by Wilfred Okiche

The 10 ignobles on this list were in(directly) involved in the biggest scandals of the year. From a serving Senator who has been acting less than honourable his entire career to the monetary policy professional who seems to have not the slightest clue what his job description is about, these 10 folks need to go.

Rauf Aregbesola             

When it comes to governance, it seems that Osun state governor, Rauf Aregbesola,- once hailed as the great hope,- is all out of ideas. Presently in his second term, Aregbesola has been thoroughly demystified by his inability to pay staff salaries even as the effects of the recession bite harder. When he is not in the news for his chronic indebtedness, he is conceiving hare brained schemes like the distribution of weighing scales to market folk.

Tukur Buratai

Chief of Army Staff, Tukur Buratai found himself in the eye of the storm when it was revealed that he and his wives were owners of properties in Dubai valued at about $1.5 million. In his defence, Buratai claimed the choice homes were acquired legitimately with savings and the Code of Conduct Bureau gave him an all clear, even when Buratai was the army’s director of procurement for a long period. He should have stepped aside until investigations were concluded.

Solomon Dalung

The Vanguard newspaper ran a stinging editorial in November calling . No surprise here as the thoroughly unprofessional Dalung has overseen the neglect of the Olympic team as they headed for Rio and mishandled the supremacy battle in the Nigerian Football Federation (NFF). Known for making offensive gaffes, Dalung was in the news recently for advising that Nigeria sit out the 2018 football World Cup in Russia for flimsy reasons.

Yakubu Dogara

The Speaker of the House of Representatives is best known for his role in the budget padding scandal brought to light by the disgruntled House member and former ally, Abdulmumuni Jibrin. The revelations coming out of the padding saga did not portray Dogara in a good light at all and in more sensitive climes would have been more than enough to force his ouster by voluntary or forceful means. Not our Honourable Speaker who held on to his office and perks for dear life.

Godwin Emefiele

2016 was the year Nigeria’s economy, once the largest in Africa, officially entered recession. This did not happen overnight as years of government waste, failure to plan ahead and a refusal to adapt to immediate changes all pointed at this. Emefiele as governor of the Central Bank has been such a mess, Nigerians no longer have any confidence in his leadership. He effectively surrendered the CBN’s autonomy and mismanaged the forex crises that persists till date.

Abdulmumuni Jibrin

Jibrin, Federal House member man representing Kiru/Bebeji federal constituency in Kano state opened a can of worms when he accused the House leadership of padding the budget and appropriating to themselves, obscene sums of money. The house leadership gave back as good as they got, relieving Jibrin of his juicy committee leadership and essentially sending him into political exile while the EFCC axe dangles close by. At this point Jibrin is of no use to his constituents and he should have just stepped aside to fight his battles to the finish.

Dino Melaye

Dino Melaye may have been awarded the Senator of the Year trophy by the shameful members of the Senate Press Corps but do not for a second forget that Melaye is the same person who hurled abusive and vulgar language at Oluremi Tinubu, a fellow senator while in the same breath,  threatening to rape and impregnate her. Melaye has also threatened to kill anyone testifying against the Senate President and his deputy during their forgery trial.

Audu Ogbeh

The Minister for Agriculture and Rural Development has especially failed to rise up to the challenge of setting up agriculture as the economy’s next great hope. In trying to move away from an Oil dependent economy, the Buhari administration set its sights on agriculture but clearly Ogbeh, though a farmer himself, isn’t the man to lead the charge. He has mismanaged every crises to come his way from the tomato scarcity to the food insufficiency challenge, herdsmen clashes to GMO debate.

Rochas Okorocha

Rochas Okorocha of Imo state has successfully written the book on how not to govern a state. The man’s excesses are humongous, his ego incredible. Okorocha governs like Imo state is his play thing. The state has been stuck in non-development mode for years now. Infrastructure is in shambles and civil servants consider themselves lucky to be paid salaries at all.

Bukola Saraki

The Senate President may be the cat with nine lives but his political sagacity which he is revered for of late, has all come at the expense of the office that he occupies. Since he was elected by a cross section of his colleagues under less than noble circumstances, Saraki’s attention has been split between defending himself at the Code of Conduct tribunal for failing to declare assets and defending himself from allegations of forging Senate Standing Order. He may have survived both but thanks to him, the office of the Senate Presidency stinks.