|
Yesterday’s defeat in the Senate of the
motion to probe the late President Umaru
Musa Adua’s ill-health and subsequent
death is not only a shame to the Senate
but a slap on Nigerians as well. The
Northern caucus in the Senate who
defeated the motion has chosen as always
to allow personal and sectional interest
to override national interest, with the
unacceptable excuse that the late
president should be allowed to rest in
peace. I am not going to waste my time
on rhetoric’s going over the issues that
surrounded the health of the late
president which eventually led to his
death; that much is incandescently clear
already to the nation and indeed the
entire world. Suffice to say however
that the macabre manner in which the
so-called cabal made up of his immediate
family led in part by his ubiquitous
wife, Turai Yar Adua and his cronies,
bootlickers and sycophants led by the
immediate past Attorney General and
Justice Minister, Kaase Michael
Aondoakaa (SAN)
exacerbated the president’s ill-health
inevitably resulting in his death. These
few individuals insulted the collective
psyche of Nigerians and took the nation
for granted with their callous and
irresponsible attitude. They virtually
ran amuck; playing God and acting as if
the right to determine who to keep alive
or allowed to die was their exclusive
preserve. Now that the Man has been
visited by the common denominator of all
men, why didn’t they remain in Aso Rock
that they thought they could keep for
life?
It
is therefore of utmost importance that
the issue should not just be swept under
the carpet like so many others. This is
not simply about Umaru Musa Yar Adua; it
is about the sacred Office of the
president. If this issue is glossed
over, there will be a repeat in the
future because no lesson is learnt. In
my own humble opinion, these men and
women; the so-called cabal walking the
streets of the nation today like free
men should be apprehended and tried for
the role they played all through the
given period especially in holding the
nation hostage. Nigerians must know why
the late president was flown back from
Saudi Arabia in the dead of the night,
when he was still critically ill.
Nigerians must know why the late
President was not taken to well-equipped
Hospitals in the West for further
medical attention or at least to get a
second medical opinion if it is indeed
true that the Saudi doctors advised his
wife to return him back to die as is
being touted in some circles. Nigerians
deserve to know why troops were deployed
to the Streets of Abuja and to the
Nnamdi
Azikiwe
International
Airport
in Abuja without the knowledge of the
then Acting President. Nigerians have to
know why the key actors in government,
including the then Acting President, the
Senate President and the Speaker, House
of Representatives were denied access to
the President. Nigerians ought to know
why foreign doctors who are not licensed
to practice in Nigeria were brought into
the Seat of Power to treat the late
president without the approval of the
government. Nigerians should know why no
autopsy was conducted on the number one
citizen when he died last Wednesday; the
argument of him being a Muslim is
inconsequential because the presidency
must not be subjected to such ridicule.
That was also how the late of Head of
State and Dictator, General Sani Abacha
died in Office and was buried without an
autopsy conducted. I know someone is
wondering; Abacha too! Oh yes! He too!
He was a Nigerian Head of state
notwithstanding his frailties. I know
that some will argue that the government
should not waste its time on these
issues dismissing it as frivolous and
insisting that there is no time left for
the government to act on critical issues
dear to the Nigerian people, but we have
tread that path before and this matter
is not as trivial as some are trying to
make it. I am equally aware that there
are those who will be mad with me for
raising this issue just like some have
been with me due to the interview I
granted to the CNN late last year on the
late president insincere electoral
reforms; the excerpts of which were
played on his death last Wednesday, and
which infuriated them because they
myopically thought that I granted that
interview on the day of his death. And I
also know that death often make people
to become very hypocritical like so many
Nigerians have become in the last few
days talking from both sides of their
mouth (all in the name of not talking
ill of the dead) in their eulogisation
and deification of the late president;
the very same people that were pulling
him down and calling for his removal
from Office just about two or three
months ago, but that is life. I will
however not yield to such politics of
hypocrisy for I am not the sort of Man
who says what people want to hear. I
will say what is on my mind whether they
like it or not. I maintain again that
this issue is not about late President
Yar Adua or his family or indeed the
core North; it is about the Office of
the President of the Federal Republic of
Nigeria and it is about whoever is
occupying that Office and the fact that
whoever is occupying that office is a
public property belonging to all
Nigerians.
So
Nigerians ought to know what happened
and the government should do the right
thing and not ignore this matter so that
it will serve as a deterrent to others.
Failure to do this will set a dangerous
precedent. Nigeria can never truly be
one nation and will certainly not
progress if personal and sectional
interests are always allowed to prevail
over the overall interest of the nation
like the Northern caucus in the Senate
have done.
On
the issue of the choice of a vice
president by President Goodluck Jonathan
and the talk in the public domain about
whether his party should have input in
it or not, I believe that, that choice
is entirely in the hands of the
president in line with the constitution;
his party cannot choose or arm-twist him
on the matter. But I also believe that
the extent to which he can exercise that
right even if the constitution does not
expressly say so is restricted. The
reason is really very simple:
historically, the president and the vice
president must come from the same party
for there is bound to be chaos if both
personalities come from different
parties. That is the norm all over the
world and so I believe that much as the
president has the exclusive right to
choose or nominate the vice president,
he cannot exercise that right outside of
his party. In other words, he is free to
choose whomever he wishes but he must
choose from within his party
irrespective of how unpopular that
choice may be. But that choice is also
subject to the approval of the National
Assembly for the sake of checks and
balances.
Comrade Eneruvie ENAKOKO
(CLO
Chairman in Lagos)
|
