To cut a long story short, Alhaji
Abdulrasheed Abdullahi Maina came into national limelight in 2013 when, as
chairman of the Presidential Task Force on Pension Reform, he was accused of
perpetrating a fraud running into over N100 billion. The senate committee
probing the matter invited him to testify but he refused — while regularly
driving in and out of Aso Rock to demonstrate his closeness to President
Goodluck Jonathan. Maina thought he was untouchable. The pressure mounted,
senate issued a bench warrant and he soon ran out of the country, absconding
from duty and getting dismissed from the civil service in return. The EFCC also
declared him wanted.
Four years later — and two years into
“change” — top officials of the Buhari administration arranged an elaborate
scheme to bring Maina back to the country in a blaze of glory. He literally
rode on a donkey to the shouts of “Hosanna” — if we are to believe his family,
who claimed the “pension messiah” was actually invited back from exile to be
part of Buhari’s Team Change. He was reinstated and promoted from deputy
director to director instantly. With a little luck, he was well on his way to
becoming permanent secretary. He could even become a minister, an ambassador or
a governor. He could become president, why not? This is Nigeria, remember?
From all the memos that are now available in
the public domain, Mr. Abubakar Malami, the attorney-general of the federation,
Gen. Abdurrahman Dambazau, the minister of interior, and Mrs Winifred Oyo-Ita,
the head of service, all participated one way or the other in formalising
Maina’s reinstatement. How much President Muhammadu Buhari knew about this
perfidy will continue to be a subject of speculation, but at least he quickly
seized the moral high ground by ordering the sack of Maina when Premium Times,
the investigative online newspaper, blew the lid. It is impossible to cut this
long story short, but that is the tragicomedy in three paragraphs.
The Maina story illustrates everything that
is wrong with Nigeria. Most of the ingredients for the underdevelopment of
Nigeria are contained in the saga. One, wickedness in high places. After
workers have served Nigeria all their youthful and productive years, they spend
their old age chasing their pensions up and down. Some are owed years in
arrears. The regular excuse is that there is no money to pay them. In
retirement, they usually face critical health issues — high blood pressure,
diabetes, heart failure and such like. And, what a pity, they will have no
money for treatment. Yet their pension is their right. It is their sweat, their
blood. But who cares?
A pension reform chairman is accused of fraud
running into billions of naira. Yet he lives in opulence, too much for a civil
servant. But who cares? He is well dressed, well groomed and handsome-looking,
and allegedly owns the best of mansions and all manner of property home and
abroad — while the old, ragged pensioners struggle in pain and in vain, day and
night, to collect their entitlements. My heart melted the day I saw a picture
on the front page of Nigerian Tribune many years ago: a pensioner had collapsed
and died at a verification centre, and — with his shrouded dead body serving as
backdrop — the rest pensioners remained glued to the bench waiting for Godot.
The question you would ask yourself is: why
on earth would anyone born of a woman see the sufferings of these old people
and remain heartless? Why would anybody deny these hapless pensioners their
entitlements in that old age under the guise of “no money” while stealing,
wasting and mismanaging the resources? It takes a conscience seared with iron
to be so callous. It takes a wicked conscience to be frolicking and
gallivanting while denying workers and pensioners the legitimate reward of
their sweat. Any country that treats workers and pensioners with this
wickedness can never make progress. I want to be contradicted with hard
evidence.
Two, the Maina story tells the story of
impunity. You mean a man declared wanted by the EFCC can confidently return to
the country with the help of top officials of a government that claims to be
fighting corruption? You mean the police and the Department of State Service
(DSS) could provide security for the fugitive? You mean he could be promoted
instantly? Impunity is well captured in Yoruba language as “tani o mumi?” That
is, “who the hell can touch me”? There is this air among the Nigerian elite
that they can do anything and get away with it. Nobody can touch them. They
kill and steal and get medals in return. Impunity is the name of the game.
When President Buhari assumed office two
years ago, I wrote an article, “The One Thing Buhari Must Do” (July 5, 2015). I
said if the president would have just a one-point agenda, it should be an
all-out war against impunity. In place of “War against Corruption”, I proposed
“War against Impunity”. There would always be corruption, I said, as there is
no corruption-free country in the world. However, what gives Nigeria the gold
medal is impunity. Impudence. Effrontery. The audacity with which laws are violated
and corruption is implemented in Nigeria is incredible. Any country practising
such impunity can never develop. I want to be contradicted with hard evidence.
The third aspect of the Maina story that
captures Nigeria’s underdevelopment is shamelessness. In a civilised country,
in a country where people have a sense of shame, those implicated in the
scandal would have resigned by now. I am not even suggesting that they should
be sacked — that is another matter entirely. I am saying on their own, having
let this country down badly, they should have left government. But there is no
sense of shame in Nigeria. If we had shame, Nigeria would not be where it is
today. Most of the people in government are shameless. Show me a country ruled
by shameless people and I will show you a doomed society. I want to be
contradicted with hard evidence.
When we discuss the underdevelopment of
Nigeria, it is usually the story of wickedness, impunity and shamelessness in
high places. It takes absolute wickedness to see the suffering of the people
and not be bothered, and continue to loot and rape with impunity and
shamelessness. I am forced to ask and ask again and again: who in government
really cares about the plight of Nigerians? Across the length and breadth of
this country, only a few states consider payment of salaries and pensions as
priority. They would rather mould graven images or go for lesser hajj or build
ultra-modern governor’s lodge than meet their basic obligations to the people.
Meanwhile, Buhari’s government is beginning
to lose it — as evident in the incredible attempt to hold Jonathan’s
“loyalists” responsible for the recall of Maina. It is getting ridiculous. For
some of us who are not interested in the silly politics between PDP and APC but
are more anxious about the progress of Nigeria, it would be most catastrophic
if the Maina scandal ends up as a political game. No. This cannot be treated as
politics. We are discussing the present and the future of Nigeria. PDP and APC
can burn to ashes for all I care. We are discussing wickedness, impunity and
shamelessness in high places. Both the PDP and APC have these vices in their
bones. Nobody can fool us.
Maina and Malami could well be archetypes of the kind of characters that preside over the affairs of Nigeria, from federal to state and council levels. They are everywhere. But I find it most heartbreaking that President Buhari has watched this perfidy without plucking out the culprits and crushing them. The biggest credential Buhari brought to this game was his anti-corruption resume. But in his cabinet are many ministers who ordinarily ought to be in jail as we speak. Since Buhari cannot jail them, he can at least fire them and hand them over to the EFCC. But maybe we are asking for too much. The Babachir Lawal saga remains a low point for this government. What a shame.
I have not said Maina is definitely guilty.
That is the job of the courts. However, the manner of his reinstatement clearly
suggests something is not right. Something is horribly wrong with those who
thought they could have gone away with such treachery in this day and age. What
the hell were they thinking? By the way, every administration faces a turning
point. It is the point where things tip over irredeemably, where opponents,
neutrals and die-hard supporters come together. The widespread reactions to the
Maina saga suggest this could be the tipping point for Buhari. Many Nigerians
have been too accommodating and too considerate. They are being taken for
granted.
Culled from TheScoopNG
