By Bola BOLAWOLE
turnpot@gmail.com 08075525533
There are as many reasons as
discussants as to why Nigeria is not moving forward, why it is under-performing
in the views of many, and why it is not fulfilling its potential. I will
discuss only three of these reasons here today and, to do this, I will draw on
three recent examples. The first is that of the suspended Humanitarian Affairs
minister, Betta Edu.
Less than one year into her
tenure, this woman was caught up in the web of corruption. The funds involved
were those earmarked for the poor, the desperately poor and the
multidimensionally poor. Due to the outcry that followed the exposure and, I
must say, the penchant, so far, of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to listen to and
act on public opinion, the minister was suspended from office; she has also been
called in by the EFCC. Apart from these, that front is quiet and the suspicion
by many is that after some air has blown over this issue, it will be swept
under the carpet like many others before it, and the suspended minister would
be given a soft landing; that is, if not recalled!
This will not be the hallmark of an
administration that has promised to revive and rejuvenate the country. Prompt
dispensation of justice, especially in a corruption case, ought to be the
signpost that the administration has zero tolerance for corruption. To allow
the matter to drag will send wrong signals on two sides. On the side of
culprits, it will mean they can cut corners and get around the problem
Nigeria-style. They will be encouraged to press buttons and play games, leveraging
on the ample time being gifted them.
Specifically on Betta Edu, we
have heard that more big fishes are being dragged into the matter. That is a
sure recipe that they may eventually die the matter, as they say. On the side
of the people, it would be a clear statement of intention by the Tinubu
administration that theirs is same-same or even more of the same; that nothing
has changed; and that the more you look, the less you see.
The other side of the coin is the
curious actions of some members of the public themselves; the very people at
the receiving end of the Minister’s action! Are you aware that some crowd,
rented I believe, have carried placards pleading that the minister be given a
second chance? Second chance to do what? To perfect her act? To scale up the
quantum of cash involved? Some women groups have also weighed in on her behalf,
pleading for women's rights! Because she has proven that what men can do
(playing monkey games with the public till), women can also do and even do
better? Not to be left out, folks from her place of ethnic origin have also
joined the queue, threatening that we must leave their “daughter” alone to
continue in office! Are we okay as a people? How can a country make progress
this way?
By now this woman should be
cooling her heels in jail, just like the Dean of one university’s Faculty of
Law is doing right now, deservedly so, in Kuje prison. That professor abused
his office; the suspended minister did. The professor misplaced the trust and
confidence reposed in him; the suspended minister did. The professor abused his
oath of office, the suspended minister did. The professor’s alleged crime was
limited to a few individuals but the minister’s offence was committed against
the entire country. Yet, one is already in custody while the other walks about
freely. What country moves forward this way?
The second example is the menace
or, better still, nuisance called Miyetti. I have chosen not to dignify them by
identifying “Allah” with their name, and I ask other people to follow suit,
because they are through and through evil. We are yet to forget the ruins they
and their alleged grand patron subjected this country to for eight grueling
years. Where people know shame and have a modicum of civilized conduct, neither
Miyetti nor its grand patron would be able to walk the street, not to talk of
strutting like a peacock and letting their voice be heard again.
But why will Miyetti not
grandstand when their grand patron is also all over the place gloating about
his time in office and how he did his best for Nigeria? His best was to hold the country down for
looters and for Miyetti to skin alive. And how will Miyetti not threaten
Nigerians with Armaggedon when one of the spin doctors of the most clueless,
most incompetent, most corrupt, and most irresponsible government in the
country’s history had the temerity, a while ago, to lauder the image and
deodorize the stench still oozing out of the chambers of the Muhammadu Buhari
maladministration? All the suffering in the land today can, and must, be traced
to the Buhari administration. It will take time and effort to repair and
restore the country again to good health.
Miyetti and its likes ignore the
bitter truth and will seek every opportunity to pull the government down. The
unrestrained access they had to the government and its resources is no longer
there. The protection of the State that they used to enjoy is also no longer
available. So, their leaders, who used to be above the law, can now, to their
utter surprise and consternation, be called in for questioning and be made
accountable for their actions. That is how it should be and we must not relent.
Their ego trip, bothering on lunacy, that they own this country, has been cut
short. Without State protection and patronage, they will soon be cut to size
and be weaned of their hallucination that they own Nigeria.
Miyetti's rag-tag militia cannot
overrun the country. Let Miyetti set them up! They will be uprooted in the
fullness of time. The other nationalities that make up this country will not
let Miyetti have its way. The latest excuse they, and their co-travelers, have
latched on to is the relocation of some agencies of the Federal Government from
Abuja back to Lagos for ease of operations and to save cost. Reasonable men and
women will analyze and interrogate the reasons adduced, and not insist that
everything must remain in the North, be it profitable, be it otherwise, because
the North wants it so! Baloney!
Towing the same path as many
other concerned Nigerians, I have been vociferous in my call for the Tinubu
administration to drastically cut down the cost of governance. So, I was one of
those who criticized his bloated administration of ministers, advisers and
assistants. I spoke out against the car loans and humongous allocation awarded
the National Assembly members. I queried the number of delegates the president
took along with him to his first UN General Assembly meeting in New York, USA.
Of course, I raked against the scandalously-high delegation to this year’s
COP28 summit in Dubai.
Therefore, if the government is now doing
something to reduce the cost of governance, it must be saluted, not pilloried.
Except, of course, we have evidence that this is not so. The everything-for-us
and nothing-for-the-others mentality of some Northern leaders will not wash. If
they took the other parts of the country for a ride in the past, the chickens
have now come home to roost. In fact, the Tinubu administration must continue
the further decentralization of government ministries, agencies and parastatals
not only to Lagos but to other parts of the country. That is the practice
elsewhere. Nigeria belongs to all its people, not to a few arrogant block heads
and empty barrels that rejoice in making a lot of noise and setting the country
backward. Mercifully, reasonable Northerners have distanced themselves from the
maddening crowd of Northern feudal irredentists.
The third example is that of the
mint-fresh deputy governor of my state, Ondo, Mr. Olayide Adelami, who was
quoted as saying he did not lobby for the post, which some other people almost
killed themselves over. Fair enough! And kudos, Gov. Lucky Aiyedatiwa and his
recruitment team. But in doing that, Adelami inadvertently let the cat out of
the bag when he said he was busy chasing after a Federal appointment when the
deputy governor job came! His exact words: “I never contested for deputy
governor; I was looking for a federal appointment when I was called to be
deputy governor…”
So, people go to look for Federal
appointments? How? So, all the rumours we hear of how people do all sorts to
get appointments, how appointments are bought and sold, may not be all lies
after all! So, what happens to competent people not willing to go look for
appointments? They rot away in their little corners? Is there not a system
where we can headhunt for the best materials whether or not they go looking for
appointments, just as happened with the job of deputy governor that Adelami
landed without lobbying?
So, then, is this scripture fulfilled before
our very eyes: “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find;
knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the
one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened” (Matthew 7:
7-8).
But how can a country move
forward with the “man-know-man” and “highest bidder” kind of recruitment system
it is said we operate here?
* Former Editor of PUNCH
newspapers, Chairman of its Editorial Board and Deputy Editor-in-chief,
BOLAWOLE was also the Managing Director/ Editor-in-chief of THE WESTERNER
newsmagazine. He writes the ON THE LORD'S DAY column in the Sunday Tribune and
TREASURES column in New Telegraph newspaper on Wednesdays. He is also a public
affairs analyst on radio and television.
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