The Nation Newspaper

Category: Editorial

  • Egypt’s ruling military criminalizes its opposition

    Egypt’s ruling military criminalizes its opposition

    THREE YEARS have passed since the first sparks that led to the Arab Spring, a wave of revolt against authoritarian regimes that unleashed hopes for democracy in a region long without it. But events this week showed that Egypt has abandoned the path to democracy. This is a tragedy with serious implications for the United States.

    The most damaging setback came Wednesday, when Egypt’s interim cabinet announced that it was declaring the Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist organization. This move followed a bombing Tuesday in the Nile Delta city of Mansoura in which at least 15 people died and more than 100 were injured. Without any evidence, authorities blamed the blast on the Muslim Brotherhood, which had condemned the bombing. A jihadist group, Ansar Beit al-Maqdis, claimed responsibility for it.

    The violence is abhorrent, but it is clear that Egypt’s military-backed government is using it as a cudgel against the Muslim Brotherhood, the Islamist group that existed in the shadows for decades but broke into open politics with the rise of its former leader Mohamed Morsi as Egypt’s first democratically elected president in June 2012. After a miserable performance in office, Mr. Morsi was overthrown in a coup in July. Since then, scores of Muslim Brotherhood members have been killed in protests and most of the group’s leaders have been arrested. Its designation as a terror group will have a wide impact, shuttering hundreds of charities and nongovernmental organizations that are affiliated with it.

    This is a huge step backward that will further alienate a broad social movement. The cabinet announcement said that authorities would punish anyone who joined or remained a member of the Muslim Brotherhood, as well as those who participate in its activities or “promotes it by speech, writing or any other means and all who fund its activities .” On Thursday, at least 16 members were arrested and the group’s newspaper was blocked from publication.

    Separately, three leading secular activists who spearheaded the 2011 uprising against President Hosni Mubarak were sentenced this week to three years in prison for organizing an unauthorized march.

    The Obama administration has put a brake on some military aid and loans to Egypt but has been loath to go further. In response to Wednesday’s announcement, the State Department expressed concern “about the current atmosphere and its potential effects on a democratic transition in Egypt.” Spokeswoman Jen Psaki said, “It is essential for Egypt to have an inclusive political process” and “there needs to be dialogue and political participation across the political spectrum.” All true, but these words seem awfully meek in light of what’s happened. How can there be dialogue and inclusion if the opposition is criminalized?

    Egypt has long been a close ally of the United States and a keystone of stability in the region. But the time has come for stronger U.S. protests and action. To remain timid in the face of repression will invite only more.

    – Washington Post

     

  • A soaring President

    A soaring President

    From his travel budget, it seems President Jonathan will spend a lot more time in the air in 2014 

    Next year’s budget proposals contain so many frivolous expenses that make it seem to us that President Goodluck Jonathan is out of sync with the country’s economic challenges. Today, we will however focus on the President’s proposed travel expenses in the coming year. Obviously, the President will spend more time on the air than he will on ground, going by the breakdown of the 2014 appropriation bill submitted to the National Assembly by the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, on December 19. According to the breakdown, the Presidency will spend about N2.3 billion on transportation next year. Of the amount, the State House will require the sum of N1, 219, 612, 417 for what it called local travels while international travels and transportation will gulp N1, 159, 240, 600. This is scandalously huge.

    And what it tells us at a glance is that the Presidency has learnt little or nothing from the criticisms of the past about its budget proposals, especially as they affect the seat of power vis-à-vis the state of the country’s finances. Once upon a time, it was thought that money was not the country’s problem but how to spend it. Going by this proposed travel expenses, President Jonathan appears to be living in that illusion. Except that such generosity is hardly reflected in government spending on the welfare of the generality of Nigerians. That is when excuses like ‘the country is broke’; ‘no, it is not broke but cash strapped’, come handy.

