“SPECIAL REPORT: The men who embezzled
Nigerian Airways to death, October 29, 2018 by Nicholas Ibekwe, PREMIUM TIMES”
A friend who
sent the link to this report was very considerate of my health and mental
well-being. He sent it with a caveat that read: “Readers discretion is strongly
advised. Please do not read the article if you have a health problem. It can
lead to mood swings, depression, hypertension, rage, murderous urge and,
believe it or not, diarrhoea”.
I have been
subjected to depression and despondency in my lifetime, but those were mere
headaches, until I read this well-researched and well-presented report by
PREMIUM TIMES. I do not think anybody can doubt the veracity and authenticity
of the report. What is surprising is why the people indicted in this arrogantly
criminal deed against their fellow-country men and women could still be
strutting with heads-held high on Nigerian streets while the authorities - law
enforcement, security, executive, legislative and judiciary – could know these
facts and let these criminals be laughing at us. Of course, I know what obtains
in this criminal enclave called Nigeria about some people being above the law,
about inefficiency and ineffectiveness of the agencies that are supposed to
enforce our laws, the endemic corruption in high places, but really, something
must give. We simply cannot continue to survive like this as a people, a
country and society.
It brought out some
emotional outbursts from some people I know. Read this: “This is a very sad reading for
me particularly. This is because my late Father, Prince S.O Akinjobi headed the
Three-man team that started Nigeria Airways after independence. He
was seconded from BOAC in Accra Ghana to start Nigeria Airways. A job he did
dutifully that earned him the honor of "MBE" from the Queen of
England in 1964. You can see when some of us are very ardent and vocal that
Nigeria must and should be restructured.
How many of those are
mentioned on the list are in jail? And what is the magnitude of their damage in
comparison? Moreover, when these lesser men are made to head organizations far
beyond their capacity and they are busy looting with impunity, what do you
expect of the good and educated people in the organization? Almost one
side of OBA Akinjobi Road in GRA Ikeja (Named after my Grandfather) was
purchased by my late father for Nigerian Airways. This included the lkeja Golf
club for the staff and built several properties for the senior staff. These
people took over and sold most of them to themselves. Nigeria Airways land
extended to Mafoluku, and far away Akowonjo. This was for future expansion.
If these men were thinking
for the future of Nigeria in their mid-40s and younger, why were they bent on
destroying what others built?
Where then did we get it
so wrong with the current crop of leaders?”
To the question
above, my answer is “We’ve always got it wrong. There was never a time we had
it right. Yes, there had been bright moments that looked positive and
encouraging; there had been occasional appearances of diminutive great leaders,
only for the degenerate society they exist in and try to change to kill them
off completely.
Corruption
indeed has wreaked havoc to our country and its people. I concur that only
restructuring that can resolve the destructive tendencies of some of our people
who are oblivious of prudent management of public funds and accountability.
Like in every
society, when evil takes over, it will have its disciples; likewise when the
good people are in charge, their good leadership will infest the land and more
good people will geminate, grow and become leaders.
These looters,
wherever they come from, have sown the seeds of money, hunger, and power for
looting sake, that l may not completely blame some of our people. It is a
survival syndrome, hence terms that have cropped up like “stomach
infrastructure”, etc. You must be very principled not to join them.
A lot of the
times when these our national assets are looted were when the entities were
headed by those who are not emotionally connected with good things happening in
the areas that the assets are located. It is an unfortunate reality in Nigeria,
but I think we must say it now. It would be difficult for a Yoruba man to
destroy or loot assets and funds that are located in Yoruba areas as he or she
would be taken to account by the community. Likewise, it would be problematic
for a Hausa/Fulani or Igbo person to raid government assets in his or her area
of origin.
“When Chief Bola Ige was
alive, during Abacha' s regime and Abiola's struggle, Yorubas boycotted his
government and maintained the policy of "siddon and look". This
policy was to be continued with the new Obasanjo's government as he did not
identify with the Yorubas. Bola Ige broke rank and said that he would encourage
Yorubas to take appointments in Abuja and when they make money they should
bring the money home and invest in Yoruba areas. This was clearly the wrong attitude to
maintain and it formed part of the problems which got us to where we are today”.
(Another demonstrative
statement by a friend)
And this is
another response from a friend: “Therefore, I will strongly conclude that
the current system is not working as it promotes impunity and there is no sense
of belongings which breed this penchant to destroy, sabotage and loot
developments in other areas, as long as it is not the looters place of origin.
It is due to this type of dysfunctional attitude, atmosphere of suspicion of
never seeing anything good in what others are doing that compounded our
problem. However, if we go back to the Constitution we had at independence, at
the least, then every section of Nigeria would have senses of pride in their
area of origin. And each area can develop at its own pace”.
Nigerians have
always suspected, or rather, known, that it was massive corruption, nepotism
and impunity that killed off the Nigerian Airways. We know that they were the
same vices that killed off other national institutions like the Nigeria
National Shipping Line; the Nigeria Railway Corporation (which, that God and a
focused government, is now bouncing back very strongly); the NIPOST; NITEL; NMT;
Oshogbo Steel Rolling Mill; Aladja Steel; Ajaokuta Steel; National Oil; Dunlop;
Nigeria Textile Mills; ALSCON; Bacita Sugar Company; Tate and Lyle, Ilorin; Iwopin Paper Mill; Jebba Paper Mill; Oku
Iboku Paper Mill; Volkswagen; PAN; Kaduna Textile; Nigeria Wire and Cable,
Ibadan; Leyland Motor Assembly, Ibadan; Gas Cylinders Co, Ibadan; and many more others that are still moribund,
most of them never to wake up again, no matter how we try. The electricity
institution, NEPA, would have gone the same way but for its necessity and dire
essential importance both for the governments and the people. Most of the above
are government-owned concerns, which tells you two things – one, governments
are poor in running businesses for profit, and two, those people the government
put there (deliberately in most cases) to run the business just view them as
personal concerns for self-aggrandisement and to loot. And they do loot, oh
dear, do they loot!!!
