I think I did something for the worst possible reason – just because I could. I think thats the most, just the most morally indefensible reason that anybody could have for doing anything. When you do something just because you could….. In spite of this explanation, there were miles of space available for speculation over why the President of the most powerful democracy in the world will pay the price he did for doing what he did (having an affair, lying to a grand jury and obstruction of justice) just because he could. Billions of people do things wrong daily because they can do so. There are always penalties for these. Some penalties get paid, some wait to be paid, others are avoided altogether.
The most sobering interpretation of the comment to which I subscribe came after some informed opinion suggested the possibility that President Clinton was referring to the awesome powers attached to his person and his office which gave him the impression and the confidence that he could get away with infractions that went all the way from a dalliance with an aide in the White House to real crimes that could send humbler mortals to jail, and an American President out of the White House. What Clintons now famous quote hinted at was an echo of an old and famous statement of Sir John Dolberg-Acton (1834-1902): Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men….
The foregoing is not a detour to a past that has no bearing on our lives today. The world is gripped by the drama involving the 45th President of the United States, Donald Trump. The drafters of the US constitution had foreseen the possibility that a serving US president could commit crimes and misdemeanors which require that they are made to leave office without having to be rejected at elections. They created powerful structures and processes that could impeach such president, the type that could and did survive the foundational concept and practice of separation of powers and the formidable resilience of partisan loyalties.
It remains to be seen if President Trump will be impeached and convicted before the November 2020 elections when American voters will have their say on his character and conduct. He could be impeached, tried, convicted and removed, if the process successfully goes through all its prescribed stages. On the other hand, he could survive the process and submit himself at the November elections, dragging the botched impeachment attempt as a badge of honour and a vital electoral asset. Either way, it would take a long time for the US to redeem its image as a reference point in the integrity and viability of democratic values, processes and structures.
Impeachment processes in the US have always been painful disrobing rituals. They laid bare the skeletons of the US democratic system, particularly their revelations that a few rouges and scoundrels can and do find their ways into the highest office in the land, and representatives of the people in Congress, sworn to protect the constitution, throw every muck in the face of hallowed values of patriotism, decency and integrity in the service of partisan interests to shield them or remove them. The current impeachment process against President Trump is never likely to be about what President Trump did in his personal political interest as opposed to the vital interests of the American people. From the days of his campaigning, no one has been in doubt that Trump represents the less glorious elements of the character of a good US President who should champion and inspire the best in the nation, an act that would have been difficult to follow after an Obama presidency.
The attempts to impeach him will succeed or fail because they are riding solidly on the foundations of a deeply-divided America which brought Trump to power, sustained him and gave him the key and the strategic opportunity to deepen them. There are millions of people in the US and all over the world who got their fingers burnt because they were emphatic that the US Presidency was too good for people like Trump to lead. They have since discovered how wrong they are, not about the quality of the person of Trump, but the quality of his supporters which is likely to give him another four years precisely because he represents their version of the ideal American leader. There are a few Americans who sit on the fence looking favourably at the performance of the economy under Trump and hoping that the upsurge of sentiments and tendencies that defined ugly America will not swallow them.
The best democratic traditions include accountable leaders and functional institutions, founded on values that do not compromise on standards of propriety by leaders and the supremacy of the rule of law. The world glued to televisions is witnessing the trashing of the most powerful democracy by the very people who are responsible for shielding it from damage and ridicule. Aspiring democratic systems who look up to America, who see the bitter divide in the Congress and the American public agonize over the seeming loss of a model. The legion of leaders who find the democratic system abhorrent, cumbersome and limiting will draw inspiration from the revelations that a US president could be said to willfully abuse key values and processes, and both he and his party men and women will engage in a most destructive series of battles to clear him to continue, and his opposition will go to every length to show that the US can be seriously damaged from within.
We have our own leaders and some citizens who think they can do anything because they can. Kanos Governor Gandujes audacity to settle a brief political irritation by dismantling a 1,000-year tradition stands defiant to reason and history. His motivation is not the enduring value of what he does, but the exercise of powers that say he can, President Buharis security agencies insist that the nation will only be safe if Sowore, el-Zakzaki and Dasuki stay behind bars of its choosing, for periods of its choosing. Now the nations poodle legislature wants to abridge the right to free expression because it can. Governors secure power by deploying frightening scales of violence against civilians and election officials because they can. Massive plunder of public resources are routinely undertaken by powerful people because they can. A few get caught, but they do not stop the pillaging of the commonwealth. Some citizens are adept at reading the vulnerability of a desperate and limited administration, so they push the boundaries of lawful and acceptable conduct in the hope that the nation will tag along. Because they can. Perhaps it is the case that the democratic system is built to keep bad people out of power, but it is extremely vulnerable to those bad people who do acquire power and influence through all its defences.
Abubakar can be reached at [email protected]
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