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How to save Nigeria from Constitutional anarchy
By Nwokedi Nworisara
Newsdiaryonline Mon Feb 28,2011
It is no longer news that five Nigerian Governors may not
have to present themselves
for election come 2011.
April. What is still news is the number of
States that may yet be
involved in this exemption. I read that INEC wants to
appeal the ruling. I
know that some prominent lawyers like Mr. Femi Falana were
contacted to defend the
interest of some of those who may be directly affected
by this ruling. It is no
news that the ruling Party PDP will benefit most if the
ruling is allowed. The
above scenario could have been predicted as far back as
the year 2007.In fact in
2008 the Late President Yar Adua, while visiting
Yenagoa, had consoled
the then Governor Chief Timipre Sylva to take his election
annulment with
equanimity hinting that the Governor may turn out eventually
amongst those who could
have their tenure elongated. This prediction came to
pass with the judgment
of Adamu Bello of the Federal High court Abuja on
February 23, 2011.After
the judgment, it was reported that Lawyers were baffled;
politicians dazed and it took INEC another couple of days to say
it intended to appeal.
I am baffled that lawyers are baffled. Could it be the same
lawyers that we hope will
get us out of this situation? Fortunately, it was only the
ruling Party PDP that is
not surprised because they even presented an argument in favor
of this extension. Does
it not show how far scholarship has regressed? I am baffled that
no one seemed to have
cared earlier enough to give a prior remedy to this
situation rather than
waiting for political funders running helter skelter after
the milk had been spilt.
I miss Gani Fawehimi.
Were he here he would not wait for political funding to
point the way for Nigeria as our lawyers today are wont
to do. Recall that I had
warned everybody about this contradictory constitution
in several articles. No
one seemed to take notice. Check out:”The constitutional
basis for the rule of
Law in Nigeria”, “Nigeria Needs A Revolution”, “What The
Nigerian Revolution Is
Not About” Overview of the Nigerian revolution”.
Unfortunately, as we hurried to push President Goodluck Jonathan
into power, these
warnings about the inconsistencies in the 1999 constitution was
swallowed by superior
legal positions proffered by the same lawyers and politicians
now pretending to be
baffled by the manifestation of the obvious. Unfortunately
today, it is too late to
cry just because you find yourself disadvantaged by
what your nonchalance
helped to bring about.
The so called constitutional amendments by the National Assembly
did not think of doing
more than getting political office holders back to power. It was
a big betrayal for a good legislature must have anticipated this
situation and dealt with it at the outset. The irony is that
everyone will take away some hit from
fluid situation whereby
injustice has to be done for the constitution to stay. Of course
the ruling Party is expected to manage it to their advantage as
they are doing. Any
other party in this shoe will probably do the same. But the
danger posed by an inconsistent constitution remains potent. It
is not enough to manipulate
it to your favor or for opposition to raise their heads after
burying it in the sand
for so long like the proverbial ostrich. It is not enough to
come together and agree
to do unconstitutional things like the hurried appointment of
a Chief justice outside procedural avenues or even
such seemingly trivial
things as the last declaration of the National Assembly
permitting the then Vice President
to become acting President. We close our eyes to such
unpardonable self
imposed mistakes that expose the incompetence of the sleeping
legislature in Nigeria
as well as the impotence of our so called lawyers. How can they
be baffled? They were
there all the while drafting decrees to undo their own people
and again finding novel
ways to make these decrees dubious Acts of the national
Assembly thereby
perpetuating militarism in our national life.
How can anyone feign ignorance of the fact that we rushed into
this election too soon
without the basic democratic backbone in place or that the
ruling Party was handed
a blank cheque in this direction. It seems to me even if I have
to admit it grudgingly
that the PDP is the repository of all the foresight needed to
navigate these uncertain
roads. Since my warnings fell on deaf ears, I then went
ahead to predict in the
article “What the 2011 elections portends for Nigeria”
that the ruling party
would be difficult to dislodge from power. I was baffled
then by the way the
debates were being consistently drawn away from substance to
irrelevance by the same
people who are crying owl today. Everyone seems to push
irresolutely and unknowingly for a strengthening of the ruling
party as a way of dislodging
them. Suddenly everyone appeared to know it all even in this
unpardonable ignorance.
