ON PRESIDENT BUHARI'S ILLNESS AND ETHNO-RELIGIOUS SUSPICIOUS: AN OPEN LETTER TO THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY
ON PRESIDENT BUHARI'S ILLNESS AND ETHNO-RELIGIOUS SUSPICIOUS: AN OPEN LETTER TO THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY
By:
Nurudeen Dauda
May 7,2017
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Permit me to fish in this trouble water. I want to call on the National Assembly to consider an amendment in our 1999 constitution in their ongoing constitutional amendment which will provide for Six (6) Vice Presidents, one(1) from each of the Six(6) Geo-political zones of the country with a Vice President from the President's zone who is to become the substantive President in the event of permanent incapacitation or death of a sitting President. The Vice President from the president's zone is to be called a "SHADOW" President. This in my view, will reduce political tension in the future. Although our constitution does not recognize Geo-political zones as a political unit ,but everyone knows that our major political parties have provision for zonal Vice Chairmen in each of the Six(6) zones in their parties. Please come with me, I shall state my reason.
Why I advocate for Six(6) Vice Presidents in our constitution is that as a student of political science I know too very well that Liberal Democracy is not built on ethno-religious principles, but in Nigerian Democracy as it is presently their is a strong ethno-religious sentiment attached to it. We need to minimize the ethno-religious tension in our country for the future. In my humble opinion, if we make the above provision in our constitution it will reduce or completely eliminate future political tension in respect of permanent incapacitation or sudden death of a sitting president. We are not a matured Democracy otherwise the issue would not have arisen.
There is ethno-religious tension or suspicious in the country over the president's ill-health. Some people are perhaps very afraid that in the evident of "resignation" or "death" (God forbids) their kinsman or religious man will loss power. Some people, on the other hand, are perhaps praying for the"worst" to happen simply because their kinsman or religious man will benefit from the situation. In my conviction, Good Health does not immune one from death just as Ill-Health is not a death warrant, but fundamentally speaking a leader needs a sound health to effectively govern.
Many issues in Nigerian politics are ordinarily not issues in American politics, but for us here are serious issues. US presidents have been sick while in office. Woodrow Wilson (1913-1921) suffered a severe stroke that left him incapacitated throughout his presidency. Yet He remained in office till the end of his term in 1921. Diagnosed with polio in 1921, Franklin D Roosevelt (1933-1945) still served for twelve good years though he could not stand or walk without support. Using a wheelchair in private, he never disclosed the full extent of his health condition.
Dwight Eisenhower (1953-1961) suffered heart attack in 1955 as a result of which he was hospitalized for several weeks. He also did a surgery some months later to treat Crohn’s disease and in late 1957 suffered another stroke that made him temporarily unable to speak. Yet he went ahead to win a second term after that. John F Kennedy (1961-1963) had a chronic bone disease and was hospitalized nine times in his short two and a half year presidency but this was never revealed to the American public. George Bush (1989- 1993) vomited and then fainted in front of cameras in 1992 while on a visit in Japan and heaven did not fall in America.
About five of American presidents have been sick in office, what is new if Nigeria’s current president is sick? American presidents have died in office. Four died of natural causes: William Henry Harrison (1841), Zachary Taylor (1850), Warren Harding (1923) and Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1945). Four others were assassinated: Abraham Lincoln (1865), James A. Garfield (1881), William McKinley (1901) and John F. Kennedy (1963).
On the issue of appointment ,for instance,President Trump appointed three of his children and his son-in-law as Senior Advisers to president. Is this a "nepotism" or cronyism" or "favoritism" or "sectionalism" and or regionalism? Well, it happens in US as a "mirror"of "Democracy" and heaven did not fall! President Kennedy after winning election In 1960 his first appointment was his 35-year old brother Robert Kennedy as Attorney general of the United States. President Jimmy Carter 39th US president appointed most of his official from Georgia where he came from. That made the US media to nickname them as Georgia Mafias. He argued that the buck stops at him as such he appointed his trustees and loyalist.
We have a long way to go in this country. We are an ethnic sentimental society. We are a religious society, yet an ungodly society. If truth be told president Buhari has sharply departed from the late Yar'adu's style in term of transferring power to his vice whenever he went on medical vacation not only once. The president and his vice have a good working relationship from the onset. However, president Buhari and his handlers need to be more transparent in handling the issue at hand. Ethno-religious champions need to be matured enough.
May God heal our president! May God bless Nigeria!