”I
woke up yesterday to read a fictitious report credited to me
by Sunday Tribune that I claimed President Muhammadu Buhari does not
deserve to be president.
And on
the basis of the fiction weaved together by a reporter, he let loose
one of those now-very-common indecorous and rumor- inspired verbal
assault from a presidential spokesman, Mallam Garba Shehu.
However,
today, in one of those uncommon but very professional decisions,
Tribune newspaper not only recanted on the story but also apologized to
me.
While I
thank the newspaper for toeing the path of honour, I hope Mallam Garba
Shehu will also be decent enough to admit his error of judgement and
tender an unreserved apology for his falsehood and unwarranted attacks
at me.
Notwithstanding,
it is important not to lose sight of the real issue which is about the
fate of 2000 young Nigerians who were employed into the Nigerian
Immigration Service, after a rigorous and transparent process by the
last administration, only for their services to be cynically dispensed
with by the current administration. These are Nigerians from across the
country.
Incidentally,
I was drawn to their plight just because in driving past where they had
congregated, I saw among them a friend and BBOG colleague, Hajia Aisha
Yesufu, who, as it would turn out, had taken up their cause. I spoke
with them briefly, and I had pleaded with the president to look into
their matter. Fortunately, in correcting the earlier wrong publication,
Tribune has helped to bring out what I said in its story of today as
captured below:
Tribune apologizes to Oby Ezekwesili
FORMER Minister of Education, Dr Oby Ezekwesili, never said President Muhammadu Buhari did not deserve to be president.
Our
sister publication, Sunday Tribune, had attributed the statement to be
part of what she said over the plight of 2,000 immigration service
recruits who slept at the entrance of Aso
Villa from Friday till Saturday morning.
Ezekwesili,
while addressing the recruits, had said “I am, therefore, appealing to
the president to immediately ask the military as well as the Nigerian
Immigration Service to do what is right, give justice to all these young
men and women who, on the basis of merit, were appointed into positions
in the NIS.
“I want
to say that if justice is not given to them immediately, I certainly
will join them in sitting here every day until they get their justice.
Justice is to be able to come to the table with them.
“Whatever
the challenges are, let it be known, but don’t let anything be done in
secrecy, and let nothing be done with such opaqueness. These young
people are the present of Nigeria, not just the future of Nigeria. If we
don’t treat our young right, we are laying ourselves up for what we
already have troubling us in the country.
“So, I
join my voice with them, and I appeal to the President whom they have
come to see to immediately do something about their cause. And I also
use this opportunity to speak to the Federal Government, there have been
too many instances of allegations of illegal recruitment into the
public service.
“If our
public service is dysfunctional, and you are worsening it by recruiting
people through the back doors, people who don’t have the talent,
skills, competence, capacity, character to be able to give us good
service in public service, then, we certainly have no plans to be better
than we are.
“So, we
should just from henceforth desist from doing this. And usually, when
these illegal recruitments are done, we sacrifice the best for the worst
among us. Usually, when these illegal recruitments are done, what ends
up happening is that the children of the poorer segment of our society
who struggle to get through their education are left behind, then, that
is the basis of worsening inequality.
“We
cannot afford this, and an unequal society is a society laying itself up
for implosion and God forbid that would be the case with our nation. I
want to just applaud all of you for coming out and standing, standing
for your cause. I want to say that I would actually be speaking to a
lawyer who will become your lawyer in this matter, so that, not just
would you be on the streets, but you would have to get legal redress of
your situation, because that’s very important.
“I also
applaud the fact that you have been civil. Today is Saturday; I don’t
know what your plan is, Saturday is not a work day. Sunday is also not a
work day. So people might say they are not at work, that’s why they are
not able to speak to you. Maybe what we would do is have a discussion
among yourselves and perhaps resume your sit-out by wherever you chose
to do that, by the first day of the week. Then whatever you want to say
to the President, I think you should give the opportunity for all your
members to speak to the President. He’s the one you came to see.”
The
Tribune Newspapers hereby tender unreserved apology to Dr. Ezekwesili,
Aisha Yesufu and the Presidency for the misrepresentation.
Let me
again state that the injustice that the #NigeriaImmigration2000
protesters allege needs immediate Presidential resolution considering
that all other levels of authority have failed them. If Garba Shehu was
not deploying his time and talent to the wrong priorities, he should
have brought the issue of 2000 disaffected young people to the
President’s attention when they occupied the gate of his office last
Friday.
I advise him to do so now.
Obiageli (Oby) Ezekwesili