T H I S D AY, T H E S U N D AY N E W S PA P E R ˾ APRIL 15, 2018
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SUNDAY COMMENT
Editor, Editorial Page PETER ISHAKA Email peter.ishaka@thisdaylive.com
PRESIDENT BUHARI’S RE-ELECTION BID
PresidentBuhari’sintentiontorunforasecondtermiswithinhisrights.Itisleftfortheelectoratetoendorseorrejecthim
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lthough the announcement that he would seek re-election came, not directly from him but rather from third parties who gave ‘clamour by Nigerians’ as the reason for the decision, President Muhammadu Buhari’s entitlement to contest for a second term in office is well within his constitutional rights as a citizen. But the responsibility of enlightening the polity about the failings or successes of his first term is that of the national elite to which this editorial board belongs. On the other hand, the obligation of using their votes either to endorse Buhari’s performance with a second term or send him back to retirement in Daura ultimately belongs to the Nigerian electorate in our democratic context. To that extent, we are not in support of the privileged voices that have appealed to moral and sentimental suasions to discourage Buhari from exercising his rights under our constitution. In liberal democracy, the choice of running for office or not belongs to the individual political actor. Once that freedom of choice is exercised, it ought to be respected by all, regardless of how they feel about the incumbent. Quite often, politics tends to be amoral and defiant of common sense considerations. The most critical tool in the arsenal of a politician is stubborn optimism, the uncanny ability to see a doorway where the rest of us see a blank wall. There is everything to indicate that Buhari’s declaration is perhaps informed by this higher political instinct rather than the purely rational moralistic caution of his dissuaders.
That there is no direct correlation between performance in office and electoral victory perhaps explains the recent proliferation of controlled democracies such as in China, Rwanda and Russia. But the diversity of Nigeria and the delicate fault-lines make such proposition difficult under our national environment. However, what is at issue in the various restraining voices on the Buhari repeat candidacy is an appeal to common sense, especially against the background that the president had in the past promised to spend only one term in due deference to his age. But the choice which Buhari has now made in his declaration of intent to run is a private political one.
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Theonlymeans whichdemocracy offersusallto advanceour contentionsis theballotbox.To thatextent,afree andfairprocessin the2019general electionsbecomes agravenational securityissue.Itisin factanemergency situation.Butthat iswhatBuhariowes Nigeria
Letters to the Editor
S U N DAY N E W S PA P E R EDITOR BOLAJI ADEBIYI DEPUTY EDITORS VINCENT OBIA, OLAWALE OLALEYE MANAGING DIRECR ENIOLA BELLO DEPUTY MANAGING DIRECTOR KAYODE KOMOLAFE CHAIRMAN EDITORIAL BOARD OLUSEGUN ADENIYI EDITOR NATION’S CAPITAL IYOBOSA UWUGIAREN
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here is moreover a sense in which Buhari’s declaration is in fact a service to the development of our democracy. First, there are many people who believe his first term has been less than remarkable in any positive sense. Several Nigerians would readily declare it a national disaster. Our myriad national problems - insecurity, youth unemployment, economic desperation, corruption etc., have, for instance, worsened under him. That at least seems to be the general perception. Therefore, Buhari’s second term wager is in fact a way of testing whether an electoral outcome will ratify or invalidate this overwhelming public perception. Meanwhile, a re-election option offers an incumbent the opportunity to renew his social contract with the electorate with more convincing arguments, better commitment to the public good and evidence of genuine political penitence. If the incumbent wins re- election, the electorate is condemned to live with the consequences of its action. If, on the contrary, the bad leader is rejected at the polls, then the people will have punished the incumbent for the hubris of governing badly. President Buhari has demonstrated strong conviction in his own record of achievement as he sees it. He has presided over Nigeria in the last three years armed with a definition of leadership and a vision which only he and a few of his devotees understand. The challenge for all the opposing forces is to demonstrate to the president and his ruling party that the promise of a better Nigeria lies elsewhere. The only means which democracy offers us all to advance our contentions is the ballot box. To that extent, a free and fair process in the 2019 general elections becomes a grave national security issue. It is in fact an emergency situation. But that is what Buhari owes Nigeria.
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The APC Unorthodox Governance
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candal in the words of Paul Glenn is a needless word or deed which does harm to those who hear or observe them; it is the word or deed that occasions sin in another; it is a bad example. Very instructive also is the fact that to the person scandalised, the scandal is passive while in the person doing or saying the scandalous thing, it is active. Ruminating about the recent political developments in Nigeria with reference to the ill-advised release of the alleged treasury looters identities, this administration comes as a fitting example of a ‘scandal’ as defined above while the nation seamlessly represents a scandalised lamb. Apart from the asymmetrical posturing of the list which excluded its associates that were hitherto members of the
opposition charged with the same offence, what is most frightening is that with this feat, the FG has amalgamated the executive and judiciary arms of government by assuming the positions of the investigator, the prosecutor, and the judge. What is more, no hope for the future? Against this backdrop, Nigerians now nurse a deep-seated fear that history has a way of repeating itself, with many wondering why everything about APC as a political acronym and its government, unorthodox. A state of affairs that compelled critical minds to question what is in that acronym APC that throws any nation they assume the mantle of leadership into confusion; not just in Nigeria but in Africa as a continent. If you are in doubt of the above claim, wait till you cast a glance at this documented account.
In 1985, the All Peoples Congress (APC) took over the mantle of leadership in Sierra Leone (pre- war days) with Joseph Momoh at the helm of affairs. Just immediately, the nation came to a halt; the civil servants salaries stopped, the road fell to pieces, the schools disintegrated, the National television stopped in 1987 when the transmitter was sold by the minister of information. And in 1989, a radio tower that relayed radio signals outside Free Town fell down, ending transmission outside the capital, with weapons pouring over the border as government disappeared. The economy finally collapsed and Sierra Leone kissed calamity. Looking at this account in relation to what is currently happening on our shores, it will necessitate the question as to whether Nigeria is headed for Sierra Leone.
Even if an answer is provided to the above, it will not at any significant level erase the common knowledge that this government lacks the solution to the hydra-headed socioeconomic challenge facing the nation; a feeling that has in turn corroded the goodwill the party enjoyed in 2015. Again, Nigerians are also shellshocked that such illegality of tagging some of her citizen’s looters without going through the conventional judicial process is coming from a government that promised the nation’s rejuvenation of the economy; and hypermodern society is in my view, a pragmatic demonstration of not the rule of law but the will of man. To the vast majority of Nigerians, this development is unbecoming and uncharacteristic of a responsible and responsive government as section 36(5) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) clearly states that ‘every person who is charged with a criminal offence shall be
presumed innocent until he is proved guilty’. If this is the position of the constitution, why is the FG resorting to self-help by coming out with such names that are not yet convicted by a court of competent jurisdiction? This and many other sordid reasons may have informed the former Nigeria President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo clarion call to President Buhari not to contest the 2019 election as he has performed below expectation. In line with the above, it could also be recalled that President Buhari according to reports had in March 2015, among other things, described Chief Olusegun Obasanjo as a courageous patriot and statesman who tells the truth to the power when he is convinced that leaders are going wrong. It is my prayer that PMB will heed this truth that is now coming from that same courageous patriot. ––Jerome-Mario Utomi, jeromeutomi@yahoo.com.