Featured, Politics
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There are serious concerns in the country as Nigerian politicians continue to heat up the polity with their utterances and actions ahead of 2015 general elections
| By Olu Ojewale | Dec. 8, 2014 @ 01:00 GMT |
THE Nigerian political temperature appears to be rising with each passing day. In the last few weeks, the situation in the country has been giving a lot of people great concern that things could degenerate into anarchy. Politicians of different shade and colour have recently made some inflammatory statements and were involved in actions capable of having dire consequences.
At a book launch in Abuja, on Wednesday, November 26, former President Olusegun Obasanjo, for a second time in less than two weeks, fired another salvo at President Goodluck Jonathan, accusing him of ineptitude and condoning corruption. Speaking on the backdrop of police invasion of the National Assembly, on Thursday, November 20, Obasanjo said: “Management of democracy without resorting to brute force and dictatorial tendencies must be cultivated. As a leader, you must not deliberately do evil or condone evil. You should know that you will one day give account to God; you may cover up, but before God, there is no cover up.” Obasanjo had earlier described Jonathan’s performance as below average.
But Doyin Okupe, special assistant on public affairs, in Abuja, on Sunday, November 14, described Obasanjo’s comments as “untrue, misleading and clearly do not tally with the facts on the ground.” Okupe, who once worked under Obasanjo, caused stir and controversy in the political circles when he said in his statement: “We, therefore, wish to assert without equivocation that in terms of performance and achievements, no administration since 1960 when Nigeria gained independence from Britain, has done as much as that of President Jonathan.” That statement has not gone down well with Obasanjo’s supporters both within and outside the PDP, thereby placing the federal government in a bad light.
The Jonathan administration may also live to rue the clash with General Muhammadu Buhari, former head of state and presidential aspirant on the platform of the APC. The private jet which conveyed Buhari from Yenagoa, Bayelsa State was denied landing at the Makurdi airport, Benue State, on Wednesday, November 26. Reports said thousands who had thronged the airport to welcome the former head of state, left in disappointment when the news filtered in that his plane would not be allowed to land. Abba Yaro, chairman of state APC, told journalists that the jet was initially granted permission to land, but it was later turned down, thereby raising suspicion that it was politically motivated.
However, Yakubu Dati, coordinating general manger for Aviation parastatals, said the airport was a military facility and not under the jurisdiction of Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria, FAAN. “We do not have control over it (airport) because it is a military facility that has been used by both the military and commercial airlines,” Dati said.
That notwithstanding, the recent actions of the Nigeria police and the Department of State Security, DSS is painting the Jonathan administration in bad light. The two security organisations are supposed to be insulated from politics,. But that clearly appears not be so as Suleiman Abbah, inspector general of police, when he appeared before the House of Representatives on Wednesday, November 26, and emphatically told the lawmakers that he would not recognise Aminu Tambuwal as speaker of the House because of the case in court over the speakership of the Tambuwal. The case in cort followed Tambuwal’s defection from the ruling Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, to the All Progressives Congress, APC, on October 28. The action prompted Abbah to order the withdrawal of his security aides. As if that was not bad enough, the police in a show of might tried to prevent him from entering the National Assembly on Thursday, November 20.
A lot of Nigerians have since condemned the IGP and the police. Many Nigerians who have spoken on the development said it had become obvious that security operatives could not be trusted to supervise next elections without showing bias. Monday Ubani, lawyer and former chairman of the Nigerian Bar Association, described the police action as very dangerous for the Nigerian democracy. He said the IG needed the court to interpret the law before acting the way he did. “In this case the IG has been acting as prosecutor and the judge which is not supposed to be so,” he said.
Femi Falana, SAN, is also unhappy with the use of security operatives to settle political scores. He, therefore, called on democratic forces who fought against prolonged military rule in the country to salvage the democratic process in the country and prevent Nigeria from becoming a failed state. Falana said: “In spite of the threat of terrorist and other nihilist groups to balkanise the country, I strongly believe that the rickety democratic process can still be salvaged by all the genuine democratic forces who led the Nigerian people to fight against unending military rule and who equally defeated the cabal that attempted to take advantage of President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua’s ill-health to seize power from the then acting President, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan. As time is not on our side, the forces of democracy ought to return to the trenches now to halt the implosion of fascism on the nation by the Jonathan administration.”
