3rd April, 2013
By Odunayo Joseph
There is no doubt that the ossified profligacy and the reckless urge for sharing rather than baking of the national cake has become the hallmark of governance at all levels in Nigeria. One of the highlights of the report of the House of Representatives on fuel subsidy fraud, as published on the front page, pages 2 and 61 of The Nation newspaper of Thursday, 19 April, 2012, was the indictment of 15 companies that obtained FOREX but did not import petroleum products. This particular highlight is no doubt a reminder to the on-going trial of the immediate past president of Zambia, Banda, who is currently being asked to explain what he knew about a purported business deal with the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, in which his government paid for petroleum products that were never received in Zambia from Nigeria. There is no doubt that the corruption bug that has been ravaging this parastatal has sadly been exported to Zambia, a country that can be reputed to be one out of the few countries on the African continent that have continued to earn respect for its zero tolerance for corruption going by the reports of the Transparency International (TI) since inception in 1999.
Now that another election is around the corner in barely two years from now, Nigerians, in the spirit of the Freedom of Information law, would want the Federal Government, through the Corporate Affairs Commission, to unmask the owners and directors of the indicted companies in the fuel subsidy fraud.
Under normal situation, the revealing the identities of the fuel subsidy thieves to the public would go a long way in making the screening of would-be candidates for the forthcoming elections in April 2015 by the relevant bodies such as INEC, the EFCC and the ICPC less burdensome. The indicted companies are owned by people in our midst and not ghosts.
There is need for those that have blamed and are still condemning President Goodluck Jonathan for awarding a contract to the tune of N5.6 billion to ex-Ijaw militants Mujahdid Dokubo-Asari, Ateke Tom, Ebikaowei “Boyloaf” Victor Ben and Government “Tompolo” Ekpumopolo, for safeguarding oil pipelines in the Niger Delta region from any further vandalisation to have a rethink in the face of the already exposed pervasive rot in the oil sector. Apart from the fact that the contract sum is a tip of an iceberg compared to the N1.070 trillion ordered by the House of Representatives Ad Hoc Committee on Fuel Subsidy Management in April, 2012 to be refunded to the coffers of the Federal Government by NNPC, PPPRA and Marketers, a quick reference to an excerpt (below) in the interview granted by President Goodluck Jonathan, and which appeared on page 13 in Saturday Punch of 17 March, 2007 from all expectations should be enough to douse the noise over the purported contract award and the barrage of criticisms coming from the public. There is no doubt that those already familiar with the pervasiveness of corruption that has already assumed a frightening dimension in our society would see the contract award as tantamount to making a hill out of a molehill.
Back to the said interview, Goodluck Jonathan, as the nation’s Vice President under the Umaru Yar’Adua administration when it was granted, spoke on many issues such as his background, his romance with poverty, his plan for writing a book to be titled Deputy Governors and Governance in Nigeria and on some other political and non-political issues. On the Niger Delta situation, he said:
“I was born and bred in the Niger Delta. I schooled and worked in the Niger Delta except for the National Youth Service Corps posting for a year. I did my Primary four to six in Oloibiri (the community where oil was first discovered in commercial quantity in 1956).
I am therefore in the best position to work with my boss (Yar’Adua) regarding permanent solutions to the problems of the Niger Delta and that I will do to the best of my ability.”
Indeed whatever contribution made by Mr. President either directly or indirectly to the actualization of the contract award should be seen as taken by one who knows where the shoe pinches as far as restiveness in Niger Delta area is concerned and not as an overcompensation as being mouthed by his critics on this issue.
A pertinent question for us all is: When one bears in mind that Nigeria is a country where impunity has taken the front seat in governance and where the idea of ‘monkey-dey-work-baboon-dey chop’ syndrome has not only taken a firm root in the polity but accepted as a norm in the society could anyone in the shoes of Mr. President have acted otherwise? In the words of Abraham Lincoln, “Any act of injustice ANYWHERE is a threat to justice EVERYWHERE”. It is in the light of this that those blaming Mr. President for his involvement in the contract award should have a rethink and better understanding of the matter with a view to seeing his action as a national sacrifice taken in the spirit of ‘doctrine of necessity’ to prevent another era of oil pipeline vandalisation in Niger Delta area and the attendant negative impact on the nation’s mono oil economy.
The bitter truth is that it is high time the uneven distribution of the nation’s wealth in all ramifications was checked by the three tiers of government in our country i.e. the Federal Government, all the 36 state governments and in particular the oil producing states with a view to bridging the existing wide gap between the haves (the rich) and the have-nots (the poor) in the society and thus reduce the tension and restiveness among the populace as is the case in our country today. Unfortunately, an area of deficiency, either by omission or commission, in the fight against corruption in our society is the nonchallant attitude of the people, religious leaders, traditional rulers, pressure groups, ethnic groups in asking questions from past and present public office holders including past and present civil servants at federal and state levels on how they come about their sudden and stupendous wealth acquired in a crazy manner with more than 95 per cent of the populace living in abject poverty. Without doubt, the age long practice of keeping sealed lips and the attitude of looking the other way while the nation’s wealth is being openly mismanaged and plundered has no doubt made corruption in the country to turn to a monster that is unfortunately proving difficult to be tamed. Gone were the days when stealing a few thousands naira in Nigeria by anybody would attract condemnation and ostracism by the society but today, there abound youths and elders who steal not in only in millions but in billions and trillions and yet the whole society including our leaders, politicians, religious leaders and even the majority if not all electorate look the other way with utter pretence as if all is well in the society as a whole. That is the level of decay in our society and that is why there is nothing to write home about the living standard of an average Nigerian whether in the North, South, West or East in our country. In my reaction to a musing on bad governance in Nigeria that was published in the Sunday Punch of 14 March, 2010, I said “It is quite unfortunate that our youths who should have checkmated the greed of leaders in our country are themselves actively involved in the pervasive ‘get rich quick’ syndrome that is not helping matters”. There is no doubt that Nigeria is at crossroads with the youths and the elders pointing fingers to one another on the prevailing moral decadence in the society.