    There can’t be any tangible reason to justify such a huge expenditure on travels by the President, particularly foreign travels. When President Olusegun Obasanjo began such frivolous trips after the return to democratic rule in 1999, his excuse was that he was going in search of foreign investment. That has never been tenable because every Nigerian knows that the basic attractions for investors, foreign or local, are lacking in the country. Power supply is paramount in this regard. What we witnessed in the last few weeks, in spite of the privatisation of the power sector, is not encouraging. The signs are that we are still far away from the solution to the problem. There is also insecurity of all kinds, including terrorism by Boko Haram, armed robbery, kidnappings and sundry other crimes in the land, which is another serious put-off to investors.

    These challenges are yet to be tackled. The basic duty of government is provision of security of lives and property. This cannot be guaranteed in the country right now. Moreover, the economy is in a shambles; with many young graduates roaming the streets in search of elusive jobs. Industries are no longer humming; and many blue-chip companies have left Nigeria for countries with friendlier business environment. While the books are looking good, the economic reality on ground is a different ballgame entirely. Healthcare has collapsed, with every influential Nigerian travelling abroad for medical treatment for the most common ailments. Virtually every sector of the economy is ailing.

    Worse still, 2014 is a year when preparations will be in top gear for the 2015 general elections. Even in normal times, elections have not been a palatable experience in the country. Things will, expectedly, be different next year, with the political developments in the country.

    Another implication of the President’s travels is that Nigerians may lose more man-hours because whenever the president travels within the country, the economy of the city he is visiting is grounded. We can only imagine the trauma that Nigerians have to endure as the President continues his numerous unending trips across the country in search of what we cannot decipher.

    What is needed to turn the country around is renewed dedication on the part of the government. That is why we are surprised that President Jonathan still intends to engage more in foreign travels next year. We need a President that sleeps, in Shakespeare’s ‘words, ‘0 nights’, a leader that will be available 24 hours by seven days throughout the year.

    The National Assembly should scrutinise the budget proposals and approve only the expenditures on which Nigerians will derive value for every kobo spent, whether by the president or any agency, including the National Assembly itself, in 2014. It is the height of insensitivity for the President of the Federal Republic to gallivant (that is what his planned trips seem to us to be) when there are numerous problems requiring his attention, and worse still, at a time when some states of the federation are unable to meet their obligations due to paucity of funds. The era when the President travels with a large entourage is over. He should cut his travels according to our purse.

  • Jonathan’s NDDC charge

    Jonathan’s NDDC charge

    On the face of it, President Goodluck Jonathan’s directive to the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), to complete all ongoing projects before embarking on new ones, appears trite. Why wouldn’t any organisation do business with such basic common sense?

    Yet, beyond that triteness is an unspoken notorious fact: contract awards, especially in Nigeria, are often crooked means of skimming illicit wealth. NDDC, as other public corporations and interventionist agencies, has had more than its own fair share of such public sector sleaze that often fattens officials, while the supposed beneficiary projects and people wilt.

    Indeed, in his admonition to the new NDDC board, chaired by Bassey Ewa-Henshaw, the president lamented the drain that NDDC has become: “If you aggregate the total amount of money the Federal Government has spent on this agency, it is enormous. And I don’t believe that we have something on ground to show.”

    Despite the president’s indecisive tone for a fatal reality, the presidential verdict was a decisive putdown. Put another way, many an NDDC past official, from board member, management and staff, had been involved in one past gravy or another, which explains the lack of correlation between invested funds and results on ground. Even simpler put, such unconscionable officials have made away with public money, and they are, it appears, living happily ever after!

    So, while the president’s riot act is a good start — if indeed, it would mark a good beginning — those officials, past and present, should not be allowed to get away with their loot. Therefore, as the president charges the new board to be dutiful, he should simultaneously have declared war on the suspected roguish officials, and ensure they are investigated and prosecuted.

    Such a step would have shown the new board that the president meant business; and that the complete-one-project-before-you-start-another is not an appeal but a firm directive, to be breached at the risk of prompt prosecution and rapid conviction. If that had been done, the presidential lamentation that the past board was quarrelling with management over money — money that belonged neither to the board nor management, but to the long-suffering communities of Niger Delta, who are hardly any better than before, despite the humongous cash purportedly pumped into the area, would have been unnecessary.

