The Nation Newspaper

Tag: democracy

  • ‘Democracy allows any qualified aspirant to run’

    A group, Itsekiri National Youth Council (INYC), has urged Itsekiri aspirants to prepare for the polls despite contrary calls by the leadership of Ijaw Youth Council (IYC).

    The body was reacting to a publication by IYC at Ogbe-Ijoh in Warri Southwest Local Government of Delta State, asking Itsekiri aspirants to step down.

    INYC’s Chairman in Warri Southwest Mr. Suru Diden noted that for democracy to thrive, people must be allowed to perform their responsibilities, which include the right to vote and be voted for.

    He said all aspirants were eligible to contest any position, but the majority would win.

    Diden said: “Ordinarily, we would have ignored the publication. But for posterity, we are constrained.

    ‘’For democracy to function, education is the underlying factor, hence there is need to educate Mr. Okosu and others.

    ‘’Needless to remind Okosu that democracy all over the world encourages the majority to decide who governs them.”

    He continued: “It must be noted that for an elective position, the aspirant with the highest number of votes is declared the winner.

    ‘’This attempt to undermine democracy must stop. Okosu should also advocate as such for the Urhobo in Burutu, Patani and Bomadi local governments and the Itsekiri in Uvwie, Sapele and Ethiope West councils, as what is good for the goose is sauce for the gander.”

  • Declare state of emergency on media industry, NUJ urges FG

    Rafat Salami, the Secretary of the FCT Council of the Nigerian Union of Journalist ( NUJ ),  has called on the Federal Government to declare  state of emergency on the media industry in order to check the  maltreatment  of journalists.

    She made the call in an interview with our correspondent on Monday in Abuja.

    Salami, who participated in the recent convention of  the Muslim Media Practitioners of Nigeria,  described the non payment of salaries by most media owners as unfortunate.

    “It is a threat to the survival of democracy.

    “It is so sickening that there are journalists here in Abuja who have not been paid salaries for over 30 months.

    “Some were laid off  without getting  a dime.

    “We have seen journalists who have moved from one media organisation to another for over four years, hoping to be getting salaries and  none  of them is  being paid.

    “The Federal Government should step in and declare  a state of emergency on the media industry.

    “When the media is not performing optimally, the nation suffers.

    “In many negotiations I have been involved in, I told them that it is in the interest of the journalist for all businesses and media houses to thrive.

    “But do not enslave us,” she said.

    Salami, who accused the media owners of breach of contract by not paying salaries, said “it is a sin not to pay workers their salaries and other allowances.”

    “How can you sleep knowing that you have not paid  your staff salaries  for many months. Many of the media  owners seem not to have conscience any more.

    “If NUJ wants to close down media houses that are not paying salaries, we will be closing down  about 90 per cent of private media houses in this country,” she said.

    She, however,  urged  journalists to always report the truth regardless of who was involved, saying “  that is a core value of journalism.”

  • Authoritarian democracy

    We cannot call it a coup. Not in the classic sense, although the symbol of power yields its pride to a raft of never-do-wells. For those who have the time to see the video, it has a whiff of comedy. A senator walks in, the whole chamber in a routine stir of lawmakers in pre-session mode. Some are chatting, others about to sit. A halo of a smile here, a shadow of a mood here, a hand gesture there. A few others, like Ovie Omo-Agege, are dabbing to their seats. That is not funny. It is the stir before the storm. Until, of course (or curse), the sudden burst of a light-coloured shirt on the high table.

    In a parody of an athlete, he lofts the mace like a trophy, and trots up the steps. Somebody is stealing democracy. There are more lawmakers than hoodlums. But they cannot hold their own against a democratic felony. They cannot fight for the people’s system. They look on, paralysed, dead in the limbs, spectators of their own misfortune. They become like stargazers as though watching aliens vacating a hallowed room. Ben Bruce exercises common sense and knows better than to stop the hoodlum.

    They who have too much money. They who fatten on allowances, a la Shehu Sani. They whose homes are a fable of luxury, whose cars a motion of dreams, who eat without work, peacocks of a bedraggled republic. They gape on while the ragamuffins leave.

