Presidency still groping amidst security challenges

By GBEMIGA OLAKUNLE

At a recent reception for the Chief of Defence Staff , General Abayomi Olonisakin, by the Nigerian Permanent Representative to the United Nations (UN), Olonisakin revealed a startling statistics that shows that the Nigerian military is battling with about 14 security challenges. Even though the defence chief did not give details, we know that Boko Haram insurgency, kidnapping, armed robbery, IPOB, cultism, ritual killings, Niger Delta militancy, internet fraud and of course herdsmen’s menace, among others, occupy the frontline positions in the black list. At a time when the Nigerian military is beating its chest for degrading Boko Haram, the sect is still proving its existence by hitting targets and recording collateral damages among the civilian populace. Last Monday, the sect’s suicide bombers killed over 8 people with several others injured in multiple suicide bomb blasts in Maiduguri.

While the Boko Haram is still terrorising the North-east, kidnapping, armed robbery, cultism, ritual killings are still giving our security operatives sleepless nights in the Southwest. Th e same goes with herdsmen’s menace in Benue, Enugu, Kaduna states and parts of the South-west, especially Ondo and Oyo states. In fact, over 40 people died in a clash between the herdsmen and some indigenes in southern Kaduna this week. Still in the South-west, the Ikorodu Badoo cultists have carved a niche for themselves in the way they killed their victims and use their blood for rituals. In the same vein, Nigerian roads are not free from armed robbers and kidnappers. Recently, a permanent secretary from Osun state was killed when her car was attacked on Okene – Abuja road in a suspected armed robbery operation that was allegedly led by a fellow woman. In the South-east, IPOB secessionists seem to be waxing stronger and posing high security threat to the country. And it is the lackadaisical altitude being demonstrated by the Igbo leaders to the vituperations /hate speeches from the self acclaimed supreme leader of IPOB that prompted a Coalition of Arewa Youth to issue a quit notice to the Igbo resident in the North. Militants in the Niger Delta still keep security operatives on red alert. And to compound matters for Acting President Yemi Osinbajo is the oft attempt to hijack power from him either through political or military coup d’état. Despite President Muhammadu Buhari, on each occasion of his medical leave, handing over power to Osinbajo as acting president, some political hawks within the system still want to undermine the powers of the acting president. Some offi cials reportedly took fi les and memos to London for Buhari’s attention but he referred them to Osinbajo.

Th e president allegedly lashed out at the offi cials over eye- service, saying he operates one presidency. Some even denounced the acting president publicly. As if all these political maneuvers were not enough, the height of political debauchery played out in the Senate when senators attempted to pull off the carpet from underneath Buhari/Osinbajo administration when it sought to enthrone and proclaim Senate President Olusola Saraki as the acting president. Sponsors of the plot taught that Osinbajo was still outside the country.

It was the period when the acting president travelled out of the country to attend the African Union (AU) meeting and he quickly dashed back to the country. But unknown to these evil plotters, whose act would have thrown the nation into some sort of constitutional crisis and thus entice the military to return to power, Osinbajo had actually returned to the Presidential Villa overnight. And hence the ground for the attempted political coup could no longer hold. Also, the impunity of the National Assembly by the insertion of several projects into the 2017 budget is unparallel.

Th ey were possibly looking for reasons to blackmail Osinbajo should he refuse to sign the Bill into law within a specifi ed period. But God’s grace and wisdom helped the man to escape their trap. Besides, the insistence of the Senate that the Presidency must sacrifi ce the Acting Chairman of the Economic Financial and Crimes Commission (EFCC), Ibrahim Magu, before it can iron out its frosty relationship with the presidency is another crucial case that is still pending. But since the matter has been taken to the Supreme Court by the Presidency, we won’t like to comment further on the case.

Th e current scenario should not be a surprise to keen watchers of political development in Nigeria. Th e seed of discord between the presidency and the National Assembly was sown when President Buhari allegedly played a neutral role in the emergence of National Assembly leadership. He allegedly called a meeting of party loyalists to sort out issues between the contending candidates, but those who meant business had outsmarted the ruling party on the fl oor of the National Assembly. Some party chieftains cried foul but the handlers of the president maintained that the man was only observing the doctrine of separation of powers enshrined in the constitution. Hence, party supremacy was jettisoned just because some people held the erroneous impression that a particular party chieftain was the symbol and the controller of the party.

Some of us pointed out this political gaff e on part of the Presidency then, that it has unwittingly succeeded in planting opposition fi gures for itself within the ruling party in the National Assembly and that the administration would not have a smooth sail in its relentless war against corruption. Th e leadership of the ruling party could not call the shorts and mediate in the feud between the presidency and its members at the National Assembly because the leaders of the legislature are not the consensus candidates of the party. So APC cannot call them to order. And the only political way to resolve it is for President Buhari to return and occupy his seat.

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