Opinion: We Are At The Verge Of A Quick Slide Into Dictatorship

The note of warning sounded by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), National Publicity Secretary, Chief Olisa Metuh by Sahara Reporters is very alarming. Alarming because Nigeria is riding an international and domestic feeling of relief over what has been called a “smooth transition” from one democratically elected government party to another democratically elected government party that was the opposition party. For this euphoria to end as quickly as it began would be nothing but tragic.

Under the dethroned President Jonathan, political witch-hunt was at a minimum. No member of the opposition ever found it necessary to announce that PDP or GEJ’s administration was on the hunt for him/her until Rev. Fr. Mbaka made an unfounded allegation at the heat of the election. Fr. Mbaka is alive today and goes about his misguided mission without fear or favor just as he had done during GEJ’s 6-year reign. But a mere one month into the “Change” government of President Muhammadu Buhari, this grave warning is being issued. If the allegation is true, it will indeed be a “Change Government” but not the change Nigerians voted for.

The Nigerian constitution calls for an independent executive, an independent Legislature, and an independent judiciary and for each to be a check on the other two. For a president to utter that the election conducted by a supposedly independent legislature is unacceptable to him is a serious violation of the constitution and if he proceeds to nullify the outcome of the legislature’s freely conducted election it ought to be sufficient grounds for impeachment. When the legislature becomes a political tool of the executive we have what is called totalitarianism. And such a leader is a dictator. And if the leader is a Buhari who has been a certified dictator, it becomes much more alarming, and much more dangerous.

PMB’s first pronouncement that he would not interfere with the decisions or elections in the legislature was wise. His second pronouncement to the effect that the decision of the legislature arrived at by a free and fair election is unacceptable is outrageous. Taken together it appears that what PMB is saying is that as long as the legislature does his will, everything would be OK. That is not what an independent legislature does. NASS should have an independent personality and should be beholden to nobody outside its embodiment. It should be answerable only to the Nigerian people.

The debate on the results of the election of the leadership of the legislature should be focused on just two questions:

Was the legislature properly summoned or constituted according to the existing Senate/House rules?
Was the election free and fair?
If the answers to both questions are “yes” then the discussion ought to end. As far is publicly known the answers have been a yes. If the any of the answer is a “no” then the debate should focus on the reasons why it was/is a “no.” Until Metuh’s press conference in which he revealed that Mr. Ekweremadu was alleged to have forged the rules nobody has ever advanced any reason for the hullabaloo over the outcome. Now that the allegation has been made the allegation should be investigated and proved to be true or false. Of course for Ikeoha to be successful in his alleged forgery he probably needed the help of the Clerk of the house, Senate President Saraki and many senators. The rules are not all that new and many senators know the rules off by heart.

One of the things that has rendered the debate ridiculous is the attention to Senator Ike Ekweremadu who by a free vote in the senate chambers is DSP. President Buhari says the “the election of Ekweremadu is unacceptable; commentators such as Mr. Know-it-all, a good reader of people; and the who the American courts call up before rendering a decision, Dr. Thomas Osuji, have all called Ekweremadu out by name.

Why Ekweremadu?

WHY?

Could it be that these learned people do not know what they are saying? If their angst is PDP’s participation in the senate leadership, why can they not say so? Why would PMB’s position not be that the election of a PDP DSP is unacceptable? How come that it is Ekweremadu’s election that is not acceptable? If Ekweremadu resigns would another PDP be acceptable? If the election of Saraki is acceptable why would the election of his DSP under the same rules be unacceptable? PMB did not respect the position of Dr, Michael Okpara as the Premier of Eastern Nigeria. Could the same reason be why he singled Ekweremadu out for special whipping? Is Osuji’s contempt for the Igbo on rampage again?

Senator Ekweremadu owes Nigerian democracy a huge debt. His responsibility is to stand firm against all pressures to resign or to recant. He should like Martin Luther take a strong stand against tyranny and against those who want to make an independent legislature a thing of the past. It was the courage of another senator by the name of Ken Nnamani who saved Nigeria from tyranny when a former President Olusegun Obasanjo wanted to be crowned a President for Life. Nnamani’s stand then made the election of Yar’ Adua and Jonathan possible and the election of PMB the reality that it is now. If Senator Ekweremadu resigns in order to please PMB, the resignation of Saraki would be demanded and won. At that time Nigeria would be without an independent legislature and slowly, then slowly the old General Muhammadu Buhari, the dictator turned democrat would again turn to his comfort zone which is military dictatorship.

The Nigerian judiciary is already falling and before long the fall will be perfected. We will see a giant, a colossus emerge among us.

Senator Ekweremadu should stand as a bulwark to save the day for Nigerian democracy by standing tall.

Remember this:

“…it doth amaze me

A man of such a feeble temper should

So get the start of the majestic world

And bear the palm alone…

Why, man, he doth bestride the narrow world

Like a Colossus, and we petty men

Walk under his huge legs and peep about

To find ourselves dishonorable graves.

Men at some time are masters of their fates…” Julius Caesar Act 1 scene 2

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Written by Benjamin Obiajulu Aduba.

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