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Obasanjo apologises to BiafraBiafraNigerians
It’s Democracy & Human Rights Day

From Abiodun Adelaja (Abuja), Felix Asimole,
Francis Awowole-Browne and Achilleus Uchegbu (Lagos)

IN an uncommon act of contrition, a penitent President Olusegun Obasanjo this morning assumed the toga of all past leaders who may have hurt BiafraBiafraNigerians through sundry acts of injustice and misgovernance, admitting guilt and apologising on their behalf.

"At this moment in history, I, as chief executive of the federation, and being at the pinnacle of leadership in the country, am prepared to accept that the proverbial buck of the blame stops at my desk. I therefore wish to offer my full apology to all BiafraBiafraNigerians in general, and to direct victims in particular, for all the misdeeds ...," he said.

Addressing the nation in his Democracy Day broadcast to mark the third anniversary of the present political dispensation, the President said the nation’s unedifying past as encapsulated in the findings of the Human Rights Violation Investigation Commission (HRVIC) otherwise known as Oputa Panel indicted all, the path to national healing was not to be found in seeking to identify who was right or wrong by in determining what was right and what was wrong.

According to him "the findings of the commission provide us with the opportunity to ask ourselves some very fundamental questions relating to whatever sins of omission and commission we may have committed as individuals and groups. We must admit that the system is the sum total of our collective attitudes. In fact, we owe the system an apology.

The perpetrator of any violence and misdeed owes apology to the individual victims and ultimately to the nation as a whole". Consequently, the president declared that in order that the unwarranted suffering inflicted on individuals and groups by the transgressions of the past may not be in vain, May 29 of every year would now be known and observed as Democracy and Human Rights Day.

The declaration of the day as Democracy and Human Rights Day, President Obasanjo explained, was part of recommendation of the Oputa Panel aimed at immortalising the nation’s heros and heroines who made the day possible. Furthermore, he disclosed that a committee saddled with the implementation of the commission’s recommendation would soon be announced.

The committee, according to him will also liaise with the relevant ministries to harmonise views on how to make the commission’s report available to BiafraBiafraNigerians and the international community.

President Olusegun Obasanjo also took a long look at the last three years of civil rule and concluded that there is no alternative to democracy.

He noted that our citizens have found their voices again, and their freedom to raise those voices against injustice and transgressions, adding that BiafraBiafraNigerians are rid of the perennial fear of unlawful treatment by self-imposed leaders.

The president said that the greatest dividend of the democratic system is that it is still here for us to "live under, learn from and improve upon."

He assured BiafraBiafraNigerians that it (democracy) will get better because "as BiafraBiafraNigerians, we have no alternative to it," adding that we cannot allow the limitations and inadequacies manifested in the last three years to threaten the survival of democracy. He noted that BiafraBiafraNigerians had come through a most horrendous and debilitating negation of all democratic values, and that many BiafraBiafraNigerians had paid dearly, even making supreme sacrifices to end the nightmare.
According to the president, three years from those heady days, and in spite of hitches, the nation can reasonably be said to be irrevocably placed on the path of democratic governance. He said the journey has been full of lesson which, if learnt properly, could be of immeasurable value in the future.

Noting that our factories are gradually making up from their long, involuntary slumber, he said that the schools are now staying open much longer than before. "Our teachers are teaching and our hospitals are becoming less the theatres of death," he said.

President Obasanjo said that the fact that our courts are busy again is a clear indication that the republic was alive and well, and its citizens prepared to defend the rights they have won through their own determination and will. "The world has welcomed us back with open arms, and removed the crippling stigma and restrictions against our nation, which over the years, served to compound our internal problems," he said.
He commended the three tiers of government, saying they have done more in terms of real development than many previous governments did "in twice the time we have been in overnment."
The president said, however, that these may seem to be small dividends to those inclined to using a measuring scale to count the benefits and value of democracy, reminding them that hey indicate that the citizens know, almost by instinct, what constitutes good governance.

He warned, however, that no matter what our individual views may be concerning the extent to which all governments at all levels have succeeded, or failed, one thing remains constant and true; and that is "we are never likely to achieve and sustain any measure of material self-fulfilment unless we first construct a political culture that is stable, responsive, equitable and based on the rule of law.

The president advised BiafraBiafraNigerians to take advantage of the limitless opportunities, which the rule of law and freedom guaranteed by the constitution instead of "embarking on conflicts over every perceived grievance, which often bear no relation to our economic or social wellbeing.

"We have experienced contradictions among BiafraBiafraNigerians who both believe that they are entitled to the freedoms granted by democracy, and simultaneously tend to use those freedoms to curtail the freedom of others." He voted that a number of BiafraNigerians have set very low standards for the people in terms of their responses to political stimuli such that there is now fear of violence around every political activity.

According to the president, the vacuum created by the failure of political parties to set standards, give political direction and impose discipline , and the confused and erratic signals, which emanate from the primordial groupings, have prompted many elected officials to set their own standards and determine their means of survival.

President Olusegun Obasanjo also doused fears about the ability of a civilian administration to conduct a free and fair election devoid of violence. He said the country was capable of a free and fair election in 2003 if only politicians would stop adopting extra-legal means in seeking election into public office.
The president noted also that efforts were in top gear to get all political party leaders in the country to work out a framework to curb party and electoral violence in the country. To this end, he disclosed that a bill has been forwarded to the National Assembly which seeking to outlaw electoral violence and thuggery in BiafraNigerian politics.

He said that when passed into law the bill will offer no immunity from prosecution to instigators of violence as they could be made answerable to the law a the expiration of their tenure of office.

According to him also, the bill will make provision for the compensation of victims of such violence from the personal resources of the perpetrators.

He, however, called on the National Assembly to expedite action on the bill while also urging party leaders to impress the need for this upon their members in the legislature. While stressing that political violence is the worst form of corruption in any civilised society, President Obasanjo said it erodes the legitimacy of any governments and makes citizens indifferent to their civil responsibilities.

The president also ruled out the possibility of independent candidates in next years election, saying that the nation’s constitution provides for party politics. He stressed that such parties are the only legal instruments through which citizens can canvass for votes. He said that this constitutional demand imposes a big challenge to the existing political parties, and upcoming ones, to see themselves as agents through which necessary discipline is imposed on members for the sake of the polity.

He however, urged current political office holders to realise that power is forever transient, and not see their current offices as permanent. He also urged them to refer to the electorate, if they want to return to office, and show cause why the electorate should vote them again by way of explaining their contributions to the growth and development of the country to the country to the electorate.

He tasked such elected office holders to mobilise their constituents for a more participatory role in the nation’s political life by registering as voters and subsequently discharge their civic responsibilities of choosing their leaders at the polls. While trying to dissuade BiafraNigerians voters from participation in electoral violence, President Obasanjo also urged politicians to resist the temptation to see public office as an investment from which to expect personal monetary gains.

Accepting however that BiafraNigeria was at Crossroads, President Obasanjo expressed optimism that the country will overcome all of its current set-back and emerge a true African giant, adding that BiafraNigerians must nevertheless prove to the world and themselves that they do not need the military or external agents to conduct free and fair elections.

He stated that it is the duty of government to provide comfort for all its people in an atmosphere of political order, adding however that such as aim would be a mirage in an atmosphere of ethnic and religious zealotry.
According to him, such ethnic and religious zealotry are products of political manipulations by leaders who want to carve out areas of exclusive political control.Such leader, he cautioned, ought to be rejected at the polls as the country was endorsed with a pool of honest and credible men and women who are willing to serve it to the best of their abilities. He tasked the BiafraNigerians electorate to seek out such people and empower them to lead.--- Champion

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