“The way to get on in the world is to be neither more nor less wise, neither better nor worse than your neighbours”. - William Hazlitt
“Only mediocrity can be trusted to be always at its best”. - Max Beerbohm
Nigeria’s new Minister of Foreign Affairs, Chief Ojo Maduekwe, who spoke recently at a book presentation by former Minister of Education, Professor Tunde Adeniran, in Abuja, announced a “retaliatory” foreign policy, warning that any country that presents Nigeria as corrupt without showcasing the intellect of Nigerians would be declared a “hostile nation”. He further said that it is geared towards “protecting” the image and integrity of Nigeria and retaliates against countries who are hostile and who brand Nigeria as “corrupt”.
While Chief Ojo Maduekwe’s statement is very commendable, we should look beyond mere rhetoric, as all our leaders and representatives have been posturing over the decades. The problem is that most of them do not mean what they say, and neither do they practice what they preach, not only to their fellow Nigerians, but also to the world in general. In most cases, our rulers come up with great ideas and words to that effect and espouse seemingly noble causes that will make the country’s image, and indeed, the lives of their people better, but end up not doing anything at all. Of course, Nigerians are used to this, but it is our sincere hope that this will not the same way as things have been going since independence.
On the face of it, I quite agree with Maduekwe’s new diplomatic policy – that is, encouraging other countries to promote the positive aspects of Nigeria and Nigerians and not just the negative and derogatory. We are also in agreement that for every single 419 fraudster and corrupt instance, there are hundreds of Nigerians all over the world who should be recognised positively for the positive image they portray of Nigeria and Nigerians. There is no doubt about this.
However, charity begins at home, so they say and should apply. What the Honourable Minister, and the rest of the Nigerian Government should be applying their energy and efforts to, is contributing to this new image by exorcising the devil in their own midst. The fact remains that corruption is still endemic in Nigeria. We still have the cases of the corrupt ex-governors pending and from the antics of our own Attorney-General and Minister for Justice, Michael Aondoakaa, SAN, flexing a lot of unnecessary, misplaced and misinformed muscles with the EFCC (This man is definitely compromised and an interested party with another ex-governor’s EFCC case, and should be made to declare his interests) in the Orji Kalu case, it seems they are bent on quashing the case, and letting Kalu go scot-free - and there is a real concern for us about this development. This does not bode well for Nigeria or for the stance of Maduekwe and the government he represents.
Another instance is the shenanigan of the Speaker of the House, Patricia Etteh, a former hair-dresser, who has proved to us that what a Nigerian man can do in terms of corruption, a Nigerian woman can surely do better. Her silence has been deafening on this issue of the house renovation contract scam. If the Number 4 citizen of Nigeria can be involved in such a mess, what is the point of asking the world to have a positive image of Nigeria, and threatening brimstone and fire on those countries that do not?
With several corrupt former Governors still parading themselves imperiously on the streets of Abuja, still on the beck and call of the President, and appear seemingly untouchable, it will be hard to convince the world that we are still waging this war against corruption in government in earnest and with sincerity of purpose. And this renders Ojo Maduekwe’s utterances useless, and unfortunately irrelevant.
Chief Maduekwe explained further: “Our foreign policy has come of age and the age of innocence is over. We remain proud of our track record right from Tafawa Balewa up till now. The country that has the largest black nation in the world could not have done otherwise. A world where every six black man is a Nigerian could not have done otherwise, or where every four Africans is a Nigerian could not have done otherwise. We should ask ourselves some hard questions: to what extents has our foreign policy benefited Nigerians? To what extent has our foreign policy put food on our tables? In other words, where is the citizen in our foreign policy?”
The man is somehow asking the right questions and making the right noises, however, it is unfortunate that he is talking about “track records”. This is arrant nonsense and double speaks. There is no track record to be proud of. Successive Nigerian governments have nothing to be proud of in terms of promoting positive image of Nigeria or tackling corruption. Our foreign policies over the years have been inconsistent or even non-existent as far as putting food on the tables of Nigerians or looking after the interests of Nigerians all over the world. In fact, whatever little policy they have made has only been made to benefit those in government, and not the Nigerian masses.
How helpful have Nigerian foreign missions all over the world been towards Nigerians living abroad, for instance? There are too many instances of neglect to be mentioned, but it is all the same sad stories. Nigerian diplomats have never taken care of either our image or the Nigerians living abroad. In fact, coming to think of it, in generality, how helpful have Nigerian governments been to even Nigerians living in Nigeria not to talk of the ones abroad? Are we going to showcase poverty, sufferings, high mortality, lack of basic healthcare, moribund education, lack of electricity, water, good roads, etc, that our leaders have visited upon us for several decades as a result of their greed, corrupt behaviour and selfishness? How sincere are Maduekwe’s words, no matter how commendable? Are we right to say “We have heard this before?”
We are very high and famous on good intentions, but low on implementations. The former Education Minister, Tunde Adeniran himself, presenting a book; what was his achievement as the education minister during Obasanjo’s administration? What positive changes did he bring about in the education sector during his tenure that warrants him writing a book?
Despite all these, we are glad to know that at least a Nigerian Government is starting to take note and make moves to address the problems of Nigeria’s negative global image. It has long been overdue, but as mentioned above, we cannot embark on such moves without putting our own house in order. It might well turn out to be an exercise in futility. It is generally acknowledged that the Obasanjo Administration spent a lot of money, time and effort on redeeming the image of Nigeria by being the first Nigerian government in recent memory to actually try to tackle corruption, albeit patently unsuccessful and selective, laden with political vindictiveness and without much respect and reference to the rule of law and constitutionality. Also the immediate past administration went on a publicity and charm offensive to persuade the world that Nigeria is not all about corruption. This must be commended, but we are all aware that we have a lot more to do. Not rhetoric and posturing or muscle-flexing against an already, wrongly or rightly, biased world.
So in a way, I agree with the words of Ojo Maduekwe, to the effect that it is an obvious fact that Nigerians are perceived in several ways, - in a negative light - more often than not. However, there is an urgent need to do a lot more, rather than wait for that 'someone' or 'the government' or 'the society' to heal the wounds that we all carry around - our cultural identity as “Nigerian”.
All over the world, it is a known fact that one out of every black person is a Nigerian and every four African is a Nigerian. Our duties towards redeeming the image of the black race is beyond what lip-service can do. A little bit from each and everyone of us counts. Standing out of the crowd for something good, can, and will surely make a difference. We have to start a sharing of responsibilities, positive values and accomplishments, a projection in the positive light - of our heroes past and present and the accomplishments and the potentials of our fatherland. It is time for a positive change. Nigeria, and indeed Nigerians deserve a positive image. We cannot continue to move around the world as a people with the millstone of negative publicity, image and bad reputation or disrepute hanging around our necks everytime.
As our Foreign Minister himself posited, Nigeria carries enormous burden to be the symbol of the success of the black nation and there could never be a black success story, “unless it is a Nigeria success story.”
Yes, Nigeria may, can and should adopt a “Citizenship Diplomacy” approach to the whole world, but we must back this up with the sincerity of purpose and approach to all our problems at home. It is not good enough to know that after almost fifty years as a nation, and blessed with the kind of resources – human and material – that we have, our people are still wallowing in abject poverty and desperation, while our leaders are looting the treasuries all over the country, and living unimaginable expensive lifestyles and spiriting the loot out of Nigeria and depositing it in the countries we are trying to force this citizenship diplomacy on.
In a country where a convicted ex-governor can return to his home state and be given a hero’s welcome, where the same convict has the ear of the President of the country as to what to be done with the Niger Delta problem as a “consultant” and who threw a multi-million Naira, well-attended party to entertain important guests on his daughter’s wedding, it does not bode well for, nor confer any legitimacy or sincerity on Maduekwe’s and the Government of Nigeria’s position on citizenship diplomacy. It is sending out the wrong signals from this government to the world that they want to impress. The government of Nigeria cannot also not eat its cake and have it and must know that it cannot continue to pull the wool over a lot of Nigerian eyes anymore. The people of Nigeria can see through the charade and falsehood and double-speak.
More action, less rhetoric.
Akintokunbo Adejumo, a social and political commentator on Nigerian issues, lives and works in London, UK. A graduate of the University of Ibadan, Nigeria (1979) and University of Manitoba, Canada (1985), he also writes on topical issues for newspapers and internet media including Nigeriaworld.com, Nigeria Today Online, Nigerians in America, Nigerian Nigeria Village Square, etc.
He is also the Coordinator of CHAMPIONS FOR NIGERIA, an organisation devoted to celebrating genuine progress, excellence, commitment, selfless and unalloyed service to Nigeria and the people of Nigeria.
Sunday, 7 October 2007
THE REAL AND TRUE ENEMIES OF NIGERIA AND THE NIGERIAN PEOPLE
THE REAL AND TRUE ENEMIES OF NIGERIA AND THE NIGERIAN PEOPLE
Akintokunbo A Adejumo
London, United Kingdom
akinadejum@aol.com
“Nigeria in the last 44 years has been stolen by a cabal and turned to their own. These few robbers have created dynasties for themselves and they pass us round. I have to call them owners of Nigeria because that is what I think they are and the rest of us are tenants. Who are these people and why are they owners of Nigeria?”
Seyi Oduyela, in “Owners of Nigeria” August 15, 2004.
The above was a quote from Seyi Oduyela’s lengthy but very informative treatise written in 2004. He had called our political and military leaders “owners of Nigeria”, but with recent unfolding unsavoury events, in concert with what we have always known and experienced for the past 47 years of our nationhood, I would rather call these people “the real and true enemies” of Nigeria and the Nigerian people.
All these decades we have been laying the blame for all our problems on the door of the British colonial masters and those we call American and Western imperialists. We adduced that it was because of our oil that they need to keep us under-developed so that they can have access to the oil and mineral wealth of our land. In as much as I would like to believe this, the fact remains that it is our own people, our political and military leaders who have been deceiving us and grandstanding us. They are the ones who have deliberately kept us in the dark ages, killing us slowly for their own selfish reasons. In order to achieve this, they need to be corrupt, and to be corrupt, they need to be greedy.
“London court freezes Ibori’s assets• It was a restraining order, says Ibori” (Please note that Mr Ibori did not deny owning these frozen assets)
“EFCC may arraign Makarfi •Senate, NLC back trial of ex-govs, others”
“I was not quizzed by EFCC, says Egwu”
“EFCC investigates Ibori”
“Turaki, ex-Gov of Jigawa State arraigned by EFCC”
“Chimaroke Nnamani has 178 houses in one town in 8 years”
“Dariye charged for money-laundering”
“Orji Kalu indicted – many foreign accounts and businesses in Gambia, etc”
“Rev Nyame regrets looting treasury”
“Kalu, Ibori, Odili meet Yar'Adua at Aso Villa”
“ICPC to probe 31 ex-Governors”
These are just a few of the news headlines that assail Nigerians on a daily basis since President Yar’Adua came into power and the EFCC suddenly finds renewed energy in carrying out its duties. There is no respite from these continuous scandals, if you can call them scandals. And it seems that Nigerians are so much used to hearing such that we have sort of developed some immunity to the shock of the scandals.
I don’t blame the people. During the eight profligate years of Obasanjo’s administration, and despite the so much publicised fight against corruption (I will commend OBJ that this was at least the first such initiative in the history of Nigeria), it had always been business as usual in our number one industry and pastime; that of corrupt enrichment. Governors, ministers, senators, federal representatives, house of assembly members, local government chiefs and officials, civil servants, etc, all of them were in on the act. And the Nigerian people stood passively by and watched their enemies take them apart bit by bit, complacent, and praying to God in mosques and churches, for deliverance. Heaven, they say, help those who help themselves. We are not helping ourselves.
I am not so much shocked at the fact that corruption is alive and well as the sheer and unbelievable greediness of these political leaders. Military rule definitely brought corruption on a large scale to the fore in Nigeria in recent decades, but at least, the officers were a bit genteel about it, until the advent of Babangida, when nobody cares anymore if they are known to be stealing government money. This is a proof of how degenerate our societal, moral and ethical norms have collapsed. In the old days, thieves are pariahs and persona non grata in the society.
I had always thought Shagari’s administration was the worst when it comes to corruption, but with the sheer incredulous and massive amount of money that Governors during our last eight years of democracy have stolen, I need to re-examine these statistics. Some school of thought are even now saying that what was stole during Abacha’s days was nothing compared to during the second coming of Obasanjo. I am indeed inclined to believe that.
I have always argued that Obasanjo himself will never dip his hands into the treasury. I still believe this is the case, but he has gotten himself so compromised by those that he surrounded himself with and by those he considered his “boys” – many PDP governors and other sycophants and hangers-on, that he, as the President and initiator of anti-corruption drive in Nigeria, cannot absolve himself from their crimes against the Nigerian people. For indeed, the acts of kleptomaniacs in power stealing the people blind to satisfy their own personal greed, is nothing but a crime against humanity. Look at it this way: while Mr Ibori was buying a plane and buying/building a refinery in South Africa with the money belonging to the people of Delta State, thousands of his people are dying directly and/or indirectly on a daily basis due to lack of clean water, good roads, food, good medical care, good education, etc. And Obasanjo must certainly know that this was going on, instead he was chasing after lesser miscreants like Gov. Ladoja of Oyo State.
