The Nation Newspaper

Category: Hardball

  • Posing with the president

    What’s in a picture? Plenty, if it’s about Senator Ali Modu Sheriff, a former governor of Borno State, who is in the news controversially. While a shocking allegation of terrorism sponsorship was still unresolved in his favour, he appeared in a publicised photograph sitting with President Goodluck Jonathan and President Idris Deby of Chad. Jonathan was in N’Djamena, the Chadian capital, reportedly for a meeting relating to regional security in the context of Nigeria’s anti-terror war against the Islamist guerilla force Boko Haram; and in the picture was Sheriff, who had been accused of backing the insurgents by Australian Stephen Davis, in a posture that suggested he was a participant in the discussion.

    What was Sheriff doing in the company of the two presidents on that occasion? Presidential Spokesman Reuben Abati in a statement dismissed as “spurious” the impression that Sheriff was a member of Jonathan’s entourage. He said: “In keeping with President Jonathan’s commitment to transparency and openness in the conduct of government business, names of the key members of his delegation were announced a day before his trip to N’Djamena.”

    Abati supplied a list of those he claimed officially accompanied Jonathan to Chad, saying, “As can be easily verified from the list of members of the presidential entourage to Chad which was also circulated on Sunday and never changed, Senator Sheriff’s name was not on it. The only other persons on the list were the President’s aides, security personnel and journalists.”

    Then he offered an explanation for Sheriff’s appearance, which could as well be described as an intrusion if he wasn’t listed for the trip. “Those who associate with Senator Sheriff know that he has longstanding interests in Chad and often spends a lot of his time there,” Abati said.

    Does this mean Sheriff was in N’Djamena and got to know that Jonathan was also in town, and then decided to join him in conducting presidential business without being invited to do so? Or did he impose himself on Jonathan? Was he in a position to do so? Abati conveniently played down the reality that there are those who do not “associate” with Sheriff and would not be aware of his alleged “longstanding interests in Chad” and that he “often spends a lot of his time there.”

    It is interesting to imagine how Jonathan possibly introduced Sheriff to Deby, or perhaps he needed no introduction. Furthermore, in a world that has become a global village on account of mind-boggling advances in communication technology, it is very likely that Deby must have heard of the damning terror-related allegations against Sheriff, which were publicised internationally. How did he view Jonathan’s accommodation of the accused man?

    The intriguing photo showed Sheriff in a striking pose, and it conveyed the idea that he was out to impress, possibly to send a message that he was in Jonathan’s good books. In other words, it was a poser’s picture.

    It is astonishing that the Presidency was apparently unbothered by the negative implications of not only associating publicly with such a character locally but also portraying him as a beloved partner internationally. Instead of this display of a special bond between Jonathan and Sheriff, shouldn’t the Presidency be more interested in a thorough investigation of the grave allegation of nourishing terrorists?  Just two words:  absolutely preposterous!

  • Did Jonathan learn from this teacher?

    Did Jonathan learn from this teacher?

    In the first place, his nomination to represent Bayelsa State at the National Conference had the odour of political patronage, considering his background as a former governor of the state who had been stained by the oil of corruption. Thanks to his good luck, after being convicted of money laundering and fraud which fetched him a two-year jail sentence, he was controversially pardoned by President Goodluck Jonathan who had served as his deputy in his gubernatorial years from 1999 to 2005.  So, he understandably owes Jonathan a huge debt for his rehabilitation.

    However, in his evident enthusiasm to repay Jonathan,   Diepreye  Alamieyeseigha (popularly abbreviated as Alams) often gets carried away and ends up doing a disgusting disservice to his benefactor. Again, he manifested this tendency in a recent newspaper interview. His response to a question on Jonathan’s chance of success in next year’s general elections: “Oh let me tell you, there is no President in Nigeria who has done half of what Jonathan has been able to do. Look at the transformation agenda. See the jobs he has created. Today, Nigeria is the largest economy in Africa. You know what that means?”