    Not far away, outside the building, Senator Solomon Adeola, otherwise known as Yayi, gets into a drama of his own. He is shoved into a vehicle owned by the thieves but luckily forces his way out minutes later.

    So, shall we say this is a mini coup? The removal of a mace is not necessarily a change of government. Unless we recall what happened in England centuries ago when boisterous Oliver Cromwell storms the parliament in the throes of overthrowing King Charles. The lawmakers are sacked, and he sees the mace, standing, with nothing of its grandeur. “Take away that fools bauble, the mace,” he orders giddily. He smashes the symbol through the floor.

    Our lawmakers soon found their tongues. They who could do nothing about an hour earlier. They suddenly waxed into rhetoricians for the public good. They started speaking for democracy, for the rule of law, for the restoration of the mace. They bore the outraged beauty of the law. News reporters who looked but did not see immediately announced that Omo-Agege brought the thugs. A certain lawmaker in Babaringa also thought so, as he kept gesticulating in suppressed indignation in Omo-Agege’s direction. He, too, had looked as the visitors brushed off with the gem of authority.

    The Senate elite suddenly felt righteous against their foes. The police arrested and freed Omo-Agege, who has sworn he did not bring the bad guys. I called him and asked him what happened, and he said he came to the Senate on his own. He said he was not so foolish as to deposit chaos with thugs in the first law chamber in the land. He believed he had been suspended illegally, and the cases of Ndume and feisty Dino Melaye had proved that no lawmaker had the right to suspend his or her colleagues. He came to the chamber to affirm the majesty of the law of the land.

    What occurred to me as the news unfolded was not so much the impunity of the young men, which is reprehensible. The senate elite was getting a bite of their own lawlessness. Was it not the clique led by Bukola “Eleyinmi” Saraki, who hatched out a coup in the dawn of this 8th senate? They gloried in the rascality of that pre-dawn disorder. They now suspended a fellow senator. But worse, they evaporated a democratic group’s right to exist, because they supported Buhari over the order of the 2019 polls. They asphyxiated the right to assemble and associate.

    This is a lawmaker’s case against the law. The senators led by Eleyinmi were irresponsible, brutish, and a constant threat to the sanity of this democracy. They head a democracy but their minds hark back to the caveman’s malignity, to a bumpkin’s logic, to the morality of a soldier of fortune. The Eleyinmi of Village Headmaster bowed to the Oba’s restraint. He subscribes to what French president condemned as “authoritarian democracy” rather than the “authority of democracy.”

    Questions still trail what happened? How did the man get in and beat up a sergeant at arms? How did they miss the array of top security in the country? We need to know if it was carelessness, and that needs to be punished. If the IGP got away from disobeying the president’s order, the SSS persons who let this thugs reign ought to be put answer to the law. As Oscar Wilde wrote, “if one tells the truth, one is sure, sooner or later, to be found out.” Some of the participants in this drama have told the truth without knowing it.

    A question has arisen as to whether this was a response to the call to fire the service chiefs. Yayi had led the chorus to dump the service chiefs who have been coddled for no reason by the president. The service chiefs have outlived their stay in office. Winning teams often are allowed to stay because they are doing a good job. But this set of chiefs are a bumbling lot. They cannot secure us against the foes of herdsmen and the resurgent Boko Haram.

    So many are asking questions and so few answers. If this turns out to be a continuing war between law makers and the presidency, then it is not a way to go about it. It only shows that democrats have lost hope in democracy. Just as the dominant party, APC, has acted as though under the spell of the army era, our democracy has not flagged to exhibit its culture of the diktat.

    One of the intrigues of this country and its democracy is how we wheel from one cycle of bad judgment and incident to another as though nothing happened. The drama would soon fizzle out and our consciences and memories will be numb again to tragedy.

    In a sense, we are like Oscar, the anarchist dwarf in Gunter Grass’ novel Tin Drum. He, like us, never gets tired of shattering things because it seems to change nothing. So, we enter a new week, thinking a new lease has arrived and we need new drama to reawaken our thirst for adventure.

