Civility, decorum and decency were discarded last week as lawmakers confronted Jonathanian impunity with rascality. When impunity meets rascality, chaos becomes inevitable. The commotion and show of shame that the world was treated to at the National Assembly is an embarrassment to democracy. Impunity is fast becoming an entrenched culture in our society and regrettably, the Nigerian Police as a law enforcement institution is at the forefront of championing this negative trend.
When impunity is not sanctioned, it gains ground and soon becomes a norm. One would have thought that the last has been seen of such unethical conducts, where elected leaders behave like rascals as we witnessed at the River State House of Assembly where lawmakers engaged in a vicious fight that saw one of them nearly clubbed to death with a mace. The world was treated to yet another sordid video that totally ridiculed the country as a nation where impunity trumps the rule of law. Not done with the usurpation of the authority of the Judiciary by withdrawing the Speakers security details, the Police IG and his men overreached their bounds by locking out the Speaker and APC lawmakers to possibly give the ruling party the leeway to impeach the man they had already stopped recognizing as the Speaker of the Federal House. Such act of desperation and obvious partisanship can only occur with the tactic support of the Commander in Chief.
While it has become needful to confront the impunity of the ruling government in a bid to salvage our democracy, actions that ridicules the nation as a society where ethics and good conduct are non-existent, cannot be the best approach. Scaling the fence like errant rascals under the guise of defending democracy is not a good example to the younger generation that see some of these leaders as role models. The leading opposition party is beginning to behave like a party of rascals, an adjective the President Jonathan used to describe the leaders of the defunct ACN.
Before the unfortunate incident of the NASS invasion, the leading figures of the APC had embarked on a mass demonstration to register its anger against the government. Nothing is wrong with peacefully venting your anger against government but when leaders who ordinarily should be decorous in words and action, begin to make statements that threaten ôthe sovereignty of the nation, it calls for serious concern. The Governor of Rivers State is turning to a rabble-rouser of some sorts with his unguarded and statesmanly tirades, the recent one being his vow that the opposition party will set up a parallel government if the election is rigged.
A rascal like the Niger Delta warlord, Asari Dokubo, can be forgiven if he makes such uncultured statement, but coming from a leading political figure and a man whose mandate was retrieved by the court, it is most unfortunate. Recall, that it was this same governor that supervised the beating of five lawmakers in his state that attempted to pull off a coup of some sorts against him. His Edo State counterpart also threatened ‘fire for fire’ if the ruling party attempts to rig the 2015 election. The consequences of such inflammatory statements is still fresh in our minds, the collateral damage occasioned by the 2011 post election violence can never be replaced. One would expect a party that promises ‘change’, to be decent in their pursuit for power.
Elsewhere in Ekiti State, the reign of impunity has begun as the Governor has given his support to 7 lawmakers that unlawfully impeached the Speaker in brazen disregard to the constitution. He probably took a cue from the President who also recognized a faction of the NGF that claimed that 16 is greater than 19. The nation is hanging precariously on a cliff and instead of taking concerted actions to calm the polity; the government is fiddling while Rome burns. Sometimes, I wonder how this government finds time to engage in politics when the troubles in the land are enough to keep them perpetually busy.
This culture of impunity must be halted. It is incumbent on the President as the leader of this nation to lead by example, to defend our constitution and to deepen our democracy.
Offor Honest @honest4change.
