By Obi Nwakanma
“No one
tells the deaf that there is a stampede in the market” – Igbo proverb
On May 29, a handover
ceremony should take place, with a parade at the Eagles Square, to inaugurate a
new, elected President of Nigeria. That date would end the eight disastrous
years of Mr. Muhammadu Buhari as President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
I do emphasize the word “disastrous.” Buhari is a very tragic figure of
Nigerian history.
He would be known as Buhari the religious
fanatic, who in the end was abandoned by God. He would be known as Buhari the
hypocrite, who came promising to end corruption, but supervised the most
corrupt government thus far in the annals of Nigeria. Until Buhari, no one ever
heard about a nepotistic Nigerian head of state. You could accuse those who
came before him of many things, but they always rose above their narrow
provincialism.
But Buhari made nepotism an official character of
Nigerian statecraft. The administration under Buhari took Nigeria from one of
the most prosperous countries on the rise, to one of the extremely
impoverished, hopeless, nightmarish, and very suicidal nations on earth. Nigeria
became the poverty capital of the world under him. That is a very record
achievement. His most signal achievement in fact. Nigeria became the brazen
killing field for terrorists – both officially sanctioned state terrorists
under his command, and non-state terror groups.
For the first time in the history of Nigeria,
it became im- possible to travel, and to con- duct exchange nationally. How can
a country without ability to move goods and human beings conduct trade and
exchange; and feed itself? Farmers were running from bandits. Trains were
derailed and Nigerians publicly kidnapped. The Nigerian Military Academy was
brazenly attacked and cadets and officers killed. Buhari made certain that
Nigeria was on her knees. This administration, of all its greatest sins, have
borrowed Nigeria into economic slavery with nothing to show for it. Nigeria
became a looters haven. I’m not sure Nigerans appreciate the tragic extent of
this yet. This is a national emergency. Buhari knows it and is in a hurry to
hand over power, and
run. Nigeria is in a sticky end. Investors –
both local and foreign have fled from Nigeria. Nigerians are fleeing like a
herd on stampede. They call it “Japa.” Those who are fleeing are young,
talented, and virile Nigerians. They are giving up on Nigeria as never be-
fore. It used to be that Nigerians had hope: they would travel, but they always
hoped to return.
Today, under Buhari and his APC disaster,
young Nigerans are dusting their heels at the doorsteps of Nigeria. They do not
hope to return. There is nothing left for them in Nige- ria. It is a dark and
nightmarish place to be born, and this has been made so very stark for them
under the APC ad- ministration. So, President Muhammadu Buhari wants to
quickly handover, and leave on May 29, 2023. He says, the handover date is
“sacrosanct.”
Nigerians are still debating whether the
Buhari who is in a hurry to run from Aso Rock on May 29 is the exact Buhari
they elected in February 2015. This Buhari seems far too loopy. With that
fixed, sheepish smile constantly on his face, he seems very clearly out of
touch with everything. Saying things that are out of this world, including
statements in his Salah message claiming to have conducted the freest and most
peaceful elections in the history of elections in Nigeria, which is to the
administration, one of its “proudest achievements,” adds to the mystery.
It is of course a lie that the elections were free or peaceful.
Every report about it – both from
international and local observers – with concrete evidence, emphasize the
opposite. Only Buhari, Lai Mohammed, the APC and INEC are the only ones selling
the lie of a free and peaceful elections. It is in fact one of the most
laughable polls ever conducted in Nigeria. Billions went down the drain in the
guise of technology which the Electoral body under this ad- ministration
claimed would be a game changer, but which suddenly developed a “glitch” just as
the presidential results began to trickle in. Someone deliberately rendered
all that billions spent on electronic technology for the polls absolutely
useless.
It is treasonable waste of national resource.
If it were in China, all those who conducted such a sham election, with the
vast incidents of open corruption would be publicly shot. But this is
Nigeria. Here corruption and impunity against the state has replaced patriotism
and high moral conduct. Today in Nigeria, it is considered immoral, to be too
moral. That is the legacy of Buhari. But back to the elections. The claim that
handover date to a new president on May 29 is sacrosanct is bogus.
The key question is, if these elections were
true, fair, and peaceful, and the results broadly accepted, why are there no
celebrations? Why is it only the government and a handful of APC partisans
justifying the results? Why are the results very seriously disputed and the
challenges still in court? Why is there disquiet on the streets? Why does
Nigeria seem like a bomb about to go off? Why is Buhari trying to run away
quickly, and hand over hot charcoals to somebody with whom he has very clearly
made succession deals?
Why did Datti Baba Ahmed’s very eloquent and
fearless declaration on National TV waring against that handover and its
consequence spook this administration and its fellow travelers? Let no one
deceive Nigerians. May 29 handover is not certain. It should in fact not be.
Datti Baba Ahmed is quite correct: to hand over power to Mr. Tinubu, whose
elections is under serious dispute before an election tribunal would be illegal
and unconstitutional. It would delegitimize the office of the President of the
Federal Republic of Nigeria. It would amount to the end of democracy and the
tossing of Constitutional government.
It would shred the constitution of Nigeria and establish a precedent which would legitimize power by heist. It would therefore best serve the interest of Nigeria to constitute the election tribunal very quickly, and get it to dispense quick and informed judgment, as the legal luminary, Olisa Agbakoba has suggested- ed. It is no rocket science.
If the
courts could do it cleanly in Kenya, there is no earthly reason, other than
self-indulgence, why the Nigerian courts cannot do the same.
And if the Nigerian election tribunal cannot
adjudicate this matter in time, and this is where I disagree with Mr. Agbakoba,
there are grounds to establish, under the constitution, a transitional
government pending the inauguration of the President. Buhari can go. Indeed,
Buhari must leave on May 29.
But the institution of state remains. The
president of the republic is not the institution of state. He is just head of
state. But Nigeria has a protocol list. That protocol list was established for
a reason. Whereas the current President and Vice-President must leave office
constitutionally onMay29,and vacuum
exists because the courts have not declared an
elected President as is required by law, the President of Senate can be sworn
in as Acting President to lead a transitional government pending when the
courts will declare a president duly elected.
A president does not need to be inaugurated on
May 29. That date is not sacrosanct. It is only a conventional date. A
president of Nige- ria can be inaugurated on October 1. If the National
Assembly is in abeyance, the Chief Justice can swear in the Secretary to the
Federal government as acting President of an interim government and Administrator
of the Republic pending the adjudication by the courts, and the declaration of
a duly elected President of Nigeria.
The doctrine of necessity will apply in this
case, and the established protocol for state succession in the event of vacancy
as we are about to experience it, must equally apply.
*Nwakanma is a poet and US-based academic
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