One of the Igbo proverbs that stuck earliest in my head as a little boy is the dilemmatic question about shaving the head. It is about the problem of Mgbeke and her tool. Mgbeke is supposed to solve a problem but she ended up creating enduring confusion which gave rise to the Mgbeke Question. Mgbeke the imaginary lady, with a tool with which she is supposed to do her job of giving her client a decent clean shave, gave life to the proverb. It is a question which leaves the answers to anyone.
Ò bù nà Mgbéke ámagi isi aku, k›òbù nà ágùba adigi nkó? Could it be that it is Mgbeke who is not proficient at shaving the head or is it the blade that is not sharp? It is an axiomatic question around what might have gone wrong and why it happened to those in a situation. Why are we where we are or how come we found ourselves in a fix when we are not supposed to be there? These questions, more often than not, have answers, but like Bob Dylan sang in his classic “Blowin’ in the wind’, they are indeed blowing in the wind.
To remove it from the realm of conjectures, one might just settle for the scenario that Mgbeke simply did a shoddy job. But, in a situation like that, there is no end to what the mind could assume as an observer. So, Mgbeke might be the one who is right while you might be wrong in your interrogation of what she did. The opposite could also be the case.
But while answers to the Mgbeke question might still not be grasped as it were, there must still be answers embedded somewhere among the stakeholders in the question. The stakeholders in the Mgbeke scenario know what they are driving at, but they cannot tell their goals to mere mortals. On that, their mouths must remain fraternally sealed. For them, it is Oníkùn ló mò ‹kà – the owner of the belly knows the evil stored therein – situation. In milder words, it is: Onílù lo m›èdè àyàn scenario – the drummer alone can decode what message he is passing with his drum.
So, for those involved, there are answers but the answers are not meant for you. Each component of the stakeholders has their bigger picture well painted, but you are left in quandary, wondering if it is about Mgbeke or the razor. However, in their bellies and in their heads, there are clear answers covered with their huge agbada and their beautiful headgears. To them, the answers are not elusive, and they are not blowing in the wind.
These thoughts came from the extract of that speech given by Vice President Kashim Shettima at the presentation of a book by his friend, Mohammed Adoke (SAN), on Thursday, 10 July, 2025. Mohammed Adoke was Nigeria’s Minister of Justice and the Attorney-General of the Federation of his era in government. He served in the administration of Goodluck Jonathan and has been friends with Shettima the governor and now Shettima the Vice President.
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The reports from the event are as varied as the thoughts on the dilemma from Mgbeke’s obviously ugly shaving job. Some media outfits reported that the vice president said he wants Nigerians and sundry public officials to put their thoughts and experiences on record. This would help our democratic and constitutional evolution. Others reported from the angle that VP Shettima charged public officials on transparency and accountability – as if these public officials did not know these. Others still highlighted the VP’s narration of how former President Goodluck Jonathan made moves to remove him from office as the governor of Borno State when insecurity enveloped the state.
The statements Shettima made at Thursday’s event triggered numerous Nigerians. It triggered me too. It was the story of how he, as a governor, was able to survive that fate which befell the current governor of Rivers State, Mr. Siminalayi Fubara. He recalled that President Goodluck Jonathan had initiated moves to get him out of office as a result of the burgeoning insurgency and violence in his state. The former president, he said, sought the advice of the Speaker of the House of Representatives (Aminu Waziri Tambuwal). He also brought it up at the federal executive council in which the Attorney-General of the Federation (Mohammed Adoke) was a member. Both top government officials advised Jonathan against removing Governor Shettima, citing the unconstitutionality of such action. Not convinced, “they sought for the opinion of another SAN in the cabinet, Kabiru Turaki, who said ‘I’m concurring with the opinion of my senior colleague’,” Shettima told the gathering. Jonathan, he said, listened to the counsels of these officials and refrained from removing him from office.
Whether there is an Mgbeke set-up in the Shettima scenario at that time or not is entirely another kettle of fish. Of course a lot of people hold that view because all the people he was said to have consulted on the removal of Shettima are northerners.. They also hold that Jonathan was a weakling as a president, and that he was not the commander-in-chief indeed. He kowtowed to the North so much that a lot of unsavoury things happened around him and he did nearly nothing about them. He was eyeing a second term of office and needed to do the grovelling to win the support of the North. So, with sights set on the 2015 presidential election, Jonathan overlooked the encircling political hawks that eventually consumed his ambition and his political party.
In the same vein, another school of thought passionately defends Jonathan as a democrat who did his best to play by the rules. He introduced noticeable electoral reforms and largely allowed the rule of law. His being a stickler for the rules was why those who have no regard for the rule of law and practical democracy were able to do what Shettima said Jonathan chose not to do in the same constitutional circumstance.
The VP’s account of his experience elicited arguments and debates and these, like Mgbeke’s job, have more interpretations than just one. One of those thoughts it brought was the removal of Governor Fubara and the propriety or otherwise of that action by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. The emergency rule imposed on Rivers State was deemed questionable because the issues in the state were not anywhere near the threshold of removing a state governor. But the president dismissed the arguments against the removal of Fubara; the mouths of all of the people against the action are smelly. The Attorney-General, Mr. Lateef Fagbemi (SAN) justified Tinubu’s action and unconvincingly explained it as one that actually saved Fubara from impeachment. Shettima’s story however totally negates the action of President Tinubu and the advice of AGF Fagbemi.
Another flank is that the things Shettima said, where he said them, how he said them, and the condition under which he said them are politically and socially instructive. In fact, they are suspect to the ordinary man analyzing the polity. The current political situation in our country makes it so, and serves as the main ingredient of the raging debate. The coalition against the government of the day is also additional fodder for the debaters. Shettima has – knowingly or otherwise – pointed fingers at his boss, at their government and at Nigeria’s chief law officer. If it was unconstitutional to remove an elected governor in 2011 to 2019, why is it constitutional in 2025?
Any other issue around the event, the guests and the interpretations VP’s Office wants the media to take from our VP’s speech are all embedded in the Mgbeke question and the Onílù lo m’èdè àyàn scenario. It is not totally right to spoon-feed the media and dictate the thoughts they should express. There cannot be a total blackout from all the real issues to all the stakeholders. To us, we are in the Mgbeke quandary, but to them, they know what they are doing. The designed confusion which results from their actions usually remains like that until, perhaps better information surfaces.
Are you also left in quandary by Shettima and his takes? Is it that Mgbeke is poor at her job or the razor is blunt? Or, is the drummer’s codes known only to him?