By Adekunle Ade-Adeleye 

For about a decade, Nigerian diplomacy had been in the doldrums. Attempts at resurrecting and restoring it to its glorious 1970s era have either floundered or remained unconvincing. The past six years or so have been spectacularly excruciating. But uninspired by history and undeterred by six years of lethargy and a decade of failure, President Muhammadu Buhari made one more effort at giving Nigerian diplomacy a shot in the arm during the 59th Ordinary session of the Authority of Heads of State and Government of ECOWAS in Accra, Ghana, two Saturdays ago. Addressing the subject of the last Malian coup which saw the sacking of interim President Bah Ndaw and Prime Minister Moctar Ouane in late May, President Buhari asked ECOWAS leaders to sustain the pressure on the Malian military to compel coup leader Col Assimi Goita to respect the transition to civil rule timetable.

In August, Col Goita had also executed a coup that overthrew the elected but unpopular government of Boubacar Keita. Though ECOWAS imposed a regime of sanctions on the coup leaders, the approach was dilatory and feeble. Not only did the regional body negotiate a futile and shortsighted deal with Col Goita that saw him and his loyalists emplaced in the interim government, it also failed to sustain the pressure on the military or respond strongly and adequately when they struck again in May. Nigeria should have led the regional body in championing the cause of democracy, not just by appointing ex-president Goodluck Jonathan as negotiator/mediator, but also by inspiring the region by a most profound understanding of the principles of democracy. That, sadly, was not to be.

Said President Buhari, affecting to provide leadership undergirded by the right values and principles to the region: “While democracy continues to develop in our sub-region, recent events in Mali are sad reminders that vigilance remains a crucial imperative to protect people’s aspirations to freely choose the form of government they want. Pressures are needed to ensure that the transition process in Mali, which is half-way to its conclusion, is not aborted. A further slide in Mali could prove catastrophic to the Sub-region, considering that about half of that country is unfortunately under the grip of terrorists. I urge our organisation to remain engaged with all stakeholders in Mali through our astute Mediator, former President Goodluck Jonathan…” President Buhari is right to warn about the treacherous corner Mali has boxed itself into in the face of insurrection in the northern part of their country; but to affect to be a champion of democracy in the region when it has enthroned undemocratic practices back in Nigeria may be stretching credulity to its elastic limit. Nigeria is in the midst of enacting a law to criminalise media work and shackle the freedoms granted the people by the 1999 constitution. It routinely flouts court orders, and has embarked on serial self-help using its security and law enforcement agencies. It is not clear why not being a palladium of the rule of law itself it purports to champion same in Mali and elsewhere in the region.

Second, it is not clear why Nigerian diplomacy did not anticipate that by being soft on the August coup a worse infraction could occur in the not too distant future. Less than a year later, in May, as predicted, another coup occurred. Again, Col Goita has sworn himself in, and will in all likelihood stretch the transition beyond the accepted timeline. The foolish military in Mali hunger for power. And by also tolerating the disingenuous coup in Chad immediately Idris Deby senior was assassinated, it gave a sad signal to ambitious soldiers in the region to embark on adventures. It is too late now for the Buhari administration to offer the leadership the region desperately needs. The region is not fooled; they know that Nigeria is least qualified to teach them anything about democracy. The region will, therefore, have to fumble its way into democracy and the freedoms many developed countries already take for granted. Hoepfully, somehow, Mali will find a solution to its self-inflicted nightmare.

Presidency insults restructuring advocates

After many years of dithering over the relevance of restructuring, despite penning it in their manifesto, the All Progressives Congress (APC) government of Muhammadu Buhari has finally come out to declare those who advocate it as dangerous and naïve. Shockingly, a few days later, the presidency again announced that the president would assent to whatever constitutional amendments on restructuring the legislature agrees to. Obviously, the amendments will neither be far-reaching nor of use in stemming the dangerous slide to chaos.  For six unbroken years, the Buhari administration railed against restructuring, equating it with balkanization, questioning its definition, despising the understanding of the public on the subject, and denigrating ethnic nationalities who concluded that chaos was imminent on account of the country’s wobbly structure.

If restructuring advocates are dangerous, the administration is saying in other words that they are plotting treason or working towards the breakup of the country. Just for asking for a discussion on the clearly dysfunctional structure of the country, the administration declares them dangerous. And if they are also naïve, the conclusion may be that they are stupid and unlettered, or that they lack the gumption to understand the dynamics of the hegemonic hold the Buhari administration has coerced for his ethnic favourites.

The gravamen of both characterisations is that the Buhari administration has made up its mind, never mind the sterile work of the legislature, that no restructuring of any kind would be allowed. Worse, that the holders of power today would also engineer who takes over from them and ensure that such successors must never countenance the talk, let alone execution, of restructuring.

But if anybody is dangerous or naïve, it is the administration and the shadowy coterie of schemers in Abuja plotting to perpetuate power in the hands of a few. It won’t work; it has never worked. If the effort to restructure the country and put it on sound footing fails, the administration and its coterie will discover how difficult it is for a few to pacify the anger of many.