The Department of State Security (DSS) on Sunday afternoon confirmed it has presidential candidate of the African Action Congress, Mr Omoyele Sowore in its custody.
Sowore was arrested on Saturday by operatives of the DSS in his Lagos residence over proposed #RevolutionNow protests billed for Monday.
DSS spokesman, Peter Afunanya confirmed this to reporters during a briefing at the DSS headquarters in Abuja.
Details shortly…
THE Nigeria Intervention Movement (NIM), organisers of the proposed ‘revolution’ march, vowed on Saturday to forge ahead with the plan regardless of the arrest of the arrowhead of the march, Omoyele Sowore.
Sowore was arrested at his Lagos residence early on Saturday by suspected personnel of the Department of State Services (DSS).
The organization has not owned up to the arrest.
But Police Inspector General of Police Mohammed Adamu said yesterday that the march, scheduled for tomorrow, has ‘treasonable felony and acts of terrorism’ written all over it.
He warned the organizers to shelve their plan.
But the group insisted on going ahead.
It condemned Sowore’s arrest and called for his immediate release.
Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and Amnesty International (AI) were joined by other groups in deploring the arrest.
The National Publicity Secretary of the NIM, Olusegun Obe, said in a statement yesterday that the project remained on course.
He said: “Third Force Movement of Nigeria under the umbrella of the Nigeria Intervention Movement, wishes to reaffirm its commitment to the planned nationwide mass protests against bad political system and malgovernance (sic) in Nigeria tagged “#Revolution Now!” starting on Monday, August 5, 2019.
“For the avoidance of doubt, this historic nationwide revolutionary action initiated by Nigerian masses and youths is purely aimed at overthrowing the corrupt and warped political system being operated by the country as well as changing the oppressive ruling class in Nigeria.
“Therefore, we have directed all our members, allies and supporters in the Third Force Movement, especially of the Nigeria Intervention Movement, Alliance for Defence of Democracy and some revolutionary political parties to join and support the historic mass action for a new Nigeria as already endorsed by icons like Prof Wole Soyinka, Alhaji Balarabe Musa, Dr. Oby Ezekwesili among others
“It is for this reason that we condemn in unequivocal stance the subversive arrest and detention of one of the key facilitators of #Revolution Now!, Sowore Omoyele; the Leader of the Take-It-Back Movement, who was forcefully abducted in his home around 1.25 a.m. today, Saturday (yesterday) and whisked away to an unknown destination
“We hereby demand from the Nigerian Presidency and its witch-hunting Department of State Security apparatus, the immediate release of Omoyele Sowore, as his continued incarceration will not deter our forces and cadres from embarking on the planned mass action against the oppressors of Nigerians on Monday as earlier scheduled.”
IGP: Planned march is treasonable felony
Police Inspector General Mohammed Adamu said the attention of the police had been drawn “to a video circulating on the social media by the ‘Global Coalition for Security and Democracy in Nigeria and others’, inciting Nigerians, home and abroad, to join a planned ‘revolution’ march against the Government of the Federal Republic of Nigeria on Monday, 5th August, 2019 with the sole aim of forcing a regime change in the country.”
Adamu said “the call amounts to treasonable felony and acts of terrorism and will therefore not stand idly-by and watch any individual or group in the society cause anarchy in the land.”
He added: “While acknowledging the rights of Nigerians to embark on protest, the Force wishes to note that such rights should not translate to a violent and forceful change of government which clearly is the meaning of ‘revolution’.
“Needless to state that Nigeria is a democratic republic and has well-defined processes for change of government, exercised periodically during various cycle of elections.
“The Force therefore warns the organizers, sponsors, allies, supporters, associates and sympathisers of the group ‘Global Coalition for Security and Democracy in Nigeria’ to, in their own interest, steer clear of any such planned protest, demonstration, acts of incitement and proposed ‘revolution’, as the full wrath of the law will be brought to bear on any individual or group engaged or found participating in the above planned criminal act.
“Parents and guardians are therefore enjoined to impress on their children and wards not to allow themselves to be used in whatever form by any person or group of persons to cause breach of law and order in the country.
