TRIAL OF GBAJABIAMILA

The Chief of Staff is on the right track, argues Abdul-Ganiyu Olatunji Owolabi

Judging from how he has continued to work tirelessly despite the coordinated attacks on him, it is best to say that the Chief of Staff to President Bola Tinubu, and former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila, might have developed a really thick skin to his critics.

While President Tinubu and his team cannot feign ignorance of the Herculean task ahead of them, they may be pardoned if they didn’t envisage the quantum of attacks on them as they work to put the country back on track.

The Nigerian public is distraught because the economy is almost prostrate. The inflation rate remains perpetually high, and there is slow growth, high prices, and staggering poverty, and this seems to have presented an opportunity for some elements within the political space to portray some government functionaries in bad light.

Gbajabiamila seems to be high on the receiving end of the unceasing attacks. Presently, no one else has been worst hit than him. He is one person who has been furiously bashed by some angry mob of antagonists, who drag his name into every scandal.

His name was dragged into the corruption allegation against a former Chief Executive Officer of the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON), Ahmed Kuru.  He was alleged to have received an Ikoyi property from Kuru when he was still the speaker of the House of Representatives. They claimed his bargaining chip in corrupt exchange was to ensure that Kuru retained his position as AMCON’s Chief Executive after almost nine years in office.

There was also the allegation that during ministerial appointments, Gbajabiamila purportedly enriched himself by trading ‘juicy’ ministerial positions, boards, and agencies for kickbacks in the region of impossible amounts. Gbajabiamila was again in the eye of the storm when allegation of corruption was leveled against suspended Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, Dr. Betta Edu.

The allegation was escalated by a letter purportedly signed by Gbajabiamila, giving approval to Edu to use the sum of N3 billion from the COVID-19 Palliative Fund for the verification of National Social Register (NSR). Some persons took it further by alleging that Gbajabiamila, Edu, and the Minister of Interior, Hon. Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, pocketed the remaining funds from Covid-19 meant for 100,000 homes of vulnerable Nigerians

Having had more than his fair share of bashing from social media users, who spread unverified false stories about him like wild fire, Gbajabiamila once again came under attack when he stated at the launch of a book by a former Minister of Works, Mr. Babatunde Fashola (SAN), that the “social media has become a societal menace and must be regulated.”

 He called for the regulation of social media usage in line with global best practices, but it did not go down well with his traducers, many of whom are actually social media bullies, hiding behind their keyboards to cause humongous damage to persons of interests.  

These special breed Nigerians cried foul. They claimed his suggestion on social media regulation was motivated by an agenda to gag the press, impede free speech, and insulate the government from public criticism.  But that is not necessarily so. A lot of countries have regulated social media use to prevent the many negative impacts of an unregulated social space.

The reasons for the attacks on Gbajabiamila are not far-fetched. He is the chief of staff to the President of Nigeria. It is a high-ranking office that manages the office of the president, and thereby attracts attacks as much as commendation, almost in equal proportions.

He controls the activities of the president and advises the number one citizen on various issues. He wields enormous influence, and is envied from both within and outside the ruling party.

 For instance, the allegation that he was trading appointments to the highest bidder was traceable to some of the president’s supporters, who didn’t get picked for some of the appointments.

But in politics, just as in sports, not everyone wins. Sadly, however, sore losers don’t take it kindly. They often fight back and in the process, resort to blackmail to square up.

Another perspective on this debate is the opposition. Even when it is obvious that the imaginary scandal is far from being true, they still wouldn’t mind spreading it just to put the ruling party in bad light because the more aspersions are cast on a high office such as the office of the CoS, the more the Tinubu administration is discredited.

Nothing will better buttress the fact President Tinubu understands what Gbajabiamila is contending with than when during one of the Federal Executive Council meetings (FEC), the president vouched for his chief of staff. “I have absolute confidence in the integrity of my Chief of Staff. All campaigns of calumny and insinuations should stop. The buck stops here. If I make a mistake, I’m ready to own up to it, and we’re all joining hands to fight corruption, and we want to enforce the law along with you,” the president said.

Toeing Tinubu’s path and also asserting his confidence in Gbajabiamila’s integrity, his successor as Speaker, House of Representatives, Hon. Tajudeen Abass, described as “baseless” allegations of corruption against the CoS.

He condemned the growing angry campaigns against Gbajabiamila on the social media, saying they were  “deliberate dissemination of false and misleading information with the intent to harm the reputation of individuals or organisations.

“These campaigns often target political opponents, seeking to undermine their credibility, integrity, and public trust,” the speaker added.

He tasked security agencies to diligently investigate the allegations leveled against Gbajabiamila and urged Nigerians to await the outcome of those investigations. So, the COS is not worried by spurious allegations, knowing that they are lies. Another factor that has kept him unperturbed is that President Tinubu knows him well enough. “The president and his team know the challenges ahead of them. They want to see a new Nigeria emerging,”  said a source. Although silence is not always golden, the best way to actually keep one’s accusers permanently quiet is by consciously producing positive results.

•Owolabi writes from Lagos