The Nation Newspaper

Category: Monday

  • Ngige’s hidden agenda

    Why is the Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige, opposed to the inauguration of a former Secretary-General of the National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG), Frank Kokori, as chairman of the Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF)? How did Ngige get President Muhammadu Buhari to review Kokori’s appointment as NSITF chairman?

    These questions naturally followed the April 18 disruption of a move by the minister to inaugurate the NSITF governing board at the Ministry of Labour, Employment and Productivity in Abuja. Protesting unionists disrupted the planned inauguration of an NSITF board without Kokori as chairman.

    An April 17 statement by the labour ministry, signed by the Assistant Director, Press, Rhoda Illiya, had announced Mr. Austin Enajemo-Isire, a chartered accountant, as the new NSITF chairman approved by President Buhari. According to the statement, Chief Kokori had been appointed to head the Michael Imoudu National Institute for Labour Studies. It’s unclear why Kokori’s initial appointment as NSITF chairman was reconsidered. The labour ministry explained that the change followed due process and had the approval of the President.

    Ngige claimed on Channels Television: “The truth of the matter is that labour made a recommendation for somebody to be chairman of the NSITF board. It was not in the labour’s ambit to do so. We have the NSITF Act. The power to make recommendations to the President or Acting President for the chairman of the NSITF board rests solely on the minister.” This suggests Ngige had recommended Kokori’s replacement. But who initially recommended Kokori for the NSITF position?

    President of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) Ayuba Wabba described as “falsehood of the highest order” Ngige’s claim that labour had recommended Kokori for the NSITF position. According to Wabba, Kokori “got his nomination to chair the Board of NSITF as a chieftain of the ruling party in Delta State and in his own right as a distinguished and forthright elder statesman.”

    About four months after Kokori’s appointment was announced in October 2017 by then Acting President Yemi Osinbajo, Kokori had protested during the 14th edition of the Gani Fawehinmi Annual Lecture/Symposium held in Lagos on January 15, 2018:  “Today, my rights are being abridged by a minister. You have this Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF) where Nigerian workers and employers contribute money to, their pensions, their gratuities, their compensations are all there. Anytime they put a board in place, the board will almost eat the whole money. Now they sacked the board, a woman was the chairman; they say they are looking for her…The government, in its wisdom, when Nigerian labour and organised private sector, NECA, went to meet the president and said, please this is our board, reconstitute this board for us…we have two members, NECA has two members, Central Bank has one member, just like that, and three executive directors, we want to protect our money.”

    Kokori continued:  “The Minister of Labour, Chris Ngige, phoned me and congratulated me that the president has made me the chairman of the NSITF. I should come to Abuja for us to negotiate the inauguration. Since then…I go to Abuja every day. Ngige now runs the board. A board that was set up, where I am the chairman, I now go and beg Ngige every day. Let us swear in…he will say tomorrow he is going to bury his grandmother. The next day, he is going to a naming ceremony. Ngige has no time to swear in the board. He was busy employing hundreds and hundreds of his own community people until recently they had to stop him…Up till today, four months after I was appointed by the president Ngige runs the NSITF singlehandedly and as a minister, and he does what he likes. This is what we call impunity.” If Ngige had congratulated Kokori on his appointment as NSITF chairman, why is the minister singing a different tune now?

    A month later, Ngige inaugurated a nine-member Administrative Panel of Inquiry (API) to probe the finances of NSITF, saying the move was in line with the Buhari administration’s anti-corruption war.  Ngige had said: “The last Board and Administration of the NSITF left negative trails inimical to any advancement and progress for both the human and infrastructural components of the NSITF. The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) had discovered various acts of fraudulent diversions from the Federal Government and Private Sector Contributions amounting to N62.3 billion as at 2015, allegedly perpetrated by the past board and management staff of the NSITF.”

    It is noteworthy that the EFCC had arraigned a former NSITF managing director, Umar Munir Abubakar, and four others for alleged diversion of N18bn of the said money. The EFCC had also questioned and detained a former NSITF chairman, Dr. Ngozi Ojeleme, for alleged diversion of over $48m from the agency’s account.

    Following the disruption of the curious inauguration, Wabba had highlighted Ngige’s curious delaying tactics.  “The first was that the appointment was made by the Acting President and that he needed to revalidate it from the President which he did,” Wabba said. “The second reason was that there has been corruption in the place and that he needed to clean it up and we said there was no problem because we are against corruption.”

    Wabba alleged in his statement: “Perhaps, unknown to the Presidency, the Minister had within this period that he was the sole manager of NSITF, recruited hundreds of people, majority of whom are from his community. He has also been in the habit of forcing the approval of hundreds of millions of Naira for dubious induction trainings, procurement and monetisation of jeeps for himself and the Minister of State in the Ministry, among other spurious expenditure.”  Observers have noted that without a proper board, there are serious issues that cannot be properly addressed. The picture suggests Ngige has a hidden agenda.

    President Buhari’s aloofness is indefensible. The President needs to break the deadlock to show that he is not only in office but also in power. He must not give the impression that the issue is beyond his control.

  • The devil’s juice

    The cliché “to rob Peter to pay Paul,” is one the Buhari administration may be attracting to itself in the way it is treating export business in Nigeria. It is giving chockful of billions in subsidies to petroleum products, while it is stingy with grants to exports of non-oil products. Even at being stingy, it is not playing a fair hand.

    For one, we must commend the Buhari administration for reviving the policy to pay promissory notes to exporters, an idea abandoned since 2007 in the era of the Owu chief. The notes are expected to allow those who export goods outside the country pay their debts with foreign exchange backing. This will help boost the creative efforts of entrepreneurs. It will also counter the paramountcy of oil as our foreign exchange earner. Of course, we expect more jobs. Eventually it will compel us to provide more and accessible ports to engage the preponderance of goods going outside the country.

    But the federal government is shooting itself in the foot under a programme called Export Expansion Grant, or EEG. A lull paralysed the export trade and payments and locked out businessmen from the grants.  In part, it was due to corruption. Exporters, in our usual style as Nigerians, were making dubious claims, and reaping where they did not sow.  We all know of round tripping in oil. They became Paul while the Nigerian purse became Peter. The apostles collided.

    Buhari revived the system. Meanwhile exporters had accumulated loans and had been paying interests for close to a decade. This also meant exporting was a hard sell. But the system got under way when the Federal Executive Council approved payments of the promissory notes and the National Assembly gave its nod. The federal government then approved the disbursement of over N195 billion in promissory notes to 270 companies.

    But there are snags. While the federal government through the Debt Management Office says the debts, which date back from 2007 to 2016, stand at N350 billion, the Nigerian Export Promotion Council says it is N1.2 trillion.

