Re: Bode George: Requiem For Our Values

There is no doubt that patriotic Nigerians, members of human rights associations and corruption watchdogs in Nigeria would not lose sleep over the professional touch given to the discussion by Tunde Fagbenle in his column ‘Tunde Fagbenle on Sunday’ in Sunday Punch edition of March 6, 2011 on the embarrassing celebration that followed the release of Bode George from prison on 26 March, 2011 after completing a 2-year imprisonment term over corruption while serving as the Chairman of  the Nigerian Ports Authority during the Obasanjo administration.

It is rather unfortunate that shortly after the display of celebration and fanfare that accompanied a good example of monumental corruption in our country, another country, China, according to the VOA news on 6 March, 2011, “is vowing to spend more on social programmes this year and step up its  fight against inflation”. What an irony!

Without doubt, this celebration must have been another source of embarrassment not only to the political party to which the celebrant belongs (PDP), but to the country that is trying to shake off the toga of notoriety for pervasive corruption as a whole.  The dramatis personae in your write up, Bode George, was sent to prison over embezzlement of funds running into a hundred billion naira. Sadly enough, while the dust surrounding the condemnation that followed the celebration and tumultuous welcome for Bode George in full readiness to begin savouring of the stolen public fund by him and his children and unborn generation is yet to settle, another report on tracing of another N12 billion to the bank account of a female Director of the Pension Department in the office of the Head of Service, Mrs. Patricia Chidi and her immediate boss, Dr. Suleiman Shuaibu, made the headline story of most newspapers on Sunday, 6 March 2011.

I may be proved wrong, but I think there is need for a second look to be taken at the basis for the celebration by Bode George in the first place. The Vice Chairman of the ruling party in China was executed for corruption some years back and considering the top position which the politician was holding in PDP, also a ruling party in Nigeria before his conviction two years ago, he should have thanked God for being alive to enjoy his look.  Afterall, what fate would have befallen him were he to be a Chinese holding same position in China?  If the suggestion made in the past for the execution of corrupt public office holders in Nigeria were to be entrenched in the Nigerian constitution, would someone like of Bode George been alive to celebrate his loot?

In as much as the majority of Nigerians will support what Tunde Fagbenle wrote on the celebration of Bode George, many will however not support his idea of visiting the sin of  Bode George, on a whole political party to which he undoubtedly belongs. There is no doubt that in PDP there still abound many Nigerians who are still contributing their quota to uplift the welfare of the masses. They are at the vanguard in the fight for good governance in our country.  A good example is Senator Smart Adeyemi, representing Kogi West Senatorial District, in Abuja who is on record today as the first lawmaker in the country to take the bull by the horns in condemning the jumbo pay being enjoyed by all our lawmakers at all levels of governance today in Nigeria. He also kicked against the payment of fat gratuity to past heads of government in Nigeria at the expense of the impoverished people in Nigeria.

Another example is the Governor of Cross River State whose fight against cultism in the civil service in his state was successful and still stands today as a wake-up call on his counterparts and those to come after the April 2011 polls in the remaining 35 states to follow his footstep.  At various times, the incumbent Governor of Gombe State and that of Akwa Ibom State were voted as the best performing governors in Nigeria.  The bitter truth is that rather than blame PDP for the shame brought to the nation after the events that followed the release of Bode George from prison, the chunk of the blame should go to the people who chose to celebrate corruption rather than condemn it. On this unfortunately situation, the cases of former  governor Alameiyesiaga of Bayelsa State and former governor Joshua Dariye of Plateau State readily come to mind.

There is no doubt also that our country needs nothing but absolute patriotism on the part of the people to shun corruption and the  support either by omission or commission for corrupt elements in the society.  There is no gainsaying that our politicians are looting the public treasury blind and no political party is an exception to this unfortunate development which culminated in the intervention of the military in governance in our nation in 1966. The question is: Is our country practising real democracy and has any of our politicians of today learnt any lesson from the bitter experience of the past in the history of our nation?

In my article titled ‘Corruption and Dishonesty: Let’s Fight the Vices’ published by the P.M NEWS on 8 November, 2004, but which was published under Viewpoint and titled ‘ICPC, EFCC and the Anti-Graft War’ on page 15 in The Punch of Wednesday 17 November, 2004 and also published on page 8 in Nigerian Tribune of 29 November, 2004 titled ‘Fighting Corruption and Dishonesty’, I quoted the National Publicity Secretary of Afenifere in 2004 as having said that “the nation must begin real and sincere action against graft by ensuring that it becomes more difficult to steal public fund and at the same time get chieftaincy titles and recognition in the society” while in two of the paragraphs of  the same article, I said and repeat for the umpteenth time that “We should now call a spade a spade.  Corrupt elements, no matter their standing in our society, should be treated as lepers who need to be isolated from the larger society.  This is the short cut through which corruption can be discouraged and played down in our country”.

May God save our country from imminent ruin owing to pervasive corruption in the society.

•Odunayo Joseph wrote from Mopa, Kogi State.