Politics Of Grammar -By Sani Mohammed Uzairu

The last thing one would expect at this moment was another controversy given how heated the polity has become; no thanks to the president’s ail health. Already there were suspicions of how some faceless cabals were running the government and working assiduously to the undercut the powers of the vice president. This somewhat contains a certain stretch of credulity given the president’s inability to preside over cabinet meetings and absence from the public sphere. But just when this hoopla was about petering out, the president nay his manipulators disingenuously triggered another controversy through a letter transmitted to the National Assembly.

This letter in question has stoked even much public debate that I wondered whether the president’s handlers were lost in thought as they composed the letter. Their attempt obviously was to undermine the transition of the vice president into an acting president. Nothing could be further from this. But again, they have failed woefully.

The Nigerian constitution has been explicit on this. And it boggles the mind why the president will cite the same constitution, and yet pigeon hole the vice president as coordinator in his absence. In any case, labelling the vice president as coordinator of nation’s affairs was counterintuitive and unnecessary.

The question is, is this not the same president that transferred power to his vice then in January while on a medical trip and did that so unequivocally? Then, why is he now so evasive? Was the change of nomenclature really necessary? Many people have interestingly come out with differently definitions of exactly what coordinator means. I am not a grammarian but surely when you say coordinator in politics, I know what it implies.

Sani Mohammed Uzairu writes from Near East University, Cyprus and can be reached via smartbiochemist@gmail.com or +905338310545