By Abdu Rafiu
The alertness and the attendant promptness of action displayed by President Bola Tinubu on the frozen finances of Osun State Government by the EFCC on suspicion of impropriety deserves fulsome commendation. The timing of the EFCC action could not have been worse. It was insensitive. The action of the President asking the EFCC to free the bank accounts of Osun State nipped in the bud a potential crisis of immense proportions. The consequential development of the freeze was not just going to fill the political sphere, but affect the economic and social environment for the rest of the year but also the magic and fateful year 2027.
The issue is not whether or not the EFCC has powers to investigate and for the duration of the exercise place a lien on the finances of any government or agency. The EFCC powers are awesome. Such are the powers and its independence of action that the institution can investigate any public functionary of government once there is suspicion of a financial impropriety; the President, the Vice- President, a Governor, his Deputy; heads of federal, state and local government agencies. Private organizations, too, can come under its radar, especially if their activities leading to the impropriety impinge on financial impropriety.
In 2001, the Supreme Court made a distinction between investigation and prosecution. The Justices said a President, the Vice-President; and a Governor or his Deputy can be investigated but not prosecuted because their immunity is absolute. The report of the investigation is to be preserved and when he or she is out of office, prosecution can proceed accordingly and unhindered.
The freezing of Osun State finances in the banks targeted at the Governor, Ademola Adeleke was, therefore, ill-advised. It was also ill-timed. Is it not said that discretion is the better part of valour? The political atmosphere in Osun State was and still is politically charged. There have been shootings at rallies and in one instance deaths occurred. The Federal Government and Osun State Government are brandishing different party flags. The Federal Government is seen not only as the Big Brother but as a bullying one at that. There is the deep Opposition suspicion of what the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) may say or do, also its body language, all believed as coming from President Tinubu: “The voice is the voice of Jacob, but the hands are the hands of Esau.” (Genesis 27: 27). The voice of Jacob is the Presidency.
The atmosphere has been so volatile, so combustible that it requires only a careless cigarette stick end to set off a conflagration. The wife of Governor Adeleke personally led a protest against what her crowd called wrongful arrests and violence. National Opposition leaders staged rallies with mammoth crowds whom they addressed and urged to reject APC, the President’s party. For fears out of recognition of the volatility of the situation, 25, 310 security personnel, 15,000 of them policemen and women, have been deployed to the state spread across the 30 local government areas. A total of 30, 000 youth corps members have been mobilised.
The nation has been saved credibility deficiency of the polls and endless controversy with the President’s courageous intervention lifting the freeze on the bank accounts of Osun state government. It is not in the circumstances of a tension-soaked state and citizens moving about with baited breath that a federal agency would begin to harass a governor who himself is on the ballot for a second term to render account of his administration’s finances following suspicion of impropriety. If the EFCC did not exercise discretion on a matter so clear and commonsensical as reserving its action for a more auspicious time, when it would not be seen as running Bola Tinubu’s errand, should Tinubu not see it the other way round? It was a question of what was the greater risk to the overall health of the country –social, economic and political–staring the President pointedly in the face; and the President not taking action for fear of accusation of compromising the independence of EFCC. In any case, how many would have believed that the EFCC acted without some whispers or clearing body language from the President? Which of the risks should the President have chosen? I am persuaded the President chose wisely. And he said he was embarrassed by the action of the EFCC.
The action would have handed over the much-needed, indeed, irresistible ammunition for the Opposition to challenge Bola Tinubu’s claim to neutrality and desire to see a free and fair out-of-season election in Osun State. And we are talking about a state in the heart of Yorubaland. Dr. Stanley Macebuh, the scholar sworn to fecundity of thought and disarming purity of words, and exceptional craftmanship and diction, wrote in 1978 in his compelling column in the Daily Times where he was chair of the Editorial Board, the first such board in Nigeria’s newspapering, what he captioned: “Bound to Violence.” He said the area you don’t joke with the Yoruba is in unremitted pursuit of political power; for the Igbos, it is money. For the Hausa/Fulani, it is religion. These are the weaknesses of the three major ethnic groups, which can easily trigger violence, according to Dr. Macebuh. Marching towards violence was unmistakable in Osun. After all, can anyone pretend not to have heard APC Senator Francis Fadahunsi’s controversial pronouncement on shooting?
The buck of charges of intimidation, electoral manipulation and assumed unfair and crisis-riddled election stops on Bola Tinubu’s table. It would be said of whoever wins among the Opposition parties that he did so in spite of the President and his “machination”. If APC wins, the singsong would be: What do you expect? A great many Nigerians–stakeholders, candidates for the big masquerades–see the Osun election as a 2027 dress rehearsal. Whatever happens in Osun would be regarded as a measure of what to expect in 2027. Therefore, the Presidency has more than a stake in the election of tomorrow. Bola Tinubu has the sanctity of his office to protect and his candidature in the 2027 polls freed of unwholesome baggage.
The intervention does not free Osun State Government from the EFCC hook, it does not stop the EFCC from doing its work when the elections are over and results have been declared and the tension would have hopefully abated. The presidential discretion exercised wisely in circumstances of the state at the moment is only temporary.
