Last month, South Korean Prime Minister Chung Hong-won announced his resignation over the government's response to a ferry disaster which claimed hundreds of lives because the government had first announced that everyone had been rescued. In a brief announcement, Chung said, "Keeping my post is too great a burden on the administration. …On behalf of the government, I apologise for many problems from the prevention of the accident to the early handling of the disaster.” Chung's resignation was approved by President Park Geun-hye but he was to remain in the post until the rescue operation was completed
.jpg)
On April 14, 2014, terrorists invaded a girls’ secondary school in Borno State Nigeria and abducted the students. Some students escaped but about 276 girls are still missing three weeks later. The day after the kidnap, Nigeria's Ministry of Defence released a statement saying soldiers had rescued all but eight of the girls. When the school's principal denied it, the ministry withdrew the statement.
Do you see any similarities between the events related above? In both cases government announced that rescue operation had been successful only to retract the claim later. But that is where the similarity ends. While in South Korea, the Prime Minister announced his resignation after the blunder, in Nigeria, we are still waiting for a conscientious government official to resign due to the mishandling of the abduction case and even many other cases. But instead what our leaders have been trying to do is to create an impression that they are on top of the situation. In fact, we were treated to some comic relief when the country’s first lady burst into tears on national television.
The reality is that what happened in South Korea can never happen in Nigeria where we do not have a culture of preserving the integrity of political posts but instead we are usually bent on desecrating whatever office we occupy. In Nigeria, leaders prefer to lose their lives to stepping down from their position. Resignation from whatever position you occupy is not even considered hara-kiri (which is honourable) but a shameful act. One major reason our leaders will never resign their position is because they feel they are doing us a favour by agreeing to lead us. They treat us as if without them, we would never achieve anything as a nation. In fact, they carry on as if leading us is an inconvenience they have graciously accepted to suffer in order to make our lives better. Phew!
I decided to do a search on some political resignations in other climes and I saw that in these climes, when your reputation or competence is being called into question, you are expected to step down from whatever office you are holding. To them that is the most honourable thing to do. Below are some of the cases I found out. You will find out that some of the reasons for resignation like infidelity, public outcry, etc. are ‘laughable’ and ‘unimaginable’ based on our own standards in Nigeria.
In 2004, after being dogged by heavy criticism over questionable intelligence on Iraq and terrorism since the September 11, 2001 attacks, George Tenet resigned as the director of the CIA.
In 2005, Lewis Libby, chief-of-staff to Dick Cheney, Vice-President of George W. Bush resigned after being charged with perjury over an investigation into the unmasking of a covert CIA agent.
In 2006, U.S. Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld resigned as Defense Secretary when calls for his resignation became strong. He had been accused of "abysmal" military planning and lack of strategic competence.
In 2008, New York Governor Eliot Spitzer resigned, after being linked to a prostitution ring and he apologised for not living up to the standards he demanded of others.
Also in 2008, Italian Prime Minister, Romano Prodi, resigned after being defeated in a vote of confidence in the upper house of parliament.
In 2012, CIA director David Petraeus resigned from his post, admitting he had an extramarital affair. He described his behaviour as "unacceptable" for the leader of the nation's main intelligence agency.
In 2012, Germany's President, Christian Wulff, announced his resignation following a series of scandals that prompted calls for him to step down.
In 2012, four State Department officials were disciplined in the wake of a review of the security failures that led to the deaths of four Americans at the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, a department spokeswoman said Wednesday.
In 2013, Steve Miller, the head of the US tax agency, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) quit after it emerged his staff singled out conservative groups for extra scrutiny.
In 2014, Barry O'Farrell, Premier of New South Wales, Australia's most populous state announced his resignation after it was revealed that he failed to declare a gift of $2,800 wine from businessman Nick Di Girolamo, whose company, Australia Water Holdings, is being investigated by the New South Wales corruption body.
Compare the foregoing stories with the ones below:
In 2013, Stella Oduah, former Nigeria’s former Minister of Aviation was indicted for approving the purchase of two bulletproof BMW cars at an allegedly inflated rate of N255m. This development sparked a public outcry in the country with vociferous calls for her to be sacked. But this did not happen and it never occurred to her to resign her post, even after it was discovered that the Master’s degree she claimed to have received from a US college was fake. It was only months later that the president asked her to go with some other ministers.
Nigeria’s Petroleum Minister, Diezani Madueke is currently being investigated for allegedly spending N10bn to charter private jets for two years. And instead of resigning, the minister went to court to stop the investigation. What kind of nation are we in?
Earlier this year, the suspended Governor of Nigeria’s Central Bank, Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, made a startling revelation that $20 billion dollars were missing from the Nigerian National Petroleum Company. Nigerians were expecting the president to query the Minister of Petroleum and some other personalities involved in the scandal but what the president did was to suspend the whistleblower. In a saner society, a gale of resignations would have followed the revelation but not so in my dear country. It was even reported that the president said, “The press overplayed the petroleum scandals to get at the minister…” Haba!
Also in this same year, the Nigeria Immigration Service carried out a tragic recruitment exercise which claimed the lives of more than 10 human beings and nobody has been punished. The Minister of Interior whose Ministry conducted the exercise has not resigned and has not been sacked.
The instances given above are just a few of some things that are wrong in our land. The abducted Chibok girls are still missing after three weeks. It does not look like the government will find and rescue them anytime soon. Yet, no one has been sacked. No one has resigned. Instead government is arresting those who are calling for the girls to be rescued through the #BringBackOurGirls campaign.
No comments:
Post a Comment