By Bayo Oluwasanmi
“Bukola you made me cry today after all I did for you as a son that I love so much you will be disgraced out of this game of politics
except if am not your father.” – Abubakar Olusola Saraki, father of Bukola Abiku Mesujamba Saraki.
The title is suggested, perhaps imposed by three highly visible officers of the National Assembly charged with conspiracy and forgery. The Three Blind Mice represent the elite failure and institutional failure of our democratic system.
Some mice are born blind. Such were the members of the National Assembly particularly the Senate, whose blindness was imposed by their greed, ambition, and corruption. Some have blindness thrust upon them such as the buffoons and scalawags who promised to defend their blindness with the last drop of their blood. In other cases, it is self-inflicted. That’s the case with the majority of senators of the Evil Alliance which said tinkering with the senate rules was an internal affair of the Senate and warned the Justice Ministry to back off.
As Nigerians breathed a collective sigh of relief that Bukola Abiku Mesujamba Saraki was at last brought before the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT) for false declaration of assets, we’re again confronted with another criminal trial this time of the Three Blind Mice. The Three Blind Mice have undermined our political system and political discourse. They have permanently altered our perception – image versus substance, and rendered our social and judicial apparatus in many important ways, nonexistent. The Three Blind Mice act out the narrow vision and stunning banality of the people in charge of our law making.
Senate President Bukola Abiku Mesujamba Saraki and his Deputy Ike Ekweremadu and Clerk of the National Assembly Alhaji Salisu Abubakar Maikasuwa and Deputy Benedict Efeturi are accused of forgery of Senate Rules. Forgery of the Senate Rules secured the positions of Senate President and Deputy Senate President for Mesujamba and Ekweremadu respectively. If found guilty, The Three Blind Mice face up to 14 years in prison. Mesujamba’s opponents say the election was not valid and was conducted under rules which they allege were forged.
The senators characterized the forgery case initiated by the office of the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, against the Three Blind Mice as a coup against the legislature. Senator Sabi Abdullahi, Chairman Senate Committee on Media and Public Affairs said the forgery case was unconstitutional and a violation of the principles of separation of powers, checks and balances. “The present effort, therefore, is clearly a coup against the legislature with the ignoble aim to undermine its independence and subject the law making institution to the whims and caprices of the executive,” says Abdullahi. “It is a plan to return Nigeria to the dictatorial era which we have, as a nation, voted to reject. It is a dangerous trend with grave implications for the survival of our democracy and the integrity of the component institutions,” warns Abdullahi.
A statement by Ekweremadu says “This latest attempt to try and convict him in the court of public opinion notwithstanding, we do not want to mount a public defence. We would rather meet them in court if they so wish. If an attempt on his life on November 17, 2015 (no facts or information to show that the police investigated an incident of such magnitude duly reported to them) did not deter him, certainly not even a purported police invitation, lawsuit, propaganda and intimidation would cow him.’’
Mesujamba says he’ll rather go to jail than vacate his post: “Let it be abundantly clear,” Mesujamba declares, “both as a citizen and as a foremost Legislator, I will continue to rise above the persecution and distraction that have been visited on me.” Mesujamba the reputed Mafia Boss of Saraki Family Corruption Dynasty, who all his life is known for standing for corruption and stealing from public treasury and looting banks, quotes the Civil Rights icon, Martin Luther King Jr.: “In the words of Martin Luther King Jr, “the ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at a time of challenge and controversy.” We know Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. He paid the supreme sacrifice for the liberation of oppressed and impoverished African Americans. Dr. king was the friend of the poor. Mesujamba, you’re no Dr. king!
Who will tell and convince the cantankerous Three Blind Mice that they’re traitors and saboteurs of our democracy? Who will remove the blindfold for them to see the reality of their tomfoolery? Who will educate them that they’re courting Nigerians revolt the kind that fell Ferdinand Marcos in the Philippines that could sweep them all into the abyss? It is traumatizing that we have frauds and forgers as presiding officers over our republic. We’re sick and tired of the festering that these Three Blind Mice keep scrapping and scratching through their cat and mouse game. They are like lions hovering and hunting buffaloes and like big cats fighting over the size of their spoils.
Mesujamba is the blindest of the Three Blind Mice. We hadn’t been so raped – openly – since we embraced the presidential system of government. The Three Blind Mice have redrawn a page right out of history. It’s like the last twist in a horror movie. These three stole our future from us and we let them steal our future. Nigerians are so galled that Mesujamba and Ekweremadu are still in charge of law making for the country. Our politics has been reduced to cannibalism and coup de’tat syndrome. It was a shivering emotional moment to see the Three Blind Mice standing at the dock like rain beaten puppies. The trial of the senate president and his deputy served as a kind of metaphor for Nigeria at that moment in history. Not only did it demonstrate the enormous will of Nigerians dying for change, but the spirited laughter at old jokes that the senate leadership is occupied by criminals and that they’re above the law.
The trial of the Three Blind Mice tells us that: These thieves and their partners in the Evil Alliance in the senate will be woken up from their political stupor when the giant that is the ordinary Nigerian wakes up and demand that which is theirs. All forms of servitude would end no matter how long. When Nigerians have been bled dry by the criminals in charge of the affairs of our nation, then the Nigerian people will find a catharsis as avenue to unleash their fury. We’re on the threshold. The tree of hope is drying fast and the Three Blind Mice and the senator thieves are turning away the life-saving water. The obdurate blindness of the Three Blind Mice will galvanize the insurrection of the poor masses. Time is running out for them.
To the Three Blind Mice, I leave you with the parting words by the Grateful Dead: “The wheel is turning and you can’t slow down, you can’t let go and you can’t hold on, you can’t go back, and you can’t stand still, if the thunder don’t get you then the lightning will.”