     

  • Editors: mace snatching an affront on democracy

    Editors yesterday condemned  Wednesday’s snatching of the mace at the senate by thugs, describing it as “an affront to or assault on our fledgling democracy.”

    In a statement by Nigerian Guild of Editors President Funke Egbemode and Secretary Victoria Ibanga, the NGE said:

    “On Wednesday, April 18, 2018, Nigerians watched in shock as yet another charade unfolded in the Senate with the snatching of the Mace in the Senate, the symbol of authority from the Red Chamber,  by alleged thugs.

    “Even more reprehensible is the confirmation by the Nigerian Senate that this dastardly act was perpetrated on the instruction of an elected representative of the people.

    “The Nigerian Guild of Editors (NGE) condemns in very strong terms, any and every act that constitutes an affront to or assault on our fledgling democracy.

    “Such brigandage and acts akin to hooliganism, as was witnessed on Wednesday, run contrary to the concepts and tenets of the democracy that the Fourth Estate of the Realm struggled to enshrine in our country

    “The NGE, like other law-abiding organisations, agencies and persons across all strata, demand that the perpetrators be tracked, arrested and tried in accordance with the country’s constitutional provisions.

    “The NGE notes and commends the Police for swiftly responding to the emergent crisis. However, all security agencies are again enjoined to as a matter of urgency, renew their commitment and restrategise to forestall a recurrence, not only in the National Assembly but throughout the country.”

     

     

     

     

  • ‘It’s injury to democracy’

    A Labour leader Comrade Issa Aremu has described the invasion of the Senate as “an injury to the National Assembly and to the nation’s democracy” adding that the “federal government’s probe of the invasion should be prompt and conclusive with the objective of prevention of future act”.

    Aremu said what the Senate witnessed had been “the routine lots of many defenseless Nigerians” who are daily physically assaulted by criminals in homes, on the roads and in their communities.

    ”The serial suspension of any member who hold contrary views amount to legislative dictatorship which is also unacceptable in a democracy” he observed.

    Democracy is about cooperation as much as contestation and the National Assembly is the true symbol of both, he said.

  • Attack on Senate: Saraki lauds colleagues, reps for defending democracy

    Senate President, Dr Bukola Saraki, has commended the leadership and members of the Senate for standing  firmly in defence of democracy and the rule of law with their decision to defy those who attacked the Red Chambers of the National Assembly during which the mace was forcefully taken away.

    Saraki, speaking from Washington where he is attending the Spring Meeting of the World Bank/International Monetary Fund (IMF), also lauded the swift reaction by the leadership and members of the House of Representives in demonstrating their solidarity with the red chamber.

    “I have just been informed that some hoodlums invaded the Senate chambers, forcefully taken away the mace and assaulted some of our Sergeant-at-arms on chamber duties. I am delighted that the Senate stood up to them by disregarding their unreasonable and shameful action and went on with the day’s proceedings as slated in the Order Paper.

    “My commendation goes to my deputy, Senator Ike Ekweremadu, other members of the leadership, my colleagues, the leadership and members of the House of Representives for standing in defence of democracy, parliamentary sanctity and constitutionalism.

    “With the way the Senate has defied those seeking to undermine it, we have sent out a strong signal that we are always ready to defend our constitutional mandate and nothing will deter us from this.

    “I associate myself with the comments of the Deputy Senate President that we are ready to get to the roots of this assault on democracy and ensure that those who are responsible, no matter how remote, will be brought to justice”, Saraki stated in a statement by his Special Adviser on Media, Yusuph  Olaniyonu

     

  • Reps: Senate mace seizure, a mockery of democracy

    The House of Representatives on Wednesday described the “seizure” of Senate mace by some hoodlums as mockery of the country’s democracy.

    The Deputy Speaker of the House, Yusuff Lasun, said this when the lower chamber briefly suspended plenary to pay solidarity visit to the Senate over the forceful removal of the mace by the hoodlums.

    According to him, the 8th Assembly will make sure that democracy works in the country.

