This write-up may not sit well with most readers- it may result to a 3-way reaction. Either you agree (whole or in parts) or totally view it as nonsense or do not know what to make of it. However, my opinion is my opinion and i have the right to it. For those that agree to it wholly or partially i hope that you will come away with one or two lessons. Happy reading.
As the title suggests there is no king or leader that does not have the assent of the Almighty God. He rules in the affairs of men and very unquestionable in His decisions. He lifts up one and brings down another without any apology to any mortal. By nature, He knows the end from the beginning and knows how to make everything work out for His Will to be established.
I attempt to examine, within the limits of my knowledge and information available to me, why some of our leaders failed to make it to the presidency and why some succeeded.
Obafemi Awolowo was arguably the sharpest brain in the golden triumvirate of Nnamdi Azikiwe (Zik), Ahmadu Bello and himself. Whilst he and Bello were tribalistically influential and did not pretend about it Azikiwe was pan Nigeria. However, Zik had an air of superiority about himself and felt he could lord it over the North, in an alliance. He succeeded in playing a fast one on Awo's Action Group party who were waiting for him in Enugu for an alliance meeting as an aftermath of the 1959 elections while Zik's NCNC were in Kaduna having a handshake with Ahmadu Bello's NPC. Zik agreed to be the President in a parliamentary syatem of govt while Balewa was given the most powerful post of Prime Minister. It continues to be baffling how Zik chose an alliance with the NPC instead of the AG. With AG he could have been made the Prime Minister with his higher number of votes (NCNC had the highest votes) and parliamentary seats (89, actually 81 plus NEPU's 8) over the AG's 75. By this arrangement Nigeria would have had the best two brains (with all due respect to Balewa) at the centre.
So that was how the "Great Zik of Africa" became a figure-head Governor General/President while Balewa called the shots in the scheme of things. Very preposterous in the eyes of political watchers then. I am very much persuaded everything was divinely orchestrated to prevent Awolowo from being in charge of Nigeria. Instead a very devout Muslim, who at death did not have a single house to his name, became the Prime Minister.
Fast forward to the second republic. Shehu Shagari, the very plain former federal commissioner/minister under many administrations, became the president defeating the great duo of Zik and Awo. Here was someone who started life as a Grade 2 teacher in his Sokoto community but later rose to be a federal commissioner preindependence. In 1979, he got the party's (National Party Of Nigeria) ticket on a platter of gold having been well supported by the big weights of the North. Admittedly, he was the most experienced northerner and had been at the centre of things since preindependence but he was not particularly keen on the presidency, he just wanted to serve in whatever capacity. However, providence played a fast one on him. Hear him in his autobiography Beckoned To Serve, "It will be seen here that more often than not i was forced by some unseen hands into circumstances utterly outside my own control 'beckoned' to take on roles i never bargained for but which happily ended with better results i could ever imagined."
I am very much persuaded that God used "small" Shehu Usman Shagari to confound the heavyweights.
God is never mocked and He wasn't going to allow the Rosicrusian Order (AMORC) to claim the glory if Awolowo won. Awolowo's membership of AMORC became evident and confirmed when members of the AMORC Nigerian National Board paid special funeral respects to him. So God withheld Awo's most desired wish so that He wouldn't ascribe it, even in secret, to AMORC.
His great rival Zik finally died (after some fake announcements of his death) on May 11, 1996. May 11, 1996 was when Awolowo was finally committed to earth (buried) after being embalmed and kept in a glass coffin in his mausoleum in Ikenne for years. Before then the mausoleum had become a tourist attraction, opened to the public every last Saturday of the month, as people went to see Awo's body from far and near.
I would not see it as a mere coincidence that the Owelle of Onitsha died the same day the Odole Oodua of Ile-Ife was finally buried. I suspect some morbid handshake but only God knows the truth.
1993 Elections.
This election is adjudged to be the freest and fairest in the history of Nigeria. The stage was set for the Social Democratic Party (SDP) candidate Chief Moshood Kasimawo Olawale Abiola, MKO, to win that election against NRC's (National Republican Convention) less known Bashir Othman Tofa.
Apart from his larger than life status in business and philanthropy MKO was coming with a strong political pedigree. He was part of the NPN bigwigs that supported the party financially and otherwise. While he missed becoming the party's flagbearer in 1979 he patiently waited for 1983. Hence he did everything to impress party faithfuls and influencers, who were mostly northerners, that he should be picked in 1983. He uncharitably went against Awolowo, under whose free education policy he was educated.
