18
BUSINESS DAY
C002D5556
Wednesday 13 June 2018
Politics & Policy
Buhari, APC gagging opposition ahead of 2019 JAMES KWEN, Abuja
A
s the clock ticks in geometrical progression towards the 2019 general elections, evidences abound that the All Progressives Congress, APC, government led by President Muhammadu Buhari is allegedly gagging the opposition. Nigeria has for almost two decades now been practising democracy, a system of government that gives room for citizens’ fundamental human rights. As enshrined in the 1999 amended constitution of Nigeria, citizens are entitled to freedom of expression and association which empowers them to constructively criticize the government and belong to political parties of their choice. Unfortunately, however, as the nation matches to another round of elections, the ruling party, APC led at the centre by President Muhammadu Buhari appears to be intolerant of opposing views to its policies, programmes and general modus operandi. It is evidently clear that opponents even within the party are not spared the descent of state powers whenever they openly or surreptitiously lampoon or hold divergent views to that of the government. The travails of the outspoken Dino Melaye, Senator representing Kogi West who is always critical of the APC led Federal government readily come to mind just like the case of Bukola Saraki, President of the Senate, leaders of the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party, PDP among others. Under the APC regime, state apparatuses such as the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, the Police and other security agencies are usually unleashed on perceived enemies under the pretext of the war against corruption and crime. Prominent instances of the demonstration of the conscious effort by the APC to muzzle the opposition within its prism was the arrest and subsequent detention of Melaye over alleged possession of illegal fire arms and the summon of Saraki by Police for complicity in the Offa robbery saga. In the opposition category instances include the continued incarceration of Sambo Dasuki, former National Security Adviser and Olisa Metuh, former PDP Spokesman over corruption charges even as courts granted them bail on health ground while Sule Lamido, former Jigawa State Governor and PDP Presidential aspirant among others are under watch. Recently too, former President Olusegun Obasanjo cried out loud that the government is planning his prosecution sequel to his critical stance on the activities of the Buhari led APC government which he is battling tooth and nail to unseat in 2019. Obasanjo, in a recent press statement alleged that the Muhammadu Buhari administration is planning to frame him on false evidences
Buhari
as there is a plan to frustrate, intimidate and blackmail him into abandoning his “divine mandate”. Obasanjo revealed that he has been told that his security of life cannot be guaranteed because operatives are perfecting how to curtail him. “Impeccable security sources have alleged Chief Obasanjo’s name is on their Watch List and that the security of his life cannot be guaranteed. According to these informants, many of who are in the top echelon of the Nation’s security management and close to the corridors of power, the operatives are daily perfecting how to curtail the personal liberties of the former President and hang a crime on him,” Obasanjo alleged. The former president claimed the steps being taken to frame him can only be compared to era of the late dictator, Sani Abacha. “The content of the alleged beastly designs, it was learnt are two-fold for now. One, to cease his International Passport and clamp him into detention indefinitely, in order to prevent him from further expressing angst on the pervasive mediocrity in the quality of governance, economic management and in the protection of lives and property by the Government. “But, since that could expose the Government to a swath of international condemnation, embarrassment and outrage, it is said that another plot being hatched is to cause the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to reopen investigation into the activities of Chief Obasanjo’s administration using false witnesses and documents. This will be a re-enactment of the Abacha era in which Chief Obasanjo was one of the principal victims,” Obasanjo further alleged. He also said that Senate President Bukola Saraki and Yakubu Dogara, Speaker of the House of Representatives, are being threatened by the current administration. “We are currently in a nation where the number three citizen is currently being harangued and the number four citizen is facing similar threat within the same Government they serve,” he said. The former president also said many Nigerians are currently living in fear ahead of the 2019 elections.
He said with the “worrisome” dimension things have taken, citizens fear they could be hounded “or even killed” Buhari using blackmail to silence opposition Obasanjo further accused Buhari’s government of using various means to suppress opposition in the country. “While it is regrettable how the government has sunk in its shameless desperation to cow opposition, a resort to blackmail, despotism and gestapo-tactics being employed by the goons of this government would not hold water. And no government ever remains in power forever,” he said. The former president also maintained his readiness to face probe over allegations that he mismanaged $16 billion electricity funds. However, he said the investigation into the allegation be by an independent and credible panel. Obasanjo reiterated his readiness to face probe again after that of the House of Representatives, the Senate, the ICPC, and the EFCC, but before an independent, objective and credible panel of enquiry to account for his stewardship in government and beyond. While many Nigerians started seeing the plot by the APC government to silence opposition recently, a human rights Lawyer, Franc Utoo said the administration took off with this draconian posture.
