The appointment of Festus Adedayo, columnist and member of Tribune
Editorial Board, as a special adviser on media to the senate president,
Ahmad Lawan, and the sudden withdrawal of the same, evidently against
Lawan’s will, in response to the mordant recriminations by a tribe of
incorrigible leaders and members of the All Progressives Congress (APC)
present the clearest indication yet of how Lawan’s philosophical
inspiration to contribute to _pax-Nigeriana_, using the platform of the
senate presidency, is on the edge of existential backlashes of politics
and ideology.
To be sure, there can be no question at all about Lawan’s pan-Nigerian
outlook. If there was any that tended to create a doubt about his
patriotic commitment to a peaceful, united Nigeria before he stepped in
the saddle and prior to the hoopla generated by the appointment, the
Yobe-born politician had emphatically dismantled the galling question
and invalidated the erroneous perception. Adedayo’s appointment had
forcefully shattered some histrionic dispositions as well as historic
patterns in the configuration of media administrative infrastructure by
successive occupants of the plum office of senate president.
In fact, none of Lawan’s predecessors had appointed a spokesperson
clearly outside his regional, ethnic and religious confines. This
assertion can be subjected to a realistic historical check. Having been
opportune to report the activities of the senate almost consistently and
at different times for Vanguard, THISDAY and The Congresswatch magazine,
I can confirm that the late Evan(s) Enwerem who was senate president
from June 3 to November 18, 1999 appointed his kinsman from Abia state,
Emeka Nwosu, a former editor at the Daily Times, as his spokesperson.
The late Chuba Okadigbo (November 18, 1999-August 8, 2000) appointed an
Igbo, Emeka Ihedioha, who was then a fringe public relations consultant
and currently Imo state governor, as his spokesperson. Ihedioha’s
appointment was political and not professional. Anyim Pius Anyim, who
succeeded Okadigbo and served out the term of Southeast as senate
president in the fourth senate, appointed his Ebonyi state brother, Orji
Ogbonnaya Orji, then working for Radio Nigeria, as special adviser on
media; and, when there was need to rejig the office, he appointed
another Igbo, Kenneth Ugbechie, an editor at Post Express, and created a
new office for Orji, far away from the path of the media.
In the fifth senate, although Adolphus Wabara (June 2003 to April 2005)
appointed a Yoruba, Mayor Akinpelu, editor of a soft sell/celebrity
magazine, as his spokesperson, yet the choice was within Wabara’s
southern regional enclave. Ken Nnamani (April 2005 to June 2007)
emplaced a media team, which was patently designed to promote a
divide-and-rule arrangement. He had, upon a recommendation, appointed
an Edo man, the late Augsteen Bash-Adamu, who was editor of Champion
newspaper, as his spokesperson. He would immediately sideline him for
his kinsman from Enugu, Uche Anichukwu, whose media pedigree was
obscure.
Senator David Mark from the north-central zone appointed Kola
Ologbondiyan, an editor at THISDAY newspapers, from Kogi in the same
zone, as his spokesperson for all of eight years while Bukola Saraki, a
Yoruba from Kwara, with a supposed Abeokuta ancestry, appointed Yusuf
Olaniyonu, also an editor at THISDAY newspapers, from Ogun state as his
spokesperson. In essence, Lawan’s appointment of Adedayo transcended
all these parochial considerations and found anchorage in a seemingly
pristine cosmopolitan tradition that feeds hope to the Nigeria Project.
In that élan, Lawan showed capacity to downplay the factors of region,
tribe and religion in his overall consideration and choice of the
trajectory to chart.
Lawan’s focus was on building a new Nigeria, which could only be
achieved through deploying competence and merit in escalating shared
commitment to the Nigeria Project. The office of the senate president,
which makes him the third citizen in the country, offers that
opportunity. Accomplishing the goal necessarily requires that contempt
for region, religion and ethnicity be ensconced in the administrative
and governance architecture of the office. Therefore, dismissing the
questions of loyalty, prebendal politics and spoil system in his
appointments into a strictly professional media position – after all,
membership of a political party is usually not a criterion – inevitably
placed him at the receiving end of the vitriol of disapprobative APC
leaders and members.
Their argument has been clearly canvassed. Lawan might have acted in
apple-pie order in the context of his idea to join hands with competent
Nigerians who are passionate about a better Nigeria, but the choice of
Adedayo, as far as they were concerned, was impolitic. They summoned
Adedayo’s preoccupation, antecedent and disposition for interrogation
as a catholic critic of the administration to achieve his summative
indictment as an “Obote man” to use his own words as captured in a
published personal conversation that he had with a friend of his on the
issue.
APC’s leaders and members who vehemently opposed Adedayo’s
appointment could be justified in their advocacy to stymie his readiness
to “reap” from where he did not sow; if the idea powering their action
is pecuniary. They probably believe a suitable person in their own
estimation could be sourced from among those of their foot soldiers who
took the bullet from the like of Adedayo for the APC and President
Muhammadu Buhari.
But Lawan’s proclivity represents a higher ideal, tending towards the
accommodation of a Nigerian in the push for catharsis of antediluvian
fault-lines of politicization of choices and foisting of personages on
the system by means other than merit, competence and nationalism. It
was in that praxis that Lawan had moved to upend the unwritten code that
a spokesperson to the senate president must necessarily share some
ethnic, religious, political or even filial affinity with the occupant
of the office.
Nevertheless, the lower ideal of political consideration within the
progressive conclave that the APC purportedly typifies has
understandably outweighed all other reasonable considerations that would
have projected the APC as accommodating; sans pettiness.
Even though, he respected the sensibilities of his party apparatchiks by
withdrawing Adedayo’s appointment, Lawan had succeeded in cutting a
niche for himself as a detribalised Nigerian, which is the essential
fulcrum of his devotion to pax-Nigeriana. And, besides, the symbolism of
Adedayo’s appointment reinforces the belief in and hope for a nation
where, even though, our tongues and tribes may differ, there can always
be justifiable platforms of brotherhood on which to stand in alliances
to achieve a Nigeria of our collective dream.
This will make the building of synergy between the legislative and the
executive arms of the federal government easier in keeping fidelity with
the social contract. And, never again shall there be deceptive rhetoric
to explain away the retrogressive feuds between the arms of government,
especially in budgetary administration that has become characteristic
aggravation in their relationship.
Under Enwerem’s senate presidency, the legislature was tied to the
apron string of Olusegun Obasanjo’s presidency in constant prostrate
genuflection. Okadigbo redefined that relationship and insisted on the
independence of the legislature. Anyim initially hobnobbed with the
presidency until he parted ways and pitted his tent with his colleagues.
Wabara came with his idea of interdependence of the arms of government,
which did not save him.
Nnamani’s mantra was “legislative due process” under which he hid
to frustrate Obasanjo’s ignoble Third Term agenda. David Mark enjoyed
a robust relationship with the late President Umaru Yar’Adua such that
in all his executive communications, Yar’Adua always addressed Mark as
“My dear brother”. In the chambers, Mark deferred to his colleagues
and referred to them as “my bosses”. That was one of the wise acts
to sidestep the proverbial banana peel.
For Saraki, the manner of his emergence did not give room for any sort
of camaraderie and succor for all of four years. It is expected that
Lawan, in contributing to pax-Nigeriana, will prudently and mutually
respectfully engage the support of his colleagues. He will need them
more that the Presidency to escape the banana peels. True.
· Ojeifo, an Abuja-based journalist, contributed this piece via
ojwonderngr@yahoo.com
Sent from Yahoo Mail on Android [1]