By Olu Fasan
There are two views about Professor Pat Utomi’s decision to float what he called “Big Tent Coalition Shadow Government, BTCSG”. One is that he should not have stirred up a hornet’s nest with something as “provocative” as a “shadow government”.
Another is that any democracy that cannot tolerate a non-violent pressure group, by whatever name it is called, is not a true democracy. I subscribe to the second view. For me, the first view, by being censorious about the BTCSG, misunderstands the true nature of democratic pluralism.
However, there’s a third position, far more pernicious, which seeks to demonise Professor Utomi and treat him as an enemy of the state. From the hysterical, even apoplectic, reactions of the state, you would think Professor Utomi created a “shadow government” to overthrow the Tinubu government and not merely to hold it accountable.
On May 13, the Department of State
Services, DSS, filed a suit at the Federal High Court in Abuja, asking the
court to declare the initiative “an attack on the Constitution”, saying that a
“shadow government” was “a parallel authority not recognised by the
Constitution”. The DSS described the initiative as a “threat to the
democratically elected government that is currently in place”.
Of course, that’s a dire overreaction. Anyone who
bothered to read Professor Utomi’s statement would know that the DSS’s suit was
nothing but a vexatious attempt to give a dog a bad name and hang him. In a
tweet, Professor Utomi said: “What is the goal of the Big Tent Shadow Team? It
is a simple effort at the education of citizenry about governance and policy
options as well as holding power accountable.” He added: “I first suggested a
shadow group as a means of deepening our democracy about 14 years ago.”
That, to
any objective mind, does not sound like an anarchist or a rebel who wants to
overthrow a democratic government with force. Rather, it is a man of ideas, a
patriot, who wants to bring citizens together to generate ideas for governance,
challenge government policies and hold government itself to account. What’s not
to like about that? Democracy is strengthened, and good governance is enhanced,
with enlightened citizenry who are politically aware and can hold their
government and leaders accountable.
To that end,
Professor Utomi has contributed more than most to the development of leadership
and citizenship in Nigeria. In 2004, he founded the Centre for Values and
Leadership, CVL, a not-for-profit body, to equip generations of young people
with values and leadership skills. About the same time, he launched a weekly TV
show, called Patito’s Gang, where highly-educated and well-informed
young people discussed Nigeria’s challenges and offered thoughtful solutions.
So, Utomi is not new to progressive ideas and initiatives. And only to lazy and
warped minds, and to an authoritarian government, would merely calling his new
group a “shadow government” be seen as an attempt to “create chaos and
destabilise the country”, as the DSS perversely alleged.
Tell me, if
calling a harmless pressure group “shadow government” is an “attack on the
Constitution”, how would you describe the recent call by Abdullahi Ganduje,
national chairman of the APC, for a one-party state in Nigeria? Or, indeed, the
fact that Nigeria is more or less a de facto one-part state, with the hollowing
out of opposition parties and the defections of elected opposition politicians
to the ruling party, which President Tinubu himself endorsed and apparently
induced? Which one is worse, which one is a greater assault on the
Constitution: a “shadow government” in name only or a one-party state in
reality?
Recently,
at the APC national gathering in Abuja, the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio,
said: “I move as the Senate President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria that
not only will President Bola Ahmed Tinubu be the sole candidate of the APC for
the presidency but will also be the sole candidate for the whole Nigerian
population.” The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Tajudeen Abbas,
“seconded” the motion, saying: “I stand on behalf of the entire 109 senators
and 360 members of the House of Representatives and all the 36 State House of
Assembly speakers and their members to second this very important motion moved
by the Senate President.” Where was the DSS to tell Akpabio and Abass that they
could not debase the institution of the National Assembly that way? Where was
the DSS to tell them that their effective call for a one-party state was an
attack on the Constitution?
By the way,
isn’t Nigeria’s descent into a one-party state enough justification for a
shadow government? When official opposition is dead, unofficial opposition must
take its place. It is the nature of all things, if formal market is stifled,
informal market will thrive. What’s more, anger and frustration can make people
say or do what they would otherwise not say or do. Yet, that does not
necessarily make them bad citizens or enemies of the state.
In 1997,
angry and frustrated by the despotism of Abacha regime, Tinubu, then in exile,
told ThisDay newspaper: “I
don’t believe in One Nigeria”. Essentially, Tinubu disavowed his belief in
Nigeria’s oneness, what could be worse than that? Today, he is the president of
the same Nigeria. In 2019, Dr Bosun Tijani, then a tech entrepreneur, tweeted:
“‘Nigeria’ is a bloody expensive tag to have against your name,” adding that
“the tag is a bloody waste of energy. A second foreign passport isn’t
sufficient to clean the ‘sin’”. Again, that was a truly damning thing to say
about one’s country. Yet, during his ministerial screening at the Senate,
Tijani said: “I tweeted in anger.” Today, he is a cabinet minister in the same
Nigeria!
By
contrast, Professor Utomi has never abjured his allegiance to Nigeria; he has
never rubbished Nigeria. His angst is against those misruling this country, and
his mission is to sensitise the citizens to what he calls the “citizens duty”
of holding their government accountable. He tweeted: “To back away from
shadowing the government to keep it accountable is betrayal of a moral obligation.”
Again, I say, that’s not the voice of an anarchist, but of a patriot!
Nigeria purports to practise the American system of
government. But in the US, if someone forms a peaceful group and calls it
“shadow government”, he would be within his rights under the First Amendment to
the US Constitution that guarantees freedom of expression. The Second Amendment
goes even further and guarantees the citizens’ right to keep and bear arms.
Why? It was intended as a check on government tyranny, to allow citizens to
resist an oppressive state. Sensibly, the Nigerian Constitution does not
guarantee such a right.
But Section 39 says: “Every person shall be entitled
to freedom of expression, including freedom to hold opinions and to receive and
impart ideas and information without interference.” Professor Utomi’s innocuous
idea of a “shadow government” is perfectly within that constitutional ambit.
The state is wrong to hound him!
*Dr. Fasan is a commentator on public issues
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