I have now confirmed what
my grapevine source told
me two weeks ago that Mr. President‘s visit to Plateau on the August 18, 2004 is coincidence. Why 18th? You may want to ask. The answer I think is that there appear to be a corre-lation between May 18, 2004 and August 18, 2004.
It may interest you to note that it was on the 18th May, 2004 that the President slammed an emergency rule on us and Wednesday August 18t, 2004 the government was exactly three months old of the six months it is expected to last. And so, perhaps; the President may want to come and be part of the half-term celebration of the government.
But I get confused day by day as to the possibility of the emergency government taking its exit after the expiration of its six months term. The discordant tunes being reeled off presently on the Plateau are pointers to this suspicion. To a civil servant who lives by salary alone, life has been okay since the adhoc government came into being. Payments of salaries are guaranteed before 30th of every month compared to when they were being owed five months in arears.
For a state like Plateau, prompt payment of salaries is the cheapest tech-nique of good governance. This is because it is largely a civil service state and you can imagine the number of families that will be left in hunger if workers are being owed salaries. Most of the business enterprises I must concede are controlled by non-indigenes, so the indig-enes rely solely on salaries and wages.
Also, when you come across some of the losers in the last general elections who claimed to have been rigged out and those who were part of the PDP Victory train but for some bickerings fell off along the rail, your ear-drum will be inundated with “Let the emergency rule last forever”, They don’t mind the constitutional implication of the government overst-aying its stipulated tenure.
I was in Jos recently and it was “all hail General Ali” so long as food is on every family’s table and guaranteed, a basic requi-rement that oils the wheels of democratic governance in every society. And I believe to a large extent that the President and his team of emergency proclamists must have cashed in on this yawning gap to justify the reason behind their action. The current disunity among the political class in the state has also become a potent tool in the hands of the President’s men who are bent on entrenching their will at all cost.
While outsiders were busy crying over what they considered a rape on dem-ocracy we the people of Plateau State whose symp-athy elicited such reactions were seen in droves going to pay homage in Abuja. Two deferent groups of ‘leaders of thought’ from the state graced the sublime enclave of Aso Rock in remorseful appearances yet; each group had its vested interest neatly guised under such preten-sions.
More baffling too were members of the state legisl-ature who had earlier gone to seek redress in court over their suspension. Perhaps bowing to some proddings from some of the elites I gathered they also embarked on a ‘pilgrimage’ to the deputy senator President whom they had accused of complicity in the emergency game plan.
Although, they had denied ever going for fence-mending as viewed by the public, which is why their case is still in the Supreme Court, the question that is still being asked is, why was the visit in the first place? I think people should try as much as possible to be principled enough to stand by their posturing if they are totally convinced of it, even thou-gh, it is acclaimed that in politics there are no perm-anent enemies except perma-nent interest, this case goes beyond individual interest. It is a question of morality
In fact, of much concern to me is the revelation of internal bickerings within the fold of the ruling party (PDP) in the state, especially those considered to be members of the kitchen cabinet of the suspended governor. I heard it on good authority that those political appointees who managed to survive the emergency onslaught have been given the tag, ‘betra-yers’ by those who lost out in the game. They have also threatened that those perce-ived betrayers should begin to count themselves out of favour as soon as the emergency rule is over.
This to me is the unki-ndest thinking that any civilized democrat should have. Without any fear or favour, I make bold to say that in any stormy situation there must always be survi-vors. Besides, politics in itself is a game of wits and from the instances I have seen so far, one has to be a great lobbyist, bootlicker, betrayer, sycophant and unprincipled character to be able to survive the storm. And almost every politician is guilty of these attributes because it is just a matter of opportunity.
However, these develo-pments clearly show that the suspended governor had more foes than friends while in office. Many had alleged that his high-handedness, which strained his relatio-nship with the ordinary people and the elite group in the state suddenly, became his albatross. They claim that about eight thousand workers were to be retrenc-hed shortly before the proc-lamation of emergency rule. Also, that some elders who were completely eclipsed are now beginning to rekindle themselves to reckoning and therefore their prayer is that, “may the emergency rule last longer”. Against the backd-rop of all these, one is in great doubt as to whether the people will ever speak with one voice. The divergent views surrounding this new government and the suspe-nded one are a case study.
Now back to the dividends of the emergency rule. The disarmament exercise embarked upon by the new government we gathered has yielded some results. As from the last count, over one hundred arms and ammu-nitions were said to have been voluntarily surrendered by some members of the warring factions. If this is true then one may be right to say that the militias have gradually left the trenches back to the city centers for laying down their arms.
Can one therefore be right to say that apart from other political factors that informed the proclamation of emer-gency rule in Plateau state, the action has also yielded some positive dividends bearing in mind some of these developments? This, espe-cially to those on the other side of the divide may sound controversial. Some schools of thought hold it that alth-ough people are no longer being killed, children’s school fees are now guaranteed bec-ause of prompt payment of salaries, such may have been the strategy of blackmail used by those in opposition. But I leave this to a discerning mind to pass this judgment.
Kassam writes from Abuja.
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