Deacon Umahi, Pastor Oseni In Bitter Fight For Nigeria’s Democracy

Two significant developments this week involving Senator Dave Umahi and Vice President Kashim Shettima are giving hopes that Nigeria’s democracy has not been totally derailed

Two major developments this week suggest that Nigeria’s democracy may not have been totally forsaken as some critics had lately implied.

The first on Wednesday was the war of words between the minister of works, Senator David Umahi, and the chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on FERMA, Engr.  Remi Oseni.

The second ‘cheerful’ news was the rebuff on Thursday of President Bola Tinubu’s tax reform bills by the Vice-President Kashim Shettima-led National Economic Council, NEC.

The two incidents coming against serial setbacks for the principle of democracy will undoubtedly enliven the hearts of many. It will be especially gleeful for some who were beginning to resign to fate over the whims and caprices of those presently steering the ship of state.

These upsets against democratic norms include the serial bogus elections conducted in the recent past with the Edo State governorship election and the local government elections as the most prominent in recent times. The results of the elections conducted by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC and the respective State election management bodies (in PDP and APC states) have inspired fears about the possible death of democracy in the country.

The violent disruption of the will of the people using the coercive instruments of government by federal and state authorities has tended to cast a spell on the people. Many following the developments are muttering as to whether there is still any need to vote.

This evil spectre is compounded by the seeming abandonment by the National Assembly of its oversight role.

It was against this background that the faceoff between Umahi and Engr Oseni during an interaction between the Ministry of Works and the House Committee on FERMA could be gladdening to depressed democracy enthusiasts.

Though Umahi was not physically present, the umbrage taken at his resort to building new roads with the majority of existing roads in disrepair easily finds resonance with the majority of Nigerians.

Only last August, Umahi had revealed that the present administration inherited 2,064 contracts covering 18,932.50 kilometers of roads across the country as ongoing road projects.

Remarkably, though the contracts had been awarded by previous administrations, execution of the road projects had been stymied by a funding deficit of up to N14 trillion.

It is on top of this mountainous deficit that Umahi has fixated himself with new projects, prominently the Calabar – Lagos Coastal Highway and the Sokoto – Badagry Expressway.

The Lagos – Calabar Highway was reportedly awarded at a cost of N13 trillion, an amount that if found, could have been devoted to completing ongoing projects including the East – West Road that crosses the Niger Delta region.

Speaking at the interaction last Wednesday, Oseni was dismissive of the minister’s claim of lack of resources to address the bad roads that have brought indescribable harm on the nation.

The tanker that fell and emptied its contents recently in Jigawa leading to the death of more than a hundred persons was because of bad roads. Kidnappers, bandits and other bad guys now imitate Road Safety officials, policemen and other security agents to take position on bad portions of the roads where motorists are compelled to slow down.

Dismissing the claim of lack of resources, Oseni said:

“If you are telling us that the reason you have failed in fixing our road infrastructure is due to resource constraints, don’t let me take you up on that. You seem more focused on less critical issues,” Oseni said.

Umahi, a former governor known for his sometimes tempestuous public exertions was quick to respond, dismissing Oseni as an inferior personality.

He said that Oseni, reportedly a pastor with the Mountain of Fire Ministries, MFM has not accomplished up to half of what he Umahi has achieved in life.

Interestingly, Umahi is himself a deacon with Christ Embassy, bringing to focus a battle of wits between two supposed servants of God plying their trade on the political terrain.

As Umahi said in his response, Oseni who like the minister belongs to the All Progressives Congress, APC appeared to have been provoked by some prior issues. Oseni in his outburst at the Umahi delegation was indeed emotional.

Those who know him say that he is also like Umahi a very wealthy man though some people suggest that the difference between the two men is their temper. One leading political actor in Oyo State told your correspondent that Oseni is normally a quiet man who he described as a humble pastor.

But what provoked his outburst last Wednesday against Umahi has yet to be disclosed. But for the majority of Nigerians seeing a man talking down to Umahi may have inspired hope that political actors cannot pocket everybody.

Besides boasting of his personal accomplishments, what Nigerians want to hear Umahi say is his accomplishments concerning the East West Road, the Calabar – Uyo Highway, the Abuja – Lokoja – Benin Highway, the Agbor – Benin highway among the 18,932.5 km of bad roads inherited from the Muhammadu Buhari administration. That is how we will score him and not with what he scores himself as his personal achievements which in any way came through the grace of God.

The following day, the news that the National Economic Council, NEC rejected the tax reform bills of the Tinubu administration easily grabbed the headlines in the nation’s newspapers.

Your correspondent submits that he aligns himself to the concept of the Tinubu tax reforms, especially as pertaining to the use of derivation in the allocation of Value Added Tax, VAT proceeds. However, the rebuff of the proposal by the council which is headed by Vice President Shettima must be a political dilemma for the Tinubu administration and particularly the vice-president.

Whatever the dilemma, the fact that political actors could come out to openly assert opposition to a key economic proposal by the administration gladdens the heart that suggestions of a failed democracy are still farfetched.

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