Notwithstanding his offence, the public drama in which officers of the Department of State Security (DSS) invaded and sealed-off the Abuja and Sokoto residences of erstwhile National Security Adviser (NSA) Col. Sambo Dasuki is shameful and most embarrassing to Nigerians. It is a debasement of Nigerian democracy and a sad manifestation of the rule of force over the rule of law. Pray, on whose authority and on what basis did the DSS act in that manner? Dasuki might have made mistakes during his stewardship, but the allegation that he was arming himself to overthrow the government is ridiculous and unacceptable. The evidence is not only unconvincing, it is lamentable and pathetic. The brazen lawlessness constituted a crude assault on Nigeria’s democracy. Such brigandage lowers the country’s image before the international community and Nigerians deserve a full explanation. After 16 years of democracy, there should be no more room for such conducts. It must never be allowed to repeat itself.
At the same time Dasuki’s homes were being ransacked, Former Preisent Jonathan`s chief security officer, Gordon Obuah, was detained and has since been held incommunicado. In a terse statement signed by one Tony Opuiyo, the DSS berated Dasuki for instructing his military guards to prevent DSS operatives from gaining access to his residence, “despite being presented with a genuine and duly signed search warrant” noting that the maturity of the DSS agents prevented a violent stand-off. While claiming Dasuki as a retired colonel was not entitled to military guards, Opuiyo said the DSS found incriminating items, including seven high caliber rifles, several magazines and military related gears. “The team also recovered 12 new vehicles, out of which five were bullet proofs. These cars which from all available evidence were purchased with tax payers’ money were being kept for possible sinister enterprise. What could a former NSA be doing with destructive weapons and bullet-proof cars which, put together, could disrupt the peace of any city in Nigeria for a while,” the statement queried?
It stretches credulity to believe Opuiyo’s rambling and nonsensical explanations. It may be alright that the DSS duly obtained a search warrant before its invasion; but the situation could have been handled more professionally without portraying the DSS as a Gestapo organization. To begin with, a person of Dasuki’s status ought to be treated with dignity and respect in a democratic dispensation. The siege on his home, two days after Buhari had thanked him for his services to the country while he served as NSA, was most undeserving. Without prejudice to any investigation, it is worth noting that it is not within the remit of the agency to probe acts of corruption and embezzlement by public officials. The DSS action certainly needed to be justified, but such justification cannot be in phantom evidence, which impeached the process by which the DSS arrived at their own conclusions.
Besides, a search warrant is not an arrest warrant; hence the DSS acted ultra vires by placing Dasuki on quasi house arrest. In fact, the former NSA had the right to leave the house while the search was being conducted. To have subjected him to questioning and restricting his movement even when he wanted to observe sacred Muslim prayers were clear violations of his fundamental rights, and respect for the dignity of his person and personal liberty as guaranteed by Sections 31 and 35 of the Constitution. Such barefaced violation of the right to privacy and dignity cannot be in the best interest of democracy; it is lawlessness. The DSS must guard against repeating such lawlessness, and acting in a manner suggesting a disdain for due process. As for Obuah, he been released but no charges was brought against him
For the avoidance of doubt, the allegation that Dasuki was arming himself to overthrow the government is laughable and defies basic commonsense. As a soldier who understands the business of coup plotting, Buhari should know better. It needs also be stated that at the topmost management of the public, respect is mutual and reciprocal for the smooth running of the state. Such mutuality is dictated by the decorum exercised by authorities in the discharge of their functions. The government should treat the office of people like Dasuki with some dignity. They should be treated at their exit, in the same manner they were treated when they held office. Dasuki’s home invasion fell short of this required decorum, for it diminishes the office of the NSA and debases the values that the nation’s founding fathers enunciated. By elimination, it is an index of what Nigeria does not value.
Other non-altruistic motives have been inferred from the action, including the wide public perception that the new administration is hell-bent on a political vendetta and witch-hunt against loyalists of the former regime. Critics have pointed to the case of AIT, which was banned from Aso Rock because of a documentary the TV station ran against Buhari during the campaigns. Next was Marilyn Ogar, who was summarily demoted, by the DSS, for her role during the campaigns; and then the persecution of Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu. It is now being speculated that Buhari is nursing a grudge against Dasuki, for something he did to Buhari some years back. It is bewildering because all these things are happening under a supposedly democratic dispensation.
Either way, the DSS’s hogwash explanation cannot vitiate the gravity of the indefensible action, because the flimsy evidence and the contradictions presented are simply mind-boggling; and stand condemned in all ramifications in much the same manner as the brigandage itself. Against a man who held the entire security of Nigeria in his hands before the change in the nation’s leadership, the barbarism was nothing more than whimsical and disdainful impunity, which left much to be desired about the cantankerous temperament of the new administration. Dasuki’s harassment without precedents in infractions to the detriment of his office or the nation, merely advertises the culture of impunity that holds the DSS up to public ridicule and did little credit to the President’s image as a statesman.
In fact, the silence of the President is too loud or rather deafening for comfort. Whoever ordered the invasion stands condemned in the strongest terms for lacking in vital attributes of democratic engagement. Nigerians are apprehensive of the Gestapo tactics which vindicate Jonathan, who, in an ominous prediction in the twilight of his administration, said people who worked with him would face persecution. This re-enactment of the antics of military dictatorship is criminality of the worst kind and a national disgrace of immeasurable proportions. It is a great disservice to the Nigerian people, who await the change for the better that they were promised and which they voted for. But far more than anger or anything else it engendered, the indecorous professional conduct against Dasuki remains a national embarrassment and an imprudent display of statecraft.