    But beyond crime and punishment, it is strange that from the days of the defunct Oil Minerals Producing Area Development Commission (OMPADEC), ironically a body where the president once worked, to NDDC, and even now with a Niger Delta ministry, the math has not always added up.

    True, OMPADEC belonged to the era of the military, with their swashbuckling impunity and graft. But hardly anything has changed with the democratic order, now in its 14th year, though to be fair, the democracy is peopled basically by players with a military mindset.

    Still, that would appear a soft explanation. The real reason may well be that the strategy is wrong: and if it is basically wrong under a military regime, it cannot just turn magically right under a democratic order. The fact is that NDDC (and its precursor, OMPADEC) is an interventionist agency – nothing wrong with that basically.

    But the flaw in it is that it is steeped in centralist credo, when the approach ought to have been federalist. When the Federal Government votes money, it is in no position to monitor — and its own trusted officials too have only turned that disadvantage to their own roguish advantage — then something is wrong.

    Perhaps it is time the strategy of intervention in the Niger Delta and other areas needing special help be changed to a more local-based paradigm. That way, there would be more accountability and control, over resources voted for projects and development.

  • Criminals in MDAs

    Criminals in MDAs

    The statement credited to Col. Mohammed Sambo Dasuki (rtd), National Security Adviser (NSA), that many people with criminal antecedents occupy strategic positions in various Federal Government ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) is troubling. Dasuki, through Layiwola Laseinde, director, policy and strategy of the NSA’s office spoke at a one-day workshop on the “Importance of Security Awareness Drills in Contemporary Nigeria”,  organised by the Special Services Office (SSO), Office of Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), in Abuja.

    The NSA was unsparing when he affirmed: “We want to make sure that people of dubious character are not employed. In some areas, you find out that people have committed crimes and once they have criminal background, they are likely to perpetrate death. I am not saying it is in all cases, but majority of the cases. So the government, especially the security agencies … want to make sure that each agency does its own in-house screening to screen out undesirable people …Government cannot afford for agencies to have staff with criminal record and that is the purpose of this workshop, that those who are trained can go and train other people and also organise their parastatals and agencies to ensure that in terms of personal record and discipline, everything is okay.’’

    We know that it is government that employs presumably qualified Nigerians into positions in these MDAs, not the Nigerian public. So, we expect the government, through its numerous security agencies that Dasuki, as NSA, oversees, to have routinely been effectively discharging their job of ensuring that men and women of shady background do not get employed in the MDAs or any other strategic institutions in the country. But it seems that the NSA office is getting to know too late that the country’s MDAs harbour a lot of misfits. The fault is that of the NSA and he should take urgent steps to correct this sad trend.

    We now understand why there have been so many leakages in the system; it could not have been different in a place that harbours employees with criminal background. Any system that suffers from high moral standing cannot be a reliable custodian of values of a promising society; and that is what the Nigerian system currently suffers from. The primary constitutional duty of government is the security and welfare of the citizenry and there is no doubt that having people of questionable background in government MDAs constitutes a serious threat to the discharge of this responsibility.

    Definitely, some drastic steps must be taken. And we expect to see cogent results from the promised vulnerability assessment initiative of MDAs by the NSA through the Department of State Services (DSS). So far, result of the touted routine inspection of MDAs by the Security Inspection Committee in order to ensure compliance with security regulations as they affect the safety of government’s personnel, documents and facilities has not been felt.

    NSA Dasuki must realise that the task ahead is onerous and can only be accomplished with commitment and sincerity of purpose from government, especially its security agencies headed by his office. The entire process of employment in the MDAs and other strategic institutions has to be overhauled to block existing recruitment loopholes. Also, a tight security process must be designed to weed out misguided elements in the system.

  • The Christmas story, still captivating the world

    The Christmas story, still captivating the world

    IN DAYS of old (1947 to 1956, to be exact), there was a weekly radio program called “The Greatest Story Ever Told.” It consisted of narratives from the Bible, mostly from the life of Jesus, presented with the urgent energy of radio drama and the sort of background music, spirited dialogue and sound effects that made it a good deal more compelling than Sunday school. It was widely popular for a time, and even nine years after it had run its course, Hollywood saw fit to make an expensive epic movie bearing the title. But the film did poorly at the box office and got reviews in the highbrow journals that today would be called snarky. It was 1965; times had changed.

