By Godwin Etakibuebu
First, it was the dance steps of Senator Dino Melaye in his well-articulated lyrics of “ajeku iya” that turned the floor of the National Assembly to a Disco or Nightclub sort of a place. Nigerians laughed over it as they saw it as a deserving means of “escaping distress”; given the depression that governments in Nigeria, especially the current one, have submitted the citizenry to.
Again, when the man who replaced his senior brother [late Senator Isiaka Adeleke – the progenitor of “Serubawo” politics in Osun State] in the Senate of the Federal Republic; Ademola Adeleke introduced his dancing steps on September 18, 2017, with a boast that “I taught Davido, Sina Rambo, B-Red and others how to dance”, Nigerians wondered the type of political leaders the Nigerian System was breading. Leaders that reduced the seriousness of State governance to mere comic dancing steps, akin to those of some motor park thugs, they asked? Yet, we accepted it as one of those bad jokes that could make one laughs away sorrows, albeit temporarily.
However, Comrade Adams Aliyu Oshiomhole; immediate past governor of Edo State, a former firebrand labour leader ranked highly in the manners of Nigerian Number One Labour Leader; late Pa Michael Athokhamien Imoudu [1902 – 2005] and current National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress [APC] is taking the Nigerian political leaders’ dancing steps to another levels. Or he has even taken it there already. And this is where it is not funnier.
The dancing steps he took in Uyo, the capital of Akwa Ibom State last week while championing and heralding the defection of the former Senate Minority Leader and former governor of Akwa Ibom State; Senator Godswill Akpabio, from the People Democratic Party [PDP] to the All Progressives Congress [APC] was going to be seen as another dramatic rehearsal in the market place of insanity until worse and more absurd steps of similar show of shame were taken in Katsina; capital of Katsina State, two days after the Akwa Ibom dance of death.
For those who watched both episodes; the one in Akwa Ibom and that of Katsina States, weeping for a country that has lost its core value in place of serious and sane leadership became a more acceptable option. The dance in Akwa Ibom by the Comrade was terrible but the one in Katsina was excruciating horrible. From what we saw on Channels Television, which captured the dancing acumen of the National Chairman of the APC appropriately, it was not difficult to draw the conclusion that the man [Oshiomhole] took his excitement and joy of that moment across the borders of reasonableness.
It might be for this reason of crossing the border of sanity that he was specifically avoided by other leaders of the APC on the stage [of dancing] while he was doing his solo style. In Akwa Ibom, people like Akpabio and Asiwaju Ahmed Bola Tinubu; also a former governor of Lagos State and the National Leader of the APC and many others joined him in the dance but in Katsina, he was left alone to do his thing. Reasons should have taken command of the Comrade when not even the Governor of that State; Aminu Bello Masari, joined him on the dancing floor to know that he has taken the game to a most ridiculous point infamy.
Things like these are not the process of making credible national leaders in any country of sanity within the comity of nations. But this is Nigerian where anything and everything goes. The issue we are discussing today is not the eternal dancing gifts of some individual per se but it is more about the difference of knowing what to do and when to do it for national interest in any democratic society like ours or as we pretend to be practicing.
So, there is nothing wrong strictly with a situation when those that are adorned with dancing skills, like Senators Dino Melaye and Ademola Adeleke or even Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, are brought out to entertain the people. We need entertainers to reduce the tensions Nigerians are currently undergoing, the same way our own dear “common sense” Senator Ben Bruce needs entertainers and even goes for hunting such talents for his Silverbird Galleria shows. He now knows where to recruit the best in dancing skill from.
Speaking seriously however is the danger Comrade Oshiomhole becomes when he combined his dancing skill with his agitator-like style of talking tough; as if he were in the village square of labour, on the Nigerian national psyche. It is not that one is as much concerned if his tough talking stand exposes President Muhammadu Buhari’s weaknesses in running a very inefficient government as he once alleged but there are enough worries when the man speaks in such a way that Institution of Government like the National Assembly is fully threatened. Oshiomhole has demonstrated, within the last few days, his capability in becoming a threat to our democracy by giving instruction to the National Assembly on what to do, to wit: compulsory impeachment of the Senate President and the Deputy Senate President; Senators Bukola Saraki and Ike Ekweremadu, by his Party members at the National Assembly, without application of constitutional rules and regulations.
