Fw: Prof Olukotun's Column

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From: Ayo Olukotun <ayo_ol...@yahoo.com> Sent: Thursday, 17 August 2017 13:21 To: ayo_ol...@yahoo.com; joel...@yahoo.com; betap...@yahoo.com Reply To: ayo_ol...@yahoo.com Subject: Prof Olukotun's Column

               RESIGN OR RESUME PROTESTS: A POSTMORTEM

                        AYO OLUKOTUN

        

History, we are forced to notice time and again, dues not progress in majesty and unbroken speed to an accustomed and predictable destination. It proceeds in zig zags, tumbles forward one day, hurtles backward the next, taking its time to rest before the next round of forward marches. To give an example, who would have thought that the deadly and frightful racial outbursts at Charlottesville in Virginia, United States last week, could occur in an advanced democracy that is well over 200 years?. Isn't this the same nation that so recently basked in the glow of moving towards "a more perfect union", by putting in office a black President?

     Coming back to Nigeria, one would have thought that the victory of an opposition party in the 2015 elections, would signal the deepening of democracy and the enlargement of civil liberty. However, as various civil society groups, including the resume or resign coalition are learning, autocracy lurks just beneath the surface of our putative democracy. Hounded by the police, escaping death by the whiskers at the hands of counter protesters, some of whom were given ostentatious reception by state officials, the resign or resume movement suspended and relocated to Lagos on Wednesday, its sit-outs.

      This columnist does not hold brief for the weakly organized coalition, which insisted that President Mohammadu Buhari must resume, having been away from the country for 100 days, or resign. However, I shudder at how uphill it continues to be for Nigerian citizens to challenge or at least query official narratives and cant. There is a gripping irony here. As Human Right Lawyer, Femi Falana(SAN) recently expressed it. "It is pertinent to remind the presidency and the Nigeria Police Force that President Buhari had, in the recent past taken part in demonstrations in Abuja to protest alleged manipulation of election results and perceived injustice in the country". At what point then did it become a crime or an act of treason to do what Buhari did as a private citizen? 

      It would have been more edifying and refreshing if an opposition party that rode to power on the platform of change, took care to protect the ensemble of civil rights, the skein of tolerant and accommodating politics, which enabled it to oppose constructively, campaign, and win elections. That this is not the case, is very much to be regretted, and should be counted as an illustration of the backsliding of historical movement, that was referred to ,in the opening paragraph.

     In the debate that has been conducted about the resume or resign group, some commentators have unhelpfully characterised them as acting out a script of the Peoples Democratic Party. This is a red herring that can only divert attention from the real issues. Former President Goodluck Jonathan said the same thing of the activists that gathered in 2012 to oppose the wanton increase in the price of petroleum products. He said that they were opposition elements. The point is, even if they were, how does that nullify the cogency of their arguments and advocacy. Cheap propaganda and demonising, do not resolve issues that require serious thinking. Before pursuing the narrative further, this columnist craves the readers indulgence for a short take.

          The attempt by Jonathan to trumpet some of his achievements in office, last week, led to a rancorous debate between him and the ruling All Progressive Congress. Jonathan insisted that he did well by running a sound economy, by accomplishing agricultural transformation. Rising to the occasion, the Presidency took the opportunity to call out Jonathan and put him on the spot, by pointing out that he ought to be ashamed of the reckless looting of the treasury that proceeded apace under his administration. The debate has continued, with each side, laying emphasis on their respective achievements. If both sides are humble enough, they will ask the people what they think of their trumpeted claims. For this columnist, the missing factor in the debate, is the absence of remorse for woes inflicted, for dereliction and the lack of any evidence that any lessons have been learnt.   

         Jonathan should have been meeker concerning his looking the other way, to say the least, while so many billions of naira disappeared into the bottomless pits created by his cronies and ministers. Buhari or those speaking for him, should have been contrite, concerning the ambiguities and controversies that have grown around the change platform on which they rode to power. The two sides could have bridged the communication gap between them and the people, if they had focused on what they had learnt, and what they are planning to do better next time.

       To return to the initial discourse, whatever one says of the resign or resume group, there is no doubt that they are raising fundamental issues pertaining to the health of the country and the need to overcome the impasse created by Buhari's protracted medical emergency. As Falana recently put it, Buhari had advised former President Umaru Yar Adua, in a similar situation to step aside as he could no longer discharge the duties and functions of his office. True, Buhari had handed over to Prof Yemi Osinbajo(SAN), who is the acting president. But can we say, in all conscience, that an acting president while the President is still alive, possesses the same leeway as an elected President? Whether we like it or not, the decisions and indecisions of this delicate times will be cited as precedents by subsequent political actors. Even the temporising and "siddon look" postures of those who ought to know better, have become part of the narrative .

        To be sure, the Senate may be right in insisting that Buhari has broken no law. That tells us little however on how to. resolve the medical logjam and the tormenting uncertainty, which characterise the current situation. What the Senate had said is less important than what it chose not to say. It is even more distasteful that some party loyalists have commenced a Buhari for 2019 campaign, at a time when the country is none the wiser about the nature of his ailment or the time of his return to Nigeria. This reminds one of the period of our national life when elections without the people were the order of the day. In another country, the resign or resume protest would have been unnecessary, because the institutions of state would have resolved the issue. It is a sad comment on what the politicians and blind partisanship have turned the country to, that it took protests of this nature , to remind the ruling class that good. governance includes, decorum, decency, ethics and propriety.

       What then is to be done? Nigeria, cannot continue to hang in the balance for an indefinite length of time. The Senate should consider plugging the legal loophole in the Constitution, by stipulating a decent and reasonable interval in which high state officials can be on medical vacation. Such laws exist in the public service, and there is no reason why they should not be extended to the political arena.

      Finally, our democracy must seek to extend the boundaries of discourse and freedom of expression, rather than shrink the spaceSent from Yahoo Mail on Androi