Maina as metaphor

Just as the events that made him a household name in notoriety were bizarre, so are the circumstances of his surreptitious return to the country’s public space, mind-boggling, especially given his status as a man wanted by the law. This is talking about one Mr. Abdulrasheed Maina the former Director, Customs, Immigration and Prisons Pensions […]

Just as the events that made him a household name in notoriety were bizarre, so are the circumstances of his surreptitious return to the country’s public space, mind-boggling, especially given his status as a man wanted by the law. This is talking about one Mr. Abdulrasheed Maina the former Director, Customs, Immigration and Prisons Pensions Office (CIPPO) and acting Chairman, Pension Reform Task Team (PRTT), who was duly charged to court by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) for complicity in a N2.7 billion theft of pension funds. Sensing that the avalanche of evidence against him by the EFCC was overwhelming he bolted from the country and in the process was declared wanted by the former. 

However, in a development that stunned not a few Nigerians he is not only back to Nigeria but also resumed duty in the Federal Public Service at the Directorate level, from where he would have called the shots in future dealings in the service. The circumstance of his return which was orchestrated in a show of reckless impunity by a string of top officials of the present administration, has kept the country abuzz for days on end. Official circles believe that he fled to Dubai and the EFCC even contrived a warrant of arrest for him through the Interpol. But emerging facts surrounding the network of his powerful associates have led many to suspect that he may even have been hiding in the country all the while, holed up with his whereabouts even known to some powerful people in authority, waiting to be re-launched back into the public space at a most auspicious time.   

The foregoing contention enjoys merit as while the EFCC was actively hunting for the man, other officials in the corridors of power were orchestrating his concealment from the radar and eventual restoration to status quo. This process is what is now coming to light as a well-articulated process which even included a court order to vitiate the sting of criminal prosecution, and was followed by a well-honed bureaucratic process of recertifying him as eligible for reabsorption, into the federal civil service at the privileged Directorate level. This much is attested to by the available documents which are circulating now in the public domain and indicate that his return to the civil service was not a fluke. 

Incidentally his return has been accompanied by a flurry of reactions, each capturing one angle or the other of the unfolding drama. Yet of significance is that of the Special Assistant on Media to the President Mr Garba Shehu who rightly pointed out that the Maina saga not only betrays the depth of corruption in the system, but also indicates that the perpetrators comprise loyalists of the previous administration. He could not have been closer to the truth as only antagonists of the President could have touched the outrage of Maina’s return with a ‘ten foot pole’, as the English would say.  Meanwhile there was simply no positive value which Maina’s return had for the Buhari Presidency to justify any true loyalist of the President allowing such a mess serve as a fly in the ointment.  

That is why the President needs to flush out all who may be linked with the outrage – proximately and remotely, no matter whose ox is gored. Starting from the offices of the Attorney General and Minister of Justice to the Ministry of Interior and to the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation including the Federal Civil Service Commission, no collaborator in this matter should be spared. Only such a clean sweep of the system will atone for the mess before Nigerians and the international community, before whom the Maina issue remains more significant than may be casually appreciated.   

In another vein, available evidence may be indicative that Maina’s case is neither the only or last instance whereby the extant processes of governance will be twisted brazenly to favour vested interests, to the detriment of the wider Nigerian society. Given the widespread syndrome of distortions in the country’s public service terrain, Maina may only be a mere metaphor whose tale captures the hollow ritual many have turned the time honoured bureaucratic processes into. 

In the context of the foregoing the need exists to move beyond Maina’s return to the more profound issue of the progressive slide of the country’s public service into a cataclysmic meltdown, which heralds a worst case scenario whereby even the modicum level of rectitude in the country’s public service witnessed today, may cease to exist in the nearby future. For anybody who doubts the prospects of the foregoing projection of the imminent collapse of governance in Nigeria, a run-down of some recent events will help. 

Just recently the country was stunned over the revelation through the protest by the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources Dr Ibe Kachikwu in respect of the serial shenanigans in the Nigerian National Petroleum Resources (NNPC) with the active involvement of its Group Managing Director Dr Makanti Baru. Before that development was the saga involving the now suspended Secretary to the Federal Government Mr Babachir Lawal and the former Director General of the National Intelligence Agency Mr Kayode Are.  

These developments and others not mentioned for lack of space, betray the disposition of the high and mighty in government who step low to grovel in despicable conduct, even in the full glare of the public as liabilities that the President can do better without them around him. They are hardly helpful to him and rather invite public doubt over his disposition to walk his talk of being equally fair to all members of the society.

Beyond the executive disposition is the plethora of questions over the disposition of the National Assembly which is expected to act in defense of the national interest as provided by the Constitution. If the executive arm fails to redeem itself from the excesses of its own officials who should the people look up to? The legislature of course!

In the present circumstances the Maina matter deserves the full weight of the legislative wherewithal to address. Nigerians demand a full disclosure on the roles played by different actors in the drama and the rendezvous with the law. As is clear from past experience the executive has not demonstrated the political will to tame the shrew in its fold. Hence the National Assembly needs rise to the occasion and assuage public angst over the issue, even if it is only to save the country’s public service. The battle is not just over Maina who is only a metaphor. It is what he represents that matters.