Andrew Azazi, Yushau Shuaib, Festus Odimegwu And The Rest Of Us

By

Raheem Oluwafunminiyi

creativitysells@gmail.com

 

The inquiry of truth, which is the love-making, or wooing of it, the knowledge of truth, which is the presence of it, and the belief of truth, which is the enjoying of it, is the sovereign good of human nature. –- Francis Bacon

 

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When Uthman Dan Fodio, the great Islamic scholar who initiated the Sokoto Jihad of the early 19th century observed that “conscience is an open wound,” he was not merely identifying a puzzle but also working a simple solution around it, stating that “only truth can heal it”. Dan Fodio knew the efficacy of truth; he understood it as the bedrock of any just society and ensured that truth remained the opium of the masses. Without truth, confusion and tribulations was sure to take centre stage. No doubt, if Dan Fodio were to be alive today, he would have been shell-shocked and heartbroken at the way his progenies had sacrificed truth at the altar of perfidy.

 

When we look back at the history of the jumbled collection called Nigeria, we would discover that truth has always found no way near our developmental strides and our collective aspirations as a people. It is because we have not yet told ourselves the basic truth about how we have arrived at our particular parlous state of affairs today in this country, hence the reason we are yet to find solutions to where the rains began to beat us. A situation whereby every political office holder is bound by the truth which his oath of office demands and upholds it to the best of his ability, the babel of confusion and deceit which the spokesperson of the Aviation Minister and head of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) have come to typify for our nascent democracy wouldn’t have occurred. At a time our aeroplanes have become flying coffins and in return killing innocent souls and with the swift procurement of two bullet proof cars because there was a threat at the life of a minister or because it was procured to shuttle foreign dignitaries (heaven knows which of the two to believe), is it not right for those involved from top to bottom to for once speak the truth and heal the wounds such malfeasance had caused our collective sensibilities? For how long would we continue to remain inept when only the truth could salvage an annoying situation? For all the salt we are worth and for the sake of our African “giantness”, should it not be proper that truth must always take centre stage in any of our dealings and actions? Why should the vast majority of Nigerians be made to go through so much pain when someone, who in his bid to empower or better the lot of the people, is quickly criticised and removed from his position which he had suffered and worked diligently to earn only because he decided to uphold the truth? For as long as we have planted the seed of lies into the way we run our politics, the country will continue to face iniquities which she may never come out off.

 

Not many will forget the late National Security Adviser, Gen. Andrew Owoye Azazi when he some time ago shocked not only the political class but the vast majority of Nigerians with a rare but sincere statement. The statement credited to him was quite shocking because despite the duties of the NSA being totally apolitical and the purview of that office politically and expediently ensconced within the presidency, the late Gen. Azazi stirred the hornet’s nest to an astounding public with his damning statement linking the security challenges faced by the country to the undemocratic machinations and Machiavellian brand of politics of the ruling party. He did not spare the People’s Democratic Party PDP, as he traced the origin of the church, police headquarters and United Nations buildings bombing, suicide attacks, senseless shootings and killings by Boko-Haram to the “politics of exclusion of the PDP in the region”. The late Gen. Azazi was categorical about the fact that the source of insecurity unprecedented in the history of the country began “when there was a declaration by the current president that he was going to contest.”

It is not all the time policy makers in Abuja speak the truth or stay true to the oath of their office. The late Gen. Azazi, however, chose to pursue his differently and therefore, went all out to remind the vast majority of Nigerians how sincere very few individuals at the corridor of power could be, especially at a time when truth should not be suppressed while insecurity desecrated the long years of peace most parts of the North was known for. Gen. Azazi eventually paid the ultimate prize for speaking the truth and nothing but the truth and had to be forced out by powerful forces within the ruling party. With the further escalation of insecurity in the country vis-à-vis the kidnappings, senseless killings, armed robbery and a total onslaught by Boko Haram on innocent sleeping students among others; Gen. Azazi would be smiling in his grave today, having been vindicated but sad at the same time that his sincerity was taken for granted.

