As the 2019 elections draw nearer, government seems to have put opposition parties and their supporters on trial. ELEOJO IDACHABA examines some of the indicators and how it portends danger for the nation’s fledgling democracy.
In the wake of every election in this country, since the advent of democratic rule in 1999, it has been shown that the opposition has always been the scapegoat.
In the past, it was played out mildly to avoid heating up the polity, but under the present administration, there are indications that the government is all out to cripple its political opponents as the journey towards the 2019 elections, especially presidential gathers momentum.
Apart from the federal level, in almost all the states where election were recently held or would be held in months to come, it is the same story. From the last Edo state governorship election where the PDP governorship candidate, Pastor Ize Iyamu, is facing trial over corruption-related allegation to Ekiti state where Ayodele Fayose, the governor used the instrumentality of power through the state assembly to declare his frontline opponent, erstwhile Minister of Solid Minerals Resources, Kayode Fayemi, unfit for any position in the country. The list goes on in almost all the states.
At the federal level, where the All Progressives Congress (APC) holds sway, it is worse considering the messy fight the administration has been having with its opponents in recent times.
Blueprint Weekend investigation shows that the sledge hammer of the government has not spared even APC members whose body language suggests to hold any contrary view about the administration’s policies.
This got to a head between the Executive and Legislature in the last two weeks when security details attached to the Senate president, Dr Bukola Saraki and Speaker, Yakubu Dogara, were withdrawn. Although restored after the Executive foresaw the possible backlash from the lawmakers, it did not prevent the lawmakers to take a decisive stand against the clampdown by the government on alleged opposing elements.
In a statement after a joint session on Tuesday, June 5, 2018, the law makers said: “The government should show sincerity in the fight against corruption by not being selective and should also prosecute current appointees that have cases pending against them.”
According to them, the president would be held responsible for anything that happens to anyone in the country. To that extent, they asked the president to call his appointees to order.
Timi Frank petitions UN
Last week, the embattled deputy national publicity secretary of the APC, Comrade Timi Frank, apparently irked by the “unfriendly posture of the government towards the opposition” wrote a letter to the United Nations Secretary General, Antonio Gutierrez, to seek the global body’s intervention in the posture of the government against members of the opposition. In the letter, he said the government of President Muhammadu Buhari has begun to clampdown on some perceived enemies of the government. Some of the persons being persecuted by the government, according to him, include the Senate President, Dr Bukola Saraki whom he said had never been in the administration’s good book.
Others are Senator Dino Melaye who has been critical of the administration and Abdufatah Ahmed, the governor of Kwara state.
Parts of the letter entitled “Persecution of Saraki and its Implication for Democracy” was said to have been routed through the UN high representative to Nigeria, and it read: “The political scenario in Nigeria and the high handedness of the Executive and its agents against law abiding Nigerians is becoming unbearable and unless something is done urgently to salvage the situation, our hard earned democracy will be plagued by disaster of unimaginable proportion. I therefore call on you and leaders of G-7 nations to intervene in order to prevent this looming catastrophe in Nigeria. I believe that prevention would be better than cure in this case because if highly placed Nigerians like the Senate president is being made to undergo these indignities, then there is no hope for democracy and the rule of law which is about the preservation, welfare and protection of the common man. The country is in dire political straits now and we need your timely intervention to restore peace and rule of law.” This Bayelsa-born politician has been on suspension from the APC since 2016.
FG vs Atiku’s Intels
Following his presidential interest and subsequent cross over from the APC to realise his ambition under the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), former vice-president, Atiku Abubakar, incurred the anger of the government. Even though there are no corrupt charges preferred against him by the anti graft agencies, the administration went after his business interests. For example, in October 2017, the federal government, through a letter by the
Attorney-General of the Federation and minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, ordered the Nigeria Ports Authority (NPA) to terminate the boat pilotage contract it has with Integrated Services Ltd owned by Atiku because the company was accused of violating government policy.
According to Malami, the contract which has been in existence since 2010 is no longer tenable for some policy reasons. In that letter addressed to Ms Hadiza Bala Usman, the managing director of NPA, it said the contract violates the Nigerian Constitution, especially with regard to the implementation of the Treasury Single Account (TSA) policy of the government. The letter further read: “The terms of the agreement as agreed by parties and the dynamics of its implementation which permits Intels to receive revenue generated on behalf of NPA abinitio clearly violates express provision of Section 80 (1) and 162 (1) and (10) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. It is thus curious that parties did not avert their minds to the above provision of the constitution while negotiating the agreement.”
Continuing further, it read: “For the avoidance of doubt, the agreement for the monitoring and supervision of pilotage district in the Exclusive Economic Zone of Nigeria on terms that permits Intels to receive revenue generated in each pilotage district from service boat operations in consideration for 28 per cent of total revenue as commission to Intels is now void.”
Although, it was gathered that Intels was initially averse to the new directive because it violated the contract terms, analysts say the plot was a grand design by the government against the ambition of the former vice president to contest the 2019 presidential election against the incumbent. Kola Ologbodiyan, the spokesperson of PDP, said: “It’s all about the gimmicks of the administration to get at any one perceived as its political enemy otherwise, there was nothing wrong with directing Intels to comply with TSA policy when they discovered it.”
OBJ makes u-turn
Former President Olusegun Obasanjo, who was a staunch supporter of President Buhari in the build up to the 2015 general elections, is now one of the perceived enemies of the present administration not only because of his letter, but because of his new political movement billed to challenge the APC in 2019. The genesis of his sin is connected to the New Year letter he wrote to President Buhari in January in which he advised PMB to retire from politics and go home.
