naptu2:
Unfortunately many Nigerians are fond of repeating certain myths without taking the time to find out if the myths are true. It is very easy to see that these claims are false, but they are very popular and are often repeated by many Nigerians.
In some cases these claims were once true, but they stopped being true a long time ago, yet people still repeat them all the time.
Some of these claims arise out of complete ignorance. Someone said something out of ignorance, it became popular and now many people repeat it without bothering to verify if it's true.
Some Nigerians believe that it is fashionable to be negative about Nigeria and so they've formed the habit of responding to questions with a negative assumption, even though they have no idea of what they are talking about.
For example, these ridiculous claims have become popular.
* All Nigerian female footballers are ugly and look like men.
* Nigerian trains are slow and the reason that they are slow is because they are locomotives (these people obviously do not know the meaning of the word locomotive).
* All Nigerian military equipment were made during the Second World War (this one is so stupid that it leaves me stunned).
* There is no privacy law in Nigeria (this one falls under the category of people that just want to be negative about Nigeria, even though they are completely ignorant and do not know what they are talking about).
* Nigerian public officials do not resign from office.
This last claim is the inspiration for this post.
I have heard people say that Nigerian public officials do not resign from office andit makes me wonder if they are OK, but the latest reason for the claim is totally and completely insane.
Betsy Devos was the US education secretary and many Americans believed that she was the most incompetent person in Donald Trump's cabinet. I remember the protests that greeted her nomination, but Trump bullied senators and managed to get her confirmed. The teachers' unions hate her passionately.
Mrs DeVos resigned today in the wake of the riots at the Capitol Building. Some Nigerians then said that she wouldn't have resigned if she was a Nigerian official and that Nigerian officials do not resign.
Meanwhile, the real reasons that people are resigning from the Trump Administration are quite clear.
1) Mr Trump has only a few days left in the Presidency, he is now a lameduck president and these officials know that he no longer has powers to punish them.
2) Many of the officials aspire to hold public office in future and they know that public opinion has turned against Trump. This can obviously be seen by the election results, but it became even clearer with the reactions to the attack on the Capitol Building. They know that being closely associated to Trump could hamper their ability to hold public office in future and that make a clean and public break from Trump could help them to get back in the good books of the public.
3) The cabinet has the power to remove President Trump from office, but that will be a very difficult and possibly dangerous move. Some of these officials do not want to be involved in the process.
The American Federation of Teachers gave a two word response to Mrs Devos's resignation. Their statement read, "Good riddance".
Meanwhile, there have been many Nigerian officials that have resigned at great risk to their lives, yet some Nigerians still repeat the lie that, "Nigerian public officials do not resign".
Without making any effort and simply relying on my memory, I can give you the names of ten Nigerian officials that have resigned from government positions, some of them at great risk to their lives.
1) Dr Olu Onagoruwa.
Olu Onagoruwa was a famous legal icon and human rights activist. He was good friends with Chief Gani Fawehinmi and he often represented Gani during his legal battles, while Gani also often represented him (there was a rumour that they had a pact that they would ensure that both of them would not be arrested at the same time, so that one of them would be out of prison and able to represent the other in court.
General Abacha seized power in November 1993 and he had the support of many people in the human rights and pro-democracy community. They thought that he was taking over in order to install Chief Abiola as president or to hand over to a democratically elected government.
Consequently, there were many human rights activists and pro-democracy politicians in his first cabinet. Dr Olu Onagoruwa was made the minister of justice and attorney general of the Federation.
Chief Gani Fawehinmi warned and appealed to Dr Onagoruwa that he should not accept the position, but Onagoruwa felt that it was not enough to simply criticise government and preach change, but that you had to be in government in order to implement the change you want. He vowed that there would be no human rights violations or obnoxious laws while he was attorney general.
Then one day, the government wanted to enact an obnoxious decree. Usually all decrees are meant to be drafted by the attorney general and his staff, but the government knew that Dr Onagoruwa would never sign off on that decree, so they got junior lawyers in the Ministry of Justice to draft the decree.
Journalists have sources everywhere and their sources told them about the new decree, so they went to the court on Igbosere Road and ambushed Dr Onagoruwa. They asked him what he thought of the decree and Dr Onagoruwa said that there was no such decree. They told him that their sources said that the government was about to enact the decree, but Dr Onagoruwa said that there was no such decree, that he was the attorney general of the Federation and he would know if there was such a decree and that there can never be any such decree while he was attorney general. This was in the morning or afternoon.
The government announced the new decree on the NTA News at 9 that night and Dr Onagoruwa announced his resignation the next morning. He also condemned the government. On the 9 o'clock news that night, the government announced that Dr Onagoruwa had been sacked and that Michael Agbamuche was the new minister of justice.
Dr Onagoruwa's resignation was a big blow to the government's credibility and the government did not find his condemnation funny. Therefore they sent Sergeant Rogers after him. Dr Onagoruwa was not at home, but his son, Toyin, was killed.
The shock of his son's death made Dr Onagoruwa to suffer a stroke, the first of many that he would suffer later in life.
2) Major General Ishola Williams.