    If this was merely a case of super exaggeration, it could be jocularly dismissed as a classic instance of political salesmanship. But it is the kind of embellishment that stands truth on its head, which is startling because of the speaker’s apparent conviction.

    Even more astonishing, Alamieyeseigha said of Jonathan: “The man is a very humble person, unassuming, well focused and does not like to be distracted.”  This characterisation has a fictional ring, but perhaps Alams can be excused. He may indeed know the essential qualities of Jonathan, which contradict the public perception of the character.

    Then Alams dropped a clanger. He reasoned, if the process can be dignified by calling it reasoning: “Maybe he learnt from me while he was my deputy. But that seems to be working against him, for in Nigeria, people want you to showcase what you have done to prove to them that you are working. I think that is what the president needs to do more often.”

    Alams must have an unbelievable sense of worth, or self-worth, not to say that he may be conceited. If Jonathan’s unremarkable approach to governance truly reflects what he supposedly learned from Alams, then the much sought-after clue to his alleged presidential cluelessness may have been finally unwrapped. Maybe Alams deserves recognition and honour for this illumination of a mystery that has long tormented the populace.

    Only Alams, and perhaps those who learned from him, can understand the illogic of concealing the evidence of positive and socially impactful governmental effort. It is relevant to quote this piece of wisdom: “No one lights a lamp and puts it in a place where it will be hidden, or under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, so that those who come in may see the light.” In Jonathan’s case, the truth is that no one can showcase what is non-existent.

     

  • On the grave of Biafra

    Is anyone perchance feeding on the grave of ex-Biafran soldiers? In a clime where nothing is sacrosanct anymore would some morbid fellows in government exhume the better-forgotten Biafran debacle and profit by it? Hardball fears so. Why the Nigerian civil war, also known as the Biafran war, ended about 44 years ago with the war generation aging and passing away while some scars of battle remain visible and in some cases unhealed. Many compatriots from the Biafran side still feel hard done by as not much reconstruction and rehabilitation have been achieved over these years.

    In fact, most must have moved on with their lives knowing that Nigeria is a wayward entity where government is apt to provoke its citizenry to strive and contestation. Explains why government keep poking stick in the eye of the Biafran wound. If it refused to attend to the wound, dress it and in fact find out the anatomy of the wound, why rake it up after more than four decades? Yes the recent story that the federal government is paying pension to ex-Biafran soldiers reads like a hoax.

    According to the report, government has started paying pension to soldiers of the Nigerian Army who fought on the side of the secessionist Biafran army during the Nigerian civil war of 1967 to 1970. The freshly appointed chairman of the Military Pension Board (MPB), Air Commodore Mohammed Dabo told his visiting boss Musiliu Obanikoro who is the Minister of State for Defence that the MPB had enrolled 160 ex-Biafran soldiers for the payment of monthly pensions.

    Strange things happen daily in Nigeria and desperate things stranger than fiction would happen when big elections are nigh. This scheme seems so strange even a rat would smell a rat. Now the civil war ended 44 years ago; no one remembered the ex-Biafran soldiers till the year 2000 when the government of the day deigned to have pardoned the soldiers. But between then and now, nothing was heard of the hapless soldiers anymore. Then out of the blue, a very ‘magnanimous’ Goodluck Jonathan administration is suddenly paying pensions to some unknown and forgotten soldiers?

    Hardball would wager that the Nigeria Army does not have proper data of its current soldiers not to speak of those who fought in the civil war in what must se like dark ages now. A few weeks ago, Nigeria Army retirees protested in Kano, Ibadan, Taraba and Abuja over 39 months of an unpaid 20 per cent of their pension. The protest was carried out under the aegis of the Retired Army, Navy and Airforce officers’ Association. They had protested to the president in 2013 who promised to see that their outstanding was capture in the budget of 2014. Now the year is more than half way gone yet nobody cares. As you read this, those soldiers are still being owed.

