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That EFCC’s New Offensive By Segun Simmons
‘Cry the beloved country’’. I bemoan my country and the calibre of people who are saddled with responsibilities of which they seem never to understand their definitions in clear terms. This EFCC’S so called ‘new offensive’ is an initiative that is already fraught with a lot of disorder, very iniquitous and seem witch hunting in idea from inception. For me, it is already outmoded at birth. To flex muscles by the reason of the power at their disposal is it not to displace and further increase the nightmarish languor of the poor civil servants who manage to survive in the face of the extravagance and ostentation of their lords who are too sacred to be touched.
These poor people are the ones the so called lords of the land used in perpetrating their evil and illicit acts of looting the public treasury. The same people who see all of theses acts are left to eat the crumbs and the desire of the power that be today is to see that this same officers no longer have to appear in any way decent or worthwhile since he is banished by the man made gods of the land never to be able to raise his head among the people. It is a crime for him to have chosen to serve his father land.
Anyway I wonder how many people will ever want to take the job of civil service if they were able to get an employment in better paying firms. The old fashion idea of the popular job security in civil service in those days is far eroded and no longer existent. An internal policy may suddenly appear and the job is taken away from you. A country that has no respect for the well being of its citizenry, I wonder how interesting it would be to serve such an entity. Even at that, is it not so disheartening that the ones who have chosen to do this drudgery for their nation be allowed some respite of peace. So, with this new ‘yeye’ offensive of the EFCC, the civil servants will now be kept in perpetual fear and misery of not knowing what next to expect.
Sometimes I begin to wonder if these people saddled with these serious economic and financial matters of the nation understand in totality what exactly their job schedule and responsibility should be or it is. My challenge with EFCC is on the premise of misplaced priority and the lack of creativity. And this unrealistic and shadow pursuing approach to work. May I ask if there is someone who has trod on another big toe within the service that needs to be punished? May be that will explain this new offensive, I wish to know.
There are thousand and one of the big boys and big girls in the society who have been arrested, interrogated and probed by the EFCC who today are still in our midst enjoying their loot. What has been done to them so far? There are cases in newspaper report that reflected that the idea of EFCC was more of selective interrogation and probe that there are some sacred cows that the arm of the EFCC cannot touch. It was as if what was reported then was balderdash but so far this has been disprove and faulted. The so called EFCC has not convinced the people. There are culprits quizzed within and outside the service on the bases of their involvement somehow by putting their hands into the public purse, what has been done to these people. A larger proportion of these offenders are still within the system being celebrated if you care to know. Where are all the governors that were probed? Where are the Diepreye Alamieyeseighas, the Dariyes, Lucky Igbinedion, Orji Uzor Kalu, Ibori, Ayo Fayose, the latter whose passports has been returned to him to travel at will and so are many others, what of Alao Akala with the Tony Anenih probe panel. Reports have it that the governors did plea bargain with the EFCC while some refunds were made and the rest was kept back by the governors, Odili is reported to have gotten a perpetual court injunction to stop the EFCC from probing him which translates to mean that they can not arrest him. The man is too much for much for the law – above the law so to say.
This drama is becoming too interesting but rather grotesquely odd. The question is who is fooling who? What has happened to the politicians, the political appointees, the contractors and others? The Grain Silo Project in Agricultural sector in Ogun State (Emerald Nigeria Limited) is still begging for an answer; what about the health sector - Iyabo Obasanjo, Adenike Grange, the Elumelu power probe I cannot fathom any appreciable result from all of it; the transport/aviation sector of the Safe Tower Project involving Iyayi, Fani-Kayode and Professor Borishade to the tune of N6.5billion (originally N1billion) yet nothing has come out of all of this. Lives of innocent people have been wasted in the air due to avarice and no one is bothered about the well being of the people whom they claim to represent. Tax payers’ money is being squandered on mere jamboree probe which has not yielded in particular any meaningful dividends. Nothing has been done about this and what you hear is that the probe is still on going. When will it come to and end and some people are jailed to serve as deterrent to the rest. These ones I beg to say are sacred cows, abi!