    Well, the second issue is what in their business language is called Reverse Auction Process, or RAP. By this, the DMO says the money will be payed if only the exporters will discount what is due to them. That is not the only snag here. Where the apostle’s cliché came in for good measure is that the DMO has decided not to play fair. While some exporters had been paid without RAP, they (DMO) want others to get the rap.

    The Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN), the Nigerian Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture (NACCIMA) as well as the Organisation of Private Sector Exporters Association (OPSEA) have weighed in with others in the private sector to draw attention to this inequity.

    They have argued that such a policy is discriminatory, and the question is, who are the Pauls that are so lucky or privileged that they should be discriminated for, while the rest will now be betrayed as Peter, who betrayed his Lord?

    Now, the exporters are not yielding to the disbursement of the money because they cannot abide the injustice. Secondly, with the scale of debts acquired over the nine years, the exporters do not see the grants as relief. They have had to pay lots of money to banks as interests.

    We are not bold in our pursuit to diversify the economy. The budget devotes too puny an amount to pay exporters when there are loads of Nigerian exporters who want to turn Nigeria’s earth into foreign exchange earners. The FEC’s effort is good but does not match the high rhetoric Buhari plumes out on agriculture. We continue to worship oil, while all it does is stifle our muscles to farm as well as to launch into the new economy of software and applications et al, where many youngsters have shown promise, and we cannot seem to go beyond potential.

    Oil is in its last stand in the world. Too many countries now have the devil’s juice in the belly of their earths. In Venezuela, it is not able to stop its currency from diving and its citizens from becoming an embarrassment of refugees. When the oil finally dries, it may be too late for us. It is even beginning to seem so now. The United States has abandoned our oil. I recall in the days of Abacha when the United States was under pressure to impose sanctions on our oil, one of its obstacles was the quality of our offering.

    “Your oil is sweet crude,” a U.S. journalist belched out rapaciously to me at the Investigative Reporters and Editors conference in New Orleans in 1997. Apparently, the Americans’ taste bud has transcended Nigerian Sweetness.

    We don’t need to bemoan our loss of the years of groundnut pyramids or the extravagant pride of cocoa boom or the NIFOR swagger of palm produce. This is a new era of energy, and some Nigerians are trying to give new birth to originality. For instance, few know that Nigeria is one of the largest producers of raw cashew nuts in shells worldwide with an annual volume of no less than $167 million with additional potential of $115 million.

    Yet it seems shocking that only 270 exporters are in play for N195 billion that will enjoy the discriminatory payout. The news reports, however say 39 other companies will get another discriminatory N126 billion in due course.  Oil, for all these, still accounts for over 80 percent of our foreign exchange, and it fuels corruption and militancy in the land.

    Export earnings are still tame. In 2016, we lapped up a mere $1.2 billion, while in 2018 it was $2.2. A news report said remittances from the diaspora topped $24 billion last year. Many Nigerians are leaving in waves, and they give us what I can call comfort money, cash for relatives and friends. It goes to the informal economy, and we cannot as a people plan for and with it.

    That leaves us with export policy planning. Yet, we cannot do well by our exporters. We are not giving them their due or giving them big enough allocation in budgets to show the level of our commitment to export.

    What we are doing is robbing non-oil export to pay oil. It is what some have called unclothing Peter to clothe Paul. Some have called it ‘manoeuvring the apostles.’ The origin of the phrase is not clear, but some have said it was in medieval Britain when the Abbey Church of St. Peter was pulled down and its assets were given to the St. Paul Cathedral. But the Nobel Prize poet Rudyard Kipling in a poem wrote that it was “robbing selected Peter to pay collective Paul.”

    Invoking the economists Schumpeter and Keynes, he was mocking the idea that when you rob a part, you think in error that you are paying all of us. So, we want to rob export to pay oil, but oil is not really for all of us but the corrupt few who slurp the devil’s juice.

  • Okorocha’s litany of universities

    Given the outcome of the last elections in Imo State, one would have been hesitant to interrogate so soon after, the outgoing administration of Governor Rochas Okorocha. Not because there are no issues deserving of such grill.

    It does appear however, he would not allow the ruffled political atmosphere peter out. He seems to have found his voice once again, stirring so much controversy. Last Wednesday, he organized a media briefing in which he dwelt extensively on the giant strides he claimed to have recorded in the education sector. He told his audience with much confidence that he has established six new universities, four new polytechnics and two colleges of education fully ready to resume academic activities.

    Okorocha sought justification for the litany of his new tertiary institutions with statistics of students of Imo State origin who enlisted for the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination UTME from 2012 to 2018. According to the figures, Imo had 183, 865 applicants in 2012 representing the highest number of applicants followed by Delta State with 88, 876. In 2013, it recorded 134, 610 again followed by Delta with 101, 610. Also in 2017, the figure was 101, 868 and 92, 890 in 2018.

    Barely 10 per cent of this population got admission in the nation’s tertiary institutions, hence the imperative for these new institutions to take care of the burgeoning student population, he told his audience. The new universities which he claimed the state House of Assembly has made necessary laws for their establishment are: University of Agriculture and Environmental Services Aboh/ Ngor-Okpala and Umuagwo where the state polytechnic is currently located, University of Science and Technology Onuimo and University of Creative Technology Omuma Isiaku/ Nkwerre.

    There is also the University of Medical Sciences at Ogboko and Marine University, Oguta which he said is still under construction. Okorocha further justified the University of Medical Sciences on the ground that his regime built new ultra-modern 200 bed hospitals in each of the 27 local government areas of the state that will provide outreach services to it. A day after the press conference, he was sighted displaying a certificate said to be operating license issued by the NUC for one of the universities.

    Those conversant with events in Imo State especially as they relate to the education sector must have received these disclosures with mixed feelings. There is first, the temptation to be swayed by the news. This is especially so given the limited admission spaces hitherto available to indigenes of the state in existing higher institutions.

    There is thus, the temptation to jump at the seeming rosy picture painted by Okorocha on which basis he seeks to justify the replication of universities and polytechnics in a manner that suggests he lacks proper understanding of the difference between universities and glorified secondary schools. A cursory appraisal will expose the inherent contradictions in some of the issues that have been traded.

    And as can be gleaned from statistics of UTME applicants within the timeframe, there have been a steady and sharp drop in the number of applicants from the state, dropping to an all time low of about 50 per cent in 2018 from the 2012 position. We needed to be told the factors responsible for the huge drop in the number of UTME applicants from the state.

    It is vital to account for this drop given fears that the trend could continue. If the trend continues, the very reasons on which he rationalized the establishment of the new institutions would have become demonstrably superfluous. He may as well discover that he has no need for the many universities and polytechnics he claimed to have established.