    Nothing can be fishier than this ex-Biafran soldiers’ pension story. It would be nice to see the remnants of the Biafrans. It would be salutary to publish their names, addresses, local government areas, hometowns and states of origin. It would be wonderful if MPB could give Nigerians more information including the sum paid to these ex-soldiers so far. This is the only way to prove that some soulless people are not feeding on dead Biafran soldiers.

     

  • ‘O’ for obduracy and ‘S’ for satellite

    The face of Professor Seidu Mohammed is a study in institutionalised obduracy. Looking at his photograph as published in a national newspaper recently, his visage could have been a close-to-live sculptural work: impervious, invincible, unmoving and unmovable. Prof. Mohammed is the director-general of the National Space Research and Development Agency (NARSDA). Hardball cannot ascertain which party affected the other so irretrievably but here at this agency, obduracy seems to co-habit with space science.

    Now some back-grounding: sometime about mid-August, there were reports in the media that Nigeria was celebrating three years of satellite launch. If only it had ended at that, but we were further told that NARSDA planned to procure a higher resolution Synthetic Aperture Radar Satellite (SARS) in order to consolidate the nation’s ‘in-road into the space world’. SARS, it is said, is the premier sensor for detecting finer details and it is sensitive to smaller surface roughness.

    Great, but Hardball asks, what really is NARSDA celebrating after three years? It is celebrating the anniversary of the launch of two earth observation satellites – NigeriaSat-2 and NigeriaSat-X. To what end? “The satellite will enable the nation read any part of the country at any time, any day with ability to penetrate the weather. You don’t need to wait for weather. It is an earth observation,” says Felix Ale, spokesman of the agency.

    If you thought Mr. Ale was deliberately playing the obfuscation poker or is being swept away by his agency’s strong tide of obduracy, let us hear it from his boss, the professor: “We are today celebrating the third anniversary of the launching of NigerSat-X, the most complicated and the most advanced engineering project ever done by Nigerian engineers and scientists.

    “It is something that we are very proud of, and we believe that the ability to create wealth today and all the time depends on the efforts we make here and being home to over 400 engineers and scientists, we remain a major constituency in Nigeria where we can do intervention and the problem of industries in creating solutions to problems and developing national food security and areas of need.

    “In the last three years, through the two satellites, we have done major interventions. First, we made available images to over 18 universities… That has supported several universities in their research endeavors… our satellite was part of the efforts to recover the missing Malaysian plane. Our satellite was also part of the mapping in the Amazonia basin and part of the campaign over the desert in Saudi Arabia and several other international disasters across the world.” Wow, what an odyssey of interventions.

    Hardball was under the delusion that Afghanistanism was the franchise of journalists but these folks at NARSDA have run wild afield with the ball. Of course by now, you must have gone Chiboky like Hardball, isn’t it? So why is this wonder toy not sighting our girls? Professor: “I have said it before and we are still saying it, issues of security are important to us. We are patriotic enough. For most of you who are conversant with the activities of our agency, we have a 25-year strategic roadmap for the development of space science…”

    You sure must have heard and had enough of this extra-terrestrial mumbo-jumbo to last you a lifetime? We tried to warn you that when obduracy collides with Nigeria’s satellite the result can be harmful to the mind. Accept my sympathy dear reader.

  • Ikimi believes he can fly

    Ikimi believes he can fly

    Grandiose delusions (GD) come in various forms. A recent manifestation came during a publicised meeting between Chief Tom Ikimi, a prominent chameleonic politician, and some leaders of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). The venue was Ikimi’s residence in Abuja and the party was represented by its National Chairman, Adamu Muazu; the Chairman of its Board of Trustees, Chief Tony Anenih; and some others.

