Review of Nigeria

Review of Nigeria: Full Disclosure By Sam Nda-Isaiah, Free Press Limited 2004 Abuja 432pp

Ibrahim Ado-Kurawa

Sam Nda-Isaiah is indeed one of the most popular columnists in Nigeria and he writes for the Daily Trust the most credible newspaper in the country. Many people in Kaduna rush every Monday to purchase the Daily Trust because of his column. His emergence as a popular writer is indeed one of the many achievements of this young but very influential newspaper because it has brought this brilliant writer and many others to public limelight.

This courage will earn him a glorious place in the history of the struggles for good governance in this country. Readers are lucky to have one of his lucid essays on this issue in the volume (pages 209-216). The essay titled “A Brave Auditor and His Whistle” will remain a timeless piece of indictment for the pretentious administration. It has catalogued the blatant examples of abuse of public trust by some individuals who have gone free despite the evil acts they committed against the good people of this country. The vivid evidences he gave on pages 274 to 276 clearly demonstrate his bravery and the fact that he is well informed of his subject. Sam is a dogged fighter he wrote an open letter to the Commonwealth leaders who were given lavish reception in the midst of Nigeria ’s poverty. He called on them that if Nigeria ’s president speaks of anti-corruption they should invoke “the name of Julius Makanjoula and watch how he reacts”. He showed them that the human rights abuses of the present government were worse than those of General Sani Abacha’s regime, which was suspended by the organization. So also the corruption during Sani Abacha’s regime made Nigeria 27^th most corrupt nation and since the inception of this administration it is now the 2^nd most corrupt nation on earth (page 380). The commonwealth leaders will never do anything they are the same people who now accepted Musharraf a brutal dictator and are harassing Robert Mugabe who wants equitable distribution of land in his country that would not be in favor of the white settlers who own most of the fertile land.

Sam has exposed the Peoples Democratic Party very well. His full disclosure of this party has shown to the public the pathetic nature of Nigeria ’s politics whereby a party that claims to be the largest in Africa has failed to provide exemplary leadership for others to follow. The party should have shown commitment to higher moral principles of democracy. Perhaps it has shown the least in the history of Nigeria ’s national parties. While other countries are progressing in commitment to party democracy, Sam’s disclosure is that Nigeria is receding. His exposé on the greatest leader of the PDP is quite alarming because it informed the public how the political class degenerated to the lowest level of decency by making such people party leaders (pages 135-141).

Sam did not spare Nigeria’s supposed masters or even masters of the so-called free world who are more than aware of the criminal conduct of April 19 2003 elections and yet they still offer recognition to the person who snatched power through that fraud. These two Western countries, US and UK have remained consistent in their double standards because of their contempt for other peoples especially Africans. He wrote that: “The American Annual Human Rights report was strongly worded and unequivocal about what happened in Nigeria in 2003. It declared in effect that although the Nigerian Constitution provides Nigerians with the right to change their government peacefully through periodic elections, that right was abridged during the 2003 general elections”. According to him the report also observed that: “security forces committed extra judicial killings and used excessive force to apprehend criminal suspects and to quell protests. There were also several politically motivated killings by unknown persons during the year” (page 416). Sam and many other people of conscience are surprised that the people who made this indictment still wine and dine with the culprit. This is not surprising because Western power mongers have committed more crime to humanity than any other people in history yet they always pretend to be saints. They have killed more people and they are still causing the deaths of so many in Africa through their involvements in civil wars such as the Angolan and Congo civil wars that have caused the deaths of more than five million people (for more information on this see New Africa September 2001 cover story titled ‘American Meddling in African affairs’).

Sam and indeed everyone should not be surprised that the leader of the so-called free world is having a cozy relationship with Nigeria ’s president who snatched the people’s mandate. This is because US has been notorious for fraternizing with worse leaders. They sponsored Mobuto Africa’s worst leader against Lumumba one of Africa ’s greatest leaders whom he killed. They accepted Musharraf with open arms after toppling Pakistan ’s best democratic government. They propped up Sadam and sponsored him to kill more Muslims than any other and now they have turned around removed him and seized the wealth of his country for geo-strategic reasons in preparation for their impending war with China for the control of world’s resources. They support Obasanjo and they are against Mugabe. They can never help Nigeria or any African country establish true democracy as long as it does not serve their material interests. They will support any dubious election in practice but condemn it in paper because they too were not properly elected (for a detailed account of this see Ebbets article titled ‘The 2004 Election Has Already Been Rigged’ September 2, 2003 www.thepeoplesvoice.org).

