Adeosun deserves commendation, not prosecution

“Remove justice, and what are kingdoms but gangs of criminals on a large scale”  —St Augustine of Hippo
CURIOUSLY, even though the Nigerian ‘kingdom’ never existed in the times of St Augustine of Hippo and many other philosophers of his period, the above timeless expressions of the great philosopher appears to vividly describe the experiences in the Nigerian political landscape over the years but more obtrusively , in recent years as we traverse the journey of nationhood.

Today, except for a few, I say a few political gladiators in the past and currently whose contributions to national development could be classified as modest, the Nigerian political space since its creation deliberately as a mere ‘geographical expression’ by the British warlords  has been dominated by charlatans and gangs of criminals whose main pre-occupation is the appropriation of the collective commonwealth to satisfy their egocentric  interests while the citizenry wallow in poverty of monumental dimensions.

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If anybody doubts this ‘subjective’ perception about the realities of the Nigerian project, then such a person should either take a mental appraisal of the social-economic state of the system or take a round-trip journey across the country and assess, dispassionately, the level of suffering in the land.

As the journey towards the 2019 elections continues to take shape, the ‘hawks’ are at it again, mobilising all the lethal resources at their disposal to hack down real and imagined enemies that might want to debar them from consolidating on their  past ‘loots’ and by implication, perpetuating the servile or beggarly livelihoods of the people.

As we speak now, the victims are already falling as the vicious battles of survival of the fittest in the battlefield of political anomie become more ferocious and life-snuffing. These battles are usually between a few conscionable leaders who desire transformational changes in the polity for better lives for the citizenry and the majority parasitic leaders who, over the years, have represented the locusts of the political ‘farmland’ and who, as Karl Marx has observed, symbolises the exploiters of the masses.

On the list of these few soldiers of conscience, whose interests are in the improvement of the lots of the people are the former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and now the Emir of Kano, His Imperial Majesty,  Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, a former Minister of Education, Dr. Obi Ezekwezili, a  former Minister of Finance and quintessential technocrat, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, and the immediate past Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun.

Others may exist but these few symbolise the best models anyone could point to when it comes to visionary leadership and agents of socio-economic transformation in a nation bleeding from the heartless exploitation of its resources by very few but politically dominant unconscionable leaders spread across the geo-political zones.

As experiences have shown over the years, the ferocity of the war for political gains that have characterised the Nigerian landscape for decades has always been that those who genuinely desire to serve are always ‘consumed’, leaving them in most cases, worse emotionally and psychologically than before they offer themselves for national service. If anyone is in doubt, then engage the Sanusis, Okonjo-Iwealas and now, Mrs. Adeosun to recount their political service experiences.

Now let us talk about the Adeosun saga. Oluwakemi Adeosun, a few days ago had thrown in her letter of resignation in a hurry as months of vitriolic attacks on her personality for an excusable ‘offence’ of possessing a forged NYSC exemption certificate were taking too much and  appear so asphyxiating as to snuff life out of her.

So much has been chronicled in recent days about the NYSC exemption certificate forgery saga  on the pages of newspapers and other media of communication, particularly the social media, and as to why it should be a basis for why the minister should disembark from the 2019 electioneering campaign locomotive, despite the fact that her ‘boarding ticket’ remains valid to get to the political destination by May 2019, the end of the tenure for the President Muhammadu Buhari-led four years administration.

As a dispassionate observer of the travails of Mrs. Adeosun over the past weeks and based on the contents of her letter of resignation made public by the Presidency, one could not but be emotionally and psychologically sympathetic to her cause, despite her failings to understand how the Nigerian project is being ‘executed’ by those that have mortgaged the future of the country in their exploitative, uncompromising and predatory holds on power for decades.

As expected in a country that has been turned to a spectre of crippling socio-economic anarchy and a reigning culture of impunity, weeks before her departure had seen Mrs. Adeosun  vilified, criticised and even condemned by some ‘analysts’, who are ostensibly acting the scripts of some political hirers, through distorted, myopic, warped and blind viewpoints that lack all elements of logical, moral, or even legal reasoning.

Agreed, Mrs. Adeosun made a big mistake by trusting some ‘associates’ to help her process her application at the NYSC headquarters. But what is certain is that based on her upbringing and over 30 years of orientation in an environment that is run purely on transparency, accountability, justice and forthright virtues, the former minister could not have intentionally, genuinely and deliberately elect to take the ignoble course of procuring a fake document.

Now, stretching this opinionated argument further one feels that having trusted her ‘associates’ so much to help her process the NYSC exemption certificate, she could not have upon collection of the certificate from the NYSC office begin to verify whether the signature on the certificate was genuine or fake.

