By Emeka Alex Duru
Defections across party lines by elected officials, resignations, impeachments and threats of impeachments at all levels of governance and above all, a siege to the National Assembly, point to one direction – Nigeria’s democracy on trial!
Not even in the relatively smaller countries surrounding Nigeria, nor the so-called Banana Republics, had the rule of law been subjected to this level of assault, as it is being witnessed in the land, currently.
The nearest Nigeria came to this, was in the build-up to the 2015 general elections, when there was mass defection from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the then fledgling All Progressives Congress (APC).
The highpoint of the rat race, was the defection of the then Speaker of the House of Representatives, Waziri Aminu Tambuwal, and governors of Sokoto (Aliyu Wamakko), Rivers (Rotimi Amaechi), Adamawa (Murtala Nyako), Kwara (Abdulfatah Ahmed) and Kano (Rabiu Kwankwaso), from PDP to APC.
The regime of confusion also witnessed security agents providing cover for lawmakers in the House of Representatives sympathetic to the President Goodluck Jonathan, in attempt to remove Tambuwal. But the move did not work out.
Three years after, the country has returned to the sordid path. Last Tuesday, August 7, 2018, Nigerians were greeted with the ugly sight of operatives of the Department of State Security (DSS), storming the National Assembly (NASS) complex very early in the morning and cordoning off the vicinity, preventing even the lawmakers, journalists and visitors from gaining access.
The invasion, incidentally, fell into prior allegation by the PDP that the complex, could be invaded by security agencies, in a plot to forcefully change the leadership of NASS, especially the Senate.
In fact, Timi Frank, a former deputy national publicity secretary of the APC had raised an alarm of a plot to impeach the Senate President, Bukola Saraki, earlier.
When news, thus filtered out that the operatives had taken positions at the various entry and exit points in the complex since 2am on Tuesday – a day the NASS leadership was expected to hold an emergency meeting to attend to some pending issues, including those related to approving the budget of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for 2019 elections, it was easily concluded in some quarters that the country had, once again, relapsed to the days of executive lawlessness.
Assault on NASS
The development did not however come to keen observers as a surprise. In fact, since the inauguration of the current administration on May 29, 2015, the relationship between the executive and legislative arms, has at best been lukewarm and at worst, rancorous.
It all commenced with the election of Saraki as Senate President and Yakubu Dogara as Speaker, House of Representatives, quite contrary to the prescription of the APC leadership. APC and the President Muhammadu Buhari-led executive on one side and the NASS leadership, on the other hand, have been at daggers drawn ever since.
Following the defection of Saraki with other legislators from APC to PDP, earlier in the month and the demand on him by APC to relinquish his position, the battle line, has been drawn.
There have also been movements from the PDP to APC, the latest and more pronounced, being the defection of former Akwa Ibom State governor and erstwhile Senate Minority Leader, Godswill Akpabio.
Even with this, the APC is yet to get over the exit of Saraki. When therefore the DSS operatives took over the NASS, claiming to be acting on orders from “above”, insinuations readily ran high that they were acting at the behest of the presidency.
Osinbajo wades in, fires Daura
In apparent move to disabuse the minds of Nigerians in this regard, the Acting President Yemi Osinbajo, SAN, promptly condemned the unauthorized takeover of the National Assembly complex, describing it as a gross violation of constitutional order, rule of law and all accepted notions of law and order.
According to him, the unlawful act which was done without the knowledge of the Presidency is condemnable and completely unacceptable.
In a statement by his Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Laolu Akande, the Acting President, assured Nigerians that all persons within the law enforcement apparatus who participated in the act would be identified and subjected to appropriate disciplinary action.
In line with the assurance by Osinbajo, the Director-General of the DSS Lawal Daura, was sacked, promptly.
The action by the Acting President, has, somehow, brought down the tension that the invasion had injected into the system.
Nigerians react
Before the move, Saraki and Dogara had condemned the action of the security agents and described it as another attempt to subvert the nation’s democracy.
The two had in a joint statement, described the action as desecration of the sanctity of the legislature and flagrant abuse of powers, calling on members of the international community to view the development as a coup against democracy.
“This is a throw-back to the inglorious days of military rule where dissent is not tolerated and freedom of association and other fundamental human rights are willfully and carelessly violated”, the lawmakers stated.
Rivers State governor, Nyesom Wike, also condemned the action, urging Nigerians to rise up against the growing dictatorship of the APC Federal Government.
He said, “All well-meaning Nigerians should stand up against this dictatorship. All over the world this has never happened.
“Nigerians should not stand aloof and watch what is going on. This will consume so many people if we don’t rise against it.”
He called on National Assembly members to stand firm in defence of the nation’s democracy.
The governor berated his colleagues who are happy with the anti-democratic plots of the APC Federal Government, stressing, “Those governors happy with what is happening today should know that it will be their turn tomorrow. The same cabal will turn against these governors”.
Sokoto State, governor, Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, also condemned the invasion of the NASS complex. He also applauded the immediate removal from office of the Director DSS from office whose personnel were deployed for such flagrant affront to democracy and the elected representatives of the Nigerian people.
APC has however denied involvement in the act, stressing that it was strictly an affair among the lawmakers.
As in Abuja, as in the states
While momentary sanity may have returned in NASS following Daura’s ouster, the situation in the states remains messy. In Benue, the move by 9 out of the 30 members of the state assembly to impeach the governor, Samuel Ortom, remains hanging.
Perhaps, it is the ruling of a Makurdi High Court, ordering Terkimbi Ikyange to stop parading himself as Speaker of the House, that may be saving the day for the governor.
As in the case with Saraki, he had left the APC for PDP, last month, citing injustice and absence of internal democracy, as reasons for his exit.
In Kano, the Deputy Governor, Professor Hafiz Abubakar, apparently aware of plots by the governor, Abdullahi Ganduje and members of the state’s legislature to remove him, threw in a letter of resignation, last Saturday, August 4.
He said he was leaving on account of “persistent irreconcilable differences on matters relating to governance and government operations, personal opinions, and the concept of, and respect for, democratic ideals and values”.
Sources claimed that he would be joining the PDP. Ganduje’s predecessor and benefactor, Senator Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, had earlier defected from the ruling party.
Imo Deputy Governor, Eze Madumere, had also received a dose of the confusion, when he was impeached on Monday, July 30, by 19 of the 27 members of the State House of Assembly.
Impeachment proceedings against him kicked off on July 10, when Ugonna Ozuruigbo, the Deputy Speaker, moved a motion accusing him of abandoning his duties and failing to carry out official duties assigned to him by Governor Rochas Okorocha, among others.
Okorocha and Madumere belong to two different factions of the APC in the state.
Despite the allegations levelled against Madumere by the Assembly, the interpretation by many on the move against him, is his governorship ambition pitching him against the governor, who is rooting for Uche Nwosu, his son-in-law and current Chief of Staff, to succeed him.
Madumere is still hanging on, on the strength of a Court ruling ordering that Okorocha’s nominee as his successor, should not be sworn in. How long he retains the post, remains to be seen.
