TRANSPARENCY INTERNATIONAL IS WRONG

By

Wada Nas

wada@gamji.com

 

 

It was quite interesting reading Transparency International formed by President Obasanjo in collaboration with his huge battalion if international friends, some years ago when it went to town recently with its report for the year 2000.  in the report, it awarded Nigeria, under this transparent administration of its former board members a gold medal for becoming the most transparently corrupt country in the whole world.  That from being number 27 last year like Michael Johnson, Nigeria ran fast in the year 2000 to top the medal table of the most corrupt country in the whole world of the United Nations’ 182 countries!  What an achievement by a country under saints.

 

How did this Transparency people arrive at this system of grading to award to our dear country, headed by a transparent saint, this golden honour of dubious distinction?  That it based its assessment first on the evidence of those who have been transacting business with us and the general observations and opinions of observing Nigerians on ground.

 

This means that our foreign business partners have recommended us for the award based on their practical experience and dealings with government officials upon which there was no hesitation taking the appropriate action.  And so we in the year 2000 won the gold for corruption great award.  But Transparency is wrong.  It is impossible for Nigeria to be corrupt under the leadership of Obasanjo, a messiah sent to us by God to salvage us from squalor, cleanse our society of corruption and do such other decent things.  It is impossible.  It just can’t be so.

 

Doesn’t Transparency know that only the Abachas are the most corrupt in the whole world and only his regime was the most corrupt?  How dare Transparency award this golden honour to the Obasanjo administration and not to the Abacha regime?  It speaks of untransparent conduct for this administration to be awarded gold for being the most corrupt in Nigeria’s history while the regimes of Abacha, Babangida, Shagari, Buhari, Gowon and Abdulsalam could end up with either silver or bronze, or perhaps nothing.  This certainly can’t be.  It is even corruption itself to award this administration this honour.  It belongs to the Abachas surely?

 

Has Transparency International forgotten that N100 billion was allegedly recovered from the Abachas and associates and remains transparently unaccounted for up to now?  Have they also forgotten a House report that to transparent Obasanjo Nigeria gave the contracts to three close associates, as against 14 during Abacha?  Or are they not aware of the identities of those who have been auctioning the properties of Abacha and Useni, keeping the money in the accounts to earn interest in such a transparent show of favouritism, that Nigerians are not entitled to know what has become of the earnings there from?  Don’t these Transparency people know that the tender for the auctioning “dash” was transparently not advertised?

 

And in case they don’t know, the president has been spending public funds in such a transparent manner that there has not been authorization by the “un-transparent” National Assembly, the only un-transparent institution in the land.  The president was transparent in paying N12 billion to Berger without authorization.  He was equally transparent in approving N38 billion for Abuja Stadium without authorization.  To ensure more transparent conduct in the business of un-transparency, he secretly approved N3 billion for cronies’ quarters without transparent authority.  And only recently he approved about N690 million for the settlement of the hotel bills of the cronies, also without transparent authority.

 

Indeed, everything about Nigeria under Obasanjo, has been transparent in the wrong adherence to rules and procedures.  Haven’t they heard how billions of Education Trust Fund money was withdrawn from the Central Bank and put into a private account and the proceeds meant for Project 2003?  At least The Post Express newspaper told us this much.  The money was transparently transferred in broad daylight to earn interest for transparent private use.

 

What do the Transparent people want of a government that transparently spends public funds without regard to rules and procedures?  This is what transparency is supposed to be, including of course, the willpower to transparently do things the wrong way.

 

It is, therefore, pathetically wrong to accuse Nigeria of lack of transparency under messiah Obasanjo a while everything has been transparently done the other way.  Look at even the transparent way they are fighting corruption selectively.  Who dares investigate the Education Fund with the same transparent vindictiveness they have been bashing the Abachas, Usenis, Gwarzos and the political detainees led by Bamaiyi?  It is a transparent way of victimization which can only be applied to a few, excluding the sacred cows.

 

If you may recall, the Abuja Mirror carried a report in one of its editions to the effect that someone told them that he has never seen worse cases of demanding for bribe to even see a boss in Aso Rock as it is happening these days, and that even when you give, you may still not be lucky to see him.  What happened before the paper hit the streets?  The security people went there and bought all the copies and destroyed them in a transparent attempt to cover up un-transparency.  Transparent-cover up.  But the Abuja Mirror is on the internet and we all read it in spite of their action.  So much why transparency dotting the landscape, yet Transparency International insulted us that we are transparently corrupt under Obasanjo.  To say that there was no time Nigeria was ever more corrupt than under President Obasanjo, the anti-corruption warrior sent by God to deal with the Abachas and associates is to be rudely correct.  In fact, we deserve two, and not just one, gold medals for this unenviable position of the Senior Most Corrupt country for the World – SMCW.

