ING, Real Or Imagined?

The issue of Interim National Government (ING) has continued to agitate the minds of Nigerians lately. This comes as many groups have been holding protests in Abuja over the conduct of the last general election by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). Last week, the Department of State Services (DSS) confirmed there was a plot to foist an Interim National Government on Nigeria in the aftermath of the general election held in February and March this year.

From official statements, it also affirmed that it knows those behind the plot and warned stakeholders, notably judicial authorities, media and the civil society to be watchful and cautious to avoid being used as instruments to subvert peace and stability of the nation. For emphasis, DSS averred that it “will not hesitate to take decisive and necessary legal steps against these misguided elements to frustrate their obnoxious intentions.”

Following this statement by the DSS, there has been widespread condemnation of those who might be behind the action described by the secret police. The Nigerian Governors Forum (NGF), the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF), the political parties under the aegis of Inter-Party Advisory Council (IPAC), the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party and the Labour Party, and several other organisations in the country have not only described such a plot as unacceptable, they went ahead to ask the DSS to arrest the masterminds.

The talk of an interim government surfaced long before the 2023 general election. The founder of Afe Babalola University, Afe Babalola (SAN), first mentioned it last year, on April 18, 2022. He said politics had become a transactional enterprise in Nigeria, and that an interim government should be in office for six months to develop “a new-look peoples’ constitution which should provide for part-time legislators and non-executive president, among other suggestions.

Furthermore, and in the run-up to the 2023 general election, two state governors of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Malam Nasir El Rufai of Kaduna and Dr Umar Ganduje of Kano raised the matter again, claiming there was such a plan.

In the commotion that followed the federal government’s naira redesign and cashless monetary policies introduced by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Governor El Rufai claimed that they were engineered by those who had lost out in the APC presidential primary and that their ultimate plan was to foist an interim government. Governor Ganduje spoke in similar fashion, saying President Buhari had turned his back on those who worked for him to be president. APC presidential candidate himself, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, said at a campaign ground that the incumbent federal government wanted to scuttle the election.

First and foremost, it must be understood that there is no provision in the Nigerian constitution for an interim government. Elections have been held and the winners will take office at the end of the current administration. This is without prejudice to the outcome of pending cases at the tribunals.

Instructively, only a sitting government can contemplate such illegality, like General Ibrahim Babangida did after his regime annulled the June 12, 1993 general election presumably won by Bashorun MKO Abiola 30 years ago. So, the ball is in the court of the APC-led federal government to preserve the nation’s democracy from any such illegality as an interim government.  We are enamoured by the fact that President Muhammadu Buhari has repeatedly spoken of his keenness to hand over to the next democratic administration and retire to Daura, his hometown. Moreover, he is handing over to his party’s candidate. Will an APC government spoil its own party’s fun?

Secondly, if the DSS has uncovered a plot to overthrow Nigeria’s democracy, it does not need to, as the Governors Forum advised, heat up the polity; their job is to detect and prevent threats to national security, not to serve as a whistleblower. This DSS’ approach has raised suspicion in the opposition about its real intentions. Atiku, who had led a protest march against INEC’s handling of the election, described the DSS action as an intention to molest and gag the opposition on behalf of the ruling party. The Labour Party spoke in a similar vein, pointing out that the DSS failed to act when it complained about the hate speech, ethnic profiling and targeted violence against its supporters in Lagos and other parts of the country capable of igniting inter-tribal conflict. Some others have suggested that DSS put out this warning towards preserving the electoral victory of the ruling party, to ingratiate it with the incoming administration.

As a newspaper, we believe that the DSS is a credible organisation whose neutrality ought not to be in doubt. However, the way it hounded the CBN governor over the naira redesign and cashless policy, accusing him of sponsoring terrorism, was a matter of concern to the public.

In our considered opinion, if there is incontrovertible evidence, it behooves on the agency to expose and arraign those behind such plots so that if they are found to have broken the law, they are made to face justice. However, holding peaceful protests and seeking reliefs of court for perceived hurts are democratic rights of Nigerian citizens.