I remember particularly someone who was so pissed of by my
insistence of changing
the constitution that he openly queried how constitutional
review would put food on
his table. Someone accused me of trying to divert attention from
the real issues at stake
including the need for better leadership to emerge for
Nigeria. It was a
struggle to endure all that. It was always going to be a
dialogue of the deaf,
apology to Ikemba. Now, we are trying to manufacture
another contraceptive
that would deny the inherent double-speak of the
constitution in terms of
annulled elections and tenure .If we were in an open
military regime things
would have been easier. Perhaps a decree would do it and
we would require lawyers
to draft it. The decree would ban any person who challenges any
law found inconsistent with the decree itself from participating
in politics. This time it would take a bit more than decree to
stop someone whose election was nullified as having not taken
place, in a sense it was fictitious, from starting his tenure
afresh when a new election was mercifully granted him.
I am speaking specifically of Governor Timipre Sylva of Bayelsa
State. Ironically it was the same people who are today sailing
upstream, trying to hire baffled lawyers that clinked glasses
for their victory at nullifying this election in 2008.It was
lawyers that made up both benches. They were not baffled by this
law. They did not know that it would play out like this.
Consider the humiliation for an elected representative of his
people to be told his election was only a hallucination. Much of
the negative rumors persisting in Bayelsa State today can be
traced to this public relation disaster introduced by the
annulment of the 2007 elections. Now people can wake up and
accuse their government of not performing well even when the
evidence is overwhelmingly in the opposite. Why not, when the
courts say the governor deceived the people into thinking that
he won the election, and even went ahead to rule the State from
29 May 2007 - 16 April 2008. Then the election was annulled and
the time spent was thrown away as a mistake. The next governor
on the interim was appointed. Rt. Hon. Werinipre Seibarugu
(Acting Governor: 16 April 2008 - 27 May, 2008) Then the
governor was returned overwhelmingly at the polls. It could have
been the opposition that was returned. But it was not to be. It
was Chief Timipre
Sylva (Executive
Governor: 27 May, 2008 – Date.)
So you can imagine the justice done by the high court ruling to
the effect that these governors must complete their tenure
starting from their swearing in day.
Any counter argument
would only again in a roundabout way vindicate the governor. If
you argue that he should not get the so called extension which
is not really extension in the real sense, then you have argued
that indeed there was an
election in 2007 which vindicates him. If you then insist that
his tenure commenced in
2007, then at least Bayelsans were not deceived in 2007. It does
not end there, prepare
for another accelerated hearing because now the major
suit will commence. It
means that there was no rerun election or if it held, it
must have been a 419
arrangement outside the constitution which may demand heavy
damages to be settled.
There are no quick fixes in this matter. The only way out is the
Governor Peter Obi‘s
narrow way out. Extend the tenures and then adopt this change
into the constitution if
the need arises. No matter how you look at it, the delay in
judicial execution was
not the fault of the governors nor was it that of INEC
but it is the symptom of
a bad constitution which makes for abnormal
institutions and
processes. The people to receive most blame are the legislature
and the government of
the day who in the Nigerian context must push the houses
by way of empowerment to
do their duty. In fact blame all Nigerians who kept
quiet at the face of our
constitutional delusion. The lawyers are just there to
implement anything or
rather get baffled by anything while lining their pockets.
Nation building is a more serious thing requiring all hands to
be on deck but it is
higher knowledge that must lead through. Where are those
intelligentsia who decided
to bury their heads in the sand of time? Where are the seers,
the prophets? It is important that constitutional crises be
avoided at this time so that
those anti democratic forces who since last week have returned
to trenches are not given any yard to implement their heinous
plan on Nigeria. You may recognize them in their activity if you
look very carefully at the polity. When someone is not in
advantaged position yet he refuses to negotiate, it is a sign of
ulterior motives. See them becoming emboldened in the theory
that you can build house without a foundation .Actually they do
not intend to build anything but pull down what exists just
because they are unable to rule it. I had cautioned earlier that
this plot is to take off in Bayelsa State and we must be
vigilant at their
changing tactics. Peace has no alternative!
Mr. Nworisara , a political/media consultant is based in
Port Harcourt,
Nigeria.
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