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Nigeria’s Corruption Diary for one week (Mon 4th May – Fri 8th May 2009)

May 7, 2009

It’s been an interesting week in Nigeria. Interesting not because we accomplished any outstanding feat,  but because of the many sad incidents of that same thing that have left us a pariah state and which Prof Dora thinks she can burnish with a wave of the hand; Corruption.

In just one week, we had news reports of brazen acts of high profile corruption involving such huge amounts that could sink the entire economy of some of our less endowed African states.



In this week, the PDP did what they do best. Employing their ‘do or die’ approach and with the express assistance of the cash n carry conscience of Ayoka Adebayo, they masterfully stole back Ekiti State even against the hue and cry of the people. Of course the Police and the Army were on ground to see that the people were fully repressed and for all their cared, we all can go to blazes, Oni has been returned elected.

But the women who walked naked in Ekiti in protest against the PDP don’t seem to have walked in vain. Disagreements over the sharing of an alleged 250 million naira bribe money by the INEC officials in Ido-Osi has since emerged. Ido-Osi we will recall was the theater of PDP’s rigging project. It was only there that some 19,000 people voted and of course close to 16,000 did so for the PDP. It was results from that LGA that made Ayoka Adebayo resign in the first instance and of course, it was the laughable figures from there that gave Oni victory.

The Police say it is quizzing the said INEC officials and that serious confessional statements have been made. If this issue is not treated Nigerian style, perhaps we might not wait for lengthy judicial processes to prove what we all know happened in Ido-Osi. The gods are not dead after all.

Still in this week, A top cop and EFCC’s Director of Operations was sent packing.  In an act that was enough to make us a laughing stock in the world, this man was found to have contracted out his studies and exams as a Law student at the University of Abuja.  This man is the head of Operations of Nigeria’s anti graft agency. Why then do we worry over the operations of the EFCC when one of its head is a common criminal buying his way to a Law degree?

Examination malpractice carries a punishment of 21 years in jail. I remember my school principal reading out those laws to us before the commencement of WAEC exams. Surely, the disgraced cop will not get 21 years. His case might never be mentioned again, but he has provided for us a big reason to question what happens at the University of Abuja.

It is not a hidden fact that as soon as our politicians rig their way to power and arrive Abuja, they immediately register for one program or the other at the University to sure up their credentials. Soon, you hear they have graduated, beaming with smiles in an academic gown. Most of them do the very same thing the former EFCC director of Operation was caught for. They bribe everybody from the dean to the cleaners. They only come to claim their degree after the duration of the program.

This time we had a cop, a law enforcement officer and one who carries the extra responsibility of ridding our society of financial crimes being caught in the act. In places like China, he would have been hanging by the neck, but in Nigeria, were such things are deemed normal; the man was just sacked from EFCC.

Still within this week, the EFCC seemingly waking up from deep sleep (perhaps following the sack of their Director of Operations who might have been the clog in the wheel) uncovered a massive scam of about 5.3Billion Naira. Billion I must repeat here for emphasis not Million. A senator and other official of the Ministry of power have been picked up for questioning while three House of Representative members involved are still plying hide and seek with the EFCC agents.

The money, 5.3 billion which was meant for Rural Electrification vanished. The senator, his cohorts in the House and the officials of the ministry preferred to electrify their pockets with the money. Coming on the heels of the seeming inability of the House to tell us what really happened to the 16billion dollars Independent Power Project, this tells us that darkness will remain one thing Prof. Dora will never re-brand in our National image.

Earlier in the week, the Minister of Works, Hassan Lawal on inspection of Federal Roads construction around the country had made a startling revelation, one that was enough to bring out the people of Anambra and indeed the entire southeast in violent protest. He revealed to the utter amazement of Governor Peter Obi and the journalists in his crew that contrary to the held belief, no contract was awarded for the construction of the second Niger Bridge.

Former President Obasanjo a professional maverick, had in the last days of his administration, when the campaigns were already high announced that the Federal Government had approved the construction of the long sort after bridge. It was said to be counterpart funded between the Federal Government and the Anambra state Government.

But the minister stated emphatically and would have sworn by the holy books had he been pressed further that no such thing existed in Governments records. It never happened, he stated. He didn’t deny Obasanjo saying so, but he was saying invariably that Obasanjo simply lied. Considering that he was a member of Obasanjo’s cabinet and a close one at that (one of the few who never lost their portfolios) he is in a position to know better.

Invariably speaking therefore, Obasanjo said that as a campaign trick to cow the south east into voting PDP again. Imagine a President, the father of the nation, lying to the nation with a straight face on an issue as important as the second Niger Bridge which held so much to the economy of the nation. This president walks around free and plays statesman monitoring elections all over Africa.

As if to bring the week to a thrilling climax, a House Committee disclosed that 1.3 billion was paid by the Nigeria customs for the supply of two light surveillance aircrafts in 2007and in May 2009, the aircrafts have not yet arrived. Did the money grow wings or is it that the contractor vanished? In any case, what do we say about a Customs leadership that paid for an aircraft, it wasn’t supplied and they are so ok with it? The Comptroller General argues that only part payment was made, an audit report brandished by the Honourables stated otherwise, so who then is lying?

All these incidences of corruption happened or were revealed in just one week and we hardly took notice. In the US the diversion of some funds by officials of AIG was a huge scandal, one that took Television headlines for weeks and there were probes and all that. Here however, scandals of larger magnitudes hardly steer up any discourse because they’ve become normal occurrences and because nothing happens after its revelation.

Which way Nigeria? I beg to ask.

Sylva Nze Ifedigbo.

www.nzesylva.wordpress.com

 

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