Professor Udenta Udenta is a scholar, author, poet and foundational National Secretary of the Alliance for Democracy. At the sidelines of a national conference in Abuja last Friday where he was keynote speaker, he granted a brief interview to THISAGE on burning national issues. Excerpts:
ALLEGED COUP PLOT
There is a coup and rumours of a coup. ! For the first time, I am seeing journalists and their organisations publishing comprehensive stories of coup detat with names, pictures, date of birth and career progression of coup planners.
In the days of the military -we fought the military and I went to detention many times- all those journalists and editors who published such stories would have been apprehended by the military authorities to disclose how they got the information. Currently, people are even adding more angles to the coup reposts everyday; today the number of planners is 22, the next day it is 33; then at another time we are told two of the plotters have escaped here or there. Reports even say the NSA nearly escaped death. How did they get to know each other? Where they part of the coup making process? How do bloody civilians get to know about coup plot?.
They must disclose to the Nigerian people, if not the military, where they got their stories because apparently, this is a matter that is still unfolding. What is being reported is a comprehensive data.
However, democracy, any democracy is still better than any military regime. That is my stand.
JUSTICE OBIORA EGWATU RULING ON DEFECTED REPS
This judge, (Justice Obiora Egwatu) deserves a Grand Commander of the Niger, GCON, honour, if not a Grand Commander of the Federal Republic, GCFR, award, for delivering his judgement with key jurisprudential clarity and moral authority. You cannot separate the fact of the case from the morality of the case. The law is not a blind piece of wood like the Constitution which people make a fetish out of, quoting section this or section that. This judgement is not judicial activism. It is a measured, straight interpretation of the law, summoning and using moral fibre that a judge must be clothed with.
There is no confusion, no ambiguity and sentiment about what the judge has ruled. We must bring order or impose order and clarity on our Constitutional development and our political evolution. The Supreme Court recently said they reserved a judgement on a matter already after the fact.
The President declared a state of emergency in Rivers State. After six month, it lapsed. The Supreme Court is yet to make its final ruling. What kind of court is that? To the Supreme Court, the Constitution is meaningless because a state government has no more power embedded in our law to manage the funds of local governments. They say he can find a way to make it work.
This judge therefore may have found a way to make the law work. Our politicians do not constitute a class in itself not to talk of a class for itself. When Karl Marx said a class is a class in itself, it means it ought to be constituted as a whole with certain characteristics, qualities and elements, while a class for itself knows it must fight to protect their interests.
When governors are chicken- hearted and cowardly with their tails within their legs running from one party to another, there is a problem. I believe that any party should take all such people in their bulk, in a class action to the court and let the Supreme Court rule otherwise.
I stand by that judgement and for that judgement.
Secondly, apart from what the judge has ruled, I would like to encourage others to do so as a way to bring the element of seriousness and decorum to what has become a fragmentation of political order and the decay of politics in our country.
CAN THE RULING STAND WHERE A SPEAKER TO DECLARE A SEAT VACANT DEFECTS TO ANOTHER PARTY?
Yes, the Judge is telling the Speaker what to do on the basis of the law. The Judge is not appealing to the Speaker in the House of Representatives of House of Assembly or the President of the Senate. He simple said this is what the law says about a member of your House, take action. Even if the Speaker has defected, his has to implement the law
COURT RULING ON PDP CONVENTION
The court has ruled that the PDP should not proceed with its planned national convention until they finish tying up some loose ends. I don’t want to join issues with the judge. But as a political player, someone with knowledge of the history of Nigeria and political evolution of the country, it is clear to me that President Bola Tinubu does not want a proper election; he wants a coronation. He knows that his policies have failed. I have said it on TV several times this government has become a hybrid regime, what we call competitive authoritarianism. The idea is to dismantle the guardians of democratic governance towards 2027.
There are four guard ways, namely; the civic space, which is shrinking. Look at the recent protest to free Nnamdi Kanu, a normal thing, but was prevented by the police. Everywhere was shut down with police. That is not how to run a democracy. Journalists are also being frightened with the law on cyberstalking. Also, the Labour movement seems to have gone underground. When the President of the NLC is accused of terror financing, what do you expect.?
Finally, the intention of the authorities is to dismantle the apparatuses of multi-party democracy. PDP is seen as the main enemy of the state, a culprit in the bid to stop the president’s re-election. The idea is to ensure that the party does not stand as a force to reckon with in the 2027 election. I hope the members and owners of the party understand this very well and will have to use all the instruments of political, legal and constitutional powers to go through their challenges and overcome the political struggle they have found themselves. They must take their struggle as an act of political survival. It has nothing to do with political division; it is a grand design by the political powers in the country to make sure PDP does not hold together and give the governing party a run for its money in the 2027 election.
PDP unlike ADC that is just coming up with little or no party structure, is still a big party. If you come to Enugu state where the governor recently defected to the APC, you will know that PDP is still the party with the structure. It is more organic that even the APC in the heart of the people.
