"The fight against corruption mobilizes all of us because we want to
do away with evil and injustice. But we should remember that casting
the bad into the sea does not imply the sudden appearance on our
shores of the good that we need."
-Prof. Ricardo Hausmann, Faculty Chair of Leading Economic Growth .
I will never forget that sunny afternoon at the Polo Ground Ibadan
sometime in 1984 as we all massed to watch the public execution of
three armed robbers who were condemned to deatth.
It was a period when the Buhari-Idiagbon regime was in a frenzy to
clean up Nigeria of all the vices plaguing it.
The executioners appeared on the scene and within minutes despatched
the armed robbers with hot lead shot into their chests with uncanny
accuracy.As we made to leave the execution ground,there was a shout of
"oooleee".Within a jiffy the security men in view had arrested one of
those who just watched the Polo Ground execution picking money from
the pocket of a fellow spectator.
The incident flashed to my mind last week as I watched in the news the
protest marches by a faction of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC)
which emerged from the corruption of the electoral process of the
labour body calling for death penalty as the cure for corruption in
Nigeria.
That the protest marches had a tinge of official endorsement was seen
in the elaborate receptions accorded the marchers by the Chairman of
Economic and Financial Crimes Commission(EFCC) who is having a running
battle with the Senate over allegations of looting of recovered loots
and the Secretary to the Federal Government.It was only at the
National Assembly Assembly that they had some initial raw deal
(understandably so) before House spokesman Sani Zoro appeared to
address them.
On the surface of it.the protest march was a big endorsement of the
anti-corruption campaign that is currently going on in the country.
But those who understand the depth of the Nigerian corruption and its
tap root would see the whole show as no more than of nuisance value.
Corruption as hydra-headed monster
We are all agreed that corruption has become a hydra-headed monster in
Nigeria limiting all the growth potentials but it is elementary
knowledge that no doctor can cure any disease he has not diagnosed.
The Wabara faction of the NLC could have been listening too much to
the chief propagandist of the media fight against corruption,Adams
Oshiomole to pay heed to fundamental currents in the polity which
should inform that dealing with corruption in Nigeria today requires
more than dancing to the gallery and orchestrated circus shows.
A few incidents in our present reality are enough to show that Nigeria
is built on the foundation of corruption and it is the very oxygen it
breathes.
The Saturday Independent of 5th September,2015 had a screaming
headline on how scammers have hijacked the on-going anti-corruption
war.
According to the report:
"The anti-corruption crusade of President Muhammadu Buhari may have
become the subject of a new wave of scam targeted at high-ranking
civil servants, especially those supervising various directorates in
the federal ministries.
Scammers hijack anti-corruption war
Investigations by Daily Independent have revealed that the
perpetrators, with the help of their collaborators in the ministries
are capitalising on the vulnerability of some officials and other
unsuspecting persons outside the system due to Nigeria›s poor record
keeping culture to rip them off.
It has also been gathered that they now go about sneaking out records
of transactions from official files in government departments and
using such to concoct petitions, which they confront them with it.
Sources close to Saturday Independent have also revealed that, apart
from those who do this for instant gratification, another set of
people engaged in this activity are those working for officials who
are scheming to be posted to lucrative ministries."
One of the measures being canvassed in the fight against corruption is
the proposed looters courts. Perceptive people have opined that this
may turn out another goldmine like the election petitions tribunals
which have added to the list of our billionaires.The Nigerian Tribune
of August 23,2015 icon firmed their fears with the report that most of
the nominee-judges woefully failed the integrity test.According to the
newspaper""MAJORITY of the judges nominated for probable appointment
as heads of the proposed anti-corruption specialized courts failed the
integrity test being conducted by security agencies, Nigerian Tribune
learnt on Sunday evening.
One hundred judges selected from courts across the country by the
leadership of the judiciary were reportedly placed before security
agencies for a deeper look into their stewardship, before the final
pick for the sensitive assignment.
Feigned insolvency
An involved security source told the Nigerian Tribune that the
assignment was yet to be concluded, because majority of those picked
for screening failed the integrity test."
I have a friend who had always argued that Nigerian political elites
would invoke natural disasters on their people if it was within their
powers to make money and Governor Aminu Masari of Katsina State just
reinforced that going by the report by PREMIUM TIMES that he obtained
N11b bailout under false pretense .According to the online medium"The
governor of President Muhammadu Buhari's home State, Katsina, Aminu
Masari, lied to the president to get more than N11 billion bailout
supposedly to pay workers' salary arrears, PREMIUM TIMES can
authoritatively report today.
Feigning insolvency, Katsina State applied as one of the 27 states in
need of bailout from the Federal Government to pay workers owed
salaries for months.
In a letter to the speaker of the state's House of Assembly, titled:
"Bailout on Outstanding Salary for Workers of the State and Local
Governments" with number S/SGKT/154/3 dated August 26, 2015, Mr.
Masari said when he took office on May 29, his government inherited
two months outstanding salary of workers of the state and local
government from the previous Ibrahim Shema administration.
"I would like to request for the Honourable House's consent for the
State government to collaborate with the Central Bank of Nigeria for a
Bail Out of outstanding workers' salary in the State and Local
governments," Mr. Masari wrote.
"Mr Speaker may wish to know that at the time of the take-off of this
administration, the State and Local Governments in the State owed
workers two months' salary to the tune of N11,086,632,741.32 broken
down as follows:
Katsina State: N3,646,943,099.80; 34 local government councils:
N7,439,689,641.32; Total: N11,086,632,741,.32.
"It is in the view of the need for the State Government and Local
Governments to meet their obligation in the payment of outstanding
workers' salary, considering the lean resources inherited from the
former administration, that it has become necessary for the State
Government to apply for the bail out on behalf of the State and Local
Governments." he added.
However, PREMIUM TIMES' investigation revealed that the state had no
business being among the group of insolvent states in need of federal
bailout to pay workers salary arrears.
Katsina State civil servants as well as workers in the state's 34
local governments received their full salaries and allowances up to
May when Mr. Masari became governor.
Masari vs Katsina Civil servants
In fact, the governor's chief press secretary, Abdul Labaran,
confirmed to PREMIUM TIMES that workers were not owed and that their
salaries had been completely paid up to August.
"Katsina State government doesn't owe anybody any salary," Mr. Labaran
said over the phone after a long pause."
He also answered in the affirmative when asked if he meant that the
state government had paid workers in the state up to August. "That is
correct," he said.
"The hopelessness of our current situation was dramatised in Lagos on
14th May when Nobel Laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka at the presentation
of two books on Rotimi Amaechi of "I don't like money" fame canonized
two architects of hope"The political atmosphere, whatever you call it,
be it change or hope, whatever name, I recognise two individuals in
this particular process that led the chart for change.
"These two individuals are Bola Tinubu and Rotimi Amaechi; I call them
the architects of the process of change"
If the contents of a documentary on Amaechi by Rivers Integrity Group
which reduces the "Lion of Bourdillon" to a child's play comes to the
view of the highly cerebral Prof today he probably would wish he was
more careful in his choice of words.
To be concluded.
-Vanguard
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