Obasanjo and the rest of us

By 

Sam Igbe

The more I read newspapers or listen to television and radio productions about goings-on in Nigeria, the more I wonder whether Nigeria is governable. The amount of scathing criticisms, the extent of shameless sycophancy, the intensity of thoughtless, yet dangerous pronouncements and the fact that from the National Assembly to government parastatals and operatives, from the ordinary man in the street to the political parties, one thing appears apparent, no one really settles down to globally give consideration to our problems. Our judgements are superficial and selfish, without any attempt to be fair to all concerned. We are more interested in the crab syndrome of "pull him down", than finding solutions to our problems. Those who write beautiful grammar are concerned about how readable their contributions are, without regard to the value and rewards of those contributions to the system and the generality of our people.

There is an overwhelming evil of corruption in the land, the snowballing effect of which encompasses all aspects of our life as a people, be it economic, political or social. Even the persistent fuel scarcity in the nation, like all other failures, is as a result of corruption, attributable to all of us. If we cannot in unison rise up against this evil, then we should keep quiet and put up with the continuation of the failures, and the resultant inconveniences.

People know those who smuggle out petroleum products across our borders, and we know why they do it, but we do nothing. Many of us know those behind the selling of petroleum products meant for the stations in the black markets, in open sabotage of official efforts, but we would rather patronise them at rates far in excess of increases government ever proposed. The President must be responsible. If we withdraw our patronage, there would be no black market, and the fuel would be sold in the fuel stations.

The foreign nationals who make it impossible for the naira to ever appreciate are known, and all those institutions who use and or operate with foreign currencies know how they do this. But we would rather collaborate and front for them, and blame the President for economic woes, which result from these corrupt practices.

President Obasanjo has set the pace for the fight against this cankerworm. He cannot do the fighting by himself. He has promulgated the law and we are expecting him to implement it. He has set up an anti-corruption commission and we want him to do the work of this commission. We want him to do the work of the ministers and their aides, to do the work of the heads of the various departments of the civil service. Or we want him to sack them without evidence.

And corruption is by no means limited to government services. The private sector, even banks are as corrupt as any government service. And we want the President to sanitise these places all by himself.

What have the representatives of the people in the National and State Assemblies done to promote the implementation of the Anti-Corruption Law. What specific action have they put in place or even suggested. Have they started with themselves? Their history so far does not confirm this, and is in fact, damning.

What are the labour organisations doing? Do they think their members are free of corruption? They would be deceiving themselves if they think so. And the Student Union Governments. A book can be written on the various aspects of their own corrupt practices.

Sanctimonious criticisms are of no use to the country, nor are tirades without specific actionable suggestions. A lot of us have been on the receiving or giving ends of corruption for corrupt reasons and the same people are everyday saying that the President just talks and does nothing about corruption. Yet there is now a specific law which punishes corrupt practices. We cannot blame him if we fail or even refuse to make complaints openly to the appropriate quarters for implementation. We cannot blame him if people go about corrupting officials for selfish reasons. We cannot blame him if legislators refuse to implement glaring provisions of the constitution for the only reason that their places or origin do not benefit directly there from. I am sure they are aware that this is a bad form of corruption.

In any case, do we even allow the president to pick his team to enable him translate his ideas to reality? The party and the National Assembly are there, rightly or wrongly to thwart his desires. I am sure that the discerning few would guess why only 10 new ministers were appointed in the last Executive Council shake-up rather than the overall changes that were expected.

The long and short of it is that if we continue to cover up sharp practices and cover up for corrupt people, we should be satisfied to live in a country that is static in all forms of progress and development. If we continue to be deliberately unfair in our consideration of those parameters that would make for peace in the nation, we should be ready for more violence in the expression of the desires of the people. If we continue to clothe ourselves in corruption, then we should expect no progress, no matter who the president is.

In a democratic setting, a suspect cannot be arrested without proof of the offence alleged. He is presumed innocent until the contrary is proved. If you refuse to provide the evidence, you render the President and his operatives incapable.

Let us all put our hands on the plough if we want to get out of the woods. Let us stop saying "nothing works in this country," when we do nothing to make them work.

Chief Igbe is the Iyase of Benin Kingdom and wrote in from Edo State