The Insight by Lateef Adewole
There is a saying in Yorubaland that: “a kìí mòórìn, k’órí ó má mì” (no one can walk so carefully that their head will not shake). The meaning is that no one is perfect. As humans, no matter how careful one can be, there will always be times when the human nature takes over, which can lead to one mistake or another. It can be in one’s relationship with others, who one might offend in the course of doing something or performing one’s duties. These are considered mistakes that were not deliberately made. In such situations, men quickly resort to the common saying in the religious circle that “to err is human, to forgive is divine”.
This seems to be playing out in Nigeria’s political space in the past week. We have seen some political office holders come out publicly to apologise for whatever misdemeanor they could have committed and seeking forgiveness from those who they could have offended in the course of being in government in the last four or eight years. The “chief apologist” is President Buhari. At his meeting with Abuja based group of people; politicians, clerics and citizens, when they paid him sallah homage. He publicly sought their forgiveness, and that of other Nigerians who he might have offended while in power as the president of the country.
This came as a surprise to many actually. It is clear how humbled a person can become after leaving or about to leave power, especially in Nigeria, where political office holders behave like “gods” while in office. People, who are used to excessive, most times, sycophantic reverence and hero worshiping. They sit on their high horse, dishing out orders and acting, in many instances, without giving a damn about the consequences of their actions on others.
Is it that they often forgot that power is transient and positions are ephemeral? Many “powerful” people behave as if they own the world, and there will be no tomorrow. I think that the reality of losing the power is already dawning on them, especially those who are not immediately “graduating” to another political office, like the case of the president. After eight years, which will end in the next 30 days, he will retire to his farm in his village, Daura. But can Daura still be called village sha? It is “small London” now, as Buhari has transformed it to. At least, even if majority of Nigerians are crying about his government, his people will forever remained grateful for the opportunity he had to change their ancient community.
Earlier in the week, Dr. Abdullahi Ganduje, the governor of Kano state followed suit when he tendered a public apology to those he could have offended. He sought their forgiveness. One person who will quickly come to people’s mind is Sanusi Lamido Sanusi (SLS), the former Emir of Kano. It was Ganduje who deposed him and banished him to Nasarrawa in 2020. There could be very genuine reasons and legal basis for doing so, it was still considered as “using sledge hammer to kill a fly”. It was more of fight for supremacy and personal vendetta. Whether people like Sanusi will accept his apology or not, is left to them.
Also, the governor of Zamfara state, Bello Muhammed Matawalle did the same. In July 2022, there was this scandalous news about the Emir of Birnin Yandoto, Alhaji Aliyu Garba Marafa, in the state, who gave a chieftancy title to a kingpin of the bandits, Ado Aleiru, whether “active or repented”. That drew the ire of Nigerians, especially the citizens of the state who have been at the receiving end of the acts of terrorism and criminality of bandits in the staate. The people have been continously massacred, their communities razed down. There farms taken over and their harvests destroyed by these bandits for years, but it got worse in the past one decade.
So, when that news of turbaning a bandit broke, it was understandable, the swiftness of the action that the governor took by suspending that emir immediately. That was applauded. Shockingly, this week, the news broke that the governor, who lost his re-election bid in the last governorship polls to the opposition PDP, has reinstated that emir. In his press statement, he claimed that the committee of enquiry that was set up to investigate the matter, exonerated the emir of any complicity and wrongdoing, and recommended his reinstatement. That was interesting. Why is it just now that that happened when he is about to leave office? Is it also restitution on the part of the governor and way to seek forgiveness like his counterparts?
By the way, I have not been seeing their southern counterparts begin their own apologies. At least, there are about some governors who are finishing their second term and some of them lost their bids to “retire” to the senate, which leaves them with no automatic political position in the next administration, except they are considered for appointments, as most of them cannot survive outside public offices. The kind of lifestyle they live on public funds, the squandermania behaviours they are used to, cannot be sustained as private citizens, hence, the desperation to always wanting to be in one public political office or another.