    The background: Ikimi had just pulled out of the All Progressives Congress (APC) following his failed ambition to be the chairman of the opposition party. His disappointment was perhaps understandable, especially given the visible cementing role he was given in the merger talks that led to the emergence of the APC from the dissolution of certain parties. But, of course, this could not have meant that the position of party chairman would automatically go to him. Indeed, if he had calculated, as it seems he did, that he had the title in the bag because of his participation in the fusion negotiations, then it would mean that he had been living in dreamland.

    His expressed bitterness was revealing. Suddenly, the APC was no longer worthy of his interest, except as a target of barbs. In a spectacular somersault in the context of exploring a return to the PDP, Ikimi described the APC as “anti-nationalistic” and accused it of “discriminatory tendencies.”  Then he got strikingly enthusiastic and said to the visitors: “I look forward to bringing value to the PDP. I believe that my contributions will again be noteworthy. By my joining PDP, we are assured of victory not only in Edo State but in the entire Southsouth geo-political zone.” This is the kind of dreaminess that accompanies GD.

    It is unsurprising that he got carried away in his excitement. He said: “I believe that our people are looking forward to this reunion because they will benefit the most from it. When I and Chief Anenih work together, I do not think we can have any obstacle we cannot overcome.” It goes without saying that this idea of invincibility could only have come from GD.

    Interestingly, on this occasion the remarks by Muazu in particular reinforced the delusional quality of the atmosphere. It was a time to encourage a feel-good mood, even if it meant an ugly distortion of reality. Muazu said the PDP would benefit from Ikimi’s “wealth of experience, strong political structure and massive followership across the country.”  To go by his words, it would appear that either he was ignorant of the meanings of the words, or the words had lost their meanings.

    By interpretation, the Abuja meeting was possibly a dress rehearsal for Ikimi’s formal re-entry into the PDP, which he has a right to pursue. It is just that both sides, the host and the visitors, seemed to be engaged in a charade; and probably the most entertaining aspect of the show was their apparent thinking that the public must take them seriously. For laughableness, Ikimi’s flip-flop scores a high mark, as much as his self-delusion.

  • Chime and his ‘chicks’

    It’s an old trick, and a dishonourable one at that. When a state governor, usually for political reasons, makes up his mind to dump his deputy, he gets supine supporters in the House of Assembly to do the dirty job for him, often without respect for the spirit of the law. The dramatic impeachment and removal of the former deputy governor of Enugu State, Sunday Onyebuchi, faithfully followed this familiar script.

    Shamelessly, Governor Sullivan Chime gloated over Onyebuchi’s stage-managed fall in undisguised pleasure, hinting at his surreptitious supervision of the process. The September 1 inauguration of the new deputy governor, Rev. Raphael Ifeanyichukwu Nwoye, saw Chime in a suspiciously merry mood.

    He said on the occasion: “Drawing the analogy of a broken down vehicle, we have just replaced a bad spark plug. The vehicle is repaired and the journey will be smooth again.” Chime described Nwoye in flattering words, and said he was “not just a minister of God” but also “a fine gentleman.” Referring to the dark and desperately pugnacious sequence of events that culminated in Onyebuchi’s ouster, Chime said: “What has happened has happened and I believe it happened in the best interest of Enugu State and not only the government.”

    What happened? Onyebuchi lost his position on grounds that were as slippery as they were scandalous and saddening. There were two allegations against him: first, that he maintained a poultry farm in his official residence contrary to a resolution of the House prohibiting the maintenance of and operation of commercial livestock and poultry farms within residential neighbourhoods in Enugu city; second, that he defied the governor’s directive to represent him at functions.

    Onyebuchi’s defence that he met the said poultry farm when he moved into the official residence was considered impotent. Interestingly, he alleged that the governor similarly operated a poultry farm, a larger one at that, within his official residence. He also said of the governor: “I did not receive instructions from him personally, by phone or in writing asking me to represent him at the meeting of the South East Governors Forum that took place in Enugu on July 6, 2014.” He listed various other functions where he had represented Chime after this date.

