ABBA Aji, a former senator, a presidential liaison officer in the National Assembly is proud of his pedigree for being in the news for all the wrong reasons since he joined the Presidency.

Nigerians would easily recall the less than ennobling roles he played in plunging the country into an impasse when President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua proceeded on his terminal medical journey in late November, 2009.  Yar’Adua’s failure to transmit a letter to the National Assembly notifying it of his extended medical vacation created a vacuum, which nearly truncated civil rule.

According to authoritative and media reports that were never denied, the ailing president had written the letter and handed it over to Aji, who allegedly advised Yar’Adua against transmitting the letter as it had some “political and legal implications.”  Aji reportedly said Section 145 of the 1999 Constitution demanded that the National Assembly would have to make a resolution before Yar’Adua would resume, meaning resumption was not automatic.

The unsavoury consequences of failure to transmit that letter were many. The Vice President was unable to assume full powers as Acting President. The National Assembly had to conjure the Doctrine of Necessity to empower the Vice President in acting capacity in February 2010.

As soon as Jonathan assumed office as President, Aji quickly mobilised phantom groups in Abuja and beyond to “persuade” President Jonathan to run in 2011. For Aji and cohorts, Nigeria is a playground where gambits pay off handsomely.

Aji’s latest adventure is a self-avowed mission to scuttle the FoIB, which the House of Representatives recently passed. Aji addressed a press conference in Maiduguri and vowed to continue his fight against the bill, which he started as a senator in 2007. Aji said he would persuade the president not to sign it as it was “against the Constitution,” a claim he failed to substantiate. A newspaper reported the presidential aide as declaring that every public officer was under the Oath of Secrecy, and that no organisation would offer its official secrets to members of the public or the press.

Aji and those who reason like him assume that government and its organs are secret cults. Unfortunately, for them, Nigeria is not in the Iron Curtain. We are a democracy, meaning that power belongs to the people, and the people have a right to know how they are being ruled to enable them choose their representatives. The revolutions sweeping the Arab world are boisterous reminders of the fact that power belongs to the people and that governments and their organs exist for the good of the people.

The Constitution empowers the media to monitor governance and hold it accountable. The FoIB will promote transparency, and curb corruption. Information is power.   After nearly 12 years in the mill suffering frustration, the nation can no longer wait for the President to sign the FoIB into law.
It is one of the offerings of freedom of expression that the likes of Aji have something to tell Nigerians today. It is in his interest to embrace the freedom.