January 13, 2024 NewsOrient
By Ikeddy ISIGUZO
Opinion/Column

SPECIAL thanks are due to Daniel Bwala, a former, ex-Atiku Abubakar aide, who told us in November 2022 that we needed series of brain re-setting to manage being Nigerians under the government in power.

As an exemplar of what he preached, Bwala, was with the All Progressives Congress, APC, then swung to the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP.

“The human brain is unique and miraculous. It works and functions optically (optimally) for 24 hrs, 365 days a year, UNTIL YOU JOIN APC, THEN IT STOPS WORKING,” Bwala tweeted on 25 November 2022.

Days ago, Bwala was back to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s side, praising Tinubu for his management of Nigeria, his anti-corruption stance and the inimitable prudence of the Tinubu administration.

Betty Edu was suspended from her plum seat at the notorious Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development over the transfer of N585 million into a private account.

A minor scandal to that revelation is the distrastrous award of an international airport, without location, to Kogi State by the Ministry’s staff who claim air tickets for official duties to the State without an airport.

Applauses are renting the air. Only N585 million seem to have been found. Head of moved over N40 billion into non-government accounts, by some accounts, to save the money from being misused.

Dr. Sadiya Umar Farouq, pioneer Minister is also accounting for over N37 billion that she allegedly laundered. She is famously remembered for feeding millions of school children at their different homes during the COVID-19 lockdown.

Her miracle, like all such mysteries, is still disputed.

Experts in corruptions believe that Edu was quickly fired to stop further discoveries that could be too more disasters for one Ministry.

The post-haste television appearance of Tunji-Ojo, Minister of Interior, to separate himself from his family, and a family company that got contracts from Edu was another damage control.

People are shouting conflict of interest. Tunji-Ojo does not see any. Will investigations spread to other Ministries or was Edu the only Minister who misread the financial manual?

Prudence in management of resources could be traced as an adjutant of anti-corruption. After our humongous delegation to COP-28 events on Dubai last December, Tinubu has cut the numbers allowed to be on presidential hops at home and abroad. As a cost saving measure that would have no meaningful impact.

Did those applauding the cut on size of delegations notice that the First Lady surfaced on the list with her own delegation which on foreign trip would be the same size as the Vice President’s?

What informed this decision?
The President cut delegation sizes but there are no indications that there is a ceiling on the number of trips, a bigger drain on national purses.

He left APC in 2022, “based on principles and conviction that I hold so dear. At this time of our national existence, our efforts and energy should gravitate towards uniting our people.” His grouse was APC’s Muslim-Muslim presidential ticket.
Bwala was spokesman of Atiki Abubakar’s presidential election for 2023. Technically, he was in PDP. We right to think along that line.

“APC is a party. President Bola Tinubu is my motivation; if supporting him will take me to APC, so be it,” Bwala said after what we should not consider a surprise visit to President Tinubu.

Identified variously as an author and lawyer, Bwala is a politician.
The human brain may not stop working. Can we say that become inhuman? Better still, not humane?

Let us not debate our being human without being humane. We have seen so much of it over time.

Bwala puts the blames back to us. Tinubu is doing well. If we do not agree with him, it could be that we are operating with different brains.

How pathetic can Bwala be? He is getting chummy with the President who is APC and he has not apologised for that tweet?

Of course, politicians say worse things about themselves. They are politicians. Abuses are banters to them.
Perhaps, they are some of the things they say about themselves.

Finally…
THE folks at BBC in the documentary on TB Joshua failed a fundamental journalism test – getting the other side of the story. The failure is so grave as the principal “other side” is gone.

Joshua was around for the years. I sympathise with the victims. It is possible that they have just found the courage or recovered well enough to deal with their trauma. Of course, there are many such stories of which the chief characters are still living.

BANKS are powerful institutions, especially where they operate without proper regulations. The authorities are not doing enough.

“The CBN assures the public of the safety and security of depositors’ funds and remains resolute in fulfilling its mandate to uphold a safe, sound, and robust financial system in Nigeria.

Our banking system remains strong and resilient,” said Hakama Sidi-Ali, Acting Director, Corporate Communication, on the sack of the boards of three banks.

Most bank customers, today, would not use banks if there are alternatives to the things they are meant to do.

Isiguzo is a major commentator on minor issues

~ NewsOrient