“Whom the gods would destroy, they first make mad”. When Prometheus, Henry Longfellow’s character in the 1875 poem, “The Masque of Pandora”, uttered those timeless words, the author never anticipated a Mr. Fayose of Nigeria putting life into such immortal lines in 2016. However, driven by the imps of gross miscalculation and wanton lust for reckless ‘popularity’, Fayose has audaciously sallied forth from one needless controversy to another – criticizing, pontificating, puffing, huffing and making allegations that elicit the amazement of both contemplative citizens and featherbrained fans. Yes!
Ekiti State Governor, Ayodele Fayose’s rascally impetuousness and sheepish political pranks have become parts of the nation’s somewhat sickening democratic trajectory. His self-professed disdain for a Muhammadu Buhari presidency explains the relentlessness with which he stalks every move made by the administration. At the silliest height of his rant, he invoked the spirit of death against the President. Fayose it was who told a stunned nation that octogenarian Buhari should be on diapers just like his (Fayose’s) mother! He equally has ranted severally about a presumed life-threatening disease impeding the ability of Buhari to govern well. He has accused the President of leading a herd of corrupt people to ‘ruin’ Nigeria. As long as the topic is Buhari, Fayose has never failed to unleash bareknuckle punches. For him, Buhari is not just the gravest mistake in Aso Rock; he is a tragedy in governance.
As a prominent figure in the opposition Peoples Democratic Party, Fayose’s form of criticism is clinically deadly, hate-filled, infused with peppery bile and vitriol. As a serving governor conscious of the powers the immunity clause confers, Fayose takes advantage of that rare privilege to the fullest. Egged on by a coterie of praise singers and knowing that the President is constitutionally demobilised even if he desires to move against him, the man they call ‘Spotless’ has become a thorn not only in the flesh of Buhari but his policies, associates and the All Progressives Congress. Therefore, while Fayose barks and bites, the Presidency merely gawks at him in stupefaction. Such is the overriding power of a questionable immunity that our Constitution confers on the President, Vice President, state governors and their deputies. Fayose regaled in it. Hardly a week passes without Fayose treating the public to his rabid and ferocious attack against Buhari or his family. It was as if that was his primary duty as a state chief executive. And it is one call he relishes.
It was, therefore, not surprising that the natural victim of Fayose’s spirited defence against the restriction order placed on his personal accounts by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission would be Buhari and, of course, his wife, Aisha. In fact, it would have been shocking if the governor had linked his latest woes to anyone else order than the man he loves to hate. By the way, this is not about the farcical drama scripted, directed and acted by Fayose when he invaded the premises of the bank in Ado-Ekiti earlier in the week to demand statements of his accounts. It is more about the lame excuses the governor gave to justify why an institution saddled with the arduous responsibility of checking graft should not be on his case. It is about the shamelessness of grappling with the last straws to wish away the mendaciousness with which otherwise responsible and trusted public officers continue to rape the national treasury. It beggars belief that Fayose would expect the EFCC to steer off his financial dealings in the last two years until the end of his tenure on the laughable submission that immunity confers on him the powers to do and undo all that he wills. With his ‘spotless’ posturing as the untainted political gadfly in the PDP and Buhari’s Achilles heel, wouldn’t it have been nice if Fayose had punctured EFCC’s claims of humongous and strange lodgements in his accounts in the run-up to his election instead of whining about a nebulous immunity clause that only legitimatises the larceny, lawlessness and crass abuse of power?
Given that Nigeria’s immunity clause effectively arms those that enjoy it against prosecution of any sort, should it also infer that such persons could not be investigated and then tried after they might have vacated the office? In this simple question lies Fayose’s dilemma and the source of an endless chronic idiocy. Listen to him: “I am a sitting governor and under Section 308 of the 1999 Constitution, I enjoy immunity. This government has no respect for constitutional provisions. They should not be in a hurry. In 2018, I will be done. I will come to them myself. I have become a figure in this country that I have nowhere to go. The rascality of EFCC must stop. Did they not contest election? Where did they get the funds from? Is it because they are the sitting government?”