As Babs Ajayi opened in his article, National Leaders as Looters,” Looting has never been banished from Nigeria; it is actually a national pastime and a way of life. It is how Nigerian leaders make a difference and do as they wish. It is not only unfair to the people; it is unacceptable, greedy and reckless. Recklessness has become what leadership is all about in Nigeria, and millions of the people are worried sick about the lack of transparency, accountability and self-service”.
Yes, our leaders have always been looters. They are utterly unsympathetic, selfish, greedy, diabolical and morally bankrupt. I have written in previous articles that our leaders hate us. Here is the proof, yet again. What does a man and his family wants to do with 50 billion Naira or 178 houses in one town? This is the epitome of greed and selfishness, hard-heartedness, coupled with lack of concern for the common man they swore to serve. This is recklessness, criminal negligence, and mismanagement at best. It is wickedness, immorality and great sin in the eyes of God and disregard for God. They cannot claim to be good Christians or faithful Moslems. But there we have it, they go to church, sing Alleluia and mosques to pray five times a day, and when they come out, they visit suffering, poverty, death and disease on their people. One of them is even a Reverend of the Church. Yes, I am worried sick about this, because I do not believe that despite their recent exposition, the ones in there now would have learnt their lessons and adopt good governance to alleviate the plight of their people. No! It will always be business as usual, and at the end of four years, we will be again inundated with scandals. It will be a vicious cycle, never ending.
Please do not let us leave out the Ministers, Senators, Representatives, Local Government Chairmen, State legislators and councillors, Board chairmen and members, Special Assistants, Special Advisers, top civil servants etc. They are all in it up to their rotten and corrupt necks. None of them is doing Nigerians a favour. Most of them are common thieves and robbers. For example, our Constitution stipulates that a State Governor cannot spend a single kobo of State money without the approval of the House of Assembly. If such checks and balances are there, how are these Governors able to steal? The simple answer is that the Governors can only steal in connivance with the “Honourable” legislators. In most cases, the “execu-thief” Governors have the assembly members in their pockets. One good example was when ex-Governor Fayose of Ekiti State took all the PDP legislators and party top-shots to London and the United States on a shopping jamboree for over one month, (can you imagine how much that would cost and how was the state being governed for one month?) under the pretence of coming to study the Parliamentary system of the United Kingdom and that of the United States. We all now know what they actually learnt, don’t we? Even the State’s Party Chairman was there, all kowtowing to a younger Fayose and trying to outdo each other in their flattery and praises of him. I was there to observe them in London, and it was a nauseating scene. That was before the EFCC forced them to disown Fayose.
Also culpable of these crimes against the Nigerian people are the many unpatriotic Nigerians who front for these thieves. There are many of such front-men and women, living in and outside of Nigeria and who aid and abet in the raping, maiming and looting of the nation.
Hear Babs Ajayi again, “Today, it is the Ghana-must-Go lifestyle at the Presidency and the National Assembly that is troubling many. Looting is always the name of the game and cash-and-carry is what elective office is all about in Nigeria. A new president who was bold enough to declare campaign contributions as part of his wealth hold sway in Abuja, Nigeria's capital! I am not sure many Nigerians bother to look at the declaration document of their president where he declared millions of campaign contributions as part of his personal wealth. The funds do not belong to his personal bank accounts at all; he ought to transfer the funds to his political party. The money should not even have touched his palms talk less of appearing in his bank account(s). Mr. Yar'Adua, I have no doubt in my mind that you have stolen what does not belong to you. You need to return the cash and tender unreserved apology to the nation.
Just about a month ago, Senators and members of that dishonourable House of Representatives collected nearly eight million Naira each to procure a car each. A total of N1.6 billion was paid to these men and women who knew next to nothing about serving the people. But now the same National Assembly plan to spend about N1 billion to buy 200 vehicles for the various committees of the two Houses. Where are those promises to serve and the desire to be responsible with the funds of the nation? The oil money looks so much but placed against the big problems and areas of needs facing the nation, the so-called oil wealth is nothing. Nearly all teaching hospitals are empty and lack facilities, our universities are just glorified primary schools lacking books, equipments, laboratories and basic needs. Senator Effiong Bob who is the Chairman of the Senate Services Committee is from a senatorial district and state where poverty is endemic and lack of basic necessities of life a daily problem to grapple with. But here he is championing the misuse of public funds and reckless spending. The obvious question is: where were the committee cars from the last session of the National Assembly? Will someone account for those cars and give us an update on the matter? For how long shall we continue to do this rigmarole and watch electricity degenerate to weeks without and months in darkness while the self-appointed leaders feast on the national cake with both hands and legs dipped in? This is frustrating and unacceptable, they are not interested in the plights of the masses that are jobless, hopeless, have no access to medical service and suffer in poverty and diseases. I learnt from very reliable sources that a visit to the National Orthopaedic Hospital, Igbobi and the Lagos University Hospital in Idi-Araba will mean paying for your own cotton wool, needle, injection, gloves for the nurse, etc. if you need to get an injection! You have to pay for everything and some people sit on high thrones in Aso Rock and preside over the looting of the treasury” (Please compatriots, read Bab Ajayi’s article for more nauseating news from our lawmakers)
Kleptomania and kleptomaniacs! Squander-mania and squander-maniacs! You see even the lawmakers lining their pockets, forgetting their election promises? I have tried to understand the rationale, the reasons and the psychology behind such unbelievable greed, and I can’t for the world of me come up with a single credible answer. I have tried to put myself in their position and see things from their point of view, yet, I come up short everytime. It cannot be justified. Was it insecurity as a human being living in a Third World country? Was it as a result of a moral breakdown in our societal fabric? Why must you deny other people certain things in life just because you want to be comfortable? Why would some human beings want to deprive their fellowmen and women their rights to justice, equality, good standards of living and to a general good life, when there’s enough to go round everybody? Why do we want to hurt each other because of money and power? Why do we find it difficult to do the right thing, when we know that doing the right thing is the right thing to do? And why is it that the hiding place for the loot must be in overseas countries? What have Nigerians done to these leaders to deserve such inhumane treatment from their leaders? These days, it is not enough to steal millions, it must be billions.
I wish a psychology student can do a research on this extraordinary phenomenon of the greed of the Nigerian leaders. Or perhaps, it is a job for a psychiatrist, because I can only ascribe this monumental greed to some mental aberration. Yes, these are not sane and rational people we are dealing with here. These are people usually prepared to kill to preserve their corrupt lifestyle and activities. They are criminals that is established, but also mad criminals. They are also religiously evil human beings. Like the late Fela Anikulapo-Kuti sang, they are “Vagabonds In Power”, and they have been ripping us off for decades. And look back to decades since Fela said this.
Back to the travails of the ex-Governors. True and sincere Nigerians should have no sympathy for these rogues. And please don’t talk to me about the “Rule of Law” here. As I have mentioned in a previous article, this matter of the corrupt ex-Governors should not be settled under the rule of law. Where was the rule of law when they rigged their way into power? Where was the rule of law when they were lording it over everybody and causing death and misery with their actions or inactions? Should their only punishment be to refund or return all the money they have stolen from us, and then we say “Thank you, ex-governor, for returning our money” and then let them off? No, these rogues should be made to serve long jail terms, and no plea bargaining. This will serve as punishment and as a deterrent to others waiting in the wings to commit such financial crimes. The enemies of Nigeria must not be allowed to continue to take us for granted.
I wrote then (Democracy, Corruption and the Rule of Law In Nigeria) that “why should the rule of law apply to people who had flouted the rule of law in the first place to get where they are today? Ninety percent (and this is my own guesstimates) of people holding political positions today in Nigeria got there by committing electoral fraud or corruption. They therefore do not have the moral right to shout that the rule of law is being flouted when they see things not going their way. People seem to forget this fact………….. Again, at the risk of being labelled an anarchist, I submit that as far as Nigeria is concerned, taking into consideration how deep the hydra-headed monster, that malignant tumour called corruption, has eaten deep into the Nigerian psyche and polity, the rule of law cannot effectively tackle it, unless we are not serious about this war. To people shouting rule of law, I don’t think they realise that Nigeria is not what one will call a “normal” country for now. As I have said in previous articles, Nigeria is an Aegean stable. It will take a Hercules to cleanse it. A bad disease requires a bad medicine; that is what our elders used to say. This is applicable to getting rid of corruption in Nigeria for the next 10 or 20 years. Believe me. There has to be a time when we call a spade a spade, but people who are benefiting from this corrupt system, who are now finding it really hard to contemplate alternative means of income are shouting wolf and scare-mongering and professing to know about rule of law.”
Corruption, in all its ramifications, is the one single factor that has been holding our country back for decades; that has not let Nigeria and Nigerians fulfil their God-given potentials; that has not let our enormous wealth and resources work for or benefit all of us, but a few rapacious, evil clique. Corruption it is that has contributed to our underdevelopment, lack of progress and underachievement, poverty, high infant and adult mortality rates, etc. Corruption is the reason why we do not have good leaders (and even worse ones are battling to replace them), good roads and transportation systems, good water, good medical and health care, good food, good education system, good foreign policies, excellent sports facilities and great sportsmen, a fair judiciary and efficient police and security systems and good governance in general. Corruption also breeds tribalism, nepotism, favouritism, injustice, mismanagement, neglect, etc. It is the reason why millions of Nigerians are living in abject poverty or dying by the hundreds everyday and why more millions of Nigerians are living outside Nigeria today. And these are caused by the real enemies of Nigeria – our leaders.
My problem with Nigeria is not the “Rule of Law”; it is with corruption and corrupt leaders and what they have done to our lives, our environment, our society. That is why the leaders who perpetrate and perpetuate corruption in Nigeria must be tackled not by the rule of law, but by the most heavy-handed, maximum-possible “force of law”.
When Jerry Rawlings (God bless him) took the bull by the horn and decided to make away with four corrupt former Ghanaian heads of state in the seventies, there was world outcry, there was indignation and he was almost made a pariah. Decades later, the world has forgotten that he executed many corrupt people in Ghana, and Ghana today is a much better country than Nigeria in very many ways. That is the result of a leader who wanted the best for his country and people. In fact he himself said it on his most recent journey to Nigeria in July 2007 that corruption is the one great barrier to Nigeria’s development, progress and greatness.
I could not agree more with former Secretary-General of the National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers, Chief Frank Kokori, who said that political office holders have been taking Nigerians for granted because of their failure to fight for their rights. He further said that for the country to move forward, Nigerians must be ready to resist any anti-people moves of their leaders. This again proves my assertion that our leaders hate us. They are anti-people. However, they have forgotten that power is derived from God and the people you govern. If your people don’t give you power voluntarily and back you, you do not have power. That is why military governments do not last. And that is why corrupt governments will not last either.
After eight years in power, what else? But we see governors who have ruled for eight years and made ill-gotten billions of Naira still struggling to be Senators and Ministers, and when this failed, they become godfathers. There is no end to this greed. They have decided to make corruption a life-time career. There are 150 million other Nigerians to be considered, but No, it must be only them. Now you see the reason why I said these people are not normal human beings? Greed has consumed them and turned them into rapacious unthinking beasts. Such greed-crazed beasts must be killed or else they infect others with their sickness and insanity.
Governors who are greedily acquisitive, who deduct over half of their state’s allocations immediately they are paid and put this into their personal bank accounts or transfer it abroad, these are the enemies of Nigeria. Ministers who are supposed to provide and implement good roads, good medical care and facilities, food and water and fail to do so because of personal greed are enemies of Nigeria. Senators and Representatives who collude with other government officials to loot the country and squander our wealth are enemies of Nigeria. Local Government bosses who fail to provide the services they are supposed to provide at the grassroots are enemies of the people of Nigeria. Board Chairmen and women who are just in there for the ride and the money they will make are enemies of the Nigerian people. Civil servants who are colluding with politicians to ensure that services are not provided and are also stuffing their pockets with our money are enemies of Nigeria.
We know them. We have to fight them to the finish; otherwise there is no real hope for us and our children and future generation. It must stop. True Nigerians must engage these enemies on their own ground. If your enemy wants to exterminate you, you must either take evasive or precautionary action or take the fight to your enemy. You cannot stand back and watch while your enemy kills you slowly, and this is what these shameless, evil people are doing to us. Personally, I no longer have faith in our leaders delivering to us the dividends of democracy and ensuring equitable distribution of our God-given wealth. All they are doing is pulling the wool over our eyes and pocketing such dividends and wealth, and in doing so, killing us. We must no longer tolerate these crimes.
