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By Godwin Etakibuebu
The topic of discuss today is given a hype of life by a man we know very well in this country. Though the topic [subject of discussion] is very crucial; as it borders on transparency in prosecution of good governance, there is need to introduce the catalyst; the man that brought the issue alive in my heart first before returning to the subject-matter and how it affects Nigeria.
Ayodele Fayose, the Governor of Ekiti State, may not always be good news within the Nigerian political terrain. His brand of politics sometimes abhors. At other times it could be nauseating and in some climes, it might just be irritating. Even in some other tunes, it could be “totally disgusting”, in the words of my son Aghogho, when he was a baby. His boldness in tackling opposition, in most times, suggests that this young man has more than nine lives. He is the type of man; when playing out his political script, that American Donald Trump would have asked the question – is this man sane?
As much as some of these characteristic are the defining features of this young man, he remains one thing, positively for sure, the true face of opposition in this very wild Nigerian political desert of madness. Ayodele Fayose defines what true opposition should be in democracy. He understands how to play out the grass-root heroic politics. He comes first among equals in the defense of the down-trodden. He pretentiously represents the forgotten people of this earth.
You don’t need to admire his type of politics. His political presentation sometimes lacks finesse. At other times, one wonders how much care of safety does this man attribute to his personal life each time he embarks on what goes for suicide mission. And often really, some of his actions have complete features of a Boko Haram suicide bomber on a dedicated mission. Yet, you can only ignore him to your peril – that is if you are in the other side of the divide against him. It is not all about moral for this man because he “fights dirty each time he goes into battle”.
He believes that until the head of a snake is cut off, it cannot be said that the snake has been killed. What about his Stomach Infrastructure Ministry? Ask herdsmen with their cows in Ekiti, and then you will come to know and appreciate this man better. Or check out how he rescued the wife of Femi Fani-Kayode from the cruel hands of the officials of the EFCC when the woman was almost devoured in Ekiti sometimes last year. Has he not demonstrated his capacity to strike when he rescued Apostle Suleiman [the General Overseers of the Omega Ministries] from the wicked hands of the DSS in Ekiti? The DSS later learnt that the fear of Fayose is the beginning of wisdom in Ekiti State.
Even the People Democratic Party faithful in Ekiti State are now picking school decrees in the fear of Fayose, for those of them that really want to survive politically in that State. Check on all those that inspired to the office of the Chairmanship of the PDP in the South/West geo-political zone and how they all fell by the roadside, just because they did not go to the classroom where the fear of Fayose is being thought before they ventured into the contest. Those that fell by the roadside on that contest included some men of “timber and caliber”, in the words of the late colourful politician, Kingsley Ozumba Mbadiwe.
It was Ayodele Fayose that called on the Federal Government last week to publish all the properties it claimed to have recovered and their owners first before attempting selling same. He equally advised that buyers of the properties, whenever they are eventually sold, must also be published. This call by the Ekiti State Governor was sequel to President Muhammadu Buhari’s announcement that the Federal Government intended selling all properties [which must have included landed properties, exotic cars, blue companies’ share certificates and other things] recovered from looters of the Nigerian economy at one time or the other.
Ayodele Fayose argument on the need of knowing the total numbers of recovered loots and their looters is purely based on the fact that President Buhari’s administration is anything but transparent. This is not because of the recent disgraceful ranking the Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index [CPI] slammed on Nigeria, saying that corruption has worsen between 2016 & 2017, under President Buhari; bringing Nigeria almost to the botom level of the most corrupted country in the world but day by day activities of government is run on corruption. We shall refer to just a few cases of how pronounced corruption has become in Nigeria in the cause of this exercise.
So what Fayose told President Buhari made sense, more for saving Buhari’s name as a “fighter of corruption” because that was the premise in which he came to power, saying “let us kill corruption before it [corruption] kills Nigeria”. All activities of the Federal Government in fighting corruption since it took over the reign of power from the People Democratic Party in 2015 is jeered towards sustenance of corruption as against killing it. The government has failed to publish the name of looters and the amount value of what was recovered despite a subsisting valid court order compelling the government to do so.
There are more reasons for Fayose to be afraid and totally suspicious of the Federal Government’s alluded desire or even intent of being transparent in these issues of recovered loots. His fears are germane and cogent enough to make every mortal apprehensive. Let us listen to the Ekiti Governor before justifying or crucifying him.
“Nigerians want to know how many properties were recovered and who bought the properties. Who authorized the sale? Nigerians want details, not propaganda because most of these properties have been sold and resold. The federal government should create a website where all the properties recovered by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission [EFCC] and to whom they were sold will be listed so that one click, Nigerians will have information”.
Let us take a very judicious note of what the Governor said to the effect that “most of these properties have been sold and resold”. Could this be true? Are there facts to justify this weighty claim? Yes, the Governor presented just only two events that could, in all probability, gives credence to his fear. Again, let us listen to him.
“How can Nigerians continue to trust the position of the same EFCC that said in April 2016, that allegation of corruption against Code of Conduct Tribunal [CCT] Chairman, Danladi Umar, was mere suspicion and would be difficult to prove in court, but now charged that same CCT Chairman to court on the allegation it described as mere suspicion?”
This case raised by Fayose was so bizarre in the rough road a government that came to power with slogan of change and killing corruption chose to follow. It is route that torpedoed the machinery of fighting corruption. Twice the EFCC wrote to the presidency, saying there would be no legal justification of charging Danladi Umar to court as there would not be any evidence to secure conviction because the “allegations against him bordered on innuendoes and suspicion”. The man was thus cleared of any corruption, as it was then. Then suddenly, this same man that was supposed to by “holy” from stigma of corruption was charged to court on charges of corruption by the same EFCC. We shall come to this later but for now let us look at another instance of the federal government confusion while pretending to be fighting corruption.
“On November 23, 2017, Senator Emmanuel Paulker, the Chairman of the Senate Committee investigating the botched reinstatement and promotion of the former Chairman of the Presidential Task Force on Pensions, under the leadership of Abdulraseed Maina, told Nigerians on the floor of the Senate that almost all the exotic properties recovered from alleged looters of pension funds had already been re-looted by officials of the of the EFCC.”
“Last year November also, the Attorney General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami [SAN] while testifying before the National Assembly alleged that one of the properties recovered from alleged looters of pension funds was already sold to a Lagos Lawyer. How are we now sure that the same people who re-looted the recovered pension loots have not also looted the recovered properties the Pesident said will be sold”.
He concluded by saying that “the federal government cannot continue to tell Nigerians stories without background. The era of the president acting like a lord of manor is gone, we are in a democracy. Many people were blackmailed and coerced to surrender their properties. A typical case is the one on Malabu Oil where people have been scandalized, harassed and their names destroyed via media trial and the AGF now come out to say that there is no enough evidence to try them. What will now happen to the lies told against those people? The federal government should therefore publish and state clearly what has happened in the EFCC between 2006 and now. Nigerians need to know the recovered properties sold by Ibrahim Magu’s predecessor, Ibrahim Lamorde, and other previous EFCC Chairmen. Those who bought them should be made public too.”
What Ayodele Fayose succeeded in doing here is to help President Buhari come to the point of knowing how to clear his name by doing a very simple thing, albeit producing records of all looted properties and looters, recovered loots and those they were recovered from, and those that shall buy [the recovered loots] and at what price.
This is necessary because if the truth must be told, there are gory stories of those around President Buhari with proven pathological characteristic in looting. We shall conclude this revelation next week.
Godwin Etakibuebu, a veteran Journalist, wrote from Lagos.
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