Canticles...

IAre you not aware that National lawmakers are gearing up for a political duel meant to test their strength vis-à-vis that of the Electoral commission?

How and for what reason?

The National lawmakers have altered the sequence of the election having amended relevant sections of the Electoral Act. But INEC is saying its independence grants it the sole right to determine the dates and order and sequence of the election, just as the National lawmakers are insisting that it is within their legislative right to amend every and any law in Nigeria, and that if they have chosen to amend sections of the Electoral law that deals with the sequence of the election, so be it.

Are you aware that the Electoral commission has already fixed the dates of the election for the next 36 years? What is even the big deal about the sequence of the election?

You mean you cannot tell the intent of the lawmakers in wanting to alter the order of the election? Do you think it is for nothing that the executive arm of government is planning to go to court over the matter?

So long as the lawmakers do not have the right to disqualify anybody who wants to contest, I do not see the heavy weather you guys are making out of this election sequence issue.

That smacks of political naivety. Look, I can tell you that Mr President is the target of this action. The plot is that if the state and national lawmakers have been elected, the state governors have been elected, then the election of Mr President can go according to the wind.

What does that mean?

For crying out loud, the National Assembly is populated and dominated by members of the ruling party. So why all these intrigues and political treachery?

You mean you do not know that both the executive and the legislature have been running on parallel lines?You can’t see it? Don’t you know that the insect that destroys the vegetable dwells within the vegetable itself?

Can’t you see all the travails the Senate President has been going through since he got into office? Don’t you know some people do not want him remain in that office by tomorrow morning? Do you think it is for nothing this government is not making much impact? Don’t you know the National Assembly through its leadership is holding the executive to ransom because of these personal issues between and among them? Do you think it is for nothing that the National budget for 2018 has not been passed in the month of March? Can’t you smell sabotage in the whole political template of this administration? Can’t you see and understand that they have all been struggling to suppress their grudges? Have you not heard of the great reconciliatory assignment given Asiwaju Bola Tinubu within the APC?

Look, that is why some of the lawmakers will not mind if Number One does not return, just the same way Number One does not want some of those fellows in the National Assembly return. That explains why the Senate apparatchik was so crossed with a senator that dared to accuse the red chamber of mischief and a deliberate attempt to hack down Mr. President in the so-called election sequence amendment. Didn’t you notice the torrent of umbrage poured on the senator, forcing him to recant and apologise? And by that, all the Buharists in the upper chamber have been helmed in, if you know what I mean. Bros, the battle is real!

And I ponder deeply and worrisomely on how this house that is so divided against itself will stand. So that is why the game is who will strike first, with the deepest cut, and who will remain standing after the 2019 wind has blown. That is the raison d’etre of the new Electoral Law amendment. That is why the National Assembly members have a vetoing power. So where does all these leave the rest of us, Nigerians? So what are we supposed to do right now?

Hold on to our representatives at every level and demand that they be accountable to us. We did not send them to the National Assembly to become Aluta champions, seeing that it is leading us nowhere. We are the ones suffering the pinch of bad governance.They have more than enough cushioning mechanisms to live above the sharp spikes of the economy.

You are still far from the reality? Where do we see these lawmakers? So what shall we expect from INEC? Will it be armtwisted or will the National Assembly have its way?

I think INEC will try to assert its independence, especially as 86 political parties have sided with it, to conduct the election in the order it (INEC) has proposed. If democracy is about number, then INEC along with the political parties will have their way.

You and I know that it doesn’t work like that all the time. I can assure you that this issue will take a toll on the electoral exercise and its outcome. There will be no easy day for any of the sides.

Look, both the lawmakers and the members of the executive must be told to become conscious of the fact that the nation and its interest is far bigger than the narrow and selfish interest of its leaders. The Nigerian people cannot be taken for another roller-coaster ride in the 20th year of our unbroken democratic experience. Nigeria cannot be sacrificed on the altar of narrow and selfish interest of our political mandarins. Those who have cases should go answer their cases. Our lives and those of our children cannot be used as bargaining chips or as ransoms. They are not more Nigerian than the rest of us. This crab syndrome must stop!

What is crab syndrome?

It’s a tug fight, wherein the crab hooks on to another crab and none can move forward or even escape even in the face of danger. They remain stuck together.