By Abdu Rafiu

The alertness and the attendant promptness of action displayed by President Bola Tinubu on the frozen finances of Osun State Government by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on suspicion of impropriety deserves fulsome commendation. The timing of the EFCC action could not have been worse. It was insensitive.

The action of the President asking the EFCC to free the bank accounts of Osun State nipped in the bud a potential crisis of immense proportions. The consequential development of the freeze was not just going to fill the political sphere, but affect the economic and social environment for the rest of the year but also the magic and fateful year 2027.

The issue is not whether or not the EFCC has powers to investigate and for the duration of the exercise place a lien on the finances of any government or agency. The EFCC powers are awesome. Such are the powers and its independence of action that the institution can investigate any public functionary of government once there is suspicion of a financial impropriety; the President, the Vice- President, a Governor, his Deputy; heads of federal, state and local government agencies. Private organisations, too, can come under its radar, especially if their activities leading to the impropriety impinge on financial impropriety.

In 2001, the Supreme Court made a distinction between investigation and prosecution. The Justices said a President, the Vice-President; and a Governor or his Deputy can be investigated but not prosecuted because their immunity is absolute. The report of the investigation is to be preserved and when he or she is out of office, prosecution can proceed accordingly and unhindered.

The freezing of Osun State finances in the banks targeted at the Governor, Ademola Adeleke was, therefore, ill-advised. It was also ill-timed. Is it not said that discretion is the better part of valour? The political atmosphere in Osun State was and still is politically charged. There have been shootings at rallies and in one instance deaths occurred. The Federal Government and Osun State Government are brandishing different party flags. The Federal Government is seen not only as the Big Brother but as a bullying one at that. There is the deep Opposition suspicion of what Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) may say or do, also its body language, all believed as coming from President Tinubu: “The voice is the voice of Jacob, but the hands are the hands of Esau.” (Genesis 27: 27). The voice of Jacob is the Presidency.

The atmosphere has been so volatile, so combustible that it requires only a careless cigarette stick end to set off a conflagration. The wife of Governor Adeleke personally led a protest against what her crowd called wrongful arrests and violence. National Opposition leaders staged rallies with mammoth crowds whom they addressed and urged to reject APC, the President’s party. For fears out of recognition of the volatility of the situation, 25, 310 security personnel, 15,000 of them policemen and women, have been deployed to the state spread across the 30 local government areas. A total of 30, 000 youth corps members have been mobilised.

The nation has been saved credibility deficiency of the polls and endless controversy with the President’s courageous intervention lifting the freeze on the bank accounts of Osun State government. It is not in the circumstances of a tension-soaked state and citizens moving about with baited breath that a federal agency would begin to harass a governor who himself is on the ballot for a second term to render account of his administration’s finances following suspicion of impropriety.

If the EFCC did not exercise discretion on a matter so clear and commonsensical as reserving its action for a more auspicious time, when it would not be seen as running Bola Tinubu’s errand, should Tinubu not see it the other way round? It was a question of what was the greater risk to the overall health of the country —social, economic and political—staring the President pointedly in the face; and the President not taking action for fear of accusation of compromising the independence of EFCC. In any case, how many would have believed that the EFCC acted without some whispers or clearing body language from the President? Which of the risks should the President have chosen? I am persuaded the President chose wisely. And he said he was embarrassed by the action of the EFCC.

The action would have handed over the much-needed, indeed, irresistible ammunition for the Opposition to challenge Tinubu’s claim to neutrality and desire to see a free and fair out-of-season election in Osun State. And we are talking about a state in the heart of Yorubaland.

Dr. Stanley Macebuh, the scholar sworn to fecundity of thought and disarming purity of words, and exceptional craftsmanship and diction, wrote in 1978 in his compelling column in the Daily Times where he was chair of the Editorial Board, the first such board in Nigeria’s newspapering, what he captioned: “Bound to Violence.” He said the area you don’t joke with the Yoruba is in unremitted pursuit of political power; for the Igbos, it is money. For the Hausa/Fulani, it is religion. These are the weaknesses of the three major ethnic groups, which can easily trigger violence, according to Dr. Macebuh. Marching towards violence was unmistakable in Osun. After all, can anyone pretend not to have heard APC Senator Francis Fadahunsi’s controversial pronouncement on shooting?

The buck of charges of intimidation, electoral manipulation and assumed unfair and crisis-riddled election stops on Tinubu’s table. It would be said of whoever wins among the Opposition parties that he did so in spite of the President and his “machination”. If APC wins, the singsong would be: What do you expect? A great many Nigerians—stakeholders, candidates for the big masquerades—see the Osun election as a 2027 dress rehearsal.Whatever happens in Osun would be regarded as a measure of what to expect in 2027. Therefore, the Presidency has more than a stake in the election of tomorrow. Tinubu has the sanctity of his office to protect and his candidature in the 2027 polls freed of unwholesome baggage.

The intervention does not free Osun State Government from the EFCC hook, it does not stop the EFCC from doing its work when the elections are over and results have been declared and the tension would have hopefully abated. The presidential discretion exercised wisely in circumstances of the state at the moment is only temporary.