Reflections on Anti-Buhari Protests
For me, the biggest life lesson which we must all learn and imbibe from the Buhari health debacle is that “what goes around comes around”. Buhari’s supporters have all suddenly forgotten that he chastised and mocked the late President Umaru Yar’Adua for c
Many Nigerians still have a lot to learn about the tenets of democracy. It is a shame that countless people are unaware or chose to pretend not to know that protest is a key part of democracy and a constitutional right. This set of people needs to understand that everybody has a right to protest about any issue, no matter how stupid others consider it. The best those opposed to the protest can do is to launch a counter-protest and not to attack, blackmail and hound activists. Unfortunately, this is what has been happening to the demonstrators calling for the resignation of President Muhammadu Buhari because of his ill health and prolonged absence from the country. Pro-federal government bands have openly termed the Charly Boy-ledOur Mumu Don Do group as “enemies of Buhari and insensitive” to the plight of the President. Some of these hoodwinked people attacked Charly Boy and his team at Wuse market in Abuja on Tuesday. These hoodlums should be told that they have no right to suffocate the democratic right of others.
It is a shame that some policemen also brutalised members of Charly Boy’s group for daring to stand up against the president’s long absence from the country. Scenes of policemen pummeling Charly Boy and his friends with tear gas on August 7 were really depressing. While harassing the anti–Buhari protesters, pro-Buhari demonstrators were seen being protected by the police. This violates Section 42 of our Constitution, which prohibits discrimination on grounds of political opinion.
It is pertinent to remind IGP Ibrahim Idris and his men that Section 94 (4) of the Electoral Amendment Act, 2015 stipulates that “notwithstanding any provision in the Police Act, the Public Order and any regulation made thereunder or any other law to the contrary, the role of the Nigeria Police Force in political rallies, processions and meetings shall be limited to the provision of adequate security as provided in subsection 1 of this section.” Human rights lawyer, Femi Falana was apropos when he remarked that the conduct of the Police should be a source of embarrassment to President Buhari, “who famously advised the late President Yar’Adua to resign when the latter was ill for a long time.” Falana added: “Every Nigerian has the right to hold rallies for or against the government. That right should not be enjoyed at the discretion of those in power. The federal government must put an immediate end to the disruption of public meetings and rallies by the Police and other security agencies.”
For me, the biggest life lesson which we must all learn and imbibe from the Buhari health debacle is that “what goes around comes around”. Buhari’s supporters have all suddenly forgotten that he chastised and mocked the late President Umaru Yar’Adua for clinging on to power while he was ill. We need to remind members of Buhari’s grumpy bands that when the late President Yar’Adua was ail, Buhari advocated for his impeachment in a message issued on Tuesday, March 9, 2010. Buhari also urged the Federal Executive Council to declare the late Yar’Adua incapacitated and have him impeached due to his inability to carry out his official duties. Buhari, who spoke when members of the National Unity Forum paid him a visit in his house in Kaduna, said Yar’Adua’s removal was the only viable option out of the political logjam caused by his long absence. He also criticised the then National Assembly for using “extra-constitutional measures” to empower Goodluck Jonathan as Acting President “when the constitution already had a solution to the problem.”
Buhari added in his remark in 2010: “Political expediency won’t remedy this kind of problem because if the Executive Council of the Federation had acted in accordance with the constitution, by invoking the necessary sections to declare the President incapacitated, we would not have found ourselves in this present situation. As you can see, adopting extra-constitutional measures have not addressed the problem. If it had, we would not have been subjected to the raging debates and controversy going on. So, we must go back to the constitution. The Executive Council of the Federation must do the right thing because once we start moving away from the constitution, then we are inviting anarchy. The Federal Executive Council must save the nation from the current agony by declaring the president (Yar’Adua) incapacitated to pave the way for his impeachment.”
My very good friend, Lai Mohammed, who was the Publicity Secretary of the Action Congress, also jabbed Yar’Adua and demanded that Nigerians should be given daily update on Yar’Adua to stem the rumours about his health. He added in the statement in 2009: “The ACN calls on the Federal Executive Council, the only body constitutionally empowered to start the process of determining whether or not the President can continue in office on the basis of his health, to rise above mundane considerations and put the nation’s interest first.”
Today, Buhari’s legion of sycophants is violently opposed to anybody appraising or demonstrating against their principal’s ill health and long absence from home. Such critics are tagged unpatriotic and their utterances “absurd”. This is the pinnacle of hypocrisy. Those opposed to critical questions about the health of the nation’s President are hypocrites and are doing a great disservice to the nation.