LAST week’s tumultuous event of arrest, transportation, escape and re-arrest of Dino Melaye (APC Sen–Kogi West), is more likely to continue to meet with derision than the sober reflection it calls for in the light of the declining observance of the rule of law and mounting impunity in Nigeria. Sen Melaye, one of the most vocal and visible senators of the 8th Senate, has had a running battle with the Governor of Kogi State, Yahaya Bello, over sundry issues ranging from political disagreements to the excesses of the governor. The sequence of events culminated in the determination of the police to transport Sen Melaye to Kogi State, not to arraign him in court, for the case had been transferred to Abuja and he cannot be arraigned twice for the same offence, but to parade him with his alleged co-conspirators in what the police suggested was a case of gunrunning and plotting of assassinations.
What made the drama more engrossing was not merely the fact of his status as a senator, which the police have treated most contemptuously in their presumed determination to make everybody equal before the law, but the length to which the law enforcement agency was willing to go, and the depth its officers were willing to sink, to gratify the tyrannical pleasures of the youthful but vacuous Kogi governor. Sen Melaye is facing a recall process obscenely and unusually enthusiastically midwifed by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), but inspired undoubtedly by Mr Bello to rid Kogi of the peskiness of the grumbling senator, probably the only recognised and visible opposition to the do-nothing government in Lokoja. The recall is supposedly anchored on the frustrations of the Kogi West electorate who were reported to be embarrassed by the jesting and buffoonery of the senator as exemplified by his many musical skits, raucous displays at Senate plenaries, and general uncouthness.
In reality, however, Sen Melaye’s oppositional posturing and direct attacks had begun to grate on the nerves of Mr Bello, a governor labouring futilely under the yoke of his own lassitude and incompetence. Since he has managed to worm his way into some influence in Aso Villa and insinuated himself into the confidence of highly placed individuals in the same powerful precincts, Mr Bello has been able rather easily to put reins on the police and turn them every which way. When Sen Melaye’s alleged co-conspirators in the gunrunning saga broke jail late March, the state police commissioner, Ali Janga, was redeployed. But Mr Bello allegedly stood against his replacement, Sunday Ogbu. Dramatically, the fleeing suspects were intercepted days later, and Mr Janga was reinstated. The case itself, which Interpol had spurned with fitting contempt, describing it as politicised and undeserving of their attention, is shrouded in deliberate malfeasance.
Worse, the recall process, which was at first entangled in a legal maze, is perhaps the most brazen effort in Nigerian history to thwart the will of the electorate, abuse the democratic process, and recast Kogi State in the most atrocious and execrable light. Whole communities and neighbourhoods were invested with fictitious names and signatures, and a spurious verification campaign undertaken to arrive at a preconceived goal. A resident in one of those neighbourhoods made a representation to this newspaper, indicating that their names and forged signatures appeared on the list without their consent. Mercifully, Kogi West voters have also spurned the verification exercise and repudiated the recall process, an indirect plebiscite on the loathed and unpopular governor. But tyranny is afoot in Kogi; and with the legislature inoculated against reason and courage, and the federal authorities pretending to observe the principles of federalism in their impassive connivance, there is no telling what the conspirators in Kogi can do.
The legal case against Sen Melaye is clear, but it was billed to be heard in Abuja. The Senate, which has invited the pliant Inspector-General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, might wish to know from him just what contempt he harboured against the Senate as an institution, and against Sen Melaye as a citizen deserving of fair treatment before he is convicted. They might also wish to know why he has sought to place the whole police establishment under the cruel, humiliating and treacherous whims of the Kogi governor. The Senate might wish, in addition, to invite the INEC boss a little later, regarding his work in Kogi West, to answer a few puzzling questions , for the anomalies and falsehood observed in the execution of the recall process are too obvious to be left in the hands of manipulators. The INEC boss should explain why those who submitted the petition with forged names and signatures should not be prosecuted, for after all, the authors of the petition are well known.
It is tempting to dismiss Sen Melaye as simply being hoist with his own petard, and because of his theatrics, foul language and consistent buffoonery, see him as deserving of the adversity stripping him of whatever is left of his reputation and status as a senator of the Federal Republic. But that would be short-sighted. The senator may be unloved, but the constitution guarantees that he must be treated justly. What is more, though his constituents deplore his manners and would have loved to give him a piece of their resolute minds in the next elections, they did not instigate the recall process, and are clear who between the jester in Abuja and the tyrant in Lokoja they would wish to electorally destroy first. Sen Melaye’s melodrama hurts only the image of Kogi, and Kogi West senatorial district in particular; but Mr Bello’s savage leadership style, incompetence, and total disregard for the people’s welfare hurt their entire being and rob them of their dignity. There is no question who they loathe; nor is there any doubt in their minds who the troubler of the state is and who concocted the crises and controversies disabling Kogi.