Thursday, 17 May 2012
A Fearful New Year By Sonala Olumhense
Columnist:
Sonala Olumhense Three years ago, Ndi Okereke-Onyiuke, who was the Director-General of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), was arrested by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission for her N100 million “Africans for Obama 08” con.
The US Democratic Party quickly denied knowledge of her fundraising. But Mrs. Okereke-Onyiuke, who was also the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Transnational Corporation of Nigeria (Transcorp), would not be silenced. “I am a woman of the highest integrity,” she thundered.
Prior to her troubles over the Barack Obama presidential campaign, Okereke-Onyiuke had been in several other unseemly businesses, including helping to rig the 2003 presidential election by means of an illegal Obasanjo-Atiku fund-raiser, helping Obasanjo to buy hundreds of millions of Transcorp shares.
In 2011, however, Okereke-Onyiuke was disrobed. Remember: she came to prominence as the boss of the NSE, to which she had ascended on the basis of presumed experience at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE).
But an investigation in the US found Okereke-Onyiuke to be a woman of the lowest virtue. "A thorough search of our electronic and paper files for the names, Ndi Leche Okereke, Ndi Okereke, Ndi Okereke – Onyiuke and Ndi Lechi Okereke – Onyiuke was conducted,” a City University of New York official said in an affidavit. “No record was found that Ms. Ndi Okereke–Onyiuke ever enrolled in the Ph.D. Program in Business or received a Ph.D. in Business at The Graduate Center.”
And while she may quite legitimately have walked past the NYSE at some point in New York before taking up her appointment in Nigeria, it was established that she never worked there, either.
In other words, from her dizzying heights in Corporate Nigeria in 2008, Okereke-Onyiuke was, within two years, face down in the gutter.
But her story demonstrates who we are, how we got here, and where we are going. Hers is the story of Nigeria’s soft underbelly where character and ability take second place to connections and luck, and where charlatans led by greed guarantee that nothing works.
Political parties are not interested in character. The Senate does not examine political nominees critically; they are told to “bow and go,” the arrogant admission that that if the Upper House even scratched the skin of some nominees, they would find contaminated palm oil, not blood.
And then soon after, when such a Minister or ambassador is discovered to be an-convict or a smuggler; when it is found that a bricklayer has been given a carpenter’s job, nobody is remotely embarrassed.
It is all quickly covered up. The bricklayer dismantles the team; silences and sidelines the key professionals; grabs the huge budget allocation; travels the world.
Think about it: when Mr. Goodluck Jonathan scratched one spot in 2010, his Presidential Projects Assessment Committee found as many as 11,886 uncompleted projects. Receiving the report in June 2011, Mr. Jonathan swore to find funds in subsequent budgets to ensure their completion. Regrettably, in the 2012 budget, he did not breathe one word about them. But imagine what it would mean to our unemployment statistics if Nigeria restarted just one-tenth of that number!
Perhaps not even one-tenth: imagine the impact if we restarted just a few hundreds. Maybe Diano Ovie-Richy, who announced his suicide intention on Facebook at Christmas and then implemented it, would still be alive, brimming with hope. Challenged Ovie-Richy, looking beyond himself, “What are you doing to help the person that is still alive?”
Our rulers create Ovie-Richy-sized desperation by stealing the funds meant for anything and everything. Many of Jonathan’s 11,886 projects—and contemporary ones—disappear in front of our Ovie-Richys who are in no position to fight the thieves. In 2011, for instance, we learned of the disappearance of hundreds of millions of Global Funds in Nigeria which were meant for combating HIV & AIDS. Case closed.
But by far the biggest illustration of our hopelessness is security, the new ATM machine on which President Jonathan proposes to spend N961 billion in 2012.
In the 2011 budget, the security largesse was spread out lavishly to include: the Police, N12.93 billion; the Army, N121.42 billion; the Navy, N74.084 billion; and the Air Force, N83.27 billion. Still, Mr. Jonathan returned to the National Assembly in October, requesting a virement of N98.4 billion for security, of which he wanted to give to the Police N5.43 billion, the Army, N2.84 billion; and the Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs, N33.11 billion.
But insecurity remains our story, growing from armed robbery to kidnapping to militancy to IED and suicide bombings. It is confirmation that Jonathan is emptying buckets of petrol into the fire. He is budgeting for security but paying for insecurity, yet telling us we must be prepared to live with the paradox of greater expenditures alongside rivers of blood.
