Lai Mohammed: When will Bola Tinubu appologise to Ibe Kachikwu?
In a country that has always refused to look back, if only to find out where the rain began to beat us, we have always failed to learn the lessons that history should teach. Another result of that catastrophe is that we lack societal and institutional memory. So, there is no agreed version of the struggle for independence; that is why those who struggled and wished for national independence at the earliest opportunity and date possible, and those who delayed it till they could do it no more, are all bundled together as heroes of the same independence struggle. That is also why those who craved national unity, and could have staked their very lives for it – the Raj Abdalas, Nduka Ezes, Kola Baloguns, Mokugo Okoyes and Ikenna Nzimiros and the other members of the Zikist Movement fought for one united independent Nigeria are totally forgotten while crass regionalists are spruced up as nationalists.
Just a few weeks ago, Ashiwaju Bola Tinubu attacked Dr. Ibe Kachikwu, the Group Managing Director of Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and Minister of State for Petroleum just because Kachikwu had given a date, some viewed as to far, for petrol queues to disappear. Particularly galling to Tinubu was Kachikwu’s quip that he was no magician. Of course he had meant that there must be some very practical steps that must be followed before the nation’s petrol needs could be met.
The Asiwaju accused Kachikwu of treating Nigerians with levity and insulted their sensibilities and that public servants were put in place to serve, and that if Kachikwu could not meet those public demands, he should resign. Great words, those!
And…and a section of the media rose as one to excoriate Kachikwu, just because Bola Tinubu had spoken. All that Kachikwu had been doing since he was appointed into office was not considered. So too the problems he had been struggling to surmount. So too his energy, purposefulness and sincerity. The worst cut came from Mr. Wale Fatade; he advised Kachikwu, who had excelled at Harkness Commons (the front courtyard of Harvard Law School by which many often use to refer to the real thing): “He could also get a pocket English dictionary for easy reference”.
Why? The pretense was largely because Kachikwu’s reorganization of NNPC caused some Energy reporters to mislead their Editors into reporting that NNPC had been unbundled and ceased to exist as it had been chopped down into smaller independent entities. That the man who made the announcement still remained the behemoth’s Group Managing Director should have tipped off the journalists to seek clarification, because that would have indicated that NNPC was still in existence. Would Kachikwu’s reorganization be effective? Was it needed? Was it worthy of applause or was it condemnable?
No, that was not the concern of the likes of Wale Fatade. All that concerned them was that the Asiwaju had spoken against Kachikwu and so all must join in demonizing Kachikwu.
I wasn’t too bothered really by Tinubu’s words, especially as he made it plain that he was speaking on behalf of the Nigerian people who deserved nothing but impeccable service from their public officials. I thought a new day had arrived when politicians would remember that just as St. Augustine told members of his Hippo, North African, diocese that he first became a Christian like them before he became a Bishop for them, they became Nigerians first just like us, before they ever became politicians for or against us. So I decided to watch out for more flogging of Ministers into line by a self-appointed National Headmaster of Nigerian Politics – a post Chief Olusegun Obasanjo had appropriated to himself.
Then recently, a chance came to test how devoted Bola Tinubu would be at his new post. That was when the hard-arguing Information and Communications Minister, Mr. Lai Mohammed Mohammed, showed remarkable insensitivity to the plight of Nigerians. After the news leaked that his Ministry was taking N13 million loan from a parrastatal under it, to enable an unstated number of persons attend an inconsequential conference in China, he said that Nigeria was broke. That was while asking Nigerians to bear with the Buhari administration over the hike in petrol pump price.
If Lai Mohammed knew Nigeria was broke, why would he need N13 million just to attend a non-remarkable conference? And why did the Ashiwaju not give him the sort of public whacking he administered on Kachikwu? And if now the entire administration has agreed that it would take “magic” to meet Nigeria’s petrol needs without increasing its pump price and the same Headmaster Tinubu has joined in asking Nigerians to accept this new burden as it was inevitable without magic, why has he not apologized to Kachikwu? Why?
Well, politics appears to be thicker than nationalism!
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