How I wish Fayose could remove the log in his eyes before offering to blow out a speck lurking in a friend’s eye. No one, in the entire life of this democracy, has displayed specious rascality and prudish bellicosity than Fayose. To my understanding, the section in question did not, in anyway, forbears the relevant agencies from investigating the individuals covered by immunity clause.
Specifically, it states that: “(a) no civil or criminal proceedings shall be instituted or continued against a person to whom this section applies during the period of office; (b) a person to whom this section applies shall not be arrested on imprisoned during that period either on pursuance of the process of any court or otherwise and (c) no process of any court requiring or compelling the appearance of a person to whom this section applies, shall be applied for or issued.” If I may ask, would Fayose had preferred a situation where the EFCC turned its sniffing noses against a whistle-blower’s report of premeditated looting in the run off to the Ekiti election? Is it true that, in the course of investigations, the EFCC discovered that about N4.7bn taken from the SAS Imprest Account in the Office of the National Security Adviser(ONSA) was diverted to prosecute the Ekiti gubernatorial elections with the former Minister of State (Defence), Musiliu Obanikoro and Fayose playing a major role in its disbursements? Did the governor’s associate, Abiodun Agbele(Alias Abbey); Mrs. Helen Olayemi Fayose; Obanikoro’s sons — Gbolahan and Babajide — Ikenna Ezekwe; Sylvan McNamara Limited (a company allegedly run by the Obanikoros); Spotless Hotel, owned by Fayose and De Privateer Limited, which is owned by Agbele have anything to do with the sharing of the funds? Did the former minister who is currently in exile in the United States of America use a chartered flight to ferry N1.218bn to Akure on June 12, 2014 for Fayose some few days before the election? And could the blocked account that made Fayose to erupt into riotous rage be the same account that the anti-graft agency said that various sums of money running into millions of naira were lodged? Is Fayose aware that these funds were taken from the Dasuki $2,1bn arms gate? Is it true that the governor and his wife are the only directors and signatories to Spotless Hotel account and other accounts that the lodgements were made in tranches?
Aside the legalese which empowers the governor to hold on to straws, demanding that he should be spared the burden of investigations and prosecutions based on his present status, morality demands that this advocate of equity and hater of political rascality ought to come to equity with squeaky clean hands. It is, to say the least, rascally to hide under immunity clause and perpetuate such grave monstrosity. In any case, the EFCC has not flouted any rule by doing its job without disturbing the governor’s comfort. It only sought and got a court order to freeze His Excellency’s accounts temporarily to enable it put its case together for a post-tenure prosecution if the evidence can sustain such. So, why is Fayose angry and belching gibberish about the President and his wife as if he is eternally immune from answering questions on his misconduct if any? Why, for all the stolen money in private hands, should the EFCC wait until 2018 for him to report himself? Is it not puerile arrogance for Fayose to assume that because the other party got external funding from suspected looters, the glaring larceny uncovered by the EFCC on how he rode roughshod to the Ekiti State Government House should also be shrouded under the orbit of a questionable immunity clause?
Having said this, the onus lies strictly on the shoulders of the EFCC to prosecute all hi-wired cases of looting before it to a logical conclusion. Truth be told, Nigerians are tired of EFCC’s harvest of media trials that only turn influential politicians into demagogues while the would-be culprits merely thumb their noses at us, exploiting the gaping gaps in the prosecutor’s evidence! It for this reason, more than anything else, that Nigeria cannot boast of having successfully prosecuted any of the big thieves and shameless known looters in our midst since 1960. These persons are all over our national space, sniggering back and poking fun at our collective impotence. That is probably why Fayose and his ilk are angry about the seeming twist in out sorry tale. Question is: Will this EFCC be different from the ones that titillate us with overwhelming figures only to fade off at the courts with compromised evidence that allows these economic criminals to escape justice? The answer as well as the fate of privileged people like Fayose hangs precariously in the hands of time.
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