National Assembly siege and conspiracy theories By Benjamin Sampson

The siege at the gate of the National Assembly complex by hood-wearing and fierce looking operatives of the Department of State Security Services (DSS) on Tuesday, August 7, 2018, in which they shut out lawmakers for hours may have come and gone, but it has continued to dominate news headlines with competing narratives and conspiracy theories.
The first version is that the whole affair was instigated by President Muhammadu Buhari before he travelled to London so that he could preserve his ‘Mr Integrity’ image while the plot was being executed, allowing Prof Yemi Osinbajo, the Acting President, to take the ‘piss’ if it went awry.
Another perspective was that the siege was a continuation of the factional in-fight within the ‘cabal’ between forces loyal to the National Security Adviser Babagana Monguno, (where the Vice President is thought to belong) and those loyal to Mamman Daura, President Buhari’s powerful nephew (where the sacked DSS DG was said to be their foot soldier).
The third narrative being promoted by PDP supporters is that the plot was hatched between the APC chairman, Adams Oshiomhole, the President’s chief of staff, Abba Kyari and the sacked DSS chairman Hassan Daura.
According to the story, Oshiomhole, eager to impress Buhari as a no-nonsense person, plotted a forceful change of the leadership of the National Assembly without the knowledge of Buhari or the Acting President.
As the story went, while a caucus of the APC was meeting somewhere to perfect its strategy on how to move to the National Assembly en masse to effect a leadership change, PDP officials got wind of it and decided to be at the National Assembly premises as early as possible to raise national and international outcries.
In this narrative, the siege failed because the PDP beat the plotters at their game.
There is yet another narrative promoted by APC supporters in which they claimed that the sacked Hassan Daura is regarded as a fifth columnist in the Buhari government.
According to this version, Hassan Daura had all along been working for Bukola Saraki and the National Assembly siege was a plot between him and Saraki to embarrass Buhari and the APC.
It remains unclear where the truth lies in the competing narratives and conspiracy theories.
However, the million dollar question is : who are the winners and losers from the aftermaths of the siege at the gates of the National Assembly? Some of the clear winners include Prof Osinbajo whose stock as a leader rose astronomically not just by the courage he displayed in sacking the very powerful Hassan Daura but also by the decisive manner in which he did it.
Second, Bukola Saraki, who is now seen as a master political strategist, ‘ jack Bauer’, ‘007’, ‘ the cat with nine life’, ‘oloye’ etc for surmounting all the obstacles laid on his way by the government, including surviving the various attempts to remove him as Senate President in the last three years.
Third, lawmakers who resisted stoutly the siege at the National Assembly gate, especially Honourable Boma Goodhead who took a bold and courageous stand on the issue by daring the DSS operative to open fire.
Also included among the winners are numerous Nigerians who spoke out or used the social media to come out forcefully against the siege.
The losers – for now at least – are obviously all the people linked to the failed siege in one or more of the competing narratives and conspiracy theories.
They include Hassan Daura who was sacked as the DG of DSS; Adams Oshiomhole, who may face new challenges to his leadership of the APC, and the Mamman Daura faction of the cabal.
The APC, which has been on the defensive over the siege, is also a loser in the affair.
Since after the siege, the APC and PDP are now struggling to control the narration of the event.
This contest over narrative will probably become clearer when Buhari returns from his London trip and is briefed by his loyalists from both factions of the ‘cabal’.
Until then, the infighting between the ‘cabals’ continues.