Nasarawa: A handshake beyond the elbow

A deep look at what culminated as the end of the impeachment saga in Nasarawa State on Tuesday had predicted that it would be a mere storm in a tea cup. That prediction came to pass.

The event became so easily predictable because it was the eighth time that the 24 members of the Nasarawa House of Assembly had threatened to impeach Governor Umar Tanko Al-Makura. On all the other seven occasions the matter was merely swept under the carpet. Nigerians know how members of the legislature in the country are rocked to sleep whenever they begin to scream that their diapers are wet and they would need to be wiped, cleaned and fed a new meal to rock them to sleep again. Little is done in the public interest.

This time the matter became stormy not because the allegations were weightier but because ahead of this, Adamawa’s governor, Murtala Nyako, had been shown the door. In retrospect many said the Yola action was smoothly executed because of orders from above. This encouraged the Nasarawa assembly to step up action believing that they would also hit the bulls-eye.

But what happened in Adamawa where Nyako kept avoiding the mailman provided a good platform for the legislators. The Nigerian constitution, according to many legal minds, did not envisage that governors would be as dishonourable as to run away from officials of the law. But Al-Makura did the needful by obliging the assembly their wish and confronting the charges with hard facts. As a result, the members began running away from the bull and hiding their flags. The hunter had become the hunted. It became a case of he who casts the first stone. They simply vanished, which caused the minority leader of the House Tanko Maikatako regret that “my colleagues have abandoned the state and are now staying in Abuja”. They also reject their calls and every entreaty to make a public appearance, as if they owed no one an explanation. And since the week began, they have not convened to commence a new legislative year, instead their legal team presented a protest letter to the probe panel on Monday, in which they withdrew the confidence they once reposed on the state’s chief judge. One of their excuses was that two of the panellists were card-carrying members of, not the APC to which Al-Makura belongs but the PDP, in which 20 of them are members. It is a 24-member assembly.

There is ample reason to believe that the pro-impeachment legislators had technically put themselves on trial by passing a vote of no confidence on members of their own party. With men who wouldn’t swing against the opposition, what would they have said if the two men were not from their party? In Lafia, most people, including civil servants, it was learnt, belong, not even covertly, to some party. Previous governors had even threatened to sack those who did not share in their politics, but it is doubtful if it is the same today.

The nitty-gritty of the saga shows instead that most of the members were on slippery ground. They did not enjoy their constituents’ confidence. They resorted to sittings in the dark alleys of Karu only a handshake from Abuja. At a point, there were calls by elders, including traditional rulers, admonishing the legislators to tow the path of honour and retrace their steps, hinting that Abuja was not interested and was preoccupied with the change of guards at the NNPC.

Is it sheer coincidence, then, that Al-Makura, who hails from a family of seemingly complex contradictions, would survive impeachment as many times as a cat? This gentlemanly, sophisticated politician is rather a reflection of our socio-political mélange. Most people who juxtapose Al-Makura with his predecessors find that he added more value to Nasarawa in three years than his predecessors had done in twelve. He may not be perfect but those who oppose him are not either for reasons of our cultural makeup – our DNA or “evil genius” if you will – which allows and encourages dissonances like these to co-exist. Those assemblymen are living examples of the dissonances.

Ours is an extremely accommodative (“sponge-type”) culture. How can it not be, when we have 170 million people each with its influences and lifestyles, creed and tribe? Fifty years ago the differences within Nigeria or even families were better understood and were not half as despicable as today. For many, Al-Makura epitomizes the paradoxical aspects of political Nigeria at this juncture in history. Urbane, yet not confrontational, sophisticated yet at times brash, learned yet not arcane, he belongs among the torchbearers of hope for his state: people call him anything from moderate, democratic, progressive and engaged but his greatest challenge, according to most of them, friends and foes alike, is that he does not hear advice.

Although the assembly men have vowed not to foreclose the matter, there is still room for reconciliation, even if it is a face-saving one for both parties. More so that sound legal opinion from people like Femi Falana (SAN) believes that they have shot themselves in the foot. Any further litigation on the matter may amount to forum shopping. For Nasarawa to evolve, the Tuesday incident should play neither victor nor vanquished. It is imperative for politicians to live exemplary lives as they are among the first to shape the better Nasarawa State that all want. The executive should be magnanimous just as the legislators are contrite and show equanimity. People worked hard to stave the state capital from erupting in jubilation on Tuesday and it became a mature resolution to a political logjam. In politics, as in anything human, people agree to disagree but that eighth handshake had gone beyond the elbow.

Bello-Barkindo can be reached at: razbloom1@yahoo.com