But we are where we are precisely because nobody is addressing the collapse of governance in Nigeria. There is governance in form, not in substance. Policy is implemented in speeches, and accountability is not an issue. Jonathan has pledged a transformation agenda, for instance, but he has not defined it.
Even if he did publish his transformation plan, it would be dead on arrival because he is unwilling to tackle corruption. To budget nearly one trillion Naira for security in an environment in which corruption eats billions for breakfast is to be deeply cynical. History tells us that all of those funds will be gone before Jonathan’s first anniversary, and he will be back at the National Assembly with a new plea for security funds.
Why would those funds disappear? Because we know they will be swallowed up by the same insatiable monster, the zookeepers of who are the Okereke-Onyiukes, the Owoeye Azazis, the Michael Aondoakaas, the Hafiz Ringims, the Lucky Igbinedions, and the Abdullahi Inde Dikkos.
These are interlopers and political jobbers who may be special for their loyalty to power, but who are dangerous for their incompetence, their corruption or both. They are men and women who ensure that Nigeria keeps running, backwards, but backwards is not an Olympics sport. Any ruler who maintains quality of this nature on the frontline of a battle defines his own defeat.
Last Thursday, for instance, the Minister of Science and Technology, Prof. Ita Ewa announced that two million jobs will be delivered to Nigerians in 2012 through the ministry's Cluster Concept. Better still, the project will yield six million jobs through mainstream industrial activities; two million through backward stream; and 18 million downstream. According to the Minister, over 26 million jobs will be created overall.
This would be good news if we had not heard it all before, and if we did not know that within one year, nobody in the government would even remember there was ever such a plan. Meanwhile, all the funds voted for the “concept” would have vanished.
This is why Nigeria cannot fulfill its potential. “When you know that there is 99 percent chances you would be caught when you steal and 100 percent chances that you would go to jail, you won’t steal,” said Shamsudeen Usman, the Minister of National Planning, last October.
That is: when you know there is a 99% chance you won’t be caught when you steal, and a 100% chance you won’t go to jail, you will steal. That accounts for our shameless journey from building “a nation where no man is oppressed,” to one where we bomb worshippers at Christmas.
We have been looted into penury, dysfunction, and violence. Once, we were the definition of potential. And then we became all potential and no performance.
But now, time has run out on us. The devil is providing work for hands marginalized by a lootocracy. Incompetence and weakness can no longer do it. And so, we enter 2012, poised to become a cautionary tale that political insensitivity and impunity are currencies with a flammable exchange rate.
Happy New Year.
Comments
23 comment(s)
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Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on May 15, 2012 - 09:52.
Good lord !! I was looking for some guidance on the queries I had… your words really fit into the answers to my questi. It was mind boggling and informative as well. I will definitely look forward for some more from you.
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Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on May 15, 2012 - 09:51.
Hope that one day I can write an article like you.
As for remedies, how about
Submitted by Concerned (not verified) on January 3, 2012 - 02:04.
As for remedies, how about having a dedicated corruptions tribunal without rights of appeal (a la firearms & armed robbery tribunals of the 1970s); an intelligence vetting apparatus within the Presidency to screen all future nominees for national office; cancellation of any national honor awarded to convicted and indicted officers of the state; partnering with Interpol/FBI to track foreign (real estate) acquisitions by state officials- as those are the likeliest private uses for plundered national wealth; outlawing of the state "security vote" scam by governors; a potent rewards program that guarantees any whistleblower 5% of any recovered funds from corrupt officials? And, of course, a sanitized Supreme Court that gives the lie to the assertion that Nigeria lacks incorruptible judges: neither Kayode Eso, Chike Idigbe, Louis Mbanefo, Buba Ardo, Mamman Nasir, Irikefe nor Alexander could be bought in their days.
Sir: Ordinarily, I agree with
Submitted by Concerned (not verified) on January 3, 2012 - 02:03.
Sir: Ordinarily, I agree with your views, but flame-throwing should not be part of the journalistic repertoire. Whilst I agree that Ms. Okereke's sorry tale illustrates the bankruptcy of Nigeria's power elite, it is unfair to group her (misdeeds) with the likes of Mr. Ringim and Mr. Azazi without a clear case of personal corruption- or certificate kiting- leveled against them. Even if they are as guilty as Ms. Okereke, should we not in accordance with our laws, presume innocence until proven guilty?
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Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on January 2, 2012 - 15:04.