“The Police will work with other Law Enforcement Agencies and positive minded Nigerians to protect, defend and secure our public peace and space.”
DSS keeps mum over Sowore’s arrest
The Department of State Services (DSS) which is believed to have arrested Sowore kept sealed lips over the matter yesterday.
The arrest in Lagos followed that of Abubakar Dadiyata also by the DSS in Kaduna on Friday.
Calls and text messages to the DSS spokesman, Mr. Peter Afunanya, on the issue elicited no response at press time.
Atiku, AI, others kick
Former Vice President and the Peoples Democratic Party’s (PDP) presidential candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar condemned the arrest of Omoyele Sowere on his Twitter handle, saying: ‘Freedom of speech is not only constitutionally guaranteed, it is the substructure of our democracy. These kidnappings in the guise of arrests stands condemned. -AA’
Amnesty International’s initial reaction also came via its Twitter handle.
It said it “is concerned about the arrest of Omoyele Sowore @YeleSowore by DSS operatives. We urge the authorities to respect his rights and follow due process. If not charged for any offence, he should be released immediately.”
Sowore’s fellow activists including Kadaria Ahmed, Chidi Odinkalu, Hajia Aisha Yesufu and Shehu Sani also condemned the arrest.
Sani said: “Our democracy is a block of ice floating on warm waters. The sponsored protest and attacks on the @AmnestyNigeria stand condemned. The arrest & detention of @YeleSowore is needless; I join the call for his release.”
Sowore himself broke the news of his arrest when he tweeted “DSS invades Sowore’s” at 1.25am on Saturday.
He was said to have been driven to the Lagos head office of the DSS, Magodo.
SaharaReporters, Sowore’s online outfit, said his phone was forcefully seized before the arrest.
“An eyewitness confirming that his phone was forcefully taken from him,” it said in a report.
Shortly before his arrest, Sowore had tweeted: “All that is needed for a #Revolution is for the oppressed to choose a date they desire for liberty, not subjected to the approval of the oppressor.”
‘He was arrested at the gym’ – Sowore’s driver
Someone claiming to be Sowore’s driver said the Sahara Reporters publisher was arrested by armed men who “knocked on the door.”
The driver who did not give his name said on social media that “I noticed immediately that these knocks were strange. And didn’t open. I looked and I saw men armed to the teeth.
“They started forcing their way in like armed robbers. But I knew they were DSS men, knowing fully well the attention RevolutionNow has garnered. Sowore wanted to open at first but I immediately told him who they are. He retreated and like magic, he was not in the room when they forced their way in- 8 of them.
“That was when he managed to tweet. By this time, I had been beaten and handcuffed. Phones were snatched from me. An order to block all exits came from the leader when Sowore was not found inside. He was later arrested at the gym in a gestapo manner and dragged after a bit altercation.
“I followed them immediately till we got to CMD road around Ketu when one of them came down from the Sienna and corked his gun, threatening to shoot me. I had to escape at that point.”
The Presidential candidate of the African Action Congress in the February 2019 presidential election, Mr. Omoyele Sowore, has been arrested by the operatives of the Department of State Services.
Sowore human rights activist and founder of online news agency Sahara Reporters was arrested Saturday morning at his home.
Sowore posted a distress tweet at exactly 1:25am which says “DSS invades Sowore’s”.
His arrest by the DSS could be as a result of his plans to mobilised people in Lagos and many parts of the country for a revolution protest tagged ‘Days of Rage’ to demand a better Nigeria.
The African Action Congress (AAC) had declared 5th August for the commencement of revolution protest tagged ‘Days of Rage’ across the country to demand a better Nigeria.
Omoyele Sowore, disclosed recently in Abuja at the end of the party’s National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting that the protest would be sustained until the country is put on the right path of honour where justice prevails.
Shocking revelations have emerged on the botched anti-government protest tagged ‘RevolutionNow’ being championed by Omoyele Sowore.
This is just as latest indications have it that some foreign interests spent over 500million USD on Sowore and his group to cause chaos across the country.
