano Roosevelt was known to be very physically incapacitated, sickly, and known to have hid his sickness, as well utilized a wheelchair, and even demanded photographers not to take or show his pictures to the public.

So as long there is a stand-in-president in Nigeria, that is what counts for now. And for fairness sake, lets see what Yar’Adua him self, either through verbal, or sign language, as well as by way of statement from his official physician, family and/or through the constitution tells the people what to expect next. 

There is something that is far more to the Nigerian issue, which is beyond the current, dance, and hide and seek between Yar’Adua or Goodluck Jonathan.

It is the on going ailment of powerlessness that as rule have impaired the people while a few opportunists, anti-social characters, self seeking and self centered rotating executives are taking advantage of the present weak spots in the government.      

Nigeria cannot remain disoriented for a much more longer period of time, and Obasanjo, in spite of the current alleged matters being pointed towards him by some in the press, must support the urgent healing of Nigeria through something that is dear to his mindset.

It would require broader consultation with good faith natives and citizens in Nigeria. Certainly not with those who do not see the cyber age young adults as essential for the country’s swift up-ward mobility and sustained leadership.  Now, what is that something?

It must be revolutionary, unprecedented and it requires international goodwill. For the most part the society cannot continue with the same revolving individuals and the same aged methodological ways and expect a special change or result, mostly as it relates governance as in the presidential system.

There are millions of diasporan Nigerians willing to risk going back home, they need to be helped to come back in drove, and flock the system, in a highly forceful manner.

Yes, there might be some that could become afflicted with that institutional virus, but for the most part the majority will put to place their various experiences.

They have utilized their respective skills successfully in a far-off governmental system copied firstly, in 1999 by the Obasanjo administration within the context of changing governmental and corporate environments.

They will come in with the likes of experiences in: political, journalistic, legal, militarist, clinical, psychological, security, medical, therapeutic, accounting, economic, architectural, technological, secretarial, environmental, sanitation, food, aeronautical, pharmaceutical specialties and others.

Obasanjo, let the Leon H. Sullivan Foundation, your host to Washington, D.C, on Thursday 29^th, 2010, take on this mass revolutionary project, and help to recall and assist in the relocation of good faith Nigerians in the U. S. A and elsewhere.

This burden is being placed significantly on Obasanjo, not because he perfect or an angel away from the Nigerian issues. Oh no, but because he is the first to truly appreciate the pains, pressures and pleasures of an executive type of political system in a society that was for three decades sick with up and down political instability.

John Egbeazien Oshodi, Ph.D, DABPS, FACFE is a practicing Forensic/Clinical Psychologist, and an Interim Associate Dean of Behavioral Science at Broward College, Coconut Creek, Florida. joshodi@broward.edu