During these five years, the struggle for the domination of the Federal Government with the winner take all syndrome bedevilled the polity. The NCNC as the opposition party in the Western Region House of Assembly planned to improve its operation as to become the leading party in the West. The Action Group was doing the same in the Eastern Region and Northern Region where it was in opposition. The NPC could not watch this democratic movement without reacting. The NPC was eyeing the two Regions so as to muster sufficient Legislators from the South and control the Federal Government without a coalition arrangement with any party.  The stage for the collision of these three forces was sufficiently set when what first appeared like a family quarrel between two brothers Chief Obafemi Awolowo and Chief S. L. Akintola took a dive for the worst. With the backing of the NPC leaders who saw the problem as a chance to have a solid foothold in the West and opportunity to dispense with the NCNC/NPC coalition in the Federal Government threw their weight behind Chief S. L. Akintola. With this backing of the NPC or the Federal Government, Chief S. L.  Akintola, a brilliant politician who could not be predicted, and called by his friends as Akin-Wonder, became more intransigent and refuse to resign from the post of the Premier of the Western Region.  By the middle of 1962, the move to impeach and remove him constitutionally was put in motion. The person who was to replace Chief S.L. Akintola was ready with his list of ministers. The Action Group party members in the House of Assembly refused to listen to the various calls of national leaders and traditional rulers for caution and dialogue. They determined to go ahead with the impeachment at all cost not knowing what the Premier was capable of doing.

On the D-day, the motion was moved in the House of Assembly. Before the motion was supported, hell was let loose on the floor of the House of Assembly. Honourable men, like  little children, freely used chairs and all objects as missiles. In that confusion, like a pre-arranged acid intervention, the police poured tear-gas into the Assembly Hall to separate the combatants from killing themselves. Many of the so-called honourable members who were so impervious to good advice from elders scrambled through the windows with various bruises while many were carried out unconscious by policemen and sent to hospital.  By the time the smoke settled, the almighty Federal Government declared a state of emergency in the Western Region and Chief Dr. Majekodumi was appointed the Administrator of Western Region. By special proclamation many of the Leaders of the House of Assembly and Ministers were sent to remote villages to be detained. The elders say that “The ear which refused to hear advice will be cut-off with the head”.   From the revelation which was made by some decamped members of the Action Group, the founder of that party, Chief Obafemi Awolowo was tried and jailed for attempting to overthrow the Federal Government by violence.

In January 1963, Chief S. L. Akintola regained his Premiership of Western Region. By July 1963 Midwest Region was created with the NCNC in control. The NPC did not object to the creation because it rightly hoped to control the Western Region by an alliance with the National Democratic Party under the leadership of Chief S.L. Akintola.

Before the election of 1966 the NPC and the National Democratic Party formed the Nigerian National Alliance (NNA) while the former arch rivals the NCNC and the Action Group formed the United Progressive Grand Alliance (UPGA). The two great titans clash in the election of 1966 in the Western Region. The election was so fierce that no party was prepared to concede victory to the other. The people of this country were treated to the disgraceful drama of two different election results from the electronic media, there were the NTA and the Eastern Region Broadcasting Service. This was followed by unprecedented destruction, looting and killing of people through petrol bath and fire called “Operation Wetie). It was at the middle of this confusion and national disaster, because the parties wanted to control the Federal Government and which could not be achieved by election and dialogue that the UPGA sponsored coup took place on January 15, 1966.

After this coup, General Aguyi Ironsi became the first Military Head of State of Nigeria. In line with the Military Command structure, he wanted to impose a Unitary System of Government on Nigeria and to abolish the four Regional Governments. This arrangement coupled with his refusal to bring the young military coup plotters under Major K Nzeogwu to trial created tension in the North. By July 29, 1966, young Military Officers of Northern extraction staged a coup in which the Head of State and his Military host Brigadier Fajuyi and Governor of the Western Region were killed during the Head of State’s visit to Ibadan. This coup brought in General Yakubu Gowan into power. Since the killing of senior Military Officers from the North during the January 15, 1955 coup, the ethnic mistrust and hatred between the Igbos and their Northern hosts burst into open conflict in which many Igbo civilians lost their lives and property. The Igbos moved enmasse to the Eastern Region. As they reached home to tell their tales of woes, Col. Odumegwu Ojukwu, the then Military Governor of Eastern Region ordered all non-Easterners to leave the region. At this stage the secession of Eastern Region from Nigeria became imminent. Men of goodwill both in Nigeria and outside Nigeria pleaded for caution and dialogue, the Military boys did not listen since their thoughts and sense of good judgement were under the control of the usual Nigeria Devil of succession.