Democracy, despite all its shortcomings, has provided us with a chance to deal with these enemies. The people of Nigeria have a chance. Do not elect people you know are not going to serve you, and even if you do unknowingly, there are rules we can follow to reverse this. We can recall state legislators, Senators and Federal Representatives, state and federal, by recalling them. We can force legislators to impeach errant Governors and their deputies. We can also petition various law enforcement agencies like ICPC and EFCC to investigate them. Labour unions can also fight them by civil disobedience and strikes and make the country and states ungovernable for them. We need political reforms and re-orientation of our people. Governance and politics should be made unattractive for people whose sole intent is to come in and make money. When we start electing honest, sincere, committed, knowledgeable and sympathetic people who genuinely have their peoples’ interest in mind and with minimum distraction from sycophants and hangers-on, we have a chance of a great nationhood. If these do not work, we can lynch them.
It is welcoming to note that President Yar’Adua has dissociated himself from protecting these evil men, but more needs to be done. He should discourage all these visits by indicted ex-Governors to Aso Rock. It is also welcoming that the new Attorney-General and Minister for Justice, who is now overseeing the EFCC, has given EFCC a free hand, at least for now to continue with investigating these people. The searchlight must not be beamed only on ex-Governors, but also on ex-Ministers like Anenih, Ogunlewe (they must be made to explain what happened to the trillions they said they spent on federal roads) and others, Local Government chiefs, Senators like the Senate President David Mark (he has already started distributing money among his colleagues-in-corruption) and other legislators, as well as senior civil servants. So also ex-Board chairmen like Bode George and party chiefs.
These are the real and true enemies of Nigeria and the Nigerian people. Let’s take our country, our wealth, our life, our future and our survival back from them. We must not trust them to change anything. They can’t do it, they won’t do it, and they shouldn’t be allowed to do it. We will always tell the truth and expose the lies of the real and true enemies of Nigeria.
Akintokunbo Adejumo, a social and political commentator on Nigerian issues, lives and works in London, UK. He is a graduate of the University of Ibadan, Nigeria (1979) and University of Manitoba, Canada (1985). He also writes on topical issues for newspapers and internet media including Nigeriaworld.com, Nigeria Today Online, Washington Nigerian Times, Wise News Today, etc
Akintokunbo A Adejumo
London, United Kingdom
akinadejum@aol.com
“Nigeria in the last 44 years has been stolen by a cabal and turned to their own. These few robbers have created dynasties for themselves and they pass us round. I have to call them owners of Nigeria because that is what I think they are and the rest of us are tenants. Who are these people and why are they owners of Nigeria?”
Seyi Oduyela, in “Owners of Nigeria” August 15, 2004.
The above was a quote from Seyi Oduyela’s lengthy but very informative treatise written in 2004. He had called our political and military leaders “owners of Nigeria”, but with recent unfolding unsavoury events, in concert with what we have always known and experienced for the past 47 years of our nationhood, I would rather call these people “the real and true enemies” of Nigeria and the Nigerian people.
All these decades we have been laying the blame for all our problems on the door of the British colonial masters and those we call American and Western imperialists. We adduced that it was because of our oil that they need to keep us under-developed so that they can have access to the oil and mineral wealth of our land. In as much as I would like to believe this, the fact remains that it is our own people, our political and military leaders who have been deceiving us and grandstanding us. They are the ones who have deliberately kept us in the dark ages, killing us slowly for their own selfish reasons. In order to achieve this, they need to be corrupt, and to be corrupt, they need to be greedy.
“London court freezes Ibori’s assets• It was a restraining order, says Ibori” (Please note that Mr Ibori did not deny owning these frozen assets)
“EFCC may arraign Makarfi •Senate, NLC back trial of ex-govs, others”
“I was not quizzed by EFCC, says Egwu”
“EFCC investigates Ibori”
“Turaki, ex-Gov of Jigawa State arraigned by EFCC”
“Chimaroke Nnamani has 178 houses in one town in 8 years”
“Dariye charged for money-laundering”
“Orji Kalu indicted – many foreign accounts and businesses in Gambia, etc”
“Rev Nyame regrets looting treasury”
“Kalu, Ibori, Odili meet Yar'Adua at Aso Villa”
“ICPC to probe 31 ex-Governors”
These are just a few of the news headlines that assail Nigerians on a daily basis since President Yar’Adua came into power and the EFCC suddenly finds renewed energy in carrying out its duties. There is no respite from these continuous scandals, if you can call them scandals. And it seems that Nigerians are so much used to hearing such that we have sort of developed some immunity to the shock of the scandals.
I don’t blame the people. During the eight profligate years of Obasanjo’s administration, and despite the so much publicised fight against corruption (I will commend OBJ that this was at least the first such initiative in the history of Nigeria), it had always been business as usual in our number one industry and pastime; that of corrupt enrichment. Governors, ministers, senators, federal representatives, house of assembly members, local government chiefs and officials, civil servants, etc, all of them were in on the act. And the Nigerian people stood passively by and watched their enemies take them apart bit by bit, complacent, and praying to God in mosques and churches, for deliverance. Heaven, they say, help those who help themselves. We are not helping ourselves.
I am not so much shocked at the fact that corruption is alive and well as the sheer and unbelievable greediness of these political leaders. Military rule definitely brought corruption on a large scale to the fore in Nigeria in recent decades, but at least, the officers were a bit genteel about it, until the advent of Babangida, when nobody cares anymore if they are known to be stealing government money. This is a proof of how degenerate our societal, moral and ethical norms have collapsed. In the old days, thieves are pariahs and persona non grata in the society.
I had always thought Shagari’s administration was the worst when it comes to corruption, but with the sheer incredulous and massive amount of money that Governors during our last eight years of democracy have stolen, I need to re-examine these statistics. Some school of thought are even now saying that what was stole during Abacha’s days was nothing compared to during the second coming of Obasanjo. I am indeed inclined to believe that.
I have always argued that Obasanjo himself will never dip his hands into the treasury. I still believe this is the case, but he has gotten himself so compromised by those that he surrounded himself with and by those he considered his “boys” – many PDP governors and other sycophants and hangers-on, that he, as the President and initiator of anti-corruption drive in Nigeria, cannot absolve himself from their crimes against the Nigerian people. For indeed, the acts of kleptomaniacs in power stealing the people blind to satisfy their own personal greed, is nothing but a crime against humanity. Look at it this way: while Mr Ibori was buying a plane and buying/building a refinery in South Africa with the money belonging to the people of Delta State, thousands of his people are dying directly and/or indirectly on a daily basis due to lack of clean water, good roads, food, good medical care, good education, etc. And Obasanjo must certainly know that this was going on, instead he was chasing after lesser miscreants like Gov. Ladoja of Oyo State.
As Babs Ajayi opened in his article, National Leaders as Looters,” Looting has never been banished from Nigeria; it is actually a national pastime and a way of life. It is how Nigerian leaders make a difference and do as they wish. It is not only unfair to the people; it is unacceptable, greedy and reckless. Recklessness has become what leadership is all about in Nigeria, and millions of the people are worried sick about the lack of transparency, accountability and self-service”.
Yes, our leaders have always been looters. They are utterly unsympathetic, selfish, greedy, diabolical and morally bankrupt. I have written in previous articles that our leaders hate us. Here is the proof, yet again. What does a man and his family wants to do with 50 billion Naira or 178 houses in one town? This is the epitome of greed and selfishness, hard-heartedness, coupled with lack of concern for the common man they swore to serve. This is recklessness, criminal negligence, and mismanagement at best. It is wickedness, immorality and great sin in the eyes of God and disregard for God. They cannot claim to be good Christians or faithful Moslems. But there we have it, they go to church, sing Alleluia and mosques to pray five times a day, and when they come out, they visit suffering, poverty, death and disease on their people. One of them is even a Reverend of the Church. Yes, I am worried sick about this, because I do not believe that despite their recent exposition, the ones in there now would have learnt their lessons and adopt good governance to alleviate the plight of their people. No! It will always be business as usual, and at the end of four years, we will be again inundated with scandals. It will be a vicious cycle, never ending.
Please do not let us leave out the Ministers, Senators, Representatives, Local Government Chairmen, State legislators and councillors, Board chairmen and members, Special Assistants, Special Advisers, top civil servants etc. They are all in it up to their rotten and corrupt necks. None of them is doing Nigerians a favour. Most of them are common thieves and robbers. For example, our Constitution stipulates that a State Governor cannot spend a single kobo of State money without the approval of the House of Assembly. If such checks and balances are there, how are these Governors able to steal? The simple answer is that the Governors can only steal in connivance with the “Honourable” legislators. In most cases, the “execu-thief” Governors have the assembly members in their pockets. One good example was when ex-Governor Fayose of Ekiti State took all the PDP legislators and party top-shots to London and the United States on a shopping jamboree for over one month, (can you imagine how much that would cost and how was the state being governed for one month?) under the pretence of coming to study the Parliamentary system of the United Kingdom and that of the United States. We all now know what they actually learnt, don’t we? Even the State’s Party Chairman was there, all kowtowing to a younger Fayose and trying to outdo each other in their flattery and praises of him. I was there to observe them in London, and it was a nauseating scene. That was before the EFCC forced them to disown Fayose.
Also culpable of these crimes against the Nigerian people are the many unpatriotic Nigerians who front for these thieves. There are many of such front-men and women, living in and outside of Nigeria and who aid and abet in the raping, maiming and looting of the nation.
Hear Babs Ajayi again, “Today, it is the Ghana-must-Go lifestyle at the Presidency and the National Assembly that is troubling many. Looting is always the name of the game and cash-and-carry is what elective office is all about in Nigeria. A new president who was bold enough to declare campaign contributions as part of his wealth hold sway in Abuja, Nigeria's capital! I am not sure many Nigerians bother to look at the declaration document of their president where he declared millions of campaign contributions as part of his personal wealth. The funds do not belong to his personal bank accounts at all; he ought to transfer the funds to his political party. The money should not even have touched his palms talk less of appearing in his bank account(s). Mr. Yar'Adua, I have no doubt in my mind that you have stolen what does not belong to you. You need to return the cash and tender unreserved apology to the nation.
Just about a month ago, Senators and members of that dishonourable House of Representatives collected nearly eight million Naira each to procure a car each. A total of N1.6 billion was paid to these men and women who knew next to nothing about serving the people. But now the same National Assembly plan to spend about N1 billion to buy 200 vehicles for the various committees of the two Houses. Where are those promises to serve and the desire to be responsible with the funds of the nation? The oil money looks so much but placed against the big problems and areas of needs facing the nation, the so-called oil wealth is nothing. Nearly all teaching hospitals are empty and lack facilities, our universities are just glorified primary schools lacking books, equipments, laboratories and basic needs. Senator Effiong Bob who is the Chairman of the Senate Services Committee is from a senatorial district and state where poverty is endemic and lack of basic necessities of life a daily problem to grapple with. But here he is championing the misuse of public funds and reckless spending. The obvious question is: where were the committee cars from the last session of the National Assembly? Will someone account for those cars and give us an update on the matter? For how long shall we continue to do this rigmarole and watch electricity degenerate to weeks without and months in darkness while the self-appointed leaders feast on the national cake with both hands and legs dipped in? This is frustrating and unacceptable, they are not interested in the plights of the masses that are jobless, hopeless, have no access to medical service and suffer in poverty and diseases. I learnt from very reliable sources that a visit to the National Orthopaedic Hospital, Igbobi and the Lagos University Hospital in Idi-Araba will mean paying for your own cotton wool, needle, injection, gloves for the nurse, etc. if you need to get an injection! You have to pay for everything and some people sit on high thrones in Aso Rock and preside over the looting of the treasury” (Please compatriots, read Bab Ajayi’s article for more nauseating news from our lawmakers)
Kleptomania and kleptomaniacs! Squander-mania and squander-maniacs! You see even the lawmakers lining their pockets, forgetting their election promises? I have tried to understand the rationale, the reasons and the psychology behind such unbelievable greed, and I can’t for the world of me come up with a single credible answer. I have tried to put myself in their position and see things from their point of view, yet, I come up short everytime. It cannot be justified. Was it insecurity as a human being living in a Third World country? Was it as a result of a moral breakdown in our societal fabric? Why must you deny other people certain things in life just because you want to be comfortable? Why would some human beings want to deprive their fellowmen and women their rights to justice, equality, good standards of living and to a general good life, when there’s enough to go round everybody? Why do we want to hurt each other because of money and power? Why do we find it difficult to do the right thing, when we know that doing the right thing is the right thing to do? And why is it that the hiding place for the loot must be in overseas countries? What have Nigerians done to these leaders to deserve such inhumane treatment from their leaders? These days, it is not enough to steal millions, it must be billions.
