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Politics/election season in Nigeria is probably the best time to plan or commit murder. For one, the antennae of almost the entire society shuts off virtually every other issue and picks up nothing else but politics at this point in time. All through the stretch of the politics season, covering party congresses, the primaries, campaigns and the elections, every act, no matter how grievous, often seems to find either cover or justification in politics, one way or another. Murder, money laundering, outright stealing, currency trafficking, betrayal, adultery, lying, swindling, assault on other people’s reputation, immorality of every form, libel, economic sabotage, name it, the election season bakes them all. And emits them, too.
It was curious and a bit out of the expected, therefore, when the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) chose the thick of the politics season to go and grab a high-profile political figure, Senator Rochas Okorocha, for a running case, hurling him subsequently before the court. The former governor’s plea that he is a presidential aspirant and was deep into the processes of his party’s screening of its presidential prospects obviously cut no ice with those who took him in. The court may yet grant him bail to return to the political turf, even as his prospect in the race he says he is in is at best non-existent.
Under normal circumstances, politicians, even those with legal baggage, have a way of navigating their way and getting off the hook until the giddy season of horse-trading and political hustling is over. Election period is a big seasonal market and no serious trader likes to miss out. The larger society seems to have accepted the cycle for what it is. The society has accepted, to an extent that normal life can only resume after election season. The Rochas case is actually not a part of the main script.
As it is, however, it is not only professional politicians who hide behind the noise and distraction of politics and election season to commit unacceptable acts. Even institutions are now involved, taking advantage of political distraction to do wrong. It is, indeed, a sad reflection of how low governance has sunk in Nigeria that managers of common patrimony in the society will resort to very ugly and blatant acts of misconduct in their trusted position without remorse, seeking as it were, to outflank politicians in unconscionable conduct.
There is no doubt that the decision last week by the management of the Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF) to short-change the South East zone in its 2022 scholarship scheme processes would probably have attracted a lot more public attention, but for political party primaries. It is not as if there is a guaranty that a such public attention and criticism would have mattered to the lords at the PTDF. Sadly, such blatantly prejudiced acts have become commonly identified with public institutions under the present government.
The PTDF was established by Act 25 of 1973, later amended in 2000. The agency has the primary charge to develop the requisite manpower for Nigeria’s oil and gas industry. This is what the agency has been doing through the years. This year, the PTDF shortlisted 8,800 candidates for its scholarship scheme, for studies in the relevant fields in the oil and gas sector. At the moment, the agency is in the process of selecting young Nigerians for the scheme.
Out of nowhere and in a decision that speaks of premeditated bad faith, pathetic mindset and shameless bigotry, the management of the PTDF says it will conduct interviews for its scholarship programme candidates in every other part of the country including North East and North West, but will exclude the South East due to concern for insecurity. Can anyone beat that? For good measure, an official of the agency was quoted to have said that interested South East applicants can even go to Bauchi or any other location to be interviewed, if they so desire.
Among other locations that the PTDF is comfortable with holding the interview is Kaduna, but it cannot hold an interview in Enugu. It cannot hold it in Umuahia and it cannot hold it in Abakaliki.
Technocrats and non-politician-managers of institutions in most countries provide a solid plank that sustains the foundation of the society, in the face of the corrosive and divisive tendencies often identified with politicians. The tragedy of Nigeria in recent times is that every prime public servant is now a rabid politician, more insidious than even the active politicians. Is it a surprise then that many, if not most, public institutions in the country today are enclaves of parochialism and shallowness, bereft of elevating policies with cutting edge initiatives? And Nigeria will soon go to the moon. How on earth can the management of the PTDF keep going in the face of such mendacity?
With barely a year remaining for it to complete its eight-year tenure, President Buhari’s government profile as one that has had serious challenge with managing Nigeria’s diversity, ought to be a matter that the President should try to address, the much he can, if he can. For sure, the individuals administering the PTDF at the moment will not even contemplate taking the ugly path they are presently walking in the 2022 scholarship programme process, if they strongly do that they will be called to order.
It is just sad that many Nigerians do not seem to get it yet, that the root of the pervasive fear and deepening mistrust in the society by the constituent parts of the country derive essentially from injustice and lack of liberal attitude by individuals tasked to manage what belongs to all. The leadership of the PTDF has struck one more unnecessary blow at the already weakened fabric of this abused state. It just have to reverse this repugnant decision and do the right thing, in the collective interest of all, if they see it that way.