    Yet one Bible story has remained in the popular consciousness through all the changes in society (ours and many others): the simple account of a family, far from home, seeking shelter for the birth of a child and seeing in that child hope for a new start and a better world. It is a tale with universal appeal extending beyond any one faith or doctrine, a story of love and triumph over adversity and also of humility, of the good to be found in the most modest of

    It is surely this last quality that accounts for much of the worldwide acclaim for the new Roman Catholic pope, Francis, who took his name in honor of Francis of Assisi, a 13th-century saint known for preaching reverence for all living things. Pope Francis’s acts of humility — physical displays of love and respect for everyone, regardless of caste or condition, a message of tolerance and his frank admission that, in some things at least, he needs further guidance and understanding — have made him a revered figure far beyond his church. Much of what he says and does expresses values shared by people of all faiths, or of none. The pope’s appeal is in his identification with everyone as a creature of God.

    Francis of Assisi was himself a popularizer of sorts in 13th-century Italy: He created the first crèche, or manger scene. Church histories relate that Francis needed to conduct a Christmas service outdoors because the chapel in the small mountain town he was visiting was too small for the expected crowd. He got the idea to stage a sort of tableau, complete with an ox and donkey and the manger as an altar. By some accounts, Francis was moved to tears by the scene, and he was not alone. The living Christmas story was taken up in many towns and villages, which created their own manger scenes for the season. Their basic appeal lay in their warmth, humanity and simplicity, an enduring reflection of both the “comfort and joy” of the carol and also of the spirit expressed in a seasonal exhortation last week from Pope Francis: “Let us act so that our brothers and sisters never feel alone.”

     

    Washington Post

  • Judges’ target

    Judges’ target

    Reports that the National Judicial Commission (NJC) has set a minimum target of between 16 and 24 judgments a year for judges across the country from 2014 is difficult to situate. While we are in agreement with the NJC that indolent and ineffective judges should be retired; there is the need to properly weigh the parameter used by the commission to arrive at that figure.

    We consider that it may be unrealistic to make such a demand, when the judges do not determine the number of cases that come before them in a year. Again, has the commission considered the cost on quality of judgments in arriving at the decision, knowing that some cases are more intricate than others?

    Again, the work output of a judge in a busy court like in Lagos, Port Harcourt, Kano, Onitsha and other commercial centres will no doubt be different from their colleagues operating in remote areas, where the number of cases in a year may not be up to 24. We are also worried that if emphasis is on quantity, some judges may find it convenient to treat the matters before them shabbily, to meet the requirement. Has the commission considered the impact of dumping badly heard cases on the appellate courts, thus depriving litigants without resources the right to go on appeal?

    Moreover, in determining the effectiveness of judges, what measure has the commission put in place to sieve judges who give ill-considered judgments from the system; as their impact is also as ruinous as indolent judges that delay cases before them unduly. While no doubt the current Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Aloma Mukhtar, has shown grit in tackling corruption more than her predecessors, we believe that corruption-induced judgments constitute by far, more danger than the quantity of cases determined by a judge in a year. So, the NJC has a more serious challenge tracking corruption in the judiciary.

    Also, as we have always argued, the NJC, nay the country, must seek a more efficient way of appointing only competent persons to the bench. That is the surest way to have competent and efficient persons as judges in our courts. Part of the challenge, as we have also argued, is that the centralised system of appointment, remuneration and discipline of judges is unrealistic. Apart from the fact that it negates our federal system of government, it also hoists equal measure for unequal work across the country’s judiciary, which may have informed the new policy of between 16 to 24 judgments in a year. As we have noted on the issue of federalising wages, it is unrealistic for a worker, whether a judge or some other workers, who work in diverse areas and economic environments, to receive the same salary.

