A few days ago, two of our former Presidents, Olusegun Obasanjo and Muhammadu Buhari, men who are in their 80s, were in Paris, France to testify in favour of Nigeria in an arbitration case in which Nigeria stands to lose US$2. 3 billion if the case goes against us.
Before they set out on this patriotic, extremely sacrificial journey, a statement emanated from the Presidency that Buhari was not being pressurised to go to France to testify in our favour. I was jolted by this statement or better put; my curiosity was aroused by this statement. But let us leave this disclosure about whether or not someone, a former President, was being pressurised or persuaded to go an act on his country’s behalf in a high profile case in which Nigeria stands to lose so much if the person failed to act.
Let us rather come back and shed light on the little French I know and can speak which forms a part of the heading of this piece. Bon voyage (as used here) stands for “safe journey’’ or ‘’journey mercies’’, if we are to use Nigerians’ favourite way of wishing their friends or loved ones good luck when they are about to embark on a journey.
Thank God, both Obasanjo and Buhari returned safely to Nigeria and accounts of their performance in Paris said they testified powerfully in support of Nigeria’s stand that our country did not commit the offence of breach of contract for which she stands accused of and is in danger of being fleeced of that humongous amount of money in dollars.
I had wished Obasanjo and Buhari safe journey or journey mercies because I felt bad about their trip for a matter which I think belittles their stature and their reputations. We have here two former military heads of state who, as one of my pastors would like to put it ‘’transmogrified’’ into two-term presidential figures in our democracy. In addition, these two men are way into their mid or late 80s. How will they be standing before judges or arbitrators, some of whom both qualify to be their great grandfathers for lawyers “to put it to them’’ whatever they think those men deserve?
I do not understand the ways of statesmanship but I think that when two former Presidents of a country appear to participate in an international event, that event should not be one that is meant to address a case of corruption or improper deeds concerning their country. Instead, it would have gladdened my heart if Obasanjo and Buhari had appeared together to represent Nigeria in the burial obsequies of a statesman of another country such as the recent burial of former United States President Jimmy Carter.
If God were not a merciful one, who dispenses journey mercies upon his children without regard for their iniquities, I fear that all manner of danger would have befallen the duo because it looks to many of us that these men are mere hypocrites who embarked on what can be described as a journey of blame for, in real fact, they presided over the most corrupt administrations that have ever existed in the history of our country or in modern governance. Why should both embark on a voyage of more or less self-indictment and a showcasing and reinforcing of their country’s well known vice? Can you now understand why bon voyage was my prayer for them and formed a part of the heading of this piece?
To then see Obasanjo and Buhari standing in a witness box like some common criminals to testify about the case of corruption or improper award of contract during their administrations injures my sense of pride. Some noble commentators will say that it is not cricket by which is meant that it is not honourable. By going out to testify in a case of bribery and corruption is a severe indictment against both men who spent a large portion of their presidencies talking about the evils of bribery and corruption, but little or nothing changed under their very noses. These men, especially Obasanjo, under whose rule the contract in question was entered into, are incompetent to testify against corruption or that particular case of corruption or impropriety. Those who go to equity, they say, should go with clean hands and clean consciences.
Again, to think that Dr. Olu Agunloye, former Corps Marshal of the Federal Road Safety Corps, who inherited this position from, and probably with the anointing of, Prof. Wole Soyinka, is the one standing on the other side in cahoots with Leno Adesanya, the claimant in this arbitration suit, is beyond belief. Agunloye, who was minister under Obasanjo, is the one accused of singlehandedly awarding the Kashimbila Hydro Electric Power contract to Sunrise Energy belonging to Adesanya, which has now led to the case of breach of contract. He is accused of acting without the power and authority of the Federal Executive Council or the then sitting president. Before joining them in government, Agunloye acquired his reputation as an activist, pro-democracy campaigner and anti-corruption and good governance advocate.
Does it then mean in actual fact that these activists, good governance campaigners, advocates of fairness and justice and prisoners of conscience and the whole array of noise-makers and pretenders in our country are no better than the political ‘”oppressors” they often accuse of bad governance?
But do you know what worries me the most about this case? Agunloye said sometimes ago in the course of this messy arbitration saga that he is a mere fall guy. What is the meaning of this? Is he saying that he is being wrongly persecuted to save the face of somebody else or some cabal? If he is to be believed, who are probably these guys? If we were a people of integrity, this confession is what we really need to pursue in order to unveil the faces of the people who have led us into this mess and leave Agunloye alone if his allegation is found to be true.
Again, as if Buhari’s trip to Paris was not bad enough, he returned from there to tell us that he depends on a house he has in Kaduna to feed he and his family with the proceeds of its rent. I am not known for translucent honesty like Buhari. But as a born again Christian who believes in miracle, signs and wonders, I am really intrigued by this amazing testimony. I think what we need to do immediately is nothing else but to launch an inquiry into this miracle house that has become like the Lord Jesus Christ that can feed a multitude with five loafs of bread and two fishes with remnants to gather.
Where is this house located? Is it an estate or a block of flats? Was this house constructed with gold and emerald and diamond and other precious stones and roofed with the cedars of Lebanon? Does it have a leaf gates? Who are the tenants there? How much rent do they pay per day, week or month or year? Does the tenant or do the tenants pay in the almighty Dollars or in the prostrate Naira? How are the proceeds managed that its owner can draw from to feed a family successfully since its prudent, frugal, parsimonious and honest owner retired from service?
Buhari’s ear-tingling testimony reminds me of an event that happened nearly 20 years ago. My great friend and eminent writer, Onukaba Adinoyi-Ojo, wrote a book on former Vice President Atiku Abubakar. He told the story of how his boss sowed in this land, grew rich and became prosperous until some of his compatriots began to envy him. He said that Atiku, as a brilliant, energetic and hard working young man with a keen nose for business and a firm believer in productive labour, used to buy from somewhere, goats, cows and chicken and sell at huge profits. He will go again, buy those same items and resell and make humongous profits.
He did that continually and consistently and that is how he became so rich. All of us Onukaba’s friends and all of Atiku’s friends believed the story. But one morning a wag in the editorial cartoon desk of The Guardian newspaper did a very brilliant stroke in the Op-Ed page of the paper by summing up the Atiku’s story as an interesting ‘cock and bull story’.
I will never forget the verdict of that magisterial cartoon! Nor Buhari’s miraculous house in Kaduna and in how it is able to rain multiple and multidimensional El-Shaddi blessings on Buhari and members of his household.
