Tuesday 7th of August 2018 was a day Nigerians will not forget in a hurry. It was the day that the men of the Department of State Security Service besieged the National Assembly and prevented members and workers from entering the complex.
Most Nigerians were gravely disturbed when the news filtered through the electronic media and the images of hooded security operatives were seen on television barricading the main entrance to the National Assembly in Abuja. The sight brought a fearful recollection of the era of the military juntas when power flowed from the barrels of the gun.
What was the meaning of all these, many Nigerians wondered. A heavily armed detachment of security operatives in battle gear and hooded, barricading the National Assembly and roughly preventing lawmakers from entering the hallowed chamber is a happening not in harmony with democracy. It was a scene that suggested something sinister.
But as events unfolded, information coming out of the Presidential Villa showed that the initial fears had no foundation and that what happened at the National Assembly was a demonstration of official rascality perpetrated by the Director General of the State Security Service, Mr Lawal Musa Daura.
Another most disturbing aspect of this bizarre episode was the fact that the Presidency itself was unaware of the drama going on at the National Assembly until the deed had been done.
According to reliable eyewitnesses, when the DG was summoned and asked the source of his authority to seal off the National Assembly, he was reported to have retorted that he needed no authority to do what he did. He was reported to have displayed this gross insubordination in the presence of other service chiefs who were assembled in the Acting President’s office. Things couldn’t get messier! It was really an anticlimax of a drama which was stranger than fiction. That the DG, Lawal Daura was promptly fired and replaced by the next senior officer in that sensitive Security Department is now history.
After a long and sober reflection, it must be stated clearly and in no uncertain terms that a system that allows a relatively junior officer in Nigeria’s power echelon to unilaterally take such far-reaching decision which eventually resulted in tarnishing our country’s image both nationally and internationally needs urgent reformation.
If truth be told, President Muhammadu Buhari must share a large portion of the blame for the authority breakdown witnessed on that fateful day in the National Assembly. In making important appointments into important national positions, a statesman is expected to exercise reasonable care to ensure that familiarity is not allowed to bring contempt.
In the Presidential system that we run, the President has the prerogative to appoint whosoever he chooses to position in his government.But the Constitution assumes that the President’s wide powers and freedom with regards to appointments would be exercised with circumspect.
Even in a commercial enterprise, a shrewd entrepreneur knows the danger inherent in filling important positions in the business with family members and relations. As soon as the President decided to build his kitchen cabinet around people of his ethnic group mainly, he ran the kind of risk that unfolded before our eyes that Tuesday in the National Assembly.
Indeed, that was not the first time that the Buhari Government would be subjected to this kind of national embarrassment by this same Malam Lawal Daura. He did the same thing during the confirmation process of Mr Magu as the Head of the EFCC at the Senate when he forwarded a damning letter on the President’s nominee to this same Senate on the basis of which Mr Magu was denied confirmation till today.
That was when most right thinking people thought Mr President should have fired the DG for going contrary to his boss’ interest. But quite surprisingly, he was allowed to remain in that position to do more harm to Buhari’s government as we all saw in the National Assembly drama last Tuesday.
There are suggestions currently rife in the media that Daura acted in collaboration with Bukola Saraki in the Tuesday drama in order to embarrass the Federal Government and portray Saraki as victim of official persecution. A former close ally of the sacked director testified to his inordinate love for the filthy lucre which might had lured him to become a ready tool for any mischief if the price is right.
The moral lesson that must be usefully drawn from all this is that because of either character or some other personality deficiencies, not everyone can successfully hold leadership positions. And also, when making appointments to important and sensitive national positions, character and loyalty must take precedence over personal or ethnic relationship.
Another important lesson that all of us must also draw from the current political crisis in our polity is that we must be vigilant at all times and must always be ready to speak up when we see evil in any form.
When in 2015,the APC defeated the incumbent government of the PDP, most Nigerians were optimistic that our worst times were behind us, given the winning party’s manifesto and other campaign promises as well as the calibre, character and antecedents of some of the moving spirits behind the party. But alas, the first step forward in constituting the new government was a monumental tragedy. Unknown to the leaders of the APC, a Quisling had been admitted in their ranks, and at the well-timed moment, he struck a dagger at the heart of the victorious party.
We all are aware of the strategic importance of Parliament as an arm of government, and hence the APC leaders had carefully selected those they considered loyal, dependable and sufficiently trustworthy to drive the policies and programs of the new government.
But it was not to be; the enemy within stole the soul of the 8th Senate and surrendered same to the party that had brought us to the edge of this national precipice in which we have dangled dangerously ever since.
As Nigerians, if we had been alert to our responsibility, we ought to have protested vehemently against this grand perfidy and sabotage of the will of the people by a selfish individual among us.
But how did we react to the historic Parliamentary coup by Saraki at the time? Some were nonchalant, some were noncommittal, most saw the happening as funny charade normal with Nigerian politicians. Some even hailed the mole as a smart and inventive politician while they made jest of the leaders of the party who sacrificed virtually everything to bring the party into existence.
That was the time that Saraki sowed the evil seed which is now bearing the evil fruits that all of us are now being forced to eat. In order to learn the useful lesson of the National Assembly episode as Nigerian citizens, we must at all times bear in our mind Edmond Burke’s wise saying : “All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”
On a final note, I want to hint my esteemed readers that as we moved towards 2019, there would be many more political shenanigans by our desperate old customers. We must put on our thinking caps firmly and refuse to buy all fake and inferior goods that will soon be on offer.
Every attempt would be made to sell the Nigerian Electorate a dummy. But we must remember that a leopard cannot change its sport; a man cannot rape the same woman twice.
Most of our hopes and expectations may have been dashed by the apparent low performance of the Buhari government. However we must appreciate our individual culpability in the matter and make amends.
To build this nation up to the enviable position to which she is entitled given her human and natural resources is the responsibility of all of us. Angels will not come down to do the job, rather, we all including farmers, traders, politicians, and what-have-you, must come together and do the job. That is the duty we owe ourselves and the next generations of Nigerians.