    It may indeed be noted that many Nigerians will not wager for the integrity of our judiciary, and one reason is the undue delay in the courts. This also may have informed the instruction to deliver a reasonable number of judgments in a year by the judges; but the NJC may not be able to achieve that by fiat. Part of the strategy should be to provide efficient infrastructure for the judiciary. In some courts, the judges still write in long hand; some do not have good libraries, qualified research assistants, efficient power supply system and other basic infrastructure.

    So, the NJC needs a mixed bag of demands and incentives to achieve an efficient judiciary. While pushing for increase in the number of cases a judge must decide in a year, it must also work to ensure quality judgments that will endure.

  • Integrity, not money

    Integrity, not money

    The plan by the Independent National Electoral Commission(INEC) to spend as much as N92.9 billion in organising the 2015 general elections has generated controversy among the populace. Many have wondered why the commission that had already spent so much on producing an electronic voter’s register would need to spend almost N100 billion again on election.

    The INEC chairman, Professor Attahiru Jega, told a meeting of stakeholders in Abuja that a study of the general elections in Africa showed that INEC would be within the range of the cost across the continent. He pointed out that the per capita spending in Ghana’s last general elections was $12. He said, in Kenya, it cost between eight and nine dollars per head. At the proposed N93 billion, it would cost the commission eight dollars per voter.

    This is indeed a huge sum given current economic challenges faced by the country. Daily, we are inundated with complaints of pipeline vandalism, piracy and shortfall in oil production, all translating to poor funding of the capital budget. Poverty reigns supreme and infrastructure is generally still in short supply in all parts of the country. The government would be best advised to be more frugal in its expenditure.

    It is our view that the debate should be about what we derive from the elections. Has Nigeria been better served since Professor Jega took over as INEC chairman? It is on record that Nigerians fought for financial independence for the commission as the National Assembly reviewed the relevant electoral laws before the 2011 general elections. Today, the commission’s expenses are charged on the Consolidated Fund of the Federation. It has full control of its budget.

    But, elections since 2010 when the Professor of Political Science, former Vice Chancellor of the Bayero University, Kano, and renowned activist took charge have not reflected the confidence reposed in his team. The situation has become worse since the last general election. The governorship and by-elections conducted have called to question the administrative capacity of the INEC commissioners and the view that financial dependence could have been responsible for the poor conduct of the polls since independence.

    It is our view that merely throwing money at the electoral commission would not solve the problems at hand. It appears that the body either does not know what to do or is already compromised. As is demanded of the judiciary, it is not enough for elections to be conducted and results announced, the process must be transparent and the mandate delivered clear. It serves no purpose to conduct elections and still wonder at the end thereof if the level of malpractices could have warranted voiding it.

    After the 2007 presidential election, the last conducted by Professor Maurice Iwu, even the Supreme Court found it difficult to say the returned candidate actually won. It rather agreed that there were monumental malpractices, but it appeared to it that the pair of Alhaji Umaru Yar’Adua and Dr. Goodluck Jonathan would still have won were the poll free and fair.

    The challenge at this point is for Jega to prove those who have given up on him wrong by conducting elections that would meet international best practices and would make all agree that the candidates returned won fair and square.

    The approval of N93 billion cannot do the magic. The men at the helm of affairs in INEC must be determined to satisfy Nigerians that they are up to the task.

     

  • Dark days in Egypt

    Dark days in Egypt

    Last week, Egypt’s military dictators stormed the offices of a prominent human rights organization and charged Mohamed Morsi, the deposed president, with participating in a fantastical terrorist plot. The news from Egypt has become so unrelentingly bad that it is difficult to see how this nation can recover from a self-inflicted spiral of repression, violence and paranoia.

    The move against the human rights group, the Egyptian Center for Economic and Social Rights, was another sign of the generals’ eagerness to widen their crackdown beyond Islamist supporters of Mr. Morsi to anyone in society who might challenge their authoritarian ways. Heavily armed state security agents detained and beat staff members of the organization during a nine-hour ordeal. They eventually released all of them except Mohamed Adel, a key member of the April 6 movement that helped mobilize the uprising against Hosni Mubarak almost three years ago. All of the April 6 movement leaders have now been jailed, and on Sunday Mr. Adel and two others received three-year prison sentences.

