Eze Goes to School’ – President Obasanjo matriculates at 68

By

Dan Azumi Kofar Mata

danazumikofarmata@yahoo.com

 

 

President Olusegun Obasanjo’s recent admission into the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN) after a special matriculation, as an undergraduate student of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences of the National Open University of Nigeria in Abuja, on Wednesday November 29, 2006 is yet another example of flagrant abuse of public office in Nigeria today. Not surprisingly, President Obasanjo is not the only one in this stock-in trade as thee are also some State Executive Governors and members of the federal executive council (FEC) doing the same thing.

 

What President Obasanjo has just done is no different from his messy involvement with the Transcorp PLC shares purchase, establishing and private business outfits and running a private university, primary and secondary schools among others, while still holding the Executive office of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Some of his actions and activities in this direction are outright violations of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and the Oath of office, which he swore to defend and protect. Some also touch on the very sensitive issue of conflict of interest, which must be avoided by any elected public office holder, particularly the exalted office of the President of Nigeria to say the least.

 

The sanctity of the highest elective public office in Nigeria, that is, that of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria is such that, the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria has provided a lot of safeguards to protect it from abuse and bastardisation by whoever is elected to hold that highly esteemed office. But alas, since 1999, we have witnessed too many abuses of that office by the current incumbent holder. The saddest aspect of all is that, no one but the President himself has rendered the checks and balances enshrined in the 1999 Constitution impotent.

 

The exalted office of the President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and likewise, the office of State Executive Governor are such that, they carry enormous duties and responsibilities, which do not allow the holders of such offices to engage in anything other than statecraft. These duties and responsibilities are unmistakeably defined and codified in the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Definitely, enrolling as full-time or part-time student is not one of them. So also, the mandate as given by those who elected Mr. President and or any State Governor for that matter, does not include the office holder to pursue further formal university-level degree programme under any guise whatsoever. Neither did the political manifestoes of the political parties under which the elected leaders stood for elections made mentioned that, once in office, the President and or Governor should enrol into a university to pursue degree programme.

 

Furthermore, It should be pointed out that, every second of the time in office as President or Governor must be seen to be expended in governance and running of the affairs of the nation or the State government. This means that no elected public office holders must misuse and or abuse a second of the time paid from public purse to run the affairs of the nation or the State government for personal endeavours beyond that those that are enshrined in the 1999 Constitution and or the Code of Conduct of Public office holders. This means that, every 24 hours of the day must be judiciously and legally put to public service; allowing only for the normal time to sleep at the appropriate time of the day and the officially sanctioned annual and public holidays and weekends. That means any use of the hours of the day for studies in pursuit of university degree programme while still holding the office of the President or Governor of a State, is tantamount to abuse of office and violation of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of and oath of office of the elected office bearer.

 

The holder of the elected office is also operating outside the electoral mandate and political manifesto of the party, and above all, such office holder is also committing an economic and financial crime. Any elected office holder who misuses public time is definitely misusing critical and valuable scarce economic and financial resource because time is money.

 

Therefore, the national assembly and the public at large must rise and call President Obasanjo to order. He should be made to defer his admission and wait until after May 29, 2007 to matriculate in whatever degree programme he is interested in pursuing. There is no University in Nigeria and world at large that will deny the calibre of President Obasanjo admission. As a matter of fact, if he succeeds in handing-over the reign of governance come May 29, 2007 for the second time, I can assure him that Presidents of most the prestigious Ivy League Universities of the world will be falling under his feet, begging him to accept to be Resident and or Visiting Professor Emeritus in their respective universities, rather than be an ordinary undergraduate freshman for that matter. He will pick and choose where to go and on his own special privilege terms and conditions.

 

President Obasanjo will be setting a bad precedent if he chooses not to defer his admission into the NOUN. At present, we already have some serving Governors who enrolled for degree programmes in their State government-owned universities where they are at the same time Visitors to the universities! This is not proper as the very sensitive and delicate issue of conflict of interest is very ominous.

 

The rule of the game should be that, no elected public office holder should be allowed to engage in full or part-time degree academic pursuit while in office at public expense or under any private arrangement for that matter. You are either a full time President or Governor and not President and student or Governor and Student at the same time. We should learn from the civilised world how things are done properly. The Hon Minister of Education should take note, please.

 

 

Dan Azumi Kofar Mata, Kano

danazumikofarmata@yahoo.com

Friday, 01 December 2006