Mariam Mariam
“Fears of a possible constitutional crisis if the 2007 presidential election was annulled were allayed yesterday by President Umaru Yar’Adua. The President told AFP, a news agency, at the weekend that he would quit power if the Supreme Court annuls his election… I will leave office immediately…On the day there is judgement, I will leave office and ask the Chief Justice to swear in whoever the Supreme Court says should be sworn in”.
“going by the practice in the state, Senate President David Mark, as the No. 3 citizen, may be sworn in as acting President if Yar’Adua’s election is cancelled while a fresh election will be held within 90 days” – Thisday newspaper, Monday, May 19, 2008
In the context of the difficult political and media position that the Yar’adua presidency has boxed itself into in the last few weeks, a new attempt has been commenced in recent days to give some fillip to the clearly lacklustre regime. The series of interviews and interactions with the international and local media has prominently allowed us a glimpse into the near-reclusive Presidency and especially some of the views of President Umaru Yar’adua himself on a number of the issues of the day. There were no surprises about a few of the things that Umaru Yar’adua said in those interviews. When the president said that he would not succumb to nationwide pressures to probe the regime of his benefactor and predecessor, Olusegun Obasanjo, he was not saying anything that was likely to surprise the majority of watchers of his Presidency.
I think that Okey Ndibe was spot on in his column this week, when he said that the Yar’adua administration faces the predicament of being burdened with too many IOUs. In attempting to reconcile the multi-faceted demands of his creditors, Yar’adua is obliged by his circumstances, to almost always, run into political and public policy dead ends. It is not an enviable position to be in for a regime which similarly must also put up all the appearances of being in control and able to meet the groundswell of expectations for change in our country.
A very perceptive observer at the weekend in Kaduna also reminded me that upon the mountain of expectations that the regime must attempt to surmount in a country of complex social indices, there is the very provincial narrowness to the vision of its inner core of operatives. It is very scary to have to remember that they do not even have clearly defines (Northern) regional perspectives, not to talk of a completely pan-Nigerian broad sweep of vision to lead the change which the positions they occupy demand of them.
I have often felt somewhat frustrated by the policy flip flops or the inertia which sometimes give very damning perceptions that the administration is still struggling to find its bearings, never mind the unconvincing mantra of a so-called 7-point agenda. It is very frightening to imagine that leading members of the administration do not seem to fathom the critical role of perception in the political process. They should learn that what the perception is out there will largely determine the way that they will be judged in the long run.
I have read with interest the interview which SGF Babagana Kingibe gave at the weekend, and while his irritation with the instances of misrepresentations in the media which were cited can be understandable, it is imperative that people of his tremendous capacity and experience must redouble efforts to philosophical inadequacy in our country related to worldview and education, which is based in subjective idealism; that notion that a regime “means well”. Unfortunately, even the road to hell is paved with good intentions. We have seen all the spin about how well Obasanjo meant for Nigeria in the previous eight years. With his “good intention”, Obasanjo ran the most incompetent and criminal regime in Nigerian history. At the end of his eight years of “good intentions”, he and his cronies transferred our national patrimony to themselves in a dubious privatization policy; they pauperized the mass of the Nigerian people and worsened all indices of life in those eight years; so much for “good intentions”!
But for me, at the heart of all that Yar’adua has said in the past couple of days and one that has a very important insight for our future as a democratizing country, albeit in a most deformed and incomplete manner, is the vow that he would vacate his position if the Supreme Court annuls his controversial victory at the 2007 polls. Are we to applaud him? Isn’t it true that there is not much that he can do anyway about an annulled election except to vacate the seat of power or as he said “ask the Supreme Court to swear in whoever the Supreme Court says should be sworn in”? This is where the potential booby trap lies and one that we must put into the public realm before it ever happens!
According to THISDAY newspaper of Monday, May 19, 2008, if Yar’adua’s election is annulled by the Supreme Court, “the Senate President David Mark as the No. 3 citizen may be sworn in as acting president”. As the French say: C’est incroyable! To have to face the remote possibility of a David Mark “presidency” even if in a temporary setting rankles the spirit of any self-respecting patriot. David Mark does not deserve to be in the Senate; he is ill-fitting as the president of our upper legislative chamber. The reasons are very simple enough.
David Mark, according to the Benue State Election Petitions Tribunal sitting on February 23, 2008 was not elected as senator by the people of the electoral district he claims to be representing in the National Assembly. Without prejudice to the fact that he has appealed the decision of the tribunals and the case is there sub judice; in the eyes of the majority of people, he is holding what does not belong to him.
Similarly, David Mark is absolutely reviled because of his contempt for the mass of the poor people of our country; while as a legislator, he suffers the odium of being an advocate of the Third Term Agenda of his mentor, the disgraced despot, Olusegun Obasanjo. It is one of the cruel ironies of our political life that a David Mark who spent time defending the dictatorship of his mentor, Obasanjo, now became the main beneficiary of the defeat of the agenda of dictatorship as Senate President; a position he clearly does not deserve and which was achieved as a result of Obasanjo’s direct imposition.
If anybody is in doubt that David Mark does not deserve to be in Senate not to talk of becoming Senate President, please refer to the front-page story of DAILY TRUST of Wednesday, April 23, 2008, which revealed that David Mark had been hosting in his residence a fugitive from justice, a certain Iyabo Obasanjo; daughter of Olusegun Obasanjo! The DAILY TRUST report had quoted family sources as saying that “”Madam Iyabo has been hiding in the Senate President’s house… when EFCC agents stormed it”. What was given as reason why a Senate President will be giving protection to a fugitive from the law? The DAILY TRUST sources “quoted the Senate President as ………..” his staff and family members that he owed his ………. Entirely to Obasanjo and that he must therefore do what he can to help the former president’s daughter ……….. So to help his benefactor, David Mark …………… opprobrium to the seat he occupies …………..
