By Abdullahi Yunusa
We are never short of controversy in this part of the world. Nigeria’s political firmament can never run short of bizarre occurrences. Hardly a day passes by that the world is not dished a sizeable portion of Nigeria’s kind of absurdity, courtesy of the funny characters masquerading our land as leaders. It is simply a case of one day, several ugly incidences. Nigeria has become a drama village where adventurers from different parts of the world travel to to have appreciable dose or measure of fun. The sad reality is that, no one, including our so-called elder statesmen and clergymen is bothered by Nigeria’s fast drift to anarchy and abysmal failure. Amidst allegations of rising malfeasance, which now define our system, we are so relaxed with an affirmation that all is well. We are at a crossroad as a people. Regrettably, we have continued to delude ourselves that the myriad of human-induced challenges staring us in the face today would fizzle out pretty soon. Well, with the concern of being branded an incurable pessimist, the ominous signs that dot our landscape of where we are headed are glaringly obvious for even the blind to see.
The acceptable definition of lunacy is doing same thing over and over same way and expecting a different result all together. We watch with glee and at times with pomp as our elected and appointed leaders loot the treasury dry, yet we keep saying better days are ahead and things would change sooner than we expect. Big lie! As long as we continue to maintain sealed lips and watch with arms akimbo as our gluttonous elites plunder our collective patrimony with reckless abandon, it will take us donkey uneventful years to rich the Biblical Promise Land.
The screaming malfeasance in official circle is egregiously alarming to be quiet. The huge challenge is, no one, including those we hold in the highest esteem could garner the courage to blow the whistle. While most of us are scared of being labeled dissidents or enemies of government, others can’t risk biting the finger that currently feeds them. We are in a logjam. Even though the situation has assumed emergency proportion, no one gives a hoot. After all, those in government and their cronies have stolen enough to guarantee their safety and comfort should the system finally grinds to a halt.
Princess Stella Oduah’s show of obscene taste and display of extravagance as seen in the purchase of armoured BMW cars valued at N255 Million provides an insight into the reckless manner our collective resources are being plundered by the elites. This is a sin against God and crime against humanity. No sane mind, for whatever reason, should stand in defence of Stella’s non stellar act. This is the height of wickedness and irresponsibility. It beats one’s imagination to discover that a serving public official sees nothing morally or legally wrong in acquiring cars with such a huge amount in a country where thousands go to beds daily on flat empty stomachs. I must be dreaming. Please, someone should wake me up. N255 Million is too huge an amount to be spent on mere cars. This amount is enough to pay the annual salaries of 50 Professors across Nigerian public universities. This humongous sum is equally enough to build 100 healthcare centres across villages in Nigeria. But our leaders can never think along these paths. No! It is about their personal comfort and that of their families. As soon as they assume office they tend to forget that they had taken oaths of allegiance not to put personal considerations above that of the people. We indeed have an awkwardly unique way of mocking God in this part of the world. We break human laws with impunity and still blind our hearts and conscience towards laws instituted by God.
With no intention of holding brief for Ms. Stella Oduah or absorbing her of any blame, officials of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authorities, with particular reference to the agency’s Director General, Fola Akinkoutu, is more culpable in this mess rocking the aviation industry. Mr Akinkoutu’s position in the mess simply explains the dirty behind-the-scene roles played by civil servants in their desperate bids to curry favour or win the hearts of political appointees’ in charge of their ministries. Mr Akinkoutu, oblivious of the shit he was in, had boastfully threatened to smoke out the in-house civil servant who ‘leaked’ the infamous car purchase information to the public. The rot we read about on the pages of newspapers involving Ministers and other top political appointees are perpetrated with the knowledge and assistance of civil servants in Ministries, Department and Agencies. It is rather sad to even discover that the alleged car purchase wasn’t even captured in the NCAA’s budget approval. So, where for heaven’s sake did Akinkoutu and his management team secure such a humongous amount to acquire the said armoured cars?
Without pre-empting the outcome of the various probe panels set-up to investigate the malfeasance in the Aviation Ministry, this high profile abuse of office will no doubt go the way of others. We have toed this path before. It’s a familiar terrain. Several probe panel reports involving top ranking government officials have been left to gather dust on government shelves. Frankly speaking, setting up such panels amounts to huge waste of time and resources. Such time and resources should be channeled into productive ventures.
Needless to bore anyone with this. Where is the report of the probe panel that indicted Honourable Faruk Lawal? What about the juicy Malabo Oil deal involving the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation, Ibrahim Adoke? What about the corruption case against former Speaker, Dimeji Bankole and his deputy, Usman Bayero Nafada? Undoubtedly, this particular high profile corruption case will go the way of others.
Abdullahi Yunusa wrote in from Imane, Kogi State
meetprofwills@yahoo.com
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