Interim government is a joke taken too far

Last Wednesday, the Department of State Security (SSS) announced that some politicians and other players are plotting an unconstitutional interim government for Nigeria, confirming what many Nigerians had initially thought to be no more than unfounded rumours that emerged in the news several weeks before the election.

According to the DSS, “the machination is taking place after the peaceful conduct of the elections in most parts of the country. The planners, in their many meetings, have weighed various options, which include, among others, to sponsor endless violent mass protests in major cities to warrant a declaration of State of Emergency. Another is to obtain frivolous court injunctions to forestall the inauguration of new executive administrations and legislative houses at the federal and state levels”.

This jarring announcement by the DSS came just a day after the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) and Chairman of the Presidential Transition Council, Boss Mustapha, had assured Nigerians and the world that the transition process to hand over to the newly elected government is on course and that President Buhari would not spend a day after May 29 2023. And as to be expected, the DSS announcement has sparked an uproar in the polity.

The Nigerian Governors Forum (NGF) said that it has “deliberated extensively on the alleged plot by some unscrupulous elements to install an interim government, as contained in the recent statement issued by the Department for State Services (DSS). Governors condemned in the strongest terms, any unconstitutional means of regime change and pledged their commitment to continue to defend Nigeria’s democracy as elected leaders. In addition, the Forum believes that issuing statements without arrests is akin to heating up the polity and causing unwarranted tension in the country”. The NGF then urged the DSS to immediately arrest and prosecute any persons behind such a plot, rather than pronouncements that will heat up the country.

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For their part, opposition party leaders averred that the DSS announcement amounts to an attempt to muzzle the opposition and challenged the secret police to disclose the identities of those involved in the plot. The presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, in a statement by his media aide, Timi Frank, said that “the DSS’ purported intelligence is fake. It is a plot to crackdown on protesters and arrest opposition political leaders before May 29”. Similarly, the Chief Spokesperson of the Labour Party, Dr Tanko Yunusa, said that: “We are not part of any insurrection plans whatsoever. But what I am saying is that we are going to protect the interest of Nigerians based on provisions of the law, which provides that where you are hurting, you have the right to protest and that you would do so with the defence and protection of the Nigerian security apparatus. That is what we would do, but we will not support any insurrection in any way”.

Daily Trust strongly condemns any plot by anyone to destabilize Nigeria’s democracy and throw the country into a constitutional crisis. We also urge all opposition parties and their leaders to refrain from inciting comments and mass protests that could easily spill into chaos in difficult political climate like ours. It is true that the right to protest is guaranteed by the constitution, but opposition parties who disagree with the outcome of the election have already proceeded to the courts to challenge the election. That process must be allowed to run its due course. There is no reasonable justification for mass protests over a case for which you are already in court.

And while we recognize that the DSS might have as yet unclear motives for making such a weighty allegation in the open, rather than proceeding straight to court with evidence, we nevertheless believe that it is still an allegation that cannot be taken lightly, given the desperate lengths Nigerian politicians often go to tramp on the constitution and the law.  Therefore, the DSS must go beyond issuing statements, and ensuring that all those behind the alleged plot are arrested and made to face the law as their professional calling requires. Since they have uncovered the plot, there should be no excuses; it must be nipped in the bud.

More importantly, we should be warned by the alarming reversal of democracy all around us in Africa. In just the past three years or so, no less than six African countries have slid back from democratic government to military authoritarianism, a dangerous outcome that is already being dog-whistled in Nigeria by those who should know better.

For these reasons, we reiterate that there is no place for an interim government in our democratic system. A peaceful transfer of power from a sitting government to the newly elected one is a cornerstone of our constitutional democracy that cannot shift in any circumstance. The President-Elect is a constitutional office in its own right. It exists to enact the will of the Nigerian people freely expressed in an election and to ensure the permanency of democratic government. The occupier of that office is the duly elected, duly declared and duly certified winner of the most recent presidential election. We have such a person right now. No one else but the occupier of that office can assume the leadership of this country.

Therefore, we insist that unless the courts decide otherwise, before then, President Muhammadu Buhari must hand-over power to President-Elect, Bola Ahmed Tinubu on May 29th 2023. Any talk about interim government is a joke taken too far.