|
New Page 12
Joshua Dariye as game
ANDY IKE EZEANI
Poor Joshua
Dariye! He has become the poster boy of all that is bad and condemnable in
Nigeria’s troubled public space. Going by recent media celebration of his
problems and alleged misdeeds, this Joshua must be terrible, so much so that he
presently stands head and shoulder above every other player on the prevailing
substantially putrid political arena. Or so the picture presents.
The lot of Joshua Dariye is most perilous
at the moment. From varied but apparently well choreographed angles, landmines
set on the path of this 47 year old man are being detonated with professional
precision and clear intent. The strategy seems quite clear; if he dodges one
explosive, the next one will trap him. And if the next one misses, the one after
that cannot. A man cannot be more embattled. And poor Dariye is so hamstrung
that he neither has a potent column to fight for him nor can he put one together
now.
At one stretch, this one man, governor of
Plateau State up till last May had his crown removed from his head in a still
constitutionally contentious strike by the government at the center in a
"federal" Nigeria.Nuhu Ribadu’s Economic and Financial Crimes Commission(EFCC)
soon weighed in with a declaration of intent to probe Dariye’s alleged economic
misdeeds. Not to be left behind, the Code of Conduct Bureau, so lame and so tame
through the years jumped on the man too. The chairman of the Bureau has
threatened to issue a bench warrant for Dariye unless he makes himself available
before October 6 to answer charges of his operating foreign bank accounts while
in office as governor of Plateau State. To keep such an account while in public
office runs counter to the laws of the land, the Bureau reminds us.
As if the local regiment is not capable of
finishing the target, the assault has acquired or been made to acquire an
international dimension. Hapless Dariye is now having a series of what is
euphemistically called ‘discussions’ with the Metropolitan Police in far away
London. The very kernel of the offence has on its own become a subject of
disputations and multiple interpretations. Gushing media reports insist however,
that the offense is grievious, whatever it turns out to be. According to the
initial presentation of this charge, Dariye is faced with charges of money
laundering.
The meat of the story and the source of
disputations between anti-Dariye and pro-Dariye sides are two prongs.First,
800,000 British pounds were found on him in London and two million pounds were
located in his account in the same city. It is not true says the Dariye side,
all what he had was 10,000 pounds sterling and that was even to settle the
medical bill of a former lieutenant. The second contentious point which was
published in the newspapers was that the governor was arrested by the
Metropolitan Police and taken in for interrogation. Not so, countered the Dariye
side, he went on his own to the Metropolitan Police, having been invited to come
and explain few things. That is a civilized society, don’t forget.
The other media report, obviously fed in
by the rampaging anti-Dariye side is that the man may not even be free to leave
the territories of Britain for now even if he desires to do so. Put succinctly,
Joshua Dariye is under one form detension or another in Britain. Again not true,
says another story, the man is already in Korea on a spiritual retreat. Sooner
or later what exactly Dariye did or did not do will become clear. If he returns
very soon, it will become glaring that he remains a free man. Because there does
not seem to be any basis for the British police to sign on to the determined
anti-Dariye column in Nigeria, their invitation to the man, one way or another,
confirms for sure that the yet-to- be former governor had things to explain.
Such chats as they are euphemistically called neither confirm nor expel guilt,
though.
Luckily for Joshua, unlike on the home
turf where his nemeses are firmly anchored and where he must be apprehensive of
getting justice now, the Metropolitan Police in London or any other institution
over there will have no cause to seek to do him in. In other words, the verdict
on his hazy case in London will settle one aspect of this confusion over what he
did or has not done.
What has Joshua Dariye done to merit this
intensity and extent of onslaught? Is he truly the worst of the bad lot?
There is no relationship whatsoever or any
attachment over here to Joshua Dariye as to be concerned about what his fate
becomes in his present travails. If he is guilty as charged, let his misdeeds
catch up with him. There is, however, a characteristic dose of Nigerian
hypocrisy in this Dariye frenzy which is disgusting. Characteristically too, the
media is not asking any profound questions. Joshua Dariye is down, so why not
march on him too? After all every body is doing so at the moment. That is always
the posture.
Where does the ruling Peoples Democratic
Party (PDP) come into this mess? Of course, its officials are now in the fore
front of honest Nigerians dismayed by what must be a sudden transformation of
Dariye for the worse. Is not this the same Joshua Dariye that PDP so recently
nominated and ensured his return for second term in the expedition they called
election barely a year ago? What was the profile and record of the man they
endorsed and saw through then, inspite of the vehement opposition of various
interests in Plateau State? Has Dariye just committed any of the said offences
for which he is now being hounded? Among Dariye’s offence according to media
reports is President Olusegun Obasanjo charge that the man travels out of the
country frequently. Poor Joshua.
The Code of Conduct Bureau woke up in late
2004, after Dariye’s crown has been seized from him, to discover that the man
had a foreign bank account while in office. That was an office he has held for
five year. Please! Why can’t Nigerians with their leaders show restraint in
their manifestation of insincerity and bare faced duplicity? Dariye has a
foreign account. Big deal! Who does not have in his league? The other governors
and ministers and prime office holders who are buying up properties in Europe
and America as if Nigeria is about to be wiped out of the face of the earth what
do they operate? Local bank accounts eh? It does seem though, that the offense
is in operating a foreign bank account and not in carting away Nigeria’s
resources and spending them in foreign lands, right? Let Joshua go down if he
must, but let no one assault anybody’s intelligence with this farce that the
next prime office holder today is any different or any better than the man from
Bokkos Local Government Area..
The Dariye matter is following a Nigerian
pattern. Call it the theory of Sani Abacha’s sin. In its simple summation, this
theory holds that the only bad and corrupt Nigerian public office holder is the
dead one or to an extent the one that falls precipitously. That is to say, every
man standing is without sin and guilt. By his death Abacha became the most
corrupt man Nigeria has ever seen. Yet the billions of dollars in Europe and
America today which were taken out of Nigeria’s common purse are not being kept
in trust for Sani Abacha.And more is being taken away. May be Abacha is still
looting our treasury from the great beyond.
For sure, Dariye took positions that made
him powerful enemies both in Plateau State and in the larger northern region.
Part of his problem is religious. Clearly. Part of it is ethnic. The other chunk
it seems derives from his stubbornness. Like most others of his colleague
governors, he did not of course, have any impressive job performance that can
convincing speak for him.
The end of the crisis in Plateau state is
not in Dariye’s disgrace and rustication. His bitter opponents may have
vanquished him, but the problems remain as potent still. These are the
fundamental problems that dog all of the Nigerian state; who is an indigene and
who is a resident? Do people have right of self determination? How much access
to power and decision making are open to all citizens within a particular area?
How fairly are resources allocated in the society? Do elections or selection of
leaders represent the preference of the majority? And not the least, what is to
be done with individuals who have taken so much out of the public purse that
they invariably become nuisance to the society? These are the issues not dealing
with Joshua Dariye.The sooner these are trashed out the better for all. But then
Dariye is down and virtually out.And Nigeria is unsparing of a fall guy. Such is
the present lot of Joshua, who is now the only sinner in town.
|