    He said “I read a lot of books about representative democracy, what baffles me most is that those who are trying to undermine the institution of National Assembly are pretenders to the institution of democracy.

    “That means once the assembly seizes to function or you want to muscle it, then it shows that we are no longer practicing democracy.

    “So, we need to tell these people who are pretenders that they are not practicing democracy because it is the assembly that defines democracy.

    “This is because of the way some of us grew up and started practicing democracy; a lot of Nigerians do not agree that the institution of the legislature must be protected.”

    He expressed the support of the House to Senate’s resolution that the Nigerian police should recover the mace within 24 hours.

    He said members decided that they must visit the Senate in solidarity with Senators and to tell Nigerians that the 8th assembly was determined to make democracy work in Nigeria.

    The Deputy President of the Senate, Ike Ekweremadu, commended the lawmakers for the visit, saying “I
    am proud of you and I look forward to having some of you joining us here after the 2019 general elections.”

    NAN

     

  • How to deepen democracy, by Akeredolu

    Ondo State Governor Oluwarotimi Akeredolu has said the only way through which the current democratic experiment can be deepened is through free , fair and credible local government elections.

    He spoke while inaugurating members of the Ondo State Independent Electoral Commission (ODIEC) and the Board of the Ondo State Property Development Corporation (OSPDC) at the Cocoa Conference Hall, Governor’s Office, Akure.

    According to him, having elected servants of the people at local government level would make governance seamless and improve the living conditions of the people.

    Akeredolu urged members of the ODIEC to ensure that the next round of elections to be conducted in the 18 local government Areas of the state is free, fair and credible.

    He said: “It is possible for us to have the leadership of a local Government belong to a different political party from the of the state. Our political experiences make the possibility appear remote in this clime. It is attainable if we are committed and sincere.

    “The local government is guaranteed in section 7 of the 1999 constitution (as amended). It is expected to discharge its mandate to the people in the areas of primary education, health care, recreation and social development…”

     

     

  • Fear for democracy: securitising politics or politicising security?

    He who lets himself in for politics, that is, for power and force as means, contracts with diabolical powers and for his action it is not true that good can follow only from good and evil only from evil, but that often the opposite is true. Anyone who fails to see this is, indeed, a political infant.—Max Weber

    One sentence that has been popular in the country’s political space of discourse in the last few days is ‘politicisation of security’ i.e. subjecting community or nation to threats of its survival and its values by individuals or groups whose motive is to obtain or retain political power. The most recent of such attempts by President Buhari and other owners of discourse of security is the claim that people who “politicise security” through questioning the process of release of Dapchi girls expose themselves to being ‘dealt with.”

    On the other side of the political divide are those who present themselves as political liberals or liberal democrats. These people cry foul, warning that attempts to prevent them from asking questions that can give citizens, the donors of power to presidents, governors, and legislators full information about their country are tantamount to depriving them of a basic universal value in democratic governance—the right to know which forms an important part of the right to tell or state—freedom of speech. An older example of threat to democratic rights is the announcement that hate speech would be made punishable by death. And another is the claim that the governor of Benue is playing politics unduly with the killing of tens of farmers in his state.

    But there is an obverse side to the charge of politicising of security. And that side is what looks like the securitising of politics. For the avoidance of doubt, I am not using securitisation in relation to financial management; pooling various types of debt—commercial, residential, and credit card obligations to sell related cash flows to third party investors as securities or guarantee. By securitising of politics, I mean in the sense of the Copenhagen School or Theory in security studies, means “creation of a discursive process through which an understanding is constructed within a political community to treat something as an existential threat and to enable a call for urgent and exceptional measures to deal with the threat.”

    Put in a plainer language, members of a ruling or dominant group get so sensitive to words about the security of all that they resort to characterising citizens who complain or ask questions about official or state response to security challenges as persons politicising security. Those who in return are worrying about the tendency of those in power for securitising politics are bothered by witting or unwitting denial of citizens in a democracy of the democratic rituals that sustain democracy directly or indirectly. Such rituals range from periodic elections to allow the people a say in who becomes their ruler to the freedom to praise or blame rulers for whatever choice or attitude they take on issues important to citizens.

