AS it stands, President Muhammadu Buhari is still a man of honour and integrity. And as the general elections draw closer, he remains the candidate to beat despite the increasing number of those who want to contest the seat with him.
But as the President continues his laudable work of repositioning Nigeria, it is still worrisome that he has not deemed it necessary to let some of his men off his cabinet.
Since 2015, he has not relieved anyone in his cabinet of his appointment, and many Nigerians believe the time is now that he should wield the big stick and allow some who are fast becoming liabilities to him to go.
It is the opinion of many critical thinking Nigerians that someone like Okoi Obono-Obla, the presidential aide on prosecution and the suspended Chairman of Special Investigation Panel on the Recovery of Public Property should now be asked to go and rest
President Buhari should thank Obla for his contributions to his administration and to Nigeria as a whole and ask him to take a bow.
Despite his suspension last year, it is surprising why up till now he has continued to escape the President’s attention for his final sack.
What is more, the presidential aide has been in the news of recent and for the not-too-pleasant reasons.
Many still remember how, in 2017, Obla was overstepping the boundary of his official assignment and making pronouncements clearly outside his portfolio.
The Presidency was miffed by the several unguarded utterances by Obla who ordinarily by virtue of his training as a lawyer, should know what and what not ought to be said. Nigerians still know what followed that utterances− suspension.
But that was not the only reason he was sanctioned, he was also getting into needless show of power with the Attorney General and minister for justice.
Again, his academic record has recently come under serious scrutiny. Though the Federal Government and himself have kept quiet on this.
If media reports about his forged WAEC certificate are anything to go by, Obono-Obla, is in a serious scam.
He is alleged to have forged his West African Examination Council (WAEC) result with which he obtained admission and studied Law at the University of Jos.
According to Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA), a civil society asking for his sack and prosecution, Obla’s genuine WAEC result showed that he was absent for Literature examination, but the result he used for admission indicated that he obtained C6 in the subject.
“We proceeded to investigate the complaints and made the following startling findings: Obono-Obla gained admission into the University of Jos with a suspected fake WASCE result. Evidence available to us shows that Okoi Obono-Obla (Ofem Okoi Ofem) sat for May/June 1982 (examination registration No. 09403/247) at Mary Knoll College, Ogoja, where he obtained the following results: English Language – C6, Literature in English- Absent, Bible Knowledge- C4, Government- A1, Economics- C5, Mathematics- F9, Chemistry- F9, Biology- F9. We attach herewith a copy of the result issued by WAEC.
“This result can also be easily verified on WAEC result portal by obtaining a PIN card at the cost of N700.00
“Okoi Obono-Obla (Ofem Okoi Ofem) took Joint Matriculation Examination (JME) conducted by the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB) in 1985 and was offered admission into the Faculty of Law University of Jos (in the 1985/1986 session) where he presented a statement of result allegedly obtained from Mary Knoll College, which details are as follows: English Language- C6, Literature in English- C, Bible Knowledge- C4, Government- A1, Economics- C5, Mathematics- F9, Chemistry- F9, Biology- F9.
“You will see that whereas the genuine WAEC result has listed the result for Literature as ABSENT, ANNEXURE B, which forms the basis on which Okoi Obono-Obla (Ofem Okoi Ofem) was offered admission to study Law at the university, claims that he obtained C6 in Literature.
“However, on the basis of the forged result, he graduated from the University of Jos in 1989 with a second class (lower division) and proceeded to the Nigerian Law School where he passed out from in 1991 with a pass grade after failing the law school examination in 1990,” HURIWA revealed.
This is a good reason for the President to let him go and rest. The time is now for the President to show him the way out as his presence in the cabinet adds no value, rather takes away the government’s good will.