National Assembly
Jibrin Ibrahim
The Madness in the National Assembly
Jibrin Ibrahim, Deepening Democracy, Daily Trust, 16th August 2024
The proof that madness is running wild in the National Assembly is that the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Abbas Tajudeen could dare propose the contentious Counter Subversion Bill 2024. The proposed legislation sought, among other things, to impose a 10-year prison sentence or a fine of N5 million—or both—on Nigerians who refuse to recite the national anthem. The bill was introduced following the May 2024 decision by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to revert to Nigeria’s old national anthem, “Nigeria, We Hail Thee,” which was written by Lillian Jean Williams in 1959 and composed by Frances Berda. This decision itself had already stirred controversy, with many Nigerians questioning the rationale behind the change and expressing concerns about the anthem’s colonial origins and language of tribes. Meanwhile, the old anthem was rediscovered and imposed on Nigerians without consultation or debate. What they are telling Nigerians is that when they impose something, Nigerians must obey or be dealt with.
The bill, sponsored by Speaker Abbas Tajudeen himself with the title Counter Subversion Bill and other related ones introduced on July 23, 2024, proposed severe penalties for anyone who refuses to recite the national anthem, destroys national symbols, or undermines the federal government. Additionally, it included punishments for defacing places of worship, setting up illegal roadblocks, and receiving foreign financial or political support that could compromise Nigeria’s security and development.
The essence of the bill is provisions for fines and prison sentences for those who disobey or disrespect authority, organise unauthorised processions, or supported paramilitary or militia groups. It sought to criminalise activities that undermine national security and peaceful coexistence, with penalties ranging from fines of N3 million to N15 million and prison terms of up to 20 years. The idea is to criminalise all protests and opposition to government. The bill was clearly designed to end democracy in Nigeria following the success of the end bad governance ten-day demonstrations. How did they even think they could pass such a draconian bill in Nigeria? The Speaker had to withdraw it in a hurry to stop the next set of national protests starting earlier than planned.
Activists, such as Omoyele Sowore and Aisha Yesufu had strongly condemned the bill and Sowore had threatened a shutdown of the National Assembly if the bill was not withdrawn, while Yesufu declared she would rather face a 20-year prison sentence than sing the newly re-adopted national anthem, “Nigeria, We Hail Thee.” The idea of equating disagreement with government with state subversion is the essence of fascism and it is concerning that the leadership of our National Assembly can even think about such an initiative.
This is a National Assembly that has for decades refused to tell Nigerians the true amount they receive each month as salary and allowances. There was a breach in their armour of secrecy this week when Senator Abdulrahman Kawu Sumaila (NNPP, Kano), on Wednesday, confirmed that he receives about N21+1 million monthly as his perquisite for representing the people of Kano South Senatorial District in the 10th National Assembly. He however said that he does not know how much goes to the Senate president, the deputy Senate president, as well as each of the eight other principal officers of the upper chamber of the Nigerian parliament. The revelation by Kawu puts the total monthly package for all the 99 non-principal officers of the Senate at N2.079 billion.
The 10 principal officers of the 10th Senate are: President, Godswill Akpabio; Deputy President; Jibrin Barau; Majority Leader, Opeyemi Bamidele; Deputy Majority Leader, Lola Ashiru; Chief Whip, Tahir Monguno; Deputy Chief Whip, Nwebonyi Peter Onyeka; Minority Leader, Abba Moro; Deputy Minority Leader, Akogun Lere Oyewumi; Minority Whip, Osita Ngwu and Deputy Minority Whip, Rufai Hanga.
In normal parliamentary systems, the earnings of members are public knowledge as they are available on the website of the organisations. If our National Assembly has made their earnings a secret, it is because they know some of the payments are illegal and they need to hide their criminality while they insist we call them honourable and distinguished Nigerians. We need to withdraw these labels from them. As former President Olusegun Obasanjo said recently, the federal lawmakers are acting immorally for fixing their remunerations themselves. At a time when the majority of Nigerians are suffering from multi-dimensional poverty and severe hunger, it is shocking that legislators believe they can continue to consume a considerable slice of the national budget.
The management of the National Assembly not only lacks transparency but is also conducted in a very authoritarian manner. When Abdul Ningi, senator representing Bauchi central, alleged that the 2024 budget was padded by N3 trillion Naira, the upper legislative chamber suspended him rather than investigate the very disturbing allegation. It would be recalled that the upper legislative chamber during the debate leading up to Ningi’s suspension descended into chaos when senator representing Cross River north, Jarigbe Jarigbe claimed that some senior senators received N500 million Naira in the budget for constituency projects. We have been hearing that the leadership padding range is in the billions.