    However, in the apparently unwise wisdom of the House, Onyebuchi was guilty of “gross misconduct”, the only constitutionally defined context in which a governor or his deputy could be removed from office. In the mystifying opinion of the possibly lawless lawmakers, he deserved to be removed as deputy governor. Indeed, the interpretation given to the phrase “gross misconduct” in this case must be based on the legislators’ exclusive understanding, which reasonable members of the public cannot comprehend.

    Ironically, the House itself appeared to be guilty of “gross misconduct” in the handling of this matter. The question is: who will impeach the lawmakers and effect their removal? To employ poultry imagery, it would seem that the House members behaved like chicks, meaning immaturely. What of Chime who was excited about the charade? Perhaps he too deserves impeachment and should be kicked out for his subtle and sly support for the legislators who stood the country’s constitution on its head, which may be classified as “gross misconduct.”

     

     

     

     

  • Jonathan’s subsidy sobs

    When our amiable President Goodluck Jonathan mounts the podium to tackle some knotty Nigerian situations; particularly such ‘inspired’ moments when he speaks off the cuff, you are bound to recoil in your seat and expect the worst. Depending on whom you are and where you lean, you either laugh, cry or simply punch the air in frustration. But react you must after listening to our president.

    Now how did you, fellow Nigerian, react when you heard President Jonathan say recently that 60 per cent of fuel subsidy funds are smuggled abroad? He said this at the unveiling of the first phase of the national identity card scheme. Let us hear it from the horse’s mouth:

    “I’m particularly pleased with the National Identity Management Commission because a number of things we are supposed to do well as a nation, we are not doing well. And sometimes we blame the government because of the failure of the system and the credibility of the process.

    “If you take the issue of subsidy of transport; what we do is subsidising hydrocarbon, it does not go to the ordinary people. Government spends huge sums of money, hundreds of billions of naira every year in the budget, ask the National Assembly.

    “Sometimes it is controversial subsidising kerosene; yet, it is going very high in the market, subsidising PMS and so on.

    “We are thinking about how to subsidise the transportation system such as the person going to school, the person going to the market, the person moving from Lagos to Enugu or Lagos to Kano and not paying subsidy 60 per cent of which will be smuggled out of the country.

    “And those who make the money will come and use that money to induce the people suffering to even riot agaHardinst government.”

    Because not all of us are gifted with that rare facility of ex-tempo public speaking, Hardball always admonishes public officials to stick to prepared speeches. That never fails; you just reel it out or even chew up your paper if you will, but you would have read your speech at the end of the day. But most important, you would have saved yourself a worse fate of shoving your foot in your mouth. That of course would be utterly un-presidential. This is what has happened at this ID card event and had happened to our president several times before.

    However, this idiotic and peculiarly Nigerian fuel subsidy debate has been with us for more than three decades. It is expected that President Jonathan would better understand the entire dynamics of it having been ‘this and that’ over the years. It is even expected that with his experience, he would have an instant antidote to the monster upon becoming number one. Yet subsidy remains an albatross even to Jonathan.

    Today he sobs that he pays out hundreds of billions to ‘fraudulent’ Nigerians in the guise of ‘subsidy’. They simply ship the money abroad and turn around to make trouble with his government. Well folly has its repercussions, doesn’t it? But Hardball in his magnanimity would love to rescue Mr. President here with this little tip on how to ‘kill’  ‘subsidy enemies’: build and concession refineries with the subsidy billions and pronto, your ‘enemies’ will become history and you will in turn make history. Simplicita.

