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HARARE – Whoever said two heads are better than one probably did not have Zimbabwe’s inclusive government in mind.

Zimbabwe’s Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai demonstrated this in the recent past weeks when he sought a third and invisible head in the inclusive government in the form of Nigerian man of God TB Joshua, full name Temitope Balogun Joshua.

Tsvangirai travelled to Nigeria to meet the man of God in a move that generated much debate in informal discussions in local bars, commuter omnibus and social network sites.

In Nigerian newspapers the visit to TB Joshua founder of The Synagogue, Church of All Nations (SCOAN), was described as an act of seeking “Spiritual Direction.”

The papers such as the Lagos-based Sunday Tribune even went further and speculated that the visit was in some way a measure to ascertain Tsvangirai’s victory in any future elections in Zimbabwe.

And like a man who has received his prophecy, Tsvangirai spoke like Zimbabwe’s next President at an economic summit held in Johannesburg last week telling investors that he was sorting out the future of service chiefs and that Mugabe wants to bow out of politics as a hero.

But many are still speculating as to what Tsvangirai and the Nigerian man of God could have discussed.

Jealous Mawarire, a Harare based political analyst and a member of the Pentecostal fellowship told the Daily News that Tsvangirai could have been in Nigeria for personal reasons.

“Besides being the Prime Minister, he is an individual who has a right to religious association. Maybe he went to TB Joshua with personal problems that he wanted addressed,” said Mawarire.

“Maybe he wanted God’s guidance to choose a wife and such decisions require spiritual guidance.”

Tsvangirai lost his wife, Susan in a tragic accident in March 2009. He is yet to remarry but has been rumoured to be looking at re-establishing his marital bliss.

However, Mawarire added that politicians should not use the altar of the church to campaign for votes but as a pedestal to develop a genuine relationship with God.

He said if Tsvangirai is creating a relationship with God, “then if he wins elections it will be good for us because a President who knows and fears God is a better leader.”

But why TB Joshua and not Ezekiel Guti, Nolbert Kunonga, Obadiah Msindo and many other revered local Men of God?

TB Joshua’s rise to fame was driven by two things – his ability to foretell future events and his kingmaker abilities demonstrated by the number of heads of states and prospective heads of states who have visited him before and went on to assume the mantle of state politics in African countries.

His church appears to have become a place of refuge for African politicians. In 2008, John Atta Mills then opposition leader in Ghana paid a visit to the prophet during elections in his country and thereafter won the election.

Former President of Zambia, Frederick Chiluba visited the prophet while he was in power. Even the late leader of Gabon, Omar Bongo did the same.

Among other presidents who had paid similar visit were Andre Kolimba and Pascal Lissouba of Central African Republic and Congo, respectively.

Joshua has allegedly predicted many world events and disasters, including the disastrous cyclone in Myanmar, the death of Zambian President Levy Mwanawasa, Nigerian leader Umaru Yar’Adua and Michael Jackson.

T B Joshua’s other unique attribute is his power to predict events in the lives of individuals.

It will be interesting to hear from the premier what the man of God said to Tsvangirai’s future and that of Mugabe.

Although nobody knows what all these men who have visited him wanted, he surely must have something that Tsvangirai thought would help him in his political career.

His ministry is attracting a growing fanatical following, particularly across Africa, and many African leaders like Ghana’s Atta Mills regularly frequent his church for spiritual support and guidance.

But the question of the contents of Tsvangirai‘s prophecy remains a mystery.

Another Harare-based analyst Takura Zhangazha said Tsvangirai had a right to religious association but hoped that his visit to Nigeria had nothing to do with the political problems that the country faces.

“The only thing that the Prime Minister needs to guard against is the myth of religion and politics. I don’t think that religion can pre-ordain a reasonable direction that that the country must take and we cannot place our faith in quasi-religious activities,” said Zhangazha.

National Constitutional Assembly Chairperson and an ally Tsvangirai who is himself a religious leader in the Lutheran Church, Lovemore Madhuku told the Daily News that the visit could have been motivated by a need for “spiritual encouragement.”

“He probably wanted spiritual encouragement thinking that one day he will be president,” said Madhuku.

About Post Author

Anthony-Claret Ifeanyi Onwutalobi

Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.

ionyclaret@gmail.com

https://www.codewit.com

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Nigeria’s independence day bomb blasts have become an issue in the country’s presidential campaign with an investigation into one of the leading candidate’s campaign manager and calls for the president’s resignation.

Former military ruler Ibrahim Babangida’s presidential campaign says President Goodluck Jonathan is engaged in a political witch hunt after the campaign’s director was questioned about last Friday’s bombing that killed 12 people.

