‘‘The concept of state in Nigeria is how to be unaccountable to the people. Incredibly, Nigeria rulers prefer to steal money and put it in foreign bank accounts… In Nigeria, rulers plunder their own citizens, humiliate them; make them miserable”-Quoted in WHERE WE ARE (page 124)
On Wednesday, July 23, 2014, terrorists dealt another cruel blow to the already blood stained landscape in the northern axis of Nigeria.
That day General Muhammadu Buhari, former military Head of State of Federal Republic of Nigeria and a prominent Islamic Cleric, Sheikh Dahiru Bauchi miraculously escaped death in Kaduna city.
The devastating bomb blast that tore through the city of Kaduna in a crowded Kawo market actually was targeted at the former military ruler, but about 100 hundred people were not as lucky as they met their untimely death. Since General Buhari survived that attack a lot of questions have been raised.
When I first knew about the attack, I thought it was planned from the highest place because about twenty four-hour earlier before the bomb blast, General Buhari had warned the Jonathan Presidency of trying to destroy the Federation given the way former Governor Murtala Nyako was impeached in Adamawa State.
Indeed, a fellow comrade called me and expressed his worry about the spate of bombings in the country and went on to point accusing finger at the Jonathan presidency. But, after a critical appraisal of the activities of the dreaded Boko Haram terrorist group, I quickly adjusted my earlier position on Buhari’s attack and took a different view. Boko Haram has recklessly unleashed the gravest terror on this country without giving a damn about personalities since the Nigeria Civil War. And there is no doubt that the way and manner the Chibok girls’ saga is being handled suggests that there are many sympathizers of Boko Haram’s cause in the North.
Readers may be wondering why I am starting this piece with the heinous attack on General Buhari .This is because apart from the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) which is being run by a cartel that has sworn to fritter away our commonwealth, and by implication brought tragedy to the greatest number of the ordinary people of Nigeria, Boko Haram is the greatest disaster confronting the Nation today.
And at a time like this , any writer or columnist worth his salt cannot ignore or refuse to add a word or two about the merciless activities of the Boko Haram sect. let’s look at the tragedy that has become the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).
To me the NNPC is nothing but a cartel being run exclusively to satisfy the whims and caprices of a few privileged individuals in the country. Since the creation of NNPC, its account or books have never been looked at or audited.
The tragedy of NNPC is that those who are supposed to ensure transparency and accountability are the ones blocking or constituting gigantic road blocks. This is sad. Where do we go from here? Sanusi Lamido Sanusi (Now Emir of Kano) saw the massive messes going on within NNPC, instead of encouraging Sanusi, the powers at the centre have yanked him off the scene.
Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparent Initiative (NEITI) has raised issues about NNPC, like Sanusi and other well-meaning Nigerians.
Sanusi wrote a letter to President Jonathan in September 2013, saying that $49.8bn proceeds from oil sales were missing. Only recently, the senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, through the Chairman of the Finance Committee, Senator Ahmed Makarfi, said neither $49.8bn nor $20bn was missing; that the NNPC, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Petroleum Resources had reconciled $47bn of the unaccounted revenue and remitted it to the federation Account.
The Senators however blamed themselves for the controversy about the unremitted money saga that: “it has exposed not only the executive but also the legislature. All these times, the legislature went to sleep and public servants became laws to themselves, spending money without appropriation”.
As an authority on political accountability and good governance in this country, l am not comfortable with the recent position of the senate, anything could have happened, something could have changed hands and influenced the senators, because in our clime corruption has been institutionalized as a norm.
Since 1999, Nigerians have been paying more to fuel their cars and other machineries, the economy system we have is still being dictated from the guys and mistresses from the World Bank. Oil which is the main stay of the economy has been ruthlessly mismanaged while those that looted our collective patrimony in the mane of the oil subsidy are walking free unmolested. This is sad.
We need genuine change in the country. We simply need a focused guy in Aso Rock that will reorder the present ugly situation in our land that will live and lead by example and make things work.
The enormous opportunities in our country are being wasted savagely because the people’s President has not been allowed to emerge.
Igbotako Nowinta is a seasoned journalist, pro-democracy and human rights activist. He wrote: Where we are – a call for democratic revolution in Nigeria.
