The Department of State Security Service (DSS) has raised an alarm of clandestine move by some cabals to stop the swearing in of President-elect Bola Tinubu on May 29.
Peter Afunanya, DSS spokesman, said that some persons have weighed various options, which include foisting interim government after obtaining frivolous court injunctions to forestall the inauguration of new executive administrations and legislative houses at the federal and dtate levels.
Afunanya said such persons were also considering sponsoring endless violent mass protests in major cities to warrant the declaration of a state of emergency.
The secret police said it considers the plot, being pursued by these entrenched interests, as not only an aberration but a mischievous way to set aside the constitution and undermine civil rule as well as plunge the country into an avoidable crisis.
The DSS warned civil society organisations, the media and courts to be vigilant so as not to play into the dangerous hands of these plotters.
Even before the press release by the DSS, one recalls that at the peak of the naira redesign policy crisis, a few days to the general elections, Governor Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna state raised a similar alarm.
He said that some cabals in the Villa were behind the currency redesign policy in order to make his party, the All Progressives Congress, APC, particularly its presidential candidate, now president-elect Bola Ahmed Tinubu, to lose the elections. El-Rufai also accused the cabals for plotting an interim government if APC eventually wins the presidential election.
There is no section in our constitution that provides for an interim government after elections have been conducted and winners declared. Nigerians knew about an interim government during the dark days of military rule.
The annulment of the 1993 presidential election which was adjudged as the freest and fairest in the country, won by the late Bashorun Moshood Abiola of SDP, led to the foisting of the interim government by the General Ibrahim Babangida military junta.
The then military President Babangida had to quit the stage due to the mounting pressure from NADECO and other pro-democracy organisations to declare Abiola as the legitimate president.
In other to calm the crisis rocking the nation because of the unfortunate annulment of the June 12, 1993 elections, Babangida cleverly appointed Chief Ernest Shonekan, now late, as the head of the interm national government.
This was to pave the way for the emergence of his then Chief of Army staff, General Abacha, now late, as the next head of state. Shonekan’s interim government did not last long as Abacha stroke to become the head of state.
If an interim government could be foisted on the country during the military era, we are now in a constitutional democracy where leaders emerge through democratic processes i.e free and fair elections.
So, if those who contested and lost the elections are not satisfied with the results, they can seek redress in court. Thank God, the major contenders have taken the right channel to challenge the victory of Bola Tinubu in court. Both Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP and Peter Obi of Labour Party, LP, have approached the tribunal to declare them winner. This is the beauty of democracy.
While Nigeria’s contemporary democracy is over two decades old, the threat of an interim government being bandied by the DSS and other key stakeholders should not be treated with kid’s gloves. There is the need for the secret police to go after these evil forces and arrest and prosecute them. Nigeria is bigger than any individual’s interest.
Ibrahim Mustapha,
Pambegua, Kaduna state
08169056963.