Do you remember Professor Fabian Osuji? Yes, he was a Minister of Education under President Olusegun Obasanjo. He was fired for offering the sum of 55 Million Naira (US $ 410,000) to six Senators to jerk up his ministry’s budget figures. He never resigned but was sacked.
Do you recall Professor Adenike Grange and Architect Gabriel Aduku? Both of them were Minister and Minister of State for Health respectively in the government of late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua. Both of them were sacked following their failure to return N300 Million, which was an unspent funds in the Ministry’s 2007 budget.
What about Senator Stella Oduah? The former Aviation Minister under President Jonathan who was found guilty by two panels, which probed the purchase of two bullet-proofs cars by an agency under her supervision, the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority, NCAA, for N255 Million in violation of Nigeria’s public procurement and appropriation laws. She didn’t toe the path of honour but held on for so long before President Jonathan reluctantly fired her.
So also was the corruption case involving former Ministers of Internal Affairs and Labour Minister, Late Chief Sunday Afolabi and Husseni Akwanga respectively in 2003. They were accused of collecting huge amounts of bribes from agents of SAGEM S.A, a French company that had been awarded the contract on national identity card. They failed to quit until they were fired and jailed.
Can anyone ever forget the scandalous reign of the queen of official graft in Nigeria’s modern history, Diezani Alison-Madueke, aka one day one scandal? Despite the series of corrupt acts she got involved in and the unforgettable 20 billion dollars which she failed to remit to the nation’s coffers and which was blown open by the then Central Bank governor, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, she defied calls by well-meaning Nigerians to resign, rather she chose to drown with the very corrupt administration in which she served.
Do you the recall the famous immigration recruitment of 2014 which the then Minister of Interior, Abba Moro, shoddily organized and which led to the death of over 20 people with many others injured? Do you recall also that Moro defrauded the innocent job seekers of about 676 million naira which he and his cronies basically shared? Despite the international outrage and calls for his resignation and trial for manslaughter and fraud, he never resigned.
Do you remember a certain Professor Babalola Aborisade, the then Minister of Aviation under whose watch plane crashes that killed hundreds of Nigerians almost became a daily occurrence and the country was almost pronounced as the global headquarters of cataclysmic air mishaps? Despite the huge outcry for him to quit and let sanity rein in the aviation sector, he never did. He stayed put to keep supervising over the rein of sorrow, tears and blood.
Remember the former Attorney General of the Federation, Mohammed Bello Adoke. He was repeatedly linked with collection about 2.2 million dollar bribe from the humongous 1.2 billion dollar Malabu oil block fraud. He was pressured to resign and pave way for an independent investigation but he never did.
Do you know one Tony Anenih, the famed ‘Mr fix it’ who as Minister of Works failed to fix or build any road including the terrible Lagos-Ore-Benin expressway (which concerns his state of Edo) despite reportedly collecting 300 billion naira from the government coffers? His competence and integrity were repeatedly questioned but he failed to resign.
Michael Aondoakaa is arguably Nigeria’s most incompetent and corrupt Attorney-General ever. There was no corruption allegation in which his name was not mentioned including Halliburton and Siemens bribery scandal. He even made the now famous statement that Nigerians didn’t have the right to question the whereabouts of President Yar’adua and that the President could rule from anywhere. He refused to resign despite persistent pressure on him to do so. He has since the death of his boss retired into oblivion.
Haliru Bello Muhammed was Minister of Defence under President Jonathan when his name was mentioned that he had played a leading role in the Halliburton and Siemens bribery scandals. He failed to resign despite the fact that his accomplices from Germany and other Western countries were jailed for the same scandals by their respective countries.
As Minister of Power under President Jonathan, Professor Chinedu Nebo, basically delivered darkness to Nigerians. Rather than fix the problem, he claimed in 2013 that ‘witches and demons’ were responsible for the situation and that it was beyond him. Yet, he failed to resign, even after conceding defeat to the ‘witches and demons’
In 2012 similarly, a minister of state in the same Ministry of Power by the name Hajiya Zainab Kuchi told a South African delegation that “evil spirits” were responsible for Nigeria’s endless power supply problems. Despite the nationwide outcry for her to throw in the towel, she never did.
And you are still here saying Kemi Adeosun does not deserve credit for taking the bull by the horns and summoning the courage to resign from a job she was doing so well and in which she was determined to leave a lasting legacy!!!
Lets give honour to whom it is due.
It is indeed a credit to President Muhammadu Buhari that he has assembled for Nigeria a team made up of men and women of honour and integrity.
Enesi Abdulrazak wrote in from Kaduna State and he can be contacted via: [email protected]
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