By Okanga Agila
But for his antecedence as a consummate media handler, one would have been
disappointed that Presidential Spokesperson, Ahaji Shehu Garba decided to
join issues with the Convener of Bring Back Our Girls (BBOG) and former
Minister of Education, Mrs. Oby Ezekwesili for saying his boss, President
Muhammadu Buhari does not deserve to be in office. Garba Shehu should have
seen through Ezekwesili and arrive at the conclusion that he could have
better spent the time used on writing the statement dismissing Ezwkwesili
for other uses.
Without doing any library research anyone can see that this former World
Bank Vice President is eager to line her egg nest. She left that supposedly
cushy job to take up appointment under the Obasanjo government, returned to
the country under Dr Goodluck Jonathan but there was no deal until the
unfortunate abduction of the Chibok Girls provided the material to
blackmail that government with the formation of BBOG. It took the surfacing
of how she misappropriated a total of N458 billion allocated to the
country’s educational sector when she served as minister between 2006 and
2007 to silence her.
Still along that line of hustling to get on the joy ride she became hyper
critical of the Jonathan government while making it look like she was on
errand for the opposition. Once the new government emerged without her
being named on the cabinet she found a new cause that saw the BBOG promptly
revived and used to harass the government of President Buhari.
The truth has a way of eventually coming out. Other arrowheads of BBOG have
either returned to their full time occupations or find newer ways of making
contributions to the nation’s development while still working to ensure the
girls are one day released. But not Ezekwesili. Not even the dawning
realisation to Nigerians that the group could be more complicit in the
captivity of the girls can make her behave herself.
The former minister has therefore dusted up what is left of her credibility
and deployed it to champion the cause of ‘2000 Nigeria Immigration Service
recruits’ whom she is making to look like hapless victims. Two quick
things: aren’t these the same recruitments that she claimed were made
without adherence to due process; is this the same former minister who had
no qualms about downsizing for efficiency in line with World Bank dictated
global best practices? One needs ask these question because there should be
limits to grandstanding even when political manoeuvres are called for.
My expectation is that Ezekwesili would have by now deployed her clout and
access to the Boko Haram intellectual components in pressuring Ahmed
Salkida, Ahmed Bolori and Aisha Wakil to facilitate the release of the
Chibok Girls. That she could immediately be latching onto another cause,
albeit for selfish and adulation purposes, signposts how the BBOG outings
had always been influence courting exercises for a woman who is
unaccustomed to being out the influence circle. She has spoken in a couple
interview about how she left nothing behind in government that she wants to
return to but this latest development has definitely put the lie to her
claims.
Not just at this recent sit out, her recent comments on national issues
betray a refusal to accept the realities of the time. Ezekwesili mentioned
that the impunity that characterised the Jonathan administration has
resurfaced under the present government, which leaves one wondering how
much responsibility she is willing to accept or if she even has the
capacity to recognise that she must accept responsibility because the
foundation for impunity was laid and solidified under the government she
served and being a minister at that time there is no record that she
productively tried to halt that foundation from being laid. Even with such
reckless past, the least she can do is to acknowledge progress being made
by President Buhari to undo the damage she and her colleagues did in
setting off that culture. If she called it impunity now what would she have
called it before the incumbent government scaled back on the abomination
that Ezekwesili’s People Democratic Party (PDP) government left behind in
16 years.
Ezekwesili spoke of hardship without acknowledging her role in how the
policies she actively supported as a minister started off what Nigerians
are today experiencing. If she were truly sincere about the plight of the
lower income bracket population she should deploy the same tricks her and
her buddies at the World Bank use to market unneeded loans to emerging
economies to reverse the damage she has done.
This is why I think Garba Shehu shouldn’t waste valuable time in responding
to this woman. She is in need of rehabilitation as the economy of the world
has taken a hit so even a World Bank big wig is not as insulated as one
would assume. Instead of countering or trying to correct the misinformation
that Ezekwesili is putting out, the presidential spokesperson should
recognise it as the desperate cries of a frustrated and sinking woman in
need of intervention.
So when next Ezekwesili goes on her rant, if Garba Shehu has to write
anything it shouldn’t be a response but a compassionate memo to Mr
President to find one small appointment for madam, whose co-convener at
BBOG, Hadiza Baka Usman already has a national assignment. It is not easy
being left out “inside this cold of Abuja”.
Agila contributed this piece from Abuja.