Nigerian elites are definitely in a very hot race of their lives
to cover up their collective act of economic genocide that they have since the
last five decades unleashed on an unprecedented scale on the citizenry by their
unbridled quest to consistently corner to their private pockets the
commonwealth of our Nigerian nation.
In the last few months, evidence emerged that some of these members
of the political elite have engaged in writing and publishing books to
white-wash their roles in the poverty dilemma that has bedeviled Nigerians.
These new generation authors among the political elite want to
paint themselves as messiahs of the masses.
From the Southern state of Rivers, erstwhile governor Dr. Peter
Odili recently introduced his widely advertised autobiography titled; conscience
and history; my story”, in which he sought to debunk the groundswell of
allegations of misappropriation of state fund when he presided over as governor
between 1999 to 2007.
Peter Odili, an accomplished medical doctor whose wife (Mrs. Mary)
has risen to the pinnacle of her legal profession to take a seat at the
prestigious Supreme Court of Nigeria, has come under considerable criticism for
not making use of the huge crude oil revenue accruable to the state of Rivers
from the federation treasury as the largest crude oil producing state, to
better the lives of the population when he took charge for eight years as the
governor.
Peter Odili is accused of benefitting from an absurd court
injunction which perpetually appears to have stopped the Economic and financial
crimes commission (EFCC) from ever arresting and charging him to court to
answer to certain charges that huge public fund developed wings and flew into
private bank accounts during his eight years sojourn in the River state
government house as the chief executive who enjoyed the immunity clause as
provided for by section 308(1) of the 1999 constitution (as amended).
Questions were asked how come that a court of law in Nigeria, in
this instance, the Federal High Court, could grant a perpetual injunction
frustrating the discharge of constitutional duty by a body created by the legal
statutes to fight corruption and economic crimes.
Still, observers wonder why the Economic and Financial Crimes
Commission (EFCC) has yet to successfully quash the subsisting injunction at
the appellate level or transfer the matter for investigation and prosecution to
the police or the independent corrupt practices and other offences commission
(ICPC) to take up the prosecution of former governor Peter Odili for those same
allegations for which EFCC has been stopped by the so-called perpetual
injunction of a Federal High Court, Port Harcourt Division.
All together, the conclusion that can be drawn from all the
emerging scenarios in the Peter Odili’s botched trial is that the political
elites who control the machinery of law enforcement and dispensation of justice
have entered a grand scale conspiracy against the ordinary people who would
have expected the court system to compel the erstwhile Rivers state helmsman to
answer to those charges of corruption and for the court system to reach an
acceptable determination of that matter without let or hindrance.
In the new book colourfully published by ex-governor Peter Odili
of Rivers State, Nigerians were copiously told that he was transparent and
accountable while he served the good people of Rivers state just as the author
blamed the then Nuhu Ribadu – led Economic and financial Crimes Commission
(EFCC) for embarking on 'wild goose chase', blackmail and vendetta against him
for daring to stand election for the highest office in the land in the 2007
presidential election against the interest of the powers-that-be in Abuja.
Odili wrote in his book thus; “On 12th December 2006, a spurious
and anonymous petition was posted on the internet from a questionable
‘source’ alleging corrupt practices against the Rivers State government
under me. These allegations were contrived into a petition by the EFCC under
Nuhu Ribadu’s hand, to the President (Obasanjo) the same day”.
Odili in his book also claimed that; “On the 13th of December
2006, Mr. President directed EFCC to investigate. On the 14th day of December
2006, EFCC submitted a so-called ‘interim’ report to the then President who
promptly minuted for my response on the same 14th December, 2006, but forwarded
to me on the 15th of December 2006, a day to the National convention [of the
Peoples Democratic Party]”.
“We submitted our response on the December 15th 2006, by which
time it had become clear what the whole exercise was about – ‘get Odili out of
the race for the presidency at all cost”.
He then proceeded in the same book to extensively display
photographic evidence to demonstrate that the resources of Rivers state under
his administration were transparently disbursed and applied.
Although I have no superior reason to contradict those graphic
evidence adduced by Peter Odili in his book but one salient question begging
for answer is why there is so much poverty and gross underdevelopment in
Rivers state even with the huge resources at the disposal of the state
administration?
By and large, the poverty trap in which most Nigerians have found
themselves is generally as a result of the deadly conspiracy of the political
elite because of the mistaken belief that a population under occupation by
economic poverty will not have the serenity of mind to ask the right
probing questions and demand for sound answers from their political
leaders.