Part of the letter which drew the ire of the administration read: “The lice of poor performance in government, poverty, incessant poor economic management, nepotism, gross dereliction of duty, condoning of misdeeds, if not outright encouragement of it, lack of progress and hope for the future, lack of national cohesion and poor management of internal political dynamics and widening inequality are very much with us today. With such lice of general and specific poor performance and crying poverty with us, our fingers cannot be dry of blood.”
This was the introduction to the lengthy letter. Further down, OBJ said: “The situation that made Nigerians to vote massively to get Jonathan off the horse is playing out again. First, I thought I knew the point where President Buhari is weak and I spoke and wrote about it even before Nigerians voted for him. He is weak in the knowledge and understanding of the economy but I thought that he could make good use of Nigerians in that area but he does not. Although I know that you cannot give what you do not have and that economy does not obey military order. I thought president Buhari would fight corruption and insurgency. I only appeal to brother Buhari to consider a deserved rest at this point in time and at his age.”
Although the president initially appeared unruffled by the content of the letter, but during a recent visit to him in Aso Rock by the Buhari Support Group, he openly showed his anger at OBJ when he alluded to a former president under whom the sum of $16 billion was spent on powers without anything to show for it. Blueprint Weekend learnt that the administration is set to open the probe of the alleged fund spent between 1999 and 2017 under OBJ even though under late president Umar Yar’ Adua, the same probe took place and the records are there for everyone to check. Also at every forum, the presidency has not hidden its displeasure at the former president and his new political alliance.
Melaye’s travails
If there is any lawmaker that has had a rough ride with agents of the government in recent times, he is Senator Dino Melaye, the fiery spoken senator representing Kogi West Senatorial District. His latest travails in the hands of the police speak volumes about how the government views opponents of the administration. He is currently facing trial both in a High Court in Lokoja and the FCT over sundry offences. His journey into the current travails started on March 19, 2018, when police authorities accused him of arming thugs with weapons. Prior to this time, he had been a critic of the administration whenever given any opportunity. On his first outing after he was discharged from the hospital, he said: “The police planned to poison me through injection, but God did not allow them. I will continue to speak against evil in this government, no matter how long they plan my trial.”
Shehu Sani and Kaduna govt
This lawmaker representing Kaduna Central in the Senate has had his own share of ordeal both in the hands of police and the state government. Only recently, he was accused of criminal conspiracy and culpable homicide by police authorities in Kaduna state. Before now, because of his interest in governing his state, thugs have variously attacked him. In one instance, he narrowly escaped, but one of his aides was kidnapped. His laughable critique of President Buhari may have earned him the wrath of the government. In particular, his satirical critique of the anti-corruption drive of the president is second to none. For instance, his wits about the government using insecticides to fight opponents of the administration while the same government uses deodorant when the corrupt figure is a loyalist has continued to draw serious laughter. Also, when the president indicated his interest to seek re-election, Senator Sani came out with a tweet saying “Buhari chooses not to be Mandela,” an aphorism that erodes honour from the integrity posture of the president. Because of this, he has stepped on powerful toes such that the administration finds it uncomfortable to romance with him even as a member of the ruling party. His alleged involvement by Kaduna state police command in criminal conspiracy and culpable homicide through a letter by the state police commissioner, Austin Iwar, speaks volumes about the government’s opposition to political opponents.
Ibrahim Shekarau and EFCC
If there is any case being handled by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) that appears to have political colouration recently, it is the one involving this former Kano state Governor, Ibrahim Shekarau. For an offence in which he was arrested, tried and found not guilty since 2016 to have resurfaced because he just indicated to run for presidency, it speaks volumes about the lack of tolerance of the administration against political opponents. He was recently arraigned by the EFCC over the 2015 election fund in which he was said to have collected the sum of 25 million naira.
His media aide, Malam Sule Yau Sule, said: “The EFCC despite lack of evidence is insisting on prosecuting the former minister of Education, Malam Ibrahim Shekarau, over the N25 million election logistics allegedly given to him. Since 2016 when the issue of election came up, Shekarau was invited by the EFCC to explain the amount given to him along with other stakeholders of the party in Kano to prosecute the election but he denied ever receiving such amount and challenged the EFCC to produce anyone who has given him the money or any evidence to prove that he actually collected the money. Based on this the former minister was asked to go, however, surprisingly for reasons best known to EFCC, we received communication from the agency that the former minister is to be arraigned before a federal high court in Kano.”
Shekarau’s offence, Blueprint Weekend gathered, is his intent to run for president on the platform of the PDP. Besides, he was recently featured on a private television station where he was said to have scored the Buhari administration low.
Saraki’s trials
President of the Senate, Dr Bukola Saraki, is someone whose name has not been in the good books of the administration right from inception because of the political calculation that brought him into office as the Senate President against the preferred candidate of the president and APC, Senator Lawan Ahmed. His stewardship as the governor of Kwara state between 2003 and 2010 came under intense scrutiny therebyleading to his trial before the Code of Conduct Tribunal. It is however not clear if the recent Offa bank robbery in which his name was mentioned as a sponsor has anything to do with his involvement in nPDP’s plans to pull out of the ruling APC. He is not alone as Abdufatah Ahmed who is also an nPDP governor in his state is alleged to be implicated in the same robbery plot.
Commenting on these developments, Comrade Timi Frank said: “These are desperate designs by the administration to put everyone on trial because of political interests. This is not what we asked for before we pushed aside the PDP in 2014. We thought the best was here, but I am sorry to say that we made a mistake.”
