WISE and truthful are the sayings of our elders. Try to cover up a lie and you will need 10 more lies. When you are not man enough to own up to a mistake and retrace your footsteps, you fall deeper into the miry clay as you attempt to defend the indefensible and make an earlier error look good. That appears to be the dilemma of VP Yemi Osinbajo with his recent summersault on restructuring. This and his incessant, one-sided, and indefensible attacks on Christian leaders may prove his undoing. How can you have fiscal restructuring without geographical restructuring? What a nebulous dichotomy! The Vice President should have availed himself of Papa Awolowo’s incisive and profound thoughts on this very important topic. Is it not for the fact that the 36 states are unviable on account of the hopeless and mindless splintering of the erstwhile regions of the First Republic that there is clamour for a return to the status quo? Is it not the “bigness” of the erstwhile regional entities that promoted and encouraged fiscal federalism?
Fiscal federalism without geographical federalism dangles in the air and has no roots.
The PUNCH versus The Presidency
That newspaper’s editorial of last Tuesday hit really hard but The Presidency’s response to it is my meat here. The editorial said nothing new, it only rehashed what prominent Nigerians and foreign leaders have said on the state of the nation and used good prose and punchy style to elevate it into an art. As a one-time chairman of that newspaper’s editorial board, I commend it as a job well done. To show the importance they attached to the editorial, they started it on a small corner on the front page. I would have loved a more prominent positioning.
The Presidency’s response, signed by my contemporary, Garba Shehu, was most un-Presidential. It drips with malice and did little to disguise the fact that The Presidency considers the newspaper a persona non grata. The government’s harsh words and scantily-concealed threats may have taken a cue from the front page of the newspaper in question on the same day the editorial was published. Close to 90 per cent of the headlines were “negative”, to use bureaucracy’s official language. “FG extends Lagos-Ibadan expressway project completion date to Dec. 2019” (Negative). “14 die as suspected herdsmen attack Plateau again” (Negative). “Restructuring should dominate 2019 polls” (Negative, seeing this government hates restructuring like a plague). “Yoruba elders knock Osinbajo for anti-restructuring comment” (Negative). The lead story was “Again, Buhari refuses to sign electoral bill” (Negative. I love the use of the word “again” as it speaks volumes). “Acting DSS boss bows to Presidency, recalls redeployed officers” (Negative). “Nigeria’s external debt rises by $11.77bn in three years” (Negative).
But two things we must realise: Newspapers don’t invent stories. All the negative stories mentioned above happened on their own; some even were self-inflicted woes by the government. Two, no government fights the media and wins. You can arrest and lock up journalists and make them appear helpless and powerless but truth is; they have silent means of fighting back. Their weapon ultimately is more lethal; it erodes and corrodes, eating slowly, ceaselessly, but assuredly. It is not for fun, then, that the pen is said to be mightier than the sword.
That said, Garba Shehu’s response glossed over salient facts. Fulani herdsmen are the issue in this country today and there is no way their criminality will not rub off on everyone Fulani, especially those who have openly supported them. If the generality of Fulani don’t like this, then, let them do something about the notorious herdsmen. Nigeria is greater than the herdsmen; nay, the Fulani. A less than three million people cannot hold 170 million others to ransom. People not aboriginal or autochthonous to this place, if they continue to endanger others, will be pointed to where they came from. The Fulani are recent additions to this potentially great country. Didn’t Ndigbo distance itself from Nnamdi Kanu, proscribe IPOB, and drive Kanu away? Why are Fulani leaders not acting similarly to the murderous herdsmen? Instead, they justify their criminality; support and offer one explanation after another for them; appoint their leaders into high government offices; bribe them to stop killing Nigerians; seek grazing colonies for them; and budget billions of Naira for their cause.
That Buhari himself had been caught pants down on many occasions defending the murderers, the latest being his China misadventure, is very offensive, provocative, and beggars belief. I get forlorn and distraught each time Mr. President displays this crass ethnic jingoism and fundamentalist Islamic bent. Shehu must learn two things: You don’t demand respect, you earn it. The moment you start demanding what you should have earned, it is an admission you have lost it. Two: Respect begets respect. Until Buhari respects the people he purports to lead, he cannot earn their respect.