    Although maintaining security is within the jurisdiction of the executive, even in a democratic system, the need for secrecy about the process of ensuring survival of a community or state does not (and should not) give political leaders—executive or legislative—any excuse to abridge the freedom of expression and choice that sustains democracy by giving citizens convincing appearance of inclusiveness that makes citizens not in power believe in the fairness of democratic governance. In this respect, the temptation that rulers everywhere and under every system needs to be interrogated in a democracy, if such state desires to grow and thrive as a democracy.

    The notion that governance is not challenged or challengeable in a democratic system in respect of government’s method of securing the state and citizens is dangerous for both ruler and the ruled. Over sensitisation of rulers to complaints by official opposition parties or ordinary citizens is often a cause for demands on the part of governments and their partisans for tougher rules to discourage citizens in disagreement with rulers or their style of ruling. More importantly, there is a thin line between politics and other aspects of life in an organised state. Isn’t this why every modern nation starts with a constitution—negotiated in the case of democracy and imposed in the case of other systems? Without doubt, living in Nigeria is a political choice. Nigeria itself, like other modern nation-states, is a political construct, regardless of puerile statements about Nigeria being created by God. If human beings in the Nigerian State choose not to be a part of the construct, such decision would not be started by or passed to God. It is, therefore, honest for both leaders and the led to agree that politics is an integral part of the country’s existence. Even to declare a statement political is tantamount to the owner of the statement trying to be political.

    Our multi-ethnic, multi-religious, and multicultural Nigeria is one huge country tied together by politics and better sutured by democratic politics and governance. Any attempt to curtail the space of politics, especially the space of freedom of speech in order to create an easier space for governance is fraught with dangers. Demonisation of persons complaining about governing styles that they consider inefficient or ineffective is not the best way to reduce the field of conflicts in a democratic diverse state like Nigeria. Debates – formal or informal – are indispensable to democratic governance. And all partisans of any national issue have a right to participate in the endless debates that define democratic rule.

    Rulers of the moment may make unforced errors by attempting to muffle or muzzle the voices of dissent wherever they may come from, even at a time of crisis. Such statements as the “Governor Ortom of Benue State is playing politics with the killing of Benue farmers by Fulani herdsmen” (be they from Mali, Niger, Chad, or Cameroon) is curing rash and leaving leprosy unattended. That General Danjuma is (or may be) playing politics with security for saying that the military is not acting impartially as it should or calling on citizens who feel unprotected to defend themselves smacks of attempting a conclusion while ignoring the major premise in a syllogism. The most important concern about such comments is finding out if such charges are true, and if so, what should be done to address such dangerous behaviour by police and the military in a multi-ethnic state. It is not the interest of democracy for any government to act or talk in a way that suggests talking politics is a bad thing that can degrade governance.

    The dangers in turning any complaint about governance into politicisation of perceived non-political parts of Nigeria’s life may be considered by citizens as a deliberate attempt to securitise politics, i.e. turn political remarks into a threat that needs to be forcefully removed. If the saying that became popular with Boko Haram terrorism: ‘security is the business of all of us’ is to have meaning, pro and con stances on important security issues should be encouraged. Doing otherwise is driving important complaints underground and making them more dangerous than they would have been, were they made in the open, as is expected to be in a democracy.

     

    Roposek@msn.com                                                                                          I will be on vacation for the rest of April.

     

  • Camping and decamping

    Since our democracy as practiced came to stay in 1999, some terms have become synonymous with the process, aside from the universally known ones; political parties, general elections and such like.

    In the vocabulary of Nigerian democracy, certain definite terms are key, everyone needs to know them; to mention six of them we have:

    • Political Relevance
    • Political Godfather
    • Dividends of Democracy
    • Constituency Projects/ Constituency Briefing
    • Stomach Infrastructure
    • Jumbo Pay

    Another constant is, has been, RESTRUCTURING. Successively trampled upon but never going away the current version goes ‘Change must Begin with Restructuring’!

