If there is one thing that the opposition politicians and the leadership of the All Progressives Congress (APC) have perfected, it must be the skills for propaganda and public deception. They have become experts in acting the aggressor and victim all at once. Like the proverbial mischief-maker, they would go into the bush with a cutlass only to jump out to the road to lead the search for the one cutting the bush. We have seen this dishonest display by the APC time and time again.
Recently, at the news of the passing of the highly revered Emir Ado Bayero of Kano, the APC leader, Ahmed Bola Tinubu, led Senator Bukola Saraki and other APC governors to Kano to influence the appointment of one of their own, the suspended Central Bank Governor, Alhaji Sanusi Lamido Sanusi as the new emir of Kano – an action that tested the security and tranquillity of the volatile city. As usual instead of staying with the fact that they went to interfere with the internal matter of the Kano people, the narrative changed to how President Jonathan used the law enforcement agents to harass the APC leaders in Kano.
Even Governor Amaechi regaled those who are not yet bored with his cock and bull stories how he acted James Bond to escape from Kano. Recall also that it was the same Rivers State governor who chose to use a gate leading to his office, which he had never used in the past, the very day he learnt that the police were on their way to seal off the office of an impostor group, the new PDP, just to dramatize that he was denied access to his office.
In the recent Ekiti gubernatorial election decisively won by the PDP, the APC leadership including the erudite governor of Lagos State, Raji Babatunde Fashola who should know, are working tirelessly to change the narrative from the triumph of popular will to their so-called “stomach infrastructure” theory. APC is the party in government in Ekiti and boasts of all the resources. There were reports that together with their candidate, APC spent huge money, bribed voters with sundry gifts and even threatened workers in the state’s employ with sack if they refused to go along with them at the polls. Yet the same people are shouting aloud how PDP bribed and intimidated voters in Ekiti State!
The APC government in Edo State has now keyed into their party’s familiar refrain of public deception of playing aggressor and victim once again. Things have fallen apart in the politics of the state and the centre can no longer hold. In the past weeks, crises have engulfed the Edo State government. Specifically, the State House of Assembly is in serious turmoil with members at daggers drawn across party lines. As matters stand now, the Assembly has been divided into two separate factions each with its own speaker and ‘house leaders’. And each ‘House’ is sitting separately in different locations and making ‘laws’ for the good governance of the state. Although in legal terms, it is quite easy to argue that one faction is the authentic ‘House’ and the other, a group of impostors, yet the problem is deeper than what legalistic explanations can offer.
Yes, it is on record that a court of law has duly upheld the suspension of the PDP legislators and the affected lawmakers did not help their case by treating the judgment with levity no matter how unjust it might have been. Yet the reality is that legalism has not staved off the unrest with the state precariously perching on its precipice with every passing day. Even more germane is the fact that rather than hurt the PDP lawmakers, the judgment upholding their suspension is denying the people of their constituencies who freely elected them a voice in the governance of their state. The judiciary ought to advance the frontiers of democracy rather than abridge popular participation. That is precisely what the court judgment is in the matter of the suspension of the PDP lawmakers in the Edo House.
But away from esoteric theoretical arguments, there is a more practical question to ask: is the crisis rocking Edo House of Assembly avoidable? In all fairness, the straightforward answer to this question is yes. It is yes because the crisis arose simply because the members of the Edo legislature especially those from the opposition PDP want to be independent of the executive in carrying out their law-making duties as the principle of democracy ordained. As has become the case in almost all the states, governors have reduced the legislature, what is in fact the most important organ of government to a mere annex of the executive arm. As loud as governors including Rotimi Amaechi and indeed Oshiomhole may accuse Jonathan of high-handedness, the governors are the main obstacle to democracy by interfering and dictating to the legislature.
The case of Edo State under Oshiomhole’s watch is even more intriguing. Oshiomhole when elected poached the PDP lawmakers who dominated the House and lured them to defect to his party. Now some of those lawmakers are accusing their governor of grand hypocrisy and dictatorship and have decided to return to the PDP but their governor would have none of that. Although Oshiomhole and his ruling APC are accusing the PDP of fomenting crisis in his state, the incontrovertible truth is that Oshiomhole is the one behind the crisis in the State House of Assembly. He was enjoying it when he was taking PDP lawmakers to his party. Now that APC is unravelling and people are seeing through their propaganda and melodrama nationwide and beginning to question their membership of the party, people like the Edo governor appear to be on the edge. Why is Oshiomhole waiting to be told that he is the trouble with Edo State?
•West-Greene contributed this piece from Port Harcourt.
