What the jailing of Maina reminds me of

By Umar Ardo, PhD   When yesterday I read of the jailing of Abdulrasheed Maina, the ex-Pension boss, and saw the video clip of him being taken away to prison, my mind immediately drifted back to the first time I heard of him. I think it was around June, 2012. Having convinced then Maj.-Gen. Muhammadu […]

By Umar Ardo, PhD

 

When yesterday I read of the jailing of Abdulrasheed Maina, the ex-Pension boss, and saw the video clip of him being taken away to prison, my mind immediately drifted back to the first time I heard of him. I think it was around June, 2012.

Having convinced then Maj.-Gen. Muhammadu Buhari to change his publicly stated statement that he was not going to contest for the presidency again after 2011, and having agreed to work together on a course of action towards realising his long-standing ambition, I took it upon myself to bring in key political stakeholders into the project. To this end, I often leave my house early in the mornings to visit those I am acquainted with and whom I adjudged as critical in politics to find out how the idea of the Buhari presidency resonated with them, and to persuade them if necessary into it. One early morning, I called one of my peers with whom we served as Special Assistants to the President and requested to visit him to discuss a very important national matter. He gladly accepted my request and asked me to come over. I went.

He received me merrily into the huge mansion he has as a house. For entertainment, he brought me several assorted tea brands to choose from. I must admit that I am not a tea man, so I asked him to choose for me. He did, priding himself as a tea addict who knew virtually all tea brands in the world. After all the pleasantries and talks on the good nature and aroma of teas, we now entered into the subject matter of my visit. I told him straight on that it was on the feasibility, and even desirability, of a Buhari presidency as panacea to the numerous ills of the country. I said all that I needed to say on the matter and he listened to me to the end without interrupting me.

When I was done with my argument, which I thought I made a good job of, he asked me whether I knew of one Abdulrasheed Maina, and I responded that I didn’t know him. He then said that Maina was the head of Pension board and was controlling trillions of naira and was managing it so well in honesty and probity without stealing 10 kobo and so was a million times far better in integrity than Gen. Buhari. He said as far as he was concerned Maina was a good material for the presidency and would make a better president than Buhari – and that was where he stood as far as Nigeria’s presidency was concerned!

When I tried to counter his argument that his Maina was an unknown person and could therefore not measure up against Buhari, he stood up and went and opened the main door of the house ajar. Standing and holding the opened door, he said to me: “Dr., you have come to my house this morning and annoyed me deeply with your message. Who do you think you are? Please leave my house now”. I first thought he was joking and I said jokingly, let me have some more tea before I go. He then moved over and removed the tea container away and returned to the opened door and repeated that I should please leave his house. By his countenance, I then realised that he was dead serious and meant every word he uttered.

Confused, annoyed and ashamed all at the same time, I apologised to him for making him angry and asked for his forgiveness. He said there was no problem, but let me just leave his house. Like a dog with its tail in-between its legs, I stood up and walked past him and out of his house to my car. Ignoring my apologies, he called out to the security guard to open the gate for me to drive out. Feeling as if the ground was breaking under me, I went to my car and drove out of his compound. We never met again since then.

But the moment I left his house, I simply put behind me that incident and continued with my Buhari for president project. A year or so later, APC was registered; a year or so later Buhari became its presidential candidate. And lo and behold, while watching the news on television I one day saw my Man Friday on the podium in my state of Adamawa alongside Buhari campaigning for the latter’s election as president. How the cooky crumbles! Today Buhari is president and Maina a prisoner! And, astonishingly, my man is also today a key appointee of the Buhari administration.

The jailing of Maina yesterday brought all the nasty memories back. Wow, not that I am surprised how things and men change in time and situations! God help Nigeria.

Ardo lives in Abuja