I wish a psychology student can do a research on this extraordinary phenomenon of the greed of the Nigerian leaders. Or perhaps, it is a job for a psychiatrist, because I can only ascribe this monumental greed to some mental aberration. Yes, these are not sane and rational people we are dealing with here. These are people usually prepared to kill to preserve their corrupt lifestyle and activities. They are criminals that is established, but also mad criminals. They are also religiously evil human beings. Like the late Fela Anikulapo-Kuti sang, they are “Vagabonds In Power”, and they have been ripping us off for decades. And look back to decades since Fela said this.
Back to the travails of the ex-Governors. True and sincere Nigerians should have no sympathy for these rogues. And please don’t talk to me about the “Rule of Law” here. As I have mentioned in a previous article, this matter of the corrupt ex-Governors should not be settled under the rule of law. Where was the rule of law when they rigged their way into power? Where was the rule of law when they were lording it over everybody and causing death and misery with their actions or inactions? Should their only punishment be to refund or return all the money they have stolen from us, and then we say “Thank you, ex-governor, for returning our money” and then let them off? No, these rogues should be made to serve long jail terms, and no plea bargaining. This will serve as punishment and as a deterrent to others waiting in the wings to commit such financial crimes. The enemies of Nigeria must not be allowed to continue to take us for granted.
I wrote then (Democracy, Corruption and the Rule of Law In Nigeria) that “why should the rule of law apply to people who had flouted the rule of law in the first place to get where they are today? Ninety percent (and this is my own guesstimates) of people holding political positions today in Nigeria got there by committing electoral fraud or corruption. They therefore do not have the moral right to shout that the rule of law is being flouted when they see things not going their way. People seem to forget this fact………….. Again, at the risk of being labelled an anarchist, I submit that as far as Nigeria is concerned, taking into consideration how deep the hydra-headed monster, that malignant tumour called corruption, has eaten deep into the Nigerian psyche and polity, the rule of law cannot effectively tackle it, unless we are not serious about this war. To people shouting rule of law, I don’t think they realise that Nigeria is not what one will call a “normal” country for now. As I have said in previous articles, Nigeria is an Aegean stable. It will take a Hercules to cleanse it. A bad disease requires a bad medicine; that is what our elders used to say. This is applicable to getting rid of corruption in Nigeria for the next 10 or 20 years. Believe me. There has to be a time when we call a spade a spade, but people who are benefiting from this corrupt system, who are now finding it really hard to contemplate alternative means of income are shouting wolf and scare-mongering and professing to know about rule of law.”
Corruption, in all its ramifications, is the one single factor that has been holding our country back for decades; that has not let Nigeria and Nigerians fulfil their God-given potentials; that has not let our enormous wealth and resources work for or benefit all of us, but a few rapacious, evil clique. Corruption it is that has contributed to our underdevelopment, lack of progress and underachievement, poverty, high infant and adult mortality rates, etc. Corruption is the reason why we do not have good leaders (and even worse ones are battling to replace them), good roads and transportation systems, good water, good medical and health care, good food, good education system, good foreign policies, excellent sports facilities and great sportsmen, a fair judiciary and efficient police and security systems and good governance in general. Corruption also breeds tribalism, nepotism, favouritism, injustice, mismanagement, neglect, etc. It is the reason why millions of Nigerians are living in abject poverty or dying by the hundreds everyday and why more millions of Nigerians are living outside Nigeria today. And these are caused by the real enemies of Nigeria – our leaders.
My problem with Nigeria is not the “Rule of Law”; it is with corruption and corrupt leaders and what they have done to our lives, our environment, our society. That is why the leaders who perpetrate and perpetuate corruption in Nigeria must be tackled not by the rule of law, but by the most heavy-handed, maximum-possible “force of law”.
When Jerry Rawlings (God bless him) took the bull by the horn and decided to make away with four corrupt former Ghanaian heads of state in the seventies, there was world outcry, there was indignation and he was almost made a pariah. Decades later, the world has forgotten that he executed many corrupt people in Ghana, and Ghana today is a much better country than Nigeria in very many ways. That is the result of a leader who wanted the best for his country and people. In fact he himself said it on his most recent journey to Nigeria in July 2007 that corruption is the one great barrier to Nigeria’s development, progress and greatness.
I could not agree more with former Secretary-General of the National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers, Chief Frank Kokori, who said that political office holders have been taking Nigerians for granted because of their failure to fight for their rights. He further said that for the country to move forward, Nigerians must be ready to resist any anti-people moves of their leaders. This again proves my assertion that our leaders hate us. They are anti-people. However, they have forgotten that power is derived from God and the people you govern. If your people don’t give you power voluntarily and back you, you do not have power. That is why military governments do not last. And that is why corrupt governments will not last either.
After eight years in power, what else? But we see governors who have ruled for eight years and made ill-gotten billions of Naira still struggling to be Senators and Ministers, and when this failed, they become godfathers. There is no end to this greed. They have decided to make corruption a life-time career. There are 150 million other Nigerians to be considered, but No, it must be only them. Now you see the reason why I said these people are not normal human beings? Greed has consumed them and turned them into rapacious unthinking beasts. Such greed-crazed beasts must be killed or else they infect others with their sickness and insanity.
Governors who are greedily acquisitive, who deduct over half of their state’s allocations immediately they are paid and put this into their personal bank accounts or transfer it abroad, these are the enemies of Nigeria. Ministers who are supposed to provide and implement good roads, good medical care and facilities, food and water and fail to do so because of personal greed are enemies of Nigeria. Senators and Representatives who collude with other government officials to loot the country and squander our wealth are enemies of Nigeria. Local Government bosses who fail to provide the services they are supposed to provide at the grassroots are enemies of the people of Nigeria. Board Chairmen and women who are just in there for the ride and the money they will make are enemies of the Nigerian people. Civil servants who are colluding with politicians to ensure that services are not provided and are also stuffing their pockets with our money are enemies of Nigeria.
We know them. We have to fight them to the finish; otherwise there is no real hope for us and our children and future generation. It must stop. True Nigerians must engage these enemies on their own ground. If your enemy wants to exterminate you, you must either take evasive or precautionary action or take the fight to your enemy. You cannot stand back and watch while your enemy kills you slowly, and this is what these shameless, evil people are doing to us. Personally, I no longer have faith in our leaders delivering to us the dividends of democracy and ensuring equitable distribution of our God-given wealth. All they are doing is pulling the wool over our eyes and pocketing such dividends and wealth, and in doing so, killing us. We must no longer tolerate these crimes.
Democracy, despite all its shortcomings, has provided us with a chance to deal with these enemies. The people of Nigeria have a chance. Do not elect people you know are not going to serve you, and even if you do unknowingly, there are rules we can follow to reverse this. We can recall state legislators, Senators and Federal Representatives, state and federal, by recalling them. We can force legislators to impeach errant Governors and their deputies. We can also petition various law enforcement agencies like ICPC and EFCC to investigate them. Labour unions can also fight them by civil disobedience and strikes and make the country and states ungovernable for them. We need political reforms and re-orientation of our people. Governance and politics should be made unattractive for people whose sole intent is to come in and make money. When we start electing honest, sincere, committed, knowledgeable and sympathetic people who genuinely have their peoples’ interest in mind and with minimum distraction from sycophants and hangers-on, we have a chance of a great nationhood. If these do not work, we can lynch them.
It is welcoming to note that President Yar’Adua has dissociated himself from protecting these evil men, but more needs to be done. He should discourage all these visits by indicted ex-Governors to Aso Rock. It is also welcoming that the new Attorney-General and Minister for Justice, who is now overseeing the EFCC, has given EFCC a free hand, at least for now to continue with investigating these people. The searchlight must not be beamed only on ex-Governors, but also on ex-Ministers like Anenih, Ogunlewe (they must be made to explain what happened to the trillions they said they spent on federal roads) and others, Local Government chiefs, Senators like the Senate President David Mark (he has already started distributing money among his colleagues-in-corruption) and other legislators, as well as senior civil servants. So also ex-Board chairmen like Bode George and party chiefs.
These are the real and true enemies of Nigeria and the Nigerian people. Let’s take our country, our wealth, our life, our future and our survival back from them. We must not trust them to change anything. They can’t do it, they won’t do it, and they shouldn’t be allowed to do it. We will always tell the truth and expose the lies of the real and true enemies of Nigeria.
Akintokunbo Adejumo, a social and political commentator on Nigerian issues, lives and works in London, UK. He is a graduate of the University of Ibadan, Nigeria (1979) and University of Manitoba, Canada (1985). He also writes on topical issues for newspapers and internet media including Nigeriaworld.com, Nigeria Today Online, Washington Nigerian Times, Wise News Today, etc
IN A LIGHTER MOOD: THE WAY WE SERIOUSLY FEEL ABOUT OUR LEADERS
IN A LIGHTER MOOD: THE WAY WE SERIOUSLY FEEL ABOUT OUR LEADERS
Akintokunbo A Adejumo
London, United Kingdom
akinadejum@aol.com
"If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader."– John Quincy Adams (1767-1848) Sixth President of the United States
The following is a joke that a friend, a patriotic Nigerian, sent to me recently:
“A driver is stuck in a traffic jam on the motorway. Nothing is moving.
Suddenly a man knocks on the window. The driver rolls down his window and asks, "What's going on?” The man responded "Militants have kidnapped, Obasanjo, Babangida, Atiku, Tony Anenih, Ahmadu Ali, Bode George, Lamidi Adedibu, Joshua Dariye, Chimaroke Nnamani, Peter Odili, Ibrahim Mantu, Bola Tinubu, Orji Kalu, James Ibori and Lucky Igbinedion. They're asking for a $500 million ransom. Otherwise they're going to douse them with petrol and set them on fire. So, we're going from car to car, taking up a collection”. The driver asks, "How much is everyone contributing, on the average?"
The man responded, “A litre of petrol and a box of matches."
This is a joke, but seriously, this about sums up the way most Nigerians feel about their leaders, past and present. I sure hope they are aware of this, because sooner or later, these feelings will come to be practicalised.
I have written in previous articles that I firmly believe that our leaders hate us, else for example, what reason would a single person decide to steal billions of Naira while neglecting the people he was meant to serve and protect? Now it is our turn to hate them. We have been very patient with them, we have pleaded with them, we have given them numerous chances to change their ways, we have prayed to them, we have worshiped them, we have served them, but all have fallen on deaf ears. They just will not listen. We have given them a long rope to hang themselves, through democratic means, and hang them we must.
If there is any doubt about their attitude to Nigerians, these must now have evaporated, even to the most die-hards of their apologists or other optimists. These people just aren’t listening. And now we now know, from the travails of our “Honourable” Speaker of the House, Mrs Patricia Olubunmi Etteh, that what a man can do, a woman can do much better. Nigerian corruption transcends gender, tribe and religion differences. Nobody is immune from it.
Following the problems that have been happening in Port Harcourt – and every Nigerian had better realise that Nigeria has been sitting on a keg of gunpowder all this while with the unaddressed problem of the Niger Delta – I was talking to a very good and respected friend of mine, who is an indigene of Rivers State. My friend echoed my thoughts when he said ex-Governor Peter Odili was the worst thing ever to hit Rivers State. The good people of Rivers State did not land Peter Odili, Peter Odili landed on them, paraphrasing Malcolm X, and very heavily too. The medical doctor turned billionaire politician is culpable for the problems in Port Harcourt now, don’t let us beat about the bush. He, in collaboration with Obasanjo, James Ibori, and, ah, our very own Houdini, “Marshall General” DSP (Deputy Superintendent of Police) Alamieyeseigha are culpable. Add to these guys, even our current Vice-President of Nigeria, Goodluck Jonathan cannot absolve himself from this matter, (one thing for sure, the man is lucky, but is not spreading his luck to his people), and Lucky Boy Igbinedion, ex-Governor of Edo State. You see how “Luck” is flying around?
I asked my friend what he thinks the solution is to the problem. He laughed sadly and said there is no solution. The militants are fully entrenched. There is too much at stake, and nobody wants to lose out. All the politicians in Rivers State, from the Governor down to the Local Government Councillors are deeply involved, implicated and compromised, and have their hands full of blood. And, my brothers and sisters, it is all about Oil. Rather Oil Money, which is flowing around in a few hands in Rivers State and the rest of the Niger Delta. Why do I think the militants have now turned their hands into kidnapping children and mothers of politicians in Niger Delta? my friend asked. The politicians, once in power, then renege on their promises, agreements, etc to the militants, who now feel betrayed, and turn on them. So the chickens are coming home to roost.
Why, one militant leader recently appeared on TV and said they are expecting three million dollars worth of arms. Where is this money coming from, you might ask? If the militants can get three million dollars to purchase arms, why cant they use the same amount, wherever they get it from, to build hospitals, roads, supply drinking water, build schools and even houses for their long-suffering people? Boy, we are in deep trouble here. These people are even better armed than the Nigerian Army and the Police combined. And you tell me there is a solution to the problem? Not on your life.
