When Wike is wrong, we condemn him and when Wike is wronged we still condemn him. What sort of people are we?
– Steve Osuji, a well-known Nigerian journalist and public affairs commentator
Ye shall do no unrighteousness in judgment: thou shall not respect the person of the poor, nor honour the person of the mighty; but in righteousness hall thou judge thy neighbour
—- The Bible, Leviticus 19: 15
Ever since the Tuesday November 11 incident involving the FCT Minister Nyesom Wike and a young, obviously misguided, most disrespectful and unpatriotic Nigerian naval officer called Lieutenant Yerimah broke, I have read a lot of illiterate, foolish, ignorant, irresponsible, unwise, unfair, unpatriotic, unpalatable and unacceptable arguments on the matter, largely in favour of the lad and all, against Wike and all of them largely because many do not like Wike’s ways.
In the original statement by my friend, philosopher and writer Steve Osuji which forms the first quotation at the beginning of this treatise, he did not add the bit I added here namely, what sort of a people are we? using my privilege of interpretative reporting as a reporter and editor.
The reactions of many supposedly enlightened Nigerians to the Wike-Yerimah imbroglio has opened my spiritual eyes to see why we Nigerians deserve to be misgoverned. The reason is that we as a people do not have a heart of goodness, justice, equity, good conscience and above all, the consciousness of a people living in a rule-governed society. Our notion of what is good or bad is defined largely or solely by who and who are involved and their relationship with us or our perception of the persons involved in the matter at issue. What we say is never ever governed by the ideals of fairness, truth, objectivity and impartiality.
And so when many Nigerians saw a fragile looking military officer speaking very rapidly, courageously and disrespectfully to FCT Minister Wike, they did not bother to consider the rightfulness of what he was saying. Rather, what came to their mind or judgement is that at long last we have found somebody who has the courage of his conviction to confront Wike the bully. The truth of the matter is that Navy Lieutenant Yerimah was not performing a lawful duty even if he was given an order by a retired superior officer.as far as the law is concerned that retired man is now a civilian, a private citizen. He had no right to give an order to anyone else.
During my university days (1978-1982) we had an elderly, professorial classmate called Henry Etuk. Mr. Etuk was rumoured to be a family man who had children some of whom were older than us his classmates. He was also said to have been a headmaster of a school somewhere in his state. We had profound respect for him even as he was our classmate and playmate. Because of his love for the academics, his scholarly bent of mind and the profoundness of his thought, we nicknamed him Aristoetuk after that eminent Greek philosopher. Political imbroglio was one of Mr. Etuk’s favourite phrases. Even as an English major and now a journalist and editor, I don’t think I can define imbroglio for you but I just know that imbroglio is an onomatopoeic; I knew that it sounded very bad to the ear so it must be a bad thing and not a good thing. And since the days of Aristoetuk I have learnt not to have an imbroglio with any one, least of all a combative personality/minister like Wike who the President who appointed him into his cabinet once described him tin an interview on TV as ‘’top notch’’.
But the young man Yerimah had the temerity to have an imbroglio with such a man and enjoy the fact that his video of the altercation had gone viral. boy a hero that most people say he is and one we should be proud of? Is this the type of hero we shall use in building a first -class Nigeria every one of us will be truly proud of? Well, if truth must be told about Yerimah he is a child who believes in might is right. This is what led him to carry out a lawless order. He is a disciple of unacceptable self-help. The utterances of our minister of Defense and his deputy on this imbroglio needs to be critically looked into.
The attitude among some Nigerians that since Wike is fond of abusing people, if there is anyone who is courageous enough to confront him whether that person is right or wrong then that person must be hailed for defying a bully. This is wrong. If we want to have a society that is well run and well administered we must not judge people according to their tribe, religion, manner, profession or their relationship with us. Righteousness is what must define our judgment of other people and not the ability of one bully to stand up to another. If a soldier is doing a wrong thing and is pleading that he is acting on orders, must we agree with him?
Ever since the Nuremberg Trials after the Second World War, it has been established that no security persons should plead obedience to orders as his reason for carrying out clearly immoral actions. If you are given an unlawful order and you obey that order and act wrongly in obedience to that order you will be held liable for carrying out an unlawful order. You will, rightly, not be exonerated.