President Jonathan says he knows the “unpatriotic elements” who sponsored the attack. But his campaign says the president is not interfering in the investigation. Dalhatu Sarki Tafida directs the Jonathan campaign.

“What would you do yourself or anybody? He came. He condemned,” said  Dalhatu Sarki Tafida. “And he said investigations would be carried out. And investigations are already going on. What else do you want him to do?”

Some northern politicians are calling for the president’s resignation over his handling of the crisis. Tafida says that is an effort by some within the ruling party to take power by force.

“How can you start calling for Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, the president, to resign? What is the relevance of that? How do you start calling for impeachment, the same party? I think there is something fundamentally wrong,” said Tafida.

Babangida deputy campaign director Kanti Bello says what is wrong is the president trying to intimidate his political opponents, likening the president to former military ruler Sani Abacha.

“Look, we have gone through this road earlier,” said Bello. “Remember Abacha? Some people were taken, including Obasanjo, as coup plotters. Is this the way we are going in this democratic dispensation? It would be unfortunate for this country.”

President Jonathan’s candidacy disrupts an informal deal within the ruling party that says the next Nigerian leader should be from the north to complete what would have been the second term of the late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua instead of continuing on with President Jonathan, who is from the south.

President Jonathan is from the oil-rich Niger Delta. So there has been some criticism of the speed with which he absolved Niger Delta militants of responsibility for the Abuja bombing, even though an e-mail attributed to the group warned of the blast before it happened.

President Jonathan’s defense of Niger Delta militants makes Babangida supporter Umar Aminu Brigade suspicious.

“Maybe they had a plan for this between him and them,” said Brigade. “Because if people on their own came out categorically to say that we are the people who carried out this kind of unfortunate issue and yet the president came out categorically to the media, to the whole world, to tell the whole world that they are not the people who carried out all these things, what kind of president do we have?”

Brigade says Babangida is far better prepared to handle security.

“General Ibrahim Badamsi Babangida will do better than Goodluck Jonathan looking at their background politically, militarily, and what have you,” he said. “Because when you talk about the issue of a military background, when you talk about the issue of security, Babangida will do better looking at what is really going on in the country.”

Jonathan supporter Moses Okpogode says it is not military experience alone that qualifies a president to handle security.

“General Ibrahim Babangida is a former military ruler and he has been in the security system for some time,” said Okpogode. “But it is not him per se that can bring security to the country. Security structures in the country can also be overhauled by the correct president, President Goodluck Jonathan.”

Okpogode says President Jonathan has a better sense of the problems underlying insecurity, especially in the Niger Delta.

“I think because of his understanding of the democratic dispensation, Goodluck Jonathan is in a better position to bring security to the country, especially in this period where even people in the Niger Delta see it that they could bring down the security situation if there person is not there as the president,” he said.

The bombings put security at the top of this presidential campaign with Babangida saying there is an abysmal lack of governance as the Jonathan administration is overwhelmed by crises. President Jonathan says there were security lapses that contributed to the bombing but he is confident that those responsible for the violence will be brought to justice.

About Post Author

Anthony-Claret Ifeanyi Onwutalobi

Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.

ionyclaret@gmail.com

https://www.codewit.com

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One sad tendency in Nigerian politics is the habit of arguing that one mediocre politician has a better record than another mediocre colleague.

Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida, it appears, has become so desperate – with his presidential ambition going nowhere – that he has adopted that mode. In a recent televised interview sponsored by his campaign and aired on AIT, Mr. Babangida tried to size himself up against former President Olusegun Obasanjo. It was, as political strategies go, both a rather desperate move and highly revealing.

Since disclosing his interest in the Nigerian presidency, Babangida has insisted that the job of running Nigeria is not for young, unfledged Nigerians. He stuck to that line in this carefully orchestrated interview. He touted his thirty-two years “in public service” and contended that the challenge of governing Nigeria “requires not on the job training but experience.”

Asked why he was wading into the murky waters of politics, Babangida answered: “The water is murky, but somebody has to get into that water and clean it.”

The interview became interesting, in my view, when the interviewer brought up the issue of Dele Giwa’s assassination in October 1986.

Despite Babangida’s best efforts to appear unruffled and imperturbable, it was clear that the question rankled this retired general and former dictator. So how did he deal with the question?

First, he alleged that the Giwa issue and other questions that continue to nag him – among them, the $12.4 billion in oil earnings that went missing during his reign and his annulment of the June 12, 1993 presidential election – had been resolved. That must be news to most Nigerians.

 

Then he introduced an angle that, depending on one’s perspective, was either a stroke of genius or a mark of the hollowness of his credentials. He sought to juxtapose his legacy against Obasanjo’s, seeking to persuade his audience that the latter was the worse “leader.”

 

In a country where no politician ever takes responsibility for his or her failings, Babangida described the charges against him as “trumped up.” Then he took the discussion to a comparative terrain.