    The authorities filed new criminal charges against Mr. Morsi, the democratically elected president who has been detained since he was deposed on July 3, accusing him of a plot that involved killing protesters and leaking state secrets to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard. No evidence has been presented, of course. Human rights groups have called the charges preposterous; Mr. Morsi and his alleged collaborators could face the death penalty if convicted.

    Meanwhile, the Committee to Protect Journalists listed Egypt as the ninth-worst offender for jailing journalists in 2013, and the Committee on Academic Freedom of the Middle East Studies Association, which promotes scholarship on the Middle East and North Africa, expressed concern about a “worsening climate for free speech and peaceable assembly” on university campuses in Egypt.

    All of this comes as elements of the old order are being revived. On Thursday, an Egyptian court acquitted a Mubarak-era minister, Ahmed Shafiq, of corruption charges in a land deal involving Mr. Mubarak’s two sons, Alaa and Gamal, who were also acquitted but still face other charges.

    If it were another country, members of Congress would be furious. Instead, because the United States considers Egypt crucial to regional stability and because of Egypt’s peace treaty with Israel, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Wednesday approved legislation that would make it easier to resume aid, which was largely suspended after Mr. Morsi was deposed. The generals are almost certain to interpret that as an endorsement of their authoritarian methods.

     

    – New York Times

     

  • Lessons of Christmas

    Lessons of Christmas

    •In this season of goodwill, Nigerians need to learn to be humble and pursue peace as Christ taught by example

    It is the season of sharing oodwill once again – the Christmas season. It is the period when Christians all over the world put aside denominational differences to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ whom they accept as the Lord and Saviour of mankind. He is believed to have lived for about 33 years and died more than two thousand years ago.

    The life, ministry, death and resurrection of the Saviour are fully documented in the Holy Bible regarded as the word of God. All the four gospels of the sacred book record the Immaculate Conception, the birth of Jesus as a spectacular event that was meant to bring peace to the world and reconcile mankind to God. The ministry and life of Christ also point the way to heaven. Christ taught that he came to offer himself as a living sacrifice. Christians believe that after life, Christ would come again to identify those who believe in him and would consequently reign with him after a second coming.

    The significance of the birth of Christ should not be lost on mankind. While some adherents of other faiths could split hairs over some details, the birth of Jesus is a symbol of unity. Jesus Christ preached peace and meekness. He taught ethics and his disciples rang it in the ears of members of the first Christian community that the practice of Christianity is founded on the teaching in the Sermon on the Mount. He enjoined people to seek peace with all, thirst after righteousness, and show mercy and forgiveness to others.

    There are many lessons to be learnt by humanity today. Despite being misunderstood and persecuted, Christ remained principled, focused, kind and faithful to his calling; if his disciples follow his steps, the world will be a better place.

    For three and a half years, Jesus Christ preached everywhere. He presented his gospel to the Jews and gentiles. He showed the Jews that he had not been sent to Israelis alone, but the lost sheep, too. He preached repentance and the new way. He showed those who trusted in him that they had a new lease of life. He endured the trial under Pontius Pilate and was crucified for seeking divine intervention in the affairs of man.

    We live in a selfish world; at a time that man’s heart has become desperately wicked. All that Christ preached against, the world is practising: Murder, terrorism, fraud and perversion of the divine cause. Hate has replaced love; the rich oppress the poor. The lessons to be learnt include working for a better world where the poor are made to share with the rich; where all realise that it does not all end here.

    The Christmas period is not all about glitz and glamour; wining and dining. It is time to remember the health of our country and continent. Where are we in the midst of the nations of the world? Why is the country’s development impeded? How do we pull out of the woods? It is obvious that unless we act in one accord and are all resolved to share goodwill across the divides – religion, social, political and economic – progress cannot be made and the country would remain a laughing stock of others.

