Obla, Enang gone, Fowler next?

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By Charles Okogene
First it was Ita Engag, the Senior SSA on National Assembly Matters to thje president. Then came the turn of Okoi Obono-Obla.Before one could say jack, they have dethroned all powerful and fearful Obla who had in the past sent fears down the spines of looters.
These gentlemen were sent away from their exalted offices with no reason except for what had been in the rumour mills; in the case of Enang, he was shown the door in what arm- chair critics call his failure to handle ‘very well’ the President’s relationship with the eight Senate despite the fact that he was once a distinguished senator. While Obla was said to have been asked to go due to his ‘questionable’ West Africa Examinations Certificate.

Anyway, whatever the reasons for sending them away, the fact remains that they are now ‘men of yesterday’ as far as the present government of President Muhammadu Buhari is concerned.

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And now, the searchlight is beamed on another southerner. In this case, a South Westerner presumed to be one of the boys of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu in the government in the person of Mr. Babatunde Fowler.
They are closing in on him and in no time, they will succeed in pushing him into the gully.
Fowler’s problem with the cabals started when it was rumoured that because of the ‘good’ work he is doing at the Federal Inland Revenue Services (FIRS), he might succeed the Central Bank Governor (CBN), Mr. Godwin Emefiele, when his tenure expires; however, the president pulled the rug off everyone’s feet when he renewed Emefiele’s appointment.
But before then, the cabals, in an attempt to rubbish his track records and reputation, had alleged that he (Fowler) had stuffed his girlfriend’s bank account with hefty sums of money and invited  Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC)to quiz him and some members of his staff. An unending investigation, you might say.
Now they have changed strategy. They have come with the news that since gentleman Fowler took over as the chairman of FIRS in 2015, that he has never met his target. An easy way to accuse him of incompetence and in the words of a popular musician, ‘… e si konga’ (push him into the well). They claimed that in 2015, FIRS under Fowler, targeted for itself N4.7 trillion but delivered N3.7 trillion. They did not stop at that, they further claimed that for the years 2016, 2017, and 2018 the targeted collection were N4.2, N4.8 and N6.7 trillions but actually raked in N3.3, N4.0 and N5.8 trillions respectively. For that, he was asked in the query to explain the reasons for the shortfalls. The process of easing him out they have started by first slamming him with a query to explain why he is a giant in ideas but a pygmy in delivery. In the query, he was given till close of business on Monday, August 19, 2019 to respond to the query.
The same cabal that want to see his back made sure the query, which ought to be an internal affair, got to the mainstream and social media. So they can replace him with one of theirs.
Some people who ought to know and who actually know, say that all these media trial and query publications is geared towards one thing, to prevent the president from reappointing him for second term as his first tenure is getting to an end so one of them or anointed candidate can take over. And they have adopted the ‘ if you cannot get the ball, get the leg’ approach, which is very popular in football parlance. They want to first mess him up, make him not fit for reappointment before they consign him to the dustbin of history and drop him like a hot potato.
To them, the fall of Fowler, is a task that must be done and they are sparing no effort in achiving that.

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