Debating President Buhari's Right to Run and the Making of Sowore

Ehi Aidaghese

April 9 at 6:40pm · 

Nigeria is not under any form of dictatorship, and it is not a one-party nation-state. It has more than twenty registered political parties and about 180 Million in population. So, what's the heck about President Buhari signifying his intention to run for a second term? He is not constitutionally barred nor legally disqualified. That his old age is a factor, is no doubt. But it is not a disqualification. It is, however, a disqualifying tag only to the extent the opposing political parties are able to capitalize on it and run with it. It is that simple. 

In addition, if he is a bigot, intellectually bankrupt, and a Boko Haram sympathizer as the narrative has been, how come we are not experiencing any surge in the number of aspirants joining the Presidential race to take advantage of his vulnerabilities? Today, there is no surge within the PDP, APC, SDP, or APGA. Its all about the Sowore.

Sowore Omoyele is relevant because Nigerian political leaders have irredeemably soiled their hands with stolen wealth. Now that the die is cast and chicken coming home to roost, there is no credible voice on the airwaves discrediting President Buhari and plotting his downfall, despite the enormity of the bloodbath all over Nigeria.

As usual, the social media is on the loose,  abuzz with strident vilifications of the incumbent, but rooting for no one in particular. And that is the irony of it all.

PDP on its part is holding mega rallies, without ascertained leadership. The party is hunted by the ghosts of its past and the escalating questions of credibility.

In addition, the zoning arithmetic that places tribal and religious factors ahead of character and sound political judgment inevitably ostracized Christians in the North as well as electable candidates south of the Niger River and the Benue from joining the PDP race.

Buhari and his cabal are very much aware of the zoning encumbrances as well as the inadequacies and the tainted legacy of the so-called power brokers within the PDP rank. And they are daring everyone to bring it on.
Just a few years ago, it took a roadside food-seller setting himself ablaze in Tunis, the Tunisian capital over governmental insensitivity to ignite a chain reaction that culminated in the fall of most heads of State and Government in and around the Middle East and North Africa.

So, take it or leave it, Sowore is a viable factor and a formidable threat - a challenger, packed with awesome energy and star power. Nigerians want real change, and he symbolizes the struggles. Though, for now.

But he has only just begun. He is not your run-of-the-mill Journalist or media practitioner. He is not an Internet discovery. He's been around the political activism scene for years. 

With a graduate degree from an Ivy League institution and a successful online media platform to his credit, you would be delusional to cast him a write-off. He is highly articulate and a master of bile (yabish) to boot. You ignore him, you ignore him at your own peril.

The Clinton versus Trump saga will most likely play out here in the long run, unless Sule Lamido, Atiku, Donald Duke, Nuru Ribadu, Abubakar Umar or Olu Agunloye join the race soon. 

As A Reminder ...

The slogan, "anything, but Buhari", is jaded. It is not good enough. Please, the would-be candidate or candidates must be better than Buhari in every respect imaginable - intellectually, mentally, physically, socially, morally, and psychologically. Once bitten twice shy. "Anything, but Jonathan", produced President Buhari unscripted, unscrutinized. Therefore, getting your PVC is not good enough. Be an active participant in the Primaries. Be wise.

This essay is not an endorsement of President Buhari. 

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Self-indictment: The Ridiculousness of the Looters' List and the Judgment Flaws of All the President's Men.

Ehi Aidaghese

April 6 at 7:18pm · 

President Buhari is the democratically elected President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. His power as head of the Executive arm is infinite, except to the extent checked by the applications of the principles of separation of powers and checks and balances involving the other two arms of government - the Judiciary and the Legislature.

Without getting down into the nitty-gritty of the functions and responsibilities of the other arms of government, suffices it to state that the President as the head of the Executive arm, has unqualified control over the EFCC, ICPC, the Ministry of Justice, the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation, the Police Force, the DSS, the SSS, and all the innumerable security and crime-fighting networks in Nigeria.

That said, the above enumerated Federal institutions, are not, in the execution of their mandates, encumbered by any institutional framework as long as their conducts are executed consistent with the letters and spirits of the enabling instruments.

At this juncture, I call on all Nigerians to do a perusal of all the names on the so-called "Looters' List" and ask yourselves the simple question: why are they not apprehended, prosecuted, and sent to jail?

On that, we are in the woods. We have no clue. We do know, however, that none of the alleged looters is covered by section 308 of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (the Immunity clause). And every one of them is a member of the opposition party. 

If the problem is procedural rigmarole (time factor related or delay tactics) most often deployed by defense lawyers, why not simply resort to seizures and forfeiture proceedings? In that case, your focus would be solely on the recovery of the looted public funds, but not the criminality of the conduct. By the way, what happens to a motion of summary judgment? Is it inapplicable in the Nigerian jurisprudence?

Nigerians do not know the answers to these posers. President Buhari, his Attorney General, and the Chairman of the EFCC have abdicated abysmally in their prosecutorial duties and fraud control mechanisms.