The galling
thing is that people who were often responsible for these crimes in Nigeria
(which would have gotten them executed in countries like China and Singapore)
are often untouchable, high and mighty, and believe it or not, often called
back to government to head important agencies, most often, the agencies they
deliberately decimated and destroyed by singular acts of looting and
mismanagement. These unscrupulous people are even regarded as experts and gurus
in these fields. But who do we blame? The government itself, the law
enforcement authorities and even us, the masses. We still kow-tow to them. A
simple people, whose brains have been conditioned to accept and celebrate
corruption.
We always make
the mistake, to our eternal suffering, of separating the government from the
people. Who makes up the government? The people. But once we elect or appoint
people into government, we leave them on their own, and believe they should do
everything; we don't monitor them, we don't make them accountable. As such,
they do anything they like. They loot the treasury, they become lazy, they
become oppressive and arrogant, they start acting like mini-gods. And then we,
the people outside government start moaning and complaining when it is too late
to call them to order.
When we say
Nigerians are lazy, do not separate adults from youths (in fact, the adults are
worse than the youths) or government from people. There are millions of
hard-working Nigerians, in the country and all over the world - we know, that
is a fact. But unfortunately, it is the few lazy ones, mostly based in Nigeria,
who dominate government and rule us. And it is these indolent cliques who make
the most noise (and crimes) that we see every day, and the world see every day.
How can a Senator who works less than 60 days a year be earning N40 million a
month while a teacher in a secondary school (5 days a week, for a minimum of 8
months in a years) earns less than N40,000 a month? Where is the moral sense in
this anomaly? It is absolutely ethically absurd and wrong.
Meanwhile our
leadership are still struggling to understand democracy as a collective
approach in meeting collective needs, such as quality education, jobs, housing,
mass transportation system, quality health care services etc and plans for old
age and befitting pass on.
You know that
country is lawless; and the most lawless are our leaders and those in charge of
our resources and infrastructures, etc. Those in charge of everything that
should make life better for us are the most lawless, irresponsible,
insensitive, conscienceless and unscrupulous. We may never know the answer;
they hide their crimes very well; we and our Press and Media don't dig deep
enough, are compromised or afraid to; and so, life, as we know it, goes on. The
masses are happy with their poverty and oppression and think only by praying to
God to come down and deal with their oppressors is the answer.
As Black people
(remember Nigeria is the most populous black nation in the world) we are looked
at as different and inferior. We truly appear feeble and inferior both in
thinking and in managing our affairs. And you will blame the rest of the world
if this is how they perceive us? We’re hardly trying to convince them
otherwise, are we not?
We elect known
thieves to run our affairs and even kind enough to sympathise with them when
they are punished. Former Governor of Plateau State, Senator Joshua Dariye took
tax payers money to London, it was Ecological fund for his State. In his luxury
hotel suite, he was doling out 50-pound notes to anyone who came. The poor
people of Plateau were dying in agony of diseases and poor infrastructure. He
was promptly arrested by the British police and huge sums of foreign currencies
seized from him. The smart guy managed to escape back home! Home sweet home,
the land of the foolish! Dariye was later rewarded by his people by voting him
as a Senator.
When some of
them are apprehended overseas and chastised, we welcome them with fanfare.
After all it is our money they stole, not theirs. Ibori was celebrated on his
return from British jail. He was met by the first citizen of Delta State and
others. Our heads of states stash monies in foreign countries and we must beg
for the return when they die.
We knowingly
elect leaders that are derelict in character and we go to church and mosques to
pray for them to perform and succeed and for miracles or even hate our friends
or relatives who have made it but can’t help us. We seem to be different.
There is
something genuinely wrong with our society. Our mindset is warped. In 2014, our
former Finance Minister was begging us to save in case oil prices crash but we
quickly rushed to the courts to save us from a woman who didn’t want us to ‘chop’
the future of our children! Aren’t we the cursed race? Our values are warped.
Last time I was
discussing with a close friend, he plainly told me that the system God designed
for us in Nigeria is Corruption; he said we were better off during the corrupt
years and he wanted corruption brought back. The crook who can buy votes wins,
we prefer to vote for thieves so long he can pay his way through. Isn’t that
what we are now pushing for in 2019? Change from the “lifeless” and allegedly
nepotist Buharideen, the Fulani herdsman, to the allegedly corrupt Atikulated,
the Fulani-multimillionaire former Customs Officer and former VP of
Nigeria?
Decent
hardworking people have no intrinsic worth in our society. Everything is upside
down.
So, what do we
do? The problem is most perpetrators of these crimes are never prosecuted and
made to face the music. Crime and punishment in Nigeria are for the poor, not
for the irresponsible elite. Secondly, our institutions are designed built to
be porous and with loopholes for some people to take undue advantage; this must
be reversed. Third, the law enforcement and judiciary are just too weak and
corrupt; we must do something about these. Fourth, accountability and
responsibility are lax; these must also be built in. Fifth, the people are not
helping either, in many ways; they need re-education and re-orientation; I can
go on and on.
A mountain to
climb, isn’t it? Herculean task, isn’t it?
Impossible in Nigeria, isn’t it?
We have to
start somewhere!!!
Akintokunbo A Adejumo MSc, Dip Mngt, CIHM, MCMI, FITP
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