The Coalition for One Nigeria, which made this revelation, claimed that the said amount of money were released to the organizers of RevolutionNow, led by Sowore, to stage the nationwide protest in a bid to topple the democratically elected government of President Muhammadu Buhari.
Addressing newsmen on Tuesday in Abuja, Johnson Adelowo Olusola
National President of CON, called for further investigation into the action.
It further vowed to hold responsible any of the security agencies that allows the sovereignty of Nigeria to be violated without acting to bring the perpetrators to book.
The group, however, reaffirmed commitment to indivisibility of Nigeria under President Buhari.
His speech below.
A lot is being said across Nigeria about the failed protests that were intended to cripple cities across the country. The protests were alternately branded Revolution Now or #DaysofRage. International collaborators of the protesters had tried hard to present it to Nigerians as the equivalent of Arab Spring in Nigeria, an illusion of popular revolt or citizen’s uprising.
On the contrary, the protests were being paid for, both by the oppositions in Nigeria and foreign interests that are interested in destabilising Nigeria, and there is nothing spontaneous about them. The organisers of the protests had tried their best to incite public anger but were disappointed that the populace sees hope in the direction the current elected leadership of Nigeria is taking the country.
It is against this background that the Coalition for One Nigeria wishes to bring to the notice of Nigerians the grand plot by these people to cause a crisis of phenomenal proportion in the country using proxies that appear to have garnered some level of public clout in the society. Nigerians should note that the moment the arrowhead of the attempted coup was arrested, other collaborators in the insidious project to disrupt Nigeria were immediately activated to begin castigating the government.
It was also discovered that a huge sum of money was budgeted for the Revolution Now protest in Abuja the Federal Capital Territory.
Nigerians will today (Saturday) go to the polls to elect their president and 469 members of the National Assembly (NASS).
This is coming a week after the exercise was rescheduled by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) late Friday night (Feb. 16).
While the electoral umpire would conduct only the presidential and NASS election this Saturday, the poll for the governorship and State Houses of Assembly as well as the Area Council election for the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) would hold on March 9.
The election will hold at 119,973 polling units across the country, while collation of results will take place in 8,809 Registration Areas or Wards, 774 Local Government Areas, 36 States and the FCT.
The polling units are expected to open by 8 a.m. and close by 2 p.m. with the last person on the line allowed to vote.
INEC had said that the use of Smart Card Readers and Permanent Voter Cards were compulsory for the elections.
The major presidential contenders are incumbent President Muhammadu Buhari of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and former vice president Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Demographic Party (PDP).
Others include Prof. Kingsley Moghalu of the Young Progressives Party (YPP), Omoyele Sowore of the African Action Congress (AAC), Felix Osakwe of the Democratic People’s Party (DPP), and Christopher Okotie of Fresh Party.
For the National Assembly elections, a total of 1,904 are vying for 109 Senatorial seats, while 4,680 candidates are competing for the 360 seats in the House of Representatives.
Specifically, Nigeria’s NASS is made up of 109 members of the Senate or Red Chamber and 360 members of the House of Representatives or Green Chamber.
The total number of registered voters in the country is 84,004,084, with 44,405,439 (52.86 per cent) as male, and 39,598,645 (47.14 per cent) as female.
The presidential candidate of the African Action Congress (AAC) and publisher of Sahara Reporters Omoyele Sowore, has said that there is no rational human being in the country today that would willingly cast vote for the two major parties (APC and PDP) in the imminent elections.
He said this while referencing past years of stagnation under the watchful eyes of the two parties, who are unrepentant masterminds of the country’s political and economic doldrums.
He premised statement on their bad antecedents saying: “no Nigerian in the right frame of mind would vote an oppressor to power.”
He further advised Nigerians to forget about the rented crowd at rallies of the major parties and rather focus on the need for courage in upstaging the horrible forces that have kept them in darkness. He counseled the citizens to brace up and take the bull by the horn, emphasizing the need to vote for conscience rather than allow votes to be swayed by pecuniary gains that have been consistently used to bait the electorates.
