Groans Of Gushing Greed …That Northern Reps’ Threat To Jonathan

Since penultimate Tuesday, when, Vice President Goodluck Jonathan assumed office as Acting President and Commander-In-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, the hitherto edgy citizenry, that eventually heaved a sigh of relief over the nation-saving resolution of the National Assembly, have had to endure countless repulsive vituperations, in the name of legal, even illegal interpretations of the law makers’ action.
Frankly, an issue like the replacement of an ailing President, who left his presidential duties, since November, last year, for a medical vacation in Saudi Arabia is a public issue deserving public discourse. It is even more so, when, the process for the change of guides was slightly different from what the 1999 constitution clearly states in both sections 144 and 145 of the same body of laws.
Instinctively, were the constitution to be followed strictly as contained in either sections, what obtains now would not be so much different, but even worse for apologists of President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, who had repeatedly insisted that the Presidential seat be left vacant, exercise of exclusive presidential powers stay stagnant and pressing national needs wait for as long as his medical vacation lasts.
Instead, constitutionally speaking, an outright impeachment was canvassed by many well-informed Nigerians, since not even members of the Federal Cabinet had been allowed to see Yar’Adua, and state for sure, the true level of incapacitation, whether temporary or permanent.
In the midst of those arguments, what the National Assembly eventually resolved, and which they hinged on the rule of necessity, was, by all standards, a soft-landing for the ailing President and a bold attempt to save Nigeria from another protracted constitutional crisis and political impasse.
Issues of these kind, quite frankly, should naturally ignite public debates, afterall as the sages often held, society owes its knowledge not to those who have agreed but to those who have differed, for, in such, do inventions and hidden wisdom come to light.
But in exercising that right to free speech and hold an opinion, some Nigerians under the aegis of the Northern caucus of the House of Representatives, Methinks crossed the line, when they threatened to fight Acting President Goodluck Jonathan, if he ventured to dissolve the Executive Council of the Federation, (EXOF), often also called the Federal Executive Council (FEC) a body of ministers assembled by the ailing President, shortly after he assumed office in May 2007.
Rising from a meeting in the abode of a Northern member of the House of Representatives, in Abuja, last week Wednesday, the law makers, who, themselves, were part of the National Assembly that endorsed the resolution to have Dr Jonathan  assume office as Acting President turned around place strange limits, beyond which Jonathan must not thread, if he is not to incur their wrath. One of such is an ‘order’ to Jonathan to retain all ministers appointed by his boss, whether they are doing well or not.
Their view came after several others, particularly, one by a set of politicians, also of the Northern extraction  insisted that the North must be allowed to complete its eight-year-term as President, since Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, a southerner, from the South-Western geo-political zone had had the South’s turn of eight years.
Annoying, as these public comments are to many well-meaning Nigerians, I also have condoned them because, it has, for ages, remained my sacred vow to see others’ views, no matter how unpalatable, as an exercise of an individual’s right to hold and voice an opinion, as the constitution entitles such individual to do.
But when, in exercise of such a right or rights, an individual or individuals wear the toga of political ambulance – chasers, willingly buoyed by amentia, play God, and seek to impose their  views on a nation, in such a manner depicting apparent amblyopia, reason dictates that such fellow citizen or citizens be saved from themselves and from the criminal folly of brewing inter-tribal altercations, not healthy for the sustenance of the nation’s fragile unity.
For this reason alone, will I ask the following questions? Which section of the Nigerian constitution forbids a sitting president to sack Ministers that he either appointed or inherited? If none, why then, should anyone write a fresh constitution without the notice of all Nigerians? By the way, which section of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria divides the country into North and South? Where do they place the Niger Delta, an area where salaries and other freebies to the Ministers,  now being dressed as untouchables, will be sourced?
I ask because it is gradually being considered acceptable for some Northern elements to wake-up from the wrong side of their large beds, crafted with Niger Delta resources, to dictate where and how Nigeria must go and simply have all others fall in line.

Perhaps, now is the time to tell those who care to listen that an incunabulum of the kind now being employed to test the political waters, sounds like broken record to the ear because not only has it been said repeatedly, it smacks of political evection that should be ignored. But should I?
When the National Assembly reasoned that even if there a was serving Vice President, that there still existed, a huge gulf in the exercise of exclusive Presidential powers which only an Acting President or a Substantive President could exercise, and accordingly resolved, unanimously that Vice President Goodluck Jonathan filled the void, where were the members of the Northern caucus of the House? Why did they not, there and then, spell out the ‘do’s and don’t’ of an Acting President as contained in their ‘new’ constitution as different from ours?
Their seeming ambivalence presents, in my view, features of amanuenses, not merely taking dictations from an unseen voice but also playing-out a script authored by a masquerade or more. That is not what Nigeria needs at this trying time.
For the avoidance of doubt, it was not a plot by the Acting President that his Boss be ill, so that he could act. He instead, did everything to defend Yar’Adua’s absence, up to a point that even protesting civil society groups, led by Nobel Laurete, Prof. Wole Soyinka threatened to attack the loyal Vice President, and reluctant President in waiting.
Not only that,  even when, it became too obvious that his studied defence of his boss was not assuaging the pains of disappointed Nigerians, Jonathan was persuasive in preaching patience, unity and peace, as he led countless prayer sessions for Yar’Adua’s quick recovery.
Jonathan’s ascendancy to the presidential seat was reluctant, but ultimately powered by patriotism, unwavering nationalism and the need to ensure the success of his Boss’s Seven-Point Agenda, a development plan into which the Acting President has put virtually everything, his soul, body and time.  And still willing to do more.
That is why it must be said that if in defence of that same agenda, Acting President Jonathan finds a clog in the wheel of progress, be it a Northern or Southern cabinet Minister or any other for that matter, he should not hesitate to remove,  for the interest of all and the well-being of the nation. Enough is indeed enough.
Happily, that Jonathan has, thus far, carried out the functions of his new position of thrust indubitably is for all to see and so, nothing should restrain him from living out the dreams of the joint Yar’Adua/Jonathan Presidential ticket by  which both Yar’Adua and Jonathan earned majority  votes of Nigerians. Infact, the impression needs not be created that Jonathan was appointed by Yar’Adua, along with all other ministers after,  the elections that brought them to  power. Instead, Jonathan is a joint heir to the throne sorry presidency and for which singular reason, many Nigerians, particularly those of the deprived Niger Delta region and the South/South geo-political zone lined-up behind the Yar’Adua/Jonathan joint ticket to achieve eventual victory.
That is why such inflammatory statements, aimed at everything except unity and progress of the country must be discouraged.
But I have a worry. Who will tell the so-called Northern elements, who are, today, counting presidential years, that should Nigerians join in such tenure census, Jonathan or any other Niger Deltan, should, infact, enjoy another four years, in addition to the “Acting one and half-or-so,” in case Yar’Adua stays far longer than their joint  tenure, in Saudi Arabia?
My Agony is that very few will willingly voice such truths because in Nigerian politics, most are moved to action not so much by their intellect or reason, but by their desires and appetites, and so, have been sufficiently cowed into believing that the North alone has those freebies to give.
That being so, let us, even in our silence, demonstrate our support, loyalty and respect for the office of President, as the Chief Executive, on whose table the buck stops. That, without doubt includes non-performing ministers. Or doesn’t it? And since we are agreed that it is the prerogative of a President and Commander-In-Chief, whether substantive or acting, to decide the composition of his team, to question Acting President Jonathan’s authority in that direction, Methinks is to stretch the individual’s right to free speech, a little too far. And should be checked. That is the truth.