Haranguing critics and opposition

Interparty and intra-party squabbles should not be an aberration in a working democracy, and splits are not always unexpected. But since fissures began to appear in the Nigerian Governors’ Forum (NGF) which has now broken into two opposing camps, the struggle to gain the upper hand has only intensified.One faction of the NGF, which claims […]

Interparty and intra-party squabbles should not be an aberration in a working democracy, and splits are not always unexpected. But since fissures began to appear in the Nigerian Governors’ Forum (NGF) which has now broken into two opposing camps, the struggle to gain the upper hand has only intensified.
One faction of the NGF, which claims legitimacy and apparently has the larger number of governors in its fold, is headed by the governor of Rivers State, Mr Rotimi Amaech; the other, which has the tacit support of President Goodluck Jonathan, is led by Governor Jonah David Jang of Plateau State.
The political division has led to personality clashes between the president’s supporters and those that are now regarded as ‘rebels’, causing security breaches, particularly in Rivers State, where a session of the state’s House of Assembly dissolved in chaos and mayhem earlier this year.
A disturbing dimension to the government’s involvement in the crackdown on the ‘rebels’ is the recent pattern of targeting their property in Abuja for either demolition or certificates of occupancy on them revoked preparatory to repossession by the Federal Capital Territory Development Authority (FCDA).
With the failure of the ruling party and the Presidency to unite the NGF factions, the emergence of a splinter group of the PDP, called New PDP, appears to have added impetus to the efforts at neutralising any potential negative impact to Dr Jonathan’s campaign to secure agreement, at least a consensus, that would enable him stand for another term in the elections due in 2015. Unable to apply the party’s statutory rules to persuade the so-called G7 ‘rebel’ PDP governors to end their support for the nascent PDP faction, a resort to strong-arm tactics, some of them potentially illegal, but mostly self-serving, is being made.
The police are now being used to break up meetings called by groups that are in opposition to the PDP and the federal government, when these have not been shown to be in breach of the peace or likely to lead to one.
A state agency like the police force, which should be neutral in such matters, is dangerously being inculcated with the negative value of regarding the political opposition as enemy of the state. The case of the Rivers State Commissioner of Police is particularly egregious, when he arrogates to himself, or is empowered by his superiors, to seek to hobble the state governor, who constitutionally is the chief security office of the state. The police chief is reported to have withdrawn security aides deployed for the governor’s protection, and at one time ordered the governor’s convoy blocked from entering Government House in Port Harcourt.
 Now the Ministry of the Federal Capital Territory (MFCT) has devised another tool as part of the concerted bid to whip the ‘rebels’ into line, and punish them if they don’t. Two weeks ago, it suddenly occurred to officials of the ministry that the premises of the Liaison Office and Governor’s Lodge of Adamawa State in Abuja, were allegedly being put to illegal use, and have therefore marked them for demolition.
Ministry officials said that the premises had been illegally turned to campaign venue, violating FCDA regulations, and that neighbours had complained of being disturbed by the continuous noise that emanated from there during such gatherings. The Adamawa State governor, Murtala Nyako, is known to be a member of the ‘rebel New PDP’ group.
Later, another member of the group, Governor Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso of Kano State, was told that ownership of his land in Abuja had been revoked. The ‘New PDP’’s glittering national secretariat is on line for possible demolition. A PDP Senator, Mrs Aisha Alhassan, who is also a ‘rebel’ and owns an events centre that she had operated for years in Abuja, has seen her rights to it revoked by the FCDA.
This kind of heavy-handed response to opposition is unhealthy and does not contribute in any way in nurturing a stable democracy. Opposition, even within political parties, is a time-honoured tradition that should be sustained, not given the bad image that the ruling party and the government are bent on doing.