If there is anything more deplorable than the dastardly bombardment this past weekend of the country home of Senator Daniel Jonah (Dino) Melaye in Aiyetoro-Gbedde, in Ijumu LGA of Kogi State, with the object of assassinating its distinguished resident, it is the failure of the National Assembly to end its recess and rush back to Abuja to deal with what must be judged a clear and present threat to the Nigerian nation and everything it stands for.
What is the Nigerian nation without its premier legislative body, constitutionally mandated to act as a check on the Executive and curb its tendency wherever it is implanted to overreach? For all practical purposes, an attempt on the life of a Distinguished Senator is ipso facto also an attempt to dismember and dismantle the Nigerian nation as we know it.
Given the amount of speaking time he gets on the floor of the Senate, to say nothing of the wide latitude he is permitted, it must be that in its reckoning, Melaye emblematises the best values of that assembly.
The fiery passion he brings to bear on issues recondite and prosaic sometimes gets in the way of the brilliant delivery for which he was well known in debating circles in his high school days. Even so, few will dissent from the proposition that on a good day, his firm grasp of the issues, the incisiveness with which he expounds them, his mastery of legislative strategy and tactics, plus his comportment and deportment, unfailingly ennoble that institution and lend not a little credence to its claim to pre-eminence.
And yet, at this writing three days after the armed attack on his residence by people with murder on their minds, Melaye’s colleagues have not bestirred themselves to cut short their recess and return to Abuja to hold an extraordinary session devoted exclusively to this extraordinary development, the despicable intent of which, it is necessary to insist, was to deprive the Nigerian nation of Melaye’s sage counsel and sane guidance on the pressing issues of the day.
Can’t they see that a threat to any Senator is a threat to all Senators, and that an armed attack on a Senator is an armed attack not merely on all Senators, serving, emeriti and deceased, but also on the Senate as an institution and everything it represents?
But all is not lost.
It is not too late for the Senate to rise in solidarity with its beleaguered member for Kogi West and apprise friend and foe alike that its distinguished members will never submit to intimidation from any quarters, least of all from a desultory assemblage of gun-toting village touts who, fortunately, can’t even shoot straight.
It is not too late to put them and their ilk on notice that they are labouring under a delusion if they think they can continually assail the Senate with impunity
Before examining the Senate’s options, it is necessary to isolate some elements of the armed attack.
Like the security raids that have been yielding vast, orphaned fortunes in the best currencies in the unlikeliest places, the attack was not a fishing expedition. The perpetrators knew the house; they also knew that Melaye was in residence at that particular time.
They must have known, too, that he was not accompanied by his security detail. Only two vehicles were parked in the compound. Melaye had chosen to travel light, in keeping with the modesty for which he is well known.
The rampaging touts, cowards all, took advantage of the security vacuum to launch their satanic attack.
Now, why was the distinguished Senator, enemy of cant and humbug, and tenacious anti-corruption crusader to boot, left so dangerously exposed? This question will have to be the starting point in a comprehensive Senate investigation into the failed assassination attempt.
Why was he not accompanied on the trip by a full security complement? Why were the best officers not deputed to watch over him from the moment he set out on the trip?
Why did it take the local police chief who lives down the road more than two hours to respond to the Senator’s distress call? And why did the police area commander based in Kabba, 13 miles away, fail to rush his men to Aiyetoro-Gbedde to lift the armed siege to the residence?
Why have no suspects been arrested or arraigned?
The Senate will have to summon the Inspector-General of Police, the head of the Department of State Services, the director-general of the National Assembly Secretariat and the staffers responsible for scheduling constituency visits and arranging advance payment of allowances pertaining to same – all of them will have to be summoned to explain on oath how and why these gross derelictions occurred.
They will of course have to appear before the Senate in their official uniforms and accoutrements. For good measure, since the matter relates to competence and preparedness for the job, they should be required to bring along the originals of all their academic credentials, from primary to finishing school, not forgetting a detailed breakdown of their incomes and expenditures for the past five budget-years.
What of the local people, whose interests Melaye has championed at every opportunity with the utmost punctiliousness, and for whom he has made incalculable sacrifices? Ingrates, all. They did not raise the perfunctory alarm to signal that bad people were operating in the neighbourhood, nor did they fire shots to warn the marauders that they did not have the field entirely to themselves.
What of the monarch of Aiyetoro-Gbedde kingdom, where Melaye belongs in the titled nobility? If he is worth his crown, if he is a true heir to his illustrious forebears, the monarch should have divined the attack to the minutest detail months before it occurred. So, why did he not warn the Senator, a member of the royal court, to stay away from danger?
More crucially, why did the monarch not perform the traditional oblations to ward off danger and save his domain the bad publicity the armed attack on Melaye’s residence was sure to set off?
The monarch and the entire royal court should be summoned to explain to the Senate how they could have allowed all this to happen. They will of course have to appear in their full traditional regalia, and with the originals of the instruments appointing them to their offices. They will also have to justify the hefty grants they receive from the Federation Account through the Local Government Council.
This list comprises only the first wave of officials who may have by acts and omissions contributed to the treasonous assault on a distinguished member of the Senate as well as the integrity of the Republic.
At some point, the distinguished Senator Melaye himself will have to explain under oath how he came to attract so much obloquy from his constituency and to be held in such loathing abhorrence by a vocal section thereof.
Before the Senate went into recess, Melaye had appeared in one of its business sessions decked out in the doctoral robes of Ahmadu Bello University as further evidence that he is an alumnus in good standing. The university’s vice chancellor was wearing his workaday clothes during his Senate testimony in support of Melaye’s claim.
For the special inquiry I am proposing, Melaye should be required to wear the academic robes commensurate with his degree. The vice chancellor will be required to back Melaye’s claim afresh, this time with the chairman of the University’s Governing Council, the registrar, the bursar, the librarian, and the director of works and services in tow.
All of them will have to submit their certificates, transcripts and letters of appointment (originals only, please) to forensic scrutiny.
The Senate must get to the root of this matter, even if that means suspending every other business indefinitely.
