Raging matters

This serves notice and formal information to my numerous fans who have been, justifiably, impatient, some even enraged, over my sudden ‘disappearance’. Reflections promises to retain the same informing vision, principles and, and above all, unbridled, uncompromisable commitment to the humane and humanist ideals that characterize the column over the years. All that will change […]

This serves notice and formal information to my numerous fans who have been, justifiably, impatient, some even enraged, over my sudden ‘disappearance’. Reflections promises to retain the same informing vision, principles and, and above all, unbridled, uncompromisable commitment to the humane and humanist ideals that characterize the column over the years. All that will change is space.

While I was ‘away,’ this ever volatile, ever eventful national polity has remained more newsy, more fluxy than ever before. One can hardly wait to engage in reflecting on the various national issues that have kept the nation pulsating, even palpitating, racily towards a precipitous self-retrieval from the clutches of anarchy, near-anomy. The judiciary has been on the boil with the mortal battle between the helmsmen in Supreme Court and the Court of Appeal, climaxing in the inconclusive suspension of Justice Ayo Salami on the eve of the retirement of Justice Katsina-Alu and the appointment of Justice Dahiru Musdapher as Acting Chief Judge of the Supreme Court. The fire in the Judiciary simmers, even with the fire-eating pronouncements of overhaul, or is it a revamp, by the new Acting CJ. There is much talk about Goodluck Jonathan’s One Hundred Days of his fresh term as President and so much stock-taking is going on. In the midst of all that, the bombs are roaring and detonating, recently tearing down the UN Building claiming numerous lives, Boko Haram sweeps, like an earthquake, across certain parts of this country. It does so more menacingly, even as former President Olusegun Obasanjo ‘intervenes’ with a self-appointed plea mission, to the eternal relief of Government, whose palm is scalded by the hot slice of yam from the boiling pot of Boko Haram. The President, in the midst of these weighty troubling matters; including the imminent labour/ASUU strikes, the undying mortal embers of violence and reprisal attacks on the once-upon- a- nostalgic serene Plateau; seeks Constitutional tinkering, with an outrageous focus on tenure elongation for future Presidents and Governors. It is a most unpropitious moment for Reflections to stage its come-back, but it is also a challenge that we can ill-afford to escape from. We do not intend to take on all these matters in one fell-swoop. It is inordinate ambition to try to do so. I do not even have the space. I shall merely do some throat-scratching on some of the hefty matters which greatly disturb the peace of the land.

Insecurity, bonb-blasts, Jos, Boko-Haram, ignoble build- up in the judiciary, and so on, in just a mere one hundred days in the saddle of power for Mr. President; all these bother on social justice and discontent based on un-fulfillment by the populace. Shortly after his Inauguration on May 29, at the government’s own chosen Democracy Day, I had raised this question of social justice, in different phrases, under the title, Jonathan’s Road to Transformation in the previous space of this column thus;

The populace is hungry, concretely and metaphorically. They are hungry for a leader with the correct ideas and vision to transform the present national disillusionment to richer living conditions for the majority of the people. They are hungry, beyond this ideational yearning, for a healthier, better educated, brighter illuminated, from perennial darkness, nation. They are hungry for employment of the thousands of youths roaming the streets. They are hungry for a thriving economy from the doldrums of the moment. They are hungry for a secure nation where it is possible to go to sleep peacefully and wake in the next morning, in one piece. They want to leave down a nation of kidnappers, armed robbers, pen robbers, violent eruptions on the excuse of religion and tribe. They want a leader with a vision, a passion and a genuine will to build and lead a united nation where citizens are citizens, not indigenes and settlers. These, in un-quantified words, are the essential contents of the expectations of the electorate from President Goodluck Jonathan and the men and women (hopefully new) that he will pick to run his government.

Nothing has happened since May 29 to allay our fears that the real issues—structural, economic and social—are centre-stage in the governing, ‘transformational’ agenda of the government. But, as they say, it is too soon in the day to begin to raise doubts, when we have four years ahead of us. However, since people are wont to celebrate a ritual process that is A Hundred Days’ old, it is also in order to find out, even critique the rationale for tom-tom pounding. Let us take, for instance, the constitutional issue. The President has enumerated areas of the Constitution that require amendment—creation out states, local governments, federalism(true of false) or simply power devolution, minimum wage, allocation of revenue, the electoral body and its reform. These pale into insignificance when placed alongside the tenure elongation phenomenon, which has heated up the political system recently. There are vital questions to raise, with a historical hindsight. The last time the issue of what to do with the constitution, with regard to its amendment came up was during the third-term brouhaha of President Obasanjo. The amendment proposal died a natural death, in tune with the popular wish of the people that the third term agenda did not deserve to live. Do we ever learn from history—in a nation where history is no longer to be learnt in our schools? The question as to whether what is wrong with our country is our constitution or those who work them rages. On the tenure issue, two eloquent columnists of The Nation,Segun Ayobolu and Olatunji Dare,– have spoken on the un-tenability of the idea, and that it is dead on arrival. Olatunji Dare , in his vbintage proverbial satirical turn of mind, had proposed that single-tenure term of seven years and six years for Pressidents and Governors respectively, is laughably un-ambitious. A minimum of ten or fifteen years may be adequate, but a total abolition of elections will perfectly terminate the war-like electioneering in this country! I hope nobody in high places is witless and humourless enough to take this literally!!

Talking about the Constitution, I agree entirely with Olatunji Dare that if it becomes necessary to carve out a new one (and given the numerous defects in the current one, being a product of military ) then the business of producing one should be carried out by a Constituent Assembly, without either the Presidency or the National Assembly contriving the process with its obvious self-seeking palpable designs. It should be a product evolving from the people themselves. In other words, the two tiers of government should carry on its business of governing and churning out laws and the Constituent Assembly elected by the people should have independent powers to produce a people- centred Constitution which reflects, in the words of Dare,  their “ will, their values and their deepest yearnings”. Certainly, whatever good intention and sincerity of purpose propel President Goodluck Jonathan to give consideration to the single-term option, it is definitely not a priority In a country in the throes of violence and a ramifying state of insecurity.

Just a few words on the raging Boko Haram phenomenon. No doubt, the government is in a quagmire regarding the correct approach to adopt in addressing the issue. Should it enter into direct negotiation with a group which is largely labeled, rightly or wrongly, as linkable with international terrorism? Is it expedient to deploy force as the sole means of confronting Boko Haram? Or should the government combine these two options—going on with intelligence effort, with some force while exploring jaw-jaw alternative? This is the sense in which most people considered the intervention of the former President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo as a relieving window. Some, like Professor Wole Soyinka, consider it an insensitive step, and this has been inadvertently justified by the murder of Babakura Fugu, the brother-in-law of killed leader of Boko Haram, Mohammed Yusuf. A clearly thought-out strategy is required to end the Boko Haram nightmare, which threatens to further escalate. What with the recent scare and pandemonium caused by the rumour of an impending Boko Haram attack in Abuja, precisely at the National Assembly complex. Legislators fled for dear life at the spark of the rumour. From the experience of the Niger Delta crisis, inevitably, some dialogue must take place at some point. No conflict is ever resolved through the barrel of the gun. This cannot be an exception and it is important that the government took a prompt and well-articulated step to address this and other teething problems endangering the security and stability of our country.