Opinion: Legislathief wars By Wole Olaoye
On whose behalf were our legislators wrestling and throwing uppercuts last week? No prizes for your guess. We had long known that most of our politicians are in the business for selfish reasons. In an environment where ideologically identifiable parties are yet to evolve, anything goes. PDP today, APC tomorrow and LP in between, with a cursory glance at APGA in case it has some dispensable crumbs. Those politicians who 'ported' from PDP to APC bought into the 'Change' mantra supposedly because they had seen the light.
Alas, all they wanted was to win the election and revert to their old ways. Not that it was all too surprising. Bukola Saraki had always been ruthlessly singleminded in any contest. He even went against his own father and trounced the old man's candidate in the 2011 Kwara State governorship election. Those who were caught napping by the 'coup' that brought Saraki in as senate president are guilty of underestimation. Now APC finds itself between a rock and a hard place. House Speaker Dogara appears to be towing former speaker Aminu Tambuwal's path in attempting a delicate brinksmanship. He appears to be a hostage of the clique that mobilised support for him in the run up to the speakership election. He, too, is defying the party in the appointment of principal officers. Between him and Saraki, APC has been betrayed, compromised and ridiculed. President Muhammadu Buhari can no longer stand akimbo and allow the farce that is playing out in the National Assembly to continue.
APC is urgently in need of the kind of leadership that we know President Buhari can provide. He should not be bothered about blackmailers who may want to see autocracy in any move he makes to bring his party men together. The president must step in and put a stop to the mess. Enough said. Suddenly, PDP has rediscovered its voice. The party that ran Nigeria aground is making a meal of the confusion in the national assembly. The hands of some of the party's operatives can be seen in the orchestrated division in the House. Since when has PDP acquired the decency to pose as standard bearer of any description? Nigerians can never forget the monumental incompetence of PDP in government which was capped by the inability of the Jonathan administration to produce its handover notes in time. PDP is now accusing Buhari of being slow to act. Those who are destined to end up in the penitentiary need not be in a hurry. When the investigations start, it will soon get to your turn. We are not in a hurry to put you away just yet. You have to cough out the billions of dollars stashed away by various apparatchiks in foreign banks.
We want as much of the loot as we can locate, back. It took PDP 16 years to wreck Nigeria. It will take some time to fix the country. But it can be done. And I believe it will. Those who are fervently praying that Buhari will falter will be disappointed. I know that the eminent thieves who have stolen us blind are rich enough to fund any kind of mischief in order to destabilise the new government and its anti-corruption crusade. Their usual style, as we could all see in the last election, is to pitch one APC chieftain against the other, spread poison among the party faithful and position their PDP members to pick up whatever collateral freebies they find. We, the citizens, owners of the change promised by the new dispensation, must stall any 'legislathief' agenda of business as usual so that we can chart a new course that benefits the people. The president should quickly get on top of the current confusion in his party and enforce a truce so that real work can begin in earnest. #Who's behind Radio Biafra?#May I warn for the umpteenth time that the novel media infestation glorifying hate and suspicion between the various ethnic groups in the country will, if not halted, destroy not just the haters but the objects of their hate as well.
There is a radio station which styles itself as Radio Biafra, operating from an unknown location with the frequency 88.0 FM. The station has only one anchor who calls himself the 'Director', and he refers to his listeners as the Indigenous People of Biafra. Some people say that the 'Director's' real name is Nnamdi, but this is yet to be confirmed. The station deploys only the vilest of languages to describe the entire Northern Nigeria and the Southwestern part of the country, calling them parasites feeding on Biafran resources. Anyone who seems to disagree with the village mentality of the station is promptly labelled "Mallam". For example, Imo State Governor Rochas Okorocha who publicly disowned the station as not having the backing of "the South East, any leader of the South East or any Igbo man", was described as Mallam Okorocha. In the same vein, the words used to describe President Buhari are unprintable. The station reserves some of its most virulent hate campaigns for the Yoruba race which it characterises in extremely negative terms. Many observers have likened the activities of the "Director" of Radio Biafra to that of the radio anchor that escalated the Rwandan genocide. As the world has now seen with the case of Dyllan Root, the low-lifer who recently killed nine African Americans in their church, when people are regularly exposed to a narrative of hate, there is no telling when they would attempt to physically obliterate the object of their hate. The National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) has urged the public to ignore Radio Biafra. In a statement signed by the Director, Public Affairs of the commission, Alhaji Awwalu Salihu, NBC says it has become aware of a pirate radio station transmitting seditious and divisive content contrary to the provisions of the Nigeria Broadcasting Code and law. It assures the public that it was working in conjunction with security forces to track the source of the broadcast. NBC further admonishes the public to ignore the inflammatory content of the broadcast and continue to work toward a strong, united and prosperous nation. This station doesn’t have the Southeast's mandate.
The aim of it's cowardly sponsors is to cause ethnic strife. And that is the danger. Remember how, after the 1966 coup, one article and accompanying photographs in DRUM magazine led to street protests and eventually pogrom in Northern Nigeria? Let's douse this flame before it becomes a conflagration. which it characterises in extremely negative terms. Many observers have likened the activities of the "Director" of Radio Biafra to that of the radio anchor that escalated the Rwandan genocide. As the world has now seen with the case of Dyllan Root, the low-lifer who recently killed nine African Americans in their church, when people are regularly exposed to a narrative of hate, there is no telling when they would attempt to physically obliterate the object of their hate. The National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) has urged the public to ignore Radio Biafra. In a statement signed by the Director, Public Affairs of the commission, Alhaji Awwalu Salihu, NBC says it has become aware of a pirate radio station transmitting seditious and divisive content contrary to the provisions of the Nigeria Broadcasting Code and law. It assures the public that it was working in conjunction with security forces to track the source of the broadcast. NBC further admonishes the public to ignore the inflammatory content of the broadcast and continue to work toward a strong, united and prosperous nation. This station doesn't have the Southeast's mandate. The aim of it's cowardly sponsors is to cause ethnic strife. And that is the danger. Remember how, after the 1966 coup, one article and accompanying photographs in DRUM magazine led to street protests and eventually pogrom in Northern Nigeria? Let's douse this flame before it becomes a conflagration.
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