     

     

  • Truth Jonathan’s fans won’t tell him

    If there was any doubt about the circle of sycophancy that surrounds President Goodluck Jonathan, which may eventually strangulate him like a noose, the reported secret remarks by Diepreye Alamieyeseigha (popularly abbreviated as Alams), a former governor of Bayelsa State, present sufficient evidence that he lives in a gilded cage. The background is this: Alams, in an interview with New Telegraph,spoke about the discord between Jonathan and Rotimi Amaechi, the Rivers State governor, which culminated in Amaechi’s exit from the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). Alams, ostensibly playing the role of peacemaker, came up with his own solution to the problem, saying that Amaechi who is now a member of the All Progressives Congress (APC) should “retrace his steps, beg President Goodluck Jonathan and return to PDP.” Alamieyeseigha’s words: “I think there is no problem between Amaechi and Jonathan. I think Amaechi should be humble enough to go to the President and say ‘I am sorry’, because he has no place to go. A child that is not respectful will also not deserve respect from anyone. I have spoken to both of them.”

    He continued: “Jonathan has no issues. The President of Nigeria is very powerful. I even told Amaechi that the first entity you cannot fight is Almighty God and the second entity is the government (President Jonathan). No matter how you interpret it, nobody can fight the government (Jonathan) successfully…Rivers State will never be surrendered to the All Progressives Congress (APC).”

    It is easy to see that his choice of words reflects nauseating obsequiousness, which he is perfectly entitled to; and this is understandable given that he owes Jonathan, who was his deputy in his gubernatorial years, a huge debt of gratitude for his rehabilitation. Hardball remembers that Alams was convicted of money laundering and corruption and got a two-year jail sentence, but was later pardoned by Jonathan who controversially used his presidential powers to apparently wash him clean. Against this backdrop, Alams may be pardoned for imagining that Jonathan is invincible; but that is exactly what it is – imagined invincibility. Furthermore, it was the height of childishness for Alams to liken Amaechi to a child. Now, listen to Amaechi’s reply through his Chief Press Secretary, David Iyofor: “It is true that Amaechi does not have any personal issue with the President. And yes, when Alamieyeseigha came to the governor to discuss this issue, he said there was not much problem between the president and the governor, but he was not bold enough to say in that interview what he told the governor the problem was.”

    So, what was the problem as Alams saw it? Iyofor’s statement said: “He told Amaechi that he cannot understand why Mr. President cannot rein in, control or manage his wife. For him to say something else is, indeed, most cowardly and timid.”

    It should be considered charitable that Alams was described as “cowardly and timid”. Perhaps it would be useful to do a word search for a less generous description for a man who exhibits such two-faced and double—tongued character. With creatures like Alams around Jonathan, who will speak truth to power?

  • Wetin DPR dey do sef?

    For the uninitiated, DPR stands for the Department of Petroleum Resources. It is one of the numerous units, departments and subsidiaries of Nigeria’s shambolic petroleum sector that has become a shadow of itself.

    To make a bad case worse and in the awkward and cunning manner of Nigeria’s oil bureaucrats, DPR is deliberately a misnomer. Why is the chief monitoring arm of Nigeria’s oil sector tagged Department of Petroleum Resources instead of Department of Petroleum Monitoring?

    Well DPR may be ambiguous but its name is not really its bane; this most important department in Nigeria’s oil mix has simply gone south, the way of most government businesses in Nigeria. In its heyday and in our saner era, DPR was an institution dreaded and revered at once in the industry. It was always headed by Nigerians of steel and professional integrity and when they spoke, Nigerians listened. Today, Hardball confesses that he does not know the head of DPR and whoever he might be must be happier being Mr. Anonymous.

     Those days, we were comforted knowing that there was a DPR watching over our oil assets. Today, you can’t vouch there is DPR and you never know what it does. In fact, Nigeria’s oil and gas industry could be said to have stumbled fatally upon the demise of DPR. Today, Nigerians hear about DPR when they announce that they have shut one hapless fuel station or the other. Today, DPR can safely be called the Department of Dispensing Stations. Sadly, in spite of its inane exertions pursuing poor petrol attendants, to find a ‘true’ petrol dispenser in Nigeria is akin to finding a virgin in a maternity ward.

