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During our growing up years, we were used to hearing stories of John Wayne or Cowboy, who performed impossible stunts in movies (we called it cinema). Some of us adopted that as a nickname. Some answered John Wayne while others simply chose Cowboy.
I thought I had become old and prepared my mind for the Senior Citizen mentality until last week when I realised I am not too old to reenact youthful memories even if the agility is no longer as it used to be.
Thanks to Hon. Tony Nwulu’s Not Too Young to Rule bill that made a case for younger politicians. However, experience has shown that Nwulu did not factor so many things into that bill.
Yes, I agree wholly that our youths should be given a chance in governance but I have also concluded that those that got that chance were not good ambassadors for the youths. I hope you don’t expect me to tell you some of them; you know them – from Kano to Ogun. They were mere juveniles and muddled up issues.
Anyway, youthful Alhaji Yahaya Adoza Bello, who became the youngest governor in Nigeria by a curious twist of destiny, is a typical example. He is trending now not just because of his gross misgovernance of Kogi State but also his recent John Wayne display that made me nostalgic.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, went on a hunt for Bello, popularly called the ‘White Lion’, to get him to answer for his alleged involvement in an over N80 billion fraud during his eight-year tenure as Kogi State governor that ended in February. Frightened, Bello bolted and hid in his Abuja home, resulting in EFCC besieging the house.
Barely few months ago, Bello was omnipotent. The likes of Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan tasted his bile. The Kogi landscape quaked whenever the lion roared. He swaggered the earth like a colossus and because he wore the ill-fitting garment of constitutional iniquity, sorry, immunity, he rode roughshod until disrespectful, wicked time caught up with him.
Bello wished he was the biblical Joshua who froze time so as to be able to accomplish his conquest of his enemies. No other human had done that. Moreover, Bello did not believe in the God of Joshua. He seemed not to believe in any God; he was a god himself and did whatever he liked, as long as he wore that garment of iniquity. Oh, no; why do I mistake immunity for iniquity?
Anyway, that is an iniquitous provision in the country’s constitution that empowered powerful people to commit all manner of atrocities and get away with it. the other one is called security votes, which allocates huge sums of money to them to use as they like; they are never accounted for.
That made him a tin god; not just him but many of them that were inebriated by power. When they get to power, nothing else matters. The commonwealth becomes theirs and their cronies’. They drive in motorcades, throwing wads of naira notes in the air or arranging a few bags of rice for the people to scramble for and die in the ensuing stampede. The famished citizens swarm the streets in scanty dresses, often made to hail and defend their oppressors for whom life has become an unbridled raucous binge and elongated curvaceous Lolitas while statecraft suffers.
So, it was only when EFCC came and laid siege to his home, trapping him like a rabbit that Bello realised he was a god with clay feet now melting. He realised that his garment of iniquity had disappeared. He realised that he was human after all like everyone else. His faint heart failed him. But some spirit reminded him that he was a youth, not too young for juvenile cowboy stunts. Though the garment of iniquity had been taken away from him, he still had it.
So, Bello picked up his phone and called his ‘boy’ to whom he had bequeathed the garment. He was also alleged to have smartly created the office of the former governor; just imagine!
“Come to my house right now,” Bello bellowed. “Bring the garment of iniquity with you.”
So, Governor Ahmed Usman Ododo, the man Bello installed in office came with the paraphernalia of his office, backed up by a convoy of armed security operatives, wearing ‘Special Forces’ insignia. They stormed the home of the ‘White Lion’, and whisked him out of the EFCC siege amidst blazing gunfire.
Thankfully, the EFCC operatives restrained themselves; otherwise, there would have been a bloody collision.
Quite ingenious, youthful, and creative; isn’t it? Call it youth power; call it anything but Bello has escaped. What the garment of iniquity cannot be used to do does not exist. It can desecrate the laws of the land and heaven will not fall. This is Nigeria.
The drama is still on, as the EFCC has declared Bello wanted. This is unheard of; a ‘whole’ ex-governor in Nigeria declared wanted. What must be wrong with this new boy at EFCC; Kayode? Mr. Kay no fear anyone o!
Credit must go to President Bola Tinubu for refusing to interfere.
However, was it necessary to dramatise the Bello arrest? Was it that difficult for EFCC to arrest him? Is there a script being acted upon that the public does not know?
While Mr. Debo Adeniran, the Executive Chairman of the Coalition of Anti-Corruption Civil Society Organisations, CACSO, has urged the EFCC to ensure strict compliance with the law, Human Rights attorney, Deji Ajare, in a letter to the Speaker of the Kogi State House of Assembly, urged the House to initiate impeachment proceedings against Ododo because of his alleged constitutional breaches and gross misconduct.
Also, Prince Lateef Fagbemi, SAN, the Minister of Justice and Attorney-General of the Federation, expressed displeasure with the obstruction of the course of justice, saying it was “insufferably disquieting’’.
Why the EFCC has failed to track and arrest Bello remains a mystery. Even contemplating enlisting the military in the task makes it more so. Is Bello above the law? Is this an action film in which he is cast as John Wayne. Is the White Lion still roaring even after leaving office? But what is difficult for one to render an account of stewardship; why rush to court to obtain orders to halt that if you have nothing to hide?
This absurdly explains why governors insist on foisting stooges as successors; somebody they could trust to cover up their crimes. Bello certainly did a good job there by installing his relative as successor, who was able to break barriers for him in dire times.
Looking at the delicious policewoman assigned to Bello as a bodyguard, the White Lion evidently knew how to pamper himself. All that is gone now anyway, as Bello is on the run and the pretty cop alongside others is in detention for allegedly aiding Bello’s escape.
One gets a kick out of meditating on this country. Nigeria is indeed a hilarious nation right from the day Flora Shaw suggested the name to Frederick Lugard after a night’s love hangover. The country has continued to tumble downhill but for the humour, the fragile string holding it together would have since snapped.
Anyway, we are a hopeful people, always hoping for the best out of our helplessness. Even the upsurge of the naira without corroborative evidence of production has brought us much hope though threatened by electricity tariff and yet no light. We hope that when the holiday is over, the new forex spike would not give us a heart attack.
However, let the entertainment continue; the White Lion of Kogi is cast as John Wayne. He has not been caged yet; nobody knows how the next episode will swing.