“Every trick in the political world has been played and outplayed by the political class.” He began. “Nobody is carried away by money anymore; nobody is swayed by rented crowd out there, and there is the silent majority that has made a decision this time around to vote their conscience. If the elections are free and fair, there is no rational human being who will vote for the two major parties this time and what that means is that, we have the brightest chance.”
Sowore spoke primarily to the young people of Nigeria. They consist of the largest demographic in the country and it is with them that the future rests. He charged them with removing the old guard who have deprived them of basic amenities and made them residents of the poverty capital of the world. He encouraged young Nigerians not to give up in the face of hardship and despair but rather, they make vital efforts to reverse the status quo.
“I understand there is a lot of anxiety and despondency” Sowore said while acknowledging that many people are acutely depressed about the country. “I mean– clinically depressed. That’s the truth, but, that is exactly why things must change because it is either we give in or brace ourselves up for a struggle like this in providing the liberation that we need. And the reason this must happen is because we have nowhere else to go. For those of us who are outside the country, we have seen other parts of the world and found out there is nothing as good as having a country that works and you come back so much energized considering you know that only less than one percent of the population is holding the country to ransom.”
He said that the clarion call to redeem Nigeria must be heeded by all youths who intend having a thriving country they would be proud to call their own, and to have such a prosperous country, the youths that constitute major part of the electorates must speak in unity of purpose regarding voting his candidacy to power, adding that, he is poised to effect a seismic transformation to the country’s dwindling fortune.
Speaking about his level of readiness to disrupt the political space, Sowore alluded his party’s monumental achievements since treading this path barely six months ago and issued sound warning to the old guard politicians that the 2019 elections won’t be business as usual. He said that, his party would use technology to demystify hitherto inscrutable election irregularities and table them as pieces of evidence to Nigerians and to the rest of the world.
“The disruption has been done in the last nine months.” Sowore started. “I made a pronouncement in one of the first town hall meetings that, since I have disrupted the media I was going to disrupt the political space and, you can count the number of things that have happened since we started.”
He reeled out both his personal achievements in the quest to effect transformation in his environment beginning from when he was a student at the university of Lagos and what his party, the AAC, has attained within the short time of coming into existence.
“You know the disruption has spread and is completed already.” He continued. “First, was that we wanted to demystify all the very powerful criminal institutions in politics and we have done that. We have demystified the power of money. We have demystified the notion that Nigeria is complex and vague. We have demystified the notion of religion and ethnicity in the sense that, we have been able to travel round the country, get wide acceptance, under the same political party, young people from across all different ethnic groups and religious beliefs, nobody is thinking ethnicity and everybody is thinking humanity till now. We have disrupted the political process to the point that we are forcing conversations that ordinarily don’t happen to happen. We have disrupted it to the point that today; almost everybody is doing a townhall meeting, which had never been done before.”
“Buhari was supposed to do one but he didnt. It was a townhall meeting, regardless. Otherwise, it would have been their parachute rallies, dropping their wares and what have you but they are being forced to answer questions. We have created a narrative around the efficacy and efficiency of a vibrant youthful political class in the country. We have disrupted the notion that only big parties can discuss elections.”
“We created a party that is less than six months old. However, one of the most popular political parties in Nigeria today is AAC and it’s just six months old. So, a number of theories have been disrupted and the disruption process is complete. We are waiting to ensure it delivers victory to a disruptor in two weeks’ time.” He rounded off.
Sowore’s emergence as the presidential candidate of the AAC few months ago seems to have given hope to many Nigerians about a third force that was consistently gossiped as viable alternative to the Peoples’ Democratic Party and the ruling All Peoples’ Congress, two parties that have been likened to the two sides of a coin. Perhaps, the long awaited revolution in the political firmament would take place if the candidacy of Omoyele Sowore is voted into powers.
The Federal Government has been urged not to be soft with insurrectionist, Omoyele Sowore and others connected with treasonable felony.
The Civil Rights Movement of Nigeria (CRMN) made this plea in a press conference in Abuja on Monday following the arrest of the founder of Sahara Reporters.
