Going for broke

With the way game-planning by Nigeria’s political actors towards the 2019 general election is getting heated up, we must wait to see if the business of governance in the country will stay open until the poll.

For instance, the legislative space for much of last week was dominated by mass defection of lawmakers at the national and state levels, and as well the sacking of principal officers in some state assemblies – in particular, Benue. The Senate chamber of the National Assembly early in the week shelved plenary sitting as members proceeded on an annual vacation from which they aren’t expected back until September 26. The catch is: before making that call, the chamber willy-nilly hung up on processing some crucial legislations, among them the supplementary budget proposal of N242billion for the 2019 poll. At the laggard’s pace with which the NASS notoriously processes appropriation bills, there is genuine cause for worry that the impending elections for which fund is being sought are due barely five months after Senate resumes plenary.

Also, there are confirmation hearings pending before the red chamber regarding nominees to strategic government agencies, including a deputy governor for the Central Bank of Nigeria. All those will have to await the ‘distinguished’ members’ pleasure at the resumption of plenary sittings.

But you could hardly say the Executive arm of government faired any better. Presidential schedules in recent weeks have been weighted too heavily with random consultations towards securing the chances of the ruling party and its candidates in the forthcoming elections, especially the President who is himself seeking another term of office. Actually, the guest list at Aso Rock Presidential Villa in Abuja for nearly all of last week was predominated by party actors ostensibly calling at the seat of power to brainstorm strategies for the forthcoming poll. In effect, it is moot how much else went down by way of governance.

Besides electoral game-planning that has bogged down governance, the biggest challenge facing the Nigerian democracy yet may be how to keep vital organs of state that are required to be apolitical insulated from political colouration, as such organs in the course of their statutory operations engage with partisans angling for poll advantage. The police force, which is one of such organs, came under severe political colouration last week and has yet to discharge the onus of dispassion in its latest moves to investigate Senate President Bukola Saraki for his alleged indictment regarding the April 5^th bank robbery in Offa, Kwara State. More than 30 persons got killed in that robbery by bandits.

Police Inspector-General Ibrahim Idris had last Monday written Saraki, inviting to report the next day to investigators at the Intelligence Response Team office of his agency in Abuja for further questioning over confessional statements by five principal suspects of the Offa robbery that allegedly implicated him. The police’s invitation letter required the Senate chieftain to come before homicide detectives and answer questions on the bank robbery by 8a.m. on Tuesday. But Tuesday was as well the day pencilled by some members of both chambers of the NASS to declare their defection from the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) to opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), among others.

‘The biggest challenge facing (our) democracy may be how to keep vital organs of state…insulated from political colouration’

Saraki said he woke up on the day in question to a police blockade of the street leading to his residence, allegedly with an obvious intention to prevent him making it to Senate plenary for the day. His aides have ensured generous dispersal of visuals purporting to prove that point. Saraki also claimed that he received a call from Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu same morning advising that his own (Ekweremadu’s) residence was as well under lockdown by policemen along with agents of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

The Senate principal inferred that police authorities intended to prevent that day’s plenary of the red chamber from holding by keeping both presiding officers away, all so to upend  plans by aggrieved senators to announce their defection from the ruling party. Saraki however surmounted all odds to preside over the Senate plenary, where the main business of the day was to give effect to the defections before members shut down for a freak two-month vacation. But he didn’t consider it sufficiently imperative to honour the police summon, and rather sent in a written response that he deemed adequate for queries raised in the invitation letter.

The police however insisted on its invitation to Saraki and also denied staging the siege on his residence as well as that of Ekweremadu. Force spokesman Jimoh Moshood said the Senate President was being expected, “otherwise the Force will not hesitate to use all the instruments of the law to ensure compliance with the law.” He added in a statement: “The Force wishes to categorically state that there was no authorised deployment of police personnel to besiege the residence of the Senate President or his deputy…However, the Inspector-General has directed a thorough investigation to ascertain the facts of the case.”

Elaborating the logic of police’s non-involvement in the purported blockades in one of his media appearances, Moshood said: “If we were expecting (Saraki), why would we go and block him?...What happened (on Tuesday) was not a blockade by our personnel…Those seen in the picture and video were personnel that were attached to him, because we don’t even use Mercedes-Benz for patrol. We don’t have any Mercedes Benz in our fleet for patrol, and in that picture there was a Mercedes-Benz vehicle. Those are the personnel attached to the convoy of the Senate President and those attached to his residence for his protection.”

Our reality is that the tenor of politicking towards the 2019 poll is hitting war pitch, and as ancient Greek tragic dramatist Aeschylus once said, truth is the first casualty in war. Thus it isn’t readily apparent what is truth and what is hype in the items of information plied in the public space by the lawmakers’ camp following the purported siege on the residences of Saraki and Ekweremadu.

But since our democracy in Nigeria is yet nascent, it must be defended and nurtured; hence we must not condone jackboot tendencies that threaten civil liberties. And neither can we have state agencies that ought to be be apolitical meddling in politics. To that end, the police has more to explain on the urgency of its invitation to the Senate President as to warrant such summon taking precedence over the red chamber’s plenary for the day in question as was apparently expected. Remember that the IGP’s letter inviting Saraki required him to face police investigators by 8a.m. on Tuesday. Besides, it was a curious coincidence that the EFCC, according to uncontroverted reports, also wrote Ekweremadu a July 24^th letter inviting him for immediate questioning over alleged conspiracy to alter Senate rules, abuse of office and money laundry.

But here is bottom line: the two Senate principals have pending issues with the law that they must seize the initiative to earnestly and effectively discharge to ensure the sanctity and good image of the legislative chamber they preside upon. Even if the police and EFCC acted out a political script last week, it must be because Saraki and Ekweremadu are held by the security agencies – rightly or otherwise – to be at odds with the law. After all, the House of Representatives also gave effect to the defection of some of its members to other parties same day as the Senate, and neither the Speaker nor Deputy Speaker were reported hunted by security agencies ahead of that chamber’s plenary for the day.

No wonder the Holy Book say where there isn’t a dead body, vultures do not gather.