ONNOGHEN! CONFLICT OF MORALITY IN THE FACE OF NEPOTISM (II)

Amaso Jack

In an interview with Ademola olonilua (Punch) published on February 9, 2019, Robert Clarke revealed more about himself this way:

“My father was British. When he died, my mother was a young Hausa-Fulani woman. She married at the age of 16 and had three of us. When my father died, his friends called her and asked if she would love to stay and look after the children and they would build a house for her but she said no because she was relatively young.

Then they asked if she would love to remarry and she said yes. So after weaning me at 18 months, she remarried. Today, I have three other half siblings from the husband she later married. My mother and I were so close. I sent her to Mecca and built a house for her. Today, I look after all my half siblings.”

If I were God, I would send thunder and fire on all politicians in Nigeria – Robert Clarke (SAN)

5 Buhari for all his claims of fighting corruption overrode morality by interest by his refusal to prosecute Tinubu in the face of Dapo Apara’s petition to EFCC, but rather went ahead to name him joint head of his 2019 campaign, reviving the North to West alliance of Ahmadu Bello and S. L. Akintola against Awolowo’s UPGA.

Question: Why?

Answer: The prerogative of interest over morality, even in the face of a claim to fight corruption.

“The Presidency in a statement released Friday has named President Muhammadu Buhari as chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Presidential Campaign Council for the 2019 election.

‘The statement signed by Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, also named Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, as co-chairman of the campaign council.“https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.sunnewsonline.com/buhari-tinubu-head-2019-campaign-council-presidency/amp/

OBSERVATION: THE POWER OF INTEREST

Buhari by that move (strengthened the strategic Northern/Western alliance, first introduced by Ahmadu Bello and Akintola,  that has become Buhari/Tinubu’s role model of North West collaboration against Awolowo’s and M. I. Okpara’s  Igbo/Yoruba, East/West corporation).

Buhari, Many questions, few answers

Buhari with the evidence against Tinubu, went into the strategic alliance, even with his claims of fighting corruption!

Interest in politics is indeed stronger than morality!

Question: Why did Tinubu abandon the principle of his principal Awolowo and adopt the political strategy of his adversary, S. L. Akintola?

Answer: the supremacy of interest over morality, which is the law of politics.

Towards the build up to the 1965 elections,  there were political realignments based on Interest. Chief S. L. Akintola’s Nigerian National Democratic Party (NNDP) created from his faction of AG and Fani Kayode’s Western block of National Council of Nigerian Citizens (NCNC) merged with Ahmadu Bello’s Northern People’s Congress (NPC) to create The Nigerian National Alliance (NNA).

 “It was opposed by the United Progressive Grand Alliance (UPGA), which joined the NCNC and the remnants of the Action Group with two minority-based northern allies, the Northern Elements Progressive Union and the United Middle Belt Congress.

Not surprisingly, the NNA adopted a platform that reflected the views of the northern political elite and, hence, was an attempt by the NPC to gain firmer control of federal politics through an alliance with the Western Region”  http://www.country-data.com/cgi-bin/query/r-9356.html

Akintola’s unpopular NNDC won the 1965 western elections (by controversial means of rigging) and that led to a breakdown of law and order.

THE BOTTOM LINE

In Nigeria, when interest is at stake, morality becomes the first victim!

• Buhari the head of the executive
• Saraki the head of the legislature and
• Onnoghen the head of the Judiciary.

….are all guilty!

SARAKI’S BREACH OF MORALITY ON THE ALTER OF INTEREST.

Saraki, the head of the legislature, also scarificed morality for interest.

In a story dated 6th February, 2019, and titled:

“EXCLUSIVE: The Real Reasons Saraki Couldn’t Proceed With Onnoghen Case At Supreme Court”, Sahara reporters, reported, Saraki’s breach of morality on the alter of interest this way:

“Saraki did not have the backing of the National Assembly to go to court. To file the suit, he would have needed a resolution of the Senate, which he didn’t get. And it became clear this loophole would be exploited when the Senate caucus of the All Progressives Congress (APC), comprising 56 senators, applied to the Supreme Court to join in the Senate’s suit.

“As you can see, we already protested and we were asked to be joined in the suit,” an APC senator who didn’t want to be named told SaharaReporters. “The Senate never made a resolution to file that suit; and even if there was an attempt at such resolution, it would have died a natural death as we, who have the majority, are firmly with the president on this.”

Also, public sentiment was beginning to count against Saraki after members of the public were reminded of how he sacked the Chief Judge of Kwara State, Justice Raliat Elelu-Habeeb, in 2009 during his tenure as Governor of the state.

However, the Supreme Court eventually reinstated Elelu-Habeeb, with Justice Mahmud Mohammed, who delivered the judgement of a seven-member panel of justices, holding that when all the relevant provisions of the constitution were read together, it would become obvious that a state Governor could not remove a Chief Judge from office without having recourse to the NJC.

“It is not difficult to see that for the effective exercise of the powers of removal of a chief judge of a state by the Governor and House of Assembly, the first port of call by the governor shall be the NJC,” Mahmud had stated back then.”http://saharareporters.com/2019/02/06/exclusive-real-reasons-saraki-couldn’t-proceed-onnoghen-case-supreme-court

The three arms of government have all made the clear point, that in Nigeria, morality is subject to interest.

To be Continued.