How fast things change? Howquickly destinies turn around? In the first
week of July 2018, the police hadinvited the Senate President, Dr Bukola
Saraki, for questioning over theinfamous Offa Robbery. Tongues wagged,
creating another round of tension in theland. Many could not understand
what was happening. But then, this is Nigeria;this is the country where
the lust for power makes otherwise reasonable peopledo unreasonable
things. Many thought it was a witch hunt. How could Saraki beinvolved in
armed robbery, remotely or otherwise? Many thought it waspolitical. But
was it?
The events of today make it seemso. Just about three weeks after the
police invitation to Saraki, thenewsstands are awash with stories of
President Muhammadu Buhari ‘begging’ thesame Saraki not to leave the APC.
Not only that, some APC leaders and governorswho had kept silent and
probably out of blind loyalty to the president andtheir party even when it
was very obvious that they were not being fair toSaraki both as a person
and as the President of the Senate of the FederalRepublic of Nigeria,
mocked and enjoyed every bit of the humiliation dished outto him for
nearly three years and nearly all the entire period of the
Buhari’sadministration, are now acting sanctimoniously and speaking like a
people whohave just regained their decency just because of the threat
Saraki’s planneddefection would have on them and their party at the 2019
elections.
These same people spoke ill ofSaraki whose only ‘offence’ was that he
legitimately contested for the Senatepresidency, something that was within
his rights to do, and won, to the extentthat Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, in
a communiqué he released sometime in October2015, described Saraki’s
emergence as Senate President as a “crass act ofdisloyalty”. Since then,
Saraki has been visited with immense political venomwhose cure could only
be found in the long and tortuous road to the SupremeCourt. State agents
were unleashed not only on him but also nearly on all thosewho stood by
him particularly in the National Assembly.
Those set to destroy him did noteven mind also destroying the institution
of the legislature alongside. Theynot only unleashed moral and
psychological violence on him through the securityagencies, they also
unleashed the media against him. In some cases, fake CSO’swere hired to
demonise him in hurriedly arranged protest marches usuallycarried out by
protesters who hardly knew why they were actually out in thestreets.
Members of the executiverecklessly maligned the National Assembly. Ibrahim
Magu is still the EFCCChairman today despite being declared unfit and not
qualified to head that allimportant organization having been indicted by a
sister security agency, theDSS, in a number of alleged criminal breaches,
and the non-confirmation of theSenate.
It was because of theirrepressible urge to destroy Saraki and break him
that made theComptroller-General of Customs constantly and flagrantly
ignore Senate summonsand resolutions without any consequence. Even the
Inspector-General of Policehas not hidden his disdain for the institution
of the legislature havingserially refused to appear before the Senate to
explain issues about theworsening security situation in the country, all
because of Saraki, the man whomust be destroyed. Or was it not the same
police that told Nigerians thatinvestigation into the mace theft at the
Senate in the midst of the Omo-Agegesaga would take ten years?
Apart from being treated like acommon school boy truant by his own party
co-leaders, a good number of theexecutive have not fallen short of
labeling the whole National Assembly membersas thieves and looters. This
is where my worry comes from. With APC leadersincluding Buhari having
mouthed the anti-corruption mantra for so long and sohard, why would they
still want people they labeled looters in their midst? Whynot just allow
them to go?
The truth is that the semblanceof sanity we have in our political climate
today is down to Saraki’s maturityand exhibition of political equanimity,
such that is rare in our clime, in theface of extreme provocation and
unnecessary persecution. If Saraki had at anypoint decided to wield the
enormous powers at his disposal and that of theNational Assembly, the
nation would have been plunged into a crisis ofmonumental proportion whose
end no one would have been able to predict. But obviouslyfor the sake of
the nation, Saraki bore the persecution and carried his crosswith
meekness.
