Incident of Particular Concern

VIEW FROM THE GALLERY BY MAHMUD JEGA

The altercation that took place at Gaduwa Estate in Abuja on Tuesday last week was a public relations disaster for the otherwise hardworking Federal Capital Territory Administration and its rambunctious, fast-talking, shoot from the hip, devil may care, leap before you look minister, Nyesom Wike. No wonder that, for a whole week when the hyperactive Nigerian social media scene was buzzing with nothing else but the Wike-Yerima melodrama, the Tinubu Administration’s rapid-fire media team, with several Special Advisers and many Special Assistants, did not say a word. Presidency, when one of your most prized ministers is being ridiculed and assailed on the mainstream and social media, will you keep quiet?

I am thinking back at similar public relations disasters for previous Nigerian administrations. For the Obasanjo military regime of the 1970s, the February 1977 storming of Afrobeat king Fela Anikulapo-Kuti’s Shrine by “the Unknown Soldier” and throwing his mother Mrs. Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti from a second floor window was a major PR disaster. For the Shehu Shagari Administration, it was probably the Shugaba Darman affair of January 1980 when, on Minister of Internal Affairs Bello Maitama Yusuf’s orders, Nigeria Immigration Service agents seized the GNPP Majority Leader of Borno State House of Assembly, Shugaba Abdurrahman Darman, and deported him to Chad. There was no social media or private TV stations in those days but the media firestorm that followed forced President Shagari to institute a one-judge Judicial Commission of Inquiry “to determine the nationality of Shugaba Darman,” said by the minister to be a Chadian. The commission never sat and Darman was quietly brought back into the country.

For the Buhari military regime of 1984-85, it was probably the 53 suitcases affair. Borders had all been closed for the currency change when a traveler brought 53 suitcases into Ikeja airport, which were whisked away without security checks. Buhari’s ADC Major Mustapha Jokolo happened to be there to receive his father, the Emir of Gwandu, so newspapers alleged that the suitcases belonged to the emir. It later transpired that forty of them belonged to a diplomat just recalled from Saudi Arabia. For the Babangida military regime, before the June 12 annulment crisis, rumours that swirled following the death in detention of alleged hard drugs pusher Gloria Okon was a PR disaster. For the Abacha regime, the November 1995 hanging of the Ogoni Nine was an international PR disaster.

For the Obasanjo civilian regime, the hauling of several Ghana Must Go bags full of money unto House of Representatives Speaker Ghali Na’Abba’s desk during plenary, alleged to be Executive bribe to MPs to remove the Speaker, was a PR disaster. For the Jonathan Presidency, his quip about “ordinary stealing is not corruption” and for Buhari, “those who gave you 97% and those who gave you 3%” were PR disasters. And now comes the Wike-Yerima affair. Apart from the social media firestorm, I think the best indicator of public feeling was that, late last week when the FCDA was dragging its bulldozer away from the scene, thousands of locals lined up along the route, booed the FCDA team and shouted, “Shame! Shame!”

How did it happen that in a confrontation between civil authorities and a military team, most Nigerians somehow saw the soldiers [sailors, in this case] as the liberators and the civilian minister as the oppressor? Not too long ago in Nigeria, soldiers were synonymous with impunity and civil society groups were hailed for standing up to their impunity. It is not a small danger signal to democratic rule and elected civilian rulers when the tables appear to have turned in the public’s mind.

In the FCT at least, the conduct of Minister Wike and his Development Control officials must be responsible for this upturn. While the minister is widely credited with ambitious road and flyover projects, his effort to rid the city of shanties is widely derided, not the least because of its often inhumane nature. In recent weeks, there was much grief on social media over a video of retired Air Commodore Abayomi Balogun, whose shop within a green area was demolished by FCDA, according to him, without prior notice. He said his appeal for a day’s grace to remove valuables was rejected, and while the demolition proceeded, area boys known as Baban Bola swooped on the scene and carted away everything.