    Had his government subjected these figures to some form of rudimentary analysis, they may have discovered to their chagrin that the figures have been on a steady decline. The next thing is find out why it is so. With such inquisition they may discover that low standard of the much dramatized free education programme may have been largely contributory to the drop. It also bears positive correlation with the level of success recorded by its students in the relevant qualifying examinations for UTME applicants.

    And as can be seen from WAEC results, Imo has lost its position as leading overall performer. In 2016, the state came fifth after Abia, Anambra, Edo and Rivers states and fourth in 2017. Again, in 2018, Imo placed fifth coming after Abia, Anambra, Edo and Rivers states.

    When this is paired with the drop in the number of applicants for the UTME, the figures point to clear signs that something has gone awry with the overall standard of education in the state. Then, the real issue to address should be quality and not quantity.

    As if these contradictions are not worrisome enough, Okorocha shocked many when he claimed his new university of medical sciences at Ogboko will be served by the outreach facilities of 200-bed modern hospitals he built in each of the 27 local governments of the state.

    For all one may care to know, there are no such hospitals existing in the state now. So, their prospects of providing outreach services remain the figment of the imagination of the outgoing governor. We know as a matter of fact that some buildings were set up in 27 local governments, ostensibly as hospitals. These uncompleted buildings have since been overtaken by weeds and rodents in many parts of the state.

    While uncompleted buildings without any medical facilities and human capital do not constitute hospitals, it is no less correct that the one in Okorocha’s local government is now adorning the signpost of the Nigerian police as their office. Another somewhere around Owerri has been donated to the Nigerian Air Force. How these security posts will now serve as hospitals, betrays the hypocrisy and deceit in the claims.

    Again, he said the new universities will be funded under Public Private Partnership, PPP arrangement and that students will pay fees. How that will address the interests of indigent Imo students, remains largely illusory. At best, they will serve the interests of the elite who can easily find admission spaces for their children in existing private universities that are currently undersubscribed.

    There is the need for full disclosure on what this arrangement really entails; the overall financial commitment of the government to the projects, the identities of the private sector participants and their financial contributions. It is hoped nobody is using state funds to set up these institutions using surrogates as private sector participants. It is also curious how Imo State University of Agriculture and Environmental Studies which operating license the NUC was said to have issued, can fit into the PPP arrangement given its current status as a state university.

    He claims the state assembly has made the necessary laws to back the setting up of the institutions. But details of such laws remain the exclusive preserve of the government. No one will be surprised if a compromised and comatose assembly comes up today to cover up what seems an obvious attempt to shortchange and compromise procedures for setting up of such institutions.

    More seriously, why would a government with barely one month to go, embark on bogus projects that are yet to come before the table of the approving federal agencies? Why would Okorocha overburden the incoming administration of Emeka Ihedioha by inaugurating an implementation committee for ill-conceived projects; projects that only exist on imposing billboards?

    Or is it part of the subterfuge to continue to massage his ego (as is the case with his 27 hospitals) that he set up so, so and so universities but his successor abolished them? Why would he be inaugurating implementation committee for the institutions; boards of parastatals et al, a couple of days to his exit? They betray his ambition to hang on to his current office through other means. He had no plans to leave office so soon. So sad!

  • A notable intervention

    Nigeria’s corruption crisis and security crisis need critical interventions.  The President Muhammadu Buhari administration’s war on corruption and struggle to tackle insecurity need more creative approaches.

    On the anti-corruption war, the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) showed the way through an April 18 Freedom of Information (FOI) request to Dr. Muhammed Isah, Chairman, Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB), urging him to use his “good offices and leadership position to urgently provide information on specific details of asset declarations submitted to the CCB by successive presidents and state governors since the return of democracy in 1999.”

    SERAP is “concerned that many politicians hide behind the fact that members of the public do not have access to their asset declarations to make false declarations, and to cover up assets illegally acquired in corruption or abuse of office…The grim condition of many of our citizens since 1999 has been worsened by the deterioration of public services whereby access to clean water and affordable health-care has become a pipe dream and the supply of electricity became epileptic and irregular due to years of grand corruption by many politicians at the highest level of government.”

    The organisation argued that “Nigerians can no longer accept the excuse by high-ranking government officers that declaring their assets before the CCB is enough, as such pretext is not supported by the oaths of office by elected public officers. The failure by successive presidents and state governors to voluntarily make public their asset declarations would seem to suggest that they have something to hide.”

    It also said: “Given that many public officers being tried for or convicted of corruption are found to have made a false declaration of their assets, the CCB should no longer allow politicians to undermine the sanctity and integrity of the asset declaration provisions of the Constitution by allowing them to continue to exploit legal gaps for illicit enrichment.”

    In SERAP’s view, “while elected public officers may not be constitutionally obliged to publicly declare their assets, the Freedom of Information Act 2011 has now provided the mechanism for the CCB to improve transparency and accountability of asset declarations by elected public officers.”

    The organisation added: “By Section 1 (1) of the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act 2011, SERAP is entitled as of right to request for or gain access to information, including information on the asset declarations by elected public officers since the return of democracy in 1999.”

    According to SERAP, “provisions on the declaration of assets by all public officers in Nigeria are entrenched in the Code of Conduct for Public Officers, contained in Part I of the Fifth Schedule to the 1999 Nigerian Constitution. The primary objective is to prevent corruption and abuse of office and to ensure transparency in public officers.”

    Public officers for the purposes of the Code, said SERAP, “include the President and the Vice-President of the Federation, state governors and their deputies; the President and Deputy-President of the Senate, the Speaker and Deputy-Speaker of the House of Representatives and Speakers, the Chief justice of Nigeria, justices of the Supreme Court, the President and justices of the Court of Appeal, and other judicial officers and all staff of courts of law.”

    On the question of security, SERAP wants to know how governments in Nigeria spend public funds meant to provide security for Nigerians.  President Buhari and the governors of the 36 states of the federation are expected to provide answers. SERAP sent Freedom of Information requests, dated April 12, to them, asking for information on specific details of spending of appropriated public funds as security votes between 2011 and 2019. The organisation limited its request to details of visible, specific security measures and projects executed, excluding spending on intelligence operations.

    The organisation’s move was prompted by “the growing level of insecurity, violence, kidnappings and killings in Zamfara State and other parts of Nigeria.” According to SERAP, “Section 14(2) (b) of the 1999 Nigerian Constitution (as amended) provides that the security and welfare of the people shall be the primary purpose of government. It is the security of the citizens that is intended and not the security of select individuals in public office.”

    SERAP added: “Available evidence would seem to suggest that many of the tiers of government in Nigeria have used security votes as a conduit for grand corruption rather than spending the funds to improve and enhance national security and ensure full protection of Nigerians’ rights to life, physical integrity, and liberty.”

