That 2018 is a pre-election year and therefore expected to be loaded with intense political activities is not lost on political watchers and Nigerians in general. However, many Nigerians were jolted when only on the second day of the year news filtered in that President Muhammadu Buhari had re-appointed his Minister of Transportation and former Rivers State Governor, Mr Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi as Director-General of 2019 re-election campaign.
Only last year, the president hinted of his intention to run for a second term in office at least twice. One was in Abidjan, Cote D’Ivore, during a regional security summit hosted by the West African country. The other was during his official visit to Kano, capital of Kano State.
While the president’s action may not be strange or novel as many before him had not acted much differently, there are many Nigerians who are disappointed as they had expected a different standard from him. Of course, apart from removing every shade of doubt around his willingness to seek re-election, news of the appointment marks the kick-off of high level political activities in the country. This, in the estimation of many, will not be without grave consequences for governance.
The displeasure of some other Nigerians about the kick-starting of election campaign activities less than three years into his tenure is anchored on the fact that the development re-enforces the notion that only two years of a four-year tenure are usually utilised for governance in Nigeria – a situation that shortchanges the people.
Reactions have since started trailing the announcement. Former President Olusegun Obasanjo is reported to have declined putting his weight behind President Buhari’s re-election bid at this stage.
Answering reporters’ questions at the University of Oxford, last Monday, Chief Obasanjo who did not hold back anything in his support for Buhari in his 2015 election said it was too early for him to say he would support the President’s 2019 re-election bid or not.
In its own reaction, the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has called for the resignation of the transportation minister following the appointment.
According to the publicity secretary of the party, Kola Ologbondiyan “under the constitution of Nigeria, Mr Amaechi cannot combine the job of a minister of the Federal Republic with another responsibility such as the Director General of a campaign organisation.”
He said “Amaechi’s action in accepting the job while still holding office as minister is in clear breach of the oath of office and the oath of allegiance which he swore in line with the provisions of the 1999 Constitution (As Amended). He should, therefore, resign as minister with immediate effect,”.
Mr Ologbondiyan recalled that under similar circumstances, Chief Tony Anenih resigned as Minister of Works under former President Olusegun Obasanjo, adding that the development was an indication that “the APC have not the littlest agenda on governance for our people and do not have the interest of Nigerians at heart. They have shown that all they care for is their selfish political and pecuniary interests.”
Speaking with The Tide on the subject matter in his office in Port Harcourt, a public affairs commentator, Dr Andy Akportiveh expressed displeasure at the turn of events.
According to Dr Akportiveh, the standard of democracy practice in the country was unacceptable in many respects, arguing that it would be best for us to adopt a form of democracy that is best suited for our peculiar situation if we cannot copy wholesale from the developed world.
“In America, for instance, do you see a president who has just finished a second year of a four-year tenure coming out to kick the ball for a second term?” he quarried, stressing that our institutions were too weak to support the system of government we have chosen to operate.
“If you check our electoral law, you will find that there are provisions there that make it impossible for some of the things that are being done today from being done,” he said, pointing out that “this is because we have not had leadership that can give direction to these institutions to work in a democracy the way they should work.”
Dr Akportiveh who is also a medical administrator called on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to rise up to its constitutional duties and individual Nigerians and the general public to also closely monitor and call erring government officials to order at all times.
He said it was intolerable that Nigerians have found themselves in “a vicious circle where you have a president who has a four-year tenure and two years into his administration, he has started campaigning again; he has lobbied a few persons to say he is the only one that can lead the country; he is the one that we have not seen before (and) making government and governance weak.”
While urging some public-spirited legal practitioners to challenge some of the issues in court, Dr Akportiveh also charged the general public not to remain docile but rise up and demand accountability from those they have given their mandate. “I’m sure that if Gani Fawehinmi were alive today, he would have tested a lot of these things in court to find out whether an incumbent can spend State fund to run his campaign or even leave his country and going abroad and suggesting that he is interested in running for a second term even though the first term that he was given has not expired. Somebody should go to court and ask the court go give judgement for or against that thing,” he said.
“In another three or four months, you will see that indeed governance has come to a halt. What will be happening is alignment, what will be happening is making travels and this portends danger for the citizens of the country. This insults our collective intelligence as Nigerians,” he lamented.

Opaka Dokubo