29 Sep 2006 |
|
A Bolekaja Presidency (5) THE crisis of confidence in Nigerian politics and the Presidency is getting curiouser still. It was perfectly in order to assume as we did last week, that immediately after the burial of the 13 soldiers that died in the ill-fated Dornier 228 plane crash, the combatants in the PTDF, MOFAS account crisis will return to the trenches. There have been interesting developments since then. The battle is hotter than before. The Senate whose reaction to the matter was being eagerly awaited decided this week to remain neutral. It chose not to consider the allegations of corrupt practices levelled against the Vice President on the grounds that the courts are already examining the case. Rather, the Senate decided to probe the controversial Petroleum Technology Development Fund, after taking legislative notice of the original communication from the President on the case against Atiku. The Senators justified their position with copious references to the Constitution and Senate Rules. But what they have done is to avoid being dragged into the feud between the President and Vice President Atiku. It amounts to not wanting to get involved. The proposed investigation of the PTDF account could go on for as long as the Senate wishes. Ken Nnamani and his colleagues would not face any undue stress. It is now left for the courts to inquire into whether or not the vice President was given a fair hearing or not by the Administrative Panel that purportedly indicted him. From the United States, a twist was added to the tale by the United States Assistant Secretary of State for Africa, Dr. Jendayi Frazer who reportedly described the probe of Vice President Atiku as "the handiwork of politicians who try to smear the reputation of opponents." She was also quoted as having added that "the request by the U. S. was for Nigeria to help furnish information on an American congressman, William Jefferson, who is being investigated for alleged corrupt practices, and not a case against the Vice President of Nigeria". Akin Osuntokun, the President's Political Adviser, promptly descended on Dr Frazer, in a strongly worded statement in which he accused her of meddling in Nigeria's affairs, and of denigrating and disrespecting "the leadership of Nigeria." I doubt if the American would say another word on this. Is it likely that someone in her position would express such strong opinion without due clearance? Wherever the truth is hidden between Frazer and Osuntokun, the effect of the American's intervention is to absolve the United States of any complicity in the probe of the Vice President. Again, the Americans are playing safe. They do not want to be dragged into Nigeria's internal affairs. It is clever diplomacy not to be seen as taking sides in a conflict between the President and the Vice President of Nigeria. After all, in the past month, the Presidency had insisted that the Vice President had to be probed because the Americans raised questions about him and others. Now, what Frazer has said is that this is a Nigerian problem; let Nigeria solve its own problems without any reference to the United States. If the people in the Presidency don't understand this message, then it is too bad. On Monday, a letter written by the Vice President to the Senate President Ken Nnamani appeared in the newspapers as an advertorial. In it, the Vice President dismissed his indictment by the EFCC and the Administrative Panel as "totally false, baseless and unsupportable". However, I find his following declaration more instructive. He said : "It would appear that in the quest by certain elements in our body polity to have their way by any means necessary, decorum, truth, due process, individual rights and the sanctity and inviolability of our constitution have all become casualties, sacrificed on the altar of convenience, all in the name of achieving the dastardly goals these agents of calumny have set for themselves. This is wrong. This is dangerous. This cannot be allowed to continue." Every sentence here can be deconstructed in order to arrive at a hidden and loaded sub-text: Atiku was not only defending himself, he was criticising his opponent(s), and issuing a threat. "This cannot be allowed to continue", he said. And how about his reference to agents of calumny?" The President's camp must have interpreted this as a direct message to the President. Atiku was not speaking through his aides; he was standing up for himself. But the problem is that too many people chose to stand up for themselves in the past few days. Take for example the advert that was placed in the papers by the law firm of Banwo and Ighodalo on behalf of a certain woman whose name had been mentioned variously in the saga as a special beneficiary of Presidential favours. Her lawyers claim that she has been maligned and that those who are dragging her name into the fight should desist from doing so henceforth. The threat in that advert was clear enough. Curiously, it was targeted at the media. Banwo and Ighodalo ruled: "We hereby advise that all media houses should henceforth..." In another context, The Patriots, a group of eminent citizens also called on President Obasanjo and the Vice President to give peace a chance, noting that the bitter exchanges between both men are "destructive." But the drama of the week was reported yesterday. At a Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting in Abuja on Wednesday, five Ministers reportedly descended on the Vice President. They said he had no moral right to continue to attend the FEC after dragging