The images of Godwin Emefiele, perplexed as he is accompanied by state security agents from custody to custody, from courtroom to courtroom, contrast sharply with those of the man who, as governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, bestrode the Nigerian financial and banking world like a colossus until just a year ago; the man who dared to run for president while still CBN governor.
It exemplifies how quickly life or fortunes can change. But one has to wonder what former President Muhammadu Buhari, ensconced in his cosy home in Daura, Katsina State, is thinking as he watches the man whose behaviour he aided and abetted being treated like an ordinary criminal. Why has Buhari abandoned Emefiele? Indeed, why is Buhari free while Emefiele is not.
The last question is jejune. After all, this is a country where a past president is revered as a ‘institution’. Nigeria is the only country whose presidents have constitutional immunity while in power and de facto immunity after leaving office.
Former presidents and prime ministers have been tried, convicted, and imprisoned for a variety of crimes around the world, including Argentina, France, Croatia, South Korea, Malaysia, and South Africa. But that is completely unthinkable in Nigeria, where every president is on the presidential gravy train for life (Emefiele).
Regardless of the allegations of corruption and misuse of billions of dollars swirling about a former president’s administration, it is always government officials who are questioned, jailed, and even imprisoned.
The former president is as free as a bird, collecting state benefits, gallivanting around the world, and pretending that nothing went wrong during his presidency. But how could billions of dollars or trillions of naira go missing in a government, particularly if they are funnelled through the central bank, with the president unaware?
Do you remember ‘Dasukigate’? Under President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration in 2014, $2.2 billion in public funds set aside to buy arms to combat the Boko Haram insurgency were allegedly transferred from the CBN into private accounts and distributed to various individuals and organisations to mobilise support for Jonathan’s re-election bid in 2015.Now, in response to those claims, Dasuki spent four years in custody under President Buhari’s administration, and he was not even permitted to attend his father’s funeral. others were also incarcerated.
However, Jonathan was never called to testify in response to the claims. Can anyone with even a modicum of intelligence claim that Jonathan was unaware that the funds were being used to further his re-election campaign? In 2016, Professor Charles Soludo, a former CBN governor and current governor of Anambra State, claimed that Jonathan controlled the CBN in the same way that Ugandan dictator Idi Amin ran his country’s central bank, with “the apparent abuse of the CBN as ATM by the presidency.” But as a former president, Jonathan had become untouchable, as one person put it, “even if he stole all the money in the world”!
Emefiele
Nigeria is unusual. However, it is precisely because of this twisted exceptionalism that Nigeria is not making progress. For, if a previous president is above the law, and cannot be held accountable for his actions while in power, how can Nigeria have decent governance? While a former president is untouchable, members of his administration can face years in prison. That’s a lesson for those who exploit transient presidential cover to abuse public office: their actions could haunt them forever and ruin their life.
Source: Vanguardngr.com