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Fearful New Year Indeed 4
Submitted by Frankly_Speaking (not verified) on January 2, 2012 - 12:10.
Until Nigerians ourselves are ready to fight corruption in high places in the country on our own and in one accord and by completely putting our tribal and regional differences aside the COUNTRY IS NOT GOING TO BE TRANSFORMED FOR BETTER AT ALL as our leaders do not give a f..k about anything, anyone and anybody other than themselves and their families and besides, they are used to the government of 'Business as Usual' and also because God WILL NOT SEND ANGELS DOWN TO NIGERIA TO DELIVER US (Well, not after all He has done and is still doing for Nigeria).
Fearful New Year Indeed 3
Submitted by Frankly_Speaking (not verified) on January 2, 2012 - 12:05.
It is only in Nigeria that the likes of Bankole and Nafada would take personal loans of $164million and another 12 billion Naira using the House's account and collateral thereby tranfering the debt to the whole of the Nigerian masses!
It is only in Nigeria that we (Nigerians) are foolish enough to still continue to praise and promote these people in the community despite their disgustingly terrible criminal activities against us.
It is only in Nigeria that some individuals are foolish enough to want to believe that whoever governs us (be it a Yoruba, Igbo, Hausa, Fulani or any tribe for that matter) and stole, stole for his tribesmen when whereas they did it for themselves and their families!
Fearful New Year Indeed 2
Submitted by Frankly_Speaking (not verified) on January 2, 2012 - 11:58.
Like I said noted last week,
It is only in Nigeria that the President of the nation would force business people in the country to contribute money to build a national library and he would go on to privatise it as his own!
It is only in Nigeria that banks CEOs and Chairmen would allow over subscriptions for IPOs by the poor masses so they can enrich themselves with it!
It is only in Nigeria that the same CEOs and Chairmen of Banks would channel the poor masses money into their own bank accounts both at home and abroad then use them to buy private jets and sorts because their are no proper balances and checks in place!
Fearful New Year Indeed 1
Submitted by Frankly_Speaking (not verified) on January 2, 2012 - 11:51.
Thanks for this brave and in-depth contribution. We Nigerians are all aware that corruption is the main problem in Nigeria hence the main reason why Nigerian are not in support of the whole oil subsidy removal or oil price hike in the first place because we wish Mr GEJ would address that main problem first. Look at India and Brazil, despite high corruptions there, their economies have being moved up from being developing to emerging economies within te space of less than 15 years all because they continuously see it as a major problem and as such always addressing it.
Dimeji Bankole
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on January 1, 2012 - 17:36.
This article is not complete without the mention of Dimeji Bankole , who is the greatest dissapointment to the youths of Nigeria in recent times.
Dimeji Bankole
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on January 1, 2012 - 17:31.
This article is not complete without the mention of Dimeji Bankole , who is the greatest dissapointment to the youths of Nigeria in recent times.
Again, Crticisms - no solutions!
Submitted by Tafawa Balewite - ATBU (not verified) on January 1, 2012 - 15:29.
Sonala - You don't get it! You can write a treatise as long as the distance between Lagos and Sokoto and it will still be a futile exercise.
You are not slating anything new other than taking up space regurgitating all known vices about Nigeria.
Most of us know what the problems are; what we are looking for are pragmatic solutions peculiar to the Nigerian case to move us forward and not just an exercise in futility.
First - how come Ms. Ndi Okereke–Onyiuke is not in JAIL? What have you done to effect her arrest if indeed you have proof of her connivance?
Two - OBJ was bad, Yaradua was slow and now GEJ is clueless, don't you think the joke is now on you? How come these inept people are getting voted in while a "smartie" like you is constantly sidelined?
What we need is to embark on a campaign of leadership by example, re-orient the mindset of the average Nigerian about complacency and always expecting "GOD" to fix our problems.
Objective Critism
Submitted by Igbiki (not verified) on January 1, 2012 - 14:33.
"But we are where we are precisely because nobody is addressing the collapse of governance in Nigeria. There is governance in form, not in substance. Policy is implemented in speeches, and accountability is not an issue. Jonathan has pledged a transformation agenda, for instance, but he has not defined it. Even if he did publish his transformation plan, it would be dead on arrival because he is unwilling to tackle corruption"
You are one of the most objective critisizers of Jonathan and if he doesnt read you I dont know who he does. And in the end he wouldnt say nobody told him what he would have done.
Keep it up.