I believe that when someone is in any position, even as little as the head of his nuclear family, there is bound to be collision with other people or their interests, in the course of perfoming such roles. Not everyone would accept or like what the leader is doing all the time. Extending this to bigger positions in community, religious groups, private organisations or public offices, where large number of people have to be dealt with, majority of whom one might not even know. Leadership is a huge responsibility and burden. So, it is expected that leaders could make mistakes. They could offend the people they are leading in the process. However, the question is: are such actions done intentionally or otherwise? Are they genuine or not?
With the kind of non-accountable leadership that we have in Nigeria, some people in authority could be reckless. In that case, they might have been power-drunk and acted irresponsibly or carelessly, not minding the effect of their actions on others, since they are like “emprors”. This is more applicable to the executive arm of government, whose leadership, the constitution has given the power of “life and death” (literally). In Nigeria, governors are like the “lord of the manor”. Most of them “rule” over their states like it is their private fiefdoms, especially because of the immunity they enjoy.
In such cases, they were likely to have acted and take actions more deliberately, and not by accident or mistake. Therefore, they should be responsible for it and possibly atoned for such. But in cases where public office holders act altruistically in public interest, and their actions affect some people or their interests, such is acceptable and understandable.
Like the case of a “mama”, who was my neighbour in Lagos. She had been doing her trading for decades in Lagos, Oshodi, to be precise. In 2009, when Fashola was the governor of Lagos state, he continued the aggressive transformation of Lagos, following their “Master Plan” to make it a Mega City, which was often mouthed. He cleared out all the rowdiness in Oshodi motor parks and environs by demolishing many makeshift shops and illegal structures in Oshodi Community market, which created chaos and usually affected free flow of both human and vehicular traffic.
It must have been a very painful decision to make as thousands of people were affected, including that mama. That action of Fashola sent her back home and she had nowhere to sell her wares in Oshodi again. This was a place she had been even while Fashola was still in primary or secondary school. Same as hundreds or thousands of others.
After that exercise, any visitor, who only knew the Oshodi of the past, could get lost as all the possible illegal landmarks were removed and the whole area became so open, clear of miscreants, with people and vehicles moving freely. This was an area previously notorious for dangerous thieves, pickpockets and robbers, even in broad day light. All those criminals were dealt with. Many were arrested. Others ran away. It got so good that if one accidentally dropped his money or valuable items or forgot them somewhere, passersby would call the attention of the owner to it. Or if he had gone far, he would still find his money or goods where he accidentally dropped them, when he remembers and return to search for them.
Ironically, whenever this mama narrated that her nasty and painful experience, she always end up praying for Fashola. Why? Because, she saw it all, the evolution of Oshodi and the inherent notoriety. So, after Fashola’s tsunami, she confessed she had never seen Oshodi in such state of sanity in many decades she lived and sold wares in that area. So, Fashola hurt so many people but it was for greater public interest and good, for greater number of people. He did not have to apologise for such decision, like many others that he took as Lagos state governor. However, if he chose to apologise, such apology is acceptable. I could talk about Mallam Nasir El-Rufai’s adventure in Abuja as the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) too, in like manner. But, where such is not the case, what is expected?
I have read many people who have thrown Buhari’s apology in his face. They stated categorically that his apology was not accepted and they won’t forgive him. Such things is just symbolic. It is not as if such individuals intend to pursue any reprimand of the president or governor after leaving office. Some people or groups gave conditions for which Buhari’s apology will be accepted to them. The popular showman, Charles Okputa, popularly called Charly boy, aka “Area Father”, is one of the people who have rejected Buhari’s apology. He claimed that the hardship that he inflicted on Nigerians in his eight year rule by “deliberately and intentionally mismanaging the country” is beyond forgiveness.
Barr. Aloy Ejimakor also demanded for the release of the supreme leader of the Indeginous People Of Biafra (IPOB), Mazi Nnmadi Kanu, his client, who has been in detention since March 2019, as the condition for accepting his apology. Some people in Benue, Kaduna, Plateau, and many other areas that became killing fields, have said if Buhari could bring back to life, the people killed by the killer Fulani herdsmen in these states under his watch, his apology would be accepted to them.
Looking at these people, their grievances and basis for rejecting his apology, can they be blamed? In truth, apart from the issue of Kanu, whose case is still in court, bothering on terrorism allegations, the others have genuine reasons for being angry at the president for apologising now and seeking forgiveness from the people who he might have offended. And I share in their pains and concerns, as a person.
