I HAD planned to continue with the conclusions of my reflections on the chaotic presidency of our current leader especially when the presidential communications office touched off more chaos last week on the eve of their first year in office and 25 years of unbroken democratic dispensation.
Most of my valued readers including some respected scholars had earlier advised me to continue to suggest to the chief executive of the federation on how to fix the chaos his leadership style has triggered. I had a draft until two related issues arising from the chaos in the presidency led to fresh chaos within the leadership of our National Assembly that actually advertised a celebration of 25 years of democracy in Nigeria.
The celebration notice actually roused my consciousness and it was taking some steam out of my curiosity on why our representatives hurriedly passed a law to adopt a former national anthem written by a foreigner. I was wondering why there was no thorough debate and public hearing on such an important national cohesion and orientation issue (national anthem) when an item on the 25 years of democracy event advertised by the National Assembly, notably commissioning of a Library and Resource Centre within the construct of a joint sitting of the National Assembly caught my attention.
Although Bayo Onanuga’s statement to the effect that the president was going to address the joint session of the federal legislature as part of the celebration of democracy had touched off another commotion in the media when the person who always claims to be the chief spokesperson of the president, Ajuri Ngelale went overboard by denouncing Mr. Onanuga’s statement as unauthorised. And so a more bizarre decision of the National Assembly – naming their brand new library and resource centre in honour of the head of the executive arm of government can’t be ignored.
For me, the decision of the National Assembly leadership to name their library after an incumbent president should have attracted more reactions than all other chaotic offerings at the time of celebrating 25 years of unbroken sessions of the National Assembly. I had thought that no matter the troubles that we have had in the last twenty-five years in this anything-is-possible country, a programme of even a weeklong events by the National Assembly should be worth any while.
Having been part of the surviving journalists who have followed the National Assembly’s liaison office from an office in Wuse zone 1, to the International Conference Centre, Abuja where they were hibernating before the inauguration of the First Session of the Assembly on June 4, 1999, I was interested in a series of well planned activities to mark the 25 years of keeping the ‘militicians’ away from arena of political leadership.
I had thought the Chairman of the Joint Session of the National Assembly and President of the Senate, Senator Godswill Akpabio and the Deputy Chairman of the Joint Session and Speaker of the House of Representatives, Honourable Tajudeen Abbas should have organised a purposeful weeklong activities where they should have recognised and honoured some of the old legislative officers who began the building blocks of the bureaucracy of the National Assembly such as Malam Ibrahim Salim, Alhaji Ibrahim Arab, Mr Yemi Ogunyomi, Salihu Maikasuwa, Olayide Adelami (Now Deputy Governor, Ondo State), etc.
They should have hired event managers who would have worked out beautiful and historic events that would have relived sweet memories of the making of the National Assembly in 25 years. There would have been exhibitions of so many photographs and voices of some resourceful journalists and resource persons who have covered the Chambers and bureaucracy of the National Assembly. They would have published the Hansard/Verbatim Report of Proceedings for pubic presentation.
There would have been documentaries to showcase the majesty of democracy through the National Assembly, easily the most remarkable institution and symbol of democracy. If they had strategically planned this event through a genuine event committee, they wouldn’t have hurriedly named their most important monument after the head of the executive they are elected to put on his toes through oversight and the public purse the constitution empowers them to protect.
And so here is the thing, this is a time to tell Senator Akpabio that the office he is holding in trust as President of the Senate is too important to be used anyhow, too sacred to be deployed to serve personal interest of the President, the head of the executive arm. That office makes him N0.3 citizen in the federation’s order of national precedence. Akpabio who achieved prominence in his capacity as Governor of Akwa Ibom State should be seeking significance at this time of national crisis. The nation may not be boiling at this time but there is fire already on the mountain except that no one seems to be on the run as our worthy daughter and artiste Asa once mused in a song.
First, changing our national anthem to reflect what President Asiwaju confirmed at the weekend as “my priority” is absurd and preposterous. Why was there no public hearing on such an important national issue? Why was the bill that denigrates our ingenuity and seeks to celebrate colonial heritage rushed because the president’s interest, not public interest is involved? A scholar and columnist has aptly described the strange capitulation as a “national self debasement.” That is what it is. And all members of the National Assembly on the platforms of APC, PDP, Labour, SDP, APGA should take responsibility for that tragic error and reproach they just imposed on the nation.