There are many other scenes of the minister visiting shanty demolition sites and exchanging hot words with the locals. That, I think, is the first problem. In the case of the Gaduwa estate site, said to belong to former Chief of Naval Staff Awwalu Gambo, FCTA officials said Development Control officials earlier went to site and told the minister that a military guard blocked them from demolishing it. So the minister rushed to the site, with screaming sirens and armed Mobile Policemen and DSS guards. Was that the wise thing to do? Three decades ago, I heard a line from a Pakistani political science lecturer at Bayero University, Kano. He said, “Unlike economic wealth, political power is not displayed; it is exercised.” A minister’s power is best exercised from his office, using meetings with officials, approval of memos and phone calls to other high officials. When authority has to be displayed at a demolition site, then authority has really collapsed.

Not long ago, Donald Trump called Nigeria a disgraced country. We took serious exception to that, and we hope he will not come back again and say our minister was disgraced. How did it look to Nigerian folks, a powerful minister, at a failed demolition site, shouting at a junior military officer, calling him a fool, and lecturing him about age, that he was not born when the minister was in school? I personally grimaced when I saw the minister whip out his telephone, place a call [to the Chief of Defence Staff, we heard], then handed the phone over to the Navy Lieutenant. Whipping out a telephone to call a big man from the street is really below a minister’s dignity. Orders must be routed properly, otherwise there will be absolute chaos. We did not hear what the Chief of Defence Staff said to Navy Lt. Yerima on Wike’s phone but from all indications, he did not command him to stand down, because the Navy men remained in place and the minister and his delegation beat a hasty retreat.

For Minister Wike to call a young military officer a fool to his face shocked Nigerians, but then, soldiers themselves once described themselves in even more unflattering terms. In January 1988, Air Force men invaded Chief M.K.O. Abiola’s Lagos home after a traffic incident with his son. When MKO reported the incident to Air Force Base Commander Air Commodore Nura Imam, the Commodore said “soldiers behave like mad dogs” when their uniform is torn. The phrase “mad dogs” soon on every newspaper.

Part of the public relations problem is that, while a public officer is sometimes commended for pursuing his work zealously, other times, zealotry gives the impression of personal interest. There are thousands of disputed plots all over Abuja, a lot of it caused by FCDA officials and their political leaders who made double  allocations, and of land in green areas, under sewage lines and under NEPA cables. Untangling this mess needs determination but it also needs tact, some patience, careful legal scrutiny and at least some humane feeling, such as allowing victims of demolition a chance to move out valuable property. We know that Nigerians can be lawless and often ignore quit notices, but then, Abuja’s land problems cannot be solved in one ministerial tenure. Nor is the situation helped by numerous social and online media allegations that land is being allocated to ministerial kinsmen and cronies, which helps to create the impression in the public’s mind that overzealousness is for selfish reasons. Especially since our public officials are not exactly famous for efficiency and diligence in the discharge of official duties.

Last week’s incident was also Of Particular Concern because it made an instant folk hero of a serving military officer, Navy Lt. Yerima. Celebrations of him, plus thousands of skits, swamped the social media. Young girls were falling over themselves to align their photos with his, until one social media Spoil Sport revealed that Lt. Yerima is married.

The last time I remember that Nigerian media turned a uniformed officer into an instant celebrity was in 1986. During sittings of the Justice Mustapha Akambi panel following the 1986 nation-wide student riots, Lagos police command spokesman Alozie Ogugbuaja jocularly said, “On a week day, you see Lieutenants, Captains, Majors, Colonels, Brigadiers drinking pepper soup and beer at 12 mid-day,” meaning they were idle.  The remark became an instant media hit, and “Policeman Alozie” became an instant media folk hero because he took a snipe at soldiers. This time it is the reverse; a soldier became a folk hero because he stood up to civilian impunity.

PDP leaders should hurry up and conclude their convention. I hear that a bill is about to be signed making Ibadan an Annex of FCT. Someone is on his way with bulldozers to demolish Lekan Salami Stadium because it is sitting in a green area.