“...to come up with the specifics on his requirements, assuring that they would study the requirements either individually or collectively and offer help. They asked to know the nature and the scale of the problems in order to know the nature and the scale of the assistance they will provide. Suffice it to say that they assured President Buhari that ‘Nigeria will find a partner in the G7.'”
While the president was relishing the company of his new found friend who would have avoided him in the past as a dictator who truncated Nigeria's democracy, a feat which all the members of the G7 who are democratic countries are averse to on his way back from his German trip, he was to touch down at the Nnamdi Azikwe Airport, Abuja on Tuesday 9th June, 2015 by 1.00 am Nigerian time as reported. The stability and tranquillity that characterised the atmosphere as bequeathed by former President Goodluck Jonathan was to be interrupted abruptly within the next few hours of his arrival. Just like epic movies, we were to be treated to a suspense filled political drama, which anyone who knows Nigeria political environment could have expected but not in the form that it came. My friend during a conversation in the recent past, was of the opinion that Nigeria is predictable. However, the events that took place on June, 9th keep my good friend wondering if it was the same Nigeria he used to know. He was screaming, "old boy", severally as our law makers exceeded his expectations.
I was of the opinion that the president ought to have stayed back in the country for the first few days of his presidency to bring some order to the polity more importantly, to be fully present at ongoing negotiations about his party's preferences for the leadership of the National Assembly. My argument is that going to Chad and Niger was not a priority in the face of the escalation of Boko Haram that week. Also the relocation of the Army Command Center to Borno State needed the attention and close supervision of the man who came up with the initiative. Meetings with these countries could have come after studying the situation thoroughly within a few days coupled with the status report on the relocation all of which have great implications for the war against terror. While the president wanted to show his countrymen and women that he was serious about stopping the insurgency, he created some lacuna and leadership gaps whose ripples are yet to subside.
In the face of the lacuna the absence of the president, Gov Fayose and some other PDP stalwarts mobilized immediately to exploit the dissent which existed in the APC from some of its members who did not like the consensus candidates which the APC proposed through mock elections. In fact, several flashpoints just like a well orchestrated opera predicated the drama which enveloped the country. It was reported that Senate President Bukola Saraki, at that time a contestant for the coveted position refused to attend a meeting called by the Vice-president to reconcile the differences of APC lawmakers. In fact, some reports had it that Saraki referred to the VP as "common commissioner", however, Saraki's people were to release a press statement debunking such ignorable action from their master. While APC was being sway by wave of instability, alliances, friendships, negotiations, win-win arrangements were formed, crystallised and established across party lines between members of APC and lawmakers from PDP. In a twist of events, the PDP which has earlier stated that it had no intention of presenting candidates for the leadership of the national assembly, backtracked and released a press statement which stated that they have adopted Saraki and Dogbara as their candidates in direction opposition to APC anointed members.
From all indications, the president tired from his trip, I guess jet leg weighed in, retired to sleep and APC spokesman was to release a press statement calling all APC members to the International Conference Center (ICC) for a meeting with the president the next morning as from 9 am. As Nigerians woke up to another day of power tussle amongst the political gladiators, the online community, bloggers and rumour mongers who have fully exploited the press freedom that pervades the polity swoop in on the expected events of the day. For the pundits and APC apologist, it was a done deal for the party's anointed, Lawan-Akume ticket for the senate and Gbaja for the speaker of the house. Where I was in Abuja, I didn't have access to TV so I followed the events online. There were conflicting reports flying in from different sources. Some had it that the national assembly is under lock down by security agencies who were driving away Nigerians who have come to felicitate with their own who were elected to the legislature. Most of the pro-APC online newspapers were more concerned about the meeting going on at the ICC where the president was expected to meet APC lawmakers to cajole them or better still admonish them to vote the party's preferred candidates.
I searched for anywhere online where I can follow the inauguration live and I found Premium Times. At a point there were reports from one of the reputable newspapers that the event has been postponed, as I was refreshing Premium Times, breaking news popped up and it was the election of Saraki as the Senate president. The air waves went agog with speculations of what might have transpired having in mind that the president was supposed to be meeting with APC lawmakers at ICC.
