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s the Nigerian nation stumble towards 2015 and is being pushed and goaded into political chaos, instability, illegalities and disrespect for democratic values we watch with shock and bewilderment and wonder how the drift that was jumpstarted by Jonathan will play out in the end. As an old saying goes, those who set fire to a house should not expect to sleep in it. The invasion of the National Assembly by the police set the democratic culture of the nation back to the military era and back to the events that led to the fall of the First Republic when the Western Nigeria House of Assembly was set alight and fighting broke out in September 1962, which led to a chain of events that culminated in the end of the republic and the coup that wiped out the leading actors in the nation's political landscape. The irrational action of the police at the National Assembly was quickly followed by the invasion of the of the offices of the All Progressive Congress (APC) by men of the Department of State Security (DSS), the precursor of the State Security Service (SSS), a group of rag-tag agents who have so far not been able to unravel and secure the state from Boko Haram. You will expect the agents to be on the trail of Boko Haram and be fully engaged in activities that will secure the release of Chibok girls, but Jonathan would rather send them on errands to intimidate, harass, and brutalize the opposition. A myopic Marilyn Ogar claimed that they were looking for cloned voters' cards in the APC office. Has Ogar visited Jonathan's TAN and PDP offices where all sorts of crimes are being committed on a daily basis, fraudulent lists being compiled and all sorts of crooked figures being bandied around? Has she placed TAN under surveillance despite repeated news reports about shady activities, voters' cards collection, crowd rental, and illicit state data in the hands of the group leaders? What ever happened to proper due process and securing a search warrant? That state agents - with soldiers in tow - could invade an opposition party office is a sign of a desperate central government to engender anarchy and to have its way at all cost. Jonathan has done enough damage already and the kleptocracy he runs has ruined the nation to a level where everyone should be concerned and anxious to get rid of him.
State policies, processes and procedures have not been firmed up to prevent interference and abuses by incumbents, which is why the need for separation of power and authority is very crucial - with some autonomy to enable the police be fair and able to rely on facts on the ground rather than directive from a corrupt and partial leadership. It is an anathema to democracy for the police force to be controlled by the central government in a nation where there are no state or city police forces. At the moment state police commissioners do not truly report to the state governors and this makes it possible for a commissioner of police to go rogue like Joseph Mbu did in Rivers State recently. The minister of police affairs has recently used policemen to carry out duties that advanced the cause of his party, the PDP, particularly during the recent elections in Osun and Ekiti States. Jonathan has created a situation where the police has become tools and agents of the PDP and errand boys of his TAN body. Policemen have been assigned to protect PDP and TAN leaders notwithstanding the fact that most of these men and women are involved in activities that are criminal in nature. Even a wanted man, Mr. Buruji Kashamu has police escort.
We have a duty as a people to demand fairness, transparency, and respect for democratic institutions, but we know that our collective desires are at variance to the agenda of Mr. Jonathan. A kleptocracy will always find itself in trouble and will always want to hang on to prevent the exposure of the looting and corruption it has perpetuated over the years, hence the desperation and hellish approach to governance. Security agencies, the police and the armed forces have now become partners of the People's Democratic Party (PDP). Aso Rock denied knowing anything about the invasion of the National Assembly yet the police men who carried out that illegality have not been arrested and detained. The audacity of a detachment of the Nigeria Police to invade the National Assembly is shocking, the silence and inaction of constituted authority to the invasion and the glaring satisfaction of Jonathan tells the true story and confirmed who the puppet master was. We now live in a society where the power of incumbency is being heavily abused, misused and exerted in the most irresponsible and vile manner. The consequences of such illegalities will have untold ramifications on a fledgling democracy like ours. The days of Jonathan are numbered and the world is watching and taking notice of his reckless action, dubious inaction and pretenses. It appears we now have a new King Baabu in our hands, a la Wole Soyinka. But where is yesterday's King Baabu? Exactly my point! The case of today's Ewele will not be different, but we have a duty to warn him and to let him know that the will of the people will prevail in the end.
Just the other day, seven legislators of the People's Democratic Party (PDP) in Ekiti State House of Assembly impeached the speaker of the House. The 26-member assembly has been taken over by seven members from the PDP! With the protection of the police and the support of the executive in the state, the seven legislators have now taken over the house in which they are in the minority! That is a first anywhere in the world - seven is now greater than 19, and the seven have impeached the speaker of the house thereby throwing the state into further crisis. This reminds us of the very way Jonathan tried and failed to take over the Governors' Forum and his grotesque insistence that the minority group under his errand boy, Mr. Jang (with 16 governors) is the authentic Forum despite having fewer number than the group led by Governor Rotimi Amechi, who has 19 governors. Such corrupt and crooked tactics have defined Jonathan, and he has relied on the police and the security services to thwart and destabilize whatever group or body he could not control, which is a glaring sign of disregard for the rule of law, fairness and democracy. The illegal action of Mr. Dele Olugbemi and the six law breakers who are conniving with him to abuse and dishonour democratic values in Ekiti State has shocked the nation and the world at large. The name of Dele Olugbemi, just like the name of Mr. Akin Omoboriowo in the second republic, will forever be associated with anarchy and disrespect for the rule of law and democracy. The failure will be that of Mr. Ayo Fayose if he is unable to work with the Ekiti State House of Assembly but would rather resort to illegal means to reconstitute the assembly that was constituted by the people through their votes and mandate. Surprisingly and strangely it is the seven man-law breakers who are receiving all the protection and backing of the Nigeria Police.
The first coming of Ayo Fayose ended in his impeachment and eventual disgrace. Fayose still has a case to answer with the EFCC relating to the looting of the state's treasury (remember the poultry farm with no chicken poo-poo and no smell?) during his first shot as governor. This is one leopard whose nature and spots have changed and changed for the worst. The character and temper of Ayo Fayose has gone worse. His days of pretense are over and that lasted just a few weeks. Fayose tried to buy the law makers and failed, he tried to bully them and failed, and he tried to twist their arms and failed. Fayose chose every foul tactic to gain control of the house and he failed badly. He has now found willing tools in the seven dishonourable men who are ready to break the law in order to help him gain control of the House. Fayose and Jonathan have so much in common; they will rather have their way or roll up the earth from the feet of those who have been authorized by the people to represent them, but in the meantime the kleptocracy continues. An example should be made of the police who invaded the National Assembly and inflicted mortal wounds on democracy. That the police fired tear gas at elected representatives of the people in the domain where they conduct legitimate legislative business is an affront that must not go unpunished. It is a criminal offence and a rape on the rule of law. The team of mobile policemen, riot policemen, armed operatives of the Department of State Services (DSS) and Mr. Wilson Inalegwu who led them must be arrested and prosecuted for acts capable of derailing the nation's democracy and for assaulting the person of the Speaker of the House of Representatives. We cannot put police uniform on common criminals and hoodlums like those led by Wilson Inalegwu, who had the temerity to fire tear gas at the speaker. This is one crude example of how Jonathan is pursuing a vendetta against people who are opposed to his kleptocracy, a hugely corrupt situation that earned Nigeria a risk score of 97 and the 197th position in the RAND Corporation Business Bribery Risk Assessment as the most corrupt nation in the world. The report ( http://www.traceinternational.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/RAND-Corporation-Business-Bribery-Risk-Assessment.pdf) exemplifies how low and dirty the state of affairs are in Nigeria at the moment; it confirmed the criminal nature of the corruption that has overtaken Nigeria since Jonathan took office.