Is it not within the same entity that the governor of Gombe, Goje was reported to have paid himself the whopping sum of N200 million (two hundred million naira) in his first term in office as his entitlement and so paid his predecessor same, yet he is in office as governor. These are the same set of people who will address the civil servants tomorrow, these low income earners and tell them that they have to tighten their belts and work very hard. Who among these people are actually serving the citizenry, are they not just serving themselves and their immediate families and friends or better still their pockets? I wonder how hard they work on their own. Are these not supposed to be real or major issues of concern to the EFCC if they truly understand their responsibility? I think they should just stop begging the question and pursue the real issue.
Civil servants have been reduced to beggars. There are few cases descried of officers who prepare garri (eba) in the offices and eat it with the soup brought from home. Isn’t this disgraceful? What some of these power brokers spend in feeding their beasts (dogs) in a month is sometimes over and above what some of the big officers in service earn as their total package in a year. If these power people can for once be sincere, what the poor officers are paid cannot purchase for them a future and a dream, how much more that of his family. But the grace of God has helped quite a number of them. And this is the same job done in the seventies and the early eighties that brought hope and fulfilment. As soon as you left the university and join the service then, car loans are given and other benefits accrue to the employees in service.
The last administration recruited some graduates popularly referred to as ‘High Flyers’, these are guys with first classes (1st Class) and some second class uppers (2nd Class Uppers) into the system. Before then, there have been numerous first class and second class upper graduates in the system that can not lift up their heads because of what the system has reduced them to. However, these new sets have no accommodation and are poorly paid, how would they continue to fly high when they can not afford to live a meaningful life? I wonder how you expect to get the best from a man who is squatting, who can not afford to get to work after two weeks of receiving salary due to the distant places they live and the cost of transport; this invariably denies him access to his office. And for the case of those who manage to pay the ten percent on the accommodation during monetisation whose entire salaries are used to service the loan in ASO SAVINGS and LOANS, other mortgage banks and the commercial banks, how do you want these people to survive. Meanwhile their counter parts who graduated at the same time who work in some other private sectors live better and the former are made to feel like nobodies.
I think the matter is beyond EFCC launching any new offensive; rather the government should wake up to its responsibility and look for ways to addressing the problem in the service. It could sound rather uncanny and very unsatisfactory to the people up stairs but they are the ones who are encouraging the corruption if it exists within the system. They are aiding and abetting corruption by this share negligence and lack of human feelings for fellow brothers. It is important to know at this point that it can’t always be cool up there. In the face of the artificiality and the cosmetics created by the government in Abuja, how do you really expect these people to survive? This is not to say that corruption is encouraged in this piece but how in God’s name do you expect a man to live honourably when you have devoid and denied him the means of livelihood and survival? Isn’t it interesting to note that within the same service and system, some category of officers earn more money than their counterparts of the same grade level in some kind of ministries, agencies and parastatals. Why this dichotomisation? This is a matter of another day anyway.
Let Farida Waziri declare her assets after she left the police and should be ready to tell the public where she got them and if her salary was enough while in service to acquire whatever she has. How many EFCC officers live on their salary? How much are they paid? What is their budget and how is it distributed? I think some of these questions need to be answered by these people. If these people don’t have a comprehensive understanding of the responsibility given to them, let those who will genuinely do the job take it. I am not a male chauvinist and I practically have nothing against Farida Waziri but my concern is that the job has to be done rightly. I still can not comprehend this duplication of duties. The EFCC for me has lost its grasp. I understand very well that there exists a branch within the police who does similar job, why not give it back to that department and equip them properly to carry out their responsibility. This idea of politicising everything will hardly take Nigeria to that promise land.
There is a need to know this truth no matter how bitter the big guns, the men of timber, calibre and obeche may see it - you know them very well. Why not go after them genuinely and stop looking for the poor man in the service who will not be able to defend himself by the reason of the situation and condition the system has subjected him. A man is paid a de-humanising salary while the lords flaunt their ill-gotten affluence at his face indiscriminately, yet they want to use their power to oppress him all in the name of EFCC OFFENSIVE. The lower ranking officers are those use the job of policy planning, formulation, and policy making, yet you pay them pea nuts while their bosses use ‘Ghana-must-go bags’ to stash money away. Well, Martin Luther King Jr. gave a note of hope in his popular song “we shall overcome some day”
My take in this matter is that irrespective of what EFCC may be launching at this time, the power should not be used to oppress the poor officers in service. Don’t demoralise them any further with any ‘yeye’, ‘nonsense’ offensive. I beg make una go sleep!
Segun Simmons Abuja.
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