The National Chairman of the APC did not know his political limits within the exercise of the Nigerian political Administrative Powers. Seeing himself as the “enforcer of the failed part of Buhari’s administrative skill”, he is gradually creating a place of branch of government outside the Executive, Legislature and Judiciary for himself, albeit illegally. It is for this reason that his name has been allegedly mentioned on the heinous crime of treasons that the Department of State Security committed against the Federal Republic a few days ago when the DSS invaded the National Assembly and closed down the operation of that arm of government – a crime tantamount to coup-de-tat.
It was good that the erstwhile Director General of the DSS, Lawal Daura, has been sacked by the acting President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, for that treasonable act but suffice to point out that he could not have been alone in such attack on the Nigerian State. He must have co-conspirators in this crime of treasonable felony against the Nigerian State. We want to know who they are and until they are detected, arrested and brought to book, the acting President works is not done. Failure to bring all the criminals involved in this heinous crime to judgment would not help our democracy to grow but instead would encourage people like Adams Oshiomhole to continue giving suicidal instructions to his party members in the National Assembly from his dancing floor.
For example, while we are still bemoaning the siege over the National Assembly by the DSS and the Police [the Inspector General is denying participation of his men at the N/A’s siege in vain because cameras picked his men in action on the day in question]; an act that will still make more heads to roll beyond Lawal Daura alone, Oshiomhole is still talking with authoritative assurances that Bukola Saraki; the Senate President, would be and must be impeached once the National Assembly resumes from recess.
The threat has even grown beyond the APC Chairman alone as another unregistered organization known as Buhari Campaign Oranisation [BCO] has joined the fray. The Buhari Campaign Organisation threatened just about three days ago to storm and occupy the National Assembly if Senator Bukola Saraki failed to resign and vacate his seat as President of the Senate.
The plot to storm the National Assembly was revealed on Saturday 11th of August 2018, by the Coordinator of the Buhari Campaign Organisation, Danladi Fasali in Abeokuta, Ogun State during the inauguration of the State’s Secretariat of the Buhari support group. The BCO national Coordinator, who did not disclose the day and time they would invade the National Assembly, spoke however in a way and manner that made Adams Oshiomhole’s ranting a child’s play. Listen to what he said:
“We, the Buhari Campaign Organization, are saying that the Senate President, Bukola Saraki should take a bow and resign honourably. He should also be mindful of what happened and how Senator Godswill Akpabio resigned because the position he was holding in the National Assembly is zoned to the PDP, and immediately he left the party, he honourably resigned. “We expect Saraki to do that. But, we are assuring him that the BCO will take over the National Assembly if he continues to demonstrate his impunity. He lacks the sense of direction and he wanted to truncate the present democracy. We are assuring you that before their resumption date, if nothing is done, the BCO will take over the National Assembly.”
What can be more threatening to this democracy than affirmative statements of individuals like these, all because they have backing of leaders of a political Party that is running government of the Federal Republic? Are these people not supposed to be checked and put to where they appropriately belonged? Unless a drastic action is taken against them now, they might prove to be harder version of those military plotters against the Nigerian Nation of the past.
When unauthorized group of people without any legitimacy more than the name of “Buhari Campaign Organisation” plans invasion and occupation of the National Assembly and the State’s apparatus of Security is doing nothing, maybe because of compromise from pinnacle structures of command, we don’t need any oracle to tell us that we are moving faster and closer to the actual doom’s day conspiracy. We are approaching mother of all battles against democracy in Nigeria.
There is good news even in this seemingly disastrous presentation. There could still be light at the end of this seemingly very dark tunnel. The good news however shall depend on the choice our politically elected leaders by the Nigerian electorate would be willing to make. The elected leaders can arrest every individuals that are hell-bent in destroying this hard earned democracy, write the wrong that has been unleashed on the country and redeemed Nigeria from the impending catastrophe. The choice is there for the leaders to make.
And it is in the understanding of this scenario against the Holy Bible’s interpretation of such confrontation as “mother of all wars in the final battle of Armageddon” as recorded in Revelation that l called it the dancing steps towards the battle of political Armageddon.
Godwin Etakibuebu; a veteran Journalist, wrote from Lagos.
Contact: godwin@thenewsguru.ng
