Zakari and allegory of the squirrel

The squirrel in ancient African cosmology is the animal which got summarily killed by the roaring pellets from the bullets of the hunter due to its inability to discern. Its roasted head, made into a gourmet and displayed on a platter, preparatory to being devoured for dinner, is held in African homes of yore as a lesson to men and women who disdain wise counsel.

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How then did the squirrel come to be the poster of appropriate reward for those who fail to yield to wise counsel? It is said that, when a squirrel, apparently exhausted from its walk across farmlands all day, famished and seeking what to eat, walks tiredly into an open farmland, it is guided by an alertness which man ought to learn from. Like manna fallen from heaven, the squirrel suddenly beholds this lone ripe palm nut. Hunters say that, at that juncture between life and death, the squirrel would look up to see whether there is a palm tree around and whether the lone palm nut fell off it. It will also look sideways; perhaps there is a fallen palm tree from where the nut proceeded. Unable to see these major indicators, a red flag will immediately fly on the squirrel’s mind. It will then mutter its kuk-kuk-kuk-kuk lingo in rapid succession to indicate a potential threat which hunters interpreted to mean, ‘how did this nut get here?’ Unable to get a logical explanation, the squirrel would move on, in spite of the biting pang of hunger wracking its belly.

The story that is gaining currency in Nigeria’s political information highway about Hajiya Amina Zakari, a commissioner with the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) who was announced last week by the commission’s Chairman, Professor Mahmood Yaakubu as Chairperson of the Presidential Collation Centre, among other committees, brings to mind the above allegory of the squirrel. Zakari’s appointment as head of that committee had immediately courted uproar in the political circle.

The contention over the Amina Zakari issue is this: Following the family tree of the Buharis in Daura, Katsina State, a certain blood sister of Buhari had reportedly journeyed to neighbouring Kazaure where she got married some years ago. Her daughter is alleged to be the current INEC commissioner, the subject at issue. The allegation went further as saying that her brother is the current Emir of Kazaure and that the young Muhammadu Buhari lived with his in-laws at Kazaure while he was growing up. Though the PDP goofed in initially alleging that she was appointed by Buhari into the commission, the truth is that, ex-President Goodluck Jonathan, seeking nomination into the commission at the thick of his drive for reform of INEC, which landed him the nomination of his nemesis, Attahiru Jega, had allegedly asked Buhari for a nominee and who later, allegedly too, forwarded Zakari’s name to the Bayelsa-born former president. What is more, Buhari was said to have demonstrated previous filial bonding with this niece of his before his current presidency and that this bond had, before now, driven him, a former military Head of State, to nominate Zakari into juicy top Nigerian jobs. For instance, Hajiya Kazaure also worked hand-in-glove with Buhari at the Petroleum Trust Fund (PTF) as Senior Consultant/Chief Pharmacist, especially in the PTF-funded health projects which spread across the country.

There is no doubting the fact that in a Northern Nigeria where women are perceived as chattels fit only for the pleasurable usage off the male gender in zi oza room, Zakari has carved a niche for herself as able to square up with any man in intellectual output and can stand her own in any cross-gender mental contest. A princess of Kazaure, she was born on June 23, 1960 and her father was the late Emir of Kazaure, Hussaini Adamu. She is a product of the prestigious Queens College, Lagos and holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Pharmacy from Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria with a Second Class Upper.

Top on the list of the stymied minds on this issue unleashed on Nigerians is the presidency itself. In a statement issued by presidential spokesman, Garba Shehu, the presidency had attempted to wave the grave allegation off as a non-issue but ended up with a mindless waffle. “President Buhari and Commissioner Amina Kazaure don’t share a family relationship. An inter-marriage occurred in their extended families, so the imputation of blood relationship between the president and the electoral commissioner is a simple lie,” he had said.

If this is not a waffle, I don’t know what else is. If the opposition dragged its imputation of blood relation, strong enough to compromise the upcoming elections before the public and graphically dragged Buhari before the court of the people, how come the presidency is shrouding where it stands with a half yard-sized imprecision? Are the people of Nigeria so insignificant not to be shown the graphic nature of this “extended families inter-marriage”? How can the presidency be so naively uninformed as to call “extended families inter-marriage” ordinary when we all know that marriage, in African customary practice, is one of the most potent linkages that gives a seeming cultic binding to the lives of the people? If inter-marriage link was that ordinary, how come Hajiya Kazaure also featured prominently in Buhari’s PTF? Or was it also a coincidence?

A perfect analogy of the Buhari government and INEC’s indecorous and indeed fatal choice of Hajiya Kazaure is the judiciary. A judge who is chosen to adjudicate in a matter over which she has a conflict of interest, in the pursuit of the principle of fairness and equity, is demanded by judicial norm to recuse herself. Sensing that she may be hamstrung from being impartial because of a potential conflict of interest, such judge is enjoined to recuse self from such matter so as to avoid bias. This is why Hajiya Kazaure should not only recuse herself from the Presidential Election Collation Committee, she should also excuse herself from INEC, not later than immediately. Her potential bias looms large in the 2019 elections. It is immaterial that she may not even lift a finger on the side of the President and his party, the APC.