 

Because our media are so transparent in such matters, no one talks except when the Abachas are involved.  One paper that has been persistently calling for the probe of Babangida was angry the other time when the House took off to do oversight functions at NNPC, saying that if the legislators rejected self probe because it is unconstitutional, then they should not indulge in probing the NNPC for the same reason, forgetting that they have the constitutional powers to do what they have embarked upon.  Double Standard, double un-transparency.

 

Who were those sustaining these federal legislators making noise about self probe at a time when House committee was busy with their oversight functions?  They have remained in Abuja disgracing themselves for selfish reasons with one of them exposing his greed recently by saying that he is fighting for self probe to bring down Na’Abba for the purpose of taking over from him!  We dare advise these selfish legislators to get down to work and stop fooling around.  But then, it is what Transparency is talking about.

 

According to a recent media report in its strategy to fight extravagance through frequent foreign trips, the office of the Minister of National Planning purportedly issued stern warning to commissioners, governors and ministers to cease forthwith their foreign jamborees which consumes a lot through the back door.  Kind of back door – corruption.  In line with the anti-corruption campaign, the ministry clearly avoided issuing out such a warning to the Commander General of Corruption so as to enhance the anti-corruption dance through transparent discriminatory approaches.  Anyway, as a born-again crusader, the commander can never do wrong, only lesser mortals can.

 

Why Transparency is not aware of such discriminatory approach to the war against corruption baffles a lot of Nigerians.  It is right and proper to fight corruption very discriminately so that we could repeat the gold medal score in 2001 and subsequent years.

 

You see, the commander wants us to fight the war to its logical conclusion.  The House of Representatives, decided to lend a helping hand by overseeing the illegal purchase of N3 billion houses for ministers and other cronies, a peep into the overloaded books of NNPC, the wing developed by the 50 billion naira Education Trust Fund, and how the recovered 100 billion naira got missing, some on the way to Niger.  In the spirit of war, the commander came out to castigate the lawmakers for taking it upon themselves in line with their constitutional role, to assist him.  He launched into transparent blackmail in the style of the anti-corruption war.  This is how to fight corruption, don’t expose too much of what the executive is doing, only what others, especially NASS are doing.

 

It is a good strategy to cover up fraud or corruption, so as to fight against corruption with determination.  Meaning that to properly fight corruption we must not expose the corrupt practices going on in the executive branch.  Doing so, i.e., exposing the corrupt practices in the executive branch is itself corruption which must be fought ceaselessly.  The only proper thing to do is to constantly fight against corruption in the National Assembly.  This is the only right thing to do, but it is absolutely proper to cover up such practices on the part of the executive.  Oh yes!  You see, the executives who handle 96 per cent of our money can never be corrupt.  Never.  Only legislators who handle just four per cent could.  They are corrupt through and through, while the executives are clean, all of them saints and men of God, who have never heard of the word corruption let alone indulge in it.  Indeed it is because they are absolutely clean that the media have been over protecting them to ensure that they are free to fight corruption in their own style of cover-up.  Don’t forget that the junior minister in Finance told us that government never paid for the 61 houses bought for cronies, only for his counterpart in the FC ministry to put a lie to his claim, insisting that the houses have been paid for without budget approval.  Back door purchases in line with the anti-corruption drive.

 

Let Nigerians rest assured that with such practices taking good shape, another medal for the most corrupt, would be added to the catch next year, God willing.  So, don’t bother, we will retain the medal.

 

Transparency should take note that true anti-corruption champions like Gani and co. are unwanted because they are shouting anti-corruption slogans too much which is considered bad enough for the anti-corruption campaign.  Yes, the best way to fight corruption is to tell the anti-corruption people such as the Lagos lawyer to shut up.  When we get this medal next year, Gani should be invited to the ceremony to watch the naked dance of deception.

 

Before then a brief on Martins Kuye, the junior minister of Finance should be written.  When the purchase of 61 houses scandal broke out, he flatly denied any payment being made.  From available evidence, however, he personally issued the warrant for the purchase which has been paid for in full without any budget allocation.  To cover up, he sited the 1999 supplementary appropriation act as the source of the warrant.  Again, he told the nation less than the truth as the act doesn’t contain provision for the scam.  You see, telling half-truths to cover up corrupt practices. Who knows?  The Kuye scandal is only one of several we may never know.

 

We now know why some impeachment representatives rushed to the media to say that they have stumbled on suspicious documents of wrongful expenditure.  It is a ploy to cover-up the N3 billion Kuye scandal.  We can now see how, in fighting corruption impeachment legislators are being recruited to assist in cover ups.  What’s more corrupt than this?  And they are telling us that are helping in covering up executive corruption/

 

By the way, where were ministers and advisers staying before such that we now have to spend about N3 billion extra for more ministerial houses?  We understand that there are about 160 advisers, assistants and special assistants with about 49 ministers now.  Before, there were only five or so advisers and 36 ministers or so.  The difference is clear.

 

To spend public money uselessly is corruption.  Now I agree that Transparency International is right.

 

You can read more about my views in my webpage http://www.gamji.com/wada.htm

 

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