Since the outcome of the March 28th 2015 presidential election, the president-elect, Gen Muhammadu Buhari has become the toast of everyone, including some who shunned him like a pest in the past. Everyone seems to be angling for an opportunity to be seen shaking hands with Buhari and having the photos published and broadcast nationally and internationally. Some of the unlikely new ‘friends’ of Buhari include businessmen like Femi Otedola, Jim Ovia, Aliko Dangote, Tony Elumelu and Arthur Eze.
I have no grouse with people scrambling over themselves to associate with success, but it is worth looking back at recent history to see the roles some of these people played.
For instance, when in November 2008, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) launched an appeal for funds to construct its national headquarters (the same building it claimed the N21 billion it raised last year was meant for), Femi Otedola donated N1bn and Aliko Dangote N3bn worth of cement.
Similarly, in March 2013, another round of donation was held to raise funds in aid of St. Stephen’s Anglican Deanery and Youth Development Centre in Otuoke, Bayelsa State, home-town of President Goodluck Jonathan.
Arthur Eze donated N1.8 billion. Jim Ovia, Oba Otudeko and Tony Elumenu all donated money. I do not know if the church in Otuoke has been completed, but I suspect that Jonathan will need it for solitude as he will have plenty of time and few visitors after he leaves Abuja, assuming he is able to live in Otuoke.
Anyway, Dangote, Ovia, Elumelu, Otedola, Eze and others are Nigerians and have the right, just like other Nigerians to meet with and interact with the president-elect as he consults with compatriots on his plans to lift Nigeria out of the economic chaos it currently finds itself. Indeed, their business and financial clout entitles them to rub minds with Buhari and he seeks ideas to fast-track economic development and fight poverty.
However, if these ‘emergency’ friends, through iniquitous regulations and contacts in high places contributed to the mess Nigeria finds itself, it would be unwise for them to imagine that merely being photographed with Buhari would protect them if they are found culpable. And no one should assume that a simple visit will bury the suspected Ovia-Emefiele-Zenith Bank and the ‘missing’ NNPC $20bn connection just like that.
