“Ema ba won wi o, funra won no ma funra won loogun je! [Never mind them, they are fated to self-destroy] — Yoruba cynical saying
Impunity makes, impunity takes, chikena!
That appears a fair epigram on the eight-month tenure of Suleiman Abba, the briefest-serving Inspector-General of Police (IGP) in Nigerian history.
But mocking Mr. Abba’s fall, as sweet, tempting or even well deserved as it is, completely misses the point.
Well deserved? Yeah. More than any other, IGP Abba epitomised the visage of the security forces as shameless conspirators in looming fascism, with his invasion of the House of Representatives for crass partisan causes. But he, as a responsible Police officer, ought to have been sworn to neutrality and strict legality.
He not only abysmally failed on that score, with hubris, he armed himself with power he never had by law.
One, he summarily stripped Speaker Aminu Tambuwal of his security details. Two, he bragged before the very committee of the House of Representatives — incense upon incense! — that he (and who the hell was he — the courts?) did not recognise the Speaker because Mr. Tambuwal had defected from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the All Progressives’ Congress (APC).
That was not only a rude affront to the House, by the Constitution an independent branch of government. It was also a violent rape of the doctrine of separation of powers, on which presidentialism is anchored.
That, of course, was profitable careerism gone sour. That bravado, after all, seemed to have earned the ousted IGP, then acting, a confirmation.
Nevertheless, Mr. Abba soon ended with pelted eggs on his face. The rotten morality of the National Assembly, shortly after, resolved itself against PDP, its chief promoter. A gale of house defections — which PDP had soullessly pushed all its power years to subvert the opposition and the Constitution — made Alhaji Tambuwal Speaker, de facto and de jure, when his APC gained the majority. Mr. Abba therefore ate bitter crow, and restored the Speaker’s full security.
But make no mistake. Mr. Abba was no devil any more than any of his predecessors was — or indeed, any of his successors would be — a saint.
His action — silly then, silly now and silly if repeated in future — was only driven by the bad power socialisation of Nigeria’s extant orders, to make an ass of the same law that temporarily propelled over and above fellow citizens.
Not for them that flat dismissal by Fela Anikulapo-Kuti (God bless his rebellious soul!), which reeks of the lean-and-mean wit of John Donne, the English metaphysical poet: Uniform na khaki, na tailor dey sew am!
Which brings the discourse to the fable that Nigeria’s president is the most powerful in all of the universe. That could be true by the way of hyperbole, to capture the sheer depth and breadth of the Nigerian president’s powers under the Constitution.
But to every power, there is a limitation — except you want to breach the law. The Constitution says so. The presidential system, on which the Constitution is built, with its rigorous checks and balances, also says so.
But all too often, most of Nigeria’s extant orders believe that costly power illusion, and expect their poor appointees, especially top dogs in the security agencies, to read their body language and merrily conspire to subvert the law.
That was the Genesis to Revelation of Mr. Abba’s loud thud of a fall, in the presidential court of Goodluck Jonathan. Abba’s tragic grandstanding to please raised him. But it also smashed him.
Now, to the main point that must not be missed.
The cruel joke may be on IGP Abba for earning a sack from vile careerism. But the overall shame is on a manipulative President Jonathan, who shopped around for a pliant hand to skew an election he knew full well, from his rotten performance record, he deserved to lose — and with ignominy.
While Jonathan eyed four more years of undeserved presidential power, Abba eyed no less than four years as IGP. If that meant helping Jonathan to achieve his goal, it was only a blissful marriage of two sweet dreams. Even if Mr. Abba’s police would lose respect as a vicious PDP rod, the end would justify the meanness (apologies to Prof. Wole Soyinka) in career sweetness!
The gamey IGP proved his commitment to this dubious cause, when he half-appealed, half-threatened voters to depart the voting zone immediately after voting, despite INEC’s countermand that such a directive was alien to the Electoral Law.
But as Jonathan lost, the tactics exploded in Abba’s face — and strategies must logically change. But too bad, Abba trundled on a presidential snake that though scorched, was neither dead nor defanged. Hence, the fatal final bite!
But in this brutal swish of instant punishment for perceived treachery, Fate played a terrible double.
President Jonathan, still savouring his newfound toga of “global statesman” for conceding an election he soundly lost, by firing Abba, relegated himself to yet another grumpy, vindictive African Big Man, unwilling to expire without the last ugly roar.
But the more profound anti-Abba comeuppance was the emergence of Solomon Arase as acting IGP. Reportedly Mr. Abba’s senior, by year of entry (Arase’s 1981 to Abba’s 1984), Mr. Arase’s putative reluctance to be engaged for dubious causes reportedly led to his sidelining when Mr. Abba got the job. Now, see who is going home earlier!
Yet, it is unclear if Mr. Arase should laugh or cry over his temporary triumph. By virtue of his late emergence in an outgoing administration, his career too could have been adversely affected.
What if the new government decides to sweep away all the service chiefs, and start on a clean slate? Perhaps the reported lobby in his favour, by past IGPs, could somewhat come to his aid? Maybe. Maybe not. He is due to retire in 2016, anyway.
But the moral here is less for President Jonathan and more for President-elect Mohammadu Buhari. Impunity almost always comes back to haunt its perpetrator. Jonathan, for all his advertised meekness, was not shy of playing God. Yet, his own hand-picked IGP ditched him the moment he became lame-duck!
Therefore, Gen. Buhari cannot, like most of his predecessors, afford to play the misguided but tragic Leviathan that, at whims, twists and turns the Constitution to partisan and self-serving ends.
Let security chiefs be appointed solely on merit; not on their perceived duplicity to subvert the law against the political opposition. Jonathan and Abba fell flat on their faces — good! But they were not the first to attempt such. Neither will they be the last.
But Gen. Buhari must strive for a radical and positive change in attitude. That is the surest way to deepen our democratic institutions.
“Let security chiefs be appointed solely on merit; not on their perceived duplicity to subvert the law against the political opposition”
