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Obi Nwakanma’s Defense of Graft By Osita Chidoka
Obi Nwakama is a writer I love to read. His beautiful prose and sometimes incisive analysis beckons to any literature lover. Obi also was a credible voice for democracy and good governance in the days when it was dangerous to speak out. Until his migration to the United States, he was a consistent advocate for the new Nigeria that our generation craved; a Nigeria governed by an enlightened elite where the rule of law and transparency is the norm. A Nigeria where no man is oppressed by the ill gotten wealth of those elected to keep watch over the commonwealth.
You can then imagine my shock and disappointment when Obi writing in his column, Orbit in Vanguard Newspaper of Sunday April 2nd averred that Osuji’s bribe of 55million Naira to the National Assembly is comparable to “lobbying” and should be applauded. Haba! Obi, how could you engage in this kind of somersault? Is it ethnicity that blinded you to the fact of roguery that Osuji and his accomplices wallowed in? What has come over you that you cannot see the corruptive influence of a Minister whose Messenger was loading 35Million Naira into the boot for onward transmission to Legislators?
I wonder why Obi Nwakanma who lives in the US did not tell his audience about congressmen that have been expelled from the House and sentenced to jail for corruption. Obi should have told his audience about congressman Rostenkowski who served 17 months in jail and fined 100 thousand dollars for misusing thousands of public funds in the operation of his congressional office. The former chairman of House ways and means committee was regarded as one of Washington’s powerful politicians yet the law dealt with him accordingly. The case of James Traficant, a congressman from Ohio who was found guilty of bribery in 2002 was ousted from the house and sentenced to 8 years in Prison will be germane for Obi’s readers who are not current about events in America. He should have also mentioned that Martha Stewart went to prison for insider trading and perjury.
Obviously your conscience disturbed you enough to acknowledge that lobbying money in America”… is never received as personal gifts. It is in fact publicly accounted. Failure to account for such gifts received, become quite serious.” Do you have any evidence that this was the case in the Osuji scandal? What is the benefit to the “stakeholders” who you claimed contributed the money? Obi did you read the EFCC report? I doubt if you did. You will have seen the statement of Directors, Deputy Directors, Chief Admin Officers and even Messengers in the Ministry of Education. How will a Minister provide leadership to these officers who sit with him discussing how to bribe another agency of government? This is the most disturbing dimension of the bribery scam, the involvement of both senior, mid and junior civil servants. This is enough to send the Minister to jail. A Professor of Osuji’s standing should not be seen in the proximity of such a meeting. He betrayed his profession as an academic and should be apologizing to the nation not going to court. What shamelessness.
What will you call the cashing of 35million Naira of Ministry funds by a Clerk? How will the American government react if the Department of Defense took a loan from an Agency under its watch to finance lobbying activities? How will Prof. Osuji’s driver and Police orderly see their boss as he mouths due process and punish corrupt offenders in the Ministry as he is wont to do? Could it be that Prof. Osuji agreed to the bribery scam because of expected personal gains from the capital vote? Why will the Legislature seek for an upfront payment if not that they know or suspect that the Minister is a major beneficiary from the contracts in the vote? Obviously Prof. Osuji has low credit standing amongst the Legislators; that will be the only explanation why they went for an upfront payment from the proceeds of last year’s capital vote he spent without “pork and barrel” for the boys.
Prof. Osuji is a metaphor for the spineless leadership that some academics bring to the public space. He is a good example of how not to be a Minister; a man who couldn’t live by his own convictions, if he has any. This is why Obi Nwakanma’s article is a great disservice to the fight against corruption. I feel a strong sense of betrayal and bewilderment at this strange advocacy from Obi that sounds like a mercenary Public relations job. The article which stood logic on the head and fraudulently compared apples and oranges is a sad blot on obi’s integrity and consistency as a columnist.
Obi should please advise his friend Prof. Osuji to withdraw his case from Court, apologize to the nation and Igbo people for denting the good work that Igbo Ministers and advisers have been doing in this administration. Of course I expect every true son of the Zik heritage which has been espoused by Dr. M. I. Okpara and Chief Alex Ekwueme to condemn the Osuji saga in its entirety. As for the Senate President and Senator Adighije I expect the electorates of Abia State to carry out their constitutional responsibility of recall, without delay. Senator Adighije has already taken the path of honor by spilling the beans; however he should go the whole nine yards and resign from the Senate in preparation for a light jail sentence. All the other Senators who are denying should be fully prosecuted and maximum punishment exacted on them by the State. That is the only way the Nigeria State can justify its existence and begin its metamorphosis as an incarnation of the hopes and aspirations of Nigerians. President Obasanjo, as the current embodiment of this incarnation, must not waver in the sublime task of denying a few individuals the space to capture the Nigerian State as a platform for personal aggrandizement. On this there should be no retreat or surrender, as they say.
School of Public Policy, George Mason University, VA, USA
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