Increasingly, it has become clear that the leadership of the National Assembly is determined to shut up members and deny them the freedom of speech. When the concerned Senate Chief Whip, Senator Ali Ndume, expressed his views on the current hardship being faced by Nigerians and the President being caged by a cabal that is stopping even ministers from accessing him, Ndume was removed from his position as a principal officer. All senators were warned to stop making critical comments about government or they would be dealt with. It is this rising authoritarian culture within the National Assembly that emboldened the Speaker to seek to pass a law that would shut up Nigerians. Na lie. We no go gri.
cornelius...@gmail.com
#Norman O Brown : Liberty ( lots of leeway)
The kind of poetry that is more easily said than done :
“ Give me liberty or give me death”
“disrespect authority”, “undermines the federal government.”, sounds a bit vague - “disrespect authority”, “undermines the federal government.” with criminal intent, in thought, word and deed, how easily do you prove that?
“The idea is to criminalise all protests and opposition to government”.
Thinking of Dear Chidi who probably still believes that “the pen is mightier than the sword” - the sword, but not THE BOMB.
Indeed, these Palestinian poets perished in Gaza!
Thinking about Dear Chidi nevertheless taking cover under the umbrella of “the Supreme Deity”, The Almighty, Dear Chidi taking umbrage under the Almighty’s iron dome even as he opines as he keeps his gunpowder dry,
“We, the poets,
We are protesters,
We are the mouthpieces
Of the Supreme Deity.”
You hear am now? Him tell Tinubu that Tinubu only be president and Mr President must listen up now , because him ( Chidi) be the mouthpiece of the Supreme Deity, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
Maybe, Mr. President will quote St. Paul to Chidi Anthony Opara :
Paul also probably had some wannabes like Kamala Harris in mind when he legislated,” Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands as you do to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.”
The obnoxious bill in question : Counter Subversion Bill 2024 .
Injurious to the good citizen’s mental health.
Maybe, they’re going to dust it up a little and re-introduce it. Label any kinds of hostile opposition - opposition to the current government as “enemies of the state”, “ enemies of the Nigerian people” - declare a unity government and a one-party state .
Power corrupts.
Of relevance : Arthur Koestler : Darkness at Noon
But God forbid that after all that she’s been through, Africa’s most populous country should be heading towards that kind of ditch, the abyss, the bottomless pit : Jahannam.
Trump has been saying this for some time about the great America : “Our country is going to hell”..
Just imagine if e.g. Peter Obi or Alhaji Atiku expressed that kind of pessimism….we would say it was “sour grapes”...
Serious: We haven’t seen Auwal Musa Rafsanjani on this site for a while. Has he gone underground? Are things so bad that he had to go underground? If so , let’s hope that he is well, and safe. He is a natural complement to all the other Human Rights and Democracy advocates in Nigeria and in the USA-Africa Dialogue Series…
If, like, once upon a time, Allen Ginsberg's muse, politically inspired, iconoclastically motivated and operating under the self-awarded poetic licence & Uncle Sam’s First Amendment of course, our own brave soul, professor Jibrin Ibrahim ( God bless him) were to throw discretion to the winds, discretion being the greater part of valour, and choosing to tempt fate, to tempt Brer Tinubu & the awesome powers that be, and relatively speaking some of the minions in the hierarchy with him ( Brer Tinubu) perched at the apex - the very pinnacle of the Nigerian power pyramid, - and the minions such as our fellow mortal, the so called “All-Powerful Senate President Godswill Akpabio” and he ( Professor Jibrin Ibrahim) were to speak about “a mad Senate which no longer sleeps with its wife”, apart from being misinterpreted and his freedom of speech being questioned by the villains /miscreants, he would certainly not be awarded a prize for civil courage these crazy days when civil courage tempts and defies unreasonably cooked up treasonable laws to punish dissidents under the evolving non-progressive retards that we have sometimes unknowingly and erroneously entrusted with the arduous task of representing us the long-suffering masses in our various post-independent, self-governing entities, countries & constituencies
One of the most boring metres ever composed in, a favourite metre of Longfellow, the trochaic tetrameter:
“Lives of great men all remind us
We can make our lives sublime,
And, departing, leave behind us
Footprints on the sands of time;”
It’s President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the leader of the caravan, that one has in mind here. After his first term in office, since Rome was not built in a day, perhaps, to be followed by a second term, what plans does he have in mind, fulfilling which he hopes to be remembered positively, by posterity, as an achiever and a nation builder? This much is certain: If indeed the patriotic Jibrin Ibrahim’s critique in this article “ The Madness” and in the same vein, the article he penned last week, “Akpabio” - if these critiques are anything to go by, then, normally, one would think that it should be incumbent on Mr. President as the chief executive and head of government , to look into these very serious matters before it's too late and to sort things out, if he can , to the best of his ability; otherwise, these nauseous matters will continue to reflect poorly on him and his presidency, and to soil what has been taken for granted as his good name on which basis he was elected President of Nigeria - the “ sleeping giant” to whom much of Africa looks up to for some leadership, inspiration and direction. Sadly, Mr. President’s perceived negligence or failure to tackle these outstanding matters will only serve to tarnish his legacy-in-the-making….