Publishing the Looters' list is the worst form of self-defense I have ever seen in any administration in modern times. It is self-indictment - exposing failures in the number two selling point of the Buhari's campaign (corruption). Number one, being security; where his performance is also worrisome.

If the purpose of the list is to elicit sympathy and ignite public support, it once again exposes the much-talked-about analog mindset of this administration in the age of digital and cloud computing. And I call it defeatist, a judgemental flaw unprecedented.

President Buhari's administration misunderstanding of the sophisticated bearings of the average Nigerian is inexcusably ludicrous. It is narcissism unchecked - pushing a false narrative of frugality in the midst of unbridled looting of public funds in high places. Spending without legislative approval is a crime.

The Attorney General of the Federation is a SAN. The Vice President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria is a Professor of Law and a SAN. Professor Sagay, supposedly the fraud czar of this administration is a legal giant, a SAN and a distinguished scholar. Yet, the best they could do in the face of unbridled wastage and squandering of public riches is publishing names of the culprits.

So, where are 'All the President's Men'? Is the criminal justice system dead in Nigeria? Those vested with the power of enforcement are figuratively dead and intellectually barren. And that is the ridiculousness of the publication of the Looters' List.

Granted, that the buck stops at the President desk, you are intellectually barren to the full extent of the meaning of the expression, if the decision not to prosecute, but to publish would not have sailed through, but for your willful blindness (I was not involved) and ignorance of the naked truth.

I am touched, really touched and disappointed. You guys can't be so lamed and jaded: Metaphorically in a judicial derailment, drifting endlessly in the murky waters of legal technicalities in the midst of thousands of outstanding legal strategists in want of engagements. We deserve better. I beg to move.

The Nigerian Armed Forces: Of Espirit de Corps and the Echoes of Danjuman's Epistle in the Ivy Tower

March 27 at 9:37am · 

Here is my take: In the event of self-defense and reprisal attacks unplugged, in the magnitude, style, and sequence as forcefully demanded by Elder Theophylous Danguma a few days ago, the Nigerian Armed Forces would be caught pants down - vulnerable. They do not have the strength - loyalty, especially - to overcome series of coordinated onslaughts against the Herders in all the endangered communities in the affected regions of Nigeria. That's a reality we cannot ignore, and that's what motivates this essay.

Take it or leave, in Nigeria, the Fulani tribe is a minority tribe. You can translate that to the statistics in the Armed Forces, their dominance of the upper archeon of the Armed Forces, notwithstanding. Their connivance and endorsement of the modus operandi of the Herders within and outside the Barracks are open secrets.

Though they maintain control and exercise absolute power over our security networks, they no longer enjoy the loyalty or strength to mount the type of counter-attacks that saw to the collapse of the Orkar’s Coup more than a decade ago. Besides, the Internet or Smart Phones was yet to gain a foothold on our communication networks at the time.

It's also worth noting that the systemic purge in the Armed Forces of perceived rebels and potential coup-plotters, clandestinely perfected and executed in recent times notwithstanding, when push comes to shove, the larger majority of our men and women uniform who do not endorse the duplicity and distorted loyalty of the Service Chiefs will rise in unison to defend and uphold the integrity and the much-cherished esprit de corps tradition of the Military.

Two Governors are now on records, stating that they alerted the IGP, the Presidency and the State Commissioner of Police of pending attacks and asked for protection. And on each occasion, no support came from the Police or the Army. The attackers came, killed, raped and maimed and disappeared into the thin air, unapprehended.

That would not have happened without the logistics support of the Herders collaborators in our Armed Forces. By the way, it was the Military that came to the village a day later to forcefully arrest all the male folks on sight on the rumors that they were planning a counterattack against the Herdsmen.

I'm not reporting news or doing news analysis here. I'm stating an opinion, to wit, in the event of nation-wide reprisal attacks on the cattle Rearers or Herders, the entire Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria cannot mount a preemptive or defensive strategy that is sustainable and effective as they did in the East, the Middle-Belt and in Benin City. The army will kill itself in the process.

The blood of the innocent victims will rise and sing - a redemption song, a song of freedom and of a rising sun - of new beginnings and the cleansing of bleeding hearts of friends and foes glued by the tragedy of intolerance, hatred, and greed.

President Buhari and his Security Advisers are wise enough not to bank on the connivance and the duplicity of certain elements (the Boko Haram sympathizers and Herders bedfellows) within the Nigerian Armed Forces for too long. That would be the fastest route to a mutiny in the Armed Forces because those who are aiding and abetting the cattle herders within the Nigerian Military are in the minority. Learn, President Buhari, learn, read, and be wise. Do not plunge Nigeria into another Ruanda and Burundi. The Uthman dan Fodio's style of "mass attack conquering crusade" after peacefully accommodated by friendly host communities cannot be replicated in modern time. The handwritings are on the wall. A word is enough for the wise.