A Democracy Impaired: Is Positive Defiance The Answer? Nigeria was once again ridiculed yesterday due to the intolerance of the executive arm of government. It was a show of shame at the National Assembly when the Police peed on and desecrated the symbol of our democracy. They barred the Rt. Hon. Aminu Tambuwal and members of the All Progressives Congress from entering the premises of NASS. We must understand without any form of ambiguity that the Police is the enforcement arm of the Executive arm of government. There is clarity on the channel of authority to the institution. There are a few issues that cropped up yesterday as a result of the infamous action by the Police. We must understand without doubt that the Police have no business at the National Assembly. For those tattling on the need for the Police to maintain law and order at NASS premises, they should be educated that even an indicted member of NASS cannot be arrested while performing his duty. The most critical question is the rationale for the action of the Police considering the security challenges the country is facing. For a President that sent a request to NASS for an extension of the State of Emergency in the three northern states where Boko Haram is active, the scuttling of the sitting of the House by the same Executive indicated the non-serious nature of the war effort in the north east. This action laid the marker for the assessment of the government in this regard. Impunity by public officials cannot thrive without the unalloyed support of the citizens. It is heartbreaking to read otherwise intelligent and respected individuals rationalize the unlawful conduct of the Executive because of political leanings. They are instead blaming the lawmakers for climbing the NASS gate. Have these set of Nigerians ever heard of the phrase “Positive Defiance?” Any action taken in protection of the law to strengthen our democratic process is positive defiance and it is allowed within the ambit of democracy. Disobeying unlawful orders is also a function of positive defiance. The lawmakers merely acted to protect our nascent democracy and must be given kudos for that. The absurdity of the day was completed when the Senate President, Gen. David Bonaventure Mark emerged from nowhere and assumed powers alien to his office and proclaimed the shutting down of the national Assembly. That particular action exposed the failure of David Mark to imbibe democratic ethos despite his almost sixteen years as a Senator. Is it a case of old habit die hard or what? His anti-peoples’ credential is legendary. He is a luminary of the old order that decreed abandoned properties in old Rivers state. He was actually the Chairman of the abandoned properties committee of that era. As Minister of Communication, he decreed that telephone was not for the poor. He stood against the June 12, 1993 election and zoomed off in 1994. He never contributed to the birth of the current democratic dispensation. THIS IS THE MAN PRESIDENT JONATHAN MUST KEEPAN EYE ON NOT THE SPEAKER. The analogy of the Biblical David and Jonathan must be on the President’s mind at all times. He is a constant reaper of where others cleared, sowed, watered and fertilized. I rest my case.
Posted on: Fri, 21 Nov 2014 09:27:03 +0000