At this point a quote which was brought to my attention by a friend on facebook, suffices perfectly. A timeless quote by an erudite political ediabili (juggernaut), a former Senate President, Dr. Chuba Okadigbo famed for his penchant for mastery of the use of english. He said;
"It takes political sagacity to fathom the political arithmetic."
While the dust was still settling, consternation was rife and the atmosphere was charged, everyone sort to know how the coup at the NA came to be. News began to filter in that Saraki was returned unopposed by a group of 59 senators who were in attendance at the proclamation of the 8th National Assembly of the Federal Government of Nigeria. About 49 of these senators were PDP lawakers who were all in attendance at the proclamation and inauguration of the 8th NA. The singular question on the mind of many Nigerians was the constitutionality of that act, if it could stand. Elementary knowledge of lawmaking tells anyone that a two-third majority is needed to pass any law or carry out any action while a one 1/3 is needed to form a quorum for any assembly of the NA. Given that the Senate, has 109 members and over 2/3 were present, that election was one of the most suspense filled manoeuvre ever in the Nigerian political scene. While the citizens were yet to come to terms with the conflicting news and events, Senator Ekweremadu of the PDP emerged the deputy senate president after flooring Senate Ali Ndume of APC. At this point, this drama had cross the boundary, epic, it was no more mere manoeuvre, a political crisis was brewing and everyone began to wonder why APC lawmakers about 51 of them were not present at the proclamation of the assemble. Earlier, it has been noted that they were expected to meet with the president to iron out issues of who will fly the party's flag. Now Saraki and the PDP having seen the gaps created by the irreconcilable differences, the quest for the number 3 and 4 positions of the FRN was at stake and personal interest held sway, anything was possible so long as it was constitutional.
The uncertainty over who becomes the senate president is a good thing. When APC was balkanizing PDP in the last dispensation, they did so with reckless abandon. It will be better for PDP to queue behind Saraki, have an agreement like APC did with Tambuwal, and throw spanners into the wheel. Now this is democracy. As much as APC is right in wading into the disagreements, let PDP utilize their 49 member strength to take over the Senate so that our senate will not be a rubber stamp for Buhari, no more aye and nay. Their will be counting of individual votes. This were my thoughts before the drama of June 9th.
In this middle of this loss, was the staggering Jagaban of Lagos politics, Senator Bola Tinubu. He was opposed to the candidacy of Saraki and Dogbara, the senate president and speaker respectively. He had his candidates in Senator Lawan and Rep. Gbajabiamila for the upper and lower house. However, what baffles the mind is the fact that even the political gladiators and ruling party forgot that democracy is all about building coalition and partnership, how the APC forgot that democratic principles, practises and precepts do not supersede laws of the nation and they are not cast in stone beats the imagination. Again how they could not gauge the political maturity of politicians in Nigeria were all questions that boggled the mind. The forgot that we are in Nigeria. To get feel of the reasoning behind the belief that the mock elections they carried out days before the elections was binding on the APC lawmakers, their attack dogs have filled the airwaves with examples of how it is done in Washington,you can read one Bayo's take on the issue on Sahara Reporters here. However, it is rocket science to know the reasoning behind the miscalculations of APC. I response to a friend on the lack of political philosophy of political parties in Nigeria, I quipped,
Do they have doctrines and direction in the first place? There's no philosophy, its a congregation of those who want to live off the national coffers. Politics is the easiest way not to work in Nigeria. Get into office, the machinery of governance has been set through the civil service. Just ensure that it is functional enough to keep the nation afloat and make minor improvements and the rest is history. We are practising party system and the decision of the party supersedes that of the individual member. In fact in sane democracies, the leader in congress, be minority or majority leader becomes the defacto choice for presentation as the speaker or Senate leader. The members were elected under a party and they are answerable to their constituencies on the platform of the precepts and direction of the party. Imagine a democrat opposing the party stance. In the US now, all the republican presidential candidates are saying that the bailout of GM didn't work which is the party position. It was just yesterday that a journalist corrected them that it worked because they didn't do their home work, they were just echoing the position of the party to garner votes. Now when they get into power, it is the party that guides them. So APC is right in intervening in the disagreements. As for ideology, we are still far from the ideal. People just come together in the name of a party to get access to government, that is the status quo for now and in the near future.