Hear this: "What we have here is a war over who controls the various rackets that are going on in this city," Abel Wogu, a Port Harcourt resident and businessman said. "Every evening you have people representing the most powerful gang leaders going round the filling stations to collect payments," said Wogu, alleging that the owners of a large petrol station destroyed in August had either failed to pay one of the armed groups or had come under the control of a rival group.
“MEND ( Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta) denied it was directly involved in the fighting and attributed the violence to rivalry between politicians who had funded different armed groups during Nigeria's general elections in April.
That view is supported by the Niger Delta Civil Society Coalition, an association of civic groups. The militias were originally armed by politicians to help them win elections but have since turned their weapons to criminal activities, according to a statement on Sunday by the coalition chairman and human rights lawyer, Anyakwe Nsirimovu. "Wiping out Soboma George and his followers cannot return peace or normalcy in Rivers State," said the statement. "Dealing equally with the power holders who aid, abet, appease, motivate and - most of all - pay and benefit immensely from them, would"
Why can’t we call a spade a spade? We all know that some governors in the South- South region are deliberately promoting the Niger Delta crisis, including hostage takings, to enable them siphon state funds under the guise of security votes. We know that it was the governors and other politicians that benefit from hostage takings and other forms of violence in the region.
“Anywhere there is hostage takings there will be a state of insecurity, and the security vote in the state is usually increased. So hostage taking is a source of revenue to most of the Niger Delta governors”, said an Ijaw leader recently.
I really wish my name translates into Luck; I would have made better use of it. Anyway, here we have it. There is no doubt about it that these rogue politicians created a monster which they can no longer control. That monster is the Militants of the Niger Delta. As far back as 1999, these unscrupulous thieves-turned-VIPs have been making use of thugs calling themselves militants to not only get into power, but to also hold on to power. They used them to suppress opponents and rig elections. They used the militants to make money, actually to steal. They manipulated Obasanjo, the man who thinks he knows all. For instance, Ibori, who was actually one of the architects of the whole problem in Niger Delta, was usually involved in negotiating with militants who kidnap foreign oil workers. Of course, he was always successful in the negotiations, thereby ingratiating himself to Obasanjo, his party and his government, and making himself indispensable. But the real story is that Ibori knows who these people are, in fact he armed most of them, so he just calls them, gives them some money, while he pockets most of the ransom paid by the Oil companies, and gets the “militants” to “release” the hostages. He comes out of the whole thing as a hero and smelling like a rose. Very nice little racket. Can you count how many times this repeated itself during his eight-year tenure in office? I lost count when I reached 100. If he gets a billion everytime he “negotiates”, that’s a cool 100 billion Naira. I am already taking a course in Niger Delta Hostage Negotiation Skills, and I am sure Dr Iduaghan, the new Governor of Delta State, and incidentally, Ibori’s cousin, has already passed that course.
Here we go again from this report by PointBlankNews “Ibori’s name has consistently surfaced in several “shady purchases of government and private companies” lately. He was linked with the purchase of Willbross, a Tulsa Oklahoma based company for $155 Million in what has been described as a “mafia approach to doing business.” A cloud of suspicion hangs over him as he is accused of gun running, providing support for Niger-Delta insurgents. The Metropolitan Police are on his trail for money laundering activities. But Sources say that whatever the Metropolitan Police may find on him, may pale into insignificance compared with the possible indictment that could come when the EFCC concludes its investigation of Ibori”.
So Ibori is now even indispensable to Nigeria and the President, Yar’Adua. In fact he almost single-handedly bankrolled Yar’Adua’s election campaign. Now, despite all the revelations of high corruption perpetrated and perpetuated by Ibori, there is the man still strolling about in full regalia and haughtily in Abuja, while EFCC is arresting everybody else in sight. He might even get a top post either in the PDP or in Government. Yes, crime must really do pay for some people in Nigeria. By the way, you will not catch Peter Odili dead in Port Harcourt nowadays. He is living permanently in Abuja, and only sneaks into PH at night, if at all. I wonder how the man is able to spend all the money he stole from Rivers State.
Unless we are able to listen and accept the truth about ourselves, we are doomed as a people. Port Harcourt was once one of the most beautiful cities in Nigeria, in fact, the rest of Nigeria calls it Garden City, a peaceful, elegant, well-planned city that attracts all people from other parts of Nigeria and all over the world. Oil, and the greed for oil money, has been a curse to Nigeria, and nowhere is this more exemplified than in Port Harcourt. For eight years, the capital of Rivers State, in fact the Oil Capital of Nigeria was ruled by a corrupt, clueless, selfish and greedy moron, who diverted most of his State’s allocation into his own pocket, and as a result, has now destroyed not only PH, but the whole state. He even wanted to be President of Nigeria, and only God saved us from this catastrophe. But you see, some people will still defend him and be loyal to him, because they made fortunes via him.
Truth, they say, will set you free. And herein lies the problem with us. Our leaders will never tell you the truth simply because they are not truthful. Our educated people will ignore the truth, and instead, we submerge ourselves in lies told to us. It is not because the truth hurts; it is for the reason that they do not want the truth. They prefer to believe in lies and fabrications and all for selfish reasons. This is now catching up with us, as we are now seeing that we are going nowhere without the simplicity of truth. We are now seeing that the lack of simple honest truth is why Nigerian people are dying everyday, Nigerians are wallowing in poverty in the midst of plenty. As a man sow shall he reap. You can’t plant maize and hope to reap yams.
A little digression: An internet journal that used to publish my articles no longer does everytime I mention Peter Odili. That shows we all have our biases and vested interests, which we, as human beings are prone to anyway. But some of us will never refrain from telling the truth and not relent in our attacks on those who are ruining Nigeria and making life un-liveable for the majority of Nigerians.
Often, when I write the truth about things happening to Nigerians and Nigeria and try to analyse all these, a few readers label me as a tribal apologist for Obasanjo because Obasanjo is a Yorubaman. Such people fail to see the issues at stake here. Apart from the rampart corruption, another of our unfortunate bane in Nigeria is that of tribalism. Look at it this way: during Obasanjo’s eight years in power, the Northerners said they were marginalised (they have always had this strange and selfish notion that they are the rightful rulers of Nigeria); the Igbos said Obasanjo does not like them because he is a Yorubaman and because of the war, and thus has ignored them and they are still second class citizens of Nigeria (a siege mentality); and then the ever disunited and disgruntled Yorubas also disowned Obasanjo because they see his tenure as not being to their advantage (most of the attacks on Obasanjo came from his kinsmen, the Yorubas, and up till now, they have not forgiven him, and I don’t think they ever will). I don’t even know how the other so-called minor tribes felt, but one thing I know is that Obasanjo was regarded as an enemy of the Ijaws of Bayelsa State, not to talk of all the other tribes of the Niger Delta. The man must be the Devil incarnate. Everybody hates him.
I refer back to my last article “The Paradox of Corruption and Nigeria” in which I mentioned an American robber called Mr Willie Sutton. When he was asked why he robbed banks. He replied: “`Cos that’s where the money is”. It was an uncomplicated philosophy which served him well until he was caught and marched off to prison. We can apply this analogy to the Nigerian politician. Why are they in politics and want to be in government? Because Politics and Government are where the money is. This is where and how they can make fortunes with very little effort. The money is there to be taken, so where else to be than to pretend you want to serve Nigeria and its people, and you are suddenly in charge of, or have access to billions of Naira. So just “eat” on.
Government and Politics must be made very unattractive to Nigerians, as far as financial consideration is concerned. If government, including the executive and legislative arms, is made unattractive, what we will have is that only people, who are genuinely committed to serving the people and the country, will be found in government. Hence, corruption will abate. The thieves and the selfish, seeing no financial advantage in being in government, will stay away.
In the UK, local government councillors are not paid salaries. What remuneration they get for serving their constituents, are expenses for attending house sessions, maintaining their offices and their surgeries. Therefore, they are free to have their main job, but serving the people, or being in government or politics is not a lifetime career, unlike what obtains in Nigeria. Our Nigerian politicians think politics is a career, they think government is a career. Their main reason for being in government and politics is to enable them to steal the peoples’ money. And that is why they never want to quit politics for another career after they have served their terms, even when it is obvious that they have not offered much to the people who purportedly elected them in terms of service or bettering their lot, only enriching themselves.
Therefore, any new political reform should address this. Legislators must be paid expenses only for their service to the country. The current system is very profligate, expensive and attracts thieves and mediocres. Expenses must be for attendances, cost of keeping constituency offices open, and if they have to be give car, housing and transport allowances, these must be properly allocated, scrutinized, monitored and commensurate with the service provided by these people. Judging from recent revelations on the wastefulness and profligacy of the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Senators, etc, the cost of running Nigeria’s democracy is too high, and especially given our penchant for lack of accountability and corruption, this has to be brought under rigid and strict control. Our unscrupulous political class should be discouraged and deterred from going into government to make money. Hence make it unattractive to them.
Couple with this is the removal of the immunity conferred on public officials like the Governors and their deputies. This has always been an invitation or a licence to steal, and of course, we know they all took advantage of it. If you really want to serve the people, strip yourself of any immunity. If this is in place, the thieves will again stay away.
Bureaucracy breeds corruption. That has always been another problem with our governmental procedures. Everything is shrouded in secrecy and bureaucracy, hence officials hide behind this wall and allow them to siphon funds meant for the people away. Nothing is open to the people. Our officials give the impression of knowing it all, sitting behind desks in their little dark offices, while they are busy doing nothing for the people but for themselves; forging signatures and altering figures.
There is too much liquid cash circulating in the various governments. State Governors, normally, should not be able to spend a single kobo without approval from their States’ Houses of Assembly. But in Nigeria, most Governors have the state legislators, irrespective of political parties, in their pockets; hence they are in collusion with each other to steal money. You should see them sharing the loot, eyes bulging out with greed. It is not a pretty sight.
There is also a lot wrong with a system where the states nominate candidates for ministerial, ambassadorial and board positions to the President. One would have thought that a person who wants to run for the Presidency would have been well prepared beforehand and have his own idea of his team that he wants to govern with. This team would have been in place long before he actually assumes office. Same goes for the Governorship. But in Nigeria, this does not happen. The President’s or the Governor’s teams have to be chosen for them. They don’t even know these people, they don’t know their capabilities, abilities, etc. They have to dance to the tune of the party. It is no wonder therefore that we have square pegs in round holes, despite the ridiculous, ludicrous, meaningless and farcical screening exercises carried out by the Senate.
So dear citizens, we have a lot of work to do to salvage our country. And of course we are aware that it’s not going to be easy. But do it, we must.
God Bless and Guide Nigeria. God Bless and Guide Nigerians.
Akintokunbo Adejumo, a social and political commentator on Nigerian issues, lives and works in London, UK. He is a graduate of the University of Ibadan, Nigeria (1979) and University of Manitoba, Canada (1985). He also writes on topical issues for newspapers and internet media including Nigeriaworld.com, Nigeria Today Online, Gamji.com, Nigeriansinamerica.com, Nigerinvillagesquare.com, Wise News Today, etc
Akintokunbo A Adejumo
London, United Kingdom
akinadejum@aol.com
"If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader."– John Quincy Adams (1767-1848) Sixth President of the United States
The following is a joke that a friend, a patriotic Nigerian, sent to me recently:
“A driver is stuck in a traffic jam on the motorway. Nothing is moving.
Suddenly a man knocks on the window. The driver rolls down his window and asks, "What's going on?” The man responded "Militants have kidnapped, Obasanjo, Babangida, Atiku, Tony Anenih, Ahmadu Ali, Bode George, Lamidi Adedibu, Joshua Dariye, Chimaroke Nnamani, Peter Odili, Ibrahim Mantu, Bola Tinubu, Orji Kalu, James Ibori and Lucky Igbinedion. They're asking for a $500 million ransom. Otherwise they're going to douse them with petrol and set them on fire. So, we're going from car to car, taking up a collection”. The driver asks, "How much is everyone contributing, on the average?"
The man responded, “A litre of petrol and a box of matches."
This is a joke, but seriously, this about sums up the way most Nigerians feel about their leaders, past and present. I sure hope they are aware of this, because sooner or later, these feelings will come to be practicalised.
I have written in previous articles that I firmly believe that our leaders hate us, else for example, what reason would a single person decide to steal billions of Naira while neglecting the people he was meant to serve and protect? Now it is our turn to hate them. We have been very patient with them, we have pleaded with them, we have given them numerous chances to change their ways, we have prayed to them, we have worshiped them, we have served them, but all have fallen on deaf ears. They just will not listen. We have given them a long rope to hang themselves, through democratic means, and hang them we must.
If there is any doubt about their attitude to Nigerians, these must now have evaporated, even to the most die-hards of their apologists or other optimists. These people just aren’t listening. And now we now know, from the travails of our “Honourable” Speaker of the House, Mrs Patricia Olubunmi Etteh, that what a man can do, a woman can do much better. Nigerian corruption transcends gender, tribe and religion differences. Nobody is immune from it.