    Indeed, it is disturbing that the organisation quoted a former governor of Kano State, Musa Kwankwaso, who it said “once described security votes as ‘another way of stealing public funds’.” It also said: “The current security realities in the country would seem to suggest massive political use, mismanagement or stealing of security votes by many governments.”

    SERAP’s letter, no doubt, puts the concerned governments on the spot. This is what happens when governments do not govern as expected. It’s a shame that the concerned governments are being asked to account for security votes between 2011 and 2019. When insecurity reigns, it is unsurprising that a concerned organisation wants to know how security budgets were spent.

    The CCB boss is expected to provide the requested information “within 14 days of the receipt and/or publication of this letter,” while the concerned governments are expected to provide the requested information “within seven days of the receipt and/or publication” of the organisation’s letter. In both cases, SERAP said “If we have not heard from you by then, the Registered Trustees of SERAP shall take all appropriate legal action under the Freedom of Information Act to compel you to comply with our request.”  It remains to be seen whether the CCB as well as the concerned governments would obey the law or disobey the law.

    It isn’t enough to declare that the country is fighting corruption and tackling insecurity when the results of the efforts are insignificant.  Corruption and insecurity still pose a major threat to Nigeria. SERAP’s notable intervention shows that the solutions to the country’s corruption crisis and security crisis must be pursued with greater seriousness.

  • What kind of elders?

    When British philosopher David Hume asserted that the “corruption of the best produces the worst,” he was telling us how religion can corrode the soul. He may have written those lines centuries back. They however point inquisitorial fingers at an impostor Christian assemblage that goes by the name National Christian Elders Forum.

    This is a body I should ignore, except that they claim two important fidelities. One, they say they are Christian, which might even get a pass into insignificance since we have too many such groups around. To claim to be Christian does not necessarily grant anyone immunity against the working of the devil, according to scriptures. Many will say I am Lord the Christ, said the Lord. But this group is a band of elders.

    If, on the surface, you look at the members, you will grant them their right to age. Theophilus Danjuma, for instance, is no doubt an old man. With his grey hair and his slow, if majestic walk, we cannot doubt that his is. Ditto Zamani Lekwot, Ezeife and a few others who are in their hoary years.

    What irks is the combination of Christian and elders, and that is the imperious audacity of that assemblage. In a sense, they are making themselves into the aristocracy of the faith. If they remained there, it would be acceptable, if not right. They are, after all, entitled to their own grandiosity and pious delusions.

    But when they want to impose their worldviews on the rest of us, especially on the political front, they will have to be held to account. They did that recently when the Christian Association of Nigeria paid a visit to President Muhammadu Buhari to congratulate him on his victory in the election.

    They said through its chairman, Solomon Asemota, that the visit was an endorsement. They said it was premature and that the visit did not take cognisance of Atiku’s objection to the polls result that he is now challenging in the court of law.

    These impostor elders of the Christian faith baffle those who know the scriptures and one or two things about the rule of law and how they cohabit. But more especially if you know that the NCEF is a political group masking as elders of the vineyard.

    If the group says congratulations to the president, what is wrong with that? This writer has never been a fan of CAN, and it has over the few years served as a toady of power. But that is beside the point here. It has the right to congratulate anyone after an election. It is showing its loyalty to law. I don’t accept that you have to bow to any form of constituted authority as some Pentecostals and other faithful say when they interpret Paul in scripture. You only obey when they don’t contradict the will of God. We rather obey God than man, said Paul who, along with his fellow apostles, set their faces against the powers of the day and died doing it.

    According to Asemota, we ought to wait for the courts before doing that. This is hypocrisy. They should have been more subtle if they wanted to hide their love for Atiku and the PDP. They could not.

    Rather than leave the matter at the mere congratulations, they unveiled their rage at Buhari and that he has been complicit  in the killing of Christians in the north. This shows two things. One, that they were against the congratulations because he was not their preferred choice at the polls. They have the right to their democratic choices. But they should not be hypocrites about it. They should have said they were against Buhari. They cannot say they are for the rule of law by cherry-picking the law and institution in the land. If you are for the rule of law, they should accept INEC’s result while awaiting the determination of the court case.

    That means they have to follow due process. In their own case, they want to dictate what process is due and when. If they are against the handling of the killings in the north, that is a different matter and it belonged to a different press statement. This author decries the incompetence with which the Buhari government has handled security in the country. These days it is even worse, as though he has no idea the nation is bowing ever so tragically to slaughter and dark forces.

    He, a general who should lead the way, is reflecting a supine incapacity to secure lives. But that should be different from merely bringing politics into the matter, especially of the partisan type. Men like Danjuma now at a latter day are trying to show that they are against northern domination, or Fulani domination. Did he not make his career in the military by pitching his tent with those he now sees as northern hegemons?

    Danjuma was the man who led soldiers to the western region to put Ironsi to death. Fajuyi said it should not happen. Danjuma and his men should execute him if his host was not spared, he prayed. But Danjuma was the master of the ceremony of the slaughter that dreary dawn. One Hebron Tuti, who denied recently as a general, fired the shot that fell Fajuyi. Both men went, and that day Danjuma, in what was known as the counter-coup, anointed himself as perhaps the most frontal ambassador of the northern hegemon.

    Now he has started crying. He says his people should fight and defend themselves. When he was on the frontline his people seemed immune because their streets were tame with peace. Now, he is turning to wisdom on a latter day. He needs to retrace his erring past, his past of servile soldiery. Is he now in the league of Cardinal Woolsey, who served his king but forgot his God? He was the cardinal in those days of turbulent monarchy in England under the cunning Henry the Eighth, Anne Boleyn, Thomas Cromwell, et al. He said, “If I had served my God as diligently as I have served my king, he would not have abandoned me in my old age.”

    Now, Danjuma, in his old and grizzly years, is now a defender of justice. And what a way to do it. Asemota, who is a SAN, could not even see the barefaced contradiction of his statement. If he wanted justice, he should have known that you don’t merge two contradictory pleas in one. You cannot choose what law to obey. That in itself is a plea to anarchy.

    Paul said elders should not provoke the young. I wonder if the elders know that part of their scripture. But Danjuma and company of renegade elders should pay attention to the words of British writer and novelist that, “There is no such thing as old age; there’s only sorrow.”

    Of Saraki, Fasuan and Fayemi

    While our  Bukola “Eleyinmi” Saraki is still locked in an existential battle in the Senate  to reincarnate his sort of coup of 2015, at home he has no real legacy. It only shows why Otoge became Otope for the people of Kwara State. In a recent visit to the place, my first in about 30 years, I saw no legacy of significance that he and his father bequeathed.

    Fasuan

    Whether it was major roads, schools, the stadium, the Government House and the Government Reserved Area and Kwara Hotels, even the airport, they all were products of the military. They were legacies of George Innih and David Bamgboye. The one thing I saw was the Kwara State University but he had an ego to sate by that: his own. He wanted to name it after himself, but he was resisted. So he did not want to do it for the people but himself. He wanted a landmark he did not desrve.

