“The Nigerian Bar Association unequivocally condemns this assault, intimidation and desecration of the Judiciary by FGN agencies and demands that it be stopped immediately.” http://bit.ly/2SUvgAM
In Nigerian politics, interest and morality are in constant conflict and more often than not, morality is held in subjugation to Interest.
Beyond Interest, the moral thing for Onnoghen the Chief Justice of Nigeria to do is to step down. Beyond morality, the strategic thing to do by interest is to SIT TIGHT, for in politics the god of politics is interest!
SIT TIGHT EXAMPLES
Onnoghen, is the latest sit tight example of the clashes between morality and interest, others before him who chose interest over morality were: Murtala Mohammed, Bukola Saraki, Yemi Osinbajo, Babachir Lawal, Tukur Yusuf Buratai, J. S. Tarka, Amina Zakari, Abdulrasheed Maina, Professor Usman Yusuf (Executive Secretary of the National Health Insurance Scheme). Adamu Adamu, Goodluck Jonathan and Lt-Colonel George Kurubo, belong to a different category of the clashes of interest against morality, while J. S. Tarka and Kemi Adeosun are the only pairs to go the way of morality in the face of public pressure and not on their own.
PROVOCATIVE INSULT OF NEPOTISM
“Appointment of security heads based on merit, Buhari tells Igbo in Anambra” http://bit.ly/2MwclK9
To say no single Igbo man is qualified by merit for the close to 20 top security positions in the land amounts to a provocative insult of nepotism and an affront to the constitutional provision of federal character. Junaid Mohammed captured it in perspective when he said:
“This is enough to prove to you that this is shamelessly the worst form of nepotism in the history of government in Nigeria. In fact, in the history of Africa, let me make bold to assert that I have never seen any level of nepotism that has equalled or surpassed this in my entire life”http://bit.ly/2sJIjcR
Onnoghen is the only southern balancing force in an ethnic charged nation, made worse by nepotism. The speed with which he was arraigned on the eve of the election, is the direct oppose of the speed with which Tukur Yusuf Buratai was cleared under similar circumstances, without due process.
“What Nigerians need to see is a full and open investigation by the relevant arms of government: EFCC, ICPC, special Military tribunal and/or court martial and any and all other relevant military and civil authorities.
Nigerians need to see that official agencies of government including the spokesperson of the Army are no longer unconstitutionally chartered to defend the personal matters of the Army chief. It is Buratai’s duty and his alone to state his defence.”http://bit.ly/2Mwcnlf
Buhari’s fellow Northerners and Southern political associates who have lingering cases with similar accusations have made the smell of double standards even worse!
It should be understood that nepotism and the fear of ethnic domination cost us the civil war and Buhari is going that way.
Buhari’s policy of using his anti-corruption fight as a tool of political coercion and a tool of ethnic vendetta is dangerous for national unity and can wipe off the bond of national unity…if there ever was one!
INTEREST THE SIT TIGHT GOD OF STRATEGIC POLITICS.
The faulty structure of the Nigerian system in which geopolitical power is concentrated in the centre, a practice begun by ironsi’s decree 34 of May 1966, which is the spirit behind our strange federalism and Gowon’s petroleum act of 1969, in which political-economic power was vested in the centre, has made ethnic and personal interest supercede morality when public officers commit a vice that requires they step down.
People in public office represent sectional and personal interest, that often clash with and override the morality, manifesting in the refusal of public offices to resign in the event of a vice, before of pressure from the interest they represent.
The only two public officers, to bow to the public pressure of morality to resign are J. S. Tarka the minority Tiv leader who had fought Fulani subjugation in the Benue valley and Kemi Adeosun a South Western beneficiary of the Northern and South Western political collaboration, first acted out by S. L. Akintola and Ahmadu before Tinubu and Buhari revived it.
On the 169th page of his 2009 Agora published book, he titled: “Oil, Politics and Violence Nigeria’s Military Coup Culture (1966-1976) Max Siollun wrote:
“The corruption got so serious that a private citizen (Godwin Daboh) went to court to swear to allegations of corruption against the Commissioner for Communications Joseph Tarka. Despite the press furore, Gowon did not sack Tarka, who instead later resigned under intense criticism. Brigadier Murtala Mohammed replaced Tarka as Commissioner for Communications in August 1974.”
OBSERVATION: The designation, Commissioner was used to replace Minister by the military governments in the 1970s and 1980s.
ANALYSIS.
