2015-2017: From Cluelessness to Shamelessness —By Patrick U. Akongwale

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Patrick U. Akongwale|22 March 2017

The most interesting part of the campaigns before 2015 general elections was the name-calling and the exchange of letters between key stakeholders in our polity, even got to a level that Obasenjo and his daughter dragged their family issues into the seasonal movie.

One man that suffered alot from these name calling and abuses was Goodluck Jonathan, he was called a Drunk, Womaniser, Weak and most especially CLUELESS! The clueless tag was the main campaign message of the then opposition APC, and looking back retrospectively, I am convinced that they had a point: Jonathan couldn't fire a Minister of Interior that his poor management of Immigration Recruitment exercise led to the death of youths across the country; Jonathan, that it took months for him to fire Stella Uduah; Jonathan that basically gave Allison Madueke a carte blanche on our critical oil and gas sector. I reluctantly agreed that this man have issues and his emergence as President is a microcosm on how leaders are selected in Nigeria; where the big men select those that cannot outshine them.

APC had a substitute for Mr CLUELESSNESS and his name is Muhammadu Buhari, a resolute man; a  disciplinarian par excellence; the one that would have a zero tolerance for corruption and finally, the one that would take Nigeria to the Promise Land! This messianic message didn't resonate with me because of the people around Mr Integrity. PMB's 20 months can only be explained by the height to which him and his party has raised the cluelessness to a level I now call —Shamelessness.

From the handling of Chief of Army Staff Properties in Dubai; Saraki Trial; Chief of Staff IDP grass cutting rackets; the FX racket running in the CBN and so on and on. The transformation from Cluelessness to Shameless finished on the 15/03/2017; for the second time this year the President's pick to lead the Economic & Financial Crime Commission (EFCC ) was rejected based on a report from a sister agency(DSS) that ironically reports to the Presidency as well. A Presidency that got clue on how to run government would do internal investigation before forwarding a name to the legislative chambers, only a Donald Trump & Buhari sees nothing wrong with their nominees being rejected or pulling out from confirmation process.

A man that ran four Presidential campaings promising to fight corruption would not allow his nominee to head the anticorruption agency to go through this ordeal. We are in the middle of a serious crisis that in addition to the inter-agency war that may commence between the Nigerian Police & DSS  (Boko Haram & similar groups would gain from this due to reduced intelligence sharing and lack of trust), they are multiple conspiracy theories as to why Ibrahim Magu cannot be confirmed by the Nigerian Senate and there are some that agree with our Senators that Magu is corrupt, as such, he must go back to the Police Barracks. 

But, if the DSS accusations against Magu are right, then the Police Service Commission must retire him and hand him over to the relevant agencies probably the ICPC to face trial. A man with zero integrity to lead the EFCC has no right to stay in the Police Force but for the shamelessness of our Presidency.

Today, some are claiming that corruption is fighting back via the DSS, but these are the same people that celebrated when the DSS raided the homes of Judges across the country in September last year. A learned friend explained to me months ago that he trust the arm of the Presidency that is prosecuting the Judges under the leadership of the head of the DSS.
In a way, I believe this Presidency has moved alot of us into a state of Shamelessness and we must find ourselves back via spiritual exorcism and some apologies to the Clueless Ijaw Drunk!

Patrick Unimagbebia Akongwale
Writes from Lagos