By Oguwike Nwachuku
oguwikeng@yahoo.com, o.nwachuku@thenicheng.com
0805 306 9019
Six months after power changed hands from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the All Progressive Congress (APC) politicians are back to what they know how best to do – plotting evil, making mischief, raising tension and playing politics with everything.
If some of the things we heard last week are anything to go by, politicians are at it again.
From the report of the attempt on the life of Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, to Senator Oluremi Tinubu taking over his seat, and the alarm the PDP raised that its leaders are earmarked for elimination, none is palatable.
Ekweremadu’s aide, Uche Anichukwu, alerted on Tuesday, November 17 that his principal had escaped assassination by unknown persons.
He said: “The attempt occurred at about 10am between Apo Flyover and Dantata Construction Company’s yard, close to the old Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) headquarters junction on his way to work.
“The suspected assassins, who operated in a tinted, white-colour Mercedez Benz AMG E63 without a plate number, were chauffeured by a long-bearded light skinned foreigner, apparently a mercenary.
“The vehicle, which was positioned by the Apo Bridge, on noticing that [Ekweremadu’s] convoy took the right turn to join the Nnamdi Azikiwe Expressway instead, made a turn.
“The occupants attempted to attack the convoy, but were blocked. The driver violently broke into the convoy and they made several frantic attempts to attack the [Ekweremadu’s] official car.
“When charged at by the security operatives attached to [Ekweremadu] the Benz driver made a U-turn, and partially smashed an oncoming vehicle on the opposite lane of the highway and escaped.
“The development has already been reported to the security agencies.”
People think differently about what happened. While some downplay its magnitude, others doubt the veracity of the report.
Yet others think the fact that newspapers which reported the story did not give it elevated treatment, based on the status of Ekweremadu, failed to give the incident the gravitas it merited.
With report that the alleged assassin almost had access to Ekweremadu’s car some people reason that his security details should have shot at the man or at the vehicle he drove, which would have paved the way for his arrest.
The point of convergence is that anything can happen with politicians and politics.
Pronto, Ekweremadu could have been assassinated, and if that had happened, the masterminds would still have been the first to issue condolence messages singing his praises as perhaps the best thing to happen to the country.
And while the condolence messages pour in, the police high command would make its usual pronouncement of “we will fish out the perpetrators of the heinous crime,” and that would be the end of the story while a prominent and promising young Igbo man would have been cut short in his prime as witnessed time without number in this country.
Politicians will always take advantage of situations as ugly as this to advance their course.
That explains why on Wednesday, November 18, the PDP claimed that it had information that the APC was plotting to kill Ekweremadu; acting Board of Trustees (BoT) Chairman, Bello Haliru; Senate Minority Leader, Godswill Akpabio; and acting National Chairman, Uche Secondus.
PDP spokesman, Olisa Metu, said other PDP members isolated for assassination include National Secretary, Adewale Oladipo; members of the National Working Committee (NWC); as well as House Minority Leader, Leo Ogoh.
Metuh said the alleged attempt on Ekweremadu’s life showed the era of political assassination has returned to Nigeria.
“The PDP does not mince words in holding the APC responsible for the Tuesday attempt on the life of [Ekweremadu],” Metu said.
His offence, Metu added, “is the privilege of being elected deputy Senate president, in line with the Standing Rules of the Senate and the Constitution.
“We therefore want the international community to note this ugly development in our country and hold the government responsible should any unexplained harm befall any PDP leader.”
Ordinarily, what happened at the Senate Chambers on Wednesday, November 18 when Tinubu sat on Ekweremadu’s seat in his absence on a day he was rumoured to have survived assassination should be interpreted as an act of ignorance.
It also shows how careful or careless our lawmakers are and, above all, how much respect or disrespect they have for constituted authority in the Chamber.
As far as the PDP is concerned, there is a nexus particularly if it was true that Tinubu said the seat belongs to the APC.
Metu said: “Senator Oluremi Tinubu, in furtherance of their plan to take over the office of the deputy Senate president, went ahead at plenary today to occupy his seat and attempted to assume the duties associated with that office.
“Some desperate power-mongers close to President Muhammadu Buhari, particularly those privy to his interest to contest the 2019 presidential election, and who have been reading his body language against the opposition, have gone ahead to establish a killer squad to wipe off strong opposition, deeming such a service to the president.
“This killer squad, our intelligence further revealed, has key marksmen recruited from within and outside the country with directives to trail, track down and hit strategic opposition elements and instill fear among PDP members.”
When news of Ekweremadu’s attempted assassination broke, I reflected on the comments credited to him recently during the rebranding conference of the PDP in Abuja where he said the APC grabbed power on the wings of propaganda and had not fulfilled any of its campaign promises.
“Unfortunately, the chicken has come home to roost sooner than anticipated. No campaign promise, I repeat, no promise made by the present APC administration has been kept,” Ekweremadu declared.
“They promised to scale up the exchange rate of our currency to a naira to one U.S. dollar. Have they kept this promise? They promised to bring back the Chibok girls in three months. Have they brought back the Chibok girls?
“They promised to pay N5,000 to 25 million unemployed youths. Have they paid a kobo to any youth? They promised free meals to our children in the schools. Have they given any?
“They recently promised to end the Boko Haram insurgency in December 2015, we earnestly hope and pray that this particular promise is kept in the overall interest of our nation. We are only going back to where we started from.”
No doubt, most APC leaders are still angry at Senate President Bukola Saraki and Ekweremadu over their emergence. They will stop at nothing to cut their own pound of flesh.
Before Bola Ige, who was made power minister from then opposition Alliance for Democracy (AD) was assassinated, PDP leaders thought he was invited to come and “chop” and not to lampoon their policies.
Ekweremadu may have fallen into a similar mould where some APC leaders think his emergence with Saraki was a gift and he should not have a mind of his own.
Those who have condemned the attempted murder and asked the police to do the needful deserve commendation.
We hear Ekweremadu’s chief security detail and aide-de-camp (ADC) have supplied the critical ingredients the police need to investigate the case.
One hopes the police and the Department of State Security (DSS) will not waste time in unearthing who the potential assassins are so as to find out who they are working for.
Nigeria cannot afford to add more names to the long list of unresolved cases of assassinations.
