Season Of Apologies And Forgiveness. By Muiz Banire

 

The holy books say that there is time for everything in life. There is time to live and there is time to die. There is time to laugh, and there is time to cry. Just as in weather, there is the dry spell and there is the rainy season. There is winter, so also is there summer. The import of all the above is that nothing is static in life; everything that has a beginning must certainly have an end. In fact, to every such activity, the commencement date signifies the expiry date. There is a Yoruba proverb, “lala to roke, nle ni mbo,” which literally means everything that goes up must come down. It is the law of gravity. There is no place other than public office where this is a truism. Every single public office holder that assumes office will certainly, at a point, vacate the office, whether the occupier likes it or not. This is best illustrated by the common saying that “office lo n r’ehin akowe, bi o ba fi office sile, office a fi e sile” as the he must definitely leave the office one day either by voluntary resignation, sack, retirement or death. The reality of the foregoing should not be strange to us as human beings endowed with reasoning faculty.

I say this because of the presumption of knowledge in all of us that life, upon which all our earthly activities revolve, is transient. There is no human being born into this world that will not at a point in time vacate this world. The good or bad news is that no one knows the appointed time he/she is leaving. This is part of the wonders of God that ought to put us on guard but which, unfortunately, human beings cherish not. That explains why some people live their lives as if they have eternal tenure or license to occupy this world. Unfortunately, whether they like it or not, they will vanish, if not perish, one day. It is in the realization of this reality that one would expect occupiers of public office to continuously strive to do only the right thing by putting in their best always in the service of the people. Public office, from the perspectives of all holy books, is a public trust that must not be betrayed. An occupier of public office is accountable to God, the people and himself. In reality, however, the converse is what we see and observe as public office holders exhibit impunity. Most times, public office holders perceive themselves as masters of the people and not servants of the people. They lord policies and programmes on the people, even where such is inimical, as if the people were slaves. There is no consultation or responsiveness.

They are never receptive to ideas or suggestions of the people. As soon as they assume office, they become gods unto themselves and the people cannot access them again. In the process of governance, they trample on the people’s lives in all ramifications. The rule of law connotes nothing to them; rule of man assumes the centre stage with the attendant chaos and anarchy reigning. At the end of the day, the people who they are meant to serve suffer several bruises from their indiscretions. The people’s rights are violated with impunity; hardship is imposed on them, hunger and poverty are inflicted on them. The people’s lives become largely unsecured, to the extent that the country resembles an ungoverned space. Because God, in His infinite wisdom, has put a terminal date to every human endeavour, the tenure of office occupied by the public officer eventually draws to an end. For the elected political officers, particularly at the federal and executive levels, the maximum tenure a public officer can ‘serve’ or impose themselves is eight years.  Thus, the public officer must wind up his activities at the end of eight years. This is not optional. 

As the curtain draws down on the tenure, all manner of regrets starts cropping up, courtesy of the exiting public official. At this juncture, you hear the lamentation of the public official thus: the opposition sabotaged all my efforts; revenue suddenly dwindled; contractors failed us (as if the people contracted the contractors for them) or civil servants frustrated us by constituting a stumbling block. These and many more suddenly become the rhythm of the moment. Of course, this is without them now struggling to impose their successors in office. The latest craze is even that the appointees too also struggle to facilitate the appointment of their chosen successor. At this point, one starts wondering: why the cut-throat desperation to impose successors? From experience, though I was never an elected member of the executive before, the motive seems to be usually borne out of the need to continue in office by proxy or the opportunity to continue enjoying undue patronage. Where the election ends up without the elected official being able to have his way through his succession scheme, government assets become the next causalities.

The public official starts carting away all movable and immovable assets of the state that he can lay his hands on. By the time he concludes this misadventure, he now realizes the need to start being humble, the virtue which he had abandoned in the last few years in office. Everybody will now be revered. The ultimate destination of all the above story, which is the crux of this conversation is that people now matter to him. They have, in one form or the other, been offended and require appeasement. This is the season we are alluding to in the theme above. Lest I forget, during the campaign for their successor, some forms of apologies would feature also, just as a strategy to gain victory.

At every opportunity, the disengaging public office holder starts apologizing for his misdeeds and misconducts that all the while he knew had inflicted suffering on the people but which he never saw any reason to apologise for prior to this period. The typical examples are that of the current Governor of Kano State, Abdullahi Ganduje, and the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Muhammadu Buhari. It will be recalled that a few weeks ago, we listened to the governor apologizing to those he might have offended and seeking their forgiveness. Similarly, President Buhari also followed the same trajectory in seeking forgiveness. This is not unusual, as I opined above, it is just the timing of such apologies by the outgoing public officials that we find curious. As we are made to believe that God forgives us our iniquities, excesses and transgressions, so are we expected to pardon our fellow human beings. Hence, due to our religious nature, certainly not godliness, Nigerians are likely to forgive the wicked and inhumane leaders who had been prodigal over time. That is the good news about the country and her people. It is our nature and character that we quickly outsource whatever we can to God. It is this same spirit that governs the forgiveness of our leaders.

Where Nigerians are so disposed and they indeed forgive the said leaders, such public official would be expected, as God directs, should he eventually occupy another public office, to be repentant and upright in his official dealings. Alas, this is never so as they still revel in the same or more detrimental acts to the people. This is where one gets shocked, and queries, what type of human beings are our so-called public office holders? Anyway, for whatever it is worth, Nigerians, in their religious strides, will forgive them. However, would Nigerians forget their iniquities? I am extremely doubtful of this as some of the acts or omissions of these leaders are so hurtful and fatal that the wound can never heal. If you like, regard them as irreparable hurts or harms perpetrated by these leaders. 

Imagine someone whose loved one died in the struggle to access his fund in the banks or those whose businesses, as their means of livelihood, have collapsed; someone whose loved one died due to poor health facility or famished road; an employable person who has remained jobless for the period of the public official’s tenure; someone who collapsed in the course of the struggle for petrol; how do you expect the family of such people to forget? One can continue to replicate this ad inifinitum. So, as for forgiveness, we can afford to dispense with that but, for forgetfulness, that will remain a mirage. The public officers concerned should, therefore, not expect the people to forget their misdeeds, not even in haste. Forgetting these misdeeds of such public officials will tend to suggest that the people themselves are dumb and brainless and that is why they should not willingly trust them with public office again.

Time for elections come again and the people should not make the mistake of electing the same officer to another office. Beyond the foregoing, the most important aspect is that of legal consequences of their actions. This implies that where such misdeeds bother on criminality, the law must be allowed to take its course. There is no way that Nigerians, or the system, will be expected to just overlook these aberrations where they infringe the laws. They must have their day in court, just like any other Nigerian. While in office, we appreciate the ‘impunity’, sorry immunity they joy, but after office, they need to account for their actions.

Although we have witnessed some attempts in these respect with the ex-Governors, none is still taking place as far as the President or his Vice is concerned. Why must they remain insulated from investigation and prosecution after office?  In other climes, we have seen how this category of public officials are dealt with where they violated the laws of the land. In South Africa, Jacob Zuma, the one-time President had his day in court and cooling off in the deserved place today.  In the most democratized nation of America, Donald Trump, the erstwhile president is going through prosecution. Why should the Nigerian situation be an exception? My view is that while we enjoy this season of apologies, we cannot forget the misconducts in office of the public officials, nor is the country, or Nigerians willing to insulate them against prosecution where they have fallen foul of the law. The rule of law must be promoted and sustained, apology or no apology.