If ever they were in doubt before, recent events should persuade all Nigerians that liberty, constitutionalism and the right to choose are sustained at a price. All the signs point to a possible grand design by some power brokers to deny the citizenry their right to freely choose their leaders and truncate the rescheduled general elections. Nigerians have no other choice, therefore, but to prepare to resolutely defend their hard-won democratic liberty.
The conspiracy stories against the elections and the May 29 inauguration date can no longer be dismissed as idle rumour if only because quite a few have eerily come to pass with troubling precision. The conspiracy hatched by the Presidency, the ruling Peoples Democratic Party and military chiefs to derail the February 14 and 28 elections that had been scooped by some news outlets was executed, step-by-step, exactly as reported, down to the orchestrated public statements by officials, the National Security Adviser and President Goodluck Jonathan’s body language.
Disdainful of public opinion and bent on their sinister plots, the conspirators are now openly discrediting the elections in advance, simulating tension and running a vicious campaign of calumny against the Independent National Electoral Commission and its Chairman, Attahiru Jega. Particularly baleful verbal assaults have been hurled at the political science professor in a bid to tarnish the entire electoral process well ahead of the March 28 date.
Jonathan once more blew an opportunity to be a statesman when at yet another church outing, he debunked rumours of an interim government plan, but unwittingly appeared to lend credence to a “military option” plan. “There is no way Goodluck Jonathan, elected by the people with a clear mandate, will go and head an interim government,” he declared. Even for a President with a track record of insincere and unfulfilled promises, this would have been somewhat reassuring. But his next statement was Freudian and ominous: “The only ING anybody can constitute is that of the military which, of course, will not be acceptable.” He quickly added that ECOWAS, the African Union and the United Nations would not accept it. “We will not allow Nigeria to be a pariah state again.” But nobody, including the military, has the authority to constitute an interim government in a constitutional democracy.
Yet, the reality bears all the ingredients of government’s diabolism. First, we are at a loss to understand the thought process that made Jonathan to link rumours of an ING to military rule. This is un-presidential, absurd and provocative. And for weeks, online and mainstream media outlets had been running reports of alleged satanic plans by desperate cliques within the Presidency, the ruling party and cronies to either postpone the elections yet again, derail them entirely or force Jega’s ouster from INEC, and failing all these, to elongate Jonathan’s tenure or pave the way for a military intervention. Even a former president, Olusegun Obasanjo, had cause to alert Nigerians that the administration appeared to be “going for broke,” and was bent on remaining in office or upturning the system if all else failed. He warned stridently against inviting military intervention as it threatened not only to undo the country’s progress toward democracy but invite another civil war.
Working under suspicious labels, a host of elders like Femi Okurounmu, the chairman, Presidential Advisory Committee on the 2014 National Conference; Alex Ekwueme, Second Republic Vice-President; Chukuwuemeka Ezeife; Tanko Yakassai; Edwin Clark, a former Information Minister; and Walter Ofonagoro, had been campaigning furiously against Jega and demanding his resignation. Accusing Jega of not being ready for the elections, poor distribution of permanent voter cards and the use of card readers for the elections, they demanded early in February that Jega should postpone the elections. In the alternative, they asked the INEC chairman to resign and that he be arrested and prosecuted.Such baleful and mischievous ranting is condemnable.This is nothing but putting the country inthe grip of political crisis in order to provoke and justify a military intervention.
As a major beneficiary of democracy, who was a deputy governor, governor, vice-president and president, Jonathan needs to do much more to convince Nigerians of his sincerity by publicly disowning those openly canvassing unconstitutional actions, those threatening to destroy the country on his behalf and those bent on discrediting and derailing the rescheduled elections. He should distance himself from individuals and groups, who, through threats, publications and numerous law suits, are seeking to upturn the transition.
We are resolutely opposed to military intervention under any guise. One bitter lesson contemporaryhistory teaches is that every truncated transition always ends in tragic turmoil in Nigeria. When Yakubu Gowon reneged on that promise in October 1974, he opened the way for his own ouster, in the bloodless coup of July 29, 1975 that brought Murtala Muhammed to power. Ibrahim Babangida plunged the country into a prolonged political crisis when he annulled a credible June 12, 1993 election won by Moshood Abiola. Unfortunately, some pliable senior military officers who seemed to have taken upon themselves the duty of providing struts for the incumbent government were already stepping intothe heat of partisan warring. It needs not be so. The best and honourable thing the military can do is to take quick back steps from politics and unmistakeably demonstrate their neutrality and professionalism in the political contest, no matter how bitterly fought it might go.
We insist that the elections must go on as rescheduled. The very survival of Nigeria as a corporate entity depends on making the Jonathan government adhere strictly to the election timetable and abide by the constitutional change of government if he loses at the poll. Even a faint suggestionof military intervention should be considered as high treason. Responsible officers, who we know still abound in the Armed Forces, should resist and patriotically oppose any attempt from within and without to use the military to abort democracy. With their rulemarked by ham-fisted mismanagement, gawky politics and nasty human rights violationsfor 28 out of Nigeria’s 55 years of independence,it is very clear that, the military did not acquit themselves well while in government. There is nothing therefore that they have to offer Nigerians in the area of good governance that has not been seen before. That Nigeria is at the level it is today owes it to the years of misrule following the forays of the military into politics. The military must at all times subordinate itself to the constitution
In the end, only a strong civil society guarantees that the will of the people is supreme. Nigerians must resolve and be ready to resist any attempt to foist an illegal government on them. This has been demonstrated in Tunisia, in Thailand, in Ukraine and in Burkina Faso, where the masses sacked both the sit-tight president and the rubber stamp parliament and refused to be ruled by a military junta. It took street demonstrations by the masses of Burkina Faso to halt the tenure elongation plan of their immediate past president and dictator, Blaise Campaore. Similarly, in 1989 in Romania, the people, who are actually the custodians of power, revolted against the authorities and succeeded in ending the autocratic rule of Nicolae Ceausescu, despite being faced with soldiers’ bullets. Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty. Civil society groups should regroup as enemies of democracy menace the country. Nigerians must shake off lethargy and be prepared to stand for democracy. As imperfect as the Nigerian democracy may appear to be, there are inherent corrective mechanisms that can bring it back on track, rather than have it truncated for whatever reason.
It also goes without saying that the judiciary has a major role to play in ensuring the survival of democracy. During the June 12 crisis, the judiciary disgracefully lent itself to be used by the evil hands behind the annulment of what is generally accepted as the freest and fairest election ever held in Nigeria. A typical example was Judge Bassey Ikpeme, whose sick judgement that the election should not hold was one of the grounds upon which the military annulled the June 12, 1993 presidential election. Already, some frivolous and mischievous cases are being filed in courts with the sole aim of scuttling the elections and contriving a crisis. The judiciary must not allow itself to be used to truncate democracy again.
Jega faces the greatest test of his public career, similar to what Humphrey Nwosu experienced as head of the electoral body when the rapacious, evil band of military adventurers was bent on aborting the Third Republic, and eventually annulled the June 12, 1993 presidential election. He should stand tall and stand firm. He should identify upright and incorruptible INEC commissioners and staff and entrust them with the sensitive assignments. Similarly, he should identify and keep morally odious ones strictly away from the elections to maintain the integrity of the polls.
This is the time for all stakeholders to commit themselves to democracy and the rule of law.Religious and community leaders should refrain from unprincipled partisanship and work objectively for the success of the elections and the transition. We urge civil society groups and public service workers not to cooperate with any unconstitutional government. The Nigerian people should also be ready to put up stout resistance against any attempt to scuttle our budding democracy once again.
