By Sulaimon Olanrewaju
A nation rises or falls depending on the knowledge of its leaders. When those entrusted with power lack the understanding of the offices they hold, decisions become guesses, policies become experiments, and the people pay the price. Subject matter knowledge is not optional in governance; it is the compass that guides a country through crisis and toward prosperity.
Unfortunately, Nigeria is a country where many who parade themselves as leaders are as bereft of the subject matters of their assignments as a year-old baby is adept at aeronautical engineering.
Imagine this:
Nigeria’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Ambassador Jimoh Ibrahim, issued a statement following Governor Seyi Makinde’s call for a United Nations-led postmortem into the circumstances surrounding the abduction of schoolchildren and teachers in Oriire Local Government Area. Ambassador Ibrahim said that the global body does not intervene in the internal affairs of sovereign member states.
Excuse me, Ambassador!
While agreeing that the Ambassador is a greenhorn, who left the Red Chamber for the United Nations assignment just a while ago, and may not be well grounded in the subject matter, one would have expected him to first sit down and take a look at the body’s rule books, agencies and their mandates, with a view to understanding the position of the United Nations on the issue raised by Governor Makinde before releasing a statement. But he had no time to study because of the urgent need to satisfy his appointer. So, he put pen to paper and scribbled ineptitude and crass ignorance as a considered opinion. Not only did he hold himself up for ridicule as a paragon of ignorance, he also subjected the country to opprobrium. Our UN representative does not know how the UN works.
Many of the Federal Government officials and apologists who have been commenting on Makinde’s call for an independent probe, including the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, the Senate, and even the President’s Special Adviser on Media and Strategy, have toed the same line. Their fury, for whatever reason, blinded them to the fact that calling for a United Nations-led independent investigation into the situation surrounding the abduction is not just for the good of the rescued abductees or Oyo State, it is also for the good of the country as a whole. As a matter of fact, the UN has done it here in Nigeria on a number of occasions. A simple search would have told the Federal Government and its various organs that they were wrong and Governor Makinde was right. My readers should just check the UN’s website online. The imprints of its previous engagements on mass abductions here are there.
Dr Reuben Abati, who was Special Adviser on Media to President Goodluck Jonathan, corroborated this. Speaking on Arise Television’s Morning Show on Wednesday, Dr Abati said there had been similar international interventions in the country before now.
Permit me to quote the veteran journalist verbatim.
Abati said, “It’s not true that the United Nations has never been involved in a situation like this. When Chibok happened, I was in government at the time. The Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women, CIDA, at the United Nations, set up a committee to look into this.
“When Kankara, I think there is a place called Kankara, you know, where there was an incident of over 200 pupils abducted, the UN Committee on Human Rights also set up a committee to look into the matter, which is a reminder that we’re part of a common humanity.
“UN has its own purposes.
“Now, let me remind everyone that when Baga happened, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, writing for the ACN then, which was a party of the present president, they gave me hell at the time.
“In fact, Lai Mohammed wrote specifically that President Goodluck Jonathan should be apprehended by the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity. President Tinubu, ex governor, as he then was, also came out and said that the Jonathan government has failed.
“So, what is good (sauce) for the goose is good (sauce) for the gander. When they were outside the presidency, they said exactly the same thing.”
So, how will Ambassador Jimoh Ibrahim’s colleagues see him after this international gaffe? Will they want to invite him to any meeting where serious issues would be discussed?
How will the international community see our leaders at the national level? They will think that we are a nation of jokers and incompetent people. Indeed, a nation led by the uninformed gropes in the dark continually, while a government led by the knowledgeable builds a future that endures. If Nigeria must have a great future, build strong institutions, and become a thriving economy, we must have knowledgeable people at the helm of our affairs.
Come to think of it, why should the call for an independent probe by an international body as the UN attract so much attack? Who is afraid of the truth? When a person dies, families don’t just move on, they often ask: why? A postmortem is medicine’s way of answering that question. Doctors carefully examine the body to discover the true cause of death, whether it was illness, injury, or something unexpected. If it was an injury, who inflicted it and how was it inflicted?
Similarly, when a disaster occurs, a society shouldn’t just move on; hence a probe is conducted. The essence is to provide clarity on the incident, because every disaster leaves behind two kinds of scars: the visible ruins that can be rebuilt, and the hidden questions that must be answered.
A postmortem is the key to probing questions because it tells us not only how lives were lost, but how future lives can be saved.
Investigations by fair-minded persons guide governments to strengthen their systems and provide evidence for justice when negligence is involved, and they give families the closure they desperately need.
Without this process, speculations will replace knowledge, blame will replace accountability, and the same disaster risks being repeated.
Therefore, conducting a postmortem after an unfortunate incident such as the Oriire abduction, is not about looking backward in search of vengeance, it is not about pointing fingers, it is about looking forward with strength. It ensures that the pain of yesterday becomes the protection of tomorrow.
So, why have the APC and the Federal Government’s goons rolled out the tanks in a coordinated attack mounted from the president’s spokesman, moving through the Senate chamber, and Jimoh Ibrahim’s UN office to mow down a governor’s simple call for a process that is not even new in this country? Is it that this truth is too advanced for them to comprehend? Or is there something they are afraid of?!
•Dr Olanrewaju is the Special Adviser (Media) to the Governor of Oyo State.
