Alleged Interim Government Plan Unsettles Polity

who were calling for it before the conduct of the elections, people who thought the election may not go their way.”

Prior to the DSS statement, some protesters on the platform of the Free Nigeria Movement on Tuesday last week, urged President Buhari to annul the February 25 presidential election and set up an ING In a counter-protest, pro-Tinubu protesters on the platform of ‘The Natives’, marched on Abuja streets on Monday, warning against the imposition of an ING.

Investigation by THEWILL reveals that unsubstantiated fears about hidden official hands suspected to be manipulating the handover of power may also be fueling the call for ING.

Apprehension over suspected official reluctance to supervise the electoral process smoothly with the traumatising cashless policy is yet to fade away, despite repeated assurances by President Buhari that he was awaiting the May 29 handover date with great expectation and the transition committee was well on track.

But are protesters likely to heed the DSS warning?

More Protests Coming

Maverick Charles Oputa, a.k.a Charly Boy, who has been mobilising the youths in readiness for post-election protests across Nigeria, as he announced on his Twitter handle last week, said the DSS statement would not deter them.

He told THEWILL last week that what slowed down the pace of mobilisation is his determination to calm the angry youths so that they all could organise a peaceful protest that would be free from infiltration and disruption by hoodlums.

Charly Boy, who has become an advocate of the masses fighting for their rights, told this newspaper, “It is our civic right to protest against impunity as long as it is orderly. It is going to be all over the country. It is for the love of the country. Can leadership inspire anybody in Nigeria today? People in saner climes are thinking of progress, we are doing something different. We will do it within the law.''

He said the date was yet to be fixed because he was having a big time “calming many of the boys who are angry,'' adding, "I have asked them to chill, because when you are angry you can make costly mistakes.''

Interim National Government In Recent History

The Interim National Government was first muted in by the fading government of former Military President, General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida (retd.), whose government annulled the June 12, 1993 presidential election widely believed to have been won by Chief M K O Abiola, thus plunging the Third Republic into crisis. In an attempt to avoid the looming danger, General Babangida handed power over to corporate guru, Ernest Shonekan, as interim Head of State on August 27, 1993. The largely powerless government was dissolved by General Sani Abacha, who seized power on November17, 1993.

Twenty-nine years later, the call for ING resurfaced. This time, it was championed by a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, SAN, Chief Afe Babalola, founder of Afe Babalola University, Ado-Ekiti, ABUAD, Ekiti State.

In April 19 2022, Babalola called on the Federal Government to suspend plans for the 2023 general elections and opt for a stopgap interim government.

According to the legal luminary, using the current Constitution to conduct another election in Nigeria would only reproduce the faulty leadership and system being experienced in the country.

At the media parley organised at ABUAD on that day, Babalola said, “As soon as the President, the present government completes its term, do not hold a new election,” he proposed. “Rather, let us have an interim government for a short period to discuss a new Constitution.

“This will consist of all retired presidents, vice Presidents, governors, and some selected people.”

“Moneybags now control the lever of powers, if we allow the present Constitution beyond 2023, what we will be getting is recycling leadership who will continue the old ways.”

Reactions

Although Babalola’s call attracted a passing attention, a similar call, according to the DSS, has attracted condemnation, surprisingly more from his juniors at the bar.

Former president of the Nigerian Bar Association, Olisa Agbakoba, SAN; Presidential candidate of the PDP, Atiku Abubakar; Social Democratic Party, SDP, Adewole Adebayo and Chairman of the Inter-Party Advisory Advisory Committee, IPAC, have all condemned the call for ING and urged the authorities to prosecute the identified promoters.

On Friday, while handing over office to Justice Mary Odili, his successor as Chairman of the Body of Benchers, Chief Wole Olanipekun, SAN, described as an aberration and an invitation to anarchy, the sudden call for an interim government in a democracy where elections had just been held and certificates of return issued to winners.

Speaking in Abuja at a public function organised in his honour by the Body of Benchers (BoB) to mark the end of his tenure as the Chairman of the prestigious organisation, he said : “It is unconstitutional. To me, it comes from the pit of hell. Calling for an interim national government? Where did you get it from? How do you compartmentalise it? How do you accommodate it within a constitutional democracy? As a lawyer, I don’t know the jurisprudence that will accommodate it.''

What Way Forward

Security expert, Kabir Adamu, on Friday said that it is good that the DSS alerted the public to an existential threat to the democratisation process in the country. For him, politicians are capable of anything, particularly when they have invested heavily in an election and eventually lost. He however advised the DSS to be more proactive in doing their work. He suggested ways the spy agency can go about it.

Advising against arrests of prominent opposition political leaders which could create more problems, he said the DSS has the capacity to de-escalate the problem through statecraft.

“By trailing suspects, studying their works and investigating them through cyberspace surveillance could be one effective way to handle the situation. Another would be to form the habit of inviting potential suspects for questioning and issuing warnings to them after interrogations,” he said.

For Pa Adebanjo, ''the DSS exists not to tell the public about danger but to to tell those who can prevent danger, the police for instance. When they come to the public and raise an alarm, they raise the tempo in the society.”

On the possibility of a looming anarchy in the country given that no culprit has been identified and arrests made not to talk of prosecution to serve as deterrent, the elder statesman said, “Only the judiciary can save the country now. Their decision on the postelection matters before them can make or mar the country because you cannot have peace without justice.”