Second, in this our representative democracy model, where was the decision to name an important knowledge institution such as a Library and Resource Centre of our country’s parliament after an incumbent president?
So, no one in the committee reminded the powerful sycophants who proposed the idea that the library of the National Assembly is supposed to be one of the most important monuments in the parliament? What is more, nobody within the leadership of our federal legislature could suggest that some of the iconic figures in our country’s fight for democracy should have been remembered?
No one could remember significant legislators such as the late Anthony Enahoro who in a pre-independence legislature moved the first Motion for Independence? Would an “Anthony Enahoro Library and Resource Centre” not have been an ideal monument? What of Senator Joseph Wayas or Ume Ezeoke Library to put an imprimatur of parliament on the resource centre? Why didn’t they remember even the first President of the Senate of this dispensation of 25 years, Senator Evans Enwerem? What of the first Clerk of the National Assembly’s first Session, Ibrahim Salim? Do these people remember them?
Did they remember there was a Clerk, National Assembly who actually held all the positions in the two legislative chambers, namely Deputy Clerk, House of Representatives, Clerk, House of Representatives, Clerk Senate, Deputy Clerk, National Assembly, (DCNA) and Clerk, National Assembly? His name is Oluyemi Ogunyomi? Did they remember the first authentic Speaker, House of Representatives, Ghali Naaba? Why didn’t they have institutional memory to remember a famous Radio Nigeria journalist, the late Isa Idime, (Igala) who popularised parliamentary reporting through his daily evening programme: “Democracy in Action” during the Second Republic? In a good democracy, such iconic figures can be honoured by naming institutions and monuments after them.
So, Senator Akpabio and Honourable Abbas should explain to the nation the political sense and calculations that led to the naming of their first “well –equipped” library after the head of the executive arm of government. They should note that their two actions on the national anthem and naming of the library of our Congress after the head of another arm of government is a tragedy for the democracy they should be celebrating.
I hope someone can remind our National Assembly presiding officers who take all these arbitrary decisions that the power of the Congress of the United States is largely in their library, easily one of the best equipped in the world. There is nothing on earth you want to research on that you can’t obtain from that remarkable library. No agency or arm of government can concoct ‘anyhowness’, any data, any documents and dump on the Congress of the United States. All public officers and researchers, scholars know the power of the Library of Congress supported by another powerful monument, the Budget Office.
On May 21, 2023 here, I wrote an article on the expediency of maintaining federal character balance in the leadership of the National Assembly in the world then. In the article titled, “NASS Leadership: Who Is On Nigeria’s Side?”, I had quoted the following as an opening statement:
‘All things are lawful for me, but all things are not expedient: all things are lawful for me, but all things edify not’.
‘Some of you say, “We can do whatever we want to!” But I tell you not everything may be good or helpful’.
(I Cor. 10:23)
I quoted various English versions of these same very important ancient words to the very inordinately ambitious politicians who I said then “… do not care about the very delicate and fragile nature of this federation… They don’t care if Nigeria comes to harm again as long as they have their way. They are on the march again. They do not care if the country goes up in flame again in the name of political ambition. They don’t believe the master strategist and leader of leaders who told a lot of carefree believers before that, some of you say, ‘We can do whatever we want to’ But I tell you not everything may be good or helpful…’
And so today, I want to repeat my May 21, 2023 counsel (from above) to the President of the Senate Godswill Akpabio and Tajudeen Abbas, the Speaker of the House and other leaders of the National Assembly that indeed “everything is allowable, but not everything is profitable. Everything is allowable, but everything does not build others up. When amplified this means: All things are lawful [that is, morally legitimate, permissible], but not all things are beneficial or advantageous.
All things are lawful, but not all things are constructive…” They should always consider public interest above their own interest. They should always remember that Senator Ahmad Lawan and Honorable Femi Gabjabiamila were also serving the interest of the then President Mohammadu Buhari instead of public interest. Don’t tell me where they are. Tell me where we are in Nigeria because some leaders served personal interest.
Oloja is editor of The Guardian newspaper and his column, Inside Stuff, runs on the back page of the newspaper on Sundays. The column appears on News Point Nigeria newspaper on Mondays.