Hard tackles, tit-for-tat head butts, knocks on the head, firing broadside and below the belt blows are regular fares in Nigerian politics. A blow below the frock that presidential spokesman Garba Shehu delivered to controversial Roman Catholic priest Father Ejike Mbaka last week was however a novelty in Nigerian politics.
Shehu said Mbaka, Spiritual Director of Adoration Ministry, Enugu, paid a “courtesy call” on President Buhari with three contractors in tow. He sought but failed to secure contracts for them, Shehu said, which was why he turned overnight from Administration friend to bitter critic. This revelation amounted to releasing a cat among the clerical pigeons.
In Nigeria, clerics are regular visitors to Government Houses, ministers’ offices, offices of juicy agency heads, National and State Assembly chambers as well as offices of Commissioners and Local Government Chairmen. Their bushy beards, loosely-fitting turbans, white frocks, skull caps and priestly collars make them to stand out like monks in a brothel. They are not always there to pray or offer spiritual advice, thank you. Serving as fronts for contractors is not a rare occurrence.
Governors, ministers and other powerful people in Nigeria know the stuff that many clerics are made of. They are reluctant to call their bluff because clerics still have a grip on many voters. Last week however, Garba Shehu broke ranks and fired a political nuke at Mbaka.
Mbaka had enraged the Presidency by calling on President Buhari to either resign from office or else he should be impeached. He hinged his call on the sharp deterioration in the country’s internal security situation. As if in evil synchrony, Boko Haram insurgents launched major strikes at Geidam, Mainok and Rann; bandits seized more students in Kaduna State; gunmen invaded an IDP camp in Benue State and killed many people; Governor of Niger State said Boko Haram [much more likely, bandits] hoisted flags in 50 communities in his state; several soldiers and policemen were killed in Rivers State while in Anambra, IPOB militiamen attacked a hamlet and hacked to death 19 pastoralist men, women and children in the hope of starting another civil war.
Forever adept at playing to the gallery, Mbaka cashed in on the prevailing frustration and made his call. He knew that neither resignation nor presidential impeachment was on the cards. His call was however an embarrassment because APC chieftains once called on President Jonathan to resign in similar situations. More so, Mbaka was a potent psychological weapon in APC’s 2015 election victory, with his much-publicised prophesies. That such an important supporter has now turned against the Administration was bound to please political opponents, hence the Presidency’s outrage.
Several wrongs were rolled into one here. Mbaka’s 2015 pro-APC prophecies embarrassed Roman Catholic Church leaders. John Cardinal Onaiyekan said at the time that his church does not expect priests to dabble into politics. It was a mix-up of roles when Mbaka led contractors to State House, but some Nigerians saw nothing wrong with that since he was an Administration friend. In 1996, when a reporter asked then Minister of Works Major General Abdulkarim Adisa why he was awarding contracts only to his friends, he said, “Those who are saying I award contracts only to my friends. I pray to God to make them minister so that they will award contracts to their enemies.”
The Presidency’s stance that it turned away Mbaka with his contractors due to puritanical adherence to due process rang hollow in some Nigerians’ ears. They thought, why didn’t APC quietly direct some contractors to make “donations” to Adoration Ministry? In these troubled times, they need another friendly prophesy, not trouble. Besides, publicly exposing what happened in private between Presidency and a former supporter could have long-term implications for political wheeling and dealing in Nigeria. Godfathers, party chieftains and other wheeler-dealers will now be afraid to speak in private, lest an angry Presidency exposes them to the public.
Besides, there are some invisible lines in political tackles. During the American presidential elections of 1984, Republican vice president George Bush, Snr boasted to his aides that “we tried to kick a little ass” during the vice presidential debates. Newspaper columnists cried blue murder because his Democratic opponent was Mrs. Geraldine Ferraro. You don’t kick the ass of a woman, they all told Bush.
By his unprincipled flip flop in political dabbling, Father Mbaka probably got what he deserved. Only that the Presidency would have been wiser to anonymously plant the story in one medium. It should have retained for itself plausible deniability in case it one day reconciles with Mbaka. Meanwhile, there is the pervasive insecurity to attend to.