The scenario Jibrin Ibrahim describes is surrealistic, and if true - as truth is sometimes stranger than fiction, then the current Nigerian status quo which seeks to criminalise certain freedoms and liberties, such as the freedom to oppose and to disagree, including the freedom of dissenters, denying these freedoms that democratic constitutions guarantee their citizen would mean that even given the many differences between Nigeria and the USA, Nigeria would thereby be moving perilously close to being guilty of Wikipedia's critiques of Project 2025, beginning with the part that says,
“The Project asserts a highly debated interpretation of the unitary executive theory that the entire executive branch is under the exclusive control of the president.[6][7][8][9][10] It proposes reclassifying tens of thousands of federal civil service workers as political appointees in order to replace them with people loyal to the president.[11] Proponents of the project argue it would dismantle what they view as a vast, unaccountable, and mostly liberal government bureaucracy”
You get the drift?
And, departing, leave behind us
Footprints on the sands of time;”
cornelius...@gmail.com
“4. Insulting leadership: Insulting, defaming, or bringing disrepute to community, religious, or government leaders carries a fine of N4 million or a two-year prison sentence.”
“5. Threatening national security: Engaging in activities that foster mistrust, intolerance, or violence threatening Nigeria’s peace and security could result in a fine of N5 million, a 10-year prison term, or both.”
In Sierra Leone, there was the extraordinary case of President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah taking Paul Kamara to court , resulting in Paul Kamara being given a two year prison sentence for “ seditious libel” because he had written in a Sierra Leone newspaper that Pa Kabbah had “a house in Conakry” , in Guinea, where he had spent ten months in exile after he boarded a get away helicopter which transported him to safety in Conakry where he spent the next ten months, after he had been unceremoniously overthrown by Johnny Paul Koroma….( another story
Pa Kabbah said that by making that kind of statement, Paul Kamara was posing a serious threat to state security.
Paul spent some time in Foday Sankoh’s former solitary confinement cell ( yet another story
cornelius...@gmail.com
cornelius...@gmail.com
In all this the separation of powers is of the essence.
The lovers of freedom along with the lovers of lawlessness and anarchy can breathe a collective sigh of relief that taking the temperature of public dissent, the wannabe draconian lawmakers, cognizant of the fact that if the past protests and demonstrations were anything to go by, they were fast approaching the boiling point of public disaffection, resistance, the calamity, the palace of no return - a hapless journey's end, and that’s why, like a hot potato the draconian Counter Subversion Bill 2024 has been dropped, wisely.
But, surely, already, there are laws in the Nigerian Constitution and the Legal Penal Code that adequately cover issues such as illegal assemblies, insurrection with a view to separation, fornication, corruption, abortion, blasphemy and treason?
About blasphemy, I can hear Baba Kadiri remonstrating that “ Nigeria is not a theocracy” - like the Islamic Republic of Iran or Saudi Arabia, the bastion of Sunni Orthodoxy - and that may be true of Nigeria today, but as Fela said, “gradually, gradually” we will have one useful Muslim President after the other, and prophetically speaking, we will arrive at a time when Zamfara will be the first of twelve Northern States to embrace Sharia Law - no protests and demonstrations throughout the rest of the Federation, and you guys, whoever you may be had better be extra careful not to blaspheme publicly, speak ill of any Prophet or foment public disorder up there, because as you know, you will be properly or improperly “dealt with” and there’s no other court in the land that will exonerate your behaviour, that you were merely exercising your “freedom of speech”, freedom to think - freedom to write poetry without any restrictions. academic freedom, because you are “the voices of the Supreme Deity”
Thank God that most countries, including Nigeria have an Official Secrets Act - that’s why Little Lord Fauntleroy ( Julian Assange ) got himself into so much trouble, isn't it?
And then of course there are also laws covering misinformation, libel and slander which were invoked and in my opinion misused to punish Sierra Leone ‘s Paul Kamara ( journalist
Shahnameh will ever remain a classic and a national epic, but, gone are the days of “The Divine Right of Kings”, so, the matter of “refusing” to sing the National Anthem - or “ God save the Queen / the King / the President/ the Speaker of the Nigerian Senate “ etc is patently ridiculous - since Nigeria is not North Korea, or a Sharia Republic where adhering to the religious dress code is apparently more obligatory that voluntary - as if the three or five daily prayers to the Supreme Deity is not a matter of conscience but a public act of worship of the type that Jesus complained about , a matter which in some wannabe theocracy could result in a two year prison sentence “for not respecting authority”
Last question : Since, just like the Sierra Leone National Anthem ( composed in 1961) just like the Nigerian National Anthem , are both written in English, is a national of either country who does not understand English supposed to have such a National Anthem to heart.
BTW, the sweetest melody and prosody is that of the Swedish National Anthem - really heart-stirring…. It’s a feeling that cannot be adequately translated into English
Salimonu Kadiri
Sent: 17 August 2024 14:31
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