Introduction
Yar’Adua is trying to woo me o. But for now I’ll stick to my pen. Of course his speech about the removal of the immunity clause, which shields the President, Vice President, state governors and deputies from prosecution as stipulated in the 1999 Constitution, is being delivered at the right time but me say all na empty rhetoric masking vicious exploitation. The one before him did the same Let him prove me wrong o jare.
Yar’Adua’s Forceful and Dramatic Immunity Speech
Pre-judgment. It is what I had done to Yar’Adua’s government at the earliest stage after succeeding emperor Obasanjo, his godfather or mentor. In that piece, I had violently compared Yar’Adua’s system of government to that of a military president called Babangida. I had concluded that Yar’Adua would be compelled to use tactics similar to that of Babangida at the very beginning of the latter’s reign. Ibrahim Babangida is one general with a sound grasp of tactics. I named this tactics as policy of appeasement.
Yar’Adua needs such policy in order to help legalize his mandate generally believed to have been stolen due to blatant rigging in the last elections. He must woo as many influential people as possible. Babangida did the same thing after usurping power in August 27 1985. He romanced the journalists, jailed politicians and civil societies. Everyone including the late sage Awo fell for Babangida’s policy of appeasement until he dribbled himself to an infamous corner to score own goal.
The reason why I alerted the nation then was actually to prepare Nigerians for another burlesque theatre. I warned Nigerians to be cautious, and never to allow history to repeat itself in this regard. Be careful of this man called Umaru Yar’Adua whose character, in my opinion, resembles that of the green snake under the green grass. My prediction seems to be coming true in the sense that Yar’Adua instead of getting down to business, prefers to solidify his mandate first. He is doing this by all means possible.
His recent call for removal of immunity clause is a clandestine intelligence operation towards policy of appeasement. His forceful bait entrapped and wooed me for a while until I began to question the motive. Even his statement on N1. 2 trillion wasted on Energy sector by Obasanjo is a profound tactics aimed at appeasement. It is a mere political statement calculated at pulling the wool over our faces. Otherwise what has he done about it after seven months in office? After all, he made us believe he would declare a state of emergency regarding energy sector.
As might be expected, I like his announcement in Davos, Switzerland, supporting the removal of the immunity clause that has been protecting the president, vice-president, state governors and their deputies by the 1999 constitution. This is a welcome evelopment even though at the same time, the salaries of these public officials are now doubled, even tripled by the same office. Perhaps they need as much salary as possible in order to lure them away from looting the treasury further. I mean if this gesture would be of help. Yar’Adua will be on record as the "president" who support the removal of the immunity clause. This is enough to woo someone like me. But wait a minute, didn’t Obasanjo also support it in 2006? What exactly is going on here?
Well, there’s no way I’d speak about Nigeria or Yar’Adua without bringing that man who thinks he knows everything. Obasanjo should have been the man to remove the so called immunity clause. But upon all his shout about curbing corruption, he failed to remove the "monster" clause. I believe this man should have been the one to right almost all what is wrong about us. He had the means, the experience, the backing and every opportunity but due to his godlike manner, blew away everything that matters. Even after leaving office, he still believes the immunity clause in the constitution should not be removed. But why did he support the emoval during the ill-fated constitutional amendment in 2006?
And this leads to my fear – double-talk. For instance, Yar’Adua wants immunity clause removed, "yet he’s packing his government and ambassadorial offices in particular with people who should be hauling off to court," observes one Yankari. With this single observation, Yar’Adua has shown that he is not different from others before him. They are experts in making a forceful and dramatic speech which appears to be clever and important. Nigerians should know by now that Yar’Adua’s immunity clause removal is a rhetoric masking vicious exploitation.
I will digress slightly at this stage. When Obasanjo won the 1999 presidential election, I was angry and said to myself: "What does this man want again? This man should go and die o jare". However, after giving it some deep thought, I voluntarily changed my perspective saying, this man could as well be the one to right the wrongs in the land. After all, he has what seems to the teacher of it all – experience. This man, having been to the prison; almost dead, will correct his past mistakes. Besides he’s a born again whom God has spoken to several times. He would not steal, he would not commit adultery (I never thought of incest then) and he would not rape his motherland again. Well, the rest is now history.
Without mincing words, immunity clause should be removed from the constitution. It may not solve the problem of corruption per se but let’s try it as an option inevitable. After all, thugs like Adedibu, Ubas are not covered by immunity but they seem to be above board. I disagree with Chief Bisi Akande, the national chairman of the Action Congress (AC) who argued that the removal of the clause would witness a flurry of cases, most especially, frivolous ones, which would prevent the political office holders from performing their statutory functions without hindrance. Is Bisi Akande saying that the political office holders are performing their statutory functions at the moment? And this coming from a presidential candidate!
There’s a particular section of the speech that almost brought tears to my face. "We now have a situation in which people award contracts without caring whether they have enough money to complete the project and because of this, there are lots of abandoned projects all over the country, in fact, some going into billions of dollars. This is the kind of disrespect for established regulations and procedures that feeds corruption…”
The above quote from Yar’Adua, methinks, is enough arousal for any right thinking Nigerian to support the removal of the immunity clause. Let it be a starting point, an epidemic of plague to be feared. Let this removal of the immunity clause be a sharp judgment for all kinds of robbery pervading our communities. It is no surprise that Obasanjo is against such move after he had cajoled the nation into believing otherwise.
Yar’Adua should not miss this rare opportunity by making sure that the next constitution amendment strips these public officials of this immunity. He should do this as fast as possible pending the time the court will decide his own case. After which he should apologize to the nation for ruling us without our votes. For now, his mandate is like that of those sportsmen and women who had won gold medals by using steroids to enhance their performance. They have since been stripped of such medals.
Hakeem Babalola
mysmallvoice@yahoo.com