Senator Ekweremadu’s call for military coup: The implications, by Bashir Adefaka

Next to that was the increased mayhem all over the place and, usually, the PDP politicians and their sympathizers are quick to raise alarm.  It will be recalled that the latest tag for the attackers in this regard is “herdsmen” thereby endangering the lives of an entire ethnic group – the Hausa/Fulani – of Nigeria whose major economic means of life is herdsmanship.  A social media contributor, Lanre Rasheed, therefore was right to wonder “how some Nigerians would go to the extent of killing people for political gains” and push the tag on a religion or tribe.  Does it matter to them?

Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu, reacting to March 7, 2018 motion on the floor of the Senate by Senator Salau Ahmed Ogembe (PDP Kogi Central), had tactically invited a military coup to topple the current government in Nigeria.  Many have described such pronouncement by him as peak of hate for the President Muhammadu Buhari-led people’s government of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

The motion by Senator Ogembe was entitled, “Increased and Alarming Spate of Political Intimidation and Violence in Kogi Central Senatorial District of Kogi State” and all of the blames were hurled at Governor Yahya Bello.  Although these PDP senators have not seen one percent of what they did while in government when they chose impunity and corruption as tools of State with the many clampdowns on opposition (APC) members, impounding aircrafts suspected to be due to convey  sitting governors of opposition parties to campaign grounds and even, physically arresting with soldiers, serving governor (Amaechi).  It was at that time all the security protection of sitting Speaker of Federal House of Representatives, Rt. Hon. Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, was removed until he won election as Governor of Sokoto State.

It is therefore puzzling to hear the same people, who ruled for 16 years, now in opposition crying aloud even as they are yet to convince any Nigerian how the APC government has threatened the democracy of the Fourth Republic as they claim, against their own threats to democracy that required no microscope or soothsayer for any layman to detect.  Saraki that is today leading these crocodile tears would have himself been eliminated by the same People’s Democratic Party (PDP) government to which he, Ekweremadu and Ogembe belonged.  It would be recalled that when he suspected the danger lurking ahead of him, Saraki was smarter and he joined the APC.  It will also be recalled that while lawmakers like Tambuwal and PDP governors like Aliyu Mamakko (Sokoto), Rotimi Amaechi (Rivers), Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso (Kano), Murtala Nyako (Adamawa) and Ahmed Abdulfattah (Kwara) were bold to announce their defection to opposition APC, only Saraki remained unproclaimed till Buhari and APC cleared PDP out of power.

Currently it is gathered that killings, which occurred in Kogi State few days ago, has been on the increase and the PDP predictably have again picked Governor Bello for attacks as cause of the killings.

Now, from the history of politicking in Nigeria, it is the attitude of politicians to convince the military of the need to take over power from one politic al class and re-arrange the polity for another Republic to be dominated by them to emerge.  How they do this is diverse: Either they use holding the nation under the government of their disinterest to ransom economically or cause political, religious or ethnic mayhem.  All of these have happened in Nigeria between May 29, 2015 when President Buhari took over from PDP and now, and the next thing for any politician, who feels the stage was now set for the deed to be done, was what Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu did: calling for military coup.

Good enough the military swiftly replied him that his use of the “Army” in his call for military coup was derogatory to the military and was told pointblank that officers of the Nigerian Armed Forces had better thing to do in support of the current government than having interest in military coup.  They clearly turned down the offer by PDP’s Ekweremadu to form a government.  It was however gathered that the caller for the coup has a case to answer before the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT) any time from now regarding his false assets declaration whereby he failed to disclose the properties he has in Dubai city of United Arab Emirate (UAE), United Kingdom and the United States of America.

Next to that was the increased mayhem all over the place and, usually, the PDP politicians and their sympathizers are quick to raise alarm.  It will be recalled that the latest tag for the attackers in this regard is “herdsmen” thereby endangering the lives of an entire ethnic group – the Hausa/Fulani – of Nigeria whose major economic means of life is herdsmanship.  A social media contributor, Lanre Rasheed, therefore was right to wonder “how some Nigerians would go to the extent of killing people for political gains” and push the tag on a religion or tribe.  Does it matter to them?