Let me illustrate here. To many who are chanting ‘crucify’ her, I doubt if any of them could not have fallen into the pit of betrayal as Oluwakemi did.  The experiences at all levels of public governance in Nigeria show clearly that as applicants, the moment approvals are granted to our requests or certificates issued to us by any public institution in Nigeria, nobody gets pre-occupied with verifying that who actually signed the document is the genuine person.

For God sake, how can any applicant be concerned with the signature of who signed a document become the pre-occupation of an applicant who has  gone through  weeks or months of harrowing experiences to get any document? Let us be fair and just in our views on the Adeosun saga.

To me, she is primarily a victim of the ‘Nigerian factor’ which, for decades, has made Nigeria a big nation with clueless political leaders, who after travelling and seeing what obtains in saner climes, have failed to imbibe the culture of good governance and selfless service to their fatherland.. For instance, if the former minister were to apply for the same certificate in the UK or U.S, she can complete all the processes electronically and appear for collection personally only when the certificate is ready. That is where institutions and structures are put in place to drive public governance and accountability in leadership.

A cursory appraisal of Mrs. Adeosun’s brief sojourn in the nation’s landscape with a view to assessing how she fared reflected a woman who gave all and sacrificed so much to reserve the seething decay in the nation’s public finance system. In the short span of her tenure, Mrs. Adeosun has demonstrated an uncanny sense of patriotism, like her immediate predecessor, sense of discipline, and professional competences in the discharge her responsibilities.

She has, within the context of the political settings, consolidated on the achievements recorded by Dr. Okonjo-Iweala, in all facets of the nation’s fiscal and monetary policy regimes and by so doing, opened the economy up for improved private sector investments. This is even when the nation’s revenue earnings from the oil sector remained at the lowest ebb ever.

Remarkably, some of the minister’s achievements which no political bad blood and hatred can rubbish in a hurry include the establishment of an Efficiency Unit (E-Unit) to monitor the Ministries, Departments and Agencies of government (MDAs) for the purposes of checking leakages in the public finance system, the introduction of a Whistleblower Policy, the Voluntary Assets and Income Declaration Scheme (VAIDS).

Others include, the insistence that all MDAs and revenue collecting agencies comply with the Treasury Single Account (TSA) rules, the financial bail-outs for states, initiative on continuous audit of MDAs, Payment of Inherited Pension Arrears, establishment of the Development Bank of Nigeria, the launching of the Asset Tracking and Management Project (ATM Project), establishment of the Road Trust Fund (RTF), introduction of the Fiscal Sustainability Plans and Budget Support Facility for States of the Federation, amongst others. Whao!

What these initiatives show is that Mrs.  Adeosun, despite her relatively young age and reticence, exhibited the technocratic, professional skills required to deliver on her mandate. Some have said that Nigeria borrowed so much to keep the government running under her watch. The question is: Could the government have done otherwise in the face of dwindling resources and irrepressible desire to transform lives? The truth is that even the blind can feel the infrastructure projects of the government across geo-political zones as the war against graft in public sector garners traction and predators of the economy now groan helplessly in subdued tones.

Rather than joining the crowd calling for Mrs. Adeosun’s head and prosecution over an error of judgment that even Socrates could have made in the same debased political system, I elect to stand on the side of the few that feel she deserves commendations for sacrificing all she had to contribute to the nation’s development agenda.

She has done exceedingly well under the President Buhari-led administration by serving diligently her fatherland in the last few years, and because she has not mortgaged her conscience in the midst of the raging anomie that has characterized the political landscape in recent months, Mrs. Adeosun deserves  to be celebrated and not prosecuted!

As a commentator has observed, the point is that the former Minister could not have avoided stepping on some ‘powerful’ toes in her crusade to transform the public finance system.

The truth about the latest experiences of Mrs. Adeosun before she finally ‘took a bow’ and resigned her appointment a few days ago and which all of us should learn from is that in the on Nigerian political system, no matter how conscientious you may be as a political leader or public servant, there will always be people who are seeking your downfall.

As Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala made it clear in her recent book ‘Fighting Corruption is Dangerous: The Story Behind the Headlines’ which reflect her experiences in political leadership as two-time minister in the country, the Adeosun’s saga has validated, once again, her predecessor’s position that it is dangerous to fight corruption in Nigeria. In fact, it is deadly!

Let me say as I end this piece that Mrs. Adeosun left with many of us, who could interpret fairly the language of the polity, holding her in high esteem for leaving ‘a comfort zone’ to serve a fatherland that hardly rewards its genuine labourers. On a final note, I think it is also appropriate for me to make it clear also that all through her tenure in office or before then, I have neither met Mrs. Adeosun in person in life nor benefitted either in cash on in kind from all her initiatives.

• Abubakar sent in this piece from Zaria, Kaduna State