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By Israel Momodu
It is a well investigated and proven fact in public administration and corporate governance that a subordinate cannot and should not be penalized or sanctioned for carrying out directives of his superior in any organization or government. In a situation where the successors in a leadership believe that certain actions of particular officials or an official was not in good faith, the only thing such official needs to prove his or her innocence is the evidence that such directive was given by a superior and that he or she did not act of his own volition, but in keeping with his oaths and or terms of engagement.
We may feign ignorance, but the truth is that every single Nigerian who is politically aware and who has been following the politics and conversations of politicians, especially, in the months leading to the 2023 general election, is aware that Godwin Emefiele has been a most endangered public official, not for anything else, but for abiding by the instructions and directives of his employer, the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
We know that some of the monetary and banking policies he implemented were at odds with the political programmes or campaign strategies of the eventual presidential nominee of the ruling All Progressive Congress (APC). Much as we might want to pass off President Muhammadu Buhari as a passive president, we cannot, in fairness, fail to admit that he owned up to every action of the governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and stood solidly behind him.
The Department of State Services is one agency designed as a quasi-private security operative of the president, and its current Director-General apparently knew that Tinubu was going to emerge as president and began early enough to demonstrate unwavering solidarity to him, including, sending his children to line up the big man’s Lagos campaign.
This fact, and others that should be interrogated in subsequent interventions on this matter makes it evident that Emefiele’s detention, for purported economic crime by the DSS instead of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) is nothing but a political hit job, for the President, rather than an attempt to enforce any reforms.
If there is any pretext to fighting crime or corruption, and if any act of corruption has been perpetrated, as the DSS and the Tinubu presidency would want us to believe, it would be necessary to know why those who issued the directive carried out by Emefiele are still walking free and even having a road walk in Daura?
If any act of economic sabotage had been perpetrated, the first person that should be invited to give explanations to the security agencies, and in this case, the EFCC, is former President Muhammadu Buhari. Emefiele is a mere errand boy who carried out the instructions of his employer, the President.
It is particularly dangerous that a public servant is being persecuted and scapegoated for following the rules, for being obedient to constituted authority and for acting loyally to his superiors. Those behind this act might think that they are playing politics or they are showing themselves to be in charge, but they are setting dangerous precedents, and it won’t be long before this comes haunting them.
No matter how long injustice thrives, it is my firm belief, given my years of participation in politics and activism, that justice will eventually triumph. But, I also know that all it takes for an unjust act to persist for too long, is for those who should speak, to keep quiet, either because of their loyalty to tribal or religious interests or their feeling that the person at the receiving end of that particular act of injustice does not deserve their sympathy or solidarity. What history has however shown is that despots will always come for those who played safe when acts of injustice and illegality are perpetrated.
If there is anyone who shouldn’t feel concerned about Emefiele’s travails on the basis of tribal or political affinity, I am such a person, because I am a pure-bred Yoruba man, and one of those who have voted in support of President Tinubu’s political interests, since 1999.
I campaigned vigorously, against the noise of the ‘Obidients’ in my area, and voted for the APC, but would I keep quiet or look the other way while the same person I campaigned for, on the basis of his democratic credentials and history of struggles for political sanity, is misled into taking the same actions which he condemned, merely because I am a Yoruba man or a supporter of the All Progressives Congress (APC)? God forbid!
I will urge everyone; the original ‘BATists’ like myself and all Nigerians, notwithstanding their political affiliations and interests, to stand up for the truth and demand freedom for Emefiele, and if any crime was actually committed, then, those who gave the orders should be brought to book and made to answer for such crimes.
… Momodu, a public affairs analyst, writes from Lagos