The Police had accused Sowore and the Global Coalition for Security and Democracy in Nigeria of trying to force a regime change in the country.
They said inciting Nigerians, home and abroad, to join a planned ‘revolution’ march against the Government of the Federal Republic of Nigeria on Monday, August 5, amounts to treasonable felony and acts of terrorism.
Sowore, a pro-democracy activist and the presidential candidate of the African Action Congress (AAC) in the last general elections, had been deluding a critical mass of Nigerians, through various platforms, in readiness for #RevolutionNow, a series of planned protests against the government.
However, according to CCRMNs President, Aaron Dutoye, Mr Sowore had a clear blueprint designed by the major opposition party to overthrow the government, having failed to legitimately do so at the last elections.
To serve as deterrent to others with similar intent of causing havoc, the group, therefore, advised the Department of State Services (DSS) to immediately arraign Sowore for treason. CRMN further urged the DSS to secure a court order to keep Sowore in its custody once he is arraigned given the gravity of the crime he has committed and the potential instability his release could pose.
Read full statement below:
Gentlemen of the press, the Department of State Services (DSS) heeded the calls of concerned Nigerians and organizations and arrested one of the organizers of the #DaysofRage protests, which also goes by the name RevolutionNow Movement, Omoyele Sowore. The arrest brought to a closure the harassment that he has directed at Nigerians and their duly elected leader.
It is pertinent to note that while there are several known leaders of the planned protests, which has a couple of proscribed groups in its ranks anyway, Sowore has been indiscriminately inciting. He used expressions that suggested protesters will bodily remove elected leaders from office while security agencies will be targeted for attacks to the extent that they will cease to be in existence. There are tweets, video and other documentary evidence to this effect.
Clearly, there has been a coordinated campaign to intimidate law enforcement organizations from doing their job. This included describing Sowore’s arrest as kidnap or abduction. Influential Nigerians have been sold dummies and recruited to condemn his arrest without them referring to his crime. It is legitimate to demand for accountable government but plotting to overthrow a legitimately elected government is certainly not something that any government in the world will accept.
We are aware that Sowore is hoping to pass himself off as an opposition member even though he only scored 33,953 of the more than 28 million votes cast, less than the winner, President Muhammadu Buhari scored in one local government. Some of his international media collaborators are describing him as opposition candidate simply to create the impression that the government is clamping down on the opposition. Sowore’s co-traveller, Atiku Abubakar gave the game away in his reaction to the arrest; he made it obvious that the plot to overthrow the government is the same plan B they had worked on when it became apparent that President Buhari remained the preferred choice before the election.
Law enforcement agencies are invited to note that the other leaders of #DaysofRage protests have vowed to go ahead with the destruction they had planned to carry out across the country even with Sowore’s arrest. They made this stance appear like their own version of defiance but what we have found out is that they believe Sowore would be released without standing trial. They cited several instances to buttress this point. They are also hopeful that there would be enough public criticism to dissuade the government from pressing charges.
Such outcome will not be in the interest of the country as it will encourage anarchists and fascists to keep attempting to overthrow the government. If this continues it is a matter of time before they succeed especially as they are teaming up with foreign agents of destabilization in this destructive plot.
The best deterrence is to send a strong message to all the anti-democratic forces in the country that there is no room for anyone that may wish to destroy our dear country. Example must be made of those that are attempting to derail our democracy for failed politicians. This is our suggestion for dealing with detractors of Nigeria and enemies of our democracy.
We demand that the Department of State Services (DSS) immediately arraigns Omoyele Sowore for treason to serve as deterrent to others with similar intentions, and that includes the foreign agents in Nigeria. The Service must ensure that it secures an order from the court to make him remain in custody once he is arraigned given the gravity of the crime he has committed and the risk his type poses to stability in the country.
Since those goading Sowore to prison are pleading freedom of speech, an arraignment in court will provide him the chance to convince the court that this was the case and where he fails he can be rest assured that his tenancy will be guaranteed at whatever prison he is assigned to.
