When news broke out late last week that
President Muhammadu Buhari had allegedly placed travel bans on two
governors of the opposition party, PDP, in the persons of Governors
Ayodele Fayose of Ekiti State and Nyesom Wike of Rivers State, an
already unsettled nation became even more distressed. If the report is
true, then our democracy is in danger of premature abortion. Unlike any
dictatorial political setting, what makes democracy beautiful, endearing
and enduring is the capacity and capability of stakeholders and state
actors to play by the rules, respect institutions and resist the
temptation of putting their personal interests and biases above those of
the nation no matter how personal they feel about any issue or anyone.
The ability to exercise restraint and
act gentlemanly especially according to the provisions of the law is
what makes a leader exceptional and exemplary while his legacies last
for a long time after him. It is based on this that the purported travel
ban on the governors by the president is quite disheartening to
democrats and people of goodwill everywhere.
Just about the same period the said ban
made it into news circles, President Buhari narrated how shocked he was
when former president Goodluck Ebele Jonathan against all odds and
culture of African leaders called to congratulate him during the last
presidential election even before counting of votes were yet to be
concluded. That is how statesmen behave, and obviously Buhari has a lot
to learn from the former president.
Beyond Jonathan’s “miracle” call that
has saved Nigeria an unnecessary crisis and led to an unprecedented
handover by a ruling party to the opposition, an action that has
fascinated President Buhari, one should also quickly remind the
president that this is not the only act of large heartedness that has
endeared the former president to him and Nigerians.
The reasons for which governors Fayose
and Wike are purportedly placed on travel bans are nothing compared to
what members of the All Progressives Congress, APC, did to Goodluck
Jonathan. From Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, Dino Melaye, Adams Oshiomhole,
Babatunde Raji Fashola, Rauf Aregbesola, the ACF and other opposition
elements then, the gross and unbearable disrespect shown to the person
and office of the President was unbearable, unprecedented and abysmally
low. Dr Goodluck Jonathan was subjected to all manner of abuses, insults
and sophistry of the highest order woven against him. It would be more
shocking to president Buhari to be reminded that Jonathan did not for
once consider placing any of these people on any travel ban, an act
which should be considered equally heroic based on latest developments
to the contrary.
Placing such a ban on serving governors
who as citizens should not only enjoy their constitutionally guaranteed
right to free movement, but operate within an inviolable constitutional
provision of immunity is an invitation to anarchy. President Buhari has
no such powers to singularly or in conjunction with any government force
and or agencies place such bans. President Buhari should concentrate on
governance which includes accepting criticisms without bitterness. He
should rather look beyond the narrow prisms of party politics and
affiliation and see such criticisms as necessary speed bumps meant to
save him from self-destruct and national catastrophe.
The federal legislature has a duty to
urgently save our democracy from collapse by calling President Buhari to
order. He is a product of our law and must subject himself to the same
law. He cannot arrogate to himself extra-presidential powers not given
him by our laws. To do so is to unintentionally create a state of chaos,
anarchy and doom. No one man can be greater than Nigeria and no leader
is beyond criticism.
Criticism is the food on which democracy
feeds fat; sycophancy is a virus that drains and eventually kills
democracy. Countries where leaders are known to be sitting tight today
are those countries where sycophancy is elevated to a nauseating level
while criticism is clamped down the way it is currently being done in
our country.
If the Buhari administration cannot
stomach the criticism coming from Fayose, Wike and other opposition
governors, it should approach the courts for consolation or the
legislature for comfort, beyond this, there is nothing anyone can do to a
governor who enjoys the same immunity that the president himself
enjoys. One hopes that this is another joke from the presidency, just
like the joke that was the 2016 Budget, the drab one year anniversary
speech and other jokes, cheap and expensive ones alike.
Fayose should be left alone, please. He
is one of the very few remaining voices of the common man even though
others are rising with time!
– jrndukwe@yahoo.co.uk; Twitter: @stjudendukwe
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