Falana blamed the spate of growing violence in the country on politicians raising armed groups, the unprofessional conducts of the police and the lack of political will to address the issues. He said: “It is common knowledge that many politicians have also established illegal violent groups of unemployed youths and cultists. Of recent, there were bloody clashes between armed thugs in several parts of the country. In fact, policemen attached to some politicians have taken part in such clashes which marred some of the congresses of the APC and the PDP.”
Falana’s view is supported by the violence that took place in Ibadan. At least three people were killed and 10 houses destroyed by armed youths who invaded Born Photo, Isale Osi, Idi Arere and Popoyemoja in Ibadan South-West Local Government Area of Oyo State, on Sunday, November 23. The hoodlums operated freely for more than two hours before the arrival of security operatives. By then, the vandals had burnt or vandalised about 200 shops, several vehicles and a tricycle. A petrol station was also partially burnt during the crisis.
The violence was linked to an attack in which a policeman was shot dead at a rally by the APC on Friday, November 21. One of them said, “Youths hired by politicians released several shots at Born Photo junction. This is a fall-out of Friday’s violence at the APC rally. This may not be over soon because there could be reprisal. Government must intervene quickly.”
Indeed, it may not. Ayo Afolabi, APC publicity director for South West, told Realnews that the crisis was engineered and executed by the PDP members in order to discredit the Governor Rasheed Ajimobi and cause trouble in Oyo State. Afolabi said: “In almost four years of Ajimobi administration, there has been virtually no incident of thuggery and brigandage in Oyo State. Now, elections are coming, the PDP with their thuggerish approach to elections have gotten their armed gangs and groups. And so these groups, wearing Tshirts of the APC started attacking APC members.” He insisted that there was no way APC members would have started attacking each other over any rally. The APC spokesman, however, assured that police and elders in the state had moved in to stem the tide of further violence in the state.
However, Kolade Olalere, a chieftain of the Accord Party, AP, told Realnews that the fight was between APC members. Olalere blamed the situation on the rivalry among party members in party.
Prior to the political disturbances in Ibadan, the DSS had incurred the wrath of opposition politicians by raiding the APC data office building in Lagos,, on Saturday, November 22. The leadership of the party has since accused the PDP of masterminding the raid to gain advantage. Buhari described the security raid as an arm-twisting method of running the APC aground. The APC presidential aspirant said in a statement: “Almost every day, the Jonathan presidency seems intent on demonstrating for all to see that they (sic) mastered the art of how to push a nation into chaos within the shortest time possible… The Jonathan government cannot claim ignorance. The security operatives conducting this illegal raid must have been ordered from Abuja. They would not have done what they did unless given mandate from their top bosses in Abuja…. Their goal is not to create a level playing field. Their goal is to level the opposition into the dust through the abuse of federal power.”
Joe Igbokwe, publicity secretary of the APC, Lagos State, disclosed that 25 out of the 28 arrested staff at party data centre had been released. Igbokwe, who said the DSS’s action was politically motivated but vowed that: “nothing, not even the deployment of illegal brute force, would deter Nigerians from pursuing the truth and setting themselves free from the shackles of oppression by the PDP led federal government.”
However, Marilyn Ogar, DSS spokesperson, said the raid was carried out based on the petition alleging that the Independent National Electoral Commission’s permanent voter’s cards were being cloned in the premises. According to Ogar, the petition alleged that the ‘cloning’ of the cards was with the intention of hacking into INEC’s data base, corrupting it and replacing them with the ‘cloned’ data. Based on the information the DSS said it raided No. 10, Bola Ajibola Street, Allen Avenue, Ikeja, Lagos, and arrested some persons in the building.