Fast forward to 2013 when not quite long ago, the story of one Yushau Shuaib, a former spokesperson of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) went virile. Mr Shuaib’s problem began when in a published article in March titled “Still on Okonjo-Iweala over Controversial Appointments” pilloried the Coordinating Minister for the Economy and the Honourable Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala over appointments made into government MDAs. Mr. Shuaib did not stop there as he went further to urge the minister “to ensure that appointments into important positions should be done in credible and transparent manners that can withstand public scrutiny.” Even when such statement were sincere and spoke truth to power, those who felt offended by such statement would not take it mildly. They quickly rushed to not only terminate the appointment of Mr. Shuaib but also humiliated him out of his enviable position which he had tirelessly worked for and put much sacrificed into since 1993. Mr Shuaib’s article was just one part of an expose amidst many bedevilling the Nigerian Civil Service and MDAs. His choice of singling out the minister was perhaps his albatross; however, Mr. Shuaib couldn’t have been farther from the truth or was it not in this country that a former immigration boss was voluntarily retired because of an employment scam which was believed to have tilted towards a particular ethnic group? Have we forgotten that our Civil Service, MDAs and public organisations today are replete with series of recruitment and employment scams which unfortunately are skewed to favour particular ethnic and religious identities? Many of such recruitments are entirely biased and not based on merit and therefore, not a surprise that application for jobs still appear in outmoded forms at a time when Information Technology continues to break new grounds through online registration and recruitment feedback? Is it not a normal occurrence in this country that the sons and daughters, friends and associates of the political class swiftly get most of the jobs many of them are not even qualified for? Are we not inundated with the news on a daily basis of how according to Mr. Shuaib, “best brains,” “foreign trained,” and “foreign-based” are used as catchy phrases “to deprive qualified, competent and experienced Nigerians to aspire to top positions” because “some competitive and sensitive positions can only be filled by unique intelligent tribes?”.

It is because few people like Mr. Shuaib who mean well for the country and “will dare tell the truth on the general feeling in the country” are not appreciated, that is why mediocrity, ineptitude, and impunity continue to ravage the country with failure and stagnation as the resultant effect. A situation where someone in government cannot speak and uphold the truth does not augur well enough for whatever transformation agenda political rabble-rousers and jobbers pretend to pursue for their pay masters. Mr. Shuaib may have been disgraced out of office, but he will remain to many Nigerians, like the late Gen. Azazi, the hero. His name will forever be etched on the sands of time and because he had learnt to pursue truth, social justice and equity, he will never be forgotten by those who according to Francis Bacon seek ‘the sovereign good of human nature’.

Some few days back, the media was awash with the resignation of Chief Festus Odimegwu, the former chairman, National Population Commission (NPC). His resignation was not unconnected with the query handed to him over what certain vested interests claimed were ‘inciting comments’ credited to him. Chief Odimegwu’s query came amidst reports that he had alleged the 2006 census was characterised by flaws and for attempting to warn the government about the possible failure of the proposed 2016 population census. Chief Odimegwu stirred the hornet’s nest which nobody in the NPC would dare by also declaring that the country had not had a credible census since 1863, blaming the irregularity on distortion and falsification of figures for selfish and political reasons by politicians. Even when the former NPC boss diplomatically claimed his statement was based on records and evidence produced by scholars and professors of repute, nobody in the presidency cared to know or gave a damn. To them, Chief Odimegwu’s appointment “was a mistake” and he just had to leave.

With Chief Odimegwu’s resignation, there is no doubt in the minds of many Nigerians that one of the few men who would have given a facelift to, and ensured sanctity in the way our census should be conducted in this country has been done away with. What we are left with are simply yes-men who also do not give a damn and therefore, nobody should be surprised if the 2016 census is criticized for its unreliable and ersatz results.

It is quite an irony that we have forgotten so soon as a people that one of the reasons for the 1966 coup was the skewed national census of 1963. It was because the first post-independence election held in 1962 and conducted by a Briton; Mr. J.J Warren was cancelled as a result of public outcry that was why it was agreed it should hold in 1963. That census was mired in so much controversy that the result was not only nullified by the Tafawa Balewa regime but had to be reverted to the figures of the 1953 election. The fear of the census and its aftermath quickly led to political alliances of strange bed fellows that eventually led to the collapse of the First Republic.

If Chief Odimegwu had spoken truth to power as one Nigerian on the unfortunate way our census had went and spoken of a way to remedy it, shouldn’t we have seen it as a means to cure one too many headache once and for all? We have sacrificed patriotism towards the nations for cheap political gains and that is why if the political class will not heed to Chief Odimegwu’s warnings, the 2016 census will only add up to the long list of never-do-well policies and waste this country is better unappreciated for.          

There is a particular saying that: tell the truth and shame the devil. When we as a people, especially the political class uphold this as a virtue, nobody would question insincerity in government. Our inability to speak the truth at all times, sacrificing it for political and pecuniary gains, will not stop making us appear as a creeping giant even when small ones are fast holding forth the mantle of greatness.