the government and its officials to court. The Ministers threatened to walk out of the meeting if Atiku remained; the face-off continued until the President intervened and promised to look into the matter. No Minister came to Atiku's rescue. What happened at that Council meeting confirms the impression that there is a complete breakdown of amity and order at the Presidency. The Ministers who opposed Atiku's presence at the meeting were playing to the gallery definitely. They wanted to show the President that they are on his side. We now know that no Federal Executive Council meeting can take place successfully with Atiku in attendance. He is treated like a leper. According to the Punch, nobody talks to him. "The VP sits alone". With Federal Ministers now behaving like "alright sir boys", it won't be long before, we have a free-for-all fight in a Federal cabinet meeting! One of these days, a determined Minister could just get up and give the Vice President a dirty slap. I imagine that the matter could have taken that turn on Wednesday if the President did not intervene. As it were, the gladiators finally staged a true bolekaja scene! Those pro-Obasanjo Ministers are no different from the unruly conductors of the bolekaja. And don't be surprised if PDP chieftains not wanting to be upstaged by the Ministers also attack the Vice President. Atiku did not utter a word, we are told, while he was being harangued by the protesting Ministers. He even remained in the meeting till the end. But to prove that he could not be intimidated, he released to the media, shortly after, copies of cheques and bank drafts totalling about N432 million which he claimed represent the amounts withdrawn by Obasanjo's aides and associates from the MOFAS account. At least one newspaper published the photocopies. But is it possible for the media at some point to stop reporting the Obasanjo-Atiku feud? I suspect that the fight is becoming opportunistic, with some of the agents, on both sides, contriving special histrionics in order to get a good mention in the media. Can the media ignore the juicy news that flows forth? In addition to the Atiku case, another war-font was further launched this week. On Wednesday, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, the EFCC Chairman reportedly told members of the Senate in Abuja that 23 Governors are being investigated for "monumental corruption", and 15 of these will be tried. He also gave embarrassing details of what each Governor is alleged to have done. In The Punch newspaper yesterday, the faces of the affected Governors were splashed across the front page as if they had already been convicted. Ribadu's declarations before the Senate were so graphic, so matter-of-factly, you would think the investigations had been concluded and that the Governors had been declared guilty as charged even without a simple acknowledgement of their right to fair hearing. Already, across the country, among simple folks, Ribadu's statement has been taken as the gospel truth. The governors whose names were mentioned have been damaged. If anyone of them is seeking a second term in office or a higher position, his opponent does not have to do anything other than to remind the public of the fact that the man has a case to answer before the EFCC. In Nigeria, once a man is invited by the EFCC for questioning, the public is bound to jump to the conclusion that he is guilty even before being charged. If the Chairman of the EFCC goes further to comment on that person, then his fate is sealed. Nigerians are not often interested in the man who is proclaiming his own innocence. Nonetheless, the governors have started reacting. Governors Bola Tinubu, Ayo Fayose James Ibori and Orji Kalu have dismissed the allegations as untrue and totally baseless. Tinubu insists that he is being persecuted because of his principled stand on national issues. The Governors have also removed Governor Victor Attah of Akwa Ibom state as Chairman of the Governors Forum. But where is the connection? What is likely to happen soon is that all the Governors who were fingered by the EFCC Chairman will begin to defend themselves in the court of public opinion. Their information advisers will have to run from pillar to post to do damage control. Even if they do not say so publicly, they are bound to argue that this is not the EFCC at work but President Obasanjo. There are many Governors who probably see the President in their dreams every night. They do not think that he likes them, they believe that he does not want them to have a second term in office. They are convinced that they are being victimised for being close to Atiku, or for opposing the third term agenda, and that the EFCC is merely a tool of vengeance in the hands of the President. The accusations will be endless; the tension in the land will rise. Where, then, are we going? Who stands to benefit from all this? But two things are certain. One, Ribadu has succeeded in dismissing the Nigerian ruling elite as corrupt and inept. Two, the list of the Governors that are being investigated is a comment on the Peoples Democratic Party to which many of them belong. The EFCC is saying that this is party that cannot be trusted with power. In the end, though, all the dirty fingers point back at Nigeria's democracy and the Obasanjo era.
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
# 
# 
Your Comments
Please make The Square an enjoyable experience for everyone by refraining from gratuitous ad-hominem contributions, defamatory comments and off-topic posting. Such posts will be removed.