It is a well known dictum in journalism that when a dog bites a man it is not news but when a man bites a dog then it is news indeed. That was what came to my mind on hearing and reading the news that the new Deputy Senate President has criticized the Buhari government for not doing enough on national security and expressed great concern that if care is not taken Boko Haram may attack Abuja and indeed move down South to kill. Just as they have been doing in the North East – a part of the nation that the concerned senator confessed as very dear and close to his heart because of the scourge of Boko Haram in the area.
On the surface the Deputy Senate President – DSP – has expressed a legitimate concern and a patriotic one at that but if you agree with that then you need to be briefed about certain issues hovering around the DSP in the last few days. Especially the fact that the Police have announced that he may be questioned by the Police over allegations contained in a petition by aggrieved senators that senate rules were tampered with in the controversial senate leadership elections that threw him up as the senate ‘s DSP.
Really it is not that difficult to decipher or see through the subterfuge and ruse inherent in the alarm raised by the DSP on Boko Haram. This is because a pattern has been set by the opposition PDP which on hearing about the impending Police investigation warned that nothing should happen to its highest placed party man in the senate. The party went on to accuse the APC government of political witch hunting of the DSP because of the way he was elected. Which was a situation to be expected by the PDP given the fact that the DSP was not a member of the APC which has the majority in the senate and is definitely aggrieved that it has been swindled out of the position of the DSP and no one in his right senses should expect the party to be quiet about it. That really was the genesis of the heat the new DSP from PDP is facing and I believe that it is just the tip of the iceberg.
Again no one is deceived about the timing of the alarm raised by the DSPand the expected or anticipated outcome of that. Once the Police move against the DSP the PDP will predictably cry foul and accuse the government of political victimization of an opposition legislator forgetting very conveniently that this is a legislator on a borrowed seat which has become very hot and uncomfortable for him. It reminds me of Shakespeare’s Macbeth where it was said that Macbeth had murdered sleep and would not sleep again. Certainly that is the plight of the new DSP on this matter. Again the legislator is learning fast that those who live in glass houses should not throw stones.
Any way we need to look at the issues raised by the DSP closely even though his locus and official position are both suspect and of dubious origin right from the way and manner of his election. There is need to step up our security apparatus and arrangement such that Boko Haram is eliminated as quickly as possible before it gets bold enough to attack either Abuja and or Lagos. That really is a grim prospect that must avoided at all costs by our security forces by all the force and means at their disposal. The security forces should not send wrong or chilling signals that can cause panic or threaten security such as the plan to move Boko Haram prisoners to the South East. This should be scuttled so as not to amplify the theatre of war or insurgency as we now call our terrorism.
In addition state governments should spend more on security even as they pay workers salaries from the Buhari Salary Bail out. A situation where state governor’s collect huge security votes while security lapses create avenues for terrorists, arsonists and hoodlums to exploit, can no longer be tolerated in the pervading insecure environment that the Boko Haram menace has created nation wide. In Lagos in particular the Ambode government must be commended for the way it is handling the issue of tankers going to so called oil farms in Apapa and creating the avoidable traffic gridlock that has paralysed many businesses in Lagos state. The fire accidents involving overturned and overloaded trailers became frequent in Lagos and people were suspicious that they could be deliberate .So it is good that the state governor has moved in and allayed fears on this as people started hearing strange rumours on Boko Haram in Lagos as most of the tanker drivers were from the North.
Nevertheless the menace, violence and nuisance of Boko Haram should not prevent the Police from doing its duty on the allegations of forged rules in the election to office of the senate leadership at the last elections which brought in the man now shouting wolf on the prospect of Boko Haram attacking Abuja or invading the South. That is a premeditated diversion to prevent the Police from doing its duty as expected in a system where the rule of law is the norm such as our own. Indeed I have no doubt in my mind that the Police are up to the task. This is because the Nigeria Police has so many lawyers in its officer cadre and they are aware that in a system of separation of powers that we practice legislators especially senators are not above the law. The ongoing trial of high profile former governors by the EFCC resulting in the accused being remanded in prison cells gives credence that the Buhari government will live up to its billing to root out corruption in our midst or make life uncomfortable for those who loot our treasuries while holding public office.
Of course we know that our legislators are not above the law and they know that too. But the last leadership elections in legislature showed clearly that something fishy is going on that is a strange bedfellow to democracy as we know it and on which basis we elected our representatives and senators. That is why the Police must be allowed to do it statutory duty to ascertain the truth about the allegation of false senate rules being applied in the leadership elections in the senate. The allegations are quite serious and weighty and if found to be true then the culprits must face the full weight of the law. For if those expected to make laws break or manipulate the rules of their election in our temple of democracy then there is no hope for justice in our polity and that is a situation that must scuttled and stopped by all means. We expect our Police to take up this challenge as it falls fully under its purview and we have no doubt that it will ensure that the truth will be extracted from the senate no matter whose ox is gored. That for now is the only way to save our democracy and ensure that security and the rule of law are not mutually exclusive and indeed go hand in hand.