Reinventing Nigeria , the democratic way

THEREIS no doubt that Muhammadu Buhari has steered the Nigerian ship off course and into dangerous waters. The oracle of Otta has sounded the alarm and asked Buhari not to seek renomination to run again in 2019. He has suggested to him to take “a well deserved rest”. How kind of him! One should really look out for the interest of ones friends. A few days after, both men were now joined by retired Gen Abdulsalami Abubakar and were seen having a good time in Ethiopia, Coincidence?. While they were there, the oracle of Niger State, Gen Ibrahim Babangida allowed or authorized a statement to be issued on his behalf supporting the position of OBJ, and then retracted it and issued a more authentic one under his signature. Where does he stand? Typical, a little to the left and a little to the right. Where is retired General Theophilus Danjuma? He has not said anything yet. It seems the ex-generals are scheming again, probably looking for another retired general to prop up. How about Oyinlola? A retired Colonel who has already formed the Coalition for Nigeria and gathered a few of his friends to go and invite Obasanjo to join. All this is playing out in the open before the TV cameras so that we will not be in doubt as to who is mid-wifing the new Coalition.

For all we can guess, before anyone of us mortals can think through what is going on, the party of the generals will give us a candidate of their choice, plant him in APC or PDP, and then herd the ever hungry and pauperized voters to elect their candidate. They have the money and they have the power. If that happens, we would have failed in our democratic experiment. Buhari came to power through the ballot box, he should be removed through the ballot box and we would have made it over a difficult learning curve in our democratic experiment. Alternatively,, the best way to remove Buhari would be by impeachment for violating his oath of office to uphold the constitution. This has been demonstrated in part one of this essay. The National Assembly cannot do it because a good number of our legislators have skeletons in their cupboard.

SO LET BUHARI EXERCISE HIS RIGHT TO SEEK RENOMINA- TION BY HIS PARTY FOR THE 2019 ELECTION.

IF THROUGH A DEMOCRATIC PROCESS WITHIN THE PARTY, HE IS RE NOMINATED THEN LET HIM RUN. I would rather like to see him defeated at the polls so that his 97% voters will show him that he has not performed. If he is cajoled to resign or to throw in the towel, he may go home thinking that he was doing such a great job.

As the 2017 Governorship election in Anambra State has shown, the Nigerian electorate is coming of age. They are learning that money is not everything. We now want people who can perform the functions of the office they seek to occupy. In this regard, neither PDP nor APC can convince the electorate to trust it again. The two parties are just vote rigging machines. I see OBJ’S Coalition for Nigeria as an attempt to provide a bipartisan (PDP/APC) platform for the party-hopping political prostitutes to jump over and continue the same old game.

A new generation has come of age, a generation for whom AWO, ZIK, and AHMADU BELLO are ancient history; a generation that wants to make its. own mark and contribute to national development. Most of them are above 30 and better educated than those who became Heads of State at about the same age in the Sixties.. So what we need to do now is to restructure and open up the political space for them to come unto the scene. HOW?

One let the retired generals go home and enjoy their well deserved rest (did i hear loot?)

Second we have done enough talking. Let us resructure this federation now. how?

Let the National Assembly legislate an instrument under which a committee of experts drawn from relevant professional Associations ( in particular, lawyers, Economists, Political Scientists, Accountancy, Social Scientists etc) to examine the 2014 Conference Report , taking into consideration views expressed by many ethnic nationalities and produce a draft constitution The draft should focus specifically on the issues of federalism, devolution of powers and internal self government of federating units. (6 months) 1. Houses of Assembly within each geopolitical zone to assemble and review the draft, make their comments or suggest amendment and report back to the drafting committee. The most senior judge to chair the zonal Assembly (2 months)

2. The Committee of experts meet again to harmonize and issue a final draft ( 2months)

3.The draft will be published and subjected to a national referendum conducted by INEC and supervised by UN. If the exercise is not finished in time, the 2019 Elections can be postponed for not more than six months. All office holders to stay in office until the new constitution comes into effect and INEC will conduct elections under the new Constitution.

The Democratic Process for Leadership Recruitment: : While it is important to deal with the issue of structural imbalance of the federation, we should also deal with the issue of the political processes by which leaders come to power.: the electoral system. An electoral system is adjudged good or bad, to the extent that it helps the society to select and produce good leaders. The one man one votefirst past the post system lends itself to money politics especially when combined with extra legal processes like zoning, consensus candidate or cabalistic anointing. which tend to vitiate the requirement of secret ballot. So any idiot with a lot money , and can make a lot of noise in the press as well as buy into the cabal end up getting the nomination irrespective of his credentials or character. The other side of the coin is that good and credible candidates who are not willing to bribe voters, or able to make a lot of noise in the press for one reason or the other, are just shunted aside. That was why we designed the option A4 and open ballot system at the primary level during Babangida’s transition program, and that is why that election was adjudged credible, although there was still the influence of money by the time we got to the national conventions of the two parties.

From all indications, the current INEC appear to be moving in the right direction, especially with the electronic voting method if and when it is introduced. I would therefore suggest that in the restructuring that should precede the 2019 election.

By Uma O Eleazu