So as much as the opposition were right in projecting their candidates, the lack of fundamental foundations of political parties were their waterloo, little did they realize that they have been bringing in fire wood infested with ants in the run up to the 2015 elections. I scribbled somewhere online, Coup'd etat. I can't wait to read Lai vituperations of democracy under siege. Unprecedented. We are building a model of democracy for Africa. Buhari is coming against the Mafia. Immediately after the elections in the legislative arms of government which produced candidates who were not the party's anointed ones, the loquacious APC spokesmen filled the airwaves with his usual vituperations of rejection of the results. It was becoming very clear that the APC were opportunist who saw nothing good in action that was not in their favour. One writer chronicled the statements Lai when they started their political dribbling few years ago when they ursped the PDP and enabled the immediate past speaker, Governor Tambuwal of Sokoto State to become the speaker, to the chagrin of PDP. This and other series of event culminated in the demise of PDP as a ruling party. You can read the piece here.
However, the feel from the electorates was that what happened at the national assembly was good for our democracy. It instituted a balance of power. It heralded the dismantling of the emerging Tinubu political dynasty. It became clear that Tinubu is a local player, only in Lagos state. Let him control the Mafia in Abuja, then we will know that he is a man to be reckoned with nationally. They have just shown him where the limits of his influence ends. After deceiving the gullible masses who were powerless, let him extend his control to the Senate where powerful entities like over 15 past governors have made their abode!
As the dusts were settling, the UK voiced its support for Saraki led senate. The logic was not far fetched. You know this people have an innate and inherent character of support for opposition. Its not rocket science to have know that once one of the G8 except Russia is supporting you, others will queue behind. Forget about APC, they don't want to come to terms with the fact that their new founder access to power seem to be overwhelming them. They bullied and lied their way to power, now the problems of Nigeria are so complex that it will expose the most intelligent person as a novice, the power configuration is sparse and not concentrated at one point and an attempt to foist such concentration cannot stand. Examples, the voting pattern and then this humiliation of Tinubu. How can Tinubu be an overlord for the entire 6 regions when even in any of this region, there's no shortage of godfathers who number more than 20 each? The bloodless transition from PDP to APC which the West want to brandish as example to other fledging democracy is what they needed. Have you heard any of the countries accusing Goodluck Jonathan of any misdeed? With time, we will get over this. APC is just whining like a lame dock and you know, when you beat a child, you don't expect the child not just to cry. Everything depends on Buhari, the locus of power in APC seems not be clearly defined and within the next few weeks, Buhari will chose to be the leader of the party or cede that place to Tinubu or better still power sharing because of the history of the merger and emergence of APC. I don't see the party discipling anyone or disintegrating for now because that will amount to the highest political naivety of the century.
Lagos State is not and cannot be equivalent to Nigeria. If Tinubu can control the entire Yoruba, other regions are republicans and would always have a set of leaders like advanced nations not just one leader. With over 15 ex-governors Senators, and Tinubu was hallucinating about controlling everyone. The final rejection of Gbaja was the strongest signal because I thought they would have even considered him as a strong man. They put him in his proper place. Controlling Lagos is equivalent to being a godfather in many African countries talk more of controlling Nigeria where you have over 1000 rich men and god fathers like Tinubu. Imagine the US or China having only one leader? That's not possible because it will turn that person into a tyrant!