The squirrel allegory would be a fitting warning to those who think that the alarm over Hajiya Kazaure’s appointment is too inconsequential to detain us any further, since even if the APC truly intended to rig the elections, it could do that without the huge-resume Hajiya’s assistance. But that is neither here or there. If the February presidential election does not reflect the wishes of the people of Nigeria, we would continue on the consistent national path of delivering Nigeria as a gourmet, displayed on a platter, preparatory to being devoured for dinner. There must be a spiritual link between Nigeria’s electoral waterloo and her consistent immiseration, reflected in unelected persons who are supplanted as holders of offices. Have we bothered to research into the spiritual connotation of the democratic process of election? I believe that a spiritual bond is developed, something akin to a blood oath, between the electors and the elected on election day. When the process of this spiritual link is severed by an impostor, there is a curse that is heaped on the land where this electoral tragedy takes place. More curses are heaped on perpetrators of this heinous crime against humanity.

For all we care, this may be the cause of Nigeria’s developmental stagnation over the decades, right from the First Republic when politicians bayoneted themselves into the polling booths and falsified figures, awarding election results to those who possessed the highest cash and had the instrumentality of violence. Could this be why, borrowing from South African Alex La Guma, Nigeria totters at nocturne as she walks for almost sixty years in the dark?

For us as a people, there is the need to divorce ourselves from the un-enduring sweet-nothings – apology to Professor Ayo Olukotun – that are emanating from politicians as the campaigns progress.Or what we stand to gain from belonging to or canvassing their election. Nigeria should be the key factor in this campaign. Like the squirrel, we seem to be standing at a critical threshold where a decision for or against the contending political parties could have a critical implication on our tomorrow. Even though I believe that the presidential election is a choice-less choice between Atiku Abuubakar and Buhari, a choice between the two has far-reaching implications for us as a people. Among those routing for either of the two, none of them is likely to leave Nigeria after May, when the winner is sworn in. We will all live with the consequences of our choice, either positively or negatively. This is why I am of the opinion that our stand is analogous to that squirrel confronted with a lone palm nut which signifies an ominous danger. Should we choose to eat the palm  nut and die or decline choice and live?

Nuhu Ribadu and his 40 riba dun cars

Former Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Malam Nuhu Ribadu, stunned those who believed that he was immune from the malady of the time and the natural inclination of the Nigerian politician to play the fool. At an occasion in Yola last week dedicated to the inauguration of 40 vehicles purchased by him and donated on behalf of his support group, Black Cap Revolutionary Movement, for the mobilization of voters in Adamawa for, according to him, President Muhammadu Buhari’s re-election campaign, Ribadu waxed lyrical at his newfound shamelessness. He even predicted that the president would get a double of the votes cast for him in Adamawa State Ribadu said he was committed to mobilizing his home state of Adamawa and its people, alongside other stakeholders, so as to ensure that Buhari wins in the state. Which is a legitimate aspiration.

Don’t get me wrong. Ribadu has a legitimate right to align with whoever he desires in the presidential election and the right of alignment with whoever he is persuaded could fulfill his aspiration as a Nigerian. Since leaving the Police Force, Ribadu has tried his hands on politics, oscillating from aspiring to be the president of Nigeria and later perching as low as seeking the governorship slot of same Adamawa State. What Ribadu is not permitted to display this blandish politician’s affiliation and yet go away with the public image he effortlessly garnered while he was in the saddle as a widely-feared EFCC czar as a cousin of angel Gabriel. The two positions and impressions are diametrically opposed. You will recall that the fear of Ribadu was the beginning of wisdom while he held sway in office. Even when widespread accusations trailed him as being an anvil in the vindictive hands of Olusegun Obasanjo who was allegedly using EFCC to harangue his political enemies, Ribadu towered high in his resplendent moral babanriga as a cop with a purpose who subscribed to the tenets of purity and purification of the Augean stable. What we are witnessing now is a total deconstruction of that effigy which Nigerians hung on the lintels of their homes as the avatar of cleanliness.

For, how can Ribadu explain how he came about the funds with which he purchased the 40 cars? What job does he do since leaving the Police Force? How much is his gratuity and pension combined worth, to be able to finance the cost of purchase of 40 brand new vehicles? It also goes to the fundament of the ills that plague us as people, especially one that afflicts our electoral system. What sieve is being held to the campaign purses of political office aspirants and what is the ceiling? How does the system ensure that impure money does not filter into campaign funds of political parties? The other day, a gubernatorial candidate of one of the political parties in Oyo state stunned the world in an indecorous and incongruous  display of 100 cars, dead to its negative effect on the psyche of a populace that is disturbed by acute lack and abject poverty. Aside the moral angle to this, how much does each of the cars cost? Who donated them, if Ribadu and the other fellow didn’t? How much was spent on them? Can’t impure money be laundered through this channel?

By the way, riba, a Yoruba word for bribe and its expression in its not too dissimilar rendering as riba dun, (bribe is sweet) an inflection of Nuhu’s surname, may be jutting out somewhere in this transaction, unless policeman Ribadu acquits self in the court of the Nigerian public that held him like some matador who changed the face of corruption in Nigeria. Can we have an idea of how these 40 cars came into legitimate being? How does Nuhu marry his towering image as a no-nonsense anti-corruption czar with this demeaning image as a politician who is ready to lick the sore-encrusted feet of politicians so as to be shoveled into political positions?

It reminds me once again of an imperishable quote that hangs on my mind like a talisman on the neck of a Hindu The moment Ribadu left EFCC and began to aspire for political offices, the quote crept on my mind and has refused to exchange its tenancy ever since. It is one which says that the moment a man sets his eyes on an ambition, a rottenness begins in him. It tells me that this may just be the beginning of decay in the persona of Ribadu which has just begun to tug at the nose of the world with its rebarbative disturbance.