    This is unlike what Governor Kayode Fayemi did for men of substance in Ekiti State by naming schools after them. One of them was Chief Deji Fasuan, a man who helped build the Western Region, a thinker and technocrat of the first order that is hard to see in these days of easy money and delinquent thinking. Congratulations to Chief Fasuan, thanks to Fayemi.

  • Zamfara banditry et al

    Two closely related events last week, brought to the public domain the inherent complications in the insecurity that had reduced Zamfara State to a verity of the state of nature in the last couple of years.

    Before these developments, the real texture and character of the security challenge in that state had remained largely cloudy even as thousands of lives were lost and properties of inestimable value destroyed. Initially, we heard of cattle rustling as the main challenge.  But later, kidnapping for ransom crept in.

    This was followed in quick sequence by the more devastating phase of armed banditry that manifested in constant attacks and burning down of markets and villages for reasons that remained largely inexplicable. These combined to cast an air of confusion on the background; character and motivation of those who constantly levy unmitigated violence on that state.

    It was thus not surprising that the apparent inability of our security agencies to decode and understand the real nature and dimension of the insecurity in that state had largely accounted for its degeneration. That is perhaps why the criminality has festered with our security agencies unable to figure out effective therapeutic responses.

    When therefore, the acting Inspector General of Police, Mohammad Adamu announced the banning of all mining activities in that state as one of the measures to curb the rising spate of armed banditry, insurgency and general insecurity which had reached a boiling point in the gold-rich hinterlands of the state, many were pleasantly surprised.

    For the police chief, the measure was to “bring an end to the wave of bandits’ attacks and kidnappings as the miners are accessories to the crimes and to cut off the collaboration between the miners, the bandits and the kidnappers”.

    Minister of Defence Mansur Dan-Ali was also handy to issue a strong statement in which he accused some highly placed traditional rulers in the state of aiding and abetting the bandits to perpetuate criminal activities and of “compromising military operations”.  The minister while announcing comprehensive plans to smoke out the bandits from the state warned any person or group of persons who choose to connive or sympathize with the bandits of dire repercussions.Early January this year, the same minister had while on a fact-finding tour of the state said the possibility of links between bandits wreaking havoc in rural communities and Boko Haram could not be ruled out. This came even as the Miners Association of Nigeria had lamented the frustrations of its members who hold legitimate mining titles with huge investments in the affected areas but had been chased out by fully armed bandits.

    The association said, the bandits turned illegal miners, were mostly from Burkina-Faso, Chad, Niger and even Ghana and their efforts to draw federal government’s attention to the nefarious activities of the bandits in the past did not yield any fruitful results. That perhaps, explains why the bandits had operated without let or hindrance.

    It is good a thing the government appears to be coming to terms with the complications posed by banditry, kidnapping and insurgency in the northwest zone of the country. This is more so given the prevalence of the same cankerworm in Katsina, Kaduna and Sokoto states among many other parts of the country that are regularly under the siege of one form of marauders or the other.

    By far, Zamfara has suffered more than its counterparts in the northwest region in the hands of all manner of demented serial killers. According to the state government, 3,526 persons have been killed by the bandits in the last five years with nearly 500 villages devastated and 8,219 injured. This is in addition to unrecorded crimes and criminal activities regularly committed by the marauding bandits.

    The matter was even such that President Buhari had at the heat of the killings arising from clashes between herders and farmers especially in the north-central zone, drawn parallels between them and those arising from the activities of bandits in Zamfara State. Though his intention then may have been to debunk allegations of government’s complicity in herders-farmers clashes together with all colorations associated with them, the comparison was seen as insensitive since it remains the prime responsibility of the government to protect all lives and properties.

    It was unexpected of a president to seek to whittle down the gravity of the killings arising from the insurgency of the herdsmen by comparing the casualty figures with the killings perpetrated by armed bandits whose real motivation had before now, remained largely inexplicable. Now, we have been told that it is all about illegal mining of gold in the hinterlands of that state. We are also being made to realize that some highly placed traditional rulers have been collaborating with the bandits to the extent of compromising military operations. It is surprising that the government is coming to terms with these realities very belatedly.

    These are very startling revelations that may have been responsible for the relative ease with which the bandits operate, kill and main defenceless people forcing them to flee their ancestral homes. Many have since been displaced and deprived of their livelihood with villages remaining ghosts of what they used be.

    What has emerged from the measures taken by the federal government is that all this while it lacked proper understanding of the real causes and motivation of those who have over these years sworn that Zamfara will know no peace. And that is a sad commentary on the professional competences of those charged with the management of the nation’s security affairs. Since the diagnosis of an ailment is half way to its cure, it is little surprising that in the absence of clinical understanding of what the security profile of the state entailed, the situation had remained largely hopeless.

    If the actions of the federal government and the reasons adduced to justify them are anything to repose confidence on, a dramatic improvement in the security situation of that state will soon begin to emerge. But traditional rulers from the state have picked holes with the claims that some of them are supporting the bandits. They have tasked the minister of defence to name the suspects or take responsibility for failure to get a handle to the degenerate situation in the state.

    One other thing that emerged from the disclosures is the existence of large quantity of gold deposits in that state which in turn, brought about illegal mining activities and banditry. It also came with the revelation that some companies were licensed by the government to mine gold in that state. This should come as a surprise to many. Before now, the overall contribution of gold to the nation’s revenue base has largely remained unknown to many.

    It is clear that the insecurity that has left Zamfara a ghost of its former self; bears the same imprimatur with what has overtime been known in the oil bearing states as militancy. Yet, those in authorities were unable to understand that banditry in that part of the country was essentially, economic deterministic. It is really surprising that the same government that has been waging relentless battles against oil bunkerers and militants that sabotage oil production could not understand the incalculable harm the activities of illegal miners and sundry criminals have wrought to the national revenue base.

    Beyond all this, the security situation in the country is really something to worry about. President Buhari must demonstrate through foolproof measures that he has what it takes to secure lives and property in this country. It is not enough to dish out orders to security chiefs to take drastic measures to tame the scourge. We have seen these orders time without number without solution at sight. A government is challenged by crisis of relevance and legitimacy when it fails to live up to the very reason for its existence.

  • 2019 elections: A postscript

    With the collation and announcement of the result of the Rivers State governorship elections which returned the incumbent Governor, Nyesom Wike duly elected, events of the last general elections will soon be consigned to the dustbin of history.

    But the elections will for a long time, continue to conjure images and feelings that question our future commitment and determination to imbibing relevant dispositions and attitudinal values that are supportive of the institutionalization of a virile democratic culture. Democracy is both a cultural and attitudinal thing requiring certain dispositions and set of rules for it to have relevance and meaning.