But it is clear that Nigeria has a challenge with Boko Haram insurgency and that most of the violence that has been witnessed in the country from kidnapping and cultism share the same root with the insurgency style that was initially misinterpreted and wrongly claimed by Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) under the PDP’s government of Goodluck Ebele Jonathan to be Northern Islamisation and Northernisation agenda.

There was however a widely circulated security report about Boko Haram insurgents planning to disguise like cattle rearers in carrying out their terrorism.  It is therefore surprising that when the cattle rearers method being devised came to actuality, the same media that reported the security alert by the Nigerian military and should rally Nigerians in support of the government to cut the insurgents to sizes chose not to do so.  They decided and it became glaring as they allowed the problem to brew and develop using, the “herdsmen” theory that was chosen by CAN and till today, it is what is popular as if one ethnic group in Nigeria from where the President of the country comes is the one that has been in conflict with Nigeria.

Truth is, Boko Haram insurgents that have now partnered with Islamic State of West Africa (ISWA), are having good time doing their terrorism because some Nigerians are mischievously misrepresenting their new face of terrorism as “herdsmen attacks” and some people in the country that should better enlighten and educate vulnerable peoples of Nigeria about the reality on ground are busy misleading the populace.  But the foreign media have refused to be part of the antics because they have intelligence available to them which show that what is being sold and spread across to Nigerians is definitely not correct, and mischievously too wrong.

Aside the attempts at the security status of the country, the nation had witnessed all kinds of economic terrorism ranging from bombing of oil installations by Niger Delta Avengers to the threats to national security threats by Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB) now classified and proscribed by the competent courts of the land as terrorism organisation.  This same Ike Ekweremadu that is calling for military coup saying APC government has put the nation’s democracy under threat was vocal supporting both groups of Niger Delta Avengers and IPOB.  It is therefore surprising when Prof. Wole Soyinka wanted President Muhammadu Buhari to declare herdsmen as terrorists just because some criminal minded politicians are acting a film in using their name.  The respected professor may have listened to those who said if government could classify IPOB, seen by them as Igbo interest, as terrorist organisation, it should balance the equation by also declaring herdsmen, equally seen by them as Hausa/Fulani interest, as terrorist organisation.  That is unfair on the part of the professor, whose high level of intellectual capacity is acknowledged internationally.

The question is, all of those making these derogatory and disappointing statements against the President and the government of the sovereign state of Nigeria, do they remember how long it took Buhari to study to be able to separate the criminal IPOB from the constitutionally guaranteed good people of Igbo tribe of Nigeria before the military arm of his government went ahead to do what it did, which the governors of the South East states followed suit by adding their proscription of same and then both actions crowned up by courts in later times?  So, Buhari, it is clear and equitably enough, did not declare Igbo race terrorist race.  Then how come are some people expecting the President to declare himself, being one of Fulani herdsmen, as a terrorist and failure to do so they are saying that he shows no concern about killings they believe are caused by herdsmen knowing “herdsmen” to be natural economic name of the Hausa/Fulani tribe of which the President is proudly a member.

It should be restated here that, for government of Jonathan/PDP to have worked on Ayo Oritsejafor-led Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN)’s influence, suggestions and pieces of advice to stigmatise Muslims and hijab wearing innocent Muslim women of Nigeria as terrorists because Boko Haram were disguise as hijab wearers, he caused the high rate of divisions along religion and ethnicity lines that the government of Buhari/APC inherited.  This said without fear of contradictions!  It was so bad that if Muslim groups under the active leadership of the Sultan of Sokoto and President-General, Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA), Alhaji Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar III, were not bold and pro-active enough, Muslims of Nigeria would be nowhere today because they were all branded – to the face of a sitting President that Jonathan was – as terrorists.

