Maina: Who is Fooling Who?

By Segun Adeniyi

In discussing the controversy around the reinstatement and promotion of the twice-dismissed former Chairman of the Presidential Task ForceTeam on pension Reforms, Mr Abdulrasheed Maina yesterday at our editorial board meeting, a member said something instructive. According to the person, while the former administration ‘democratised’ corruption, the current one has decided to ‘privatise’ it.

*Abdulrasheed Maina

If any proof was ever needed about that summation, readers only have to check out what members of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in both the Senate and House of Representatives said on Tuesday in their contributions to the motion on how the former level-14 civil servant with enormous power and wealth suddenly got back his job with promotion and a N22 million bounty in arrears.

While the tragic drama which exposes the hypocrisy of this government and the so-called fight against corruption continues, I doubt if anybody is fooled about Maina being declared “wanted”. This is a man who has not only been around in the country for a while before pushing his luck but was indeed one of the candidates touted two years ago to succeed Alhaji Zanna Umar Mustapha, when the then Borno State Deputy Governor died in office. Had Governor Kashim Shettima not shunned the pressure, Maina might have, since August, 2015 been the Deputy Governor of Borno State. Readers can check the story in this link: http://dailypost.ng/…/pressure-mounts-on-shettima-to-appoi…/.

Apparently annoyed by the ongoing deceit, the Maina family yesterday in Kaduna addressed the media. Aliyu Maina, who spoke for his kinsman, said: “Abdulrasheed was in fact invited by this administration and he was promised security to come and clean up the mess and generate more revenue to the government by blocking leakages. He has been working with the DSS for quite some time and he was given necessary security. So, one wonders why all the agencies and various individuals responsible for his return are now denying”.

Indeed, it is an open secret in Abuja that Maina is a prominent member of the APC and given what Senator Shehu Sani has already told Nigerians about the disposition of this administration when dealing with friends and associates, it is only fitting that, just like the all-powerful ‘grass-cutter’, Maina be given nothing but a ‘deodorant treatment’.

That, after all, is the spirit of Change!