    But even with all the allure of that governance framework, especially its capacity to reflect the collective will of the people through periodic elections, what you find on these shores is criminal refusal or conspiracy by political actors to play by the rules. Most often, what you find are deliberate efforts by politicians and very influential persons in and out of government to sabotage these pristine values without which democracy will lose its relevance.

    That is why we are still at home with all manner of electoral malfeasance that increasingly cast serious slur on the prospects of democracy taking firm root on these shores. The last elections have come and gone. But their overall conduct left serious scars on our democratic credentials. In most places, the rules of the game were only observed in their breach. Ballot box snatching, killing of innocent voters with the aid of security agents, falsification and manipulation of results, deliberate disabling of the smart card readers, vote buying and high level violence were all the sad features of the last elections.

    It is nigh impossible for elections that are held under these highly volatile and life threatening circumstances to satisfy the real test of free, fair and credible conduct. But behind this desperation to win elections by hook and crook; behind the desire to sabotage and circumvent subsisting rules for personal gains, are certain systemic hiccups that must be tinkered with before the culture of free, fair and credible elections will take firm root in this country. We need to raise questions and provide answers as to why our politicians have overtime shown a scandalous disposition to subvert the rules of the game. We need to identify and address those factors that easily predispose our people to violence and all manner of illegalities just to secure victory at the polls.

    It is increasingly getting clearer that we cannot possibly part ways with these dysfunctional dispositions without serious institutional reforms. In this wise, the current structure of the Nigerian federal order is one that propels and reinforces the unbridled competition for power.  The disproportionate resources at the disposal of the centre; virtually controlling life and death provides both the necessary and sufficient conditions for the do-or die competition that characterize our electoral process.

    In a clime primordial and parochial cleavages are in constant competition with the central government for the loyalty of the citizens, it will be foolhardy not to expect a very rancorous and deadly electoral process as the various inclusive units strive to take advantage of the huge resources and powers at the centre for the benefit of their constituents. In effect, the current structure of the Nigerian federation is a key disincentive to free and fair elections.

    That accounts for the unbridled and rancorous competition to control the affairs at the centre. That is also the reason ethnic, religious and other mundane considerations feature very prominently in the overall calculations of which section of the country should occupy that position and at what point. It is for the same reason that those with the coercive apparatus of state deploy them to skew the outcome of elections to predetermined directions.

    If we must discourage this tendency; if we must part ways with our ruinous electoral pasts, it is difficult to run away from some form of restructuring by devolving more powers to the constituents. Through devolution and making the centre less attractive; the social strife and acrimony that hallmark our elections, sometimes threatening the very foundation of this country will be largely stymied. It will also reduce corruption in public places as there is a positive correlation between the level of corruption in public places and the disjointed federal contraption currently in place. A very serious government, one that places high premium on sustainable institutions and processes should be very concerned with policies and laws that seek to correct observed imperfections within the polity. We cannot grow the country both economically and politically by dilly-dallying over fundamental policy issues that will align our country to global best practices.

    Sadly, even where these imperfections have proven to be serious setbacks to the overall health of our country, they appear to draw criminal support from politicians and people in positions of authority. Sometimes, one begins to wonder if some of our leaders really wish this country to prosper. Or how else can one possibly justify the scandalous opposition of some of our leaders to policy issues and structural changes that will reduce the acrimony associated with political competition and unleash the huge potentials of our diverse peoples for rapid economic transformation?

    Before the elections, the National Assembly had sent the electoral bill which approved electronic transmission of results rather than manual collation to the president for his assent. Sadly, the president refused assent to that bill citing time constraints. But as events showed during the elections, President Buhari’s refusal to approve that bill turned out the greatest undoing of that election. Safe in some states like Rivers where the military was accused partisanship at the polling units resulting to deaths, the overall conduct of the elections at the polling booths were largely peaceful.

    The problem with the elections centred round the actions or inactions of electoral officers and politicians at the collation centres. That accounted for the suspension of the Rivers State governorship and state assembly elections. And when collation and announcement of results resumed, results from the polling units were very helpful. If the electoral bill had been passed into law before the last elections, perhaps, most of these unsavoury features at the collation centres would not have arisen.

    It is therefore vital to strengthen our laws to imbue confidence on the electoral process. There is the need for legislation to check some of the imperfections and abuses that rendered the elections a nightmare in many parts of the country. The overall conduct of the elections does not give confidence that any lessons have been learnt as it fell short of the gains recorded in 2015. There is the urgent need to take proactive steps to change this narrative.

    Now that we are over with the elections, the National Assembly should without delay, re-send the electoral bill for the assent of the president. Ordinarily, the president should have no problems assenting to the electoral bill since his reservations on time constraints cannot stand any longer. But where he still refuses assent to a law which by all estimation, will enhance the overall conduct of free, fair and credible elections, then we can understand where he is coming from.

    No right thinking leader, one that places national interest over and above other considerations can afford to stall processes and legislations that will serve the overall public good. That is the immediate challenge before the National Assembly and the president.

    There is also the challenge posed by the multiplicity of political parties. At the last count, there are more than 90 registered political parties in the country. In the last election in Imo State, 70 political parties were given the nod to field governorship candidates. But in the field, not more than five were really on the ground. The unwieldy number creates serious identification challenge for the electorate. The National Assembly should come up with legislations to check the current challenge posed by the multiplicity of parties that only exist in name. These will strengthen our institutions, structures and ultimately the wobbling democratic process.

  • The Onnoghen dilemma

    It will intrigue not only lawyers, not least men of the bench, as well as psychologists what secrets lurk in the heart of Justice Walter Onnoghen. Is it that he genuinely feels righteous or he is acting one? Is it that he thinks the law sheds its lofty smile on his side or he has to play the role of jurist in pursuit of his own veneration?

    Or is he like the canine in the cage but has to bark and whine and growl so as to gain a berth of freedom? The big paradox is that the number one law man has had to bow out and resign. Wh did he not do this earlier? Was it that his colleagues of the NJC played Judas, and his last pillar had crumbled? We have not seen the full letter of the NJC to the president, But it hints that Onnoghen has lost the moral authority to serve as chief justice. Did he need the letter to know that.

    For, no doubt, he is between two worlds. One says he is a man of honour under the siege of an oligarchy of guileless confederates contracted to dethrone and rid him of a breadth of public grace. The other sees him as a pharisaic sophisticate who has wronged his high office and country. This group thinks he enjoys the backing of a legion of apostate lawyers and rogue politicians weeping vicariously and vigorously through him after their subversive crimes were unplugged on a stealthy night.