Those that are threatening to cause mayhem to demand Sowore’s release and those threatening to press ahead with the protests should note that that same fate awaits them because there are specific laws that are being violated.
In view of the confidence being expressed by Sowore and his associates about how they are above the law of Nigeria, we urged the government to engage international partners on why they should stay off its domestic affairs for which there is an adequate legal framework.
Question: This is not a new issue. Indeed, it has been around since the return to civilian rule in 1999. So, what is the current context in which you are returning to it?
Answer: Thank you. You are right to say that it is a well-known fact in Nigeria and around the world that our legislators are the highest paid on the planet and indeed, in the history of modern parliaments worldwide. This week, in the Presidential Townhall Debate at Abuja conducted by Kadaria Ahmed of Daria Media Ltd with Omoyele Sowore, the presidential candidate of the African Action Congress and his running mate, Dr. Rabiu Ahmed Rufai, this issue generated one of the most contentious moments in the heated exchanges between the moderator, Kadaria Ahmed, and the candidate, Omoyele Sowore. This is the proximate context for returning to the issue in this Q and A.
Q: What was the bone of contention between the moderator and the candidate, professor?
A: Don’t call me professor; call me compatriot or fellow Nigerian. As for the question, the moderator relentlessly pushed the candidate to explain how he would get our legislators to pass a law, any law, that would greatly reduce their greedy, bloated salaries, remunerations and allowances when we all know that they would never, never do such a thing. To this, Sowore replied that if the legislators would never reduce their pay packages in response to the universal demand that they do so, we should do it by ourselves, without the legislators’ input.
Q: Okay, I will call you fellow Nigerian. But you are a professor, aren’t you? And isn’t the title of professor a venerable one that indicates great learning and considerable enlightenment? At any rate, what did the moderator say to Sowore’s explosive suggestion that we can and must end the predatory and iniquitous pay packages of our legislators?
A: Yes, of course, I am a professor and I accept that the title is, or should be, a venerable title. But, compatriot, these days in our country, there are professors and there are professors! And I am not talking about “professors” of the ilk of Professor Peller! The sad fact is that in many instances, the term professor no longer reflects great learning and intellectual and cultural enlightenment, alas! But, let us leave this topic for another day and not allow it to detract us from the issue of the mega-scandal, the great injustice of our legislators’ pay packages. And on that point, the answer to your question is that unfortunately, Sowore’s suggestion that we can and must end the rot, the outrage of our legislators’ wages, salaries and bonuses with or without them came at the tail end of the broadcast and there was no time left in which to take him up on his radical suggestion.
Q: Professor, sorry, compatriot, if time ran out and Sowore and the moderator could not take up and discuss the matter further, what can you, what will you say now about the issue? Can we end the outrage, the monumental injustice and squandermania of our legislators’ emoluments just like that, without their acquiescence, their participation? Wouldn’t that be a coup against democracy?
A: If you call me professor one more time, this discussion, this interview will end immediately and abruptly! I am not joking: I greatly prefer to be called compatriot or fellow Nigerian than professor, period! Haba, can one not choose the title by which one should be addressed? And at any rate, why are we so obsessed with and by titles in this country? Ah beg, make you stop calling me professor or prof, you dey hear me? [Pause] Okay, where were we, where was I? Ah, yes, what do I personally think about ending the brigandage of the legislators’ pay packages without their participation in the process? The answer is simple, compatriot: it is massive, non-violent, peaceful nation-saving and world-changing civil disobedience.
Q: What! What does this mean? You say I shouldn’t call you professor, but doesn’t this longish “massive, non-violent, peaceful nation-saving and world-changing civil disobedience” sound very professorial, even to you yourself? What does it mean? Can you break it down so all “fellow Nigerians” can understand it?
