Anyone conversant with political activities in our country is likely to have come across the name Senator Ike Ekweremadu. The man has been around on the political scene for quite some time, beginning from Enugu, his state where he was a local government chairman, rising to be Chief of Staff to the Governor Chimaroke Nnamani and contesting and winning elections into the Senate severally. At a point he was the Deputy Senate President. Currently, he is a serving senator.
His news went global few weeks ago with his arrest, together with his wife, in London over allegation of trafficking a young Nigerian for purpose of organ harvesting, even though it turned out the couple fell into big time trouble trying to find solace for their ailing daughter said to be down with a damaged kidney in a London hospital. The senator is currently been held in detention and would appear in court sometime in October; the wife has been granted bail, a treatment many had thought should have been extended to the him too. Naturally many Nigerians of goodwill are worried, given the circumstances. We all should be.
This is the climate under which the country’s Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, chose to offer the government’s view on the very sensitive matter last week. In doing what ordinarily is within the realm of routine matters, Malami on this occasion chose to throw caution to the winds. He discarded cherished virtue of diplomacy, tack and decorum which are valuable tools in public service, when he said the Federal Government will not intervene in any manner on the Ekweremadu matter. His main reason being that the country has no precedence of such level of intervention on behalf of an individual in matters related to crimes in foreign countries. Besides, he continued, our country has bilateral cooperation on crime with Britain. Malami was wrong.
Part of the challenge of development in our country is not restricted to absence of vision, there is also this contemptuous behavior and repulsive disposition by many of our citizens, who one way or the other manage to find their way to power and authority. There is this manifest lack of sensitivity to the aspirations and desires of other component parts, outside the place of nativity of incumbent office holders. If Ekweremadu were to be from the core North definitely there would be expectations from people of the area. Nothing wrong with this, it is natural. It is not dimmed by level of development nor has it anything to do with race superiority. None all. Now, Ekweremadu by tthe height he has attained in the politics of the country he is no longer just anybody, he has entered the class of “special” people. Yes, all persons are equal but circumstances of history elevate some and give them some degree of privilege and respect. Ekweremadu has attained same and to some level is a Nigerian property in some sense.
From that angle he deserves some attention wherever he may be, especially if he finds himself in a fix as is currently the case. It won’t matter what the circumstances are, this is not condoning crime, it is the really about the state and its responsibility to her officials, and of course citizens. Western countries who enforce the principle of Rule of Law on us and the rest of the world would not stand and watch a top government official or any of their citizens for that matter face existential threat or come under humiliation under any circumstances without intervening to get him or her out, bring them home for further inquest and possible handling.
An American citizen who was into sports in Russia currently undergoing trial for drug-related offence has been a subject of intense negotiation between the United States and Russia to the point we would soon hear of detainees exchange. This is happening in spite of the fact that both countries are into a proxy war in Ukraine. When Malami comes to the public to brazenly hold the kind of view he espoused when he gave his media briefing, he portrays himself as lacking knowledge, comtemptous and insensitive to the rights of citizens.
Sigmund Freud spoke well when he said: “Words were originally magic and even today words retain much of their ancient magical powers. By words, one person can make another blissfully happy or drive him to dispair.” In christain theology, there is teaching of the “force of right words and soft talks.” We are told they bring comfort and put away the flames of possible contention and conflicts. Perhaps. This is one lesson which most of those most who occupy top positions in our society hardly know and even those who know, do not appreciate its import. Malami all through his time so far in the exalted office of Attorney General has failed on this score and it has proved very costly to himself, his boss, the President and of course the country.
If he had limited himself to just saying, “the situation is pathetic but serious, our government will see areas we can come in even if legally to help, Ekweremadu deserves every assistance he can get at this time,” this would definitely have made more sense and gone a very long way to assuage frayed nerves at least for a while as such a position will go a long way to improve our sense of bonding in our kind of deeply plural society. Now he has succeeded in making our country look irresponsible, appear like a government that owes no responsibility to her citizens, more so Igbo that have become the whipping group of the Nigerian experiment are rightly up in arms, because once again an Igbo “leader” is receiving the wrong end of the stick.
They believe if Ekweremadu came from the “right place” perhaps the reaction would definitely have been far different. If they think this way they are right. Very recent evidence shows that Malami was economical with the truth when he said we have no example of the Federal Government intervention on an individual matter on crime. Just recently a Muslim lady from the core North on pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia was caught with drugs in commercial quantity. She was facing trial with possible death sentence when the Buhari administration walking the path of diplomacy got her released and flown back to the country. We all were happy. Now the approach to Ekweremadu’s case seems diametrically different, new standards are being raised.
This, like already observed, is part of the bane of leadership, insincerity, inconsistency, changing the goal post when it suits those holding current advantages, then injustice. Universality of standard is a panacea for enduring peace and progress. Relating to the matter at hand, the welfare of every citizen must be paramount to our leaders at all times. It shouldn’t matter what any citizen does, his right to dignity must be preserved, and special interest must be displayed or put across when they fall into trouble in foreign lands. It shouldn’t be a gesture limited to very important persons alone.
Every Nigerian everywhere should run with the confidence that his government cares about his welfare and well-being. It was traumatizing few weeks ago to see a handicapped Nigerian attacked in open street in a city in Italy, wrestled to the ground and strangulated to death and the government never issued a statement, let alone taking a strong position on the matter in which the victim virtually committed no offense. This shouldn’t be at all.
There should be an end to no-government position at all, reaction by impulse or attitude of ambivalence that has characterized federal government’s responses to citizens’ challenges outside of the country, especially in the last decade or more. Our leaders in addition need special training on speech making. The trend we have seen is that many of them talk in the manner of ordinary people arguing over public interests. Words from public officials are different from when they speak as individuals. Government officials are to be inspiring, assuring and comforting.
On the Ekweremadu matter, we are happy that consular attention is on it but it should go beyond that; government should engage subtle diplomacy to get him back home. The government must stay with the family and give them comfort and assurances. Ekweremadu is one of those who have given the country good services. He is an advocate of united Nigeria and has done much to move the society forward in the most progressive ways. He deserves not only our empathy at this time but our solid intervention.