    This is a season of goodwill. ‘’incidentally, the dominant religions in Nigeria, Christianity and Islam, have some things in common. Both accept the immaculate conception of Jesus and profess peace. There is a lot to reflect on in the message of Jesus Christ this time. It is time all Nigerians should resolve to follow the footsteps of the Prince of Peace. The messiah who humbled himself in taking the human form, who was born in a manger and chose to come to the troubled world through the household of a carpenter and remained an itinerant preacher until he was done with his assignment.

    We call  on Nigerians to take up the message of righteousness that exalts nations and urge them to be humble in serving the country and humanity as we prepare for the challenges of 2014.

  • Treason, what treason?

    Treason, what treason?

    •Call for presidential impeachment cannot amount to treason, since impeachment ais a constitutional provision

    On December 15, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the All Progressives Congress (APC) interim national publicity secretary, called on the National Assembly to commence immediate impeachment proceedings against President Goodluck Jonathan, for sundry constitutional infractions. He claimed he spoke with a “high sense of responsibility”.

    Alhaji Mohammed accused the Jonathan Presidency, and the smarting Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), of plotting to plunge the country into chaos, by courting the courts to declare vacant the seats of its five former governors that just defected to the APC, despite the precedence of a Supreme Court judgment that rejected a similar prayer, when former President Olusegun Obasanjo attempted to remove estranged Vice President Atiku Abubakar, for defecting into the then Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN).

    Hinting at a possible judicial collusion bordering on high corruption, Alhaji Mohammed warned of “widespread repercussions as the APC has resolved that henceforth, every act of impunity of the PDP and the Presidency would be met with stiff resistance in the form of a vociferous telegraphing of people power, the likes of which have not been witnessed in these parts”. He added that since impeachment is “stipulated in the 1999 Constitution”, and the Jonathan government is at sea on security, corruption, massive unemployment and mass hunger, not to mention impunity, impeachment was a legitimate means to remove the president.

    But Dr. Reuben Abati, chief presidential spokesperson, dismissed “the reckless and irresponsible call by the APC” for Jonathan’s impeachment; and warned that “the APC and any persons who make themselves its willing tools for the breach of public order and safety will be made to face the full sanctions of the law. Those who are threatening fire and brimstone,” he declared, “should be ready for consequences of treasonable action”, adding that the APC could not browbeat the courts in pending political cases before them.

    Beyond legitimate attack and response, emotion and counter-emotion and partisan bile and counter-bile, the two issues here are impeachment and treason.

    Does an urge to impeach the president amount to treason? Certainly not, for a provision of the Constitution cannot be said to subvert the same constitution. That would be a contradiction in terms.

    But could a call for impeachment be reckless? Yes, if it is just to settle political scores; and thus slaughter the Constitution on the altar of crass partisanship. But is that the case here? Political exchanges are never clear-cut, for emotions mix with stark facts to produce a strange mixture.

    Still, the Jonathan Presidency would appear legitimately charged with flat-footedness in anti-corruption (witness the Stella Oduah case, for instance, in which the president appears helpless even with the House of Representatives asking him to dismiss the minister); and with dire constitutional breaches (the partisan abuse of the police in Rivers State; and the reprehensible conduct of the police commissioner, Mbu Joseph Mbu, in virtually levying war against the state government; and against real or perceived presidential opponents in that state).

    The Rivers State case is especially serious, for it taints the Presidency, and somewhat projects it as recklessly contemptible of the law that created that high office. That is a recipe for disaster, except the presidency changes tack and calls the constitutional bandits at the “front” to order; or faces possible sanction itself, if the opposition could muster the required number in parliament.

    Still, the impeachment option should be the very last, for it signals a point of no return for a republic grilling in illegality perpetrated by a president, its supposed guarantor-in-chief of law and legitimacy.

    So, let neither side go for broke. But let the Jonathan Presidency do the needful, after a frank soul-searching for, if the bitter truth must be told, its relentless impunity has turned PDP into a boiling cauldron; and pushed the country to this sorry pass.

    But as the opposition should be cautious in its utterances, let no one criminalise a justified call for impeachment. It’s no use issuing threats and flexing muscles, when the administration could quietly lower the political temperature by doing the right thing by law. It is the manifest folly of projecting power instead of projecting reason.