Last May, a state of emergency was declared in Plateau State. The governor, Chief Joshua Dariye, his deputy, the state executive council and the state assembly were all suspended from office. The state of emergency followed the ethnic violence in Shendam in which thousands of Nigerians died. The shockwaves of the Shendam killings reverberated in Kano with many more killings. Nigerians were divided on the application of the state of emergency law. Some of the arguments were based on the technicality of the constitution. Others saw state of emergency as treating the symptom instead of the disease. In all the debates, not many people gave Governor Dariye pass mark for his role in the mayhem that engulfed his state. Virtually everybody said that he acted irresponsibly in the ethnic fracas.
Of course, his supporters were busy fishing for enemies who did Dariye in. The two common targets for Dariye’s hirelings were Deputy Senate President, Dr. Ibrahim Mantu and Air Commodore David Jonah Jang. Of course that was to be expected. Nigerians never own up to their conducts and actions. When they are caught pants down, it is usually the handiwork of their detractors, political enemies, disgruntled elements and paid agents! It is never their faults. At the time the President declared the state of emergency on Plateau, one of the things he complained about was Dariye’s peripatetic proclivity. The man was never in his state when he was needed most. He was always abroad for one excuse or the other. But we all said to Obasanjo: You nko?
One would have expected that any serious governor who is in so much trouble as Dariye is would sit down and take stock. Not Dariye. To him, his suspension from office was no more than a forced holiday. It was time to gallivant all the more, and as it has turned out, to do some banking in London and go to South Korea to worship at Rev. Moon’s altar. Last week, the papers reported his arrest in London for suspected money laundering. He was said to be carrying 80 thousand pounds sterling, and had another 2 million pounds in various accounts in London. Again, Dariye’s apple polishers went to work. It was his enemies that tipped off the London Metropolitan police. They pointed fingers at imaginary enemies in Plateau State, who do not want Dariye back to office after the emergency. The fall guy once more was Deputy Senate President, Ibrahim Mantu! Even if Dariye’s travail is caused by his enemies, he seems to me like a man who enemies have conspired to kill, and who proceeds to douse himself with petrol and sit by the fire!
Look at his defence. He said he was not detained. Nobody talked about detention. He was said to have been arrested! To be arrested does not mean that you must be detained. Dariye and his spin-doctors were just playing games with words. If he was not arrested, why was he invited to the police station after the initial interview in his hotel room and why was he allowed home on bail and ordered to report again in December? It seems to me that we are about to have another case of “he was sentenced but not convicted”! Again he said he was not found with 80 thousand pounds but with 10 thousand pounds. So? What kind of denial is that? It was not a goat they found on me but a fowl! Did he declare the 10 thousand pounds at the port of entry as is mandatory? He said he was carrying the money to pay the hospital bill of a commissioner who had auto accident last year and has been receiving treatment abroad.
Many questions arise from that. Why, of all the people in the government of Plateau State, must it be the governor that would play cashier for the sick commissioner? This accident happened last year, how much has been spent on the commissioner? How long is this treatment lasting, and what is the total bill? How serious was the commissioner before he was ferried abroad? Could he not be treated at the National Hospital, Abuja?
Dariye operates an account in London, contrary to the provisions of the constitution he swore to uphold and defend. But he not only dismisses that as inconsequential, he insults the collective intelligence of Nigerians by claiming that the account had been in existence before 1999. He said it was not a big deal because he was a big shot in Benue Cement Company before he became governor! Hear him: “I have my school account. I have other accounts. As you know, I was a private person before I became governor. It is not big deal having an account abroad.” I think this man does not know what he is talking about! It is criminal by our law for a public officer (a governor is defined as one) to operate a foreign account. Period. No exception was made whether you had the account before or after becoming a public officer! And being a big man before is absolute bunkum! It is sheer bold face!
And the gentle man at the Nigerian High Commission in the UK, Mr M.S Adoli who issued a rather misleading release on behalf of Dariye, and the acting High Commissioner, Mohammed Ankah who allowed him the facilities of the High Commission to use to insult our intelligence should be recalled immediately. They have proved to be unhelpful to the Nigerian Image Project. In these days of the Internet, it speaks volumes of the intelligence of the suspended governor and his supporters to wonder how we heard the details of his arrest 30 minutes after it happened! Since they hardly understand the ways of the high-tech world, they blamed it on those determined to tarnish the image, which, as it seems, he does not have. At the end it turned out that it was a Nigerian Group, Nigerians Against Fraud, NAF, based in London, and led by Dr. Deji Afolabi, that blew the whistle on Dariye since January!
The conduct of some of the people occupying our sacred public offices in recent times is a painful reminder of how much we have demeaned public offices in Nigeria. These sad reminders always take me back to the grave consequence of fraudulent elections on public offices. Until we make a conscious and determined effort to have free, fair and credible elections, we will continue to have all manner of rascals bereft of decorum in high places. I don’t know now what the rules are pertaining to what to do with a suspended governor at the end of the emergency period. But I think it will be in the interest of everybody in Plateau State for Joshua Dariye to begin now to look for another job. May be as a moneychanger or a prayer warrior! But certainly he has a date with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission whenever he returns.