Following the problems that have been happening in Port Harcourt – and every Nigerian had better realise that Nigeria has been sitting on a keg of gunpowder all this while with the unaddressed problem of the Niger Delta – I was talking to a very good and respected friend of mine, who is an indigene of Rivers State. My friend echoed my thoughts when he said ex-Governor Peter Odili was the worst thing ever to hit Rivers State. The good people of Rivers State did not land Peter Odili, Peter Odili landed on them, paraphrasing Malcolm X, and very heavily too. The medical doctor turned billionaire politician is culpable for the problems in Port Harcourt now, don’t let us beat about the bush. He, in collaboration with Obasanjo, James Ibori, and, ah, our very own Houdini, “Marshall General” DSP (Deputy Superintendent of Police) Alamieyeseigha are culpable. Add to these guys, even our current Vice-President of Nigeria, Goodluck Jonathan cannot absolve himself from this matter, (one thing for sure, the man is lucky, but is not spreading his luck to his people), and Lucky Boy Igbinedion, ex-Governor of Edo State. You see how “Luck” is flying around?
I asked my friend what he thinks the solution is to the problem. He laughed sadly and said there is no solution. The militants are fully entrenched. There is too much at stake, and nobody wants to lose out. All the politicians in Rivers State, from the Governor down to the Local Government Councillors are deeply involved, implicated and compromised, and have their hands full of blood. And, my brothers and sisters, it is all about Oil. Rather Oil Money, which is flowing around in a few hands in Rivers State and the rest of the Niger Delta. Why do I think the militants have now turned their hands into kidnapping children and mothers of politicians in Niger Delta? my friend asked. The politicians, once in power, then renege on their promises, agreements, etc to the militants, who now feel betrayed, and turn on them. So the chickens are coming home to roost.
Why, one militant leader recently appeared on TV and said they are expecting three million dollars worth of arms. Where is this money coming from, you might ask? If the militants can get three million dollars to purchase arms, why cant they use the same amount, wherever they get it from, to build hospitals, roads, supply drinking water, build schools and even houses for their long-suffering people? Boy, we are in deep trouble here. These people are even better armed than the Nigerian Army and the Police combined. And you tell me there is a solution to the problem? Not on your life.
Hear this: "What we have here is a war over who controls the various rackets that are going on in this city," Abel Wogu, a Port Harcourt resident and businessman said. "Every evening you have people representing the most powerful gang leaders going round the filling stations to collect payments," said Wogu, alleging that the owners of a large petrol station destroyed in August had either failed to pay one of the armed groups or had come under the control of a rival group.
“MEND ( Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta) denied it was directly involved in the fighting and attributed the violence to rivalry between politicians who had funded different armed groups during Nigeria's general elections in April.
That view is supported by the Niger Delta Civil Society Coalition, an association of civic groups. The militias were originally armed by politicians to help them win elections but have since turned their weapons to criminal activities, according to a statement on Sunday by the coalition chairman and human rights lawyer, Anyakwe Nsirimovu. "Wiping out Soboma George and his followers cannot return peace or normalcy in Rivers State," said the statement. "Dealing equally with the power holders who aid, abet, appease, motivate and - most of all - pay and benefit immensely from them, would"
Why can’t we call a spade a spade? We all know that some governors in the South- South region are deliberately promoting the Niger Delta crisis, including hostage takings, to enable them siphon state funds under the guise of security votes. We know that it was the governors and other politicians that benefit from hostage takings and other forms of violence in the region.
“Anywhere there is hostage takings there will be a state of insecurity, and the security vote in the state is usually increased. So hostage taking is a source of revenue to most of the Niger Delta governors”, said an Ijaw leader recently.
I really wish my name translates into Luck; I would have made better use of it. Anyway, here we have it. There is no doubt about it that these rogue politicians created a monster which they can no longer control. That monster is the Militants of the Niger Delta. As far back as 1999, these unscrupulous thieves-turned-VIPs have been making use of thugs calling themselves militants to not only get into power, but to also hold on to power. They used them to suppress opponents and rig elections. They used the militants to make money, actually to steal. They manipulated Obasanjo, the man who thinks he knows all. For instance, Ibori, who was actually one of the architects of the whole problem in Niger Delta, was usually involved in negotiating with militants who kidnap foreign oil workers. Of course, he was always successful in the negotiations, thereby ingratiating himself to Obasanjo, his party and his government, and making himself indispensable. But the real story is that Ibori knows who these people are, in fact he armed most of them, so he just calls them, gives them some money, while he pockets most of the ransom paid by the Oil companies, and gets the “militants” to “release” the hostages. He comes out of the whole thing as a hero and smelling like a rose. Very nice little racket. Can you count how many times this repeated itself during his eight-year tenure in office? I lost count when I reached 100. If he gets a billion everytime he “negotiates”, that’s a cool 100 billion Naira. I am already taking a course in Niger Delta Hostage Negotiation Skills, and I am sure Dr Iduaghan, the new Governor of Delta State, and incidentally, Ibori’s cousin, has already passed that course.
Here we go again from this report by PointBlankNews “Ibori’s name has consistently surfaced in several “shady purchases of government and private companies” lately. He was linked with the purchase of Willbross, a Tulsa Oklahoma based company for $155 Million in what has been described as a “mafia approach to doing business.” A cloud of suspicion hangs over him as he is accused of gun running, providing support for Niger-Delta insurgents. The Metropolitan Police are on his trail for money laundering activities. But Sources say that whatever the Metropolitan Police may find on him, may pale into insignificance compared with the possible indictment that could come when the EFCC concludes its investigation of Ibori”.
So Ibori is now even indispensable to Nigeria and the President, Yar’Adua. In fact he almost single-handedly bankrolled Yar’Adua’s election campaign. Now, despite all the revelations of high corruption perpetrated and perpetuated by Ibori, there is the man still strolling about in full regalia and haughtily in Abuja, while EFCC is arresting everybody else in sight. He might even get a top post either in the PDP or in Government. Yes, crime must really do pay for some people in Nigeria. By the way, you will not catch Peter Odili dead in Port Harcourt nowadays. He is living permanently in Abuja, and only sneaks into PH at night, if at all. I wonder how the man is able to spend all the money he stole from Rivers State.
Unless we are able to listen and accept the truth about ourselves, we are doomed as a people. Port Harcourt was once one of the most beautiful cities in Nigeria, in fact, the rest of Nigeria calls it Garden City, a peaceful, elegant, well-planned city that attracts all people from other parts of Nigeria and all over the world. Oil, and the greed for oil money, has been a curse to Nigeria, and nowhere is this more exemplified than in Port Harcourt. For eight years, the capital of Rivers State, in fact the Oil Capital of Nigeria was ruled by a corrupt, clueless, selfish and greedy moron, who diverted most of his State’s allocation into his own pocket, and as a result, has now destroyed not only PH, but the whole state. He even wanted to be President of Nigeria, and only God saved us from this catastrophe. But you see, some people will still defend him and be loyal to him, because they made fortunes via him.
Truth, they say, will set you free. And herein lies the problem with us. Our leaders will never tell you the truth simply because they are not truthful. Our educated people will ignore the truth, and instead, we submerge ourselves in lies told to us. It is not because the truth hurts; it is for the reason that they do not want the truth. They prefer to believe in lies and fabrications and all for selfish reasons. This is now catching up with us, as we are now seeing that we are going nowhere without the simplicity of truth. We are now seeing that the lack of simple honest truth is why Nigerian people are dying everyday, Nigerians are wallowing in poverty in the midst of plenty. As a man sow shall he reap. You can’t plant maize and hope to reap yams.
A little digression: An internet journal that used to publish my articles no longer does everytime I mention Peter Odili. That shows we all have our biases and vested interests, which we, as human beings are prone to anyway. But some of us will never refrain from telling the truth and not relent in our attacks on those who are ruining Nigeria and making life un-liveable for the majority of Nigerians.
Often, when I write the truth about things happening to Nigerians and Nigeria and try to analyse all these, a few readers label me as a tribal apologist for Obasanjo because Obasanjo is a Yorubaman. Such people fail to see the issues at stake here. Apart from the rampart corruption, another of our unfortunate bane in Nigeria is that of tribalism. Look at it this way: during Obasanjo’s eight years in power, the Northerners said they were marginalised (they have always had this strange and selfish notion that they are the rightful rulers of Nigeria); the Igbos said Obasanjo does not like them because he is a Yorubaman and because of the war, and thus has ignored them and they are still second class citizens of Nigeria (a siege mentality); and then the ever disunited and disgruntled Yorubas also disowned Obasanjo because they see his tenure as not being to their advantage (most of the attacks on Obasanjo came from his kinsmen, the Yorubas, and up till now, they have not forgiven him, and I don’t think they ever will). I don’t even know how the other so-called minor tribes felt, but one thing I know is that Obasanjo was regarded as an enemy of the Ijaws of Bayelsa State, not to talk of all the other tribes of the Niger Delta. The man must be the Devil incarnate. Everybody hates him.
I refer back to my last article “The Paradox of Corruption and Nigeria” in which I mentioned an American robber called Mr Willie Sutton. When he was asked why he robbed banks. He replied: “`Cos that’s where the money is”. It was an uncomplicated philosophy which served him well until he was caught and marched off to prison. We can apply this analogy to the Nigerian politician. Why are they in politics and want to be in government? Because Politics and Government are where the money is. This is where and how they can make fortunes with very little effort. The money is there to be taken, so where else to be than to pretend you want to serve Nigeria and its people, and you are suddenly in charge of, or have access to billions of Naira. So just “eat” on.
Government and Politics must be made very unattractive to Nigerians, as far as financial consideration is concerned. If government, including the executive and legislative arms, is made unattractive, what we will have is that only people, who are genuinely committed to serving the people and the country, will be found in government. Hence, corruption will abate. The thieves and the selfish, seeing no financial advantage in being in government, will stay away.
In the UK, local government councillors are not paid salaries. What remuneration they get for serving their constituents, are expenses for attending house sessions, maintaining their offices and their surgeries. Therefore, they are free to have their main job, but serving the people, or being in government or politics is not a lifetime career, unlike what obtains in Nigeria. Our Nigerian politicians think politics is a career, they think government is a career. Their main reason for being in government and politics is to enable them to steal the peoples’ money. And that is why they never want to quit politics for another career after they have served their terms, even when it is obvious that they have not offered much to the people who purportedly elected them in terms of service or bettering their lot, only enriching themselves.
Therefore, any new political reform should address this. Legislators must be paid expenses only for their service to the country. The current system is very profligate, expensive and attracts thieves and mediocres. Expenses must be for attendances, cost of keeping constituency offices open, and if they have to be give car, housing and transport allowances, these must be properly allocated, scrutinized, monitored and commensurate with the service provided by these people. Judging from recent revelations on the wastefulness and profligacy of the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Senators, etc, the cost of running Nigeria’s democracy is too high, and especially given our penchant for lack of accountability and corruption, this has to be brought under rigid and strict control. Our unscrupulous political class should be discouraged and deterred from going into government to make money. Hence make it unattractive to them.
Couple with this is the removal of the immunity conferred on public officials like the Governors and their deputies. This has always been an invitation or a licence to steal, and of course, we know they all took advantage of it. If you really want to serve the people, strip yourself of any immunity. If this is in place, the thieves will again stay away.
Bureaucracy breeds corruption. That has always been another problem with our governmental procedures. Everything is shrouded in secrecy and bureaucracy, hence officials hide behind this wall and allow them to siphon funds meant for the people away. Nothing is open to the people. Our officials give the impression of knowing it all, sitting behind desks in their little dark offices, while they are busy doing nothing for the people but for themselves; forging signatures and altering figures.
There is too much liquid cash circulating in the various governments. State Governors, normally, should not be able to spend a single kobo without approval from their States’ Houses of Assembly. But in Nigeria, most Governors have the state legislators, irrespective of political parties, in their pockets; hence they are in collusion with each other to steal money. You should see them sharing the loot, eyes bulging out with greed. It is not a pretty sight.
There is also a lot wrong with a system where the states nominate candidates for ministerial, ambassadorial and board positions to the President. One would have thought that a person who wants to run for the Presidency would have been well prepared beforehand and have his own idea of his team that he wants to govern with. This team would have been in place long before he actually assumes office. Same goes for the Governorship. But in Nigeria, this does not happen. The President’s or the Governor’s teams have to be chosen for them. They don’t even know these people, they don’t know their capabilities, abilities, etc. They have to dance to the tune of the party. It is no wonder therefore that we have square pegs in round holes, despite the ridiculous, ludicrous, meaningless and farcical screening exercises carried out by the Senate.
So dear citizens, we have a lot of work to do to salvage our country. And of course we are aware that it’s not going to be easy. But do it, we must.
God Bless and Guide Nigeria. God Bless and Guide Nigerians.
