06062019 - NSECURITY: Danjuma, Lekwot, others take Nigeria's case to UK

Zamfara judgement: There is
triumph in defeat
IHAVE always looked forward
to any pronouncement from
Professor Itse Sagay with
palpitating anticipation, and
whenever it came I gulped it with
relish. With Sagay there is never
beating about the bush. He would
not refer to a spade as a tool with a
sharp-edged typically rectangular
metal blade with a long handle,
etc. No. Sagay will call a spade, a
spade. Full stop.
That’s why his commentary on
the Zamfara nullified elections
was a delight. Obviously he had a
different opinion from what the
Supreme Court Judges
pronounced and he went on to say
it as only Sagay would. Here are
my picks from the comments made
by the professor of law as
published in the Daily Post of May
30. He described the judgement as:
‘a national tragedy’,
‘unimaginable injustice’,
‘unprecedented tragedy’,
‘installing losers in office’,
‘undemocratic calamity’,
‘technical law completely
overthrowing justice’, and ‘burying
democracy’. He concludes by
urging the All Progressive
Congress, APC, to approach the
Supreme Court to review its
judgement.
The national chairman of the
APC, Comrade Adams
Oshiomhole, had earlier spoken in
a similar vein but to my surprise
his tones were
uncharacteristically subdued. The
only allusion to anger in his
remarks was when he said ‘the
Supreme Court ruling amounted
to imposing total strangers on the
people of Zamfara’. He seemed to
face the reality of living with the
ruling. The party he said would not
appeal the Supreme Court ruling,
instead it will now take its case to
God.
I can understand the anger of
Professor Sagay who is not only a
member of the APC, but also holds
office as Chairman of the
Presidential Advisory Committee
Against Corruption. I sympathise
with him, along with Comrade
Oshiomhole and all those who
voted massively for the APC to win
virtually every seat in the Zamfara
election only to find out all their
efforts were wasted. According to
the Supreme Court, their votes
were wasted votes.The Supreme
Court went on to award all the
seats (with the exception of one)
that the APC won to the opposition
PDP who came a distant second in
the elections. In one of the strangest
twist of events in election annals,
those who were declared winners
became losers, and the losers
became winners. In other words,
triumph became a defeat and
defeat was amply rewarded. One
only finds this kind of scenario in
the fictional world of Frank Kafka.
But that’s how far our sympathies
can go. The fact is that there seem
to be no one sympathising with
what happened to the APC in
Zamfara. Most people would
readily rather gloat over the
misfortune that had afflicted the
party. I spoke to a number of
people and they just shrugged their
shoulders and said that the APC in
Zamfara State dug its own grave.
They asked: Why sympathise with
a party that frittered away the trust
of their supporters in the courts as
a result of intra-party feuding that
became impossible to settle
amicably?
The Zamfara saga played out in
the open, right from the day when
the primary elections started.
Former Governor AbdulAziz Yari
with the might of Zamfara
government on one side, and
Senator Kabiru Marafa and the
group dubbed Abuja politicians as
protagonists in the other camp, led
A great pity that
the Zamfara
matter ended the
way it did in the
style of Kunar
Bakin Wake
their troops in a relentless, pitched
battle. Admittedly many states had
this kind of problem in all the
major parties, but somehow they
were able sort out themselves and
hold acceptable versions of
primaries. But despite all
admonishes from the APC party
headquarters, all the camps in the
Zamfara debacle continued to
feud, mulishly bent on selfdestruction,
disregarding all
entreaties. Obviously Senator
Marafa was not in the mood to
back down and Governor Yari was
unyielding, so convinced of his
powers as chief-of-state. The stage
was, therefore, set for this grand
tragedy to the party.
As I watched the events unfold, I
recall the story of Kunar Bakin
Wake, a Hausa story I read many
years ago. Those familiar with this
Vanguard, THURSDAY, JUNE 6, 2019 —17
17
Hausa mythology will recall the
account: It is a story of a powerful
prince in one of the towns in the
defunct Hausa Kingdoms. The
prince clearly intoxicated by his
powers preferred to ride on the
shoulders of strong young men,
instead of riding horses and camels
which he had plenty.
The young men in the town hated
the prince for this strange
preference, but all of them just
sulked, and acquiesced when
called by the prince for a ride. One
day, Bakin Wake, a strong hefty
young man decided that whenever
the prince called on him for a ride
he would take them to the next level
and end it all. And that was what
he did when his turn came to give
the prince a ride. That fateful day
Bakin Wake went to the palace and
picked the prince on his broad,
muscular shoulders for an evening
ride.
The prince was gaily dressed,
resplendent in a bulbous gown
with a colourful turban on his
head. He rode on the shoulders of
Bakin Wake through the town
holding a whip in his hand which
he used to prod Bakin Wake and
also acknowledge the greetings of
his subjects he met on the way.
However, in a bizarre turn of
events, Bakin Wake held on to his
rider and diverted to a rubbish
dump that was furiously on fire
where he threw himself and the
prince, both of them perishing in
the raging inferno.
A great pity that the Zamfara
matter ended the way it did in the
style of Kunar Bakin Wake. A
greater pity that no one is shedding
any tears for what had befallen the
party there. One only hopes that
the Supreme Court
pronouncement that has now
entered the history books in what
lawyers would now refer to as a
landmark judgement, will serve as
a check on the haughtiness of
many of our political actors.