The political class that caused all of these troubles and the supposed religious group that CAN is but which has been more of political group than religion, as seen in the Ekweremadu’s call on the floor of the Senate of the Federal Republic, feel that all of the confusions they are creating would be the best way to incite the public against the anti-corruption fighting government of the current government.  Perhaps they thought they had done enough of confusion and chaos to warrant such call, the PDP’s Senator of the stature of Lawyer Ike Ekweremadu tested the deep waters with his tactical call for military coup.  He perhaps was jolted to be replied by the military that they had no interest and it was the first time in the history of Nigerian political experience that military would publicly come out to so shame politicians.

Implication of Ekweremadu’s invitation of military coup

It will be important to inform, enlighten and educate the politicians calling for military coup against the Buhari government to know what will be stated hereinunder.

One, note that all of the attempts to undermine this government have always come from the National Assembly.  The lawmakers should come out clearly to say what exactly the Buhari government did wrong to them that has necessitated their untoward actions towards the government he and the All Progressives Congress (APC) are leading on behalf of Nigerians.  This is important because, what has been well-investigated and discovered is that, majority of the members of the National Assembly have serious cases of corruption against them and each time the government makes attempt to pick them up for prosecution their confusion starts.  They have tried to give themselves immunity to be above the law they failed.  They have tried to get their chairman, Bukola Saraki, declared as Acting President they failed.  They have tried to re-order sequence of elections against the norms they failed.  They have connived with an Olusegun Obasanjo-led Coalition for removal of Buhari from power they failed.  Now what is seen is that each time the PDP and other members of opposition raised an issue, a terrorist attack occurs hence Dapchi, Taraba, Benue, etc.  Unfortunately CAN puts its head and no media is asking question why Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) has been involved at every stage of these crises: Jonathan era they were importers of weapons for the military.  Now they are the ones helping them tag one religion or tribe unprintable names and by that hate speeches and a lot of misinformation have been spread abroad.  No media is asking them why.

Secondly, the political class calling for the worst to happen to Nigeria because they at all cost want to escape justice over their corruption should listen and read very attentively:

In event that military coup occurs, it may come either of two ways, God forbids either way.  The President himself may say, “These people of Nigeria are difficult people.  Since they don’t want to be the change that they themselves want to see, let me pick a military boy, hand over to him and so I go to rest.”  The other permutation could be that he creates enabling ground for the military class to do the coup by themselves and just ask him, “Your Excellency, we have seen your sincerity and love for Nigeria and Nigerians although they do not appreciate you.  So, go home and rest and let us step in.”

Now, either of the two, let the wailers and corrupt ones wanting military coup listen, they will be at the receiving end.  President Buhari and all his good men and women in government will be the only ones that will escape the unbearable treatment that the military gulag will offer the political class.  They know who the corrupt Nigerians are and they know how the courts and the lawmakers are frustrating the efforts of government to put a stop to their corruption and these are the people that they military junta will go after.  Would they like to know?  The Jerry Rawlings treatment await them all!

This will be the situation because under military regime the first that will be dropped will be the Constitution and National Assembly because the military do not like to be checked by any lawmaking arm.  The next thing will be to promulgate their own laws in form of a decree and that is all.  Then Nigeria will again be dragged back to the lane of the old having to again restart from square one.  Whose fault will it be?  It should not be forgotten that when the military government emerges, it is these same politicians that will run to make themselves available for appointments.  But they fail to read in-between the lines that, this time, the military class will not come to power and allow any civilian to come and mingle with their government and rubbish them.  It will at that time be possible and easier for them to clear the country of all the bad wagons that are militating against the chances of this nation to ascend to the top among world giants.

So, the earlier the better the Nigerian political class make themselves available for sense of reason and allow sleeping dogs lie.

A stitch in time, they say, saves nine!

*Bashir Adefaka, a Prince of Isolo Akure, Ondo State, is Lagos-based media practitioner.