Banire in the eye of the storm

Muiz Adeyemi Banire is in the eye of the storm, as far as the politics of his party, APC, is concerned. Now, the former three-term commissioner in Lagos State where he superintended transport, environment and special duties, is not a small fry in the ruling party. He is the National Legal Adviser of the party and a senior advocate to boot. Banire also holds a doctorate in property law and so he expectedly understands debates, arguments and counter arguments more than an average Nigerian politician.

But he is about committing class suicide or at best on the path to self-immolation. The senior advocate broke ranks with the inner conclave of his party and decided to stay true to his original calling as a lawyer. He warned against imposition of candidates in the last primaries – if we could still call the sham that happened such – to elect those who will fly the party’s flag during the July 22 local government elections in Lagos State. He spoke; using different media, to pass his message across and even took advertorials in some newspapers. To his credit, he started warning his party as far back as May on the illegality and dangers of imposition. The Lagos chapter of APC ignored his warnings and went ahead to give automatic second terms to members who were chairmen before.

For those who have seen the pictures from the so-called primaries or selection exercise, a former senator was pummeled and nearly stripped naked only to be rescued by security agents. For his part in calling attention to this illegality even according to the party’s constitution, some of the party members have been up in arms against the senior advocate. This is not an attempt to burnish Mr. Banire’s image at all, as he too had enjoyed some of what he is condemning now, but just to situate the internal contradictions in APC as one of the reasons our political parties remain amoebic, and why our democratic journey since 1999 has been largely inchoate. And why we still cannot but referred to it as ‘nascent.’

Reactions to Banire’s advocacy have been largely divided into two: a group commends him for speaking out against imposition and thereby deepening democracy, while another is only bothered about why he is speaking out now. At a level both sides are correct, but we have to decide if we want the old order to continue with all of its Stone Age features, which have made our country to operate below par for years now. For Banire’s efforts, much dirt has been thrown at him culminating in protests that were well coordinated and protesters received at the Lagos State governor’s office and syndicated media articles just to demonize the lawyer. We may not know when Banire had his epiphany that culminated in his strident calls that the law be obeyed, but we should concede to him that his latest calls are justified. It is in the same light we must support his advocacy.

A friend told me last week that while Banire might be the ultimate loser, history would remember him well for pressing the alarm button. The Lagos State APC publicity secretary on a radio station over the weekend was at pains in justifying the sham and even went as far as saying that the provision in the party’s constitution as contained in Article 20 is no longer important, claiming the party have its own way of doing things. To rub salt on the wounds of those who were unfairly treated or rigged out in the selection exercise, the Lagos State House of Assembly joined in the charade and amended the state electoral laws to enable parties substitute or withdraw candidates three days before elections.

In a drama that a senior colleague called ‘legislative rascality’ and perhaps only possible in Nigeria, the amendment passed first, second, and third reading the same day and was signed into law by the state governor a few hours later. The amendment came only after a decision of the State High Court against imposition of a candidate from Odi Olowo Local Council Development Area. In effect, even our courts cannot offer sanctuary to aggrieved persons with the kind of legislators we have in Lagos. The thought of offering automatic tickets to a group, which include the chairman of my Isolo LCDA, is enough to give one nightmares. The man struggled hard to justify his ‘One good turn deserves another’ campaign theme as he had little or nothing to show for his first term.

Mr. Banire’s crusade is just and long overdue; hopefully he will go the whole hog and resign as APC’s national legal adviser.