Corruption And Other Matters

By Wada Nas, September 4, 2004

Since the death of General Sani Abacha, I cannot recall a day when reference is not made to his so-called loot in the media. It has been a daily affair even when we all agree that the issue of corruption is worse today than it has ever been.

For General Obasanjo in particular, it has been one of his sing-songs and prayer verse. His government has given the impression that Abacha is the only corrupt persons who ever lived in Nigeria, while he Obasanjo and his government are the most decent and clean saints we ever had or will ever have.

Of course Nigerians know the truth about the state of corruption in Nigeria today. We do not need to recall the past about missing N350 billion annually from NNPC accounts whose senior minister is the general. Nor do we need to mention how he blocked the Na’ Abba led House of Representatives from looking into the books of the corporation.

Reports about corruption have been occurring daily in the papers, enough such as not to dig in to the past. The Vanguard of AUGUST 29, 2004 has one of such. In a report titled “. . . USD I 70 billion alleged loot alarms Obasanjo” the paper says “ Money suspected to have been looted by government officials rose from 50 billion US dollars in 1999 to 170 billion US dollars in 2003.” What this means is that officials during the five years of Obasanjo stole over two times the amount stolen perhaps since the 80s or even before. And what is the source of the paper? A report by the World Bank.

Given the authenticity of this report, who, in his right senses, will not conclude that the Obasanjo era is the most corrupt in our history more than twice more corrupt than all the past administration put together.

This is all there is to the latest reports on corruption. In its Sunday edition of  29/8/04, the paper reports that the Senate Committee on Public Account has discovered the loss of N49 billion in the Ministry of Water Resources meant for water supply but diverted to inconsequential uses. And in an editorial comment on August 27, the same paper reveals that a committee of the National Assembly “...uncovered N10.6 billion deal involving the National Automotive Council” an agency in the presidency.

In the ThisDay of August 29, 2004, some ranks of the police allegedly told the senate committee on Police Affairs that so long as they remain neglected and left to fend money to run their services, so long will corruption remain their mainstay or the only alternative for their survival. But the issue is no longer that they are corrupt. The greater issue now is that they are now very corrupt and have to be so in order to survive as individual and as an organization, confirming a report by the World Bank ranking the Police and NEPA as the most corrupt institutions in the land.

For further confirmation, the chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, ACP Nuhu Ribadu, said that corruption among law enforcement agencies is largely the major stumbling block against the anti-corruption war.

And Sam Nda recently reported in his Monday Column of Daily Trust, 30/8/04, Violation of due process, for some obscure reasons has been the norm and practice. It has been the case with Ajaokuta, the ID card scheme, both of which have already collapsed. Somebody was recently beating his chest that 2 million of the: cards are ready while the 70 million ought to have been ready since last year. If what they can produce is 2 million in one year, how many years will it take them to produce 70 million? It is for Nigerians to calculate.

Meanwhile, some said, recently that there will be no vacancy in Aso Rock in 2007. That IBB will win a fair and free election but in spite of it, there will be violent protest. Protest against free and fair election. My conclusion is that if there will indeed be violent protest against free and fair election, then it can be concluded that it will be engineered in order to annul the election to ensure pursuit of an agenda.

All the same, let us pray to Allah to take us to that year and as we do, I want it to be noted that so long as Aso Rock remains so, there will be vacancy and most certainly there will be one in 2007. In sha Allah.

In view of two recent reports, concerning the issue of diversification of the economy let me return to the subject from its security perspective, although I touched briefly on it when a delegation from the Imo state Government came to condole me over the death of one of my wives. 

By now, any student of Economic politics knows that in Nigeria oil has been a great source of instability. Indeed, even at the international level, it has been the same. American engineered crisis in the Middle East and Afghanistan is essentially about the desire of the United States to control the international oil economy for which they are ready to kill thousands and destroy those who resist in the name of fighting terrorism.

In our specific case, the problem is not so much, oil as such; but that it has been allowed to cause the neglect of other vital sources of revenue which, has this not been the case, would have competed with it very effectively.

Today with focus on only oil as the major foreign exchange earner, the nation is left at a peril and if this is allowed to persist indefinitely even the unity of Nigeria will be seriously threatened. No single issue is therefore a major threat to our nation than our complete over dependence on this source of revenue.

The danger is- not just about the security implications of this state of affairs but also its negative impact on employment issues. The failure of the Nigerian state, over the years, to property focus attention on other revenue source accounts largely for the growing unemployment among the youths which in turn has its own security implications all of which we are aware.

These apart, we need to be conscious of the fact that serious efforts are being made to develop other sources of energy apart from oil. Latest report has it that some form of alcoholic derivatives are being developed as one of such alternative sources and since 90% of the needed raw materials for the project comes from agriculture, it becomes compelling for us to constantly keep it at the back of our minds that not only will oil be forced to slump down, as a major energy source, in no distant future, but also that the attention of experts is being focus on developing energy out of agricultural resources. Thus, if we continue to relegate agriculture to the background we may be left behind without both oil and agriculture.

In this respect the federal Government needs be commended for allocating extra N10billion to the Nigeria Agriculture and Cooperative Bank for loan assistance to farmers. This amount is said to be in addition to the budgetary allocation to the bank. This represents a shift from the neglect of agriculture in the past recent years, to a new policy of purposefulness, so long as the commitment is true, will be assured with sincerity.

The Bank which is the biggest loaning agency to the agricultural sector needs to be refocused with a view to ensuring the timely grant of loans to farmer and cooperative societies. Where it takes one year to get a loan, even as small as N15, 000.00, this cannot be said to be a very sound policy.

In its edition of AUGUST, 29, 2004 the New Nigerian on Sunday has a report to the effect that the federal Government has awarded contract for the airborne ecological survey of the country to the tune of about four billion naira. The survey, according to the report, is to identify the location and commercial values of the various solid minerals available in the country. The report conveys the feeling of most Nigerians when it says that its positive outcome may help to break the strangle hold which oil has on the economy. Of it is indeed true that this project is on stream and in being faithfully implemented, time will come when Obasanjo will beat his chest that during his tenure, he moved Nigeria away from a mono to a diversified economy. One only hopes that he will leave behind such a memorable legacy.

The importance of this legacy is that when eventually our economy is diversified, the threats to the corporate existence of Nigeria, especially over oil matters, will considerable reduce. It is our complete dependence on oil, as the major source of foreign exchange earner that complicates our security problems. This is why I recently called on those state that have taken the federal Government to court over the derivation Act to focus on developing other alternative source of revenue.

Let me however quickly add that what these states did is in line with civilized conducts of seeking redress. The threat to disrupt the court session during the hearing of the suit or general threats to engage in violence in some area are wrong approaches. Let those opposed to them meet them in the court or dialogue with them. For those insulting the governors of those states, they are not helping matters. Nigerians must never fear to approach the courts, in seeking legitimate redress over matters they feel about and must never be discouraged from doing so, the use of threats, insults and sentiments.