Passing the Buck to God

In the very weekend in which the insecurity situation in the country was further magnified by the death in bandits’ custody of retired Major General Rabe Abubakar, a top security official made a jarring attempt to pass the buck to God. Minister of State for Defence Mohammed Bello Mutawalle was quoted as having said in a BBC Hausa radio interview that “only God can ultimately bring an end to Nigeria’s insecurity challenges.” It is good that he added the word “ultimately.” Ultimately, the final solution to all matters rests with the Almighty, but before that, there are many things that people should do for themselves, beginning with those vested with the authority and the resources to take care of human problems.

This is not the first time that a Nigerian buck appeared to be passed to God. In 1980, when President Shehu Shagari nominated the eminent statesman Alhaji Isa Kaita to be chairman of the Code of Conduct Bureau, he appeared before a Senate committee for screening. A senator asked the elder statesman what was the solution to pervasive corruption in Nigeria, and he answered that “only God can solve the problem of corruption in Nigeria.” Although the newspapers grabbed that statement and made it look like that was the only thing he said, in truth, Alhaji Isa Kaita did not assign all responsibility to God. After all, he was a prominent member of the generation of political leaders that believed first and foremost in the force of personal example, in well-crafted systems, in meticulous selection of persons for appointment to all positions, in forceful enforcement of rules and regulations, in active supervision of subordinates’ work, and in meting out severe punishment for infractions.

It was US President Harry Truman [1945-53] who famously kept a small wooden sign on his Oval Office desk. Inscribed on it was the message, “The Buck Stops Here”. Truman was tired of buck passing in the sprawling US federal government, by civilian and military officials, by civil servants and political appointees, by diplomats and professionals. Everybody was fond of passing the buck, but the President could not pass the buck anywhere upstairs, since the Constitution vested him with all the Executive powers of the Federal Government.

On top of the abduction and very tragic death in bandits’ captivity of General Abubakar, insecurity in the country is currently further dramatised by the ongoing case of 39 students and seven teachers of Oriire Local Government Area of Oyo State, still held in the Old Oyo National Park, according to Governor Seyi Makinde; the 42 school pupils abducted by Boko Haram insurgents in Mussa, Askira-Uba Local Government Area of Borno State; as well as many other kidnap incidents in Zamfara, Sokoto, Katsina, Kwara, Niger, Kogi and Taraba states, among others.

Unlike Malam Isa Kaita, who outlined many things that humans could do about corruption before matters reach God’s desk, Minister Mutawalle passed the insecurity buck to several other quarters before he passed it to God. He passed the buck to opposition politicians, whom he said have used “insecurity to incite people… Some members of the opposition appear pleased with the situation. They do not care about the people. What matters to them is portraying the government as a failure for their own political interests and deceiving people into believing they alone can end insecurity.” Since it is the duty of the opposition to point out any lapses of government, why not deny them that chance by ending the insecurity?

During the Buhari era, I briefly earned the ire of my senior colleague Malam Garba Shehu when I said in a meeting that in ancient Japan, the Emperor was blamed even for earthquakes. At a subsequent meeting, Malam Garba misquoted me as having said that the Japanese Emperor accepted blame for earthquakes and implied that President Buhari should do the same. What I actually said was that ancient Japanese “blamed the Emperor” even for earthquakes and any other calamities. With good reason, because the Emperor was the Chief Priest of the Shinto national religion, so if misfortune befalls the country, the belief was that he did not do enough to appease the ancestors. Luckily for our President and his ministers, there is no national religion in Nigeria for him to be the Chief Priest. In fact, the Constitution forbids a state religion; it however vests the President with “all the Executive powers of the Federation,” which may sound to some people like the equivalent of a National Chief Priest.

Coming back to our Minister Mutawalle, when the President called you and appointed you a Minister, for that matter of Defence, did you tell him at that stage that only God can solve the insecurity situation? When you were given a fat salary and allowances, an armoured official car, a bullet proof helmet and a retinue of military guards, why didn’t you turn them over to God, since he is the One that can end insecurity? When the Federal Government’s budget allocated hundreds of billions of naira to your ministry, did you ask God to be the Accounting Officer?  

Why did you accept that spacious office in the Defence Ministry, complete with an ADC, personal and military assistants, staff officers, even snipers and military bodyguards, when you knew that the task the president gave to you can only be done by God? I saw pictures of you visiting your native Zamfara State early in your tenure, with a whole battalion of soldiers surrounding you on the bandit-infested Funtua to Gusau highway, and more soldiers surrounding your personal house at Maradun. Since it is only God that can solve insecurity problems, what were you doing with all those soldiers? Some people were even saying that since you had no security experience in your previous career, the only reason why the President posted you to Defence Ministry is so that you can have soldiers as escorts and be able to visit your home state. Otherwise, even as Governor of Zamfara for four years, all you had were Mobile Policemen, and that apart from the President who is Commander-in-Chief, it is only the Defence Ministers that have military escorts. You should have said then that you did not need soldiers, that since God provides security, you will rely on Him to provide protection to you as you visit Zamfara State.

You see, Oga Mutawalle, ordinarily I wouldn’t have taken you on the pages of a newspaper because of solidarity, that you being from Zamfara and I being from Kebbi, we are from the same, bedeviled extreme North West corner of Nigeria. However, I fear that if I do not say something now, I will not be able to say anything when other ministers borrow a leaf from you and try to pass the buck to God for their ministerial challenges. For five decades now we have been blaming NEPA and its successor companies for being stuck at 3,000KVA power generation and inability to distribute a good part of it. Even the great politician who said we should not vote for him again if he does not provide reliable power during his first term, we are misquoting him, because he was talking about providing solar power to State House, which he has achieved. What if a Power Minister now comes and says only God can provide power?  In this election season, some Muslim politicians are already [mis]quoting the Holy Quran’s Chapter 3, Verse 26, that Allah gives power to whom He pleases. One politician implied that Allah gives electric power to whom He pleases!

Already, a resurgent Ebola epidemic has started in DR Congo and could easily spread to other parts of Africa, including Nigeria. The last time Ebola came here, then President Goodluck Jonathan blamed “that crazy man Sawyer,” who arrived with it from Liberia, infected and killed our sister, Dr. Adadevoh. This time, if Ebola comes or if COVID 19 resurfaces, a top Health official here is likely to say that only God has the solution to epidemics. Even though here in Nigeria we sometimes manufacture our own solutions, like one crazy night in 2014 when millions of Nigerians went out at midnight and took bath with salt water, because one young woman said in a social media post that salt bath is the cure for Ebola.

Very soon, a top Education official will come up and say that only God can solve the problem of out of school children, now said to number up to 20 million. Remarkable thing is, is it not itinerant Muslim clerics who pick poor people’s children from the rural areas, take them to hostile city environments ostensibly for religious learning, only to unleash them in the streets to beg for food? Are these clerics not supposed to be closer to God than the rest of us, yet they are the ones subverting His message? Ok, how did countries such as Cuba, Albania, USSR, North Korea and China achieve near 100% literacy, even when the Communist ruling parties in those countries were all atheistic and did not even believe in God? Next time a top official tries to pass the buck to God, we should swallow it with a bucket [not pinch] of salt.