Major General Ishola Williams was a senior officer in the Nigerian Army in the 1980s and early 1990s. He did not believe in military rule and he was anxious that the military should hand over to a democratically elected government. General Williams also believed that the rights of the people should be respected.
Therefore, he put a lot of pressure on President Ibrahim Babangida that the military should complete its transition programme and return to the barracks. He was unhappy when the 1993 elections were annulled.
General Sani Abacha seized power one night in November 1993 and dissolved all democratic institutions. General Williams resigned his commission the next day.
General Abacha wrote a personal letter to General Williams to appeal to him that he should not resign. General Williams ignored the letter and instead he joined the human rights and pro-democracy community to campaign for a return to democratic rule. General Williams was harassed, arrested and hounded until General Abacha's death in 1998.
3) Jospeh Tarka
I've already written about JS Tarka's resignation on this thread, so there's no need to say more.
4) Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala.
Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala was the minister of finance in the Obasanjo Administration from c2003, but President Obasanjo decided to move her to the Ministry of Education in 2006. Dr Iweala was not happy with that decision and so she resigned from the government. President Obasanjo replaced her with Dr Oby Ezekwesili.
5) Professor Barth Nnaji
Professor Barth Nnaji is a famous professor of robotics and inventor and he has lectured at universities in the United States. He was the minister of science and technology in the Administration of Chief Ernest Shonekan from August to November 1993.
President Olusegun Obasanjo encouraged him to return to Nigeria and take part in the reform of the power sector. Professor Nnaji returned and set up Geometric Power, a company that planned to set up a power plant in Aba.
President Goodluck Jonathan made Professor Nnaji the minister of power and he was to oversee the reforms and privatisation of the sector. However, opponents of Professor Nnaji complained that he could not be the minister of power and also have interests in a power company. Professor Nnaji said that he had resigned his position in the company, although he still had interests in it and that he had declared his interest in the company when he was appointed minister.
However, his opponents continued to make a fuss and Professor Nnaji resigned from the position of power minister.
6) Mrs Kemi Adeosun.
Mrs Kemi Adeosun was appointed to the position of minister of finance by President Muhammadu Buhari in 2015. However, a few years later, allegations that her NYSC certificate was fake surfaced in the media. It was alleged that lawmakers were using this information to blackmail her. Mrs Adeosun subsequently resigned from her position.
7) General Domkat Bali.
General Domkat Bali was the minister of defence in the Muhammadu Buhari Administration from 1983-1985. General Ibrahim Babangida appealed to him for help in staging his coup and General Bali, who was General Babangida's senior, requested that the position of chairman joint chiefs of staff should be given to him. General Babangida agreed.
General Bali served as the minister of defence and chairman joint chiefs of staff from 1985 till January 1990.
General Babangida dropped a bombshell on New Year's Eve 1989. He retired the chiefs of the Air Staff and the Naval Staff along with the inspector general of police. More importantly, he made General Sani Abacha the minister of defence and moved General Bali to the Ministry of Internal Affairs. General Bali announced his resignation the next day. General Babangida accepted his resignation but promoted him from the rank of lieutenant general to a full 4 star general.
8 ) Aisha Al-Hassan.
Mrs Aisha Al-Hassan contested the 2015 Taraba State governorship election on the platform of the APC. She lost. President Muhammadu Buhari subsequently appointed her as the minister of women's affairs.
However, ahead of the 2019 elections, a video of Mrs Al-Hassan surfaced in which she declared that Alhaji Atiku Abubakar was her leader and that she would support him any where. Atiku Abubakar was campaigning to be the PDP presidential candidate at the time and he would later run against President Buhari in the election.
Many APC supporters branded Mrs Al-Hassan a traitor and they said that she was a mole.
However, Mrs Al-Hassan planned to contest the APC primary for the position of governor of Taraba, but she was disqualified by the APC. She subsequently resigned her ministerial position and left the party.
9) Adolphus Wabara.
Adolphus Wabara was one of the senate presidents during the Obasanjo era. He was accused of demanding bribes from the minister of education, Professor Fabian Osuji, and others before passing the Education Ministry's budget. It seemed like the scandal might cause an uproar in the Senate, but Senator Wabara resigned from the Senate presidency in order to save the Senate from crisis and so that he could face the legal battles ahead.
10) Professor Eme Awa.
Professor Eme Awa was the chairman of the National Electoral Commission (NEC) from 1987-1989. He had a disagreement with President Ibrahim Babangida and resigned his appointment. I can't remember what the disagreement was about, but I remember that the military government harassed him for disagreeing with Babangida and resigning.
Bonus) Fled abroad.
I wanted to list this after Dr Onagoruwa, but I can't remember the man's name!
I remember that there was a man in the Abacha Administration that was not happy with what was happening in the country. However, he knew what had happened to Dr Onagoruwa, so he did not resign immediately. He bided his time and waited until he left the country on an official assignment and then he sent his resignation to the government and never returned to Nigeria while Abacha was alive |
Politics › Re: Idris Salako Resigns As Lagos Commissioner For Physical Planning by naptu2(op): 2:16pm On Sep 05, 2022
