FOR every action, there should be a reaction. For every position held, there should be a day of accounting. It is true that, from the days of the First Republic, an overwhelming percentage of those who held public office invariably walked away without giving an account of their stewardship. That is why society is brimming with past political office holders, civilian and military, reputed to be millionaires and billionaires whose sources of affluence dare not be publicly declared.

But, according to Goethe, the German version of the English Shakespeare: “The fact that things have remained bad for so long does not mean that change is impossible.” In that wise, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi’s allegation of monumental fraud at the NNPC requires thorough investigation. Because it should not be swept under the carpet, it is welcome news from Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, the Coordinating Minister for the Economy and Finance Minister, who has promised a “forensic auditing” of the NNPC account by reputable international auditing bodies.

The matter has a reverse side, the only problem being that a great majority of those who are baying for a probe of the NNPC do not begin to get the insistence that other individuals and institutions could do with the probe. One such individual deserving of a thorough probe is Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, the suspended Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria. Nigerians need to know in every detail how this individual ran the affairs of the country’s apex financial institution for five unbroken years. There is a good reason for this call for a probe. But, first, the recap of a 2000-year old Biblical story!

A woman was hauled in front of Jesus by some men who accused her of adultery. Under the Mosaic law, adultery carried a mandatory death sentence by stoning. Some readers of this story often fall short of realising that not just the alleged adulterer, but Jesus himself, was also in the dock. Jesus, as the reformer, had happened on the Jewish people with the message of forgiveness. If someone slapped you on one cheek, he preached, you turned the other cheek for the resounding repeat blow! If anyone took possession of your cloak, why, you let him have your coat also. How was Jesus going to respond to the woman’s accusers, who hadn’t even bothered to produce the partner of the alleged adulterous act?

Yes, the Pharisees and the Sanhedrin were intent on nailing Jesus. They wanted him to pronounce against the Mosaic Law of ‘an eye for an eye’, and ‘a tooth for a tooth’, in order that they would find justification for his crucifixion. That would be the obvious consequence of Jesus pronouncing his message of forgiveness on the woman. On the other hand, if Jesus upheld the Law of Moses, he would be branded a hypocrite who preached what he didn’t practise. Of course, Jesus knew where his adversaries were coming from. For which reason, he demonstrated to them that the head was bigger than the body.

According to the story, Jesus invited those of the woman’s accusers who were without sin, to commence pelting the accused with stones. Meanwhile, he bent low and started writing on the sand. What was he writing? Some interpreters of the Sacred Word have offered that as Jesus wrote, each person in the crowd read clearly their own sins in the Preacher’s fine hand. By the time Jesus finished writing and stood back up to his full height, everyone in the crowd had disappeared, leaving behind just Jesus and the alleged adulterer. Jesus then did what he always preached. He set the woman free, with the admonition to sin no more. He demonstrated to all and sundry, that the head is bigger than the body.

Today in Nigeria we still think and behave like the Pharisees and the Sanhedrin. The mentality of motor park justice still has a stranglehold on us. The moment we hear the screams of “Ole, Ole!” we move in to lynch the hapless person accused of stealing. Jungle justice! Are we saying by mob lynching that accusation is equivalent to guilt? Do we not realise that in some cases, the call to instant lynching is designed to silence people who could sing like a bird and, thus, expose gang members whose hands are deep in the till? In screaming to the heavens about his perceived fraud and graft at the NNPC, was there no chance that Sanusi expected a public uproar capable of blurring logical thinking and sound reasoning?  Was there no chance that he was diverting attention from his person? Was it not the case that Sanusi’s allegations elicited from acolytes, activists, carpet-crossing politicians, pundits and saints the picking up of the gauntlet for howls of execration? Was that the best way for the altruistic to go about things? Was Sanusi’s penchant for courting publicity not a subjugation of presidential powers, a confusion of CBN autonomy for his personal autonomy? Is there in the whole of Northern Nigeria any village head or emir who would tolerate the spectacle of a member of his council of chiefs repeatedly and publicly ranting against his authority?

But this is not about Sanusi’s sins, assuming he has any. Rather, it is about the equality of everyone under the law. It is about what is good for the goose being equally good for the gander. It is a case against precipitate action. It is a call for the activities and finances of the NNPC to be forensically audited as promised by the Finance Minister, just as it is a call for Sanusi’s five years at the CBN to be examined.

The issues raised against Sanusi by the Financial Reporting Council deserve to be properly scrutinized, even if only to guarantee that there hadn’t been a witch-hunt. To what extent were his donations of Nigeria’s billions to sundry interests justified? There is more. Did Sanusi act within the bounds of the law establishing his office in the style and manner he employed in “sanitizing” commercial banks? Specifically, did Erastus Akingbola, the former Managing Director of the Intercontinental Bank Plc, have a point in the letter of protest he sent to Mr. President, alleging gross misconduct against Mr. Sanusi?

Despite Mr. Akingbola grave allegations, I cannot condemn Sanusi. He, like the top functionaries of the NNPC, must remain innocent until proven otherwise. If their innocence is established, they must be vindicated. That is what the law of natural justice dictates.

That is what the Nigerian Constitution stipulates. Nigerians want to know whether the stone-thrower has been living in a glass house all along. They want to know whether the one who had gone to equity did so with clean hands. They want it demonstrated that a lecturer on morality cannot come from the ranks of brothel dwellers. They want people who hold public office to always give account. That is what Sanusi is all about today.

*Mr. CHUKS ILOEGBUNAM, a  former Chief of Staff to Gov Peter Obi of Anambra State, wrote from Lagos.