Going down memory lane, it was reported in one of the Nigerian dailies in December 2010 that private jet owners (70 of them as at that time) spent N7.8 billion yearly on maintenance and expatriate pilots. With the outcome of the fuel subsidy scam and pension fraud probes only God knows what the number of Nigerians that have joined the league of private jet owners in Nigeria and the amount that is being spent to maintain the jets would be by now. How many of our political leaders and past public office holders will be able to give a satisfactory explanation to the people on how they came about acquiring the money to buy and to maintain the jets in their possession? As the sixth largest producer of oil in the world, our country cannot boast of a national carrier for now while poor countries when compared to Nigeria, still manage to float their nation’s airlines in a profitable and in an efficient manner. Can Nigeria still witness another era of ‘Nigeria Airways’ as its national carrier in the face of the classy romance with private jets by politicians and leaders in our midst?
Public schools and universities in Nigeria were bastardised and abandoned by leaders and politicians who turned around to use state resources in the manner they usually do during electioneering campaign to get their children trained in foreign schools and universities, including less endowed neighboring countries such as Benin Republic and Ghana in terms of natural resources. The question now is: Is Nigeria not moving towards reservation and preservation of qualitative education for only the children of the rich? The answer no doubt explains why Prof. Wole Soyinka advocated for closure of Nigeria’s university system for two years owing to our bad university system in all ramifications.
It is time all Nigerians and our politicians in particular were adequately informed nationwide on the aphoristic statement of Ghandi that says: ‘THERE WILL BE ENOUGH TO SATISFY ALL OUR NEEDS BUT THERE CAN NEVER BE ENOUGH TO SATISFY OUR GREED’. In my write-up titled “Should we allow greed and corruption to kill our country?” published in one of the Nigerian newspapers at the beginning of the year on Tuesday, January 1, 2013, I gave the definition of the word ‘greed’ quoting the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English as ‘a strong desire for more food, money, power, possessions etc., than you need”. I also reminded President Jonathan on his appeal to Nigerians for patience with his administration and his promise to improve on governance by his administration in year 2013 with a strong advice that the area that Nigerians would want him to improve upon, as a matter of priority, is the eradication of pervasive greed and corruption in the polity. To make the achievement of this task easier for Mr. President, I advised him to revisit the jettisoned private bill on assets forfeiture of greedy and corrupt Nigerians to the government that was submitted to the National Assembly by a former EFCC Chairman, Chief (Mrs.) Farida Waziri and that there is need for an executive bill on ‘whistle-blowing’ as a fundamental right of the citizens in the country to be sent to the National Assembly. I also praised the Central Bank for introducing of whistle-blowing at checking the rot in the banking industry with an advice to the Federal Government and the state governments to borrow leaf from the apex bank by also introducing the act of ‘whistle-blowing’ in all the Federal and States’ MDAs. The question now remains: Will Nigerians not be happy if Mr. President promises to implement this advice? Had the bill on the forfeiture of illegally acquired wealth been passed into law in our country, what percentage of our past and present politicians and public office holders would not be found wanting if confronted with the sources of the properties they have acquired for themselves and unborn generations?
In another candid advice given on ‘the challenges of administration in Nigeria’ by a one-time President, Certified Board of Administrators in Nigeria, Prof. Gbolahan Dairo while speaking with a Punch staff (Ganiyu Obaaro), published on page 31 in The Punch of Wednesday, 19 August, 2009, he lamented about greed as bane of administration in Nigeria and opined, in a patriotic manner, that: “If we forget about greed, the government can make everybody comfortable.”. This is nothing but the absolute truth that must be acknowledged by all politicians and public office holders in our country. Of note also is a self-explanatory cartoon that appeared beneath the Editorial in the Punch edition of Tuesday, 7 December, 2010. No doubt, it speaks volumes about governance in Nigeria. In the said cartoon, a robust and well-fed public officer with a bold inscription ‘ELECTED PUBLIC OFFICER’ on the ‘polo’ worn by him could be seen sucking a feeding bottle belonging to a haggard-looking undernourished child with an inscription ‘MASSES’ on the load hung at his back. The child whose hand is held by the elected public officer are trekking together towards a destination marked ‘2020’ with the child sobbing profusely and saying ‘HABA, YOU’VE TAKEN SO MUCH OF THE HONEY MEANT FOR ME!’.
The age-long greed in the polity is also evident, based on the revelation of a one-time Chairman of the Nigerian Railway Corporation Brigadier-General Osaigbovo Ogbemudia (retd.) who, during a TV interview on African Independent Television (AIT) on Sunday, 21 August, 2005. He narrated to the public on how his life was threatened by some selfish Nigerians in the transport business with a view to dissuade him from carrying out some reforms which would ensure an efficient rail transportation that would have been most beneficial to the masses.
It is high time the prayer of all Nigerians with a resounding Amen, irrespective of religion at all times be: “May God touch the minds of our politicians and public office holders towards the realization of the dream of an average Nigerian for the emergence of an egalitarian Nigerian society where the three basic needs of life, that is, food, clothing and shelter, would be guaranteed for the people in the midst of plenty and to continue to bless our nation which was born to be a great one but which is being steadfastly destroyed by greed, impunity and corruption or better still, ‘legal corruption’ to borrow the language of a veteran journalist, Dr. Doyin Abiola.
• Joseph wrote from Lagos. • e-mail: odunayo_ [email protected] •Tel: 08053488121