A: Ah, I can see that you like to joke, my friend. So, okay, I made it long, I made it seem “professorial”. But the core idea, the basic thing is civil disobedience and it is a process of bringing about badly needed social change that has been successfully tried all over the world in modern history, including the modern political history of this country. If you look closely at the two words in the term, you will see an interesting paradox: a disobedience that is however civil. The “disobedience” pertains to the deliberate and strategic disobedience of laws, policies and current practices that are terribly, terribly unjust and exploitative toward the majority of the people. But then, take note of the other word in the term, “civil” which means are talking of a disobedience that is deliberately non-violent and peaceful…
Q: I think I am beginning to understand you now. Martin Luther King, Jr., and the civil rights movement in the United States of America; Mahatma Gandhi and anticolonialism in India; Nelson Mandela and the passive resistance aspects of the anti-apartheid struggles in South Africa. But none of these was only about the salaries and allowances of legislators, compatriot! Every one of these instances of civil disobedience was about exploitation and oppression on many fronts, on the entirety of the political and socio-economic order. But here, you are talking only about the salaries and allowances of legislators. What do you say to this?
A: Wait a minute, wait a minute, compatriot. Do you really know how big, how monumental the rottenness and the injustice of our legislators’ salaries are? Do you really know how linked it is to nearly all the other aspects of the exploitation and oppression of our peoples? Do you know that if we could bring it to an end, we would simultaneously bring to an end many of the other dimensions of the terrible mistreatment that our peoples are receiving year in year out from their governments at all levels? Please, let us at least first get a sense of how big this problem is. Even a person like Olusegun Obasanjo who has himself been a perpetrator of the pillage has called what our parliamentarians are paying themselves “unarmed robbery”. Literally Obasanjo is right, but substantively he is wrong because it is really armed robbery. Why? Well, the legislators are protected by the institutional and legal force of the armed services of the state – the army, the police, the security agencies. Without that armed protection, people would have marched on the National Assembly a long, long time ago to chase the rogues out…
Q: Okay, okay, I hear you. But you are letting your anger, your rage get the better of you because, are you not the person that has just spoken of civil disobedience, of non-violent, peaceful resistance?
A: Ah, you’re right, you’re right, compatriot. And indeed, I must confess that every time that I think about the issue, every time that I talk about it, I get so angry that almost automatically, I get into the mind, the psyche of a primary school headmaster of old whose ultimate mode of penalizing erring or dangerous wrongdoers among his pupils was a harrowing corporal punishment that the wrongdoer would never forget in his life! To think that I never liked such headmasters and here I am, thinking and feeling as if I am inside the skin of their psyche! But I digress, I digress. I should get back to the sheer scale of the robbery, the injustice of our lawmakers’ salaries. This will let us perceive that it is at the bottom of nearly all the other aspects of our monstrously unjust social and political order. Thus, dig this: in 2013, in a widely discussed study of wages, salaries and remunerations structure across many regions and nations of the world, The Economist of London, found that Nigerian lawmakers were the highest paid in the world and by a quite simply unbelievable and unspeakable long shot. For instance, the report calculated that while most of the countries were in single digits, Nigeria was in triple digits in the size of legislators’ salaries in relation to per capita GDP. Specifically, the study found that the salaries of our lawmakers were 166 times the per capita GDP of our country. Yes, 166 times of the per capita GDP of one of the countries with the worst levels of poverty and unjust and inequitable income distribution structures in the world.
Indeed, here are the figures recently reported by Professor Itse Sagay to prove his contention that a Senator in Nigeria receives above 3 billion naira a year. All the figures given reflect monthly, not yearly or quarterly payments: Basic Salary: N2,484,245.50; Hardship Allowance: N1,242,122.70; Constituency Allowance: N4,968,509.00; Accommodation Allowance: N4,968,509.00; Domestic Staff: N1,863,184.12; Entertainment Allowance: N828,081.37; Vehicle Maintenance: N1,863,184.12 [Note that for want of space, I am leaving out other diverse items of remuneration and allowances like Furniture Allowance; Newspaper Allowance; Personal Assistant; Motor Vehicle Allowance (N9,936,928.00), Utilities, Wardrobe, and Severance Gratuity (N7,425,736.50)…
Q: Wait a minute, wait a minute, professor, sorry, compatriot! If you and Itse Sagay and The Economist of London are not making these figures and data up, what is the rationale, the reasoning for paying our lawmakers such fabled salary packages? You said Obasanjo called it “unarmed robbery”; well, what explanation did he give for its perpetuation? Please, please, fellow Nigerian, tell me you are not trying to bamboozle me! Haven’t you just said that there are professors and there are professors in Nigeria? Which kind of professor you be sef? I will not let you fool me! Just tell me: are you saying that no explanations, no rationale, no justification has been given or is being given for the monstrosity of our lawmakers’ pay packages?
