In 2009, millions of Nigerians joined in objecting to the refusal of President Umaru Yar’Adua to hand power over to his deputy, Mr. Goodluck Jonathan. I numbered among the disgruntled, and in this column, I urged the Yar’Adua team to do the right thing and obey our constitutional arrangements.
When one reviews Nigeria’s history since then—and then prior to that—it seems that Mr. Jonathan, during that time, must have been laughing his head off in his living room at what we were doing. The incredulity of it: Millions yelling and crying because we believed that Mr. Yar’Adua and the cabal—that was when that word became such a dirty annoyance—were betraying the nation and cheating Mr. Jonathan out of his legal
right. Millions: Southerners and Northerners, Easterners and Westerners, Christians and Muslims, at home and abroad, dutifully standing by the constitution, and by Mr. Jonathan.
I do not know how hard Mr. Jonathan laughs when he is with his nearest and dearest. But he must have let himself go, again and again, seeing how deeply and seriously the nation was taking the matter.
We did win, of course. Two years later, last week, Mr. Jonathan, having benefitted fully from that epochal development as well as the death of Mr. Yar’Adua, appointed his second head of police, AIG Mohammed D. Abubakar. He replaced Mr. Hafiz Ringim, who had come to symbolize the gross incompetence and haplessness of the government during the Jonathan era.
Although Mr. Ringim had run the police to the ground as far back as 2010 when Nigeria’s official Independence Day anniversary was bombed by militants, he continued to be a member of Mr. Jonathan’s inner circle and one of his most trusted. His influence and power grew in inverse proportion to the insecurity in the land, and Nigerians, high and low, called for him to be dismissed.
Again, Mr. Jonathan must have enjoyed guffaw after guffaw, wondering why Nigerians misunderstand the situation. To prove that point, at the 2011 National Awards, he honoured Mr. Ringim with the Commander of the Federal Republic (CFR).
Still the insecurity in the country continued to grow. The horrendous Christmas Day and Kano City bombings were separated only by the nationwide mass protests which greeted Mr. Jonathan’s New Year’s Day hike in the price of fuel. Hundreds died.
Eventually, Jonathan decided he needed to show some courage. And so last week Wednesday, Mr. Ringim was sent away. In his place, Mr. Jonathan, smiling that enigmatic smile that must be the public face of his private guffaw, installed Abubakar.
Many Nigerians insist that Abubakar is a dangerous choice; that Mr. Jonathan does not know he is a discredited religious fanatic who should no longer have been in the force.
I call it the Baggage Rule: the philosophy that nobody should suffer embarrassment or denial simply because he is corrupt, incompetent or malevolent.
Think about it: only two weeks ago, Nigeria woke up to astonishing revelations of corruption and abuse of office against Mr. Jonathan’s Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Mr. Mohamed Bello Adoke. The Minister took office only in April 2010, but according to the reports, he has already amassed millions of US dollars and British pounds, and billions of Naira, in several identified bank accounts. No matter; in last October’s National Honours, Mr. Jonathan gave him the CFR and kept him on the job.
Two months earlier, in November 2011, Farida Waziri, the head of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), against whom there had also been allegations of corruption throughout her tenure, was relieved of the post. Speculations were rife that she would be probed. No! said Mr. Jonathan.
In 2010 and 2011, The Punch and NEXT newspapers published various investigative stories on corruption at the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) that involved the Minister, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke and other top officials. Mr. Jonathan responded by re-appointing her to his cabinet in June 2011, and comforting her with the CON thereafter.
Ojo Maduekwe, who is on his way to becoming Nigeria’s new Ambassador to the United States, was dropped from Jonathan’s cabinet as Foreign Minister in 2011. On his way out, he lamented the pathetic state of corruption in the Ministry, and specifically begged the government to probe five of its foreign missions. Jonathan laughed.
But remember: the first person Mr. Jonathan dropped from the cabinet when he became Acting President was Mr. Michael Aondoakaa, the Attorney-General and Minister of Justice. Mr. Jonathan fired the Minister, but it was for his role in the bizarre drama during Yar’Adua’s hospitalization in Saudi Arabia, not for the mountain of corruption allegations against him.
Corruption? Last year, Mr. Jonathan brought back “Mr. Fix It” Anthony Anenih, the former Federal Minister of Works who is best remembered for the hundreds of billions of Naira he did not spend on Nigeria’s roads. Anenih’s job definition was to help Jonathan “win” the presidency. “Mr. Fix It” did not disappoint him.
And now, he crowns Mr. Abubakar, a man previously indicted for religious fanaticism by a federal Commission, and recommended for retirement or dismissal, as our country’s top police man.
Why? Apparently because Mr. Jonathan fully understands the Baggage Rule some of us deny: that in Nigeria, it does not matter what—or how much—baggage, you carry. It does not matter how much of an animal or a criminal you are.
Consider: Ringim’s last act of bravado was to send Police Commissioner Zakari Biu on suspension for his role in the Kabiru Sokoto jail break. Mr. Biu, a man who had been dismissed from the same police force, but who, under the Baggage Rule, continued to rise in it.
The Baggage Rule has deep historical foundations: In 2006, a Joint Task Force set up by Obasanjo allegedly to fight corruption found that 15 State Governors had breached the code of conduct for public officials, and recommended they be prosecuted. It was a heavy panel that included the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC); the Code of Conduct Bureau; the Department of State Services; the Nigerian Police; and the EFCC.
The governors indicted by the panel, which was chaired by EFCC chairman Nuhu Ribadu, included one Mr. Jonathan, who was found guilty of several counts of false declaration of assets. Obasanjo’s insincerity may be found in the fact that he went on to appoint Mr. Jonathan, in effect, as Vice-President of Nigeria.
This is all of the proof needed to establish that the Baggage Rule works. It does not matter in what filth you have swum: pastors will bless you, voters will fight for you; people will die for you. And you can choose your own banks.
The Baggage Rule explains why, in 2009, Mr. Jonathan must have laughed his head off when he learned we were fighting Yar’Adua for him. Look back at the passage of time and you will see that in 2006, Jonathan was indicted for a false declaration of assets; in 2007, he was forced to declare his assets; in 2011, he refused to declare his assets.
It is a game: Ringim, like others before him, was not fired; he was released to go and enjoy himself. And it does not matter whom IG Abubakar says he is, the Baggage Rule warns us to be afraid, very afraid.
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