By Maiwada Dammallam
With (officially) intelligent Nigerians like Navy Commodore Kunle Olawunmi (rtd) certainly, Nigeria doesn’t need dullards to stagnate. Nobody is talking about the fidgety Intelligence officer who, not long ago, was on Channels TV pretending to be some sort of a breathing encyclopedia on Nigeria’s intelligence; authoritatively explaining the lapses in the intelligence aspect of Nigeria’s security architecture. The climax of the session was the revelation by the “intelligence guru” about the “killing” of Major Datong, the kidnapped NDA officer, by his abductors.
By now, Navy Commodore Olawunmi (rtd) would be somewhere cooling his feet if not for the imprudent deviation from a code of behavior expected of his professional status which led to his flagrant and shameless invasion of a national TV to misinform the public on a very sensitive national security issue at least, for the unforgivable stupidity of a trained and experienced Intelligence officer relying on whatsapp snippets to build opinion whether about national security or about which cobbler could keep his retired Naval boots in pristine condition.
No gainsaying that it’s long overdue for Nigeria to start responding to stupidity with the decisiveness required of its situation. Many things need to be addressed before normalcy could return to Nigeria. It’s as if there’s a deliberate gang-up by distinct albeit interconnected forces to keep Nigeria an unending circle of pain and hopelessness. Almost everything that’s suppose to work for Nigeria is working against Nigeria. The justice system, the last hope for the downtrodden, is not as user friendly as it should. Reviewing the many cases wasted which, otherwise, the Judiciary could have used to confirm its authority, one could only get the eerie feeling that the justice system is either obsolete or simply designed to protect criminals against the law.
To worsen the situation, the judiciary is mostly either complicit or complacent and seemingly untouched by the systemic degradation of Nigeria. Is it not questionable that with numerous arrests of bandits the judiciary is yet to score a high profile conviction that could impress on Nigerians the functionality of the judiciary? Both Evans and Wadume, two high profile kidnapping kingpins are yet to be dealt with decisively to discourage Nigerians from the lucrative kidnapping business. From the bench, Evans and Wadume are enjoying the lack of commitment in our judges to see the seriousness of the crimes to dispose their cases speedily to keep Nigeria within the threshold the social and justice system shouldn’t go below.
Cases of kidnapping kingpins Evans and Wadume are just a tip of the iceberg and of course, less compounding than the more serious cases of 5 Emirs in Zamfara. In October 2019, a committee set up by Governor Matawalle and chaired by a former Inspector-General of Police, Mohammed Abubakar, submitted its report and unambiguously confirmed it has material evidence that five emirs in the state, 33 district heads, and several village heads were complicit in the wave of banditry in the state in which more than 6,319 men and women had been killed. Not a single one of the 5 Emirs and the 33 district heads is yet to be dealt with in a manner that could express government’s anger with happenings in Zamfara state. Not to my knowledge anyway.
Above given, who will question Nigeria’s lack of political will to respond to the delicate problem of insecurity in as serious manner as the problem is overwhelming? Who is shielding the Zamfara Emirs and district heads, the numerous Evans and Wadumes enjoying the drowsiness of the judiciary in VIP holding cells possibly with all the privileges of freedom attached except perhaps, going to movie theaters and Night clubs?
It may hurt our collective sensibilities by the truth is, Nigeria is somewhat of a joke! Only in Nigeria would a man with ongoing corruption cases scale the huddles of leadership selection processes to clinch a gubernatorial ticket to win election and have his cases constitutionally “paused” to give him another chance to experiment with his fingers to perfect his thieving skills. It’s as if the global rule of foxes and chickens doesn’t apply on Nigeria. Going in this direction and at this rate, we may one day wake up with a resurrected “IGP Lawrence Anini” and possibly even get value out of it. Like it or not, that’s how bad it is!
Even more dizzying are the skulk of foxes pretending to be activists striving to take Nigeria to the next level. These sneaky characters run with the hare and hunt with the hounds. On pages of newspapers and TV screens they have solution to every criminality in Nigeria yet, they have no problem putting at the disposal of criminals their professional competence to either help them dupe Nigeria or assist them escape justice.
Does it make sense, for instance, that “activist” Femi Falana (SAN), a man with his hands on any wherever the government is accused of unfairness, high handedness or corruption, would be representing a company in a $400m compensation claim which dubious details no patriotic citizen could miss as is the case with the yet to be settled claim by Sunrise Power Transmission Company of Nigeria Ltd (SPTCL), a promoter of the 3,050 megawatts (MW) Mambilla hydroelectric power project, against the Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN).
Who are the lawyers defending the multitude of corrupt Nigerians facing various charges on cases of corruption that agreeably degraded Nigeria to the pitiable state of almost a beggar nation? Are they not men and women of the bar preaching good governance and good citizenship? One could only wonder if one bar is as intoxicating as another. Please forget that bunkum about the assumption of innocence until proven guilty by a court. How many of Nigerian “activists” will wait for a court conviction before they castrate a rapist caught raping their daughters? Why should the raping of Nigeria be any different.
It’s one thing to be dumb but, it’s entirely another to be dumb and be happy about it. We should try not to be happy being dumb. We should learn to identify our problems by considering our peculiarities. We don’t belong to the civilizations that could afford to be flexible by assuming innocence even when faced with more than reasonable proof of guilt. Is Wadume not reasonably guilty of kidnapping innocent Nigerians or is he not guilty of a conspiracy that led to the killing of officers of the Nigerian Police Force or is he not guilty of escaping from a lawful custody?
Ditto, Chukwudi Onuamadike, popularly known as Evans, was arrested in his home in Magodo, Lagos, after a gun battle that lasted several hours. What more is required to prove guilty more than hours of gun battle to evade arrest? Just how are Evans and Wadume qualified for a presumption of innocence until conviction? Please give me break! All we get with each high profile arrest is momentary publicity blitz which mostly upgrade and award criminals the status of celebrities while their terrified victims nurse their pains and losses behind the shadow. No nation could develop on these terms and Nigeria is not going to be an exception. We either eat our cake or we keep and have it. We can’t have any other way either with Buhari at the top or with Mandale, Gandhi, Clinton and Obama rolled in one and donated to Nigeria
