By Igbotako Nowinta
As the nation bleeds, what irks us is the insensitivity to the hungry and dispossessed masses of the nation, who cannot have the basic necessities of life, as nothing is being heard about the billions that have been recovered in the war against corruption, or the billions that some individuals and corporate bodies donated to the Federal Government, to ease the effect of the Covid -19 menace. What we have had in the last few years from the still unraveling scenario has been a wholesale theft of Nigerian resources, a sad situation where business of governance has become an excuse for reckless banditry. Indeed, we are seeing the ugly drama of a privileged few within the political class and their cohorts defrauding the country and depleting its abundant resources. We all must seek genuine freedom from the slavery and torture of poverty; to add value to the lives of the disadvantaged, to clothe the despondent with self pride and self-assurance, and to shield the depressed and the despised from permanent agony.
When one of the greatest fiction writers in living memory, James Hadley Chase, wrote the epic novel titled: “How the Cookies Crumbles,” unknowingly to him he was predicting the current scenario prevailing in the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
How do l mean? In that book, Chase presented a crime that was painstakingly plotted and executed by a gang of bandits. Although the planned operation succeeded, when one or two individuals closely related to the scene of crime were disappearing, the local police authorities became alarmed and quickly started an investigation.
So, the ‘cookies’ cleverly arranged eventually crumbled, according to Mr. Chase. In 2015, the government at the center in Nigeria today was ushered into power by the electorate because they were dog tired of the atrocities of the Goodluck Jonathan’s civilian government, which lasted until May 29, of that year.
In trying desperately to impress the people of Nigeria, the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), knowing that it had promised to fight corruption to a standstill quickly put in place an anti-corruption campaign.
President Muhammadu Buhari, in fairness to him brought a police guy called Ibrahim Magu to lead the anti-corruption war, in spite of the odds that were stationed against him.
Not even the National Assembly in Nigeria was able to disrupt the infinite confidence reposed in Ibrahim Magu as Acting Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), by President Muhammadu Buhari, as he repeatedly rammed him down the throats of the Nigerian people.
The Ministry of Justice is the overseeing body supervising Ibrahim Magu’s activities within the EFCC according to statutory provisions in Nigeria. And it is the Minister that has staged the current battle against him on behalf of the Federal Government of Nigeria.
In five years of waging a war against corruption in Nigeria, Nigerians have had ‘episodes of serious issues’ about the sincere cause of the campaign, mostly when several damaging cracks have appeared on the walls; prominent on the list is the former Secretary to the current Government of Nigeria, Babachar Lawal, who is still walking unhindered in spite of his heavy indictment for corruptly enriching himself in office.
The bubble seemed to have busted, and the seeming unimpregnable walls of the war against corruption gave way, crumbling with the recent arrest of Ibrahim Magu, who has been laced with alleged mountainous charges of corruptly enriching himself.
No doubt the balloon of anti-corruption war in Nigeria has been punctured, because Ibrahim Magu as the trusted face of the war is in a deep mess, his fall and its attendant effects is gravely troubling, even as allegations and counter allegations are flying across the country, around topmost officials of the ruling party today, including the Vice-President, Prof. Yemi Osibanjo.
Like the cookies that crumbled in James Hadley Chase’s work, the so called ‘masterly scripted’ campaigns rigorously put in motion against corruption in Nigeria, which began immediately after the general elections in 2015, has crumbled because some principal characters standing behind the walls have unknowingly left opened their ‘dirty deals,’ horrible flanks, which unfortunately has become a cocktail of public consumption today.
Nigerians have not asked why the Minister of Justice and the Attorney General of the Federation, Muhammed Malami is at war with the workings of the now dethroned Ibrahim Magu, instead of engaging in fruitful synergy with one and another.