“After all,” said the ex-general, “people died in Odi. You know how many people died there, not long ago? Nobody is talking about that, but talking about Babangida and Dele Giwa.” Sensing that he had hit upon a profitable line, the soldier in Babangida pressed the advantage.

“You’ve been reading the reports from the National Assembly. People stealing billions; nothing has happened so far. But when you talk about corruption, then there’s this somebody from a village called Minna who institutionalized corruption.” He continued: “It may interest you to know: What my government got in eight years is what the democratic government of my elder brother Obasanjo got in one year as revenue.”

Having made his case, Babangida might have permitted his audience to consider the evidence and reach its verdict about the two men. Instead, seized by a sense of entitlement, he went ahead to spell out our debt to him. “I believe I should be commended for managing scarce resources. You travel all over the country. You can see Abuja, you can see Third Mainland Bridge, you can see Kaduna-Kano [road], Kaduna-Abuja [road]; you could see states being created and people now have a place they call their own – all within that meager resources.”

 

The devil deserves his due. The truth is that Babangida’s oblique reference to Obasanjo’s corruption and squandermania is hard to contest. In fact, Obasanjo’s eight-year tenure seemed driven, on some level, by a perverse determination to beat Babangida’s regime in all the dubious categories: corruption, the arrogant privatization of public resources, and the manipulation of the instrument of power to reward friends and victimize foes, perceived or real.

Yes, Babangida will always be remembered for the unsolved mystery of the parcel bomb that terminated Giwa’s brilliant career as a journalist. Obasanjo, on the other hand, will be bracketed with the equally heinous assassinations of Bola Ige, Harry Marshall, and A.K. Dikibo, among others. Babangida invited opprobrium on himself by annulling the June 12 election. But Obasanjo (and Atiku) pulled off a rigging regatta in 2003, and then Obasanjo shocked and awed us on the way to setting new rigging records in 2007.

Babangida is welcome to fantasize that Nigerians owe him credit for astutely husbanding scarce resources. Truth be told, the man owes us an explanation about his stewardship. What wizardry of economic management enabled him to purchase a private jet, to own Rolls Royces, and to sneer at the residents of the valley of Minna from the supercilious heights of his 50-room hilltop mansion? What lottery did he win to account for his astonishing wealth? How does his stupendous fortune square off with Nigeria’s economic misfortunes? The historical record is that Babangida unleashed a so-called structural adjustment program that sapped life out of the citizenry and pauperized the middle class.

 

Obasanjo’s tragedy is to have set himself the goal of modeling himself after Babangida. Like Babangida, he fitted himself with an obscene mansion dominating the hilltop of Abeokuta. Like Babangida, he tried to reduce Nigeria to the size of his desires. He strived, like Babangida, to illicitly perpetuate himself in power. He was prepared to gut the Nigerian constitution in order to allow him to remain in power.

In his AIT interview, Babangida sought to burnish his political credentials by arguing, in effect, that Obasanjo was worse in corruption and in human rights abuses. It was one mediocrity pointing a finger at another mediocrity and exclaiming, “You’re more mediocre.”

Whether Obasanjo was a more disastrous head of state than Obasanjo is a judgment call. I believe that more was expected of Obasanjo, and so his disappointing performance had more dire reverberations. But Obasanjo is not threatening to return and lord it over us; Babangida is.

In a credible election, Babangida stands no chance. He must know it, too. His campaign has been a bazaar of missteps and miscues. He chickened out of a much-heralded rally in Ibadan. His campaign website is plagued by negative comments. Many of his erstwhile associates won’t be caught dead in his company.

Babangida’s presidential dream is fueled by a species of hubris, a disdain for the sensitivity of a people whose political and economic lives he helped ruin. In a way, his decision to run provides Nigerians a great opportunity to tell him how little – despite his inflated image of himself – they think of him.

My suspicion is that Babangida and Obasanjo are locked in some vain psychological brinksmanship. There’s a chance that Babangida is dismayed by Obasanjo’s acquisition of hilltop mansion in Abeokuta that rivals the one in Minna, or begrudges Obasanjo and his coterie those billions in oil revenue that were stolen between 1999 and 2007.

There’s no question that Babangida believes himself to be less bad than Obasanjo. But Nigerians deserve a good – if not excellent – leader, not a demonstrably bad one who brags that his record is not as wretched as another’s.

Nigerians don’t owe it to Babangida to award him another opportunity to gamble with their destiny or to continue his macabre tug of war with Obasanjo.

Okey Ndibe is okeyndibe@gmail.com

 

About Post Author

Anthony-Claret Ifeanyi Onwutalobi

Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.

ionyclaret@gmail.com

https://www.codewit.com

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