    But what is more intriguing to this essayist is not so much that the Code of Conduct Tribunal is tracking his fidelity on his assets declaration, or that the EFCC is on his financial trail. It is that the Onnoghen phenomenon represents the twain of the Nigerian political life. With the CCT, we see legal gunfights. In the EFCC, morality is blazing.

    Just like last week I tried to show how two consciences are at the heart of a bleeding nation, the Onnoghen case challenges us whether it is law we want or justice. If we want law, we may not have justice. If we want justice, the law genuflects to moral virtue.

    The CCT case, this writer has held, is necessary because of the EFCC.  The real matter for conscience is whether the man Onnoghen has had a dialogue between himself and conscience. But if it is Onnoghen the lawyer that matters more than the Onnoghen the free moral agent, then the resigned chief justice has not shown himself, like many like him, worthy to be on the judicial chair.

    The root of every law is a moral virtue. Society codified the laws to engineer a moral society. As French writer and economist Frederic Bastiat has noted, “when law and morality contradict each other, the citizen has the cruel alternative of either losing is moral sense or losing his respect for the law.”

    There is a sense that in the Onnoghen matter as in quite a few in the past few years, Nigeria is at the crossroads of whether we want to do what is right or we want to obey a skewed version of law. Law and morality should not necessarily clash, but they do when the society has not raised its sense of virtue. The manipulation of legal nuances becomes the crotch of those societies.

    If virtue came before the law, then it goes without rancour that morality should come first. It is instructive that the NJC recognised this and has asked the man to go because of the moral question. Many lawyers can be blind like a bat in sunlight. They see the law and nothing else. When a man says he did not remember a princely sum of money so he does not declare it, it only takes a bull of technicality to believe him.

    Gani Fawehinmi of blessed memory once said to me that if there is a case between a rich man and a poor man, “I will find the law for the poor man.” The law is thus flexible and the legal mind luminously facile. The lawyer’s mind is like how John Milton described Satan in Paradise Lost. “The mind is its own place/it can make hell of heaven and heaven of hell.”

    While lawyers quibble over whether Onnoghen was right by showing details of whether he submitted or filled a form, what is substantial is lost in the delirium. The CCT is there because primarily the EFCC makes a case.

    The United States founding father has said that the country is a nation of laws and not of men. But before the society soared to legal integrity, it had established its moral codes. The British legal system is so kinetic and fluid that in Nigeria, it will bring us to anarchy. Laws are important, but only to enforce virtue.

    When law thrives for law’s sake, we have not justice, but the triumph of state over conscience. Onnoghen has now been forced by the moral question to do the right thing: resign. He would have done good for himself and his sense of moral purity if he did it early in this controversy. But he was egged on by his obdurate colleagues.

    He would have gained time. “You can’t kill time without injuring eternity,” said Henry David Thoreau. Onnoghen knows now if he didn’t know before that he was killing time. He has injured many things, especially his image and that of his exalted office.

    Not that technicality of law is not good. We should use it for justice, not like the late Justice Scalia of the U.S. Supreme Court who saw law as textual matter – cold, dead words. People like him see the law as though without a soul. Hence the scriptures lead in this matter by saying the law is not a school master, so we judge the spirit and not its letter.

    The autumn of Ortom

    When one writes, one expects to reach literate audiences. But when we see responders with little understanding of processes or language, writers can get a little disappointed. In my column last week, The Voice of Chi, I witnessed a riot of voices talking back. But it is not the sober and cerebral dissenters I worry about, but the mutiny of ignorant pot shots that saw the piece as either an endorsement of the killings in Benue or  tears over Ortom’s victory at the polls.

    They failed to understand that the article raised important issues. One, how come we have two antipodal standpoints on how to resolve a crisis. It is the peacemaker versus the war-monger. Two, it is about how a man who exploited this was cynical and kept harping on it even when the herders crisis abated. Three, how that same man, Ortom, has done little else for his people. Ortom has a right to glow over his victory. If his people want him, he deserves it. But as a commentator, he has to turn round now and provide service to his people. I will be the first to applaud if he obliges his people.

    Or else Benue State, with potential, will be the autumn of Ortom, where all the blossoms and leaves of opportunity and prosperity will die off, and what will be left is a stark tree of hunger and suffering. Those who support that are entitled to their own imbecility. After all, democracy is not always for the wise.

  • A destructive election

    After the mayhem, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declared Rivers State Governor Nyesom Wike of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) winner of the governorship election held on March 9. After the collation of results,  INEC’s returning officer, on April 3, said Wike polled 888, 264 votes to defeat  Biokpomabo Awara, the African Action Congress (AAC) candidate, who got 173, 859 votes.

    Wike is reported to have been close to tears after his re-election. He dedicated his victory to “God and those who were killed.” He was quoted as saying:  “Those who died not because they were criminals, but because they wanted to defend their votes…They protected our votes and they defended us. We pray God to grant their families the strength to bear the losses. We shall continue to support the families.”

    It is unclear how many people died as a result of the governorship election crisis in the state. It is unclear how many families were affected by the anarchy. But a March 10 statement by INEC, suspending “all electoral processes in the state until further notice,” indicated the degree of the chaos.

    INEC had said: “Based on reports from our officials in the field, the Independent National Electoral Commission has determined that there has been widespread disruption of elections conducted on March 9, 2019 in Rivers State. These initial reports suggest that violence occurred in a substantial number of polling units and collation centres, staff have been taken hostage and materials including result sheets have either been seized or destroyed by unauthorized persons. In addition, safety of our staff appears to be in jeopardy all over the state and the commission is concerned about the credibility of the process.”

    It is noteworthy that, ahead of the governorship election, the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Rivers State had entered the arena when it wasn’t a participant in the election. The APC had been legally barred from fielding a candidate in the state’s governorship election. The Supreme Court had upheld the order of a Federal High Court, Port Harcourt, nullifying the APC primaries in Rivers State.  With this judgment, Rivers State APC candidates were disqualified from the National Assembly election as well as the governorship and state House of Assembly elections.

    The situation favoured the incumbent governor, Wike, who was seeking re-election.  With the APC out of the race, the PDP was expected to win easily. Only the APC was strong enough to seriously challenge the ruling party in the state.

    However, the Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, an APC leader in the state and a former governor of the state, had told the party’s supporters: “The leadership of the party met and agreed that we would work with a party called the African Action Congress, while we are still in court to reclaim our mandate. So… we will vote for the AAC. You must go home and vote for the AAC. There should be no excuse not to vote because there will be security for everybody. You must prepare and make sure you win the governorship election.”

    But APC National Chairman Adams Oshiomhole had contradicted Amaechi. Oshiomhole was quoted as saying: “I have never spoken at any forum that we have aligned with any party. There is only one party I oversee and that is APC; if there is going to be alignment, I will know. I can’t choose to be in the know. That has never been discussed with me or with any of the members of the national working committee.”

