By Comfort Obi
From his dingy room at the Kuje Prison, Senator Ali Ndume, Borno South, Senate Committee Chairman on Army, has asked his lawyers to appeal the Court ruling which threw him in there.
He should.
Nobody should be an Ndume. Nobody deserves what fate has thrown at him.
What happened to him is a classic example of, please, excuse this cliche’, “man’s inhumanity to man. In my place, we say, one’s kindness should not kill one. It is Senator Ndume’s kindness that is “killing” him now. It is his kindness to another man, in need, that has separated him from his family, from the comfort of his home, from his legislative work, and consigned him to prison.
For two consecutive nights, and counting, Ndume has passed the night at the Kuje prisons. What is his story?
His story is the story of man at his most wicked. The story of man at his most ingratitude. Or as former President Obasanjo would say, the story of “This Animal Called Man.”
Ndume’s ordeal began the day he decided to stand Surety for an alleged pension thief called Abdulrasheed Maina.
Maina was a former Chairman of the defunct Pension Reformed Task Team. But down the line, Maina was said to have positively reformed his bank accounts to the tune of billions of Naira, and began to live a life fit for kings.
When the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, began to ask questions he did an Usain Bolt from Nigeria to Dubai. And, like a king he held court, even, with, surprisingly, Government officials from Nigeria.
His story has always not been straightforward, and it has been, atimes, inexplicable.
At a point, he actually came back to Nigeria, went back back to work, was paid arrears of his, salaries, and got promoted. All the while, unsuspecting Nigerians were given the impression that he was being looked for. The Media blew the mess open.
That was when he escaped for the second time. For months on end, Maina was being looked for. Wherever he was, he was comfortable. Then, he put the wrong foot forward.
Nobody quite explained what happened. But he became too sure-footed, or as some people would put it, over confident. Perhaps the piper which was playing the tune for him, dictating his dance steps, assured him it was okay for him to raise the tempo of his dance-steps, and go into full gyration, instead of taking the dance-steps slowly, one at a time.
To cut the long story short, he entered Nigeria, with his son, Faisal, a student in Dubai. They lodged in one of the most expensive hotels in Abuja, living it up.
But luck ran out of them when the DSS got wind of their whereabouts. The DSS personnel went to the hotel and nabbed both father and son. But not without resistance. Maina’s son, allegedly, pulled a gun at the Security officers.
Anyway, the EFCC hauled both father and son before the court. They were given bail. But the conditions attached were too strident.
Even when it was reviewed, it was still difficult.
For months, Maina languished in jail. Until Senator Ali Ndume surfaced.
I cannot quite confirm if Maina and Ndume were close, or were friends, or had done something in common before. Whatever, Senator Ndume came to his aid. He agreed to stand as surety for Maina. The bond was set at a whopping N500m. But Ndume signed. And, also, threw in his palatial Asokoro residence into the bargain.
But that was a mistake. Big mistake.
Maina appeared in court a couple of times, and thereafter, did another Usain Bolt, leaving Ndume in the lurch. Ndume, on the orders of the Judge, The Hon. Justice Okon Abang, appeared in court on every date. But there was no Maina.
Each time he was asked of Maina’s whereabouts, Ndume said he didn’t know; that he has been cut off; that Maina has since stopped picking his calls; that he had no way of reaching Maina, and knew of nobody who could reach him. That continued at every court hearing.
Last week, an angry Justice Abang revoked Maina’s bail, and issued a bench warrant against him. At the next hearing, the Judge did what he had been threatening to do. He descended on Senator Ndume.
He gave Ndume three options.
Pay the bond sum -N500m- into the Federal Government account, or forfeit his Asokoro residence to the FG, or be in jail until Maina appears. Ndume went to jail.
I don’t quite know Ndume. I follow his contributions on the floor of the Senate. But I was diminished, as a human being, as I watched Ndume escorted by Prison officials to jail.
What Maina has done is beyond understanding. It is beneath contempt. Wherever he is, he must have known of Ndume’s fate. He must have heard. Yet…
The same way Maina has put Ndume in trouble, is the same way his son, Faisal, has, also, put an Honourable member of the House who stood surety for him into trouble. Like his father, he has absconded. The Honourable member is in trouble. He has been summoned by the Court. And may suffer Ndume’s fate.
What both father and son have done is to put off men of goodwill from standing surety for people. Nobody would want to be an Ali Ndume. Nobody would want to be sacrificed for people of such character.
Seeing Ndume’s situation, a group of Northern youths have suddenly remembered the case of Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe and IPOB Leader, Nnamdi Kanu. Senator Abaribe stood surety for Kanu, and Kanu has, also, since disappeared.
He is travelling the world. And left Abaribe in a quandary. So, the Northern youths are asking why Abaribe is not suffering same fate as Ndume.
Their counterpart from Abaribe’s South-east has reacted to the Northern youths, threatening not to allow Abaraibe suffer same fate.
They say they would fight.
I beg to differ.
It is not not a question of threat. It is a question of putting out facts.
Which are:
That Kanu and Maina’s case are not the same; that Kanu just did not wake up and jumpe bail; that he had no intention to jump bail; that he was forced to leave the country; that he was in his father’s house when Nigerian soldiers came calling, violence ensued, blood flowed, and Kanu ran for his life, as his parents did. Both parents died in exile, victims of a forced exile. They were brought back dead, and buried same day.
But back to Maina, if he has any conscience left, if he is the man that he ought to be, he should come out of hiding, save Ndume the embarrassment, and apologise profusely to him.
Otherwise, for whatever it is worth, the Northern establishment should raise the sum of N500m, and save Ndume.
He doesn’t deserve what Maina did to him. Nobody should be an Ndume.
