FG uncovers destabilisation plot •Groups target opposition senators, Reps •To play up lawmakers’ anger over 50% cut in allowance

LINK    Sunday Tribune

The Federal Government was said to have uncovered a plot by some opposition figures to engineer destabilisation of government aimed at embarassing
the administration. This is said to be an offshoot of the campaign against fuel subsidy removal.

Sources close to the administration said at the weekend that some elements opposed to President Goodluck Jonathan were out to embarrass the government by engineering a number of plots, especially using opposition lawmakers in the National Assembly.
One of the sources said those behind the plot were playing on the financial predicament of most new members of the National Assembly who are said to be currently broke as a result of the 50 per cent cut in their allowances and running costs.
It was learnt that the forces behind the plot have brainwashed some lawmakers to believe that President Jonathan and Finance Minister, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala were deliberately starving the National Assembly of funds.
A source, however, painted the travails of the lawmakers thus: “The problem with the current Assembly is that many lawmakers came with the impression that we were collecting jumbo pay.
“As they were coming, they were granted loans ranging from N130 million for members of the House of Representatives and N170 million for Senators.
“They had hoped to offset the loans through the jumbo pay and they had bought houses of between N200 and N300 million.
“Now that the money is not there, they have been complaining. Some of them said they were left with about N100,000 after the banks had deducted charges from their quarterly running costs.”
Sources also said as a result of the financial predicament, some lawmakers have become vulnerable to being manipulated by external forces.
A source said some of the opposition lawmakers had, in trying to test waters recently, coloured the outcome of a closed-session in the Senate by secretly telling journalists that the lawmakers planned a vote of no confidence on President Jonathan, whereas such votes only have meaning in parliamentary system of government.
It was further gathered that some lawmakers believed that the president could be moved to the point of begging the National Assembly, if it joins in fanning embers of war over the fuel subsidy palaver.
It was gathered that the target of the opposition is to drag the president to the point where he would be forced to make concessions that would clearly deviate from his economic agenda to the lawmakers, so as to derail his programmes.
Another fertile source said what the opposition members in the National Assembly are also capitalising on is the fact that the reduction in allowances is said to be hampering committee work.
“Right now, committees which used to get about N6 million per quarter for operations now get N2 million, a development the lawmakers say is affecting oversight functions,” the source said.
Some of the opposition leaders were said to have told their lawmakers that they had to fight the government before they get crippled.
Sources in the National Assembly, however, confirmed that the leadership of the Senate and the House of Representatives were not leaving anything to chance and that the leaders actually worked on all lawmakers ahead of the December 13 presentation of the 2012 budget by Jonathan.
“Some forces had planned negative reception for the president in order to embarrass him, but the leadership got wind of it and worked day and night to get a good reception for the president,” a source said at the weekend.
It was also gathered that the Presidency has been informed of the financial predicament of the National Assembly with a source saying that “running the legislature is expensive, but it is either we have a National Assembly or we don’t, because there are no two ways to the huge running costs.”
A source also revealed that those behind the plot were doing so for political gains.
“At least, detailed reports have pinpointed a political figure who is said to have influence on some lawmakers as the architect of the planned destabilisation,” a source stated, adding that the political figure was moving to capitalise on the “fuel subsidy war” so that he can build on that to launch his 2015 presidential bid.
Our sister publication had, in September, reported an impeachment plot against the president by opposition political actors with the leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) alerting the nation to a three-prong approach by the opposition to destabilise the Jonathan Presidency.
According to the PDP Publicity Secretary, Professor Rufai Alikali, “the methods include a concerted campaign to discredit the judiciary, flying dangerous kites like impeachment of the president, and a so-called mass action to tarnish the image of the Federal Government, if these options fail.”
Three months after the report, findings showed that the plot had entered implementation phase with sponsors reportedly banking on the increasing criticisms of the government over its economic restructuring policies and programmes for the success of their venture.
Further investigations revealed that the sponsors are flipping through government agencies and ministries in search of misconducts, a factor said to be responsible for the series of high flying probes of government ministries and agencies in recent times.
The two chambers of the National Assembly are currently probing more than 15 programmes and projects of government with the expected reports serving as arsenals for the impeachment process even as chairmen of such panels are in the least not aware of what deadly use their reports might soon be applied for.
Such ongoing probes include the management of the fuel subsidy, the implementation of the privatisation exercise, management of the downstream and upstream sectors of the oil industry, award of security cameras contracts, award of the single window contract for import and export clearance, an investigation into the failure of the oil corporation to remit over N500 billion into the federation account, alleged over-lifting of crude oil by the oil corporation, among others.
Investigations revealed that the move against the president is to be preceded by some developments, namely; intense negative reports in print and online media, establishment of more antagonistic online news media, widening of anti-government campaigns by civil society groups, stirring of citizens’ anger against the government, encouragement of citizen activism in social media and spreading of an image of a weak president, among others.
Meanwhile, an Arewa chieftain, who is a very close ally of President Jonathan, Dr. Samaila Saidu Sambawa, has predicted that any impeachment bid against the president will fail as “this Presidency is God-ordained and God-directed.
“It is a huge joke that cannot fly. Whatever situation we may find ourselves, impeachment is not and cannot be an option. President Jonathan is an honest and credible leader who is passionate about transforming this nation to higher height. We all need to be patient and tolerant,” he said.
Sambawa, who was internal affairs minister during the Obasanjo Presidency, recalled that similar moves against Obasanjo failed as “most Nigerians considered impeachment a destabilising factor in our peculiar situation.”