Nigeria’s Corruption Diary for One Week (Mon 4th May – Fri
8th May 2009)
By
Sylva
Nze Ifedigbo
nzeifedigbo@yahoo.com
It’s
been an interesting week in Nigeria. Interesting not because we
accomplished any outstanding feat, but because of the many sad
incidents of that same thing that have left us a pariah state and
which Prof Dora thinks she can burnish with a wave of the hand;
Corruption.
In just
one week, we had news reports of brazen acts of high profile
corruption involving such huge amounts that could sink the entire
economy of some of our less endowed African states.
In this
week, the PDP did what they do best. Employing their ‘do or die’
approach and with the express assistance of the cash n carry
conscience of Ayoka Adebayo, they masterfully stole back Ekiti State
even against the hue and cry of the people. Of course the Police and
the Army were on ground to see that the people were fully repressed
and for all their cared, we all can go to blazes, Oni has been
returned elected.
But the
women who walked naked in Ekiti in protest against the PDP don’t seem
to have walked in vain. Disagreements over the sharing of an alleged
250 million naira bribe money by the INEC officials in Ido-Osi has
since emerged. Ido-Osi we will recall was the theater of PDP’s rigging
project. It was only there that some 19,000 people voted and of course
close to 16,000 did so for the PDP. It was results from that LGA that
made Ayoka Adebayo resign in the first instance and of course, it was
the laughable figures from there that gave Oni victory.
The
Police say it is quizzing the said INEC officials and that serious
confessional statements have been made. If this issue is not treated
Nigerian style, perhaps we might not wait for lengthy judicial
processes to prove what we all know happened in Ido-Osi. The gods are
not dead after all.
Still in
this week, A top cop and EFCC’s Director of Operations was sent
packing. In an act that was enough to make us a laughing stock in the
world, this man was found to have contracted out his studies and exams
as a Law student at the University of Abuja. This man is the head of
Operations of Nigeria’s anti graft agency. Why then do we worry over
the operations of the EFCC when one of its head is a common criminal
buying his way to a Law degree?
Examination malpractice carries a punishment of 21 years in jail. I
remember my school principal reading out those laws to us before the
commencement of WAEC exams. Surely, the disgraced cop will not get 21
years. His case might never be mentioned again, but he has provided
for us a big reason to question what happens at the University of
Abuja.
It is
not a hidden fact that as soon as our politicians rig their way to
power and arrive Abuja, they immediately register for one program or
the other at the University to sure up their credentials. Soon, you
hear they have graduated, beaming with smiles in an academic gown.
Most of them do the very same thing the former EFCC director of
Operation was caught for. They bribe everybody from the dean to the
cleaners. They only come to claim their degree after the duration of
the program.
This
time we had a cop, a law enforcement officer and one who carries the
extra responsibility of ridding our society of financial crimes being
caught in the act. In places like China, he would have been hanging by
the neck, but in Nigeria, were such things are deemed normal;
the man was just sacked from EFCC.
Still
within this week, the EFCC seemingly waking up from deep sleep
(perhaps following the sack of their Director of Operations who might
have been the clog in the wheel) uncovered a massive scam of about
5.3Billion Naira. Billion I must repeat here for emphasis not Million.
A senator and other official of the Ministry of power have been picked
up for questioning while three House of Representative members
involved are still plying hide and seek with the EFCC agents.
The
money, 5.3 billion which was meant for Rural Electrification vanished.
The senator, his cohorts in the House and the officials of the
ministry preferred to electrify their pockets with the money. Coming
on the heels of the seeming inability of the House to tell us what
really happened to the 16billion dollars Independent Power Project,
this tells us that darkness will remain one thing Prof. Dora will
never re-brand in our National image.
Earlier
in the week, the Minister of Works, Hassan Lawal on inspection of
Federal Roads construction around the country had made a startling
revelation, one that was enough to bring out the people of Anambra and
indeed the entire southeast in violent protest. He revealed to the
utter amazement of Governor Peter Obi and the journalists in his crew
that contrary to the held belief, no contract was awarded for the
construction of the second Niger Bridge.
Former
President Obasanjo a professional maverick, had in the last days of
his administration, when the campaigns were already high announced
that the Federal Government had approved the construction of the long
sort after bridge. It was said to be counterpart funded between the
Federal Government and the Anambra state Government.
But the
minister stated emphatically and would have sworn by the holy books
had he been pressed further that no such thing existed in Governments
records. It never happened, he stated. He didn’t deny Obasanjo saying
so, but he was saying invariably that Obasanjo simply lied.
Considering that he was a member of Obasanjo’s cabinet and a close one
at that (one of the few who never lost their portfolios) he is in a
position to know better.
Invariably speaking therefore, Obasanjo said that as a campaign trick
to cow the south east into voting PDP again. Imagine a President, the
father of the nation, lying to the nation with a straight face on an
issue as important as the second Niger Bridge which held so much to
the economy of the nation. This president walks around free and plays
statesman monitoring elections all over Africa.
As if to
bring the week to a thrilling climax, a House Committee disclosed that
1.3 billion was paid by the Nigeria customs for the supply of two
light surveillance aircrafts in 2007and in May 2009, the aircrafts
have not yet arrived. Did the money grow wings or is it that the
contractor vanished? In any case, what do we say about a Customs
leadership that paid for an aircraft, it wasn’t supplied and they are
so ok with it? The Comptroller General argues that only part payment
was made, an audit report brandished by the Honourables stated
otherwise, so who then is lying?
All
these incidences of corruption happened or were revealed in just one
week and we hardly took notice. In the US the diversion of some funds
by officials of AIG was a huge scandal, one that took Television
headlines for weeks and there were probes and all that. Here however,
scandals of larger magnitudes hardly steer up any discourse because
they’ve become normal occurrences and because nothing happens after
its revelation.
Which
way Nigeria? I beg to ask.
Sylva
Nze Ifedigbo.
www.nzesylva.wordpress.com
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