Nigerian Senate Legitimizes Illegality
The Senator Natasha Akpoti Uduaghan and the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, saga has to a large extent painted a blurry picture of the Nigerian Legislature, as Nigerians have watched with dismay the enthronement of illegality and immorality in the chambers, where the occupants are supposed to be the law makers and true representatives of the Nigerian people. One does not need to take side, whether in favor of the female embattled Senator, Natasha Akpoti Uduaghan, or the man in the eye of the storm, the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, before what constitutes an illegality can be seen. What is obvious, regardless of the undercurrents, which is the allegation of sexual harassment leveled against the Senate President, is how the senate bracingly disregarded the court orders restraining it from taking action against the embattled female Senator, Natasha Akpoti.
“The action of the senate amounts to a contempt of court and a serious offense, especially when one realizes that both the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, and the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Ethics, Privileges, and Code of Conduct, Senator Neda Imasuem, are both lawyers, who should know better what the implications of court contempt are.”
If they were ignorant of the implications of court contempt, even though the ignorance of law is no excuse, at least the gravity of their offense will have been small, but their show of arrogance is unacceptance and inexcusable, and to this end, Nigerians should deride and berate them, by making them to be scapegoats in such a way that punishing them will serve as a deterrent.
It is also not too surprising to have such an immoral behavior play out, for this has always been the characteristics of the APC led administration, otherwise, how do one situate the continuous detention of the leader of the IPOB, Nnamdi Kanu, for years, since he was illegally kidnapped from Kenya.
“It is not as if Nigeria as a country has no good laws to regulate the conduct of his people but as can be seen in the case of Natasha and Godswill Akpabio, the problem Nigeria has, and which is the reason why the dividend of democracy cannot flow to the people, is simply that the leaders we have, who are supposed to be law abiding, are lawbreakers, who have legitimized illegality in all of the shades and forms of impunity.”
Furthermore, as 2027 approaches with speed, so have the politicians begun to strategize, making governance to take the back seat at the detriment of the people, who have been the recipients of the negative effects of bad governance, in the forms of hunger and insecurity since the administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu was ushered in, on May 29th 2023.
“Without being prejudicial to the person of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, it makes a moral, as well as a political sense to conclude that with the level of the economic downturn, which has deepened the pains of Nigerians, since President Bola Ahmed Tinubu assumed the leadership position of the country, that Nigerians should rise up and say enough is enough by forming whatever kind of alliances possible among the political parties, and with concerted efforts made towards removing the All Progressive Congress party (APC) from power, and with a view to bringing an end to deceits, perjuries, illegality, insecurity, corruption and hopelessness.”
What Nigerians are going through can be summed up as having the country under a siege, as well as a disaster of unprecedented and unimaginable proportion. The former President Olusegun Obasanjo has summarized the situation of Nigeria today in a few words. In the remarks made by Obasanjo in chapter six of his new book ‘Nigeria: Past and Future’, which was unveiled to mark his 88th birthday, described the actions of the government as a transactional governance with the slogan “It is my turn to chop.” According to him, “State resources are captured and appropriated, with pittance to staff and associate to silence whistleblowers. Typical examples of waste, corruption and misplaced priority are the murky Lagos-Calabar Coastal Road on which the President has turned deaf ears to protests, and the new Vice President’s official residence built at a cost of 21bn in the time of economic hardship to showcase the administration hitting the ground running and to show the importance of the office of the Vice President. What small minds!”
Nigerians should ponder and reflect on the submission of the former President, who has ruled Nigeria longer than any of the past and even the present Presidents and Heads of the State, for the words of the elders, especially those with integrity and the like of former President Olusegun Obasanjo, are words of wisdom, which are profitable to direct.
“With what is on ground today in Nigeria, including terrorism and banditry, corruption, injustice, hunger and hopelessness, it is evidently clear that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu only came to power to fulfill his personal ambition, and with no clear direction on where to take the country Nigeria.”
Waiting for him to remain, beyond 2027, will amount to a waste of Nigeria’s precious time and resources, because it is evidently clear that he cannot perform better than his predecessor, former President Muhammadu Buhari, who handed the reign of power to him on a platter of gold.
Therefore, to avoid what Buhari gave Nigeria after his 8 years tenure of office, which was bankruptcy and apologizes, a stitch in time, as the popular saying goes, saves nine. Why for God’s sake should a responsible and Godfearing leader have States including Lagos, Port Harcourt and Kano, under his siege, for which he is allegedly the mastermind? Take the case of the House of Assembly of Lagos State for example, where a speaker, who was impeached by more than 90 percent of his colleagues and replaced by another speaker, had his return and the resignation of his successor forced on the House members. Imagine also the political stalemate in Rivers State, where the Governor of the state has been frustrated and the monthly federal allocation going to the state, frozen, courtesy of the former Governor of the state, who is now the FCT Minister, Nyesome Wike, and his boss, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. Imagine the conundrum of the one-time deposed Emir of Kano, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, who was reinstated by the administration of the present Governor, His Excellency Abba Kabir Yusuf, who is of the NNPP party. In Kano today, it is like having two Emirs on the throne, and this unfortunate incident is allegedly the making of the immediate past Governor of Kano State, who is now the National Chairman of the ruling party, APC, Abdullahi Ganduje.
Nigerians have been pushed into a very tight corner and are in a dire strait. Where do we go from here, is a question that is on the lips of many Nigerians today. The answer to this question lies in the determination and resolve of leaders of the major opposition parties, including the former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar; Mr. Peter Gregory Obi, the 2023 presidential candidate for Labour Party, Dr. Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, the 2023 presidential candidate for NNPP; Prince Adewole Adebayo, the 2023 presidential candidate for SDP; and the leaders of thought from all the six geopolitical zones of the country, as well as patriots, who double-up as stakeholders in the Nigerian project, to throw away ego and put all heads under one thinking cap, and nominate His Excellency, the former Governor of Anambra State and the 2023 presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Mr. Peter Gregory Obi, as the consensus presidential candidate in 2027.
All that is needed is to make power change hands, otherwise the loss that would be recorded if the ruling All Progressive Congress party (APC) is allowed to remain in power beyond 2027, will be irrecoverable and unimaginable. We should make true reconciliation, reconstruction and reintegration promised after the civil war in 1970 to begin now, and for the sake of posterity. Enough is enough and it is time for Nigerians to lighten their tunnels and stop waiting for the light at the end of the tunnel. Where there is a will, there is a way, and a miss is as good as a mile. God bless Nigeria.
By Samuel Tunji Adeyanju
GMN Chief Executive Officer, USA
Responses