Beyond their encyclopedic value and serving as administrative memento, having photographs of former occupants on the wall right behind or directly in front of incumbents, should ordinarily be a powerful message, especially for the current occupiers with a sense of history and didactic lessons of the past.
Such on-the-wall stares, gazes, smiles and facial inscrutability, added to how each of the faces exited the system and the stories they left behind, should communicate deeper messages, lessons and take-aways than a thousand-page handover note. It will not matter if the incumbent was part of the system before becoming the Capo Di Tutti. He/she would not know everything about what is called the “executive moment” regardless of affinity to the seat of power, until he gets there.
Such a moment requires the man in charge to take a decision which has no known code. He must devise one and its application always comes with a lot of implications. Such moment came for the said IGP when he had to say a resounding No, to the man who thinks he owns everyone. Such a moment always comes with great sacrifices, pains and possible self-denial. The chosen code may not be a popular tide, but it has a way of saving one from a dirge.
I once saw a governor do it. He was faced with a situation. He could join the popular side for electoral benefits. He chose the narrow path.
Two public officials, current IGP, Ibrahim Idris and Minister of Information, Lai Mohammed have become toxic in their loyalty to the whatever causes they believe they are committed to in the Muhammadu Buhari administration. Loyalty can be wrong despite being a comely virtue. Minister of Communications, Bayo Shittu, should ordinarily share same “blackened” page with the duo, but apart from being insignificant, his acts and rants appear irretrievably incorrigible. Such men are better left to hang when they come to the end of their suicide missions. Ndigbo irritant and political-economy survivalist, Orji Kalu, would be receiving a whitewash being lumped here. His mission is clear. His path is predictable, just like his end in the self-imposed adventure he currently embarks on.
With Senate-gadfly and Buhari administration-heckler Shehu Sani becoming the latest murder suspect after Dino Melaye, following their disagreement with Buhari’s lickspittles in Lokoja and Kaduna government houses, Kpotum should be ashamed of his name and heritage, getting involved in all these overnight “felonious” cases. It won’t even matter that the Kaduna suspect Garba Isa confessed to being tortured to implicate Sani. For the police boss, the dirty job must just be done for his “stinking” job to be retained and enjoyed. Isn’t all lucre putrid, regardless of how acquired? Truth will shame this moment.
After Eyinnaya Abaribe’s hurtful truth on the floor of the Senate on Thursday about Buhari’s demeaning international comportment and tactless delivery on national issues, it would be a miracle if he doesn’t get a police invite in the next 72 hours, or get indicted in the Offa thriller of a chilling robbery. At least, if Theophilus Danjuma is too big and too hot for the charlatans running the security show for Buhari, they can keep renewing their loyalty and commitment to the C-in-C, using fries elsewhere.
Kpotum predecessor-in-office got to a point that stirred and scarred his conscience. Idris is past that stage but he still thinks nothing is wrong pulling every Buhari critic in, using the “murder she wrote” code. May God be merciful to his soul.
Alongside the perks of office, Lai Mohammed seems to enjoy the “Lyin Lai” moniker. His memory is also suddenly blurred to the events of the past during his days in oppositional politics, which are either being repeated verbatim or at greater velocity. His well-received thoughts captured in the legion of press statements to those events, which are now being waved in his face as a memorial, have suddenly become vomit which should not be associated with his new “Arewa” cap which replaced the “Asiwaju” style, his signature dress code between 1999 and November 2015 and you want to say; haba Alhaji!
Whatever comes out of Lai Mohammed lips should not really be a bother. He has sealed his reputation for what he wanted to be remembered for. But his paymasters and hardworking men and women of the anti-corruption agencies should be worried for their appreciable efforts about going down the drain. Recent history clearly shows that the drama being led by the minister in the alleged looters’ list circus show, has a predictable end; all efforts ending in legal technicality doldrum and obtuse ruling on lack of fair-hearing and fundamental human rights.
As a lawyer, even without a past to serve as a guide, Mr Mohammed should know enough, rather than allow irritating APC/PDP dogfight to derail the little being achieved in the anti-corruption war. Will anyone blame the judiciary if orders start rolling blocking certain pegs of investigations, because someone got ahead of the courts that are constitutionally-empowered to declare suspects, looters, after conclusive trials?
For someone who served in an opaque government as Chief of Staff, to always take himself seriously whenever corruption fight is mentioned, should be blamed on our collective failure to hold to account, men who today masquerade as our saviours but have their past mired in unresolved house-buying and BPE-consultancy scandals. But just like the past, these moments too, shall pass. But wait, did I just say all of these in a season of gallows-for-hate speech?
and then