President Buhari‘s insistence that he was not going to
interfere on the affairs of the Parliament is a major gaffe any way you slice
it. The Parliament, as stipulated in the Nigerian Constitution, would determine
whether or not his change agenda would fail or succeed in Nigeria. As a
Political Science major with a deep passion for politics, I can tell you that.
The PDP began to irredeemably fall apart the day their own
Speaker of the House, Tambuwal began to show more loyalty and favoritism for
the opposition party, and there was nothing the PDP could do to bring him to
order before the situation got out of control. Only in Nigeria is that kind of
disloyalty tolerated in a party official. It is true that the Speaker of the
House must be neutral in his dealings with members as much as humanly possible,
but the ‘river that forgets its source or origin’ as reminded us by Elemure
Ogunyemi, the Ekiti country music idol, is bound to dry up sooner than later.
Tambuwal got away with his disloyalty because he figured out
that he could only be removed as Speaker by a majority of members in his
Chamber, and nobody else, as stipulated by the obnoxious Nigerian Constitution.
Unwritten ‘laws of decency’ should have required the Speaker to do the right
thing without being told, but because politics in Nigeria is all about self
rather than the ultimate interest of the Nation and the institution, Tambuwal
got away with his perfidy. Not only that, he went on to be called a hero and a
consummate politician in a country where corruption has become a virtue and a
way of life.
Everybody in the PDP knew he was to all intent and purposes
an APC member, but the PDP and President Jonathan were in total denial.
Tambuwal kept that advantage until the very last moment when he publicly admitted
he was going to be the APC Governorship candidate in Sokoto since he could not
run for President. He won the governorship election by a landslide. That could
only mean he had been rooting for the APC long before he made it official.
Even though Goodluck Jonathan tried to shake Tambuwal up by
using the Inspector General of Police, Abubakar Abba by withdrawing his
security details and the official cars and drivers assigned to him as Speaker.
Tambuwal went to Court to challenge the move and won on legal technicalities.
The PDP went into the last elections totally embarrassed and humiliated by
their own Speaker, legislators like Bukola Saraki and Governors like Kwankwanso
and Amaechi who openly decamped into the opposition APC. In his own case,
Tambuwal only stopped short of openly crossing carpet into the APC. He was
widely known to have been holding nocturnal meetings with the APC Caucus while
still claiming allegiance to the PDP.
The House of Assembly in Abuja under the PDP was a House of
Commotion, Intrigues, Horse-trading and Bribery if you get my point. Even
though Nigerians massively voted for change on March 28 and April 11, I can
assure you that nothing has changed and nothing is going to change in Nigeria
for two important reasons.
First, neither of the two major political parties in Nigeria
today have any verifiable ideology that explains their value system and
political leanings. Neither of them operates the kind of party supremacy that
is so critical in every Democracy. Once the Party takes a decision, no member,
however powerful or rich can change it, whether on the floor of the Parliament
or anywhere else in Nigeria
The Action Group under Obafemi Awolowo became the powerhouse
that made the Western Region the pace setter in Nigeria among its peers like
the NPC and the NCNC. Rich individuals like Pa Alfred Rewani, late Pa Ajao and
Pa Shonibare of Lagos were moneybags in the same Action Group, but they all had
to abide by what the Party says. Even Awolowo, arguably the most conscientious
politician and strategist among our leaders, knew he could not achieve anything
as party leader without party discipline and supremacy.
Awolowo initially wanted to make free education in the Old
Western region both ‘universal’ and ‘compulsory’ but the party settled for
universal only. Awolowo had no other choice because the party was supreme. If
Awolowo, the party leader, could do that, no other member could challenge the
party and remain in the Action Group. Awolowo was that strict. It was not like
the “animal farm” of today where a deserter from the PDP like Bukola Saraki
would not take no for an answer because he is hell bent on becoming Senate
President to gain immunity from public prosecution for atrocities he committed
with “Societe-Generale Bank“ a public institution he plundered.
