Johnny A. Mez, Ph.D

Sacramento, California

In his Lessons of the Recent Elections in Nigeria: The Reason to Join Hands in the War Against Bribery and Corruption, this author advised the Nigerian citizenry to refuse paying bribes as a condition to be employed or appointed to serve their nation (Mez, 2003, www.gamji.com/NEWS2487.htm). Mallam el-Rufai has demonstrated knowledge of that lesson. Other Nigerians should emulate him. The mission of the Human Development and Leadership Institute, a NGO based in Sacramento California is to use its Global Proper Education Program (GPEP) as a tool to fight bribery and corruption in Nigeria (see www.hdliworld.org). That mission would suffer if the office of this author (as the executive director) were silent on the bribery scandal in the Senate. As a result, this paper points to the fact that for what corruption has done to the people of Nigeria, no issue on bribery and corruption is trivial. The people should stand up against bribery and corruption. It has held us back for too long. It displaces the ability of the government to make good economic policies or install control systems that could militate against inefficiency. Unity eludes Nigeria. There is no local tier of government. Indirect rule of the local people from capital cities through administrators who pay monthly bribes to the governors for appointing them is what is obtainable. State governors perform conflicting duties as controller, treasurer, and chief executive. Victor Dike in his recent article, Economic Growth and Institutions in Nigeria (4 Nov 2003, Daily Trust), eloquently noted:

Unfortunately, no meaningful policies will emerge with bribery and corruption controlling the supposed-to-be law and policy makers. According to Dike (2002, p. 1 of 4, www. gamji.com/NEWS1572.htm), "there are many problems facing Nigeria today, but the issue of the upsurge of corruption is troubling." For that reason, the action of the Senate President Adolphus Nwabara and his colleagues to rush to dismiss the charge appears like a cover-up. Consequently, the leadership of the president of the Senate is in question. His rush to self-defense affirms that the Senate was to divide among its members the 54 million Naira bribe the duo demanded.

A true leader should have set up an independent body to investigate the allegation and other such fraudulent acts of the members of the Senate. When did members of the Senate become saints that the upper chamber of the lawmaking body would just trash such a serious allegation in the face of the whole people of Nigeria? Mallam el-Rufai is not ill motivated to be going about accusing prominent senators of demanding a bribe. If he had failed confirmation by the Senate, it would be apparent that his motive was to sully the names of the accused in retaliation. Since transparency is universally known to be lacking in the Nigerian governance, a true leader in the position of the senate president should have defined a clear and convincing process of investigating such a scandal, and use it also to uncover other irregularities of the senate members. In addition, Mallam el-Rufai is not the only one minister confirmed by the Senate. The Senate should have summoned others, or at least some of them, to testify publicly if any member(s) asked them to pay a bribe as a condition of their confirmation. The Senate could not even show one system or mechanism it has setup to deter the members from walking around with their palms wide open looking for who would dump bags of valueless Nigerian Naira in them.

Nigerians are no fools, as the lawmakers seem to believe. They know it is uncharacteristic of Nigerian government officials to not demand bribes from political nominees for confirmation. That is their motive for using all means, including manipulations and assassinations to grab power. Professor Bedford N. Umez in his recent work Educated to Feel Inferior (2003) documented the ignorance of Nigerian power grabbers. Also see (The) Dismal Corruption-Profile of Nigeria: How Low Could the Nation Get? (Victor Dike, 2002). "Why do … [Nigerian] leaders behave the way they do, plundering their national treasures and allowing their countries to collapse around them?" asked Keith Richburg (1998, p.169). Lavish lifestyles and boasts of material accumulations by Nigerian leaders confirm their inferiority complex and miseducation, as brilliantly articulated by Umez. Otherwise with all the wealth most of them have amassed why do they still drive on unmotorable roads, abandon erection of new schools or renovation of old ones for the youths of the country, or fly overseas for medical treatments?

The people are no longer able to endure the suffering to which government officials subject them. As the leaders who are supposed to make the system to work are responsible for its breakdown, the people might begin to use their anger and frustration to displace them, as Chris Uba attempted to abduct Governor Ngige of Anambra State on July 10, 2003. Thulo Hoeane of Maseru, Lesotho wrote in New Africa (Apr 1992, p. 4 cited in Ayittey, 1992, p. xiv) "now it seems the way a change of government can be effected in … [Nigeria] is by beheading the heads of state. It is a crude option which regrettably seems to be the only workable one for … [Nigeria]." For example, the people asked for self-governing states and local government councils that would have their respective constitutions and electoral policies, but what they got is a disguised one party system and a unitary federal government. There is no doubt the people are disgusted with the Nigerian leaders taking them for granted.