Naira rain, Emefiele, Jonathan and political gamble, By Zainab Suleiman Okino

…what will the APC do with the billions collected from individuals, who obviously dipped their hands in public tills, other than to apply these to possibly influence the outcome of elections? These may be rhetorical questions but in the fullness of time, posterity will help unravel the answers and how the party embraced profligacy, waste, corruption and jettisoned the change mantra that got Nigerians to vote it into power.

Finally, the cat was let out of the bag. Nigeria is not poor. A country where a handful of politicians can raise up to N30 billion from the sales of forms to aspirants in about a month cannot be said to be poor. Just one political party and well-heeled politicians.

The naira rain, which has poured in for the governing All Progressives Congress (APC) in these past weeks, is not just proof of the ruling elites’ hoarding of hard currency for a day like this, but the naira’s depleted strength and the dollar’s sky-high at N585 per dollar can now be traced to the mismanagement of the country’s monetary policy.

The evidence is in the coming to light of the now open aspiration of the man who has a job to do at that level (of managing the naira), but decided to be partisan in favour of the ruling party, contrary to global norms and ethics, and the laws establishing the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

For these officials at the top, there is no more pretence about the possibility of using independent bodies like the CBN, Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) or the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) as instruments of coercion to corrupt the system and advance their self-centered goals. Whatever we thought we knew about the ugly face of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) of yester-years has been replicated over and over by the APC.

Or how else do you explain the party’s unprecedented dive into indecency and corruption by other means, by charging N100 million to purchase a presidential form and the mad rush by even technocrats and ex-this and ex-that to pay in the face of a crippling purchasing power, ASUU strike, and at a time that families of hundreds of abductees are selling their personal property and borrowing to pay ransom?

Where else can this happen, except in Nigeria? For the ruling party, this is another first in political revisionism. The mess is so embarrassing that Emefiele even had the frivolous effontery of asking INEC not to disqualify him, with the game-plan of subverting a process yet to begin. Surely, Nigeria has become a play-turf for dirty politics.

How did a party that threw up an austere Buhari become so monetised that it is now for the highest bidder? How could a political party so betray the thrust of millions that brought it to power? When did it become fashionable to woo voters, not with the strength of character and capacity, but through money?

And if I may ask, what will the APC do with the billions collected from individuals, who obviously dipped their hands in public tills, other than to apply these to possibly influence the outcome of elections? These may be rhetorical questions but in the fullness of time, posterity will help unravel the answers and how the party embraced profligacy, waste, corruption and jettisoned the change mantra that got Nigerians to vote it into power.

Enter Emefiele, the money man.

Until the Central Bank governor, Godwin Emefiele’s unethical approach to his schedules by jumping into the fray of APC’s gamble with Nigeria, I could almost swear we had seen it all with regards to the political voyage of Nigeria. However, here we are today, with a sitting CBN governor who has not done enough to salvage the economy, who was hand-in-gloves with the ruling party, in his closet support and willingness to do the party’s bidding, now openly contesting his eligibility for election in court.

Bad enough that the apex banker wants to be drawn into the political mud and murky waters, but even curiousier that he had the effrontery to go legal and drag in the nation’s election umpire, INEC. How dirty can we go as a people? Emefiele’s entry into the APC presidential race is generating crises on many fronts; a man holding a sensitive position of oversight of the economy registered with a political party in his ward, hoping to get the plum job at the top. As if that is still not bad enough, the CBN governor, perhaps intent on compromising another sensitive independent body like INEC, hopes to run for the presidency even as a sitting governor of the Central Bank.

Although the president has since denied the tenure elongation plot and reiterated his readiness to hand over power in May 2023, there is no smoke without fire, as watchers of Nigerian politics know very well, over time. I hope history will not repeat itself as happened in ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo’s tenure extension plot, which failed woefully.

Where else can this happen, except in Nigeria? For the ruling party, this is another first in political revisionism. The mess is so embarrassing that Emefiele even had the frivolous effontery of asking INEC not to disqualify him, with the game-plan of subverting a process yet to begin. Surely, Nigeria has become a play-turf for dirty politics.

Is the game plan tenure elongation?

Indeed the game plan being incubated in closets is coming to light. This past Monday, a popular lawyer, elder statesman and Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Chief Robert Clarke, called for tenure elongation for President Muhammadu Buhari. In an interview with Arise Television, Chief Clarke said the constitution provides that the president can extend his tenure for six months in the first instance, if the conditions are not right, by which he meant the pervasiveness of violence and the spate of insecurity in the country.

As Clarke put it, “the Constitution provides that the president can stay longer than eight years. I’ve always said it. It is in the Constitution. If the situation in which we are now continues, and it is impossible to vote in the 2023 election…the president will write INEC in view of insurgency, in view of kidnappings, in view of Boko Haram, (that) I don’t think in these different areas of Nigeria, we can have a good election.

“The Constitution says I am going to stay for six months.. in the first instance. As such, the fact that the Constitution says the president cannot stay for eight years is wrong, because the same Constitution says he can be given six-six months if those conditions (insecurity) persist. The alternative then is for Mr President to continue as president, allow the security watches to carry up the mopping up and Nigeria will become stable”, the legal luminary averred. I dare say we has traveled this road before.

Although the president has since denied the tenure elongation plot and reiterated his readiness to hand over power in May 2023, there is no smoke without fire, as watchers of Nigerian politics know very well, over time. I hope history will not repeat itself as happened in ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo’s tenure extension plot, which failed woefully.

Jonathan’s gamble and about turn

Imagine an ex-president, who descended so low, and visited the chairman of the party that dethroned him, only to be told the home truth (that he is just another aspirant). After being hounded from office to pave way for Buhari, the same Fulani elements that so derided him while in office, bought the APC nomination form for him (Jonathan), before he received the embarrassment of his life.

Until a few days ago, ex-President Goodluck Jonathan had enjoyed an international goodwill in the committee of nations. For allowing a free and fair election and handing over to the opposition, Jonathan enjoyed a special place in the hearts of Nigerians, even as he served as an icon of democracy and a symbol of how democracy can work in Africa. In a nutshell, he was a brand ambassador for Nigeria and democracy in Africa. All that went with the wind in a few hours of unmitigated disaster of hobnobbing with the APC, with the hope he would be made a consensus candidate.

Imagine an ex-president, who descended so low, and visited the chairman of the party that dethroned him, only to be told the home truth (that he is just another aspirant). After being hounded from office to pave way for Buhari, the same Fulani elements that so derided him while in office, bought the APC nomination form for him (Jonathan), before he received the embarrassment of his life.

So in one fell swoop, Jonathan was again demystified. It is therefore not a surprise that the press statement from his spokesmen, Ikechukwu Eze smacked of anger, venom and frustration.

Meanwhile, our new found collaboration among ethnic groups appears to be working now that political interests are at play. In this game that politicians play, have you noticed how our ‘unity’ has been reinforced. Fulani herdsmen paid for Jonathan’s nomination and expression of interest forms; Emefiele got Northern elements to buy his. Same thing with Timipre Sylva, while the Senate president Ahmed Lawan got a Southerner to purchase and present his form to him, with all of them claiming to be friends with the aspirants of their choice, the same way no one talks of ethnicity or religion when it comes to sharing the national patrimony. So next time you see them talk of marginalisation and North-South divides, just know that their interests have been affected.

Zainab Suleiman Okino is the chairman of Blueprint Editorial Board. She can be reached through zainabsule@yahoo.com