Calls were amplified from the Tinubu camp for the sanctioning of Saraki and Dogbara by Buhari. I queried, why not say Buhari should become a tyrant and re-enact the 80's. Wake up we are in democracy! This is the first taste of his new found democratic beliefs. He said that he is a converted democratic. He has seen what it means to practise democracy where people act within the limits of the constitution even if their actions will not augur well for him. It is quite malicious that some persons had the effrontery to insinuate that Buhari was disrespected. How can you ask a an independent national assembly to proceed on a meeting with your consent and at the same time arrange another meeting with your party members. Is Buhari the president to serve APC or the generality of Nigerians? Nigerians were kept on frenzy by power grabbers who want appropriate and annex all available political power. When the same men applauded and glamorized impunity and inundated the polity with tension, holding the people on hostage through their threats of parallel government and subterfuge, they forgot that the law of karma exist and that in a democracy there are rules. Its akin to giving an opponent a clean tackle in football. For those peddling false information, David Mark is not the senate leader. Buhari cannot be a general, he even dropped it from his name. This is democracy, such a government, where Obama is up against an opposition congress.No one even now knows what Buhari's policy on corruption is and the situation is now compounded by the events of yesterday.
While arguments and counter arguments on the outcomes of the National Assembly leadership continue to dominate national discourse, the fundamental fact is that what transpired at the national assembly was constitutionally legal. The president has voiced his support and immediately after that before the end of the week, he jetted to South Africa for the African Union Summit. Before he left, he chaired the meeting of our neighbouring countries on the security challenges of Boko Haram. The high point of that meeting was his rejection of a rotational leadership of the central force. That makes sense, given that we will be contributing most of the resources and the fight in mostly on our territories. As a man who rose to level of general in the army, he should know the act of war better than most people. While we are trying to battle Boko Haram, we have amnesty international indicting our top military personnels for actions that amounts to war crimes.
As the president headed to South Africa without much to show for the faith that the Nigerian people have reposed in him, there has been indications that the president is falling below expectations. Believe me or not, we needed a break from the monotony of PDP. However, the issue is Buhari seems not to be the right man for the job. After one week plus in power, we cannot tell exactly what the man is doing or wants to do. I can see a very happy man who has achieved his life ambition to be Nigeria's president given his short-lived first outing. Again, the northerners just wanted power and they packaged their best product and sold it to Nigerians who like a bored person wants a change of scenery. Now that is the challenge. Everything seems to be taken off on the alter of secrecy. I wish the 9-point agenda will be released even as a paraphrased address presentation, so we begin to know how ''the messiah" intends to salvage the deterioration. If there must be change, it has to start from Abuja so that states can emulate that model. As at this Monday, the ship of state is still rudderless. Forget about the junketing and positioning, nothing tangible and concrete is on ground. We have problems that require state of emergency declaration, expedited approach and a sense of urgency to nip in the bud. Just like a puzzle, two weeks into Buhari's presidency, Nigerians are still trying to put the piece and piece together to know exactly what the president wants to do or not do.
Many of those who want Buhari to emulate presidents like Obama forgot that Obama had written books, articles, made laws and articulated his policies before becoming president. Now they want Buhari to emulate Obama when he does not have any elaborate plan for Nigeria which we can see, scrutinise and be hopeful about. Even two weeks into his presidency, they are wasting space on Sahara Reporters telling Buhari what he can learn from Obama instead of dissecting and analysing Buhari policy thrust and direction which are non-existent. Even the G7 noticed this lacuna and mandated him to come to the G7 with his wishlists, who knows if he was able to come up with one. A leader should take initiative and lay down the vision but what Buhari has in stock is rhetoric of fighting corruption and propaganda of BH. In response to the guy, I giggled: You will continue to come up with your wishlists until Buhari gets his acts together. However, at this point, he may find it difficult, its like going about a venture without an elaborate plan. Maybe you can teach Buhari because I know Sahara Reporters have the ears of the president. For now the uncertainty of Buhari's actions is very high and that is not good for the smallest business talk more of a complex system like Nigeria.
As we get into the third week of this democratic dispensation, the president is in South Africa attending the AU summit. He even told reporters that he doesn't know citizens are anxious about his slow disposition to tackling the numerous ills that bedevil the country. Nigerians are eagerly waiting for the magic wand, and as the president returns from his AU summit, many hope he will pack into Aso Rock and face the business of governance squarely. Hope he doesn't jet out again.
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