A: Ah, it is my turn to say, wait a minute, wait a minute, my friend! It appears that you have not been listening well to me. Didn’t I say at the start of this conversation that in the contention between Kadaria Ahmed and Omoyele Sowore at that Townhall Debate in Abuja earlier this week, Kadaria declared that it would be against democracy to stop the iniquitous salaries and allowances bonanza of our legislators without their involvement in the exercise? And if that is the case, if that is why it seems that no one can stop them without being undemocratic, doesn’t that mean that democracy and its survival is the rationale and the explanation at the very root of this scandal?
Q: Ah, professor, I mean compatriot, I no get you at all, at all o! Please, make you no vex, but how is democracy itself at the foundation of this thief-thief, wuruwuru salaries and allowances bonanza of our lawmakers? Please, break it down for me!
A: Ah, countryman, I sorry say you think say I wan confuse you but remember say no be me say the kin’ government and system we get now for this country na democracy; na Kadaria Ahmed say so for that debate with Omoyele Sowore earlier this week in Abuja. Now that you want put the matter for my head, make I tell you say if you ask me, the kind of democracy we get now for this country na barawo and jibiti democracy. If you look properly, countryman, you will see that the very thing wey dem dey do in the salaries and bonuses of lawmakers na him dem dey do with the almost complete privatization of all state-owned businesses and national assets that belong to all of us! You never hear how cheaply they are selling everything to demself and their cronies and family? All perfectly legal and “democratic” – and all completely and totally predatory!
Q: Ah, ha, I done see am now! Is that why you say that massive and sustained civil disobedience is the one and only answer to the salaries and bonuses pillage of our lawmakers? Because it is at the center of all the other “unarmed robberies”?
A: Yes, countryman, na so e be o!
bjeyifo@fas.harvard.edu
The Presidential Candidate of the African Action Congress (AAC), Mr Omoyele Sowore on Wednesday filed a suit against the Nigeria Election Debate Group (NEDG).
Sowore sued the NEDG over the exclusion of his party’s Vice-Presidential Candidate, Mr Rabiu Rufai in the debate which held on Dec. 14.
The suit, with No. CV/652/2018, was filed by the National Legal Adviser of the party, Mr Inibehe Effiong, in company of its Deputy National Secretary, Mr Joshua Adeoye at the FCT High Court, Maitama.
Other respondents in the suit are Broadcasting Organisations of Nigeria (BON), BON Chairman and CEO of Channels Television, Mr John Momoh.
In the suit filed by its legal adviser, the AAC claimed that the exclusion of its vice presidential candidate in the debate was an act of discrimination and malice against the party and its candidates.
The party is praying the court to declare that the deployment of the state media apparatus by the organisers of the debate to the advantages of the five selected parties who participated in the debate and exclusion of its candidate contravenes Section 100(2) of the Electoral Act 2010.
The party through its legal adviser was also asking the court in the suit to declare that AAC and Mr Sowore are entitled to equal media time to participate in the January 19, 2019 presidential debate.
Effiong said that such gesture was necessary for its presidential candidate to propagate the manifesto of the AAC as provided for in Section 100(3) of the Electoral Act as amended and the Nigeria Broadcasting Code (6th Edition, 2016).
The party through its legal adviser also filed a motion on notice for an order of injunction restraining the NEDG, BON and John Momoh from organising the Jan. 19, 2019 debate without including its presidential candidate.
The News Agency of Nigeria reports that several documents, affidavit including nine exhibits were filed to accompany the suit.
NAN also reports that no date has been fixed for the hearing of the suit.