Akintokunbo Adejumo, a social and political commentator on Nigerian issues, lives and works in London, UK. He is a graduate of the University of Ibadan, Nigeria (1979) and University of Manitoba, Canada (1985). He also writes on topical issues for newspapers and internet media including Nigeriaworld.com, Nigeria Today Online, Gamji.com, Nigeriansinamerica.com, Nigerinvillagesquare.com, Wise News Today, etc
MEDIOCRITY RULES IN THE MINISTRY OF JUSTICE
MEDIOCRITY RULES IN THE MINISTRY OF JUSTICE
Akintokunbo A Adejumo
London, United Kingdom
akinadejum@aol.com
Word of the Day:
Drumbeater – (Noun) One that supports a cause, especially vehemently
Synonyms: partisan, zealot.
Usage: The Attorney General and Minister for Justice was an unabashed drumbeater for the cause of corruption.
Chief Michael Aondoakaa, SAN, Attorney General and Minister for Justice of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. The mere title of this man conjures up a powerful vision and ideals of the type of country we all want our Nigeria to be. The title, that is. But the man conjures up an entirely different vision, a nightmare actually.
Not since that doyen of legal jurisdiction, Chief Richard Akinjide, holder of the same titles during the Shagari Administration has this position and the holder ever been this controversial. In fact, I cant remember any such holder in the intervening years being as controversial and in the public news as Chief Aondoakaa, all for the wrong reasons. Even his predecessor, Chief Bayo Ojo was not this controversial.
The fact is, the man has started off really very badly. He has also cast serious and worrying doubts about Yar’Adua’s government’s position on fighting corruption and adhering to the rule of law. It seems that the Minister of Justice is never sincere about meting out justice to corrupt politicians and instead is using that phrase “rule of law” to try to pull wool over our eyes and therefore doing more harm to the anti-corruption stance of his government. It does not bode well for this administration, whose leader, the President, is widely regarded as a man with a zero tolerance for corruption.
His actions so far have brought to the fore, and exposed him as a charlatan and mediocre, despite his lofty title and the suffix of Senior Advocate of Nigeria, which is meant to be at par with the UK’s equivalent of Queen’s Counsel. How this country of great potentials and fine minds always manage to come up with mediocres, ignoring merit everytime, confounds me.
The Nigerian legal and judicial system has been known all over the world for its brilliance ever since the 60s. We have exported fine legal minds to other countries in Africa and recognised in Europe. We have legal luminaries who, while based in Nigeria, are often called to other countries in Europe to display their fine minds and knowledge. I remember that Nigerians have been Chief Justices, Attorney Generals and Ministers for Justice in countries such as Gambia, Uganda, Lesotho and Botswana and many others. The late Sir Taslim Elias, a former Nigerian Chief Justice was for many years, the President of the World Court at The Hague. Chief Richard Akinjide was also to be in the World Court, and many Nigerian legal officers have served and are still serving in various capacities all over the world, not because of world political considerations, but because of the reputation of the legal and judicial profession in Nigeria.
To be saddled and imposed with this man, Aondoakaa, seems to be an unjustified aberration, completely out of tune with our repute. In fact, when it seems that sanity and confidence in the Nigerian legal system is being restored after the atrocities of the Abacha years, and the uncertainties of the Obasanjo Administration, we are now regressing and all the gains achieved are about to be thrown out the window. All because of this charlatan and mediocre with a patent conflict of interest.
To be frank, I had never heard of Michael Aondoakaa until he became the Attorney General. Or rather, let me put it this way; I had only heard of him because he was representing some politicians who had been accused or indicted by the EFCC for corruptly enriching themselves while in office. We can all see that he had been fighting the corners of corrupt politicians and governors for some time – and making money from it, and that means he can never see the EFCC in a good light. In February 2007, Aondoakaa appeared as lead counsel in a suit that challenged the powers of the EFCC, INEC and the six-man administrative panel instituted by former President Obasanjo to recommend the disqualification of Atiku Abubakar from the Presidential race based on his indictment by the EFCC and the administrative panel of inquiry for alleged corrupt practices. In June 2007 Aondoakaa appeared again as lead counsel for the ANPP, the PDP's principal opposition, at the Nasarawa gubernatorial election tribunal. The list of Aondoakaa's clients includes George Akume (former Governor of Benue State) and Abubakar Audu (former Governor of Kogi state) - both of whom have been accused of the embezzlement of significant sums of money, and who have pending criminal cases instituted against them by the EFCC. Herein lies the problem and this is where the conflict of interest comes in. He can never be favourable to Nuhu Ribadu and the EFCC’s fight against corruption because they have crossed swords many times in court.
In his article, “Attorney General Aondoakaa: His Master’s Voice” (Nigeriaworld.com) Malcolm Fabiyi wrote, “The question is whether or not it is ethically appropriate that a lawyer that has taken the decision to defend such men, and who by that decision, is required to question the legitimacy of the agencies that had brought charges against his clients, should now be placed in a position of authority over the same agencies that he has battled for the last couple of years in the courts! While it might be true that in law, all men are entitled to a legal defence regardless of the enormity of the allegations levelled against them, I also believe that there is something telling and revealing about Aondoakaa's character in his decision to take on these cases. Many lawyers of established character and moral fortitude had chosen to forego the allure of huge payouts guaranteed to anyone who represented these men, and elected not to offer their legal services in defence of the pack of vultures that systematically bled our nation dry over the last eight years. “
I have been following his actions since he became Attorney General barely three months ago. Please note that in Nigeria, we have a system where the Ministers are selected for the President by the ruling party and/or governor of each of the 36 states, so it is likely that the President had not even ever heard of the man until his state’s branch of the PDP or its Governor nominated his name for a ministerial position. His first gaffe was the debate about whether the EFCC should come under his office and that EFCC should seek his office’s approval before prosecuting any case. At first, he tried to flex some muscles and then conceded that he will give the EFCC a free hand. We are now seeing first hand how much free hand he’s giving the EFCC.
The second gaffe committed by Chief Aondoakaa was during the Naira Re-denomination debacle. I don’t know when the Attorney General becomes a spokes-person for the government, but the man decided to interpret the Constitution and the law enabling the autonomy of the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria to serve the purpose of the Government but not the people of Nigeria. Fabiyi again posited “The manner in which Aondoakaa announced the suspension of Professor Soludo's currency re-denomination program was a great insult and disservice to that committed patriot. Not one issue was raised by Aondoakaa about the technical and economic merits, or the lack thereof, of the program. Instead our eminent legal luminary ranted and raved about how the CBN governor failed to follow the letter of the law in the process that led up to his announcement of the program”. He ended up with egg over his face, but true to type, he did not see the egg. He was wallowing in mediocrity and his ego and self-importance as the Chief Law Officer of the country. His mediocrity shone out like a beacon, but he himself did not realise it. (These people never see it or get it, do they?). That is our political leaders for you – they never see beyond their noses for obvious and self-interest reasons.
Then comes the mother of all gaffes. He is getting himself all in a twist by publicly attacking the EFCC, a government body supposedly under him. He sent his office’s representative to a case in court being handled by the EFCC without the EFCC’s knowledge and thereby caused a lot of confusion and embarrassment in the court. That is communication breakdown for you. The Attorney-General then issued a statement saying he wants to preserve a "prohibitive injunction" issued by Abia State high court, so as to avoid his own committal to prison as the attorney-general in breach. And so, EFCC must be pushed out of court, and stopped from prosecuting ex Governor Orji Uzor Kalu, who along with his mother, allegedly stole close to 20 billion Naira of Abia State funds.
Then he demanded an apology from the EFCC and later announced to the world that the EFCC had tendered an apology to his Office. The EFCC promptly denied this. This idiocy alone has made his position untenable, not to talk of his unprofessional way of doing things. He was neither doing the right thing nor doing things right, a trait of mediocres in government and other high places.
I have several questions for this man. Why isn’t the Attorney General taking a position or at least giving advice on the Speaker’s contract scam at the House of Representatives? Why isn’t he giving advice on how to prosecute the corrupt ex-Governors already charged to court? Why is he patently partisan in the case of one of the ex-Governors and seemingly frustrating the efforts of the EFCC to progress the case to its logical conclusion? Why does he constitute himself to be a stumbling block to the dispensation of justice? Why are he, and his Government, hiding under the guise of the Rule of Law, in continuation of the investigations and prosecutions of all the ex-Governors accused of corruption?
What is our Attorney-General’s take and position on the effect of the allegations and indictment of former governors accused of corruption and who are now Senators of the Federal Republic? Is their indictment not enough to negate their continued stay in the National Assembly?
One of our problems is that mediocres mostly constitute our national, states and local government leaderships. As a consequence of this, we are bound to have corrupt and inefficient, ineffective leaders, because mediocres try to hide their mediocrity by acquiring wealth at the expense of the people, making a lot of unnecessary noise and pretending to be all-knowing and intelligent. The charlatan also hides under the same cloak. They are always caught out eventually, because the truth about them will always out and their shortcomings exposed for all to see and when this happens, they start flexing muscles and exercising power and force and resort to bullying everybody around.
The invocation of the “Rule of Law" by our current administration has always been made in curiously defensive circumstances, as a result of great pressure from indicted ex-governors and party chieftains, and invariably; this will always be to the benefit, freedom, and, sometimes, escape of criminally indicted persons. I have argued about this matter of the invocation of the Rule of Law in other articles, that these people will invoke the Rule of Law when it suits them. This is now precisely what is happening. Well-meaning and sincere Nigerians should be very much concerned that the Rule of Law is now being used as an escapist strategy by the current administration to avoid bringing a lot of these corrupt ex-governors to justice. At present, what progress are we hearing about the cases against Nnamani, Orji Kalu, Nyame, Turaki and Dariye? Things seem to have died down and I won’t be surprised if we never hear anything more about them. Then, what about other ex-governors who we know are even worse than the ones apprehended so far? What is our legal luminary Attorney General’s take or position on them?
Just a quick reference to the role of the Attorney General in most countries. In most common law jurisdictions, the Attorney-General is the main legal advisor to the government and in some jurisdictions may in addition have executive responsibility for law enforcement or responsibility for public prosecutions. The Minister of Justice and Attorney General are combined into one cabinet position in some countries such as Nigeria. The Attorney General is the chief law officer of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. The Minister of Justice is concerned with questions of policy and their relationship to the justice system. The Attorney General has supervisory powers over the prosecution of criminal offences, but is not personally involved with prosecutions; however, some prosecutions cannot be commenced without his consent, and he has the power to halt prosecutions generally, but with good reasons.
The Attorney General, assisted by the Solicitor General, is also the chief legal adviser to the Government. They are responsible for ensuring the rule of law is upheld. In addition, the Attorney General also has certain public interest functions, for example, in taking action to appeal unduly lenient sentences. The Attorney General and the Solicitor General also deal with questions of law arising on Government Bills and with issues of legal policy. They are concerned with all major international and domestic litigation involving the Government.
These are what Chief Aondoakaa should be concentrating his apparently limitless energies on. There are too many issues in his office that he should be attending to rather than spending ninety percent of his energies on humiliating the EFCC or appearing to be subverting the course of justice or taking the sides of corrupt ex-governors. I cannot say it better than Fabiyi again, that “all of the policy somersaults that Yar’Adua’s administration has gone through have come about directly as a result of Aondoakaa's interventions. And these are no mere policy somersaults, for in each case, the issues at stake have been matters that were critical to the very survival of Nigeria's political stability and the strengthening of its economic viability. Underlying Nigeria's increasing economic attractiveness to global capital are two critical factors: the first is the acknowledgement by the international community that Nigeria, through the actions of the EFCC, appears to have finally shown a commitment to tackling corruption; the second is an increasing realization that Nigeria has an economic team in place that can consistently provide well considered policies that will bolster stability in the financial markets. Unless President Yar'Adua reins his Attorney General in, the gains that have been made in the last few years might be squandered”.
The Attorney General and Minister for Justice need a re-think, because his actions seem to be eroding the policies and promises of his own government. Maybe he’s just power-drunk. Maybe he is still overwhelmed by his sudden rise to the pinnacle of his profession and the country’s leadership. Maybe he is just being overzealous. Maybe he is just a mediocre and does not have an idea of what damage, chaos and inconsistency he’s causing to his government’s credibility. Whatever it is, he is being contradictory and detrimental to the good intentions of his principal, the President. I believe Aondoakaa, from his posture, action and utterances, is not serving the best interest of the Nigerian public and the Constitution of Nigeria, but has a hidden personal agenda.
If Yar’Adua’s Government is sincere, and I like to believe this is so, I don’t see how Aondoakaa will see out four years in this crucial and important role. It is too appears much for him to handle.
Akintokunbo Adejumo, a social and political commentator on Nigerian issues, lives and works in London, UK. A graduate of the University of Ibadan, Nigeria (1979) and University of Manitoba, Canada (1985), he also writes on topical issues for newspapers and internet media including Nigeriaworld.com, Nigeria Today Online, Nigerians in America, Nigerian Nigeria Village Square, etc.
