11th Trust Dialogue: Impunity number one enemy of democracy-Ekeweremadu

The Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekeweremadu has said impunity in politics is the number one enemy of Nigeria’s democracy. Senator Ekeweremadu spoke at the 11th Daily Trust Dialogue themed; “incumbency and impunity in politics, safeguarding our democracy beyond 2015,” held at the congress hall of the Trancorp Hilton hotel in Abuja. According to him, “Sadly, […]

The Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekeweremadu has said impunity in politics is the number one enemy of Nigeria’s democracy.

Senator Ekeweremadu spoke at the 11th Daily Trust Dialogue themed; “incumbency and impunity in politics, safeguarding our democracy beyond 2015,” held at the congress hall of the Trancorp Hilton hotel in Abuja.

According to him, “Sadly, a cursory look at our political history, from the first Republic to date would readily show that impunity is the number one enemy of Nigeria’s democracy.”

Senator Ekeweremadu added that, the collapse of the previous republics was attributed to impunity in high places, misuse of the power of incumbency and flagrant abuse and manipulation of the electoral processes.

“The Nigerian political system is highly skewed in favour of incumbent executives in particular, most of whom are ever too willing to exploit it to the fullest, often to the detriment of our democracy.” he said.

The Deputy Senate president noted that, “incumbents in Nigeria and Africa, with full paraphernalia of office at their disposal, do see the state as their heritage and do everything possible to keep it so.”

The chairman of the occasion Justice Alfa Belgore said, “Despite our present problems with Boko Haram and other such militia groups across the country, it is obvious that Nigeria is still one strong nation.”

In his paper presentation, Dr Jibrin Aminu said it was former president Olusegun Obasanjo who developed an elaborate template for the extensive use of the power of incumbency.

He argued that the strategy was developed for the tenure elongation or third term agenda which Obansajo badly wanted.

He said the template include  the use of self serving constitutional reforms, appointing political fixers to act as gatekeepers at the corridors of power and the use of the organized private sector to fund the presidents interests.

Barrister Festus Okoye challenged the notion on whether democracy will still flourish beyond 2015 election with calling incumbents acting outside the law to order.

Speaking in his paper on the theme of the Dailogue, He posited that, “there is a correlation between incumbency, impunity and stolen mandates.”

Also in her paper presentation, Ayo Obe said, “The fact that the president wields power at the centre is not and could not by itself be of any significance in the face of the desire of the electorate if not for the impunity factor.”

“It would be a mistake to imagine that the benefits of impunity are only available to members of the ruling party; rather the benefits extend to cover almost an entire class of political actors,” She added.

Mrs Obe said, “If the signals from Rivers state are anything to go by- where the Nigeria Police Force is clearly acting to undermine the state Governor and to disrupt governance in the state- what we have to look forward to is a situation where the law enforcement agency only moves from its position of cautious neutrality when it has license to intervene in a destructively partisan way.”

Earlier in a welcome address, the chairman of Media Trust, Kabiru Yusuf recalled a number of ancient rulers that ruled with impunity which included: Muhammad Shah of India, Louis the fourteenth of France and the Roman Emperor Domitius Nero and their negative effects on their respective society.

Speaking of the current leaders, he said there is still impunity in the society, citing examples of South African President Jacob Zuma’s renovation of his country home with multi-million rands as well as the rumoured intention of the Nigerian government to buy the 11th aircraft to add to the presidential fleet.

“There is such egregious behaviour all around us, that a brazen culture of impunity is becoming the norm, rather than the exception,” he said.