By Ayo Lijadu
In the past one week or so, the story of a young 19-year-old girl, Mmesoma Ejikeme, whom the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, (JAMB), accused of falsifying her 2023 JAMB/UTME results, had gone viral and taken the front stage of national discourse, both in the traditional mainstream, as well as social media.
With the girl initially denying the accusation levelled against her by the examination body, (to the extent of posting an emotional-laden denial video which similarly went viral), emerging opposing camps, (pitching their tents either for or against JAMB and the girl, Mmesoma), fought verbally and bitterly, reaching fever-pitch heights on virtually all known media.
To cut a long story short, after presenting irrefutable evidence which the girl could no longer deny, she made a volte-face and finally admitted to commiting the crime.
Naturally, and most expectedly, JAMB wielded and applied sanctions for her crime and misdemeanor. You don’t commit a crime at your young age, refuse to accept your culpability, and then go ahead to ridicule and cast aspersions on the integrity of an institution like JAMB, and then expect that same body to give you a mere slap-on-the-wrist kind of punishment.
Now, the extreme severity or otherwise of the punishment handed out to the young girl is not an issue I would like to dwell upon in this article. That can be a subject matter of engagement for others who may like to take it up.
There are, however, more crucial and fundamental issues I believe this Mmesoma saga has thrown up which expose us for who we really are: a nation of hypocrites.
A young 19-year-old girl commits a misdemeanor which is condemnable, and for which she has been adjudged guilty and sanctioned appropriately.
However, what I find distasteful and nauseating is the hypocritical, sanctimonious, and self-righteous indignation of millions of adults who, while the Mmesoma saga lasted, unleashed salvos of condemnation upon the girl as if she had committed the most heinous of crimes ever heard about in this country. This same country where most of these people baying at this young first offender have repeatedly, through their moral, verbal, and financial support and electoral votes, elected adult scoundrels and other criminals and multiple offenders into the National and State Assemblies, as well as State and National political offices.
Typical and most appropriate example:
Just about the same time that the Mmesoma saga emerged, Senate Majority Leader and long-time associate of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Senator Michael Opeyemi Bamidele, admitted under cross-examination at the ongoing Presidential Election Petition Tribunal that the $460,000 dollars forfeiture by the Nigerian President, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, in the United States of America in the early 1990s was, indeed, related to dealings in narcotics and money laundering offences.
For over thirty years since his forfeiture of this huge sum of money to the US Treasury for narcotics and money laundering-related offences, President Tinubu has refused to openly admit or address his culpability in the above-mentioned case each time accusations came up. Instead, his spokespersons and lawyers have repeatedly sang the same ridiculous medley of songs, to wit, “he was never convicted”, “it was a civil forfeiture”, “it was his bank accounts that were charged to court in the case and not Bola Tinubu himself.”
The last preposterous and asinine defense, that is, “it was his bank accounts that were charged and not Bola Tinubu himself”, being made by no less a personality than a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), by name, Festus Keyamo.
The obvious questions any reasonable person, (one who is still able to make reasonable use of his grey matters), should ask Festus Keyamo, (SAN), are:
(a) can a bank account having a name and profile attached to it open itself without the entity bearing that name approaching the bank to be recognized as the one
opening the account?
(b)not being a joint account, can anyone, other than the owner of an active account, authorize deposits into, (through providing account details), or withdrawals out of, an account? In other words, can a bank account, (without human prompting), and by itself,
be active in deposit and withdrawal activities?
Now, given that in every case of a suspected criminal asset believed by authorities as being linked to criminal activities, and before a final order for full or partial forfeiture is made by any court, interested parties to the asset are normally invited to produce identification and show proof of ownership of the asset, as well as show cause why they should not suffer forfeiture of the asset in contention, therefore;
(c) Who made identification or representation of ownership with regards to the funds in the Tinubu accounts forfeiture court case? Was it the inanimate bank accounts in Tinubu’s name which Keyamo, (SAN), said were the ones charged in the court case and not Tinubu himself, or his legal representatives?
(d) If in (c) above, it was the former, were these inanimate accounts able to adequately make depositions in their defence before the judge and convince the court not to seize the full amount of over $1.4 million dollars in them, but to allow them forfeit only $460,000?
(e) Did these inanimate accounts “walk up” to the courts to “speak” and “defend” their interests, or did Tinubu himself or lawyers appointed by him represent him in the final partial forfeiture decision arrived at by the court?
These are the relevant kind of questions anyone with his grey matters functioning at optimal level should ask a floundering and obviously less than intelligent Festus Keyamo, (SAN), offering such asinine defense that is so offensive to our collective intelligence as a people.
But, you know what? Hordes of apparently and seemingly unthinking people who boast of being the President’s ardent supporters and followers, despite being in knowledge of the above facts of his culpability in this drug-related case for decades, nevertheless turn blind eyes and deaf ears to the obvious facts of the case and continue to chorus the same medley of ridiculous songs in defence of the one whom they deliriously eulogize as the “master of political sagacity.”
At age 19, Mmesoma was culpable of altering her JAMB/UTME results, which offence one could say negatively affected only herself and her immediate family.
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, on the other hand, (who was a fully grown and matured adult in his forties at the time), by the forfeiture of his over $460,000 traced to narcotics and money laundering dealings, was, and still is, culpable, (whether directly or indirectly), for spreading death and destruction, as well as negatively altering the destinies of millions of youths, in which age group Mmesoma belongs.
Whether we like to hear the truth or not, the illicit drugs and other related narcotic substances for which governments all over the world battle drug dealers, smugglers, and kingpins, do only one thing: deliver death and destruction to millions of impressionable youths who are the ultimate targets of these Merchants of Death.
That is how much more serious the culpability of our President, Bola Ahmed Tinubu is, compared to Mmesoma Ejikeme, a mere child, who, (like other impressionable youths), look for good examples to follow, but for decades on end only see very bad examples from supposed elders and leaders.
If you have ever supported this President, having known about his drug case and culpability over the years, (as attested to by his close associate of over thirty years, Senator Michael Opeyemi Bamidele), and you never dissociated yourself from him but continued to support him, and yet you had the effrontery to criticize and lambast a first-time teenage offender whose crime is far less in magnitude, then you are nothing but a monumental hypocrite.
The truth of the matter is, if Mmesoma Ejikeme could own up to her crime and culpability after one week of commiting the crime, and yet is not left off but adjudged Guilty, then, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu who committed a more heinous offence related to narcotics and money laundering necessitating forfeiture of his funds, but who, after over three decades is yet to admit and own up to his own culpability, is As Guilty As Hell!
It is time for us to stop being a nation of hypocrites.
- Ayo Lijadu is a veteran actor, former Presidential aspirant, and later Senatorial candidate of Kowa Party for Lagos East senatorial district in the 2019 General Elections. He features regularly in the daily TV soap, Tinsel, and writes from Lagos.
