Not too hard to get it right

There is evidence that a good number of persons who are currently occupying leadership positions in many sectors of Nigeria’s public life do not reason and think like normal human beings. Being in a position of leadership comes with responsibilities in the right duties continuum. The right to occupy a high office comes with a concomitant duty to perform the duties of the office; act with responsibility and decorum with a full understanding that your actions and omissions will contribute in no small measure to the development and morality of the society.

Leadership is also a call to sacrifice, self-denial and demonstration of nobility in thought and action. It is not just about the self-interest of the persons who have the present opportunity to make decisions. Key events in the polity in the last couple of weeks demonstrate the insensitivity of leadership.

We are living witnesses to the fact that Nigerians who were kidnapped from the Kaduna/Abuja train about 48 days ago are still in captivity. Immediately after the kidnapping and bombing, the Federal Government made the usual condemnation and that was it. The victims of the kidnap and their relatives have been left to their fate. No help is coming from any quarters beyond empty directives from the president and assurance after assurance by senior security personnel. This state of affairs has raised so many posers. Considering advances in modern technology, is it very difficult to find where the terrorists are keeping the captives? Have the security agencies lost the capacity to intercept communications between these terrorists so as to track their movements and plans? If the terrorist and captives can be located, is it that our security chiefs have not heard of various complicated but successful rescue missions that have been undertaken by security agents in other parts of the world?

Some of the kidnapped victims have been released or may have bought their way out of captivity. Thus, the security agencies know of this and must have seen and interviewed them to get more direct information about the terrorists and the geographic space where they have moved and kept the victims.  But nothing has happened and it seems nothing is about to happen if we await the Federal Government. In the middle of all this tragedy, the National Assembly comes amending the laws to make payment of ransom to kidnappers or terrorists a criminal offence. This is the height of insensitivity and refusal to deploy the faculties freely given by God. The critical question in this amendment of the law is about the mischief to be cured with the new provisions.

Let us examine the scenario of the warped logic of the law. The state has a duty to maintain law and order and take preemptive steps to stop terrorists. The state fails in this duty. The second is that the state has a duty to search for and rescue victims of terrorist action even if they were unable to prevent them from striking in the first instance.  Again, the state fails in this duty. Furthermore, even if the state has been unsuccessful in the first two duties, it owes a third duty to families and relatives of the victims and to society to keep proper records of the victims, console and offer succour to their families and take every step to reduce their pain and trauma. Also, the state fails in this duty. Now at this stage, the victims and families are left on their own. The almighty state has failed woefully. The first law in nature is self-preservation as every human being has to give an account of the steps taken to preserve life. Then the state proceeds to criminalise last-ditch efforts and steps taken by relatives of the victim to save his life. It is the height of folly, insensitivity after the abdication of duty and gross insolence to the citizen.

The second major issue is that in the last week, the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), ordered political appointees in his cabinet and across the public sector who have indicated interest to contest for elective office to resign their appointments. The order was given in compliance with S.84 (12) of the Electoral Act 2022 to the effect that no political appointee at any level shall be a voting delegate or be voted for at the convention or congress of any political party for the purpose of the nomination of candidates for any election. Available information indicates that a good number of ministers including Emeka Nwajiuba, Minister of State for Education, Godswill Akpabio of the Niger Delta Ministry, etc., have resigned. Some others like Abubakar Malami, the Attorney General and Minister of Justice, and Chris Ngige of the Labour Ministry withdrew from the race as they sought to keep their present jobs.

But a certain Godwin Emefiele, the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, who kept on denying his presidential aspiration, claimed that his form was bought by third parties and told a bewildered populace that he was waiting for God’s direction on his next steps, proceeded to court to restrain anyone from taking steps to stop him from contesting the presidential primaries of the All Progressives Congress while sitting tight as the governor of the CBN.  When he saw that all his mischief had failed, he apparently went to seek presidential permission to continue in office while withdrawing from the presidential race. The report of the major newspapers after his meeting with the president was disturbing in the extreme. According to The PUNCH newspaper,“When newsmen approached him on Thursday after meeting with the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.),  in Abuja with the notion that his current position as a presidential aspirant and the CBN governor is a major point of concern for Nigerians and even the international community, Emefiele replied, “Let them have heart attack. It’s good to have a heart attack.” He affirmed that he is having fun.

How can a man who seeks to lead Nigeria as a president be heard to be so insensitive, unreasonable and throwing insults at the population? These kinds of words can only be heard and expected from someone who is mentally retarded and unstable, lacking basic home training and may have become so maladjusted that he needs to see a psychiatrist. So, this is his wish for the Nigerian population he seeks to lead. He talks down and openly wishes that we have heart attacks while he is having fun. He has proven beyond any iota of doubt that he is not a fit and proper person to continue in the exalted office of a CBN governor.

The call for his resignation is beyond his having withdrawn from the race. For being a card-carrying member of a political party and nursing the ambition in the first place, he has committed high treason in monetary policy leadership parlance. Specifically, the Nigerian scenario where the Independent National Electoral Commission keeps sensitive election materials with the CBN is no longer tenable.

The parting message is that Nigerian security agencies have the capacity to locate and release the Kaduna train captives and they must deploy that capacity immediately. The final one is that Emefiele has lost the legal and moral right to continue in office. He either resigns or the president should sack him. The time to act is now.