Nigeria appears to be delving deeper into a warped season of anomalies where many unfolding events do not on their own make sense to discerning minds in terms of historical congruity, empirical economic validation and social ethical justification.
The wounds are getting deeper by the day and the scary reality is that there are no concerted efforts to have them healed any time soon. How can a nation’s army be disengaging experienced combatant soldiers for firing directly at terrorists who now capture a military General and have him slaughtered like a chicken? The same Army wakes up to tell you that it is about recruiting 24,000 men to be trained to win the now escalating war against terrorism. Meanwhile, terrorists adjudged to have repented under whatever guise and yardsticks are integrated into the mainstream Nigerian Army. This ends up worsening the cases of internal sabotage against the military institution. The reported cases of such betrayals and outright sabotage in the ongoing fight against terrorism is to say the least mind-bugling. It also, in a number of ways, makes one to begin to question the true spirit of the often touted unity in the geo-political expression called Nigeria.
Last week, while addressing the escalated resurgence of violent extremism, banditry and ongoing security challenges in the country, the Secretary to the federal government, George Akume, blamed the resurgence in mass abductions and attacks on places of worship on the grounds of religious extremism, not on ineffective security architecture across the country, but on the recent pronouncements of U S president, Donald Trump adding that, ‘Before those statements, insurgency structures had been significantly degraded and reduced to isolated banditry. Akume’s position falls in line with the federal government’s tradition of living in the delusion of self denial and making a mileage out of a culture of blame game while feeding the public with wrong information on the fight against terrorism and fast festering banditry. Nigerians can still remember President Buhari’s reassurances to a traunced and traumatised nation that Boko haram had been technically defeated and that what was playing out were the last feeble kicks of a dying horse. Highly imagistic but close to a decade now after that assurance, it is not only that the horse is not dead, the kicks are getting more desperately destructive and the impact more deeply ferocious as the nation continues to bleed on all fronts.
General Lucky Irabor, retired Chief of Defence Staff referred to this in his recently published book as ‘SCARS’. My point of disagreement is that it is only when a wound is healed that it leaves behind scars. The wounds insecurity is inflicting on Nigeria are still fresh and festering by the day. Healing the wounds requires a sense of urgency. What to do with the scars belongs to the future. Scars are worn by survivors but many are going under by the day as a result of the deepening wounds of insecurity. It has become an instructive feature of contemporary Nigerian history that those who labeled Jonathan’s administration clueless are yet to show evidence of the clues and remarkable gifting they have on how to stern the wave of insecurity and organized banditry. Agriculture, Manufacturing and Tourism are currently on their knees in terms of operational contribution to the nation’s GDP. States in parts of the country are currently shutting down schools as the safety of the students can no longer be guaranteed.
In the whole of these absurdities, Nigeria continues to bleed profusely from multiple self inflicted wounds. While terrorists from some parts of the country are celebrated with teams set up to negotiate with them for release of abductees after ransom has been paid, those who advocate self-determination for some other parts of the country are labeled terrorists and slammed with life imprisonment without option of fine. A case of administration of justice being determined, curiously, by ethno-religious leanings rather than the facts of law.
On the political plane, a multiparty system with credible and formidable opposition, the bedrock of modern democracy is clearly giving way to a one party political conundrum. Opposition parties are infiltrated, crises are instigated and fomented, factions are sponsored, defections to the ruling party are celebrated with so much funfair.
An objective look at the political trajectory shows that fascism is no longer a far fetched reality. Again, one of the pivots upon which democracy is deemed an ideal form of government for modern society is the principle of separation of power which helps to ensure checks and balances in the use and application of state power. Nigeria however currently presents a National Assembly that operates in the institutional character of a parastatal, an appendage or a rubber stamp administrative extension of the Executive. As if those are not enough absurdities for a time and a season, last Tuesday, a video circulated on social media showing judges rising to their feet as the signature song ‘On Your Mandate We Shall Stand’ was played to usher the president to the podium to address the NJI conference. The Judges were seen and heard singing audibly to the signature tune. The scene, for whatever it was meant to portray, clarified to Nigerians the foundation of the guts in asking aggrieved parties to go to court after what appeared to have been a brazen sequence of irregularities and daylight robbery of electoral victory. The position of the court was of course predictable. The danger is that when Judges turn praise singers, justice is not only eroded, the last hope of the common man hangs in a precarious balance.
