This may sound incredible but it is real for I saw it with my own eyes and heard it with my own very ears: There is a Mr. Abdulrasheed Maina somewhere who has proved himself bigger than the National Assembly! And only in Nigeria full of surprises of the most outrageous kind would this happen.
Last Wednesday, live on a national TV network, I chanced upon the coverage of a Senate debate on the corruption-ridden pensions office(s) and how this Maina of a guy who is supposedly the head of a “Presidential Pensions Reform Task Force” sent to cleanse the pension’s rot, would not answer the summons of the higher chambers of the NASS.
I sat and watched as speaker after speaker, from Senate Leader, Senator Victor Ndoma-Egba, Senator (Prof) Sola Adeyeye, Senator Smart Adeyemi to Senator Uche Chukwumerije, and many others, expressed dismay and disgust with the utter impunity and disrespect Maina has treated the upper legislative house by completely ignoring their call whilst going about everywhere under the most glaring exhibition of power, with a retinue of siren-blaring armed personnel of differing forces in tow.
By an account of the aggrieved senators, Maina was seen on one occasion at the Abuja airport to welcome President Goodluck Jonathan! In what capacity, they queried, would “an ordinary civil servant” of the mere rank of an assistant director be qualified and emboldened to do that? Questions, questions, questions; anger, anger, anger!
There were imputations of protection, if not complicity of the executive arm of government. If not, they ask, what would give Maina the audacity to repeatedly ignore the call of the Senate in their oversight function? Why, they asked, would the Inspector-General of Police be unable to bring Maina to the House as demanded?
Maina on his part is said to have worries that the interest of the senate committee on him is unwholesome, he was also said to have imputed that bribe was demanded from him by some members of the committee, and that his safety was not assured on account of his exposé on corruption in the pensions system.
Readers would recall my reference to Maina’s lamentation on the discoveries of his team when they first began work last year. I had quoted him as saying that his team had “recovered the total sum of N151bn” looted by officials managing the pension funds.
What is the story of Abdulrasheed Maina?
A top civil servant (by far higher than Maina in position) is of the opinion that it may be true that when Maina took over the pensions fund, the scale of corruption he found was staggering and unbelievable. There were multiple entries of the same name in variety of ways on the pensions records through which millions, nay billions, were swindled; and that resulted in the real pensioner owners of the names not getting paid.
But that in the course of Maina fighting corruption, he found corruption fighting back in many disguises, including the many allegations that Maina himself had soiled his hands over time, having discovered the enormity of funds available and the other ways by which anyone could also help himself to large sums without smelling filthy.
He went further to buttress the suspicion on Maina’s credibility with how Maina had figured some way of “settling” or compromising many highly-placed people, especially in the different arms of government and security forces, by putting them on the list of those to go on some “overseas familiarisation tour” of comparative pensions systems; and using that to credit their bank accounts with stupendous sums far above imagination; and how some of the officers implicated had owned up when they found those sums in their bank accounts unsolicited but unreturned!
Whatever. The Senate has now bared its fang swearing to its readiness to bite “if pushed to the wall,” which makes one wonder which other wall beyond that to which its ‘distinguished’ face has now been smashed? It has asked President Jonathan to sack Maina, or else… Hehehe.
Truth is, the country is one big racket and a hellhole of impunity.
Nigeria’s predicament and Senator Ojudu’s lament
It was a delight to read on the Internet last week the views and outpouring of mind of Babafemi Ojudu, a senator representing Ekiti State, who I must confess is a good friend and aburo of mine, one whose brilliance, courage and forthrightness I have always admired.
It is important to give wider publicity to cogent aspects of what Senator Ojudu has said, his lament on a country that is evidently dysfunctional and frustration with the seeming hopelessness of our situation.
To refresh the minds of my readers, Femi Ojudu is that fiery professional journalist of repute who, together with Bayo Onanuga, Kunle Ajibade and Seye Kehinde, co-founded The News magazine and other publications in the stable including the now rested Tempo – the scourge of military rule and thorn in the flesh of late General Abacha who drove it underground into “guerrilla publishing!”
Driven by the urge to move his activism from mere “theorising” unto the level of practical engagement, Ojudu dropped his journalistic toga to run for Senate in 2011 under the Action Congress of Nigeria and won.
Hear him: “But getting here (Senate), I saw that the problems we have are so entrenched that it will need 1001 Femi Ojudus to bring about any change. Our country is really in the grip of evil elements at all levels of government and something has to give.”
Asked if he is of the opinion that it is difficult for the country to move forward given the picture painted, he says: “It’s nigh impossible. If we want to move forward through the formal and normal process, it is going to take us another century. But if there is a rupture from below, that may just bring a quicker resolution to what is happening in Nigeria.”
“It is about leadership. I am not even talking of leadership of today, but I’m much more worried about the leadership of tomorrow. We are saying today is bad, but tomorrow is going to be worse.”
On why the report of his probe panel has been ignored by the executive, he states, “From the first day, I knew nothing would be done. But they said we should go ahead, believing that we would achieve something. So, the systems are too interwoven for any decisive thing to be done about what we need to do about Nigeria. The interests of those who sold those companies and those in power now are interwoven. How do you expect those who are in power now to fight them when they are drinking from the same pot?”
On fears of crisis in Ekiti State ACN over the 2014 governorship election, Ojudu says, “All of us, minus one person, have endorsed the governor. If you know my history, I am not a praise singer. But I will invite you to go round Ado Ekiti. I was talking to some chiefs in my town and they said we have never had it this good and that if me, an Ado indigene, becomes governor, I wouldn’t do better than this. And that goes for all the areas of the state.”
Yes, the Senate may need 1001 Femi Ojudus to move the country forward; one down, a thousand to go!
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