He is also the Coordinator of CHAMPIONS FOR NIGERIA, an organisation devoted to celebrating genuine progress, excellence, commitment, selfless and unalloyed service to Nigeria and the people of Nigeria
Akintokunbo A Adejumo
London, United Kingdom
akinadejum@aol.com
Word of the Day:
Drumbeater – (Noun) One that supports a cause, especially vehemently
Synonyms: partisan, zealot.
Usage: The Attorney General and Minister for Justice was an unabashed drumbeater for the cause of corruption.
Chief Michael Aondoakaa, SAN, Attorney General and Minister for Justice of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. The mere title of this man conjures up a powerful vision and ideals of the type of country we all want our Nigeria to be. The title, that is. But the man conjures up an entirely different vision, a nightmare actually.
Not since that doyen of legal jurisdiction, Chief Richard Akinjide, holder of the same titles during the Shagari Administration has this position and the holder ever been this controversial. In fact, I cant remember any such holder in the intervening years being as controversial and in the public news as Chief Aondoakaa, all for the wrong reasons. Even his predecessor, Chief Bayo Ojo was not this controversial.
The fact is, the man has started off really very badly. He has also cast serious and worrying doubts about Yar’Adua’s government’s position on fighting corruption and adhering to the rule of law. It seems that the Minister of Justice is never sincere about meting out justice to corrupt politicians and instead is using that phrase “rule of law” to try to pull wool over our eyes and therefore doing more harm to the anti-corruption stance of his government. It does not bode well for this administration, whose leader, the President, is widely regarded as a man with a zero tolerance for corruption.
His actions so far have brought to the fore, and exposed him as a charlatan and mediocre, despite his lofty title and the suffix of Senior Advocate of Nigeria, which is meant to be at par with the UK’s equivalent of Queen’s Counsel. How this country of great potentials and fine minds always manage to come up with mediocres, ignoring merit everytime, confounds me.
The Nigerian legal and judicial system has been known all over the world for its brilliance ever since the 60s. We have exported fine legal minds to other countries in Africa and recognised in Europe. We have legal luminaries who, while based in Nigeria, are often called to other countries in Europe to display their fine minds and knowledge. I remember that Nigerians have been Chief Justices, Attorney Generals and Ministers for Justice in countries such as Gambia, Uganda, Lesotho and Botswana and many others. The late Sir Taslim Elias, a former Nigerian Chief Justice was for many years, the President of the World Court at The Hague. Chief Richard Akinjide was also to be in the World Court, and many Nigerian legal officers have served and are still serving in various capacities all over the world, not because of world political considerations, but because of the reputation of the legal and judicial profession in Nigeria.
To be saddled and imposed with this man, Aondoakaa, seems to be an unjustified aberration, completely out of tune with our repute. In fact, when it seems that sanity and confidence in the Nigerian legal system is being restored after the atrocities of the Abacha years, and the uncertainties of the Obasanjo Administration, we are now regressing and all the gains achieved are about to be thrown out the window. All because of this charlatan and mediocre with a patent conflict of interest.
To be frank, I had never heard of Michael Aondoakaa until he became the Attorney General. Or rather, let me put it this way; I had only heard of him because he was representing some politicians who had been accused or indicted by the EFCC for corruptly enriching themselves while in office. We can all see that he had been fighting the corners of corrupt politicians and governors for some time – and making money from it, and that means he can never see the EFCC in a good light. In February 2007, Aondoakaa appeared as lead counsel in a suit that challenged the powers of the EFCC, INEC and the six-man administrative panel instituted by former President Obasanjo to recommend the disqualification of Atiku Abubakar from the Presidential race based on his indictment by the EFCC and the administrative panel of inquiry for alleged corrupt practices. In June 2007 Aondoakaa appeared again as lead counsel for the ANPP, the PDP's principal opposition, at the Nasarawa gubernatorial election tribunal. The list of Aondoakaa's clients includes George Akume (former Governor of Benue State) and Abubakar Audu (former Governor of Kogi state) - both of whom have been accused of the embezzlement of significant sums of money, and who have pending criminal cases instituted against them by the EFCC. Herein lies the problem and this is where the conflict of interest comes in. He can never be favourable to Nuhu Ribadu and the EFCC’s fight against corruption because they have crossed swords many times in court.
In his article, “Attorney General Aondoakaa: His Master’s Voice” (Nigeriaworld.com) Malcolm Fabiyi wrote, “The question is whether or not it is ethically appropriate that a lawyer that has taken the decision to defend such men, and who by that decision, is required to question the legitimacy of the agencies that had brought charges against his clients, should now be placed in a position of authority over the same agencies that he has battled for the last couple of years in the courts! While it might be true that in law, all men are entitled to a legal defence regardless of the enormity of the allegations levelled against them, I also believe that there is something telling and revealing about Aondoakaa's character in his decision to take on these cases. Many lawyers of established character and moral fortitude had chosen to forego the allure of huge payouts guaranteed to anyone who represented these men, and elected not to offer their legal services in defence of the pack of vultures that systematically bled our nation dry over the last eight years. “
I have been following his actions since he became Attorney General barely three months ago. Please note that in Nigeria, we have a system where the Ministers are selected for the President by the ruling party and/or governor of each of the 36 states, so it is likely that the President had not even ever heard of the man until his state’s branch of the PDP or its Governor nominated his name for a ministerial position. His first gaffe was the debate about whether the EFCC should come under his office and that EFCC should seek his office’s approval before prosecuting any case. At first, he tried to flex some muscles and then conceded that he will give the EFCC a free hand. We are now seeing first hand how much free hand he’s giving the EFCC.
The second gaffe committed by Chief Aondoakaa was during the Naira Re-denomination debacle. I don’t know when the Attorney General becomes a spokes-person for the government, but the man decided to interpret the Constitution and the law enabling the autonomy of the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria to serve the purpose of the Government but not the people of Nigeria. Fabiyi again posited “The manner in which Aondoakaa announced the suspension of Professor Soludo's currency re-denomination program was a great insult and disservice to that committed patriot. Not one issue was raised by Aondoakaa about the technical and economic merits, or the lack thereof, of the program. Instead our eminent legal luminary ranted and raved about how the CBN governor failed to follow the letter of the law in the process that led up to his announcement of the program”. He ended up with egg over his face, but true to type, he did not see the egg. He was wallowing in mediocrity and his ego and self-importance as the Chief Law Officer of the country. His mediocrity shone out like a beacon, but he himself did not realise it. (These people never see it or get it, do they?). That is our political leaders for you – they never see beyond their noses for obvious and self-interest reasons.
Then comes the mother of all gaffes. He is getting himself all in a twist by publicly attacking the EFCC, a government body supposedly under him. He sent his office’s representative to a case in court being handled by the EFCC without the EFCC’s knowledge and thereby caused a lot of confusion and embarrassment in the court. That is communication breakdown for you. The Attorney-General then issued a statement saying he wants to preserve a "prohibitive injunction" issued by Abia State high court, so as to avoid his own committal to prison as the attorney-general in breach. And so, EFCC must be pushed out of court, and stopped from prosecuting ex Governor Orji Uzor Kalu, who along with his mother, allegedly stole close to 20 billion Naira of Abia State funds.
Then he demanded an apology from the EFCC and later announced to the world that the EFCC had tendered an apology to his Office. The EFCC promptly denied this. This idiocy alone has made his position untenable, not to talk of his unprofessional way of doing things. He was neither doing the right thing nor doing things right, a trait of mediocres in government and other high places.
I have several questions for this man. Why isn’t the Attorney General taking a position or at least giving advice on the Speaker’s contract scam at the House of Representatives? Why isn’t he giving advice on how to prosecute the corrupt ex-Governors already charged to court? Why is he patently partisan in the case of one of the ex-Governors and seemingly frustrating the efforts of the EFCC to progress the case to its logical conclusion? Why does he constitute himself to be a stumbling block to the dispensation of justice? Why are he, and his Government, hiding under the guise of the Rule of Law, in continuation of the investigations and prosecutions of all the ex-Governors accused of corruption?
What is our Attorney-General’s take and position on the effect of the allegations and indictment of former governors accused of corruption and who are now Senators of the Federal Republic? Is their indictment not enough to negate their continued stay in the National Assembly?
One of our problems is that mediocres mostly constitute our national, states and local government leaderships. As a consequence of this, we are bound to have corrupt and inefficient, ineffective leaders, because mediocres try to hide their mediocrity by acquiring wealth at the expense of the people, making a lot of unnecessary noise and pretending to be all-knowing and intelligent. The charlatan also hides under the same cloak. They are always caught out eventually, because the truth about them will always out and their shortcomings exposed for all to see and when this happens, they start flexing muscles and exercising power and force and resort to bullying everybody around.
The invocation of the “Rule of Law" by our current administration has always been made in curiously defensive circumstances, as a result of great pressure from indicted ex-governors and party chieftains, and invariably; this will always be to the benefit, freedom, and, sometimes, escape of criminally indicted persons. I have argued about this matter of the invocation of the Rule of Law in other articles, that these people will invoke the Rule of Law when it suits them. This is now precisely what is happening. Well-meaning and sincere Nigerians should be very much concerned that the Rule of Law is now being used as an escapist strategy by the current administration to avoid bringing a lot of these corrupt ex-governors to justice. At present, what progress are we hearing about the cases against Nnamani, Orji Kalu, Nyame, Turaki and Dariye? Things seem to have died down and I won’t be surprised if we never hear anything more about them. Then, what about other ex-governors who we know are even worse than the ones apprehended so far? What is our legal luminary Attorney General’s take or position on them?
Just a quick reference to the role of the Attorney General in most countries. In most common law jurisdictions, the Attorney-General is the main legal advisor to the government and in some jurisdictions may in addition have executive responsibility for law enforcement or responsibility for public prosecutions. The Minister of Justice and Attorney General are combined into one cabinet position in some countries such as Nigeria. The Attorney General is the chief law officer of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. The Minister of Justice is concerned with questions of policy and their relationship to the justice system. The Attorney General has supervisory powers over the prosecution of criminal offences, but is not personally involved with prosecutions; however, some prosecutions cannot be commenced without his consent, and he has the power to halt prosecutions generally, but with good reasons.
The Attorney General, assisted by the Solicitor General, is also the chief legal adviser to the Government. They are responsible for ensuring the rule of law is upheld. In addition, the Attorney General also has certain public interest functions, for example, in taking action to appeal unduly lenient sentences. The Attorney General and the Solicitor General also deal with questions of law arising on Government Bills and with issues of legal policy. They are concerned with all major international and domestic litigation involving the Government.
These are what Chief Aondoakaa should be concentrating his apparently limitless energies on. There are too many issues in his office that he should be attending to rather than spending ninety percent of his energies on humiliating the EFCC or appearing to be subverting the course of justice or taking the sides of corrupt ex-governors. I cannot say it better than Fabiyi again, that “all of the policy somersaults that Yar’Adua’s administration has gone through have come about directly as a result of Aondoakaa's interventions. And these are no mere policy somersaults, for in each case, the issues at stake have been matters that were critical to the very survival of Nigeria's political stability and the strengthening of its economic viability. Underlying Nigeria's increasing economic attractiveness to global capital are two critical factors: the first is the acknowledgement by the international community that Nigeria, through the actions of the EFCC, appears to have finally shown a commitment to tackling corruption; the second is an increasing realization that Nigeria has an economic team in place that can consistently provide well considered policies that will bolster stability in the financial markets. Unless President Yar'Adua reins his Attorney General in, the gains that have been made in the last few years might be squandered”.
The Attorney General and Minister for Justice need a re-think, because his actions seem to be eroding the policies and promises of his own government. Maybe he’s just power-drunk. Maybe he is still overwhelmed by his sudden rise to the pinnacle of his profession and the country’s leadership. Maybe he is just being overzealous. Maybe he is just a mediocre and does not have an idea of what damage, chaos and inconsistency he’s causing to his government’s credibility. Whatever it is, he is being contradictory and detrimental to the good intentions of his principal, the President. I believe Aondoakaa, from his posture, action and utterances, is not serving the best interest of the Nigerian public and the Constitution of Nigeria, but has a hidden personal agenda.
If Yar’Adua’s Government is sincere, and I like to believe this is so, I don’t see how Aondoakaa will see out four years in this crucial and important role. It is too appears much for him to handle.
Akintokunbo Adejumo, a social and political commentator on Nigerian issues, lives and works in London, UK. A graduate of the University of Ibadan, Nigeria (1979) and University of Manitoba, Canada (1985), he also writes on topical issues for newspapers and internet media including Nigeriaworld.com, Nigeria Today Online, Nigerians in America, Nigerian Nigeria Village Square, etc.
He is also the Coordinator of CHAMPIONS FOR NIGERIA, an organisation devoted to celebrating genuine progress, excellence, commitment, selfless and unalloyed service to Nigeria and the people of Nigeria
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