Emeka, my profoundly gifted younger brother travelled to one of
the upwardly mobile Asian Countries for his masters degree in Information
Technology after he rounded up his University education in one of the Federal
Universities based in the South East Nigeria. He excelled in his Degree
examinations whereby he read Philosophy as his first course after much
encouragement from me who inspired him to embrace the study of Philosophy
because of its inherent intellectual benefits of broadening the thinking
faculty of the scholar and readily put the person in the right frame of mind to
interrogate issues around his/her environment with a view to finding meaningful
and relevant conclusions to such probing questions of existentialism.
In our many conversations in the recent past just before he
rounded up his post-graduate studies, Emeka appeared very worried that the crop
of political leaders that Nigerians have entrusted our future with are really
not committed to transform Nigeria from our current backward status as one of
the most dangerous places to live on earth and also one of the most corrupt
countries of the World. On several occasions, my sibling has sounded very
worried for my safety because of what he called my consistent advocacy campaign
to compel the Nigerian political class to respect the basic rule of Law and the
fundamental human rights of the citizenry. He, it was who rightly branded the
unfortunate scenario going on in Nigeria as "the Nigerian ongoing
tragicomedy." I think there is no other appropriate way to describe the
Nigerian current situation than to use the word tragicomedy.
In Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia, the writers defined
tragicomedy as " a literary genre that blends aspects of both tragic and
comic forms. Most often seen in dramatic literature, the term can variously
describe either a tragic play which contains enough comic elements to lighten
the overall mood or, often, a serious play with a happy ending".
An interesting dimension in all of these sad scenarios playing up
themselves in our contemporary times in Nigeria is that there are still many
people with good and courageous hearts in Nigeria like my younger brother-
Emeka who are truly worried about the fate of Nigeria if at the end of the day,
our own kind of tragicomedy does not end up in a happy mood as contemplated by
those who propounded the literary theory of tragicomedy.
These set of persons in Nigeria who wish that things turn out
differently for the good of all Nigerians are sometimes branded as 'rebels' by
the powers- that- be who are so unperturbed by the worries expressed by
genuinely committed Nigerians regarding the existential consequences of their corrupt
practices on the body polity called Nigeria.
But Mr. Albert Camus, one of the World's best known but departed
Philosophers took his time to author a beautiful book he titled "The
Rebel" in which he graphically painted a glorious picture of what it takes
to consistently preach against these kinds of corruption, economic crimes
and perfidy that the Nigeria's current Political elite are busy perpetrating
and perpetuating thereby exposing Nigeria to one of the worst cases of
political instability, insecurity and the near- total state of anarchy and
impunity that have enveloped the present day Nigeria.
Albert Camus, who was born in Algeria in 1913 and killed after a
glorious intellectual life in a car accident in January 1960 had written thus;
" There are crimes of passion and crimes of logic. The line that divides
them is not clear. But the penal code distinguishes between them by the useful
concept of premeditation. We are living in the era of premeditation and perfect
crimes. Our criminals are no longer those helpless children who pleaded love as
their excuse. On the contrary, they are adults, and they have perfect alibi;
philosophy, which can be used for anything, even for transforming murderers
into judges".
Put more appropriately, this great philosopher of all times, Mr.
Albert Camus seem to have the present day Nigeria in mind while writing the
book entitled "The Rebel" when he also stated with regret that;
"...On the day when crime puts on the apparel of innocence, through a curious
reversal peculiar to our age, it is innocence that is called on to justify
itself...."
Still talking about the Nigerian ongoing story which my younger
sibling [Emeka] who now resides permanently abroad has rightly branded as
'tragicomedy', there are instances of political and economic development in the
polity that calls to question the integrity, credibility and commitment of
those who currently presides over our affair as Nigerians and whether they are
aware that their collective crime of political crimes have consistently pushed
Nigeria to the precipice of destruction.. Few years back, when the current
Economic Affairs Minister Mrs. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala was the Finance Minister
under the then Chief Olusegun Obasanjo's administration, she was credited with
leading the international advocacy to successfully negotiate Nigeria's exit
from the foreign debts trap whereby she was said to have led a team of
negotiators that got Nigeria big reprieve so much so that the Country paid off
$12 billion in place of the over $35 billion or so foreign debts that past
federal and state Governments administrations accumulated dubiously for the
corporate entity.
