Bayo Ohu: Questions for Odunmakin
When he moved to Lagos and I moved to Abuja, Bayo and I stayed very much in touch. We spoke almost on a daily basis. Just before Sallah celebrations, while I was in Saudi Arabia performing the Umrah or lesser Hajj, Bayo sent me a text. If I had the clairvoyance to guess that it […]
When he moved to Lagos and I moved to Abuja, Bayo and I stayed very much in touch. We spoke almost on a daily basis. Just before Sallah celebrations, while I was in Saudi Arabia performing the Umrah or lesser Hajj, Bayo sent me a text. If I had the clairvoyance to guess that it would be the last I read from Bayo I would have asked Bayo to leave Lagos immediately because I knew Bayo to be an invaluable friend. I will miss Bayo. Journalism will miss Bayo and Nigeria will miss Bayo Ohu.
But just as Bayo was my invaluable friend, so is Abdullahi Dikko Inde, the Comptroller General of the Nigeria Customs Service. Both men have never met. But Bayo had interviewed me over Dikko when he was appointed and I had told him my honest opinion of Dikko, which he published in the Guardian of the 17th of August. It was a balanced, factual and fair story, typical only of journalists in the mould of Bayo. So I was astonished to read a story attributing Bayo’s cowardly and cold blooded murder to Dikko, which is why I have questions for Odunmakin. But first the background.
It is all too clear to anyone who cares to examine, that the current contest for the post of Comptroller-General of the Nigeria Customs looks like a race for the title of the most mischievous officer in the history of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Although the contest has already been won by Dikko and lost by many, it has continued to generate earth-shaking developments that are likely to leave ugly marks in the sands of our time.
And why not? Since Dikko came to office, his appointment has produced one ripple after another culminating in the death of one of Nigeria’s most prominent journalists, my friend, Bayo. These avoidable drama would not have happened but for the apparent greed of a former associate of the Comptroller General himself, Olajide Ibrahim, and those high ranking customs officers who cannot comprehend the temperament of destiny.
For that alone, the predominant response among commentators in the debate between Abdullahi Dikko Inde and his tormentors, most of whom are still in the customs has degenerated into a collective yawn which is all the more remarkable considering the historical revelations surrounding the allegation of certificate forgery that the groups kiting them could not substantiate and now the dastardly and cold blooded mowing down of Bayo.
It is important to note that all these are in order to overshadow the benefits that are coming to the office and the nation through Dikko’s deep seated reforms. These allegations and mischief cannot be linked to any iota of altruism or any desire to fix the already battered image of the service.
Twenty years ago, Dikko finished secondary school in Kaduna and came down from a House Captainship which many are now unaware had ever happened. This does not only engender disgust in those who misconstrue the true meaning of offices in secondary schools of yesteryears, it exposes the lapses in our educational system, triggering a seismic shift that further moved the margins of superiority of the old schools of the Federal Republic as a whole, hundreds of miles ahead of the assemblies of rogues that are today called schools.
The vast customs empire under Dikko is undergoing historical transformation to what the Nigerian society requires. The traditional business of the service is being imposed by Dikko and those who do not want to discard the old ways are working hard at stopping the goodwill train. But instead of watching, even supporting the development, people like Yinka Odunmakin who should serve as the conscience of society are joining the bandwagon of blind critics whose stock-in-trade knows nothing but negativity and trying to hamper those who are offering a vision for the customs to grow.
The question I have for Odunmakin is: how did he get to know the content of the laptop that was snatched from Bayo’s home? I am not sure if Odumakin sits on the editorial board of the Guardian to know exactly what Bayo is assigned to work on. So where did he get his information about Bayo’s laptop from? What does he really know about journalism that makes him competent to comment so recklessly about the death of his “brother” Bayo Ohu? Is he ready to substantiate his claim that Dikko had a hand in the brutal murder of Bayo? These are a few of the posers and they require urgent answers.
Musa, a journalist, contributed this piece from Abuja