    This contradiction suggested that Amaechi was fighting solo. Considering that there is no love lost between Amaechi and Wike, it looked like Amaechi was interested in a grudge fight.

    Then the AAC deputy governorship candidate, Akpo Bomba Yeeh, dropped a bomb. He not only left the party “with effect from… 25th March 2019,” he also defected to the PDP.

    Yeeh said in his resignation letter: “My decisions were informed by the complete hijack of the structure and administration of our Party by a faction of the APC in Rivers State led by the Minister of Transportation, Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, for his personal political ambition. Furthermore, the Rotimi Amaechi led faction of the APC is not letting in its determination to subvert the will of Rivers people and cause crisis in the State using the platform of our promising Party. In the circumstance, I cannot in all conscience continue to lend support to the selfish political venture of the Minister of Transportation, which does not mean well for the progress and development of the people of Rivers State.”

    It is noteworthy that he added: “As a budding and promising politician, I also appeal to you to accept the reality of your crushing defeat and liberate yourself from being used by Rotimi Amaechi to cause unnecessary political crisis in our dear State.”

    It is interesting that at the time Yeeh left the AAC, INEC had suspended collation of results midway because of widespread violence and disruption of voting. But he probably knew enough about the party’s strengths and weaknesses, which is why he referred to a “crushing defeat.”

    When INEC finally announced the winner, the loser protested. The AAC governorship candidate, Biokpomabo Awara, claimed that INEC had turned the loser into the winner.  Awara said: “I have the unit by unit results of the March 9, 2019 elections in Rivers State. When they observed that I was leading and they saw the danger coming, they quickly moved on March 10 to save Wike, by suspending the collation of the results, which they resumed on April 1. As at the time the collation was suspended, I had 281,000 votes, as against Wike’s 79,000 votes. So, they (INEC officials) quickly came to his rescue.”

    The AAC’s loss deflated Amaechi, who had no business in the election since his party wasn’t a participant. His involvement was based on self- importance.  No doubt, his strange support for the AAC contributed to the sorrow, tears and blood that marked the governorship election in Rivers State.

  • Majority party, majority power

    Majority power is more powerful than minority power. This logic of power is expected to prevail in the Ninth National Assembly.  With 65 senators-elect, the All Progressives Congress (APC) will clearly be the majority party in the next Senate.  The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has 42 and the Young Progressive Party (YPP) has one. The APC will also be the majority party in the next House of Representatives with 223 seats. The PDP has 190 and other parties have 10.

    So there should be no confusion about which party should get the leadership positions in the upper and lower chambers of the Ninth National Assembly. Specifically, the President and Deputy President of the Senate, as well as the Speaker and Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, should be APC legislators.

    It is curious that there are those who think this clear situation is not so clear, or not clear enough. For instance, PDP spokesman Kola  Ologbondiyan said in a statement: “The PDP… does not only have a constitutional say in the process of the emergence of the leadership of the Ninth National Assembly, but will, as a matter of constitutional right, field candidates into presiding offices of both chambers, if need be.”

    Also, a former President of the Senate and PDP member, Senator David Mark, said to journalists at his residence in Otukpo, Benue State: “The election of the President of the Senate also translates to the selection of the chairman of the National Assembly because the person who emerges as the President of the Senate automatically becomes the chairman of the National Assembly. Nobody should interfere in the selection of President of the Senate. The senators should choose amongst themselves who should be their leader not based on number of political parties that won elections into the chamber.”

    That was Mark’s response to the question whether the Senate President should come from the ruling party, or the party that is the majority party in the Red Chamber. Mark, a retired Nigerian Army Brigadier General, was President of the Senate from 2007 to 2015 when his party was in power and the majority party in the Senate.  Now he thinks numerical strength does not matter, but it did when he was at the helm of the Senate.

    The outgoing Senate President, Bukola Saraki, and his deputy, Ike Ekweremadu, had created an abnormal situation when Saraki, then an APC member, and Ekweremadu of PDP controversially combined to lead the Senate. Surely, that era of political absurdity is gone, and only absurd politicians would imagine minority party members in the major leadership positions in the Ninth National Assembly.

    APC’s National Publicity Secretary Lanre Issa-Onilu told reporters in Abuja:  “You have principal officers and all of them are determined by simple majority and because Nigerians have given us more than enough, we have enough to elect all our officers. We don’t need a single vote from PDP. In any case, we don’t envisage any election on that day because we are going to present our members to occupy these positions as the collective position of the party and all our members are experienced politicians who understand what this means.”

    He added: “When they get to the floor, they are going to read out the names and if the PDP so desires, they can bring a candidate up and follow that candidate with the number they have. It will be an exercise in futility for them to want to share from what Nigerians have taken from them. There are positions for minority party and the APC will not contest those positions because it belongs to them.”

    It is interesting that the majority party could become the minority party in the exercise to pick the principal officers of the next Senate.  A March 31 report said: “The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has launched an audacious move to win to its side 13 All Progressives Congress (APC) Senators-elect as part of a grand design to hijack the leadership of the 9th Senate. But the alleged plot has leaked to the APC which has launched a counter move of its own to avoid a repeat of the 2015 infiltration of its ranks in the National Assembly by the PDP, highly placed party sources said.”

    The opposition party, which is the minority party, is reportedly targeting APC senators-elect from Borno, Abia, Oyo, Gombe, Bayelsa, Bauchi, Ogun, Kogi, Sokoto and Imo. What manner of APC senators-elect would yield to such absurd overtures that would give majority power to a minority party?  It is noteworthy that such absurdity has happened before in the Senate. With the help of senators from the majority party, APC, Ekweremadu of the minority party, PDP, became Deputy President of the Senate. Saraki, then an APC member, became President of the Senate through anti-party scheming. The result was a queer leadership combination.  Of course, the negative arrangement brought negatives.

    It remains to seen whether the APC would allow history to repeat itself.  The party must take advantage of its position as the majority party in the next national legislature, and ensure that it benefits maximally from majority power. If the party is supreme, then its members in the National Assembly have no reason to go against the party’s desire and decision.

    A functional interpretation of party supremacy must be informed by the logic of supremacy. Supremacy is supreme. Certainly, supremacy cannot mean infallibility. So the party can err. It does not guarantee fairness. So the party can be unfair. The essence of party supremacy is its conclusive collective voice.

    The path to follow is to enforce party supremacy erected on party discipline, party cohesion and party integrity; and that path must be followed wherever it may lead.

    It is important for the ruling party to have a productive relationship between its members in the executive arm of government and its members in the legislative arm of government. The people deserve good governance. The ruling party cannot afford to have its badge of progressivism torn to shreds by the party members themselves.  But this may happen if the party does not get its act together.