During the twilight of her Secretary of State stint, Hillary Clinton said stuff about nations needing strong institutions, not strong individuals. This statement has continued to reecho in leadership debates across the globe. As a Nigerian interested in government, I confess that I reminisce on the American strongwoman’s postulation every other day. With Nigeria struggling to reposition its standing home and abroad, now seems the most auspicious time to heed Hillary’s counsel!
This is exactly what our people have been doing, albeit in the breach. Quickly, take a mental count of all institutions, and you’d be shocked at the wanton destruction being visited on an alarming number of them. Come, tell me, do we treat our churches, mosques and sundry places of worship as the sacred institutions that they are? What about the Central Bank of Nigeria, police, universities, etc? Can we name one institution in this country that enjoys the policy of constant support by both the government and people? Please, help, since I can’t find any.
However, I can readily pick a handful that the Nigerian government and people are doing everything to destroy. Or are we strengthening the Senate (or indeed the National Assembly), Customs and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC)? Put differently, would the world accept the way the authorities and the masses treat these three vital national organs (particularly since change-over 2015) as building rather than destroying them? Since this country is the global headquarters of hypocrisy, I know that it is quite possible for us not only to feign ignorance but also to swear that we have done well with these institutions. That would be a lie. We have not!
At this juncture, so we could be on the same page, it behoves me to list some of the crude discrepancies that have become the rule when they are, and should remain, the exception. Starting with the Senate, the very apex of our law-making, what haven’t the government and we the people done either to discredit the institution or whittle down its powers? In case we pretend not to remember, this is the Senate whose president, for daring to beat his party to the throne, has had to spend his tenure running up and down between the Code of Conduct Tribunal and the National Assembly because of some indiscretions they say he committed while serving as governor of his home state of Kwara from 1999 to 2007. That was a whole decade back in time. They only remembered when they needed to. Politics Nigeriana is all about their, not national, interest.
While there are many other dents on the persona of the Senate, such as the alarming number of senators facing criminal charges here and there or even the un-withdrawn description of the entire National Assembly as a house of rogues by no less an opinion moulder than former President Olusegun Obasanjo, the trial of the Senate president is an uppercut in the minds of our people and a technical knockout in the eyes of the world. By colluding with the governing party in this matter as we all know, the powers-that-be may, in the desperation for their pound of flesh, have unwittingly ended up cutting the nose to spite the face. That is the tragedy, to think that this ding-dong would continue all the way to 2019. Pyrrhic strategy. By the way, I am not here supporting anyone. I just condemn the lousy politics we play!
Now, because of time and space or the lack of them, let’s pair up the Customs and EFCC. Please, stand here, our 109 distinguished senators. Can the world say that you have been senatorial, selfless and patriotic in the manner you handle your oversight powers over these critical agencies of government? I concede that the executive (especially this administration) has not accorded you the respectability embedded in your status but more often than not, especially in recent times, you have also tended to forget who you are, choosing instead to descend into the arena at the slightest provocation. You don’t need such comedown reactions. You don’t need to prove any point, because, willy nilly, you are the Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Agreed, Customs Controller-General, Hameed Ali, showed too much ego in the face-off, still you sank too low, like some student union parliament, by angrily dismissing the retired colonel and ruling that he could only return in uniform. It wasn’t the man that I saw being rubbished, it was the Nigeria Customs Service, the same agency that competes for golden-egg-layer bragging rights with our petroleum sector.
Fortunately, there’s a silver lining or two in all of this cloud. The Customs is a massive institution. We should respect it at all times. If, in future, even a former president becomes CG, he must be ready to squeeze his massive frame and ego into the Customs uniform or never take the appointment. What that means is that the retired colonel incumbent CG must immediately start appearing in Customs uniform. That is how to indirectly and unconsciously boost the image of the establishment as well as grow staff morale. This is why I forgive the Senate as it opened the window for us to address that no-uniform error. The Customs or any institution cannot ever be inferior to its head. That brings us to the perennial “acting” status of the EFCC chairman. The hide-and-seek over the Senate’s clearance of Ibrahim Magu is as unfortunate as it is regrettable. For crying out loud, who is fooling whom? That the Department of State Service (DSS), whose director-general, like the EFCC chair, reports to the President, can abort or even seek to obstruct a process initiated by that same President? Please, help, is the no-nonsense Muhammadu Buhari no longer our President? His silence in this matter is not golden. The President’s tranquility is killing the EFCC and invariably reducing the steam of his anti-corruption drive.
Finally, the executive must hold an in-house town hall meeting today to discuss relationship among arms of government. It is a crying shame how members of the executive arm tend to disrespect those of the other two. As I was writing this column, I heard that our Secretary to the Government of the Federation had become born again, viz his earlier vow not to appear before the Senate. His latest decision is the way to build not only strong institutions but also a virile country. God bless Nigeria!

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