A president taken lightly

…also published in Daily Trust

The dramatically unfolding circumstances of the scandalous reinstatement of the former chairman of the Presidential Task Force on Pension Reforms Abdulrasheed Maina represent yet other instances of how some top government officials simply take President Muhammadu Buhari lightly, and, in fact, how they practically run a clandestine government within his government, capitalizing on his apparent reluctance to tackle the growing trend of systematic covert sabotage from within his administration.

This is notwithstanding his subsequent order for immediate reversion to the status quo in Maina’s case, which only came following the public outcry the reinstatement had triggered. Also, this is regardless of whether Maina is guilty or not. After all, apparently, he had some powerful accomplices who therefore want terminate the case by hook or by crook, get him quietly reinstated, or, in the event of failure to achieve these, simply ensure that he pays the whole price alone while they get away with it.

Unfortunately, even in light of the few details exposed so far in Maina’s reinstatement scandal, it’s obvious that the legal manipulation and procedural maneuvers that culminated in his reinstatement were clandestinely and systematically perpetrated by some top federal government officials with the connivance of some top security officers as well.

This scandal and other similar scandals so far exposed in this administration suggest that many top government officials including some of whom the President personally employed to work him in the presidency take his unwarranted and indeed misplaced leniency for granted. His persistent reluctance to order for the probe and prosecution of some top government officials suspected of involvement in some of such scandals despite strong allegations against them has strengthened their audacity to take him lightly.

Of course, this disturbing trend has affected public confidence in President Buhari’s ability to maintain effective control over his administration. It also makes it more difficult even for his diehard loyalists to defend him against the accusations of nepotism and encouragement of impunity that his critics and political opponents make against him. Besides, even if he isn’t guilty of deliberately committing these wrongdoings, his attitude inadvertently facilitates exactly what Nigerians elected him to fight i.e. corruption. The persistence of this situation simply means the persistence of the culture of systematic thievery of public resources with impunity, which means the persistence of economic hardship in the country hence Buhari’s failure as President.

Incidentally, one really wonders how Buhari’s no-nonsense demeanor simply wore off. Though I was too young to understand the politics of governance during his military regime in the 80s, I was nonetheless not that oblivious of his no-nonsense attitude, which he maintained until some signs of compromise began to appear following his assumption of the presidency almost two and a half years ago. This is very unfortunate indeed, yet even more unfortunate is that he apparently lost it after he became President while Nigerians were rightly looking forward to seeing him pursuing things assertively to address the accumulated challenges he was expected to tackle in the country.

Though, he isn’t expected, in fact, he can’t run his government the way he did when he was Head State under a military regime being now a duly elected President bound by relevant legal and constitutional provisions, yet even under the Constitution, he is adequately empowered to act much more assertively than how he has been running his administration since the beginning of his presidency.

Obviously, President Buhari needs to urgently get rid of the officials who are hell-bent on frustrating him. He needs to be realistic enough to admit that his administration is infiltrated by many fake loyalists who he wrongly trusts. By the way, the recent claim by Senior Special Assistant to the president on media and publicity, Garba Shehu that some influential government officials loyal to former President Jonathan may have been responsible for Maina’s reinstatement, is simply ridiculous, to say the least. Yet, assuming that Shehu’s claim is true, it by implication means that the top government officials whose names have so far been mentioned in the scandal e.g. Abubakar Malami, Minister of Justice/Attorney-General, Abdulrahman Dambazau, Minister of Internal Affairs and Winifred Oyo-Ita, Head of the Civil Service and all others who would be mentioned later, are Jonathan’s loyalists. Accordingly, the ball remains in President Buhari’s court as Nigerians await his reaction in this regard.