    The most telling indictment of the DPR today is the refrain across the country that Nigeria does not know the quantity of crude oil it produces. Everyone says that the DPR does not have modern or adequate meters to carry out that basic but albeit, crucial task. Nigeria’s oil industry is in such state that we are in the age of brazen oil theft. Nigeria is today like a banana republic that cannot guard and monitor its strategic asset; brigands from all over the world simply converge on the Niger Delta to ‘take’ oil. That is the impression out there. This indictment has gone on for many years but DPR never deemed it fit to respond; prove or disprove this ‘street talk’. Apparently, it could not be bothered and in the manner of most government agencies, it does not owe Nigerians any explanation about its operations; in fact, the less Nigerians know about our oil(y) business, the better it seems for DPR.

    Hardball was, however, jolted when it came out that DPR is actually worried about misconceptions of its functions by the public. In media reports, we learnt that DPR held a stakeholders’ parley in Lagos where it was revealed that it faced challenges bordering on under-staffing, under-funding, lack of working tools and public misconception of its functions, to name a few. In spite of this, DPR insists, it remains committed to its key functions of monitoring all petroleum industry operations or activities being carried out under licences and leases in the country… Well, now that Hardball is wiser, it is safe to reverse oneself and ask: wetin DPR no dey do sef, abi?

  • Okonjo-Iweala, TAN and decency

    Okonjo-Iweala, TAN and decency

    In the not-a-rally that was a rally organised under the non-campaign name that was political, the minister of finance who parades herself under the new-minted title of coordinating minister of the economy showed herself in the front row. The ex-IMF, ex-World Bank virtuoso who should understand the ethical implications of high and sensitive offices, should understand that she should not be seen in such gatherings. No less flaunting her pro-Jonathan bona fides.

    Her position is a lofty one, in case she does not realise it. She is, in a manner of speaking, President Jonathan’s first minister. What it means is that she should maintain a high and disinterested aloofness from all things partisan. Her position should not be tarred with the narrow and partisan brush of a parochial loyalty as she exhibited in the Transformation Ambassadors of Nigeria rally that took place last week in Port Harcourt.

    She was there in the full PDP colours, and she was engaged in all the festive vanities of joy and celebration and campaigns for the president’s reelection bid.

    She is one of those Nigerians who have had the opportunities to serve in the high places of the world, enjoyed the perks and aura of the dignitaries of the top nations of the world and contributed as a savvy and cultured member of that elite sanctum. Yet she returned to Nigeria as innocent of the polish of a civilised world. This is not the first time Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala has exhibited such gusto in the public space in a campaign. In 2011 campaign, she also materialised on the hustings in Abuja and danced and sang as a party faithful.

    Her positon is sensitive for a variety of reasons. Chiefly among them is that she holds the nation’s treasury, and that means questions will always stir as to whether she took part in the funding of the activities either directly or obliquely. She is the fulcrum of budgets every year, from planning, to approvals to execution. That shows that her role is, principally, technocratic, and her finger touches the pulse of every Nigerian either fervently or remotely.

    Whether it is the transactions of the nation’s main pot, the NNPC, or the doings of international transactions, even to the point that the Central Bank of Nigeria, for all its independence, cannot operate without interacting with the minister of finance.

    That is a weighty responsibility, and that explains why her counterpart in the United States, whose system we have adopted, did not attend the last Democratic Convention in Charlotte, N.C. in 2012. In fact, Tim Geithner has followed a long tradition of the United States in which the treasury secretary does not only not attend conventions or rallies. He does not make political statements. Money, as they say, is the mother’s milk of politics. Hence treasury secretaries stay away.

    The high office is not there for politics but governance, and to main the cathedral poise and dignity of the institutions on behalf of the people. If Okonjo-Iweala did not know that, she should now. She should understand that her roles in TAN or any other political campaigns frown against the decency and dignity of her office.