But only on December 6th 2012, the local media are awash with
stories that in the year 2013, the Federal Government has completed plans with
the 36 states to also approach some creditor agencies and nations such as
China, International Monetary Fund and the World Bank to attract a foreign loan
of over $9 billion USD payable in forty years time to immediately finance the
building of some infrastructure and also facilitate the building of some mass
housing projects for the benefits of poor Nigerians. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala who
briefed the Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, on the desirability
of this huge foreign loan sounded as if it is being done to satisfy the
greatest happiness of the greatest number of Nigerians.
This is a tragicomedy because Nigeria is now being gradually
enslaved into another foreign debts trap similar to the situation that we found
ourselves when the past federal administrations collected huge but dubious
foreign loans which only took the ingenuity of Mrs. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and her
economic management team under President Obasanjo to exit Nigeria. But the
Finance Minister who was the person that actively and vigorously campaigned for
the international community and precisely for Nigeria's foreign creditors like
Paris Club and other multinationals to forgive part of our total foreign debts
overhang, has also begun another campaign but this time around to also drag
Nigeria into another foreign debts. Oh what an unfortunate irony of
fate?
Only recently, the Finance Minister asked the National Assembly to
quickly approve the Federal Government's external borrowing plan of
N1.8Trillion. Nigeria is seeking the loan facility from World Bank , Africa
Development Bank, Islamic Development Bank, Exim Bank of China and India's
lines of Credit. Okonjo-Iweala said the loans were required to complete some
ongoing projects captured in the year 2012 budget. This line of reasoning is
absurd because what immediately comes to mind is to ask the Finance minister
why Nigeria had to use the scarce fund to finance the last line of foreign
debts which were mostly dubiously obtained and only to return few years now to
seek another huge foreign loans. Where are the huge revenue accruable to
Nigeria from the crude oil exports in the last twelve months? Have they all
being stolen by Government officials?
Again, some of the Nigerian States that would benefit from these loans
are also some of those unfortunate states in the federation in which their
state Governors who behave like emperors have acquired for themselves state-
of- the art private jets using the scarce fund available in the treasury of
their state Governments to finance their high taste and profligate lifestyle.
In River state for instance, Governor Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi is
in the news for the wrong reason of seeking to justify the fact that he
diverted $30 million USD to buy private jet [chopper]. This is River State
whereby basic infrastructure are lacking in much of the rural areas and even in
the state capital there are evidence of abandoned and uncompleted projects that
are littered all over the place. Taraba state has had the singular misfortune
of producing a state Governor who not only bought private jets but flew himself
into mishap with the same private jet that he allegedly diverted public money
to purchase and worst still, the poor rural state of Taraba is being compelled
to shoulder the financial burden of bearing the huge cost of foreign hospital
treatment of the ill-fated Governor Danfulani Suntai who flew himself into this
misfortune using the state scarce fund to fund his extraordinary high lifestyle
of flying in private jets of different variety, shapes and sizes. Reports have
emerged to show that the accidented Governor Danfulani Suntai for two weeks
running is still in a life support machine in an expensive German hospital
at the cost payable from Taraba state public fund.
At the last count, over five serving Governors are said to have purchased
private jets. The other day, I read in the press that the Niger State Governor
Aliyu Babangida who branded himself as the 'Chief Servant' was said to have
celebrated his birthday anniversary inside exotic private jet. What a
tragicomedy in Niger state whereby students of public schools practically take
lectures under trees and much of the primary and secondary schools have leaking
roofs even as teachers are paid like modern day slaves.
