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By Godwin Etakibuebu
Retired Colonel Hameed Ibrahim Ali was appointed Comptroller General [CG] of the Nigerian Customs Services on August 27, 2015, by President Muhammadu Buhari, without any career experience in the Customs and Excise. He was purely a military man, having been appointed by the late Head of State; General Sani Abacha, as Governor of Kaduna State [being the peak of his military career] from August 1996 to August 1998.
Of course, Colonel Ali, born in January 15, 1955, would have known his superior officer; General Buhari, for a long time but facts emanating from the grapevine pointed out that there was an establishment of intimate relationship between the two when the former served as Governor of Kaduna State. It was reported that he subserviently “served out the interests” of his retired “Oga” very dedicatedly. It must have be the cord of relationship built and sincerely maintained overtime that resulted into the appointment of CG for Hameed Ali.
Whichever way the relationship started, one thing for sure is that both men are particularly very close. They share the same value and both understand themselves in all facets of human endeavours. By the way, let it be pointed out that Colonel Hameed Ali holds a Bachelor and Master degree in Criminology. That makes him an egghead which must have increased Buhari’s respect for him. In addition to this academic laurel, the man is said to be very audacious in pursuance of his set goals. Finally, it is agreed that he shared almost the same level of religious “enthusiasm and sentiment” with the President.
The conclusion in this preamble is to prove the fact that both men are confidants in most things of life – political views/endeavours inclusive. It is therefore on this template that retired Colonel Hameed Ali’s evaluation of President Buhari government, last week, should be given further thorough examination for some reasons. In the first place, the man took identifiable risk by assessing the performances of his boss, in all ramifications, within a given period of time.
It is not acceptable way of life in the Civil Service, Public Service or the Military for a junior to write the “Annual Performances Assessment Report” [APAR] of a senior. This is more a “forbidden fruit” in the military, where deferment to order of hierarchy is a matter of life and death. Yet, this is exactly what this usually blunt retired colonel did last week in Abuja at the commissioning of the office complex of the Buhari Support Organisation (BSO), in his capacity as the National Coordinator of the organization.
Listen to what he said: “But let me say here without fear of being contradicted that I think half way through the journey, we are losing our core values. We are losing our vision and mission and I think that the idea of our being here today is to look critically at what we need to do to get back on track. “There is no doubt that we have derailed because we are not doing what we say we want to do. Why is it so?” he asked. He continued, by saying “we need to find an answer to that. If we do find an answer, then what should we do to get us all back on track? We owe this great nation and the 180 million Nigerians the duty to give good governance. Good governance is what they voted for and good governance is what they expect to get and they deserve that”.
The man deserves to be appreciated for his candid opinion/observation presented lucidly on the uncommon table of audacity. In writing his boss’ assessment report, which itself is a suicide mission sort of a thing, he put it very clearly by saying “we are losing our vision and mission and I think that the idea of our being here today is to look critically at what we need to do to get back on track”. How many people would be able to conclude with the boldness of admitting that “there is no doubt that we have derailed because we are not doing what we say we want to do?” What he said in pure, plain and simple language is that President Buhari and his government has derailed for the path of true governance.
Though his claim in identifying the People Democratic Party [PDP] “members in the APC as responsible for the derailment of the President” better be seen against the background of military mischief than any actual political accuracy in exhibition of wisdom, his revelation nevertheless is all our “derailing president” needs to come back on track of good governance. And that is if he is willing to get things right. The Nigerian Customs Services Comptroller General has done his little bit in helping a falling friend finding his standing equilibrium.
By so boldly pronouncing, the Colonel has joined the gang of two other people in the entire APC ruling Party that wished the President to succeed. First was Aisha Buhari; the president’s wife, who blew whistle against massive corruption in the Villa very recently, but had earlier said that if the husband continued in this path [now defined as derailment path] she might not be campaigning for him in 2019. The second is this very vibrant Senator Shehu Sani representing Kaduna Central Senatorial District in the Senate, who has always shouted that Buhari government “is missing it”. Can we give kudos to the three Musketeers and pray that the President listens to them and do what is right?
Will President Buhari listen to this gospel truth, coming from his own committed friend? I have my doubts. I have my fears. I have my cogent reasons for entertaining both doubts and fear. I may be wrong though, but, again, I doubt it because of how much dependent Muhammadu Buhari is on the Abubakar Malamis, Abdulrahman Bello Dambazaus and Abba Kyaris of the Nigerian Animal Kingdom.
Godwin Etakibuebu, a veteran journalist, wrote from Lagos.