EXCITING NEWS: TNG WhatsApp Channel is LIVE…
Subscribe for FREE to get LIVE NEWS UPDATE. Click here to subscribe!
By Godwin Etakibuebu
In concluding this topic today, we shall endeavour to answer the question if Nigeria is really a country of looters. Though, doing so may look like attempt in committing suicide, a time comes once in lifetime of a man when hard decisions are not only compulsorily taken but same are implemented even at the point of “watering the tree of truth with blood”. So, today’s exercise is a very serious one as we are presenting facts to come to the inevitable conclusion that Nigeria has gone the way of failed project made possible by “leadership’s excellence in looting”.
We have to understand the starting point of last week discussion to enable us appreciate the conclusion we are arriving today. It was all about the audacious call of Ayodele Fayose, the Governor of Ekiti State, on President Muhammadu Buhari not to sell the totality or even part, of recovered loots until all the recovered loots are properly documented for Nigerians to know. According to Fayose, until such documentation; which must include the types of loots, the owner of the loots, the worth of the loots and the location of the loots are made public, the Federal Government should not talk of selling anything to finance any project.
“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”, Fayose posited. His fear is that the present federal government, under President Muhammadu Buhari, lacked transparent credibility in every fields of human endeavour. The Governor gave two examples which formed the basis of his fear. This is how he put it.
“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 President said will be sold?”
The two cases Fayose quoted remain still, some comic tales of wonders in “Alice’s wonderland”. Twice the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission [EFCC] wrote to the presidency, either directly or through the Ministry of Justice, which is presided over by the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami [SAN] that the Chairman of the Code of Conduct Tribunal [CCT], Danladi Umar, could not be charged to court on allegation of corruption against him as the allegations were mere suspicion and would be difficult to prove in court”. The same EFCC later made a 360 degree turn-around and dragged the same person [CCT Chairman – Danladi Umar] to court on allegation of corruption.
The Attorney General of the Federation himself remains another comic dancer and major actor in a drama-cast, capturing a play code-named “the mystery of corruption fighting in Nigeria”, that only a man of President Buhari’s experience in film producing and directing could have created. The AGF, in connivance with other top officials of the Federal Government acted out a script that will continually be disgracing Nigeria around the world for a long time to come and this script remains a major evidence of the grip corruption has on the Nigerian State.
The Script has to do with the case of an alleged Pension Fund thief; Abdulrasheed Maina, who defrauded Nigeria over 50 Billion Naira, dismissed from office [he was Assistant Director then] by the government of Goodluck Jonathan in 2013 as he absconded from the country instead of submitting himself to the EFCC for full investigation and prosecution [EFCC is under the Ministry of Justice, which itself is under the AGF].
This same man was later brought back to Nigerian, reinstated back into the Federal Civil Service and promoted to Acting Director’s position, paid all his salaries and allowances, through and backdated to when he was dismissed from the same Civil Service in 2013 and was provided with a full command of security personnel, which included Police, DSS and the NSCDC for his safe movement from Abuja to his place of birth in the North/East on a visit to his family.
This Pension thief enjoyed all these uncommon grace and favour while his name remained on the list of suspected criminals with the EFCC; a department under the supervision of Abubakar Malami [SAN], Nigerian’s Attorney General and Minister of Justice. It was later revealed by the AGF that he met with the vagabond Pension thief in Dubai for whatever reason that could have been “hidden property of this government in helping corruption to grow”, with the explicit permission of President Buhari.
The cast later revealed other top players in the scenario of the atrocious reinstatement of Abdulrasheed Maina to have included the Minister of Interior, a three-star retired General of the Nigerian Army, the Director General of the Department of State Security, the National Security Adviser to the President; another retired one-star General of the Nigerian Army, the Chief of Staff to the President plus others that time would not permit to mention.
The irony of this drama of absurdity remains the fact that at the time the whistle was blown, and the dirty secret became a public spoil, our dear President Buhari pretended innocent of the whole matter until both family of Abduralsheed Maina and the Attorney General admitted that the President knew everything about the plot of bringing this obnoxious individual into the Civil Service through the backdoor. Our President keeps his “golden of silence” over the matter up till this moment.
The question we are trying to answer still remains if Nigeria is a kingdom of looters. Let us look at other indexes on this looting kleptomania and corruption tendency that have overthrown and buried Nigeria’s decency unceremoniously. The beautiful and brilliant [Nigerians have evidences of her academic degrees, at least] wife of the President; Aisha Buhari, once shouted out how much damage corruption [looting] has done to the Aso Rock Villa Clinic. According to Madam, who cried out in a function in the Villa while both the Minister of Health and the Medical Director of the Clinic were in attendance, there was not a single dose of Panadol in the Clinic.
“There were not syringes and the X-Ray machine was comatose”, this brave woman added before throwing the bombshell when she asked the whereabouts of over “300 Million budget just released for running the clinic.” Mr President did not say a word on this earth-quacking revelation coming from his wife till date and yet Oga says he is fighting corruption or trying to stop looters from operation. It is either somebody is deceiving someone somewhere around in Nigeria or the Nigerian dictionary is not yet fully updated with the meaning of corruption or looting.
The former Secretary to the Government of the Federation; Lawal David Babachar, contributed more than a little quarter to the development of corruption or looting in Nigeria before President Buhari was forced by combination of the Nigerian People’s outcry and the Investigative Panel of Professor Yemi Osinbajo [kudos to the integrity of the V-Pee]’s report to remove him from office. But that was not without stoutly defending the “grass-cutter” SGF against the report of the Senate which indicted David Babachir as being under Judas Iscariot’s temptation. If a leader who pretends to be holy is defending a thief who, with all purposes and intents, stole from Internally Displaced People of his own region [North/East], a people ravaged by Boko Haram insurgency, can such a leader be given a place of honour in the Hall Fame of incorruptibility?
These are just few of the icebergs that Ayodele Fayose noticed before calling on the President not to sell any recovered loots until the recovered loots are transparently accounted for. For the Ekiti State Governor, who himself is far from being a Saint in accountability and other things, his suspicion of Buhari and his men [more so when there are evidences that some recovered looters have been re-looted and still being looted by the recovering gang] of not being good enough not to tamper with our national treasures is genuine and should be upheld. If the truth must be told, looters from the present government are at work, and seriously too, against the people of Nigeria. What we have now is looting without human face, making it look that Nigeria is a country of looters by looters for looters. This is the sad truth or so it looks.
But who will take over the recovered loots from President Buhari and his men before they [the recovered-loots] are re-looted and moved to “Sambisa Forest for permanent seizure”? It is only God that can help Nigerians because according to President Olusegun Obasanjo; himself a major suspect in the Nigerian national question, “it is neither the PDP nor the APC”.
Godwin Etakibuebu, a veteran Journalist, wrote from Lagos.
- +234-706 965 2631 [SMS only]