An Abasement Called Alameiyeseigha

By

U. Tanimu Umar

tanimuu@yahoo.com

Nigeria is replete with shameless miscreants who were unfortunately in the mantle of leadership. The case of Diepreye Alameiyeseigha (popularly known as Mr. Alams) is a microcosm of the type of despicable leaders we have. This is an executive governor of an oil - rich state of Bayelsa, his state collects an average of three billion naira monthly from the Federation Account, yet the state remains one of the most backwarded in terms of development. Crime, poverty and lawlessness reign supreme in the state. Most of such founds obviously ends up in the governor’s private bank accounts, which, like many of his colleagues in the country, he keeps all over the world. Yenogoa, the Bayelsa State capital, is one of the most underdeveloped, if not the most underdeveloped, state capital in the country. Yet, inste ad of providing the basic amenities needed by his people, the governor resorts to living and overtly extravagant life style, traveling to whichever country he wishes. It was in one of those expeditions he was caught at a London airport with cash in his pockets large enough to build a hospital and a school complex!

Even if the assertion from some quarters, who alleged the Bayelsa State Governor was set up by powers that be to suffer some kind of collateral damage from the Obasanjo /Atiku feud, turn out to be substantiative, it was indeed fatuous for him to pocket such huge amount of money into a land where money laundering laws, like any other law, is strictly adhered to. Apparently he was used to laundering such amounts, but fate caught up with him on that occasion. Everyday for the thief, one day for the owner.

Section 308 of the Nigerian Constitution which, sadly, confers immunity to Mr. Alams, can only save him in Nigeria, and so the British Police arrested the immunityless Bayelsa State Governor and charged him to court. After some court appearances, his heavily - paid attorneys were able to wriggle out a bail from the British judges who directed the suspect must not venture to travel out before the finalisation of the trial.

Meanwhile, back at home, his deputy, Goodluck Jonathan seemingly had good luck on his side when he was confirmed as the acting governor after the change in the leadership of the State House of Assembly, the ousted speaker was said to be very subservient to Mr. Alams. Also during the period Mr. Alams’ birthday came and go with the array of his cohorts and sycophants pretending to be unaware of the date. No national daily, radio or television station carried the usual congratulatory birthday greetings. The reason is not far-fetched: Alams was not around to award plum contracts!

Back in the confine of his secluded London home Mr. Alams could bear it no more, and in a set up akin to that of a detective movie he swindled his way, illegally, out of Britain. I tried to envisage the sight of the pouchy and heavy weight governor disguised, wait a minute…, as a woman, as he was about to board a flight from the London airport. I wonder how the make-up experts have been able to conjure up his final appearance; whether they dressed him in skirts, baggies, body hugs or wrappers, whether he put on a head tie, a wig, false breasts, false hips (no, he don’t need those), ear rings, high heels with a hand bag to match. It must have been an audacious sight. Certainly the experts must have done a good special effects job for Mrs. (Sorry, Mr.) Alams to beat the ogle-eyed security forces at the airport.

For an executive governor in Nigeria to commit such atrocious show of shame, and for him to receive a rapturous reception from a mammoth crowd, or be in a stage - managed one, it all added up to the fact that our polity has miscued and some of our so-called leaders can rightly be labeled VIP, which in Fela’s lexicon stand for vagabond in power.

DSP Alameiyeseighas’ flagrant embarrassing scandal must really have soiled Nigeria’s already dented image globally, and ought to be the last straw that should now force the amendment of the infamous section 308 of the constitution so that nobody, even the President, would have immunity against prosecution while in power. Despite been axed from PDP’s National Executive Council (NEC), should Mr. Alams escape impeachment and go scot free (I doubt it he will) like the Plateau State governor, Joshua Dariye, then Obasanjo’s corruption crusade will be but a mirage and EFCC’s motto of "Nobody is above the law" will be as false as the election that put Obasanjo’s gov ernment into power.

Whatever the eventualities turn out to be, the bottom line is that DSP Alameiyeseigha is a disgrace to his people, a disgrace to PDP, a disgrace to his reputation as a governor and a disgrace to Nigeria’s polity. He certainly doesn’t deserve to be the chief executive of a state. I know that there are many like him in Nigeria who has been siphoning the treasures of their states, though leaving their people in abject penury and hunger, while they live stupendous lifestyles. For such chief executives, everyday, like in Alams’ case, will be his day, but one day will be for the law and the owners of the stolen wealth.            

U. TANIMU UMAR

Bolari Quarters,

Gombe, Nigeria.