The All Progressives Congress (APC) has hit the nation’s critic-in-chief, Professor Itse Sagay, over his statement in a recent newspaper interview accusing the party’s leaders of being a bunch of unprincipled people, encouraging and accepting rogues into the party.
The APC in turn called Sagay, a professor of constitutional law, a ‘rogue elephant,” in a reaction issued by publicity secretary, Bolaji Abdullahi.
“Our attention has been brought to an interview published on pages 46-47 of The Nation Newspaper of Sunday, September 24, 2017, granted by the Chairman of the Presidential Advisory Committee on Anti-corruption (PACAC), Professor Itse Sagay (SAN).
“In the said interview, Sagay described the leadership of the All Progressives Congress (APC) as “the most unprincipled group of people” who are “encouraging and accepting rogues” in the party. He said: “When I say ‘rogues’, I don’t mean stealing. In literature, when you say someone is a rogue elephant, it means people who are running riot and destroying the party.”
“The Webster dictionary defines ‘rogue elephant’ as “one whose behaviour resembles that of a rogue elephant in being aberrant or independent.” Clearly if we have today, anyone in our government or, by extension, the party who feels accountable only to his own ego; who does not feel the need to bridle his tongue for the sake of anything that is higher than himself; who feels independent of everyone and every institution; that person is Professor Sagay.
“Asked by the interviewer if he would stop speaking if the President asks him to stop speaking, he said: “Yes, he is my employer. If he tells me to stop talking, I’ll stop talking. But I have certain rights too that I can exercise in addition to that, because I’m not going to be in a position where I am impotent. So, I must obey him, but I can go beyond that and obey myself too. That’s it.” Framed in another way, what Sagay is saying here is that, no matter what is at stake, he would rather resign than obey the President if the President tries to restrain him. This is the quintessential rogue elephant behaviour.
“In his sheer arrogance, he forgets that it is impossible for him to call out the leadership of the party as “weak” and “unprincipled” without indicting the President, who is the leader of the party and has the fundamental responsibility to build the party. If Sagay had any iota of respect for the man who dug him back from inevitable oblivion and puts him in a position in which he now feels superior to everyone, he would channel his opinions and advice to the President on how to make the party stronger and more principled. It appears however that Sagay does not have anything constructive to say about anything. He only knows how to tear down and assault everyone and everything.
“We want to remind Sagay and all other appointees of our government that the only reason they occupy their current position today is because the APC won the election. There is, therefore, a matter of honour to show decorum and respect for the party and its leadership. You cannot love the fruit and hate the tree that produced it”.
Sagay had also had several verbal squabbles with National Assembly members,especially senators, asking them to jettison ‘distinguished’, which prefixed their title of Senators and has vowed to continue to criticise them for ‘bleeding’ the nation dry. (NAN)
Hmmm…the Professor seems to speak for many well-meaning Nigerians whose loyalty stems from their confidence in the leadership of the administration, rather than the party. Yes, one can say that the ‘rush’ to win the election, dating back to the party’s pre-election membership process which, at the time, lacked the foresight to scrutinise the in-flow of its membership drive, particularly from the then ruling party members has resulted in the description of current administration’s political ineptitude. What about the throng of recent members who were from the ‘other side’ now making waves as part of the administration? Fact is that there is valid supposition these clique have such influence to sway the purpose and principles of the anti-corruption drive to their own advantage. Rather than enumerating by name or identity, Nigeria has seen ‘blatant’ erosion of fairness and subversion of justice in the name of juridical process, which has enabled some identified corruption culpable individuals ‘slip through the net’. Some may speculate that this administration will execute its powers of vetting and barring to expel some members, thus making them redundant and unable to influence exoneration of their known contribution to, or participation in, serial corrupt practices by now. However, these people continue to show their presence and with ‘tongues still wagging’ at their various misconducts, nothing has been done, and nothing is seemingly going to happen in terms of their questionable integrity, not to talk about their tricky postures, as in their complicity in various issues of concerns pre-and post membership validation.
I remember being among those commentators warning that the scramble for APC membership pre-election was a ploy to infiltrate the party in order to cover their conduct from the previous administrations. For instance, there had been ‘hues and cries’ about some influential members’ antecedents before present administration came to power but these same individuals are still very much alive, very much around and determining the what happens in Nigeria. Without the initiatives of the the President and his Vice, we would have witnessed impunity and deep-seated corruption than before. I will not fault Professor Sagay if he contends to be a ‘rogue elephant’. There are some influential party members who had been, and still, playing from their ‘bag of tricks’, feeling assured that they have had it made and any outcry will come to nought. The only ‘redemption’ will be 2019 and what Nigerians can make of their current inaction to protest about individual blatant corrupt conduct, in such a way that the executive arms of government will feel the shame of its lack of confidence to confront and process any individual whose status and position in the administration, overall, is question-begging. The facts are there, not just circumstantial, but realistic. I’ve always asked two questions: Why would Magu (EFCC) not be confirmed as the chairman of the Commission; and why has been retained as an Acting Chairman? Sometimes, I want to answer myself: Fear of unravelling historical corrupt practices of some current members of the APC and the Leadership of the Party, and the Administration has gone soft on corruption, and has become critically selective of who to confront- a double standard and an ambiguous posture.