Thank You
Submitted by Tonsoyo (not verified) on January 1, 2012 - 14:28.
May your tribe increase sir. Please keep talking we cannot afford to give up.
What we have in Nigeria is not governance, but politics of gangsterism, survival of the fittest worse than the streets of Los Angeles and Mexico City is the modus operandum. Grab and go is the name of the game.
Whence will our help come from?
No Character.....
Submitted by Damocles (not verified) on January 1, 2012 - 14:22.
i have always been an optimist about Nigeria's future. I am a fervent disciple of the One Nigeria theory. I acknowledge that corruption & immorality is a worldwide phenomenom, HOWEVER one of the most distressful things to me is the seemingly lack of character of QUITE A FEW NIGERIANS. I am careful not to succumb to stereotypes, but it is ofputting. I have lived many places in my life, and everywhere this is the description of Nigerians: Smart, hustling, and CROOKED, almost verging on genetics. What concerns me is how we can ever be a great nation with this apparent lack of character. ps if one examines all Nigeria's problems, a careful mind will discover that this problem of character plays a hand in all these problems.It is trully DISHEARTENING!!
On Ndi Okereke-Onyiuke.
Submitted by Emeka K Duru (not verified) on January 1, 2012 - 12:39.
I knew Dr.Okereke in the 80's. She was the boss of ABC Merchant Bank. She has been the quintessential female Power-House as was Kufouriji Olubi.
But politics has left her marks on this institution.It's not just Ndi Okereke Onyiuke,but the association of Nigerian professionals and the like,who jump in two feet first before looking.
Pandora's box is well & truly opened
Submitted by Truthism (not verified) on January 1, 2012 - 11:30.
Nigeria has crossed the critical rubicon where the existence of life is not by chance but based on the evil or good you will face by every passing moment. Nigeria has collapsed as a nation, it is merely a prayer to a non existing God, because the Gods of Nigeria has been bedeviled by the wickedness of its people. Religious hatred has opened pandora's box, but this shall be overtaken by starvation of fuel subsidy removal, it will be a fight of death or survival. The line has been drawn, destiny has been foretold, the end is nigh. This is not a message of DOOM, this is a scream of HOPE. From the ashes great nations arose, the end justified the means.
fearful new year-olumhese
Submitted by John B Omotunde (not verified) on January 1, 2012 - 10:01.
It is not clear how nigerians could extricate themselves from the vice-grip of the heartless leaders.
Jega messed up the 2011 elections and compromised the academia who were engaged as collation officers.
I will only accept the results of the elections if both GEAJ and JEGA would come on national television that the election results reflected the true wishes of nigerians. HAPPY NEW YEAR SONALA
The Real Agenda
Submitted by Fadebi (not verified) on January 1, 2012 - 09:53.
The real agenda of the Nigerian state is the impoverishment of the masses. Unknown to Jonathan, Boko Haram is not the problem. The real problems have been espoused by Sonala. One of the many problems is that when money is voted for a cause, it never gets to destination. As our politicians become billionaires through public funds, there is a simultaneous level of societal decay. This stupidity/criminality has produced an army of idle hands around Nigeria.
Where we are, and where we'll be
Submitted by Benson, Switzerland (not verified) on January 1, 2012 - 09:12.
"When you know there is a 99% chance you won’t be caught when you steal, and a 100% chance you won’t go to jail, you will steal".
This's what defines where we are today - and where will be tomorrow!
Mr. President obviously has he capacity to change both...but seemingly not the will.
What do u expect in a country
Submitted by jakovic (not verified) on January 1, 2012 - 09:00.
What do u expect in a country where strikes are arranged to raise funds into the pockets of labour ministries-police encourage armed robbers to go and rob banks to enable them settle them-boko haram throws bombs so that the security chiefs would steal more money-journalist settled by oil companies to look the oil other way while oil spills destroy the environment-senators are bribed to keep quiet-fuel subsidy supporters sponsor articles to favour their 40yrs old deals-while the masses learn to become the next set of thieves-
@Sonala.
Submitted by Koboko-Dem! (not verified) on January 1, 2012 - 07:13.
Sir, happy new year jare.
This is a New Year Message
Submitted by Fabian Oweazim (not verified) on January 1, 2012 - 05:08.
As always Sonala, you cannot state it any better. This is the New Year Message for the President and the people of Nigeria. Shall we continue our match to oblivion or confront and destroy our debacle - CORRUPTION?????
