Dirty game by Bala Ibrahim

Ordinarily I wouldn’t bother reacting to what has been trending in the social media for the past few days, but for certain factors, which have continued to point to the reality that to combat some vested interests in Nigeria, requires far more than applying the available legal and administrative frameworks. The impunity that is employed in impoverishing the public also comes handy in trying to shield the culprits from facing the law.

Without doubt, arresting corruption in Nigeria is a task that will overwhelm the most ardent believer in uprightness.

This is why the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari must be ready to face the fiercest challenge in the hands of its detractors, especially as the next general elections get closer. The battle would be ferocious and dirty.    

Despite all the spites and distractions that the President had endured from those who have always held the Nigerian economy to ransom, he seems to be coming out fairly better off. We have seen video clips of him on life support being rushed into a theater going viral last year. We have also heard some politicians declaring him incapacitated, and eventually dead. This is after the failed ridiculously scandalous campaign of “no secondary school certificate”. Of course, all these were orchestrated lies meant to damp public confidence in the government that they trust so much.  They twist his statements, attack his family, misinterpret even his gestures and try to present him in bad light.  All the same, Mr. President has survived the onslaught, and it is becoming more and more glaring to those schemers that his profile keeps rising with every negative scheme they target at him.

They have also resorted to bashing his team in order to create the impression that no one in his executive council is capable or competent in his area of operation. From the minister of information, to that of communication, works, labour and even health, no one has been spared. The sort of bile that has been spun out against the president and his men is record-breaking.  

There is no doubt that the fight against corruption is getting somewhere, and when the President recently hinted that his second coming in 2019 would put paid to the shenanigan of public treasury looters, there have been reactions indicating that efforts to stop him are being intensified.

Part of the grand plans to paint the government in bad colour is the spate of sponsored killings and the explosion of armed crimes all over the country, and as Police investigations intensify, the hidden faces behind the masks are being unveiled. This is the reason Nigeria’s Police chief must be demonized, discredited and disgraced.

The recent arrest of a serving Senator, Dino Melaye, in connection with a crime, and his failed attempt to evade the justice system through further criminal means is still playing out.

The Nigeria Police is not relenting in its effort to prosecute the accused Senator, despite the intense and ceaseless pressures from other senators. That has not died down when the Senate President, Bukola Saraki, for whatever reason, made himself an interloper in another ongoing Police investigation into series of criminal activities of a murderous gang in Kwara state. Saraki left his seat as SP to move to the floor and informed his colleagues in the Senate that the Nigeria Police transferred further investigation of the suspects to Abuja in order to implicate him. But the Police had responded swiftly by saying that such a statement by Saraki may amount to interfering with investigation, itself an offence.

Why a Senator will see the routine transfer of investigations to the Force Headquarters as an issue in this particular case beats the imagination of right thinking Nigerians. The suspects were alleged to have killed more than 10 innocent Nigerians in the recent past.  

Incidentally, Saraki’s tongue-in-cheek alarm raising came the same day a video went viral on the Nigeria cyber-space, depicting the country’s Police Chief, Ibrahim Idris as incapable of reading his speech at a public event that took place in Kano last weekend. Even though, the genuine video clip has also recently hit the cyber waves, the detractors have obviously scored a point. They have succeeded in diverting the attention of the nation from the real issue on criminal investigation to the falsehood of a doctored video clip. Much as that may have distracted the vulnerable populace, it has not derailed the Police echelon from their duty. Investigations are still ongoing, as the suspects have been moved from where they could be compromised or even permanently silenced.

It would be recalled that the Nigerian Senate is still suffering from the bashings they received from Nigerians on account of reckless resolution to declare Mr Idris as ‘Enemy of Democracy’.  Many Nigerians are not happy that the Senators are engaging the Police Chief in a battle of wits only because the Force is insisting on arraigning Mr. Melaye in court over a criminal allegation.

The Senators, less than 200 of them, who represent over 180 million Nigerians, also baffled everyone when they said they do not recognize representation. They refused to entertain the Deputy Inspector General of Police, who the Inspector General asked to represent him before the Senate. The Nigeria Police reacted to the ‘Enemy of Democracy’ declaration by saying it is a witch-hunt of their boss, a position that a lot of Nigerians share.

Now that videos are being manipulated to depict the IGP in bad light, it is obvious that he is having a taste of what President has gone through. Typical of cynical Nigerians, some are even alluding the doctored action of the IGP to sorcery. It is not unexpected for the indefatigable IGP Idris, who was an early 80’s graduate of ABU, to attract such envy, because he was naturally groomed to be ahead of such unintelligent wailers. His resilience and steadfastness is being tested, and if he stands his ground, he will surely come out better off. This is not a time to waver, as losing focus would mean that a front-liner in the administration’s defense line has been brought down. Certainly, the IGP has survived the mischief of photo-shopped naked women in his bed. It should take far more than a doctored video clip to infiltrate Mr. President’s frontline.

Mr. Ibrahim writes from Abuja.