Goodbye Wacko Nyako It is heartwarming to note that Vice Admiral Murtala Nyako has been given the boot. Until July 16, this year, the retired Vice Admiral held sway as the governor of terror-torn Adamawa State. The eccentric ex-naval officer was elected on the platform of the People’s Democratic Party, PDP in 2007 and re-elected on same platform in 2011 but chose to defect to the All Progressives Congress, APC, like Rabiu Kwankwaso of Kano State and Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State sometime this year. Before defecting to the APC, he had stirred the hornet’s nest by writing a letter dated April 16, 2014 with an incendiary content to the Northern Governors’ Forum in which he accused the federal government under Dr. Goodluck Jonathan’s watch of undertaking genocide in the North in the guise of fighting terrorism. According to Nyako: ‘“While every State Government is doing everything possible using virtually all its resources to stem the tide of near-disaster facing all of us especially in the North, it is a well-known fact that the present federal administration has now become a government of impunity run by an evil-minded leadership for the advancement of corruption that is apparently enjoying the protection of the federal administration as a citizen of this country should enjoy but is being denied by the administration using its mass murderers/cut-throats imbedded in our legitimate and traditional defence and security organizations.” He went further: ‘The protection of life and property of innocent citizens in Northern Nigeria and recognizing their human rights and voting right in the forthcoming general elections is no longer a cardinal principle of the administration.” Clearly the victims of the administration’s evil-mindedness are substantially Northern Nigerians. The administration is bent on bringing wars in the North between Muslim and Christians and within them and between one ethnic group and another or others in various communities in the region. “Cases of mass murders by its bloody minded killers and cut-throats are well known, but it attributes the killings to so-called Boko-Haram. Thousands of our young girls and boys have been kidnapped by clearly organized militia in the last few years and kidnapping is now a random affair all over the far North.” Most could vouch that the calm and gentle president we have cannot undertake genocide in the North. There is no reason to. In fact, some Nigerians have severally urged the president to come hard on the terrorists who have made the country ungovernable. But he has been circumspect in handling the issue to the consternation of many Nigerians. He has been thoroughly pummeled for allowing the democratic institutions in the terror-torn states of Adamawa, Yobe and Borno to remain. People submit that they should have gone with the emergency rule slammed on the states. But the president would not listen citing constitutional provision which prevents him for declaring a full-scale state of emergency in those states. If he was to be leaders like Chief Olusegun Obasanjo and our own Owelle Rochas Okorocha, they would not have cared about whatever the constitution stipulates. They would have gone ahead to sack the governors and state lawmakers and appoint military administrators to take over. Obasanjo demonstrated this when he declared state of emergency in Plateau State and sacked Joseph Dariye. Okorocha knew he had no power to sack democratically-elected council administrators and he did it three days after his swearing-in. Today, the heavens have not fallen. If Jonathan goes contrary to the constitution and sack the governors of Yobe and Borno states through a full-scale state of emergency, nothing will happen. But the president is a democrat. As wacko Nyako was making his allegations against Jonathan and the federal government, little did we know he was living in a glass house and yet was throwing stones at other people. We never knew he had sunk his teeth on the treasury of Adamawa State. Fraud running into millions of Naira had been committed away under his command. Reports said series of petitions are hanging on his neck. Security agencies have closed up on him to account for about N43billion which some top government officials of Adamawa State embezzled during his tenure. It will be a miracle that his officials misappropriated such a whooping sum of money without his knowledge. His son, Abdulazeez Nyako, a zonal manager with a new generation bank is also said not to be free from the alleged sleaze. I thank the Adamawa State legislature for rising to the occasion and shoving into political oblivion Nyako. This was a man who rose to the apogee of his military career at the expense of the country and yet ignited a fire that would have engulfed and dismembered the country had foolish Nigerians like his terrorist-brothers heeded to his drum of war. Those who alleged that the federal government has a hand in his predicament miss the point. This is same like accusing ex-president Obasanjo of going after his enemies. The point is: Did those his enemies run foul of the law of the land? If they did, then he should not have been blamed for bringing them to book. In fact, the former president should be congratulated. Some submit that no one would have gone against Nyako had he remained in the PDP. If the hammer fell on him because he crossed over to the APC, what we have to find out is whether he is guilty of the charges against him. If he is guilty, then, it is good he is facing the music. In fact, government should go beyond impeaching him to recovering public funds he stashed away. Again, let it be pointed out that the law does not catch all criminals at same time. And it does not matter whenever the law caught up with a criminal. If he had remained in the PDP and he was not caught, then, it would have been regarded as a period of grace. So, let people stop making mountains out of a mole hill. What they should advise Nyako is to challenge his ouster in court if he feels sufficiently persuaded to do so. And the Nyako treatment should not stop until those who amass illicitly our commonwealth owing to their privileged positions are disgraced out of office. Besides fraudulent activities, governors who have violated the constitution with impunity should also be shown the way out. With Nyako’s ouster, other governors who operate as if their states have become their personal fiefdoms may learn some lessons. Perhaps, they will now know that they could lose their seats before their tenure expires. The saying that power is transient does not seem to make any meaning to them. It may be good to get them to behave like the animal which recognizes the value of its tail only when it had been cut off. I congratulate the Adamawa State House of Assembly for rising to the occasion. The lawmakers did not allow any undue influence to becloud their sense of reasoning. Other state legislators who have since become errand boys of their state governors could resolve to toe the path of honour. I am not canvassing that they begin to threaten their state governors with impeachment. They should rather stand up against executive lawlessness and recklessness. Impeachment should be the last resort if their governors concerned remain adamant. For Nyako, it is good he has gone. It is better for the country that someone with his eccentric disposition stays in the background where he could hardly influence public opinion since he has the knack to fan the embers of disunity and confusion. The country will do well to do without the Nyakos of this world.
Posted on: Sat, 19 Jul 2014 19:32:48 +0000
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