To also prove that he was against anything non-Islamic he allegedly sank a whole shipment of the Holy Bible.
However, the North still rejected him. Umaru Dikko had to tell him that the presidency was not for sale. Of course he left the party and sought peace with Awolowo.
By 1993 MKO had become a friend of the military president Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida, IBB. He made it known that IBB assured him that he would make good his announcement to hand over to an elected civilian president, unlike how he cancelled the 1992 presidential election process.
Nonetheless, MKO won that election but IBB annulled the result! Hope '93 was dashed for millions of Nigerians and for Abiola personally. The rest is history. He died in the struggle to actualise his mandate.
Fourth Republic.
Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, OBJ, became president and hence leader of the nation for the second time. The first time was as a military Head of State from 1976 to 1979. He oversaw the transition to civil rule and handed over to Shehu Shagari on October 1, 1979.
OBJ came out of prison to become the president. He had been charged along with others over a phantom coup during Sani Abacha's administration and was subsequently imprisoned in Yola Prison. He was later freed and pardoned by General Abudulsalami Abubakar.
He never wanted to contest. He just wanted to serve God- do evangelism and build a church- as he promised God while in prison. This was not to be as he was pressured to contest. God actually smiled on him and he won against Chief Olu Falae, who held a joint ticket of the Alliance for Democracy and the All People's Party. Hence the uninterested OBJ became the president. It should be mentioned that his ascendancy to the headship of the nation in 1976, after the assassination of Murtala Mohammed, was even more dramatic and devoid of interest from him.
The story goes that OBJ went to hide, when he heard that his boss Murtala had been killed. It was the then Lt Col Shehu Musa Yaradua who was the Transport Minister, that refused to allow him to resign. Yar'adua encouraged him to stay on and lobbied key northern military officers to accept Obasanjo. Hence OBJ's appointment as the successor of Murtala was ratified.
Perhaps OBJ favoured Shehu Yar'adua's younger brother Umaru to succeed him as a payback of the 1976 favour. Very most likely so.
Umaru Yaradua was not part of the parties jostling to succeed OBJ. I am sure contesting for the presidency was the last thing on his mind. He would rather look to take care of his health after his tenure as governor of Katsina state.
However, with the benefit of hindsight, one can deduce from the whole drama of Umaru Yar'adua succeeding OBJ that the Almighty actually wanted to also bless the house of Jonathan. While everybody was eyeing Aso Rock Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, GEJ, was just very happy being the governor of Bayelsa. He was actually the deputy to Diepreye Alamieyeseigha, who was impeached on allegation of corruption. He didn't know that fate had something better for him. He was picked to be the running mate of Yar'adua and hence he became the Vice President. Jonathan was later sworn in as the substantive president following the death of his boss. From being very contented being the deputy governor he became governor and would have been fulfilled in life but presidency was just too much of the heavens and the earth conspiring in his favour.
In 2015 GEJ became the first incumbent president to lose reelection and subsequently handover to the winning party's candidate. Some of his party members and fans were disappointed that he did not even give a "fight" and just conceded victory without much ado. Perhaps he understood that only God enthrones: no wonder he said "nobody's ambition is worth the blood of any Nigerian."
APC's (Action People's Congress) Mohammadu Buhari then succeeded GEJ in 2015. He came in with a military background as a former head of state (1983-1985). The 2015 election was actually his fourth shot at presidency having failed to win in 2003, 2007, 2011. It was said that he had already given up but the Almighty's ways are beyond explanation.
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, PBAT, took a very tortuous path to power. Not favoured by the Aso Rock Cabal and the party hierarchy. Not favoured by millions of Christians because of the Muslim-Muslim ticket he held. Targeted by the CBN's currency change. Some of his loyalists worked against him. But he came out victorious. God at work you would say.
It should not be lost on us the Tinubu was prevented from being on the same ticket with Buhari in 2015 to avoid a Muslim-Muslim arrangement but in 2023, just 8 years after, that same arrangement won the election. It shows that God cannot be restricted to human ways and calculations.
There shouldn't be any doubt about the fact that God rules in the affairs of men and He lifts up one and bring down another as He wishes. I have deliberately not mentioned the military take-overs because of the simple reason of not being able to justify why blood must be spilled (even the most peaceful coups have involved one or two deaths by the gun). Hence, I leave that to God knowing fully well that His will cannot be sidestepped.
Jogofully yours,
RO
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