by Wilfred Okiche

Honour is not a character that is usually associated with the political class but the 10 people on this list have, according to observers, breached the public trust and abused the privileges that accompany the offices they hold.

From big spending, private jet setting ministers, to hate spewing advisers, coaches who don’t know when to quit, to ineffective defence chiefs, these are the 11 people who should have resigned this year.

10) Marilyn Ogar

Speaking for any Nigerian public official or institution is a thankless task that demands only the most accomplished of professionals. In carrying out her responsibilities, Marilyn Ogar, Deputy director, Publicity of the Department of State Services has proven to be far from that. Unable to shy away from the cameras, Ms Ogar has been as unchecked in her utterances as she has been unrelenting in her propaganda drive. Not one to observe any chill, every issue the DSS is involved in for her, is to be traced to the APC and she has probably never heard of the word non-partisanship before. She does her organization no favours.

9) Suleiman Abba

It wasn’t long before Suleiman Abba was appointed Inspector General of Police, than he began to show himself as a willing political tool. If the conduct of his men who breached the premises of the national assembly in November, in an ill-fated bid to prevent duly elected legislators from resuming sitting was despicable, then his own refusal to recognise Alhaji Tambuwal as speaker of the House of Representatives while making an appearance at the Police affairs committee probing the incident, proves he understands so little of his job description.

8) Alex Badeh

Air Vice Marshall Alex Badeh who was appointed Chief of Defence Staff in January has proven so far to be a very ineffective war time commander. Under his watch, Boko Haram has become an unforgiving army, capturing swaths of the North East, including Vimtim, Badeh’s own hometown in Adamawa state. No greater shame than that we say, but it gets worse. The captured Chibok girls are yet to return despite Badeh’s earlier reassurances that the armed forces were aware of their location and every other day, there is news of more abductions. These days, only a few Nigerians take him seriously.

7) Reno Omokri

The presidential assistant on new media who doubles as a man of God in his spare time was publicly disgraced when a document which he allegedly authored under the moniker, Wendell Slimlin began making its way across various media platforms. The document accused the then embattled governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi of sponsoring Boko Haram attacks, allegations that were quickly neutered when the real identity of the sender of the email was quickly unearthed by a group of enthusiastic investigators.

6) Diezani Alison-Madueke

The longest serving minister on President Jonathan’s cabinet is also the most powerful woman in Nigeria. There are a long list of infractions for which Madueke should have resigned a long time ago but this year alone, she was enmeshed in scandals involving profligate spending and private jet renting. The most scandalous this year however, has been the matter of the billions of Naira paid to service a practically non-existent kerosene subsidy. The freshly elected OPEC president admitted she declined to implement a presidential directive because the late president Yar’Adua failed to gazette it. What is more? She got away with everything.

5) Aminu Tambuwal                                           

The Speaker of the House of Representatives caused needless political anarchy and near grounding of the entire legislative process when he switched loyalties from the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the All Progressive Congress (APC) but refused to honourably resign his appointment. The scaling of fences, tear gassing of his colleagues, heated political debates could have been neatly side stepped had Tambuwal chosen the path of honour.

4) Stephen Keshi

Whatever happens, Stephen Keshi will go down in history as arguably the most successful coach of the Super Eagles but his legacy would have been better served had he resigned his appointment after guiding the Eagles to a record equalling second round appearance at the World Cup in Brazil. He chose to hang on despite a turbulent, abusive relationship with the administrators at the Nigerian Football Federation and was sacked, then rehired after the president’s intervention. After his lauded successes, he promptly went on to leave the team exactly where he met it, unable to qualify for the nations cup and defend their title in Equatorial Guinea next year.

3) Doyin Okupe

Where shall we begin with Dr Okupe? The offensive #BringBackGoodluckJonathan? The comparisons of a diminished president to Jesus Christ? The public trolling of General Muhammadu Buhari and the opposition? The CNN appearances that did government more harm than good? The terrible Twitter rants? The only thing Okupe has succeeded at effectively in his job as presidential spokesman, is making his principal look all kinds of terrible.

2) Chris Olukolade

He delivered the false alarm that all of the Chibok girls, abducted from their secondary school in Borno state in April had been rescued by the Nigerian military. Sadly Major General Chris Olukolade’s claims proved to be false but it is surprising that he still retains his position as director of defence information following the grave error.

1)  Abba Moro

This year, Interior Minister, Abba Moro became the most hated man in Nigeria when he supervised a tragic recruitment process by the National Immigration Service that left about 16 young Nigerians dead. This followed stampedes in various stadia across the country as applicants scrambled for desperately inadequate exam materials even though over 700,000 of them had paid 1 thousand Naira each. Moro would go on to show not a shed of remorse and even accused the dead of being impatient and unruly. The serial jailbreaks that occur while Moro oversees our prisons are a matter for further contemplation as to why he still has a job.

 

– The writer tweets from @drwill20