By Paul Onomuakpokpo
Since our leaders have
failed to learn from the past, they have currently embarked on a voyage of
stretching the resilience of the nation and its people to the limit. To them,
no calamitous consequences could attend this. They feel secure in the delusion
that since the civil war could not dismember the nation, nothing else could.
This is why when the victims of killer herdsmen cry for justice, they are
ignored. It is the same way that those who agitate for restructuring are
dismissed as national irritants. The beneficiaries of the warped polity send
the subtle message to the oppressed that they have nowhere to go; they just
have to learn to accept their bleak lot.
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| *Buhari and Saraki |
These injustices have
not really precipitated an insurrection that provokes the searing memories of
the civil war simply because it is the poor citizens of the country who are
significantly their victims. Or could there have been the civil war if a member
of the ruling class, Emeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu, had not considered himself as the
embodiment of the persecution of the Igbo? Would the poor Igbo have resorted to
secession as a means of ending the injustice being meted out to them by their
fellow citizens?
But the country is
taken to the precipice of crisis, and its heightened form, dismemberment when
it is the members of the ruling clique who feel betrayed by their colleagues.
Again, the civil war bears out this – did Odumegwu-Ojukwu call for arms because
what was primarily at stake was the need to stop the mass killing of his people
or that of redressing a personal insult of those beneath him transforming into
his superiors?
Throughout history, the fact is the same – personal squabbles become national
tragedies. In the dark days of military regimes in Africa ,
there were palace coups because some soldiers felt affronted by the arrogance
of their colleagues.
Now, the brewing
crisis between the presidency of Muhammadu Buhari and the Senate of Bukola
Saraki poses a mortal danger to the continued existence of the nation. It has
gone beyond recurrent disagreement as a staple of democracy. What we are faced
with now is a smouldering fire that could imperil the nation’s democracy.
It is not a crisis
instigated by external enemies to bring down the All Progressives Congress
(APC) government. Rather, it began with Saraki bulldozing his way into the
Senate presidency in total defiance of the expectations of the leaders of his
party. Since the efforts to dislodge him by appeals and threats failed, Saraki
has been subjected to a rash of corruption charges. Yes, Saraki may really be
corrupt. But his prosecution has also been seen as not really part of efforts
to genuinely fight corruption, but as a means of hobbling him for his defiance.
It has been a long wait for this struggle to lead to the implosion of the party
and trigger a national crisis. Until recently, the presidency seemed to be on a
higher moral ground. And it was thus thought that Saraki would beg Buhari and
the leaders of the APC for him to have peace. In fact, it was thought that
there was no need for him to beg since his case was irredeemable – he should
just resign.
But now either due to
the bad advice emanating from his coterie of advisers or the low quality of
mind of Buhari that has not prepared him for the leadership of a complex nation
like Nigeria
But this is a fact
that the Buhari presidency and its serenaders have refused to accept. They have
thus branded everybody who tried to rouse them from the delusional notion that
the government was on the right path as an enemy. But with the indictment that
the government is afflicted with a disconnect from the aspirations of the
citizens coming from Nasir El-Rufai, a leading light of the APC, we wonder how
they would continue to sustain the canard of the APC government being the best
thing that has ever happened to the country.
Now, Buhari and his
presidency may have to consider the option of seeking peace with Saraki and his
Senate. Feigning oblivion of the potential damage to his anti-corruption campaign,
Buhari and his presidency may go to Saraki and his Senate to persuade them that
Ibrahim Magu is indispensable to the anti-corruption agenda of the executive.
He would need to convince them that Magu is not terrorising them because they
failed to confirm his appointment as the chairman of the Economic and Financial
Crimes Commission (EFCC). Again, Buhari would need to persuade the Senate that
the alleged malfeasance of Babachir Lawal should be glossed over. Since he
wants these people badly, he would have to strike a deal that the Senate
members should be exempted from the anti-corruption fight. Let those outside
the Senate be hauled to the judges, but the National Assembly should be left
alone even though its sanctity has been sullied by the many corrupt former
governors and other erstwhile public officers sitting in it.
But would Buhari tell Saraki and his Senate to do their worst? Would he listen
to the advice of his learned special advisers that the executive is the numero
uno and it can choose to ignore the opinion of the Senate on matters of
governance? Buhari may agree with his aide that Magu can keep on acting even
after he has been rejected twice by the Senate.
Buhari may not see the
need to tell Customs Comptroller-General Hameed Ali that he should wear his
uniform and meet the Senate. He may not come to terms with the fact that if at
all he reached an agreement that wearing the customs uniform is below the
dignity of Ali, the Senate was not part of it. Thus he may not tell Ali to wear
his uniform and go to the Senate and defend his policies. Buhari’s legal
advisers may tell him that since Ali has been able to convince him, he can
equally persuade the Senate that his wearing the uniform of the customs from
which he enjoys the perks of office is not only beneath him, there is no law
compelling him to be so dressed. Buhari may not even consider the fact that
serving a nation requires humility and sacrifice and if wearing the uniform is
part of the sacrifice that Ali must make, it should not be too much for him if
he genuinely wants to serve.
Or would Buhari opt
for genuine compromise and seek peace with the Senate for the sake of the
citizens who are waiting for good governance? The obvious danger is that if
Buhari and Saraki continue to intransigently maintain their positions, and are
overwhelmed by the drive to defend their bruised egos, we might as well
consider ourselves confronted with the twilight of the fourth republic.
*Dr Onomuakpokpo is on the Editorial Board of The Guardian
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