Opinion: Is Oby Ezekwesili truly confused? By Okanga Agila
But for his
antecedence as a consummate media handler, one would have been
disappointed that Presidential Spokesperson, Ahaji Shehu Garba decided
to join issues with the Convener of Bring Back Our Girls (BBOG) and
former Minister of Education, Mrs. Oby Ezekwesili for saying his boss,
President Muhammadu Buhari does not deserve to be in office.
Garba Shehu should have seen through Ezekwesili and arrive
at the conclusion that he could have better spent the time used on
writing the statement dismissing Ezwkwesili for other uses.
Without doing any library research anyone can see that this
former World Bank Vice President is eager to line her egg nest. She
left that supposedly cushy job to take up appointment under the Obasanjo
government, returned to the country under Dr Goodluck Jonathan but
there was no deal until the unfortunate abduction of the Chibok Girls
provided the material to blackmail that government with the formation of
BBOG.
It took the surfacing of how she misappropriated a total of N458
billion allocated to the country’s educational sector when she served as
minister between 2006 and 2007 to silence her.
Still along that line of hustling to get on the joy ride
she became hyper critical of the Jonathan government while making it
look like she was on errand for the opposition. Once the new government
emerged without her being named on the cabinet she found a new cause
that saw the BBOG promptly revived and used to harass the government of
President Buhari.
The truth has a way of eventually coming out. Other
arrowheads of BBOG have either returned to their full time occupations
or find newer ways of making contributions to the nation’s development
while still working to ensure the girls are one day released. But not
Ezekwesili. Not even the dawning realisation to Nigerians that the group
could be more complicit in the captivity of the girls can make her
behave herself.
The former minister has therefore dusted up what is left of
her credibility and deployed it to champion the cause of ‘2000 Nigeria
Immigration Service recruits’ whom she is making to look like hapless
victims. Two quick things: aren’t these the same recruitments that she
claimed were made without adherence to due process; is this the same
former minister who had no qualms about downsizing for efficiency in
line with World Bank dictated global best practices? One needs ask these
question because there should be limits to grandstanding even when
political manoeuvres are called for.
Mine expectation is that Ezekwesili would have by now
deployed her clout and access to the Boko Haram intellectual components
in pressuring Ahmed Salkida, Ahmed Bolori and Aisha Wakil to facilitate
the release of the Chibok Girls. That she could immediately be latching
onto another cause, albeit for selfish and adulation purposes, signposts
how the BBOG outings had always been influence courting exercises for a
woman who is unaccustomed to being out the influence circle. She has
spoken in a couple interview about how she left nothing behind in
government that she wants to return to but this latest development has
definitely put the lie to her claims.
Not just at this recent sit out, her recent comments on
national issues betray a refusal to accept the realities of the time.
Ezekwesili mentioned that the impunity that characterised the Jonathan
administration has resurfaced under the present government, which leaves
one wondering how much responsibility she is willing to accept or if
she even has the capacity to recognise that she must accept
responsibility because the foundation for impunity was laid and
solidified under the government she served and being a minister at that
time there is no record that she productively tried to halt that
foundation from being laid.
Even with such reckless past, the least she can do is to
acknowledge progress being made by President Buhari to undo the damage
she and her colleagues did in setting off that culture. If she called it
impunity now what would she have called it before the incumbent
government scaled back on the abomination that Ezekwesili’s People
Democratic Party (PDP) government left behind in 16 years.
Ezekwesili spoke of hardship without acknowledging her role
in how the policies she actively supported as a minister started off
what Nigerians are today experiencing. If she were truly sincere about
the plight of the lower income bracket population she should deploy the
same tricks her and her buddies at the World Bank use to market unneeded
loans to emerging economies to reverse the damage she has done.
This is why I think Garba Shehu shouldn’t waste valuable
time in responding to this woman. She is in need of rehabilitation as
the economy of the world has taken a hit so even a World Bank big wig is
not as insulated as one would assume. Instead of countering or trying
to correct the misinformation that Ezekwesili is putting out, the
presidential spokesperson should recognise it as the desperate cries of a
frustrated and sinking woman in need of intervention.
So when next Ezekwesili goes on her rant, if Garba Shehu
has to write anything it shouldn’t be a response but a compassionate
memo to Mr President to find one small appointment for madam, whose
co-convener at BBOG, Hadiza Baka Usman already has a national
assignment. It is not easy being left out “inside this cold of Abuja”.
Agila contributed this piece from Abuja. - Leaders.ng
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