In the past years, since this government came, I have written hundreds of articles about the challenges facing the country, the hardship that people were going through, the loss of thousands of human lives due to insecurities, especially since bandits took over the country, the economic woes, poverty, hunger, and too many others. I have blamed President Buhari, as the head of the government, on whose table the buck stops, for most of them.
This was because, many of those problems were either avoidable, could have been nipped in the bud and prevented from happening at all or quickly handled and mitigated their far reaching negative consequences on the people, had he taken prompt decisions and decisive actions immediately. Unfortunately, his government was characterised by indecisions and slowness in taking action. This once earned him a nickname “baba go slow”, which he publicly acknowledged too.
So, if a president saddled with the responsibility of the welfare of over 200 million people, and the security of their life and properties are in his hands, but failed woefully in discharging such responsibilities, because he was incapable or because of his laissez-faire attitude, which led to loss of thousands of lives of his citizens, destruction of billions of Naira worth of assets, only to come around when he was about to leave office in 38 days, and start apologising and seeking forgiveness, of what use is that? It is assumed that he did all he did deliberately. Some felt he did them out of ‘wickedness’. Well, only God knows a man’s heart and what his secret intentions are.
Let us take the experience of Nigerians in the last three months, about the cash confiscation policy of the CBN for example, which was sanctioned and promoted by the president. That singular, needless, sadistic, senseless policy led to unnecessary deaths of hundreds, if not thousands, of Nigerians. Why? Why would any sane government deliberately make life so hellish for its citizens? Many businesses were ruined. Millions lost their jobs, in an economy already plagued with high unemployment that is as high as 40.6%.
The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) stated that Nigerian economy lost over 20 trillion naira due to that policy, and might likely go into recession. To what end was such stupidity? What gains would the government wanted to achieve that outweighed all of these, including multiple deaths of its citizens? Doesn’t government exist for the people and not the other way round? I had my personal bitter experience during the time. I wrote about it some weeks ago. That policy ruined one business of mine and ran me into huge debt too. What meaning does Buhari’s apology expected to have to the victims of that policy?
I was disappointed that President Buhari could undertake such destructive policy at the twilight of his administration. How does a man want himself to be remembered? Sadly, no matter the perception of him in the previous seven and a half years, whether good or bad, what many Nigerians will remember him more for is what he did at this tail end of his tenure. And if that cash confiscation policy is the parameter, it is very bad. Even, many of his traditional loyalists and supporters of many years could not defend him on that. They also suffered it.
In all honesty, many Nigerians, including me, did not disagree with government’s efforts at going cashless, reducing our dependence on cash for our daily transactions, which have many inherent benefits, it was the timing and the dysfunctional implementation of it that created the problems. From all indications, it seemed to borne out of vendetta, rather than for genuine purposes for which it should have been. It was also seen to have political coloration, given the timing, and the consequences of such action of a ruling party on its presidential candidate. “Ó jo gá té, kò jo gà té, ó fi esè méjéèjì tiro”. All that is in the past now, as the will of God still passed, despite all of that.
This should be a lesson to the incoming President, Bola Ahmed Tinubu and other newly elected governors and lawmakers. When one gets to power newly, it will seem as if it will not end one day. Power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely. As they are about to take up the leadership responsibilities trusted to them by the people, let it be at the back of their minds that they are there for the people, and not for themselves. They should remember that whatever a man soweth, he shall reapeth. “Eni to gbe ebu ika, omo re a je nibe”.
Sadly, people in power hardly learn from other’s mistakes and misfortunes. There are people who occupied public leadership positions in the past, whose names invoke curse and wrath from the citizens because of the atrocities they perpetrated while in office. Their children are not proud to flaunt their father’s names. Their extended families even try to distance themselves from them. We all know such people in Nigeria, some dead, some alive till date. Some alive, but the society has cast them to obscurity. They have been forgotten or nearly. They are alive like a dead person. All these are retributions from this world for each person’s deeds while on earth. Only God knows what will happen in the hereafter.
A word is enough for the wise.
May God continue to protect us and guide us aright.
God Bless Nigeria.
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April 29, 2023.