(ANALYSIS)
BY TAIWO FAROTIMI
Abuja woke up to an unusual armed occupation Tuesday. Operatives of the Directorate of State Services, DSS sealed up the National Assembly as early as 6:40 am. Staff of the National Assembly were denied access to the complex; so were journalists. They claimed to be acting on orders from above. That set the signals on alert.
Members of the National Assembly had been inundated with warnings about moves to remove principal officers by crook means. What did Tuesday hold on the crystal ball? Nobody knew.
That was the day a meeting of principal officers of the Senate was to hold. At the meeting, senators were to discuss the calls for the reconvening of the National Assembly ahead of the September end of the recess, consider the request for loan by the executive to finance the budget and the meeting with Professor Mahmoud Yakubu, national chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC. Yet, in the background was the strident call for Senate President Bukola Saraki to resign his position as the county’s number three citizen.
Ahmed Lawan, Senate leader who led some senators to a meeting with Acting President Yemi Osinbajo maintained that the Senate must reconvene to discuss issues of national importance. According to him, failure to reconvene and approve the request for loan in particular would amount to a shutdown of the government. If the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, is not able to pull the stunt for the impeachment of Saraki and his deputy, Ike Ekeremadu, statements like the one made by Lawan and Ita Enang, Special Adviser to the President on National Assembly Matters would successfully have given the impression that the legislators are enemies of development.
As the legislators were carefully planning to walk the tight rope, Adams Oshiomhole, national chairman of the APC was raising a loyal army for the government among the parliamentarians. He led them in series of meetings from Monday evening till afternoon of Tuesday. That sent some signals to those loyal to Saraki, particularly senators elected on the platform of the People’s Democratic Party, PDP. Suspecting that the meetings were aimed at storming the assembly complex to effect the impeachment of the principal officers, they too went to the place Tuesday morning, even much earlier than they would do when serious matters of national development are slated for discussion.
So, the stage was set for an event, one that anybody would hardly be able to predict. But those who were expecting that there would a surprise that Tuesday did not expect a gestapo-like episode. They probably expected that there would be a drama in the Senate, which would create an upset capable of removing the rug from under the feet of principal officers or one that will end in the targets beating the schemers in the ruling party to their game. Few people expected to see hooded security operatives, armed to the teeth, barricading the National Assembly complex. But that was what happened. It left a bad taste in the mouth.
If President Muhammadu Buhari could not be trusted to succumb to the temptation to use military tactics to checkmate his political adversaries, nobody would expect that to happen at a time Osinbajo is acting in his place. And this is talking about a professor of law, one man who has in his credentials the honour of championing the revolution in Lagos State judiciary, while he was attorney general.
The development put the acting president in a tight corner. He had met with some loyal senators the previous day. Many people wondered, whether that could have been the strategy discussed and approved by him. When questions are asked, Nigerians and foreign friends would surely put the Professor on the spot.
Some commentators were already putting the threads together and arriving at the curious conclusion that the DSS was truly acting the script of the executive. Lawmakers challenged the security operatives, drawing out the foolishness in their action to ridicule the institution that is the backbone of democracy. They were expected to protect the national interest or the people of the country, not members of the executive.
If the siege was the number one surprise, a bigger one would come from the office of the man at whose table the buck stops. Professor Osinbajo ordered the sack of Mr. Lawal Daura, director general of the DSS. That was a thunderbolt. Daura, hitherto seen as one of the powers behind the throne was considered untouchable; until Tuesday. Osinbajo did not only “touch” him, the acting president pushed Daura off his exalted chair at the DSS. The next was that after the spook handed over office, he was ordered arrested and detained.
The news almost shattered eardrums. Daura it was who ordered the raid on the homes of justices of the Supreme Court, in a queer engagement he tagged “sting operation”. Even though none of the incidents had a semblance of sting operation.
Under the same Daura, the presidential wing of the Akwa Ibom State Government House was raided by operatives of DSS without recourse to the governor who is the chief security officer of the state. Before his men were recalled, they claimed to be in search of some wads of foreign currency. The same Daura had sent his agents to throw Kayode Are, former DG, DSS, who was also his boss in service out of his house in Lagos. Now, that building was given to Are by the service in line with the laid down regulation. When he hinted of the intention to take back the building, Kayode Are got a court injunction stopping the service from reversing what had been given to him. But Daura, not a respecter of rule of law, sent his men to throw out the man. He thus singled out Kayode Are for that humbling treatment. If President Buhari heard, he did not say anything about it.
Perhaps that was regarded as an internal affair of the DSS. So, what about the brazen act of contempt to the office of the president himself in the case of the clearance of Ibrahim Magu, acting chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC? Daura’s DSS though submitted to Buhari a report giving Magu a clean bill of health for the office, another report from the same DSS claimed that the man was not fit for the position. The damning report was sent to the Senate.
The president still did not see in Daura a face to the corruption fighting back. It was this sacred cow that the self-effacing Vice President, acting on behalf of his boss, took the courage to sack and got arrested.
If Daura was acting on behalf of some persons, the truth will come to the open when the matter is investigated. But by the time the dust settled on the blockade of the National Assembly on Tuesday, it was the mighty Lawal Musa Daura that was left in the cold. To start with, Ibrahim Idris, inspector general of police, said that his men were not involved in the charade at the National Assembly. The APC that was being touted as the brain behind the “order from above” also threw up its hands in awe. It said on tweeter, “The All Progressives Congress (APC) condemns in strongest terms, today’s unfortunate invasion of the National Assembly by security forces. Our Party wholly dissociates itself from any act of brigandage and affront on the sacred symbols of our budding democracy.”
So, for who was Daura acting? Whose order was he carrying out? Or was his DSS a “government-within-a-government “, as said by Saraki in the justification for his defection?
The simple fact is that Daura fell because he had overreached his strides. It was not the first time his decision was impacting negatively on the image of the government. The acting president perhaps felt that the man, Daura, was no longer an asset to Buhari’s administration.
The sack of the former DSS boss was commended by many. Olu Falae, former secretary to the government of the federation, said it was a right decision to save the country’s democracy. While the opposition PDP welcomes Osinbajo’s action, it raises suspicion that it may be a strategy to cover up others involved in the siege. On its official twitter handle the party stated “Sack of DG DSS A Subterfuge, We demand for the Prosecution of All Actors”. The acting president said that much in his reaction to the news that the masterminds would be investigated and all culprits will be dealt with. Whatever may be the conclusion of his critics, the prompt action taken on the case of Daura may cause a re-think in the DSS’ penchant for impunity. It may also have redeemed the image of the administration in the international community. And at home, the swift action contributed to the arrest of the sensational trend, where the government was already being branded a fascist.