One of the secrets of Sam’s popularity is that he is an example of a bridge between the religious divide of northern Nigeria . Even though a practicing Christian he has many intimate Muslim friends. In fact he dedicated the book Salihijjo Ahmed one of the best engineers that Nigeria ever had being the consultant of Petroleum Trust Fund (PTF) the most successful public project in Nigeria ’s history. Sam does not stop at friendship as an advocate of peaceful coexistence he uses his pen to preach tolerance and condemn senseless bigots from both sides. A very good example of this public-spirited effort in the collection is the essay on Thisday riots (pages 218-230). As a high caliber writer Sam explained the political economy of the Miss World Pageant that Ben Murray-Bruce was so adamant in hosting despite the death of some many innocent Nigerians. But thank God the foreign partners were more humane because they shifted it from Nigeria . One of the greatest tragedies was how the President handled the matter with levity. Sam compared that attitude to that of Nero the Roman Emperor of ill fame. He observed: “While Kaduna was burning on Thursday evening, he was dancing and boogieing to live King Sunny Ade at an Owambe party organized for him at Island Club, Lagos . Does that remind you of Nero (AD 37-65), the Roman Emperor who fiddled while Rome was burning?….which finally confirmed that it was time to abandon any remaining hope in him” (page 225).

Sam’s pen is indeed one of the greatest that has rubbished President Obasanjo. His consistently graphic portrayal of the corruption of the administration will make every reader detest the president. The magnitude of the corruption is beyond explanation and is known by the international community, making it the most corrupt government in Nigeria ’s history. And the sad aspect of it all is that it has pretended to be the most saintly by its anti-corruption crusade with so many anti-corruption organizations put in place on paper and also its overt religiosity. The essay: “What happened to our money” (pages 348-352) should be kept for posterity and should serve as guideline for the probing of the administration in future. Every international financial organization has condemned the corrupt manner in which the Abuja Stadium was built at the cost of N100 billion when it could have been built at N19 billion. The amount spent on that Stadium was more than the entire amount spent on the PTF Nigeria’s most successful public project. It is also more than the amount spent on capital projects in the universities in the entire five years of the administration. Sam followed that essay with another, a courageous one titled: “Nigerians Deserve This President” (pages 353-360) in which he narrated how the people of Cote D’Voire pushed out Robert Guei who imposed himself on them while Nigerians are watching a worse scenario. In that essay he narrated the famous Hausa episode of Bakin Wake who committed suicide with a Katsina Prince who was notorious for oppressing his people but as a democrat Sam advocated peaceful means of pushing out Nigeria’s senseless leaders.

It is common knowledge that newspapers indeed make people great by providing them high-level information, if there is indeed democracy and rule of law in Nigeria Sam’s statement on page xvi is enough to trigger impeachment proceedings. This is because Nigerians will need an explanation on the amount of money seized by the British government and handed over to the President on the condition that it was going to be handed over to Economic and Financial Crimes Commission but several months have passed since the statement was made without any word from the government. On the next page he pointed to the British officials that there are more skeletons in the government’s cupboard because the Seven-hundred million naira, is “peanuts” compared to the trillions that cannot be accounted for. Sam’s job is obviously a dangerous one very few can survive it or even attempt taking that risk.

There is no doubt that the book is very interesting to read not only because it is a major disclosure on one of Nigeria’s most corrupt administrations but it is indeed a true “rough draft of history”. Like all human endeavors it is not perfect. The most obvious shortcoming of the book is that Sam is going to be considered an advocate by many, because in most of the writings he takes a position without allowing the reader to do so. The price of the book is also very high, although it is not stated, but it is sold at N5000 in some places because for that amount we should have a better quality print, page 220 of mine is blank! As a democrat Sam should aspire to have his book available to the largest number of the poor masses of this country. This book will certainly remain one of the major sources of understanding Nigeria ’s politics especially the Obasanjo administration. The author deserves commendation for this service to the people of Nigeria . The country is more than ever in dire need of such commitment.