CARDINAL ONAIYEKAN
AND THE PRESIDENCY
The public encounter, putting it mildly, between the Catholic Bishops and the Presidency must have given many a Nigerian a bitter taste in the mouth. I am referring to people who hold the institution of the Church and the dome of the state in great reverence. That is why it is not every time you call out the representatives and occupants of these institutions up there in sublimity, even when their peccadilloes are obvious, especially the Church. And this reminds me of widespread axiom Nelson Mandela was fed with in his childhood days. He says in his very instructive autobiography, “Long Walk to Freedom”: “When I was a boy, amaMfengu were the most advanced section of the community and furnished our clergymen, police, teachers, clerks, and interpreters. They were also amongst the first to become Christians, to build better houses, and to use scientific methods of agriculture, and they were wealthier than their Xhosa compatriots. They confirmed the missionaries’ axiom, that to be Christian was to be civilized, and to be civilized was to be Christian.” It was not necessarily that the legendary hero of libertarian struggle to restore the dignity of the Blackman is saying only Christians are civilized. We all know that the cradle of civilization was Mesopotamia comprising modern- day Iraq, Kuwait and Syria which are Moslem countries. These constitute the unique Region that witnessed the coming of Prophets and Teachers of Mankind sent by the Most High, and, of course, the Envoys of God who brought not religion but Truth. Zoroaster (600 B.C.) was a Teacher of mankind, for example, who lived in Persia today called Iran. Embracing the undiluted or undistorted Rays of Truth leads to inner polish and refinement, to spiritual maturity without which there can be no ticket to enter Kingdom of Heaven, Paradise. Spiritual maturity is the bedrock of civility and civilization. It is everything.
When civilization is associated with Christianity, therefore, the mind races to the Lord, Jesus, the Son of God, the Right Arm Part of God the Father together with the Holy Spirit, Imanuel, the Will and Power of God in Holy Trinity, on the Left Arm Part. Those who are said to be Christ’s true servants are invested with certain aura, certain awe that bows the spirit. So, my listlessness since the public encounter between the Presidency and Cardinal Onaiyekan can be understood. The Presidency ought not to have responded to the statements by the revered Cardinal. He spoke in the accustomed spirit of Prophets generally. The Prophets of Old spoke to power, to secular authority, and the public in general: “Repent, for the Day of Judgment is Nigh.” The scriptures are replete with such pronouncements. You take what you need to take, bite your lips and move on.
The world knows that Bola Tinubu was the first as Governor of Lagos State to return schools to the missions, their original owners. I mentioned this in 2022 in the heat of Muslim-Muslim ticket controversy. There was a gap between when Tinubu handed over back the schools to their owners and when the next governor in the person of Peter Obi did in 2011, and Theodr Urji did in Abia the following year, 2012. I did state that Bola Tinubu was an American boy, sufficiently exposed to have nothing to do with religious bigotry. In early January of every year at State House, Marina, he organised inter-denominational Christian night of praise and worship with leaders of various churches participating. His wife, Remi, is a Pastor at Redeemed Christian Church. She attended Our Lady of Apostles, Ijebu-Ode, at the same time Kemi Nelson, one of his commissioners was at Anglican Girls Grammar School, Ijebu-Ode, the sister school to Ijebu-Ode Grammar School. The majority of Tinubu’s commissioners and advisers were in fact Christians. I stated at the time that the Muslim-Muslim ticket was only for him to reach the heartland of Muslim North to harvest votes. It had nothing to do with any faith and Christians should keep their minds at rest.
If the Catholic Bishops’ delegation displayed lack of awareness or momentary memory loss on these facts during discussions, it should be understood it was borne out of where they were coming from in terms of their parishes in many parts of the North, with particular reference to the Middle Belt which is Christian dominated and which was later to become the epicentre of kidnapping and terrorism. Only three weeks ago, Christians in this Belt pulled out of Christian Association of Nigeria and formed their own. They accused the umbrella CAN of lukewarm attitude to their bitter experiences, the kidnapping and killing of their leaders and sacking of their communities and churches. The Conference of Catholic Bishops would naturally be distraught and cold to the Federal Authorities that control the security forces and read meanings into the seeming helplessness in the face of unabating terror on their parishes. Indeed, Pastor Adeboye said it was the Christians who are predominantly under siege in the country. He said he had not read anywhere of a Christian being named as a kidnapper or terrorist especially in the North!
The President truly answered the points raised during the meeting on the economy and the attendant poverty and hunger with facts and figures, with statistics! The statement from the Presidency also hammered on this and indeed went on to state that the government had many sources through which it gathers information and knows the state of affairs in the land and how the citizens are faring. While this may be so, I dare say the Bishops, pastors, the clerics are closer to the ordinary citizens through their congregation with whom they share experiences weekly and sometimes mid-week during special programmes and during conventions.
It needs to be stated that the President’s policies and programmes by way of more money to the states and local councils as well as attention to agricultural development are laudable. However, the generality of the citizens have not recovered from the shock which government spokesmen describe as the unavoidable pains arising from application of medication to a long ailment. To a great many statistics in the face of hunger are merely futuristic, indeed, academic. The true situation is the picture the Bishops painted. If the bishops said the country is bleeding, then that is the situation. They added that the economy is not helping the poor. That is their role.
A frosty relationship between the high-ranking bishops and the Presidency should be discouraged. It is unhealthy. Another meeting should be held where there will be a shaking of hands and parting on a good note of understanding by both sides.
The Guardian
