THEFRONTLINES

JOSEPH USHIGIALE

just after White House Chief of staff, Andrew Card informed him that a second plane had hit the twin towers.

The reaction from Bush and his staff was spontaneous. All hands were on deck to keep Americans and America safe from terrorist attacks. He reassured the nation, mobilized his security chiefs and rallied pan- American support to defeat terrorists and terrorism. In the next 12 hours after the attack, although the country was under siege, Bush left no one in doubt that he was in charge and not a cabal.

Even if Aruwan would argue that Buhari did not feign ignorance of the killings in Kaduna, there are a litany of cases where it has become clear the President is clearly turning a deaf ear to or not in control. Take the case of the chairman of the defunct Presidential Task Force on Pension Reforms, Abdulrasheed Maina who was under investigation by the EFCC for his complicity in over N2b pension scam.

Maina was declared wanted by Nigeria’s anti-corruption agency, Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC in 2013 and was is still on the commission’s wanted list when curiously, the minister of interior, Abdulrahman Dambazau announced that he “was posted a few days ago to the Ministry of Interior by the Office of the Head of Service on an Acting capacity to fill a vacancy created following the retirement of the Director heading the Human Resources Department in the Ministry”.

The Presidency said it was unaware of his presence in Nigeria and a committee was set up by Buhari to investigate the circumstances leading to his return to the federal civil service. The report was submitted and nothing has been heard of it. Maina was relieved of his post and left to go scot free.

What about the case of the former Secretary to the Federal Government Eng. Babachir Lawal? He was suspended in April 2016 for allegedly violating the law and due process in the award of contracts under the Presidential Initiative on the North East (PINE). Buhari was forced to fire Lawal, more than two months after he received the report of the probe panel he set up headed by Vice President Yemi Osibajo and after heavy criticism of how he handles graft allegations against his allies.