Two conferences which were held at NIFOR near Benin and at Aburi in Ghana could not prevent the civil war which the Federal Government started as a police action. At this point Col. Odumegu Ojukwu finally declared the former Eastern Region of Nigeria the Republic of Biafra. The Civil War lasted three years. When the war ended in 1970, inestimable loss of lives and property had taken place. Many of leaders who participated in fueling the trouble could not survive the civil war. General Yakubu Gowon ruled the country until 1975 when he was removed and replaced by General Muritala Mohammed. General Mohammed started very well as the military Head of State of Nigeria, but unfortunately he was assassinated during the failed Dimka’s coup and General Olusegun Obasanjo became the military head of state. General Olusegun Obasanjo successfully conducted the elections of 1979 and handed over to Alhaji Shehu Shagari who became the first elected Executive President of Nigeria. Between 1979 and 1983, the friction between the parties started again and the struggle to control the Federal Government was fiercer than before. To gain the upper hand, with the Nigerian Devil of succession at work, the five political parties NPN, UPN, APP, PRP, etc. threw caution to the wind and they recklessly rigged the election in the areas where they were popular. The party which rigged most won the election. But where a party made incursion into the area where another party was popular through election rigging gave rise to riots, and the destruction of lives and property as in Ondo State. In the issuing claims and counter-claims over who won what, the army moved in to stop the mindless carnage. This coup swept General Buhari and Barigadier Idiagbon into power. The failure of that election showed that the Chairman of the Independent Electoral Commission should not only be honest like a retired Chief Justice, but he must be very efficient and vigilant. That election was inefficiently conducted and some Principal Electoral Officers accepted bribe to help politicians to make the election the most rigged in Nigeria history.  In 1983 General Gbadamosi Babangida replaced General Buhari as the head of state.   From the above brief summary it is clear that there is a Devil in Nigeria which has made it impossible for Civilian government to conduct successful elections since 1960. The events which led to failure each time had been the same the control of the Federal Government. In 2002 to 2003 the Devil of succession is already at work. The bone of contention is the Presidency.

Some people are bent on becoming the President in 2003. To do this President Olusegun Obasanjo must be removed. Since he is a popular President, he may easily emerge victorious in the party congress. If this is so, the National Assembly should go ahead to impeach him. It is said that “The weapon with which an enemy is vanquished is not what matters, but what matters is for the enemy to die”. This is the reason why the thirty-two constitutional breaches lined up against the President are being magnified as impeachable offences. The PDP has spoken the minds of the preponderant majority of decent Nigerians that the 32 offences are not impeachable breaches.

As it is usual with the Nigerian polity, the Devil of succession is again at work blocking peoples sense of judgement and pushing the country to the brink of the precipice. It is disheartening to watch the usual method of operation of this Devil of succession. The situation was so bad that people no longer regard election rigging as a sin against God, but as an electoral dexterity to outwit the opponents. Some parties created invisible or floating booths unknown to other parties to rig elections. Some parties, by using corrupt electoral officers  exchange registers of voters with registers from other voting centres just to prevent some people from voting.

Now as we  approach the election year of 2003, the signals are clear that the succession Devil is once again on the prowl and politicians have raised private security outfits called by different names. Important personalities, for example the Minister of Justice of the Federation Chief Bola Ige and Chief and Mrs Igwe, the Chairman of the Anambra State Bar Association were murdered in cold blood. Sixteen members of the Enugu House of Assembly are currently in exile at Abuja because Enugu is too hot for their safety.

People of goodwill are appealing to the National Assembly to stop the impeachment of the President without success. Once the Devil of succession grips the people in power whether Military or Civilian they do not look back and they disregard all advice. This was what happened between Col. Odumegu Ojukwu and General Yakubu Gowon before the civil war started. It was this Devil which pressurised General Gbadamosi Babangida to annual a very credible and successful election which was won by Chief Abiola. This same Devil pushed General Abacha to order the elimination of perceived obstacles between him and the elected/adopted President of Nigeria. It is the same Devil of succession that cause the death of Chief Abiola in custody of Government. One may ask, “How credible are those Honourable members of the National Assembly that are bent on the impeachment of the President at all cost’?

All the members of the National Assembly should know that their credibility rating among Nigerians is very low because of the action of few members. This is an Assembly that allow indicted members, over their handing of public fund, to go with their loot while quashing the famous Senator Idris Kuta’s Committee Report. This is the National Assembly whose member’s monthly income has not been made known to the public. This is the National Assembly which rejected been audited by the Auditor-General of the Federation as directed by the President. This is the National Assembly whose audited accounts report by the Auditor-General, if it is ever made, can only be constitutionally sent to the Public Account Committee of the National Assembly for consideration. And if the report indicts any member, it can be quashed as they did it to Senator Idris Kuta’s Committee Report. This is the National Assembly whose speaker has been dragged to the Anti-grab Commission for massive irregular expenditure. The Assembly members are still fraternizing with him as he is fighting, in the Court of Law, to declare the Commission, which he recently participated in creating and which is to try him, as unconstitutional. It is said that “he who must go to equity must go with clean hands”. The National Assembly should first of all cleanse itself by recovering all looted fund and later discipline erring members. This constitutional provision which makes it impossible to probe the National Assembly while the members are probing other agencies of Government should be amended.

Look at the on-going civil war in Ivory Coast, the West African haven of peace and investment has gone up in flames. The root cause of the problem was the marginalization of a section of the country during the last Presidential election. By impeaching President Olusegun Obasanjo, a man of the South-West extraction, the National Assembly should know that they are playing with an explosive burble and when it bursts, many of them may not live to tell the story of their pig-headed obstinacy.    

Jan 2003