I don’t blame the APC for accepting “leprous” Saraki into
their fold. The APC was like a drowning man that would cling to a snake at the
time it accepted Saraki, and the gamble paid off big time in Kwara State, if
not the whole of Nigeria. They must now deal with and tame the monster or
suffer the same fate as the PDP suffered in Kwara. Saraki is a true son of his
father. He is in politics not to help humanity but to laugh all the way to the
Bank for his own benefit. As Saraki has
become Senate President, forget it. That is the end of Buhari’s anti-corruption
agenda.
I have cited the above examples to show that neither the
PDP, nor the APC that dethroned the PDP for the first time in more than 55
years in Nigeria has anything other than selfish interest at heart. It is a
complete outrage that Bukola Saraki, who destroyed the PDP for his own selfish
gain is attempting the same thing in the APC. Saraki is just like his twin
brother in crime, Ayo Fayose, the current Governor of Ekiti. He is the Judas
Iscariot of Nigerian Politics.
Ayo Fayose, the outlaw Governor has got away with murder in
Nigeria, so to speak, because Goodluck Jonathan’s policy was to join the rotten
eggs of Nigerian Politics rather than beat them. Fayose openly encouraged the
PDP members in the new Senate and the House of Representatives to muddy the
waters for the APC and cause confusion by voting en masse for Sola Saraki as
Senate President.
He has the effrontery to do that because, under the Jonathan
government, he completely outmaneuvered the 19 APC legislators he drove out of
Ekiti so that the 7 PDP legislators could continue to do as they liked with him
as the overall boss. One would have expected the new APC Government to have
paid more attention to Fayose and what he was doing in Ekiti prior to the APC’s
victory in the last election. The APC dropped the ball on Fayose, who took
advantage of the APC’s silence and ineptitude to wait out the 19 legislators
till June 6th when his new set of PDP legislators took over the Ekiti House of
Assembly.
I have completely lost confidence in the APC and President
Buhari for being so sluggish and slow at doing what was expected of them. I
could not understand the strategy of the APC to put Ayo Fayose on notice that
his antics in Ekiti would no longer be tolerated by Buhari. They were supposed
to hit the ground running, but grew so careless that Ayo Fayose treated them
like amateurs in Politics. The man beat the APC arms down in Ekiti, if the
truth must be told. He definitely put “Okaraba Baba Edi“ on the APC and
juggernauts like Ahmed Tinubu. The wizardry of Ahmed Tinubu has been rubbished
by Ayo Fayose.
I agree that it is true that there are more urgent problems
to tackle than facing Ayo Fayose, but I condemn the APC, President Buhari and
Vice-President Osinbajo for completely taking their eye off the ball in
reference to Ayo Fayose and the ugly developments in Ekiti.
I am also amazed, if not totally shocked, that one week
after Buhari’s inauguration he still has not found the time to issue a
statement on the 60 Nigerian officers and soldiers awaiting execution for not
fighting Boko Haram with their “bare hands”. Boko Haram was fighting Nigeria
with tanks, armored vehicles, AK-47 rifles and other deadly improvised bombs
like what Biafrans call “Ugbunigwe” during the 1967 to 1970 civil war. These
soldiers were expected to face this people with prayer and fasting. That is
just wicked.
It is unconscionable that Buhari, a retired 4-star General
has not seen the need to issue a statement on the fate of those brave soldiers
within a week of his inauguration. The cowardly Chief of Defense Staff and the
other heads of the Army, the Navy, and the Air Force who worked with Goodluck
Jonathan are still there, enjoying their loot from Jonathan. Buhari looks
insane to me right now to keep quiet and not say a word. Many, if not all, of
those officers should have been let go immediately.
It also beats my imagination that the same Buhari, up till
now, has not said a word on the fate of Captain Sagir Koli, who blew the
whistle on the covert operations that helped Fayose rig the election in Ekiti
on June 21. Brigadier-General Aliyu Momoh, the commanding officer of the
operation is still in the Military, while Sagir Koli has had to runaway from
Nigeria to avoid assassination or victimization by his commanding officer.
Yet, Buhari still wants Nigeria to believe he is the
Messiah, coming to save Nigeria. If you believe that crap, I have an island to
sell to you in the Pacific. Time is of the essence. Buhari is damaging himself
irredeemably in the court of public opinion for all of the above.
.jpg)
0 Comments