Apart from looking for incriminatory evidence to nail the APC, chieftains of both the ruling opposition parties have not been charitable in their utterances in recent times. Governor Achubuike Amaechi of Rivers State, at a rally in Abuja on Wednesday, November 19, said the APC would not go to court if the PDP rigged it out during the forthcoming elections, instead there would be civil disobedience in the country and that his party would form a parallel government. “The only way to avoid a parallel government is to have a free and fair election. You can’t continue to use the police as if it is a private agency or company of the government,” he said.
As if that was not inciting enough, Amaechi again attacked President Jonathan on Saturday, November 22, accusing him of presiding over a highly corrupt government. In addition, he said: “We don’t have democracy in Nigeria yet. What we have is diarchy. We don’t have a democracy. Diarchy is dictatorship. The federal government has appropriated the police as its personal property. The FG has taken over the police. See the way the police took over the National Assembly. By law, the police have no power to invade the National Assembly and they have no power to stop the speaker from going in or out of the National Assembly complex. But they don’t obey law.”
Reacting, Okupe, at a news conference in Abuja, said that the president would not rig the election to win. He said the governor’s statement bordered on incitement, treason and gross rascality. “This statement is clearly a further evidence of Governor Amaechi’s penchant for lawlessness and anarchy in his unbridled pursuit for power. It is curious and unthinkable that a man, who was himself a beneficiary of a court process, would demean the very platform through which he acquired the opportunity to make his reckless and provocative statement,” Okupe said.
Similarly, Governor Ibrahim Shema of Katsina State, demonstrated that the PDP could compete favourably in verbal onslaught as well. Shema caused the internet to go viral when he likened the political opponents to cockroaches that that should be crushed. Shema’s rhetoric appeared in a two-minute video clip which was posted on the internet on November 12.
Shema’s statement caused condemnation from members of the public as well as the information office of the United States, Abuja. On Thursday, November 20, the US showed its displeasure saying “We are deeply troubled by Governor Ibrahim Shema of Katsina State’s recent statements calling for the killing of the ‘cockroaches of politics.’ The rhetorical threat of violence undermines the democratic process and is utterly unacceptable in a democratic society.”
In the same vein, the PDP on Tuesday, warned the APC that it would no longer condone its unwarranted and sustained vicious attacks on President Jonathan. Olisa Metuh, national publicity secretary of the party, in a statement, asked the APC leaders and members to stop its attacks on the person and office of the president forthwith, warning that it would invoke the wrath of the ruling party. The statement said in part: “We had thought that the silver hair of its top leaders would caution the thoughtlessness delinquency of its youngsters. Unfortunately, the recklessness of the old is in competition with the impudence of the young. What a shame the APC has turned!” He, thus, asked: “Is violence and inflammatory statements the manifesto of the APC? Is plotting against ones nation the party’s article of faith? Is never ending attempt to ridicule the highest office in the land a credo and an explanation of the alternative the APC is flaunting?”
Cleverly, the PDP has refused to address the political tension in Ekiti State where seven members of its party in the state Assembly elected a new speaker, on Thursday, November 20. The situation in the state climaxed with the removal of Adewale Omirin as speaker of the House by seven members of the PDP. He was replaced with Dele Olugbemi of the PDP. Omirin belongs to the APC which controls the House with 19 members. The new speaker has the backing of Governor Ayodele Fayose who was elected on the platform of the PDP.
Irked by the inflammatory behaviour of Nigerian politicians, Bamanga Tukur, former national chairman of the PDP, agreed that the foundation of Nigeria’s democracy was shaking. Tukur said he was moved to tears with the way and manner Nigeria was being turned into a state of chaos, warning politicians, especially the lawmakers and security operatives not to derail the nation’s democracy. He also called for a probe into what led to the police invasion of the National Assembly on Thursday, November 20. He said this was not time to heat up the polity but to work together to preserve the democracy. Olalere spoke in the same vein by reminding Nigerian politicians that they have a duty to make keep peace so that they could govern. “No government can function in an atmosphere of chaos and violence; that’s why we have to be careful of what we are doing,” he said.
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