The Nigerian story of tragicomedy came to an international climax
with the recent scorecard released by Transparency International [TI of
Germany]and the Economist Intelligence Magazine [of the United
Kingdom] with varying degrees of international opprobrium for Nigeria.
Transparency International, a non-governmental organization with global
repute, said Nigeria ranked the thirty fifth most corrupt country in the
World. Economist Magazine released a report saying that in the year 2013,
Nigeria will rank as the Worst place for 'newborns' meaning that infant
mortality will be at its worst peak due to collapse of health infrastructure
across Nigeria.
These are basic facts that are so notorious so much so that
even Presidential spokesman on public affairs Dr. Doyin Okupe never
dismissed the bad record in the area of transparency achieved for Nigeria by
the current crop of political elite. He was reported to have stated that the
Transparency International report on Nigeria is a wakeup call. The federal
minister of Health Dr. Onyebuchi Chukwu, a gentleman of the finest dimension is
helpless because Nigeria operates a system whereby budgets are not adequate and
the components so approved by the National Assembly and awarded financial
backups by the federal ministry of Finance end up not being completely financed
and the oversight agencies in the National legislature is also heavily
compromised to monitor to ensure that projects to consolidate public health
infrastructure are implemented transparently. Most of our Federal and state
legislators are commercial contractors who fight with other contractors for
government patronage. So can a kettle call pot black?
On the issue of corruption and economic crimes, the Nigeria's
ongoing story is indeed a huge tragicomedy because several tons of public
fund have disappeared into private pockets of some influential individuals with
close ties to the Federal Government officials and especially the Federal
Ministry of Petroleum under the President Jonathan administration. At the last
count over N5 trillion was reportedly missing from the public treasury since
the current Federal administration emerged, according to report in one of
Nigeria's respected print media. The Finance Minister said over N400 billion
was stolen by thieves who presented fake companies as fuel importers to collect
fuel import subsidy from the Federal Government in the last twelve months.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission is currently
prosecuting some of these subsidy fund thieves who are connected to some
powerful government officials. It is uncertain how successful the anti-graft
commission will achieve in the ongoing prosecution given that these fuel
subsidy thieves have stolen enough cash that they have gone to town to hire
Senior Advocates of Nigeria who charge big handling charges including slush
funds to allegedly compromise the judicial proceedings.
The Labour Minister Chief Emeka Wogu was alleged to have
links to one of the indicted companies that allegedly stole N2 billion of
the fuel subsidy money but he vowed publicly with document to show that he
indeed sold out the said company long before he assumed public office. I
personally led my team of private investigators to interact with him and some
other officials at the corporate affairs commission and we came up with some findings
to justify his defence based on available material evidence within our reach so
far. But by and large, corruption is indeed threatening the fabrics of our body
polity and if nothing revolutionary is done to check this evil trend then
sooner rather than later we may be forced to sing nunct dimities for Nigeria as
a sovereign entity because no sovereign nation can survive with the scale of
massive fraud and corruption that have enveloped our nation. There is a
general climate of fear and instability because the resources meant to develop
security infrastructure and architecture have all been stolen and no genuine
effort is ongoing to retrieve these funds and prosecute the thieves who
presided over the various security outfits at the highest levels including the
Nigeria Police Force and the office of the National Security Adviser in the
past few years. The Presidency has recently earmarked N16 Billion to complete
an edifice being built for the holder of the office of Vice President of
Nigeria just as N2 billion has also being voted to build new Presidential
banquet hall only few years after the huge edifice was erected by the then
General Ibrahim Babangida military junta. President Jonathan's Government is
so insensitive that it is going about borrowing money to finance high lifestyle
even when all the basic public infrastructure have collapsed. We must reverse
this tragicomedy immediately.
+
Emmanuel Onwubiko, Head, Human Rights Writers' Association of Nigeria, blogs
@www.huriwa.blogspot.com.
10/12/2012
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