    This year now, we are in the season of ‘Endorsements’. We also have another term to cram this year: Election Sequence.

    However, our focus here will be on the first listed: Political Relevance. The quote under the heading is from Dan Agbese; he maintains that this is the season for a new wave of carpet crossing by the politicians. He says that “since we returned to civil rule in 1999, carpet crossing has become the rule rather than the exception. There is not one political party registered by the generals in 1998 that has remained the same and intact. Not many of the politicians have remained in one party since 1999. They have crossed the carpet back and forth. Not for ideological reasons but for reasons of what has been dubbed stomach infrastructure.

    Carpet crossing has become the defining expression in our kind of political pragmatism. When people see the light, for which, read opportunity, in another political party, they flock to it. You should recognize this as chop-chop polities. It is the only kind of politics we know; it is the only kind of politics we practice.”

    So now we have approximately one year to go to elections -Nigerian politicians are very busy at this period – decamping across the two major political parties.

    In this pre-campaign climate, the current wave is no more a surprise.

    2019: APC Chairman 7,000 others decamp to PDP,

    so rings out the screaming headlines.

    But hold up – a few short years ago the reverse was the case… thousands decamped from PDP to APC!

    Ask any of those doing the decamping and carpet- crossing why; and they will come up with highfalutin, logical reasons and arguments. The Real Reason is: Political Relevance. Every single politician wants to be in political reckoning. All the time.

    Also, Nigerian politicians hate to be outside their concept of the nexus of power. And so like moths to a flame they zoom in on the ruling party; only to look across and see the “other” party is the ‘ruling’ party, and faster than the speed of light; they up and move again.

    This particular season, it is not the ‘movement’ that boggles, it is the Who and it is the How.

    And the most recently featured decamping exercise absolutely takes the cake.

    Two Fridays back, the man who directed the 2015 governorship campaign of the APC candidate in one of the states, no less defected to the PDP!

    Even to that level! And naturally, several other APC members reportedly also defected with him, including ward chairmen and youth leaders.

    The man who defected has been a Local Government Chairman and a member of the House of Representatives!

    Before 2015, he was a PDP stalwart, then he left for the APC in the run-up to the 2015 elections. So much for the Who, what about the How?

    When the man was received that Friday by top PDP leaders in that state, he said and I quote,

    “We heard about change, but the change turned out to be from frying pan to fire. At least, let us come back to the frying pan”!

    (Apparently as umbrella, the party symbol, was hastily brought out and opened over him. This statement was then corrected to:… come back to the umbrella!!). Na Wa.

     

     

    The best dressed man in lagos bows out

    fter the person who introduced us saw Charles Edem, Esquire off, he came back and whispered to me that ‘Mr. Edem is called ‘the best dressed man in Lagos’! Interesting.

    The story goes that Charles Edem grew up as a boy in Lagos with his maternal Uncle and cousins Tessy and Winnie.

    His mother had died when he was pretty young and his uncles and aunts lavished all their care and attention on him. After high school, they sent him to university in Paris where they regularly travelled to check on his well-being.

    At the end of his course, Charles the erstwhile Ikoyi Boy returned from Paris armed with a degree in Journalism. Much more, he transformed to a dapper, French-speaking gentleman, dressed in the best French suits and drinking the best French wines.

    Spinnero as he was popularly called then started out as a youth corper in the Vanguard newspapers. Over the years he rose to become the Head of Special Projects. Charles Edem was the person who introduced the concept of News Supplements in the Vanguard Newspaper.

    The stylish dresser later became the Head of Marketing of Vanguard Media Ltd, helping Vanguard become one of Nigeria’s leading dailies.

    Mr. Edem later went into private business before he relocated to Abuja.

    Last November, he opened his Dry-cleaning company, tragically he died weeks back and has since been laid to rest; leaving a wife and young children behind.

    Of his dear cousins (more like sisters) left behind: Tessy has become the General Manager of a State Government Parastatal. Winnie is Mrs. Winnifred Oyo Ita, the current Head of Service of the Federation.

     

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