Experts warn Nigeria against Chinese debt trap diplomacy
Still on Buhari’s rule of law gaffe
A lawyer, Mr. Somina Johnbull (Secretary, NBA, Yenagoa branch), threw some light on the offensive speech of the president at the just-concluded NBA national convention where he reportedly said the rule of law must be subsumed under the imperatives of national interest and national security. To make matters worse, he quoted a Supreme Court judgment as his authority. But in the “Vox pop” on page 3 of The PUNCH of Tuesday, September 4, Mr. Johnbull suggested, quoting also the relevant Supreme Court judgment evidently relied upon by Buhari, that: “the decision of the court has been with respect to the suspension of fundamental rights and not the rule of law” I think that solves it! No court, least of all the apex court, will subsume the rule of law under concepts as amorphous as “national interest’ and “national security” whose definition and enforcement are left in the hands of tin-gods and budding dictators.
Three observations: Rule of law and fundamental rights of individuals may appear similar but in reality, they are not. The former is the whole while the latter is part of the whole. The former is the grundnorm which, once tampered with, the whole edifice of law, order, justice, fairness, and equity comes crashing down. It is trite, however, that individual rights are tampered with under emergencies – but, still, under the ambit of the rule of law. Rule of law is the “Big Brother” that must watch over all of us all the time – the ruled as well as the rulers.
Two: Buhari might, then, have made a mistake, like any other man or better still, his speech writers must have made a mistake. They possibly meant to say “fundamental rights” and not “rule of law. Then, they should own up, apologize, and put the records straight. That way, they will calm frayed nerves and grow in credibility and stature. Three: Not doing two above suggests strongly that they deliberately might have meant to manipulate the records and steal that one on us. For as long as they continue to keep mute instead of coming up to set the records straight, they bear the opprobrium of a government trying to subvert the rule of law.
The Presidency’s countermanding of DSS acting DG
The dangerous politics that nearly scuttled Justice Walter Onnoghen’s appointment as CJ has reared its ugly head again with the new acting DSS D-G. Social media is awash that Lawal Daura may make a come-back. Barring this, kites are flying, just like they did in Onnoghen’s time, that Mathew Seiyefa will not be confirmed as substantive DG, DSS. It is said that the cabals are already shopping for a Northerner to take the seat. But for the fact that Buhari was ill and went away, many believe Onnoghen would never have made it, despite that seniority and tradition favoured him; added to that was the noise raised over the issue by Nigerians.
Away in London on medical tourism, Osinbajo, in one of those trifles he attempts once “the lion” is away, to quote Mrs. Aisha Buhari, gave Onnoghen his chance. A similar incident happened this last time as Buhari went away again and Daura got sacked by the acting President, giving Seiyefa, once glossed over, his chance. Thinking he must hit the ground running and not knowing or minding that he is a stop-gap and an irritation to some in the corridors of powers, Seiyefa started a re-organisation that he thought would better re-position the Service.
But how mistaken! He was quickly brought down to his senses. In this country all animals may be equal but some are more equal than others. Tails between his legs, he has bowed to the tin-gods of Aso Villa. Worse than this, however, is the fawning explanation of the DSS spokesperson that DSS is an institution of government whose mandate is to serve government’s interests! No sir! You are an institution of the Nigerian State meant to serve the interests of the Nigerian State and Nigerian people. It is this kind of sycophancy and lack of understanding of who we are, what we are, our duties, roles, and obligations that make us fail to build strong institutions – be it DSS, INEC, EFCC, Police, name it – capable of holding government accountable to the people as we have seen in other climes. DSS should serve Nigeria’s interests, and not that of Buhari’s government. It should be accountable to the Nigerian people, be impartial and perform its constitutional role without malice, fear or favour, regardless whose ox is gored.
Hope rises for Leah Sharibu
Until people began to march for the Chibok girls, nothing happened. But for the Bring Back Our Girls, no girl would have been brought back. Now that a British Member of Parliament and others have marched for Leah, there is hoping Buhari will stop fiddling like King Nero and do something. Christian leaders have been disappointing on this issue. Those of them who have not compromised outright have been too careful, even where they have the example of the three Hebrew boys who told the Nebuchadnezzar of their own time: “O Nebuchadnezzar, we are not careful to answer thee in this matter”
LAST WORDS: The last time the Federal Government fined MTN billions of dollars for non-registration of SIM cards, we heard allegations of billions of Naira involving top government officials. Now, FG has fined same MTN billions of dollars on alleged tax evasion. MTN officials said they are “talking” with relevant officials to amicably resolve the dispute. Let’s eaves-drop on those “talks”, please! While it is good to collect taxes, we must avoid another round of corruption allegations. I am sure you know Buhari is fighting corruption; not so?
https://www.tribuneonlineng.com/162476/