1 Like Kemi Adeosun exactly 44 years later, Tarka resigned after public pressure.
2 Like Gowon, exactly 44 years after, Buhari didn’t take any legal action against Kemi Adeosun.
3 Like Tinubu many years after Tarka (by the evidence of Dapo Apara ) Was Tarka amassing public funds to fund his political empire was in Benue the equivalent of Tinubu’s is doing Lagos?
“Alpa Beta, a consultancy owned by Bola Tinubu, former Governor of Lagos State and National leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), is at the centre of a N100 billion fraud, tax evasion and money laundering petition written by Mr. Dapo Apara, its Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer.” http://saharareporters.com/2018/09/07/breaking-tinubu’s-alpha-beta-accused-n100bn-‘money-laundering-tax-evasion-fraud’
4 Buhari’s trademark nepotism of favouring the core North by the principle of Interest over morality has ignited a counter-response by the governors of the South-South, and that response has moved the fragile balance of our national unity on a precarious edge. Onnoghen is from that zone and the ethnic interest he represents (the South South) governors asked him not to step down nor attend the trial. The governors noted:
“Therefore, we consider this step, which is directly aimed at humiliating the nation’s highest judicial officer and a prominent son of the region, as totally unacceptable as it is reflective of the South South story of endless marginalization and intimidation. The unceremonious removal of former Acting Director General of the Department of State Service, Matthew Seiyefa and his replacement is still very fresh.”http://bit.ly/2sUL5MF
Added to the position of the governors are militants from the region, whose threat to resume acts of sabotage will only compounded an already complex security situation in which the army is stretched to the limit performing internal security duties.
There are however a few dissenting voices in the South-South, that hold a contrary position to that of the governors, the most prominent of whom is Robert Clerk, a SAN. He said:
“I have been PRACTICING LAW for over 50 years now, I don’t THINK I have up to $10,000 in my foreign account. Where did CJN get $900,000, if not CORRUPTION”-Robert Clarke, S.A.N” http://bit.ly/2Mxm7Mb
5 Buhari for all his claims of fighting corruption overrode morality by interest by his refusal to prosecute Tinubu in the face of Dapo Apara’s petition to EFCC, but rather went ahead to name him joint head of his 2019 campaign, reviving the North to West alliance of Ahmadu Bello and S. L. Akintola against Awolowo’s UPGA.
Question: Why?
Answer: The prerogative of interest over morality, even in the face of a claim to fight corruption.
“The Presidency in a statement released Friday has named President Muhammadu Buhari as chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Presidential Campaign Council for the 2019 election.
‘The statement signed by Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, also named Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, as co-chairman of the campaign council.”http://bit.ly/2sMaWGv
OBSERVATION: THE POWER OF INTEREST
Buhari by that move (strengthened the strategic Northern/Western alliance, first introduced by Ahmadu Bello and Akintola, that has become Buhari/Tinubu’s role model of North West collaboration against Awolowo’s and M. I. Okpara’s Igbo/Yoruba, East/West corporation).
Buhari with the evidence against Tinubu, went into the strategic alliance, even with his claims of fighting corruption!
Interest in politics is indeed stronger than morality!
Question: Why did Tinubu abandon the principle of his principal Awolowo and adopt that of his political strategy of the adversary, S. L. Akintola?
Answer the supremacy of interest over morality, which is the law of politics.
Towards the build-up to the 1965 elections, there were political realignments based on Interest. Chief S. L. Akintola’s Nigerian National Democratic Party (NNDP) created from his faction of AG and Fani Kayode’s Western block of National Council of Nigerian Citizens (NCNC) merged with Ahmadu Bello’s Northern People’s Congress (NPC) to create The Nigerian National Alliance (NNA).
“It was opposed by the United Progressive Grand Alliance (UPGA), which joined the NCNC and the remnants of the Action Group with two minority-based northern allies, the Northern Elements Progressive Union and the United Middle Belt Congress.
Not surprisingly, the NNA adopted a platform that reflected the views of the northern political elite and, hence, was an attempt by the NPC to gain firmer control of federal politics through an alliance with the Western Region” http://bit.ly/2gSdU7q
Akintola’s unpopular NNDC won the 1965 western elections (by controversial means of rigging) and that led to a breakdown of law and order.
THE BOTTOM LINE
In Nigeria, when interest is at stake, morality becomes the first victim!
• Buhari the head of the executive
• Saraki the head of the legislature and
• Onnoghen the head of the Judiciary.
have all made the point clear!
Continued.
An opinion piece by Amaso Jack. He is a political strategist and analyst, he lectures at Nigerian Institute of Journalism, Lagos State.
The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author and not of Naija News.
source https://www.naijanews.com/2019/01/25/onnoghen-the-conflict-of-morality-against-interest-in-the-face-of-nepotism-i-by-amaso-jack/
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