By Arthur Nwankwo
Emperor Nero’s emergence as Roman Emperor in AD 54 was greeted with wild jubilation and expectation especially among the plebeians, aristocrats and subalterns. Interestingly, he came on the scene at a point the |
| *Dr. Nwankwo |
His childhood was moulded by freed slaves— a barber and dancer, before Seneca
was recalled from exile to be his tutor. Despite the over-bearing attitude of
Agrippina, his mother, Nero grew up a complex character— one who showed little
interest in understanding his surrounding; though he tended to pitch his lot
with the masses. His tragic family situation, his definitely over-powering
mother coupled with what was perhaps a weak character eventually produced a
highly unstable Nero. He was an addict to jesting and tended to secrecy. In the
course of time his character showed darker sides and unleashed the beast in
Nero. His dark sides would manifest in his many crimes like committing
thousands of murders including his mother, and abuse of people’s fundamental
human rights and practice of sodomy.
Prior to his emergence, Nero was noted for his limited
understanding of social forces that produced his emperorship and this lack of
understanding in turn produced a veritable outcome— gross suspicion of the
senators and even the praetors. His lame approach to the problems of the empire
would re-instigate the several agitations by various segments of the in places
like
Patriotic Roman senators and nobles voiced their concern and wondered why Nero
should be fiddling while Rome Roman Empire ”. Blinded by a rage to eliminate his
real and perceived enemies, Nero would go down in history as the monster and
evil emperor who fed his people to lions in the Roman coliseum. Though, Nero
was condemned by God and by Man, history is generous with instances of the
re-incarnation of many Neros in several climes and circumstances.
Over the years, Nigeria Nigeria
I do not intend to waste my time reflecting on Buhari’s many failures in the
past twelve months of his presidency. Failure is part of Buhari’s track record.
That he has failed is not surprising to me. If the reverse had been the case,
then I would be surprised. However, what is rather nauseating is Buhari’s
brazen audacity to entrench democratic dictatorship in Nigeria
 |
| *Buhari |
The current attempt by the Muhammadu Buhari administration to force a
leadership change in the Senate on spurious charges of forgery is the same
stereotype approach which Nero applied to cripple the Roman Senate and which
paved the way for the consolidation of Nero’s authoritarian rule in the empire.
Obviously, Buhari and his advisers may not have heard of the principles of
separation of power.
For the avoidance of doubt, the term "separation
of powers" was coined by Charles-Louis de Secondat, and Baron de
Montesquieu. Under this model, the political authority of the state is divided
into legislative, executive and judicial powers. Their contention is that, to
most effectively promote liberty, these three powers must be separate and
acting independently. Separation of powers, therefore, refers to the division
of government responsibilities into distinct branches to limit any one branch
from exercising the core functions of another. The intent is to prevent the
concentration of power and provide for checks and balances. In other words, if
political power is to be limited and responsible, the legislature and judiciary
must be independent of the executive. In a democracy, the exercise of political
power must respect the law, the constitution, and the will of the people,
through the decisions of their elected legislative representatives.
The inability of the Buhari administration to appreciate the relevance of this
principle in a democracy underscores the government’s unwillingness to
appreciate the independence of the legislature. The brazen attempt by the
executive to frame the leadership of the Senate and force a change in its
leadership portends great danger to our democracy. The election of officers of
the National Assembly is entirely the internal affair of the house and the
executive is forbidden by the principles of separation of power to prod into
such internal process.
The incarnation of Nigeria
It is also a measure of Buhari’s lack of understanding of socio-political
forces that he could trivialize the burning issues of separatist agitations in Nigeria to the extent that today one can
confidently conclude that Nigeria
For instance, in his one year report card recently, Buhari told Nigerians that
his administration has recovered several billions of Nigeria
Just yesterday (23/6/2016) Buhari lied again. According to him, his grouse with
Biafran agitators is that these agitators were not born during the
Nigeria-Biafra civil war. This is a lie and arrant nonsense. The truth is that
Buhari’s grouse with Biafran agitators is that the agitators constitute a cog
in his Islamization agenda of Nigeria
If they were not born, have the problems that spurned Biafra
been resolved? They have grown up to be confronted with the same problems; and
using their own social binoculars they have come to the same conclusion as
their fathers and grandfathers that opting out of Nigeria
The truth is that Buhari and his journey men see Nigeria Nigeria
*Dr Arthur Nwankwo is a publisher,
award-winning author, political scientist, historian and chairman of Fourth
Dimension Publishing Company, the largest publishing company in Sub-Sahara Africa with over 1,500 titles.
Restructuring is vital
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