Poisonous politics

Participants at a restricted Summit on National Security organized by the Senate some months ago were reportedly stunned by the no-holds-barred presentation of the former Director-General of the Department of State Security, Malam Lawal Daura. Participants said he had raised many challenges and threats that other security agencies had glossed over or refused to  discuss […]

Participants at a restricted Summit on National Security organized by the Senate some months ago were reportedly stunned by the no-holds-barred presentation of the former Director-General of the Department of State Security, Malam Lawal Daura.

Participants said he had raised many challenges and threats that other security agencies had glossed over or refused to  discuss or disclose, such as armories of the military and the police being the main sources of firearms in the hands of organized criminals, bandits and ethnic militias. Those who knew this ubiquitous powerhouse of the security community understood that he should know. Then he raised the level of shock at the Summit when he warned that the major threat to the survival of the democratic process and even the Nigerian state itself is the 2019 elections. He was said to have singled out creeping violence into the political process, dangerous levels of hate speech passing for political debates and alarming levels of intolerance among politicians as key issues that will threaten national security and the elections.

Mr Daura now has ample time in detention to see if his predictions are correct, but the nation is already in the throes of bitter struggles that will decide the fate of the next elections and even the country. That Daura was a key architect and builder of the deepening conflicts that are pitching political adversaries in very dangerous maneuvers is now a moot point. The real issue is that he is being proved right by the day, and indications are strong that things will only get worse. 

Political quarrels are stalling the approval of INEC’s selection funding requirements. Political rhetoric is becoming less decorous and scarier. By-elections are being contested with every weapon that compromises their integrity. The opposition is becoming more desperate to replace President Buhari and the APC. He and his party, on the other hand, are throwing everything into the fight to weaken the opposition long before the elections themselves.

It does not appear that eight years as governor have dulled the instinct of APC’s new National Chairman, Adams Oshimhole, to bulldoze his way into boardroom acquiescence.

His disposition, language and entire attitude towards politics suggest that he believes he is back as a labour leader when threats, blackmail and intimidation produced results.

He treats the APC as a labour movement, with Senators and heads of security agencies as stewards and foot soldiers. He epitomizes those politicians that give the impression that they are indigenous to the gutter habitat.

Senate President Saraki and the PDP leadership, themselves brimming with medals from desperate politics, are matching headmaster Adams with frightening rhetoric and risky gambits. They will not reconvene the National Assembly to approve INEC’s budget, because they know that APC will attempt a coup as soon as the doors to the chambers are opened. Everyone knows what the constitutional requirements for changing the leadership of the National Assembly are, but no one is concerned about the law. 

Relations between legislators worsens by the day, and the chasm between the legislature and the executive widens from lack of responsible management.

In the ranks of key players who emit or tolerate poisonous politics, President Buhari is a distinguished fellow. Not for what he does, but for what he fails to do.

Here is a President who seems inextricably beholden of cliques that run his government and his party. At the height of the crises rocking his party from massive defections, he leaves the country for holidays in another country. OK, everyone knows he went to see his doctors, but we all know he was available enough to give a no-objection to VP Osinbajo’s demand that Daura is fired.

Did he go back to sleep after that, sleep so deep that all the noise from the insults from the two major parties, threats to the elections and the democratic process did not move him to do more than watch on television? Does the President have any thoughts regarding the competence of Oshimhole, Tinubu and a handful of governors and beleaguered, self-serving Senators to run the party and the country for him?  When does he remember that he actually has to exercise responsibility as leader of the nation, which may involve placing restraints on dangerous players, managing the partisan divide and protecting vital national interests?

If anyone thinks all these sound a bit alarming, they should remember that without any effective intervention (that is currently nowhere in the horizon), the controversy on resumption of the National Assembly and the waiting fracas will continue to raise tensions. True or not, the impression will continue to be created that INEC’s preparations will be threatened without an approved budget immediately. APC will continue to bark after Saraki’s position, regardless of the legal position. PDP will pull all the stops to protect that position. It is safe to assume that the 8th Senate will not know peace until its statutory end in June 2019. Vital legislative work will be sacrificed, including processes related to borrowing plans of the federal government and the 2019 budget. As we speak, the President is yet to decide whether he will assent to the amendments to the Electoral Act sent to him on the last day before the recess of the National Assembly. If he withholds his assent, a bitterly-divided legislature will need to meet under an atmosphere that allows it to exercise a consequential decision. A tall order. 

The National Assembly will need a clean Act to approve an election budget, so it will need a final word on the amendments, as well as reconvened chambers in which legislators are not tearing at each other’s jagular. The nation is still unsure over whether Daura’s attempted coup will be investigated properly or left to hung on the nation’s head like the Sword of Domiciles.

If the nation ever needed strong national leadership, it is this moment. President Buhari could provide that leadership by engineering engagements that will dilute partisan divisions, shrink egos and acknowledge the place of collaboration and respect for the principles of separation of powers. This vital requirement of leadership has not been a strong element of the president’s character. Still, the nation can hope that the medical and rest in the UK and some miracle would combine to assist the president push us through this quagmire. If this does not happen, the nation will choke from its poisonous politics.

Jamila Abubakar wrote this piece from Abuja