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The Punishment of Corrupt Ex-governors By Tochukwu Ezukanma
A while back, the governor of Kwara state and the chairman of the Governor’s Forum, Bukola Saraki, met with the president, Musa Yar’Adua. The theme of his discussion with the president was the court trial of corrupt ex-governors. Normally, this would be a worthy point of interest to any Nigerian.
To most Nigerians, the prosecution of these former governors for their alleged crimes is splendid. It demonstrates that the lawlessness that characterized military rule and the Obasanjo presidency is being assailed. It is a powerful testimony to the revival of judiciary independence in Nigeria, for long, emasculated by tyranny and corruption. It reinforces our faith in the democratic process, confirming earlier convictions, that if democracy is allowed to flourish in Nigeria, that we can evolve a just and equitable society underpinned by the rule of law.
However, Saraki’s attitude towards the on going trials of the former governors, as expressed in his discussion with the president is at variance with that of the generality of Nigerians. He is not particularly appalled by their abuse of office and their embezzlement of public funds. And he is not impressed by the ability of the law enforcement agencies to prosecute them for their crimes. He was disturbed because the ex-governors were arriving in court, not in the mode they have gotten so accustomed to over the years, from plush mansions and in posh chauffer driven limousines, but from prison cells and in law enforcement vehicles. He told the president that the “humiliation” of the ex-governors demeans the office of the governor.
What nonsense? Does the stealing of government money exalt the office of the governor? The degradation of the office of the governor is in the abuse of the office, the betrayal of the public trust reposed on it and the thievery orchestrated from it. It is the turning of the office of His Excellence to a den of crooks engaged in sinister, lamentable, shameful activities that dishonors the office of the governor.
Sheltered in his cocoon of privileges, Saraki and his likes may not realize that life for the average Nigerian is a cruel grind. The average Nigerian remains desperately poor. He vegetates in scarcity and deprivation, ignorance and timidity, sickness and disease, pitiable housing and homelessness, etc. Hardship and the drudgery for daily survival are visibly etched on his face, and his scrawny frame is clad in threadbare.
The quality of life in Nigerians continues to deteriorate because a sizeable amount of the funds that would have been used to improve the living condition is stolen by public officials - presidents, governors, ministers, etc. Estimates of the amount of money stolen from Nigeria and stashed away in foreign banks are staggering. The last of such figures that I saw was stated in dollars. I tried to calculate it naira. Although, I have always prided myself for my computer brains, I was frazzled by the computation. I was confounded by the number of zeros involved and petrified by the enormity of the amount.
The elite who jet set to England and the United States of America for medical checkups and the treatment of minor ailments, may not know about the desperate state of our hospitals. Our health system is in a dreadful state. The 50 billion naira “spent” by the Obasanjo administration on the revitalization of public health institutions did not improve the quality of health care delivery because most of that money found their way into private pockets. Not surprisingly, Nigeria has one of the highest pregnancy-related deaths in the world. These deaths, according to the United Nations Fund for Population Activities (UNFPA), are from causes that would not have constituted a major problem, where there is a functional healthcare program.
Similarly, $1billion was “spent” on the renovation of federal roads. Sardonically, in the 8 years of Obasanjo’s presidency, the country’s roads and bridges, further dilapidated into death traps because, as usual, the money was misappropriated and siphoned into personal accounts. Also, about $16 billion (some estimates put it at $13.1billion) was used to revitalize the Nigeria power sector and boost its energy generation capacity. Lamentably, for obvious reasons, the situation of the power sector today is worse than it was 8 years earlier, and presently, the total power output in Nigeria is about half of what it was in 1969.
The Nigerian police hierarchy steals money allocated for remunerating, training, and equipping the police. So, ill-equipped, poorly trained and underpaid, the Nigerian police force is a band of lethargic men and women that can neither fight crime nor effectively perform normal police duties. School teachers and civil servants are dispirited and totally disinclined to do their work because they are not paid regularly. Money for their monthly salaries is sometimes stolen by governors, commissioners, etc. Due to similar reasons, our universities degenerated from bastions of scholarship and intellectual excellence to squalid centers of mediocrity, cult violence, intellectual slothfulness and sexual harassment. Essentially, we have a country rendered anarchistic and dysfunctional by conscienceless power elite remorselessly, relentlessly stealing, looting and pillaging.
Sadly, there is also a cultural dimension to this problem of official corruption. It glamorizes greed and ennobles theft. It distorts our collective sense of morality. It perverts our attitude towards money, work, commitment, loyalty, sacrifice, honesty, etc. Inescapably, because the people see their leaders, that is, the horde of brigands that pass for our leaders, as role models, a disproportionate number Nigerians are inevitably reduced to thieves, lairs, con artists, drug peddlers, smugglers, etc.
Exasperated by a question on political crimes, Margaret Thatcher angrily responded “a crime is a crime, is a crime, is a crime”. Whether planned in the coziness of the governor’s mansion and effected with the pen, or plotted in the dark, shadowy alleys and hideouts and executed with the gun, theft is theft, and should be punished as such. Actually, stealing by governors is a more serious crime than armed robbery because unlike most armed robbers, Their Excellencies supposedly personify the best of the society: the high-quality few elected to serve and entrusted with the fate of millions of people. They ought to be disciplined, responsible, financially honest and not rendered giddy by money and other sirens of life.
Nigeria laws should be amended to equate the punishment for stealing with the pen with that of stealing with the gun. Armed robbers who fall into the hands of the people are lynched by an irate mob, and those apprehended by the police, are prosecuted, sentenced to death and executed by a firing squad. Such should also be the fate of these governors and other public officials who are stealing from the people; although with the pen.
Tochukwu Ezukanma writes from Lagos, Nigeria.
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