We must not forget in a hurry that other former Chiefs of EFCC left in controversial circumstances. Are we saying Ibrahim Magu does not have enemies even within the ruling clique of today that he acquired during the course of duty? Though, Magu’s fall is a terrible blow to Mr. President.
lbrahim Magu has been saying that he is not guilty; the presidency has even untactfully been saying that Nigerians should wait for ‘shocking revelations;’ one Jackson Ude, a blogger, has allegedly boasted that he is privy to fantastic information about and around the fall of Ibrahim Magu.
Looking at the whole messy scenario, the best way that the Federal Government of Nigeria can be seen to be transparent and above suspicions is to give Ibahim Magu a fair, unfettered and public trial.
Anything short of allowing him to talk freely, and name the ‘sacred cows,’ the untouchables, openly will be seen as a grand premeditated witch hunt against his person, and an attempt to shield other enemies of the Nigerian Commonwealth.
The anti-corruption walls are crumbling because critical heavyweights holding sensitive positions in the current civilian regime are being squeezed in the muddy waters of gigantic sleaze as a result of disturbing allegations flying up and down the system.
The shock that is being relayed to us about blatant daylight robbery and mindless misappropriation of budgeted funds in the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC); the can of worms disgustingly pouring out daily from that Agency; the trending ‘looted’ $800 million oil deals in China, being alleged by one Jackson Ude, that has featured prominent names as culprits, such as the Minister of Justice, Mohammed Malami; Minister of Power, Saleh Mamman; one close friend of the President, Air Commodore, Umar; ex-Acting Chairman of EFCC, Ibrahim Magu; former Director of Department of State Security (DSS), Lawal Daura; current Managing Director of Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Mele Kyari etc., is mindboggling.
That the walls of anti-corruption war are crashing as ‘alleged criminals’ in this government are fighting themselves like cockroaches in a closed bottle, shows that we are in a deep trouble, in a very sick society, a social system in shackles, signposting the betrayal of the 2015 Hope.
We have witnessed years of chaos, waste and corruption in the hands of rulers who are grossly incompetent and seek power simply because of their pockets. What we have is a country continuously eroded by years of corruption and economic mismanagement.
Bribery and graft have exchanged and are still exchanging places with high moral principles which these rulers had callously flung to the winds; with no distinction between private and public purse.
Nigeria’s policy carries the stamp of confused, factionalized, fractionalized and extremely corrupt elite.
The demented privileged few in cahoots with their friends are far from narrowing the gap between wealth and poverty, but widening it.
A country awashed with billions of petro dollars in the 70s has become a beggar-nation, pauperized by kleptomaniacs in governance; the economy is in shambles, there is widespread poverty being worsened by the pandemic Covid-19.
The ruling class such as we have today is distributing social slavery, and is perpetually dominating the masses of Nigeria.
Democracy in Nigeria is but pitiably a protection of certain sectional, class, personal, and ethnic interests. How do we place Mr. President in the midst of the crumbling walls of the war against corruption in Nigeria?
One would have expected the President to exercise his presidential powers adequately, as the bulk stops on his table. Why did he keep Ibrahim Magu for so long in the EFCC, just as he is keeping the nation’s Service Chiefs and some other questionable public servants, in spite of strident public disapproval of their continuous stay in office?
As the nation bleeds, what irks us is the insensitivity to the hungry and dispossessed masses of the nation, who cannot have the basic necessities of life, as nothing is being heard about the billions that have been recovered in the war against corruption, or the billions that some individuals and corporate bodies donated to the Federal Government, to ease the effect of the Covid -19 menace.
What we have had in the last few years from the still unraveling scenario has been a wholesale theft of Nigerian resources, a sad situation where business of governance has become an excuse for reckless banditry. Indeed, we are seeing the ugly drama of a privileged few within the political class and their cohorts defrauding the country and depleting its abundant resources.
We all must seek genuine freedom from the slavery and torture of poverty; to add value to the lives of the disadvantaged, to clothe the despondent with self pride and self-assurance, and to shield the depressed and the despised from permanent agony.