FROM MY MAIL BAG:
Many thanks to readers who
faithfully follow this column and
raise issues with me. My last two
pieces on the Kano Emirate
attracted many reactions. My
elder, Inuwa Jibrin, a veteran
journalist living in Kaduna was one
of the first to call. He goes over my
column always with a fine tooth
comb. He pointed out to me that
the Attah of Igala, I referred, to as
Umaru Obosi was actually Umaru
Ameh Oboni. This was further
corroborated by a text from
Jonathan Achimugu.
Similarly, Shehu of Borno,
Sanda Umar Kyarimi whom I
wrote died in 1968, actually died
in 1967. I thank Baba Gana from
UMTH Maiduguri for this
correction. Inuwa Jibrin also
pointed out to me that the Emir of
Kano, Mohammadu Inuwa Abbas
that was appointed in 1963 reigned
for six months and not three
months as I wrote. Baba D
Hamidu also sent a text
wondering why I skipped the
Lamido of Adamawa Ahmadu, the
son of Lamido Maigari,who was
deposed in 1953 and exiled to Biu,
where he lived and died. He was
succeeded by Lamido Aliyu, the
father of the current Lamido
Barkindo, who was destined to
enjoy a very long reign.
On the article titled, "Banditry –
the Police Hold the Key", Professor
Hamman Tukur wrote: "I hope
your article will help in bringing
the problem of effective policing
to the front burner. The fact is
Nigeria Police is ill equipped,
poorly trained and motivated. A
Senator gets N13.5m as monthly
running cost, how much does a
Commissioner of Police get? It is
too much optimism to expect a
police that collects money from
motorists on the highway to
contain banditry or any form of
insecurity. It is sad that it doesn’t
appear the government has any
effective solution. It is addressing
the problem as if it has all the time
in the world. Same persons, same
methods will always give same
results. May God protect us".
Creating a sustainable and accountable
democratic system in Nigeria
IAM very worried about the state
of Nigeria’s democracy. Not
because I think that we have witnessed
anything unusual in our 2019 elections,
but because we think it is unusual. We
seem to think that our democratic
process took a step back during this
political process.
It didn’t. It has always been this way.
All we have seen is the exploitation of
the same flaws that have existed for a
very long time, and which ultimately
have the potential to create such
division, that our integrity as a nation
is under threat.
For a young, and immature
democracy, and that is what we
remain, there is a certain expectation
that the system will have flaws. That it
will be imperfect. But the requirement
for the population to continue to believe
in that system is that it shows progress
towards a better, more inclusive, more
representative solution to our
democratic needs.
To understand the trajectory of this
problem, we just need to look at voter
turnout in our presidential and then
gubernatorial elections. In 2015, voterturnout
at the national level, as a
percentage of registered voters, was
around 40 per cent. I think 69 million
registered voters resulted in
approximately 30 million votes. In
2019, with registered voters up to over
80 million, we saw fewer votes.
As a simple metric, when more
people have the ability to vote, and less
do, there is something wrong with the
system. Less people have belief in its
integrity, less people believe that if
they vote it will change anything; more
people feel that voting puts them at
risk and so we end up with a
government that is elected by a smaller
There are solutions to
these problems which, with
proper leadership, can be
implemented quickly
and smaller percentage of the
population. Continuing that journey
only has one result: Government by the
few over the many.
Despite the disappointing trajectory,
I do not believe that all is lost. There
are solutions to these problems, which
with proper leadership can be
implemented quickly. I want to talk
about four key areas of intervention
that can put us on the right track, and
I hope that this triggers some debate.
I am not taking a partisan position.
These views are expressed with no
agenda beyond the desire to see that
some of the fundamental building
blocks our nation needs to thrive, are
built.
The starting point, and the focus of
this article, is a clear understanding
of the numbers, and that
starts at the very basic
question about our
population, its size, its
growth rate and its
geographic diversity. We must know
how many people live in Nigeria,
where they live and some basic
information about them. You cannot
operate an independent, transparent
and accountable political system
without this. I will present some views
on how to solve this later on.
The second intervention is the depth
of political, and broader, education of
our people. The manipulation of
elections is only possible because the
population allows it. Whether you are
a hired thug, a vote seller, a
compromised agent, a greedy INEC
official or an intimidated activist, your
complicity in a broken system starts
from a lack of understanding, and is
extenuated by a lack of belief in its
integrity. Which brings me to the third
intervention? We must take action to
reform the structure, number and
governance of our political parties.
They must be accountable and the
rules that govern them must be
enforced.
Finally, we must make some changes
to the voting system that we use. I don’t
think it is possible for any truly
independent commentator to look at
how the elections were conducted and
claim that the system works. It
absolutely does not. It remains hugely
susceptible to manipulation. By both
sides. But some simple reforms, the
more nuanced use of technology, and
a voters database that reflects the
actual population would dramatically
enhance the integrity of the process.
I will interrogate each of these themes
in individual articles over the coming
weeks, and I want to reiterate that this
process is one of reflection. It has no
political bias. I have spent nearly five
decades in pursuit of a system that can
empower Nigeria to achieve its
potential.
I have seen and understand many of
our mistakes. I know the flaws that exist
that politicians retain, in order to
exploit, and I believe that failing to
address them means that the ethnic,
religious, demographic and
kleptocratic drivers that seek to exploit
division, will remain in the
ascendancy, with dire consequences.
I believe that they can be countered.
That investments in education,
political institutions, data and
technology are the solution and that
with the appropriate political will can
be achieved quickly.
C
M
Y
K