Dissecting Middle Belt/Southern Leaders’ Fears
of Justice. I told him that I will not be a party to a one-sided investigation to muscle the opposition and persecute them. I made my position known that I am ready to expose corruption and recover stolen assets as a professional but will not be involved in the politics of ‘pull them down’ in Nigeria.
“After meeting in London on 18th April, 2018 with some officials during the CHOGM, it was evident that I will not bulge in my position not to go against the ethics of my profession by investigating only the opposition. As soon as they arrived Nigeria on April 23, 2018, they drafted a letter to disengage me. They kept the letter and wanted me to change my mind but I refused. On April, 27 2018, they sent me a backdated letter of disengagement dated April 23, 2018.”
Clearly, Nwajeh wanted to investigate all those alleged to be corrupt, regardless of party affiliations. His mandate evidently stated that he should trace, and where necessary, recover undeclared assets and proceeds of fraud for the Federal Government of Nigeria. Suddenly, he was told to look only at a specific direction. This man wanted to do a dispassionate job, but was stopped. What a country! What I find intriguing is that precisely 25 days after Nwajeh’s mind-boggling allegation, the Obono Obla panel and the other government agents indicted have refused to respond. This is clearly not how to fight a war against corruption. A selective war against corruption will not take this country anywhere.
Some Middle Belt/Southern Nigerian leaders met in Abuja recently and raised issues which I consider pertinent for the survival of this country’s democracy. Top of this was the call on President Muhammadu Buhari to relieve the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, Prof. Yakubu Mahmood, of his duty, siting the likelihood of bias in favour of the president.
The leaders urged Buhari to act on the 12-point resolutions of the National Assembly on the state of the nation i.e. call out the Inspector General of Police, Ibrahim Idris; uphold the powers of the states to enact laws on open grazing of livestock; stop the killer herdsmen and take urgent steps to make the country more secure for the citizenry, amid others.
In the statement signed by Dr. John Nwodo (South-east), Chief Ayo Adebanjo (South-west), Chief Edwin Clark (South-south) and retired Air Commodore Dan Suleiman (Middle Belt), the leaders urged Buhari to re-enact the spirit of June 12 by ensuring the conduct of free, fair and peaceful elections in 2019.
I also have my fears about Mahmood’s ability to deliver a free and fair election in 2019. The Ekiti State governorship election will be his first major test. Fears that INEC will manipulate the Presidential election in favour of Buhari, considering Mahmood’s geographical origin and the President’s links with an INEC National Commissioner, Amina Zakari, a relation of the President, can’t be waved aside. Buhari’s decision to keep the unproductive military Service Chiefs, whose tenures lapsed last year, is also suspicious.
My take away from the Middle Belt/ Southern Nigerian leaders’ memo to Buhari is: “We have fears that the Independent National Electoral Commission may not be able to deliver free and fair election as the bug of nepotism and sectionalism that this administration is renowned for has also eaten up the leadership of the commission. We are concerned that since independence, Buhari is the only President that has been audacious enough to pick only people who are either his relations or of the same ethnic stock with him to lead the electoral body.”
Nigerians must persistently challenge Mahmood’s INEC to rise above ethnic, religious and political sentiments during the 2019 election. We must also persistently put pressure on our President to allow a free and fair election. He was a beneficiary of this in 2015.