Solomon Gbenga, National Director of Youth, Young Democratic Party noted that the APC government is not just gagging opposition but it is fighting Nigerians generally who are opposed to its whims and caprices ahead of 2019
Utoo said, “right from the first week, the new party, the new President (Buhari) was in office they started on a wrong footing by using state institutions to further personal ambitions”. He observed that APC has not lived up to expectations of Nigerians because if one sees the motto of party, “it is justice, unity and peace and we have not seen much of the reflection of these three words in the govt. There is no so much justice in the land, there is no so much unity in the land and there is no so much peace in the land”. “There is no too much tolerance to the opposition. We have seen how opposition leaders are being hounded, being clamped into detention and embarrassed. No one is above the law of the land but in applying the law we need equity too. “It should be a blanket application, it should cover everyone. I have seen where when someone defect to APC cases against him in court becomes deliberately frustrated and become truncated at the end of the day and some cases get halted at the end of the day. “We have seen cases where in some instances there is a pretension of prosecuting a case but behind the scene we know that there is no seriousness attached to it. “Its quite evident that the ruling party has stood up vehemently against opposition members and to a very great extent becomes intolerant of dissenting views. We have seen where the moment you raise a voice against the government, charges will be concocted against you. “We have seen the case of Dino Melaye, we have seen the case of the Senate President ( Saraki), we have seen the cases of Senator Misau, Senator Shehu Sani in Kaduna State and in so many other places. “It is quite unfortunate, its not suppose to be this way, we thought that the APC which of course was my party will bring the needed change to Nigeria and bring the major democratic ethos as a fundamental in the practice of our nascent democracy but for me to this date this has not been achieved. “One of the reasons I voted for this government was primarily to see that our institutions of state are strengthened to serve the state and the people above personal interests but unfortunately, the reverse is the case right now. “You see that institutions of state are used by those at the helms of affairs in furtherance of their selfish ambitions and of course it started from the very first day the government was inaugurated. “If you remember vividly the choice of the party for the office of the Senate President was a different person but Bukola Saraki exuded his fundamental human rights of expression and association and went into that election and was elected and immediately after that, he became hounded. “I want to tell you that if Saraki had not contested for the office of the Senate President his travails before the Code of Conduct Tribunal wouldn’t have happened. That is
just the bitter truth. “You could see what is happening between the IGP and the Senate. You could see what is happening between the Federal government and some of its suspects in her custody like Azzaki, like Peace Corps and even Dasuki. No matter the gravity of charges against these people, a court of competent jurisdiction has granted them bail. “In the case of Peace Corps so many court orders have been given for the government to open the National Headquarters of Peace Corps and up till now nothing has happened. So you seem gross violation of the rule of law, a gross violation of court orders. This is desecration of our state institutions and if this continues we will not have a country at all”, Utoo affirmed. Similarly, Solomon Gbenga, National Director of Youth, Young Democratic Party noted that the APC government is not just gagging opposition but it is fighting Nigerians generally who are opposed to its whims and caprices ahead of 2019. “The fight is not just APC against opposition but the President against Nigerians. There should be freedom of speech, freedom of action and all of that. I wonder why a President of a country will decide to gag the media, attack every person that is speaking against his government. Look at the attacks on a the National Assembly. “A lot of Nigerians are now scared of their lives because the president/ APC wants to be reelected at all cost. The President and APC should understand that everybody has the right to contest. “The President is using EFCC to silence opponents. The police no longer work for the people but work directly for the President and go about arresting his opponents. Once you speak against the government, the security agencies will go against you, look at the case of Dino Melaye. “We are not in a military rule again, we are in a civil rule and he should respect our democracy. We are in a democratic rule and not anarchical rule. “He is using the fight against corruption to witch hunt anybody who is contesting against him. See what he is doing to Atiku, see what he is doing to Saraki, Sule Lamido is already condemned. Every Senator who is against him is going down the line. Look at the case of Senator Shehu Sani”, Gbenga alerted. However, Idayat Hassan, Director, Centre for Democracy and Development observed that beyond the issue of the ruling party gagging the opposition both of them are overheating the polity with counter accusations. Hassan noted that all the campaigns of the APC and the opposition, particularly the PDP are not issues based, thereby plunging the country into myriad of rhetorics. “Both the ruling party and the opposition (PDP) are plunging the nation into a lot of rhetoric. They are not addressing the real issues in their campaigns. They are busy blaming one another”, she maintained.