Deregulated Presidency

In fact the deregulation philosophy has gained so much ground now that virtually every form of government responsibility and office is now deregulated.

It is today, very interesting to witness in Nigeria how major decisions affecting the economy, polity, security and others, are arrived at. It is quite obvious that since President Umar Yar'Adua travelled to Saudi Arabia for medical treatment, nobody seems to be in-charge of anything in the presidency. It's been a free for all; every man to himself kind of thing for various ministers and presidential aides. Virtually, every federal cabinet member has turned spokesperson for the presidency, conveying perceptions and decisions at various 'illegal' meetings being held in the absence of the president, who left the nation without a word as to where and on whom authority and responsibility lies, regarding the steering of the ship of the state in Nigeria within the period he would be away, an action contrary to Section 145 of the Nigerian 1999 constitution.

The Nigerian presidency has become so deregulated that nearly every member of the federal cabinet has gained some kind of autonomy and severally assumed finite decisional powers. Virtually all presidential aides today claim to have the ears of the president and so have been making utterances and taking actions with constitutional implications. Even the president’s family is not lost in this power share-and-grab thing. Understandably, the failing health of President Yaradua has fully drawn out the president's wife to the arena. Turai Yaradua, who we are told before now, have been the real person in-charge of political governance in the country, have come full blown. Or what else explains the fact that many ministers and even the Secretary to the Federal Government, Yayale Ahmed has told Nigerians that since November 23, 2009 that President Yaradua left the country, they had not seen nor spoken with him. Certainly, they must have been taking their 'orders' from someone  the one who only could talk with the president. Who else but Turai?

From the Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Mr. Michael Aondooaka, SAN, we heard that governance of Nigeria, like the internet web access, can be administered from anywhere around the world. He however, did not tell us that Nigeria's quest for e-governance has so progressed that all you need is a brief-case or notebook, which can be carried even to the toilet, to access government information based on which governance decisions can be arrived at. Of course, Mr. Aondooaka today has become the de facto president. He has managed to almost completely turn the vice president into an 'errand boy'. It is obvious from his actions and utterances that he has bamboozled his colleagues to believe that he is the only one in the cabinet who understands the letters and spirit of the constitution on the issue of the president's health.

Dr Sayyidi Abba Ruma, the Minister of Agriculture and Water Resources, the president's alter ego today, has been very much in the thick of things. The other time, he slammed critics of the president's continued stay abroad on medical grounds, accusing them of playing politics with the president's health issue in order to gain advantage in the forthcoming 2011 general election. Ruma has the company of Dr. Muhtar Mansur (Finance) and Dr. Shamsuddeen Usman (National Planning), Dr. Tanimu Yakubu, Chief Economic Adviser to the President, in the camp of ministers who have continued to frustrate the process of complying with the constitution in the matter of the president's continued absence without official leave. They of course, fully benefits from the situation as they collectively and individually have become some sort of lords in the country today.

Unusually, in this deregulation regime, it is not only the mass of the people who are left in the cold; the National Assembly seems to be demobilized. The Nigerian constitutional provision in section 145 seems to have ostracized them from determining how the ship of the state will sail in the circumstance, unless they want to try the option of impeachment of the president gone 'AWOL'.  Well, they had to resort to the plea and persuasion option recently. They want the ministers to play ball or let them in on the goings on. But for now, the ministers under the aegis of Federal Executive Council (FEC) are enjoying their opportunity and so would play no ball. They insist the President is still 'capable'. Why not? The 'president(s)' of course is capable.

I am only sorry for the country because I know that when this 'deregulation' regime ends, the nation's treasury would have been so depleted that, like the dry fuel pumps all over the country, nothing would be left to drive economic transactions.

I also know that most state governors today, like the ministers and other presidential aides, are on the loose; with our various docile state houses of assembly, one wonders who will save us and make these polit(r)icians work to save Nigerians from the lingering deprivation, hunger and

Constitutional crisis  we suffer.

May be after now, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) may have enough cases to deal with. For now, we have to keep waiting. Someone should tell the vice president to dutifully follow the rope until the stake is found. I'm sure he has the patience.