Obinna Edeh ©
Nigeria’s print and electronic media are currently awash with the news
of another leaked presidential memo. The gist is that a couple of days ago, the
President directed the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation to respond to a query explaining the
circumstances in which the sacked pension boss, Abdulrasheed Maina was
reinstated into the civil service. The query further instructed the Head of
Service to send in a reply through the office of the Chief of Staff before the
close of work.
However, few days after the query and response was dispatched,
Nigerians woke up to see the leaked version of the letter to the President
awash in the dailies. The news paper (that broke the news) explained that her correspondent
sighted the letter and since it was a hot gist, they actually rushed to publish
without due diligence.
This is a dangerous precedent in its entirety. It is dangerous for the
national security of a nation to have confidential communications with the president
‘sighted’ by reporters and splattered on the papers of national newspapers.
More worrisome is that this has become a pattern in Nigerian even since the
last administration. A few weeks ago, Nigerians feasted their eyes to what was
supposed to be an official communication from the junior minister of Nigeria’s
oil ministry to the President. The letter said to have been written in August
was leaked to the press in the month of October. Again, a confidential memo
written to the President by a serving Governor from the North west region of
the country was also leaked to the press by some unknown persons. In the last
administration of Goodluck Jonathan, a top-secret memo sent to him by the then
Governor of the Central Bank was leaked to the press by yet to be identified
individuals.
One would believe that the communications system of the Presidential
villa should be fool-proof and involvement is on a need to know basis. The
further disturbing part is that at the end of all, no investigation is
launched, and no one is punished for such breach. Again, one wonders why it is
only the letters written to the President that leaks to the press. Nigerians
have never heard that a memo addressed to the Vice President or the National
Security Adviser gets leaked to the press.
Therefore, it is time for President Buhari and his top aides to do a
proper house cleaning within the President’ wing at the villa. The president is
the embodiment of Nigeria’s national security and sovereignty. In other words,
the office of the president is the worst place to have a mole or condone
carelessness among administrative staff.
Obinna Edeh is a Lawyer and Research Consultant with interest in the Economics of Governance, Medical Rights and Divinity. You can follow him on Facebook and twitter @obilexie
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