These elites also forgot conveniently that a hungry man is also an
angry man. The fact that there are too many hungry and angry Nigerians is not
in dispute. The high crime rate is one clear evidence of this stark reality.
Another example will suffice to show that members of these
political elite who benefitted from the system have now resorted to writing
books to hoodwink the reading public.
The former minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) who had
served as the Director General of the Bureau for Public Enterprises (BPE),
accused of selling off choice national assets to cronies of government
officials has also written his own book.
“The Accidental public servant”, by Mr. Nassir El Ruffai is currently receiving extensive bashing
from a cross segment of the political elite for misrepresentation of facts and
for simply elevating fictions and figments of his imagination into the realm of
reality.
Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar who got bitter dose of attack
in the new book by Mr. El Ruffai, has taken up advertisement spaces in national
newspapers to puncture some of the narratives contained in the book by the
former Abuja minister who was banned by the Senate of the Federal Republic of
Nigeria from holding public office for ten years following allegations of fraud
which he allegedly committed as the minister of the Federal Capital Territory.
The former minister of Abuja was accused of serial land scams and
for converting choice landed assets in the nation’s capital to his private
assets using his children as fronts. He has gone to the Federal High Court to
seek to squash his indictment by the National Assembly.
In the book by the former Abuja minister, he disclosed how he
cleverly maneuvered and/or manipulated the extant law setting up the
Bureau for Public Enterprises [BPE] as the then Director General to
procure fund budgeted for the agency which he generously handed out to the then
foundation chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) Mr.
Nuhu Ribadu.
Ribadu, who was then an assistant Commissioner of police was
handpicked by then President Chief Obasanjo on the recommendation of his then
Federal Attorney General Mr. Kanu Agabi (SAN) to head the new anti-graft body
which President Obasanjo set up few years after he had set up the Independent
Corrupt Practices and allied offences Commission [ICPC].
To underscore the general state of sophisticated conspiracy of the
elite to continue to enthrench economic crimes that impoverishes the greater
percentage of Nigerians, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission
(EFCC) was set up by President Obasanjo without making arrangement on how it
will obtain take off fund to prosecute an all out war against economic crimes
in compliance with the Constitutional provision in section 15 (5) which
provides that “the state shall abolish all corrupt practices and abuse of
power”
This conspiracy of the ruling elites and their cronies in the
private sector of the economy to perpetually imprison the greatest majority of
Nigerians in the absolute poverty trap came out in the open recently when the
former education minister Mrs. Oby Ezekwesili who recently retired from the
World Bank as Vice President for African region, alleged
sensationally, that the late Yar’adua and the current Jonathan
administrations have squandered $67 Billion USD of public fund which the
Obasanjo’s government handed over to the incoming government.
Rather than set machinery in motion to extensively verify the
allegations, what the government has done so far is to issue unintelligent
responses attacking the messenger instead of responding intelligently to the
message. This is the pattern adopted consistently by the ruling elites to
undermine the regime of transparency, accountability and zero tolerance to
corruption and the consequence of this is that greatest number of Nigerians are
trapped by absolute poverty even while the tiny fraction that make up the elites
smile to their banks with the nation’s wealth.
The general state of impunity needs to be overthrown through
consistent civil society- driven mass action and intense pressure so that
government officials are compelled to respect the law and for institutions put
in place to check profligacy and heist of public fund are empowered to carry
out these duties.
The suffering masses of Nigeria must stop chasing after mere
bread and butter to fill up their hungry stomachs but must turn their civil
attention to how the nation’s wealth are disbursed, applied or misapplied and
shout to high Heavens for justice to be done.
Religious leaders have betrayed the trust of the ordinary
Nigerians by aligning themselves with the oppressors of the masses who are the
political elites. Some of these religious leaders have lost their moral voices
because they are living ostentatious lifestyle like flying in private jets
bought through suspicious means. Our freedom is in our hands as ordinary
Nigerians.
Joseph Stiglitz, one of the three economists to share the 2001
Nobel Prize for the Economic Sciences spoke eloquently about the evils of
poverty in the following words; "The number of people in poverty in many
of the countries actually increased. In some of the cases, it wasn't just that
the gap between the poor and the rich increased, but the people at the bottom
actually went down..."
The above is the perfect scenario depicting our Nigerian
existential situation in which nearly 110 million of the 167 million population
are in absolute poverty. Should we let this huge moral burden of poverty trap
in which many of our people are enslaved to continue even with rich resources
being cornered to private pockets of political elites, to continue?
* Emmanuel Onwubiko, Head, HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS’ ASSOCIATION OF
NIGERIA blogs @www.huriwa.blogspot.com.
14/2/2013
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