Ordinarily, in any normal country the call for Interim National Government on the eve of pivotal general elections should have been dismissed with a wave of the hand for what it is – a silly and sick joke.
But this is Nigeria. The country is not normal. No idea is too bizarre to contemplate. No kite is too outlandish to fly. The name of the game is self-interest. Nationalism is in very short supply.
In Nigeria, subterfuge is a huge industry and the most adept at it dictate the tone of national politics. The call should not also be ignored because even more bizarre calls in the past, which were ignored, became reality.
It is heartwarming that rather than ignore the call, people at the highest reaches of government are speaking out.
President Goodluck Jonathan has assured for the umpteenth time that the May 29, handover date is sacrosanct. Standing on that assurance, former Head of State, General Abdulsalami Abubakar, who is the chairman of the National Peace Committee on the 2015 Elections, reassured Nigerians on Thursday, February 19, that contrary to fears, there will be no interim government.
Senate President, David Mark, also spoke in the same vein when he described the call as ‘’imprecise, sordid and strange’’ to the 1999 Constitution as amended.
Mark assured on Tuesday at the resumed sitting of the Senate after its one-month recess that the Senate will not be part of any move to violate the provisions of the 1999 Constitution.
“I am alarmed that the issue of Interim National Government has been given underserved prominence in our national discourse. Interim National Government is alien to the 1999 Constitution as amended. Therefore, those calling for it are calling for an exercise in futility,” he said.
The fact that such highly placed government officials are distancing themselves from the egregious call proves how odious it is.
But that should not be all. Every well-meaning Nigerian must be as alarmed as the Senate President because we have seen instances in the past where such calls were surreptitiously promoted by the same people who denounced them publicly. We have seen situations where despite all protestations to the contrary, such calls turned out to be kites flown by the high and mighty through their surrogates.
So Nigerians must not only be alarmed, they must be at alert.
It is bad enough that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) postponed the elections for six weeks. But rather than use the six-week window to perfect the modalities for free, fair and credible elections, some anarchists now want the democracy to be completely truncated.
What purpose will an interim government serve? Is it that Nigeria, as a country, is incapable of conducting free and fair elections, an exercise taken for granted in even less endowed countries? What will be the responsibility of the interim government? Will there also be interim government at the state level? Will it only apply to the execute arm of government or will it also apply to the legislature?
Call for interim government will only aggravate the already charged atmosphere across the country and Nigerians must brace up for very difficult times.
But eternal vigilance, they say, is the price for liberty. Some rogue elements, who don’t wish this country well are at work. Those proposing interim government know what they want to achieve. Such a call is incendiary and can only instigate violence.
Statesmen must step out to be counted at this critical juncture of the nation’s chequered history. Nigerian patriots must help reduce the tension in the country.
Above all, government should not just be content with washing its hands off the calls because they are at best unconstitutional and at worst treasonable. Those orchestrating it neither mean well for the country nor its fledgling democracy. They are enemies of the Nigerian state and must be treated as such by the government.
Anything short of that will lend credence to the belief in certain quarters that the prevailing political shenanigans, including the call for interim government, is nothing other than what the late Afrobeat maestro, Fela Anikulapo Kuti, called “Government Magic.”