Now is the time to stamp his feetand just walk away from a party that is
wired to destroy its own. When Tambuwalemerged Speaker of the House of
Representatives against the arrangement of histhen party, the PDP, he was
never subjected to any humiliation but was given afree hand to operate. He
was never persecuted. But the same cannot be said ofAPC. They are of a
different species set up to end up destroying not only itsown but also our
institutions in the process.
This is why Saraki and all thosewho have become tired of the ugly
situation in the country must dissociate anddivorce themselves from those
who have serially betrayed the trust of Nigerians.A party and government
that have denied their campaign promises even whenwritten will deny any
agreement with the Senate President and the R-APC memberseven if such
agreement is written as reportedly being demanded by Saraki.
A government and party thatridicule our constitution and institutions even
the judiciary by assaultingjudicial officers and recklessly invading their
privacies under the guise ofexecuting arrests, and disobeys validly
pronounced court orders and judgements,is not a government or party to
trust.
Even if Saraki must remain inAPC, he should make himself further a
statesman by making demands that benefitnot only himself or the
legislature but also the people at large. Apart fromrequesting that he
must be accorded the full rights, privileges and respect hedeserves as a
Senate President, he must also request the following:
– That the dignity of the National Assembly must be restored by
ensuring that all government appointees who have failed Senate
screening but are still being foisted on the nation by the executive
vacate office immediately
– That all government appointees who had at one time or the other
ignored, refused and or deliberately failed to answer summons of the
Senate must return to apologise to the National Assembly and Nigerians
for ridiculing one of the legacy institutions of our democracy
– That all those involved in the recent mace theft at the Senate and
their sponsors be fished out and prosecuted immediately
– That all those who are being detained illegally and refused bail even
after multiple court rulings granting them bail be released forthwith
as long as they have met their bail conditions
– That those who have been held without trial for so long, including
Jones Abiri, be released forthwith
– That political persecution of opposition voices using state
apparatuses must stop forthwith
– That properties of some political leaders that were destroyed by some
state governments because of the victims’ dissenting voices be rebuilt
forthwith
– That all those whose rights have been abridged one way or the other
because of their opinions on state or national issues, including those
who were sacked from their jobs in the process, some who have also
suffered both physical and psychological injuries, be reinstated and
adequately compensated
– That all government appointees, cronies or servants, who have been
indicted in one crime or the other by a report from either arm of the
National Assembly, be removed and prosecuted forthwith
– That all those indicted in the 2015 massacre of Shiite Muslims in
Zaria in 2015 and those involved in the murder of citizens during the
“Operation Python Dance” in the South East be arrested and prosecuted
– That the menace of Fulani herdsmen terrorists all over the country be
checked and those who had been reported to have publicly boasted about
the killings while threatening more be arrested and prosecuted
forthwith, among other demands meant to restore order and decency in
governance and guarantee the fundamental human rights of all citizens,
the enthronement of justice, equity and fairness, and the progress of
the nation
To me, these are very soundgrounds on which Saraki can negotiate with
President Muhammadu Buhari and theAPC leadership. If there is any man
divinely positioned to correct all theseanomalies particularly at this
time, that man is Saraki. His persecution by theAPC government has
unintentionally thrown him up as the leader of a greatnumber of suffering
Nigerians who are now in the majority. He must seize thisopportunity and
make it count for posterity. He must eschew any selfish agendaand ride on
the grace God has placed on him to snatch the country back fromtyranny and
despotism. If it does not work out in the next one week, he shouldleave
the APC urgently as time is ticking. He must not allow the APC tocunningly
buy time with him.
Nigerians are daily beingafflicted with tears, sorrow and blood under the
APC-led federal government.Saraki can defect and set the tone for a new
agenda immediately no matter theparty he eventually goes to. God has given
him the opportunity now to stopaffliction from rising a second time in our
nation. Will he take it or will helet it slip by? The choice is Saraki’s!
—jrndukwe@yahoo.co.uk; Twitter: @stjudendukwe