by Pius Adesanmi

How does our corruption-tolerating, indecisive, prevaricating, and equivocating friend in Aso Rock sack his pen-robbing Minister of Aviation without appearing to have taken a cue from his Ghanaian counterpart?

John Dramani Mahama, President of the Republic of Ghana, the location where my bread is currently buttered, sorry, where my kenkey is currently spiced by shito, is a spoiler and a thrower of spanners in the works. Just when I’m halfway through an op-ed column about an encounter with him that I hope to release to my readers next Friday via Sahara Reporters and Premium Times, he forces me to issue this short and rapid fire statement about how he runs his country and how his style must be causing very serious problems for his counterpart in Abuja. Dear Reader, don’t worry, the column will come to you fresh from the oven next Friday. It’s just that this appetiser on matters arising cannot wait. If you have not heard that President Mahama sacked the lovely Victoria Hammah, his Deputy Minister of Communication, within twenty-fours of the outing of a tape in which the errant Minister is heard claiming that she hopes to make a million dollars before quitting politics, it means you are not a netizen and you probably get your news from Nigeria’s regular local media, always light years behind social media and online news media. I will not bore you with details of the sacking of this Ghanaian minister. You have a handset with access to Google. Use it. What I want to say in this brief statement is that those of us who were hoping against hope that common sense, which has been in a state of induced coma in Aso Rock since 1999, may eventually wake up in the irritating case of Stella Oduah and Oga Goodluck Jonathan, against all expectations, would suddenly do the right thing. That hope has now been dashed by the swift, decisive, and muscular leadership of President John Dramani Mahama of Ghana. By swiftly sacking a member of his cabinet for so much as evincing the possibility of corruption, he has checkmated any hope that Aso Rock would somehow find the uncharacteristic will to fight corruption by acting decisively in the nauseating case of Stella Oduah. Now, Nigeria’s pride and prestige are at stake. How does our corruption-tolerating, indecisive, prevaricating, and equivocating friend in Aso Rock sack his pen-robbing Minister of Aviation without appearing to have taken a cue from his Ghanaian counterpart? How does he proceed on this Oduah matter now without appearing to be a pupil of his more straightforward and decisive neighbour in the arena of leadership in Africa? And when we tell these coconut-headed guys in Abuja that Nigeria pays a price for their irredeemable behaviour, they never listen. Now, see ‘babanla’ disgrace and embarrassment. Sadly and tragically for Nigeria, Ghana has once again stolen the moment. Everything we do or do not do about Oduah going forward, the barometer and the benchmark have been set in Accra. We must now behave like wet-eared kindergarten pupils of the anti-corruption leadership style of the Ghanaian Presidency. Honestly, the man Nigeria offended and who consequently cursed her with the leadership of Goodluck Ebele Azikiwe Jonathan is dead and buried. If he was alive, we would at least go and beg him to forgive Nigeria. It’s a sad day when those who should be learning from us are telling us: this is how we do it! (apologies to Montell Jordan).

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Op-ed pieces and contributions are the opinions of the writers only and do not represent the opinions of Y!/YNaija.