NJI has since struggled to explain to the world that the video was misleading, clarifying that the only song collectively rendered by all participants during the ceremony was the national anthem. That explanation appears more like a damage- control afterthought.
The worry being expressed by many stems from the fact that when separation of power is removed from the practice of democracy, what is left panders more towards totalitarianism. Democracy and the principle of separation of powers are expected to be inseparable because separation of powers remains a time tested core democratic mechanism to prevent the concentration of power in one arm or a few persons and by so doing protects individual liberty.
When there is no effective separation of power, the system breeds strong men amidst weakened institutions. Strong institutions operating in the confines of the rule of Law give stability to democratic norms and principles. Strong individuals on the other hand constitute the fulcrum of systemic abuse that in a question of time degenerates into fascism.
Montesquieu, a French writer and philosopher had warned that if all three powers were held by the same person either in reality or by some form of proxy, then a firm foundation had been provided for the emergence of dictatorship and arbitrary rule. It therefore follows that the real reason for separation of power is for democracy to be safeguarded for the good of the people. In the same vein, John Locke had warned that the three organs of the state must not get into one hand as it may be too great a temptation in the face of human frailties. Power, when unchecked corrupts and absolute power has the tendency to corrupt absolutely. Aristotle was also of the opinion that if the three organs of a state are well arranged, in terms of operational checks and balances, then the constitution is bound to be well operated in terms of responsible use of State power. But whereby a few individuals in the Executive arm of government determine the direction and shape of opinions upheld in the Legislature and Judiciary, then the sanctity of democracy would have been virulently violated.
When the National Assembly for instance loses its power to scrutinise Executive actions and engage in oversight responsibilities, Democracy is already losing its very essence. When also Judicial officers become the praise-singers of Executive powers, the temple of Justice is not only compromised, the democratic stage has turned into a theater of compromises, abuse and excesses. There is indeed an urgent need for all patriots to stand up now to save our democracy as the consequences of a derailment will be too costly for this generation to bear.
POSTSCRIPTS. Oborevwori: Strength In Continuity.
Vision in governance, when translated into concrete plans and actionable projects results in sustainable development. Experience however has shown that times are, when visions are truncated either by time or transition especially in situations of regime change. We have seen governments that come to power only to discard the inherited vision plans or development blueprint already in place in an attempt to start charting an entirely new development trajectory. In doing this, development tempo could be whittled down or lost in its entirety. It is therefore worthy of note that what is playing out in Delta State is the manifestation of the beauty and strength in continuity and defined political contiguity.
Governor Sheriff Oborevwori is committedly continuing with the developmental vision of the Ifeanyi Okowa administration while evidently striving for more impact to carve a political niche and historic identity for himself in line with the MORE AGENDA. Okowa himself confirmed this much recently with some sense of understandable fulfillment when he reaffirmed his conviction that Governor Oborevwori was ready to take Delta State to a new level of industrialisation. Dr. Okowa was speaking on the
strength of Governor Oborevwori’s performing of the groundbreaking ceremony of the Kwale Free Trade Zone (KFTZ) in Kwale, the administrative headquarters of Ndokwa West Local Government Area of the state.
The KFTZ is regarded as a bold initiative in Delta’s crave for sustainable industrialization, and a flagship feature of the Delta Special Economic Zone Project.
It was part of the development blueprint Okowa handed over to his successor in office. It was therefore remarkable that Okowa himself was available as chairman at the groundbreaking ceremony. Okowa commended his successor for his commitment to inclusive leadership and continuity of governance, urging him to remain focused. Okowa was reported to have Waxed spiritual when he disclosed that he had a vivid premonition while in office as Governor that Oborevwori would be Delta’s governor after him, adding that the former Speaker of the Delta State House of Assembly was well-prepared to administer the state.
Okowa’s words ‘I am proud to be here. Governor Oborevwori has continued where we stopped, and that is how great leaders build lasting progress.
‘People may not fully understand what has been done today, but in five to ten years, this area will be transformed into a vibrant industrial city’.
Deltans eagerly await to see more dividends of democracy in the coming years.
