THIS SACRED COW CALLED BODE GEORGE

THIS SACRED COW CALLED BODE GEORGE

Obasanjo’s pronouncement since 1999 that there will not be any sacred cow has turned out to be an empty singsong. Paradoxically, he created and nurtured some sacred cows himself. Their main pen is Aso Rock with subsidiary pens in the states. Through the limitless access they have, he tends to them on a day-to-day basis at the expense of state affairs. The sacred cows are fat unlike you and me, the lean grazing, migrant herds one see all over the country. From wherever they are, they have hotlines of communication with OBJ. Thuraya and other forms of telephony are their toys. Tight security accompanies them round the clock. To qualify as an OBJ sacred cow, one must have certain personality traits, which OBJ has in abundance. The candidate must be able to shoot the breeze, be insensitive, vindictive, lewd, fake, sadistic, exhibitive of superiority complex, unforgiving, pretentious to be poor while wallowing in ill-gotten wealth, subscriber to OBJ’s infallibility in all matters be it socio-economic, political or religious.

Despite PDP being a very large party, the list of political sacred cows all over Nigeria is not long. Over time, Bode George (BG) has not only demonstrated that he fits the bill but has exhibited the fact that he occupies a strategic pen in Aso Rock. The manifestations of BG’s sacredness started quite early after he joined the party. Without being a founding or long enough member of PDP, he was installed as the South West Vice Chairman of the party by a remote controlled from Aso Rock and got the brief to “capture” the zone for the PDP. This is someone who never voted for Obasanjo in 1999 because he was in a fake self-imposed exile in London during the registration of voters.

This imposition of a neophyte like Bode George as the South West Vice Chairman of PDP was to produce a man like Muritala Ashorobi who is not vast in party organization and electioneering strategy as the Chairman of the party in Lagos. Their combination produced 13 disparate factions in Lagos with the grassroots left like sheep without shepherd. The other South West States had the advantage of having tested party strategists as Chairmen who were able to wield their various factions together for the election battle. In as much as Bode George has been ! mouthing that he “captured” the South West, Nigerians know the truth…the various indigenes of the five South West States worked for their election and should receive credit for the success they recorded. If we are to believe Bode George that he is responsible for the success recorded by PDP in the South West states, it will be akin to believing that one can remove a speck of dust in someone’s eyes while carrying a log of wood in his own eyes. When Bode George was appointed as the Chairman of the NPA over Chief Molade Okoya-Thomas who is an AD apologist, hopes were raised amongst Lagos PDP loyalists that they will have a fruitful and legitimate avenue of business transactions with the Authority.

Shockingly, no Lagos party man, woman or youth benefited. Rather, the beneficiaries were Bode George’s personal friends especially women whose liaison with him cannot be explained. PDP loyalists looked the other way when they saw that nothing was coming their way in terms of patronage from the NPA. Thus, it was only after the disgraceful and unceremonious sack of Bode George from the board of NPA those party members whom he had earlier sold dummies to heard of the huge dollar, pounds and naira denominated deals Bode George presided over at NPA board meetings. The gory details are being unearthed daily on the pages of the newspapers and there seem to be no end to the mess. There is a probe at work already but what happened ! at the NPA between 1999 and 2001 looks like the kind of brazen looting despots like Saddam Hussien and Abacha are known for. Take a look at funds that cannot be accounted for: · Over $567,301,934.00 revenue recorded in Lagos and London offices of NPA · $376,054,200.00 sold by NPA to various banks between June 1999 and December 2001 · $41.8 procured by NPA from Central bank of Nigeria which was meant to fund projects approved by Federal Executive Council from the 7% port development surcharge by all port users.

There was glaringly no accountability at NPA under Bode George’s Chairmanship. In addition, the new Minister of Transport, Abiye Sekibo and the Managing Director of NPA, Sarumi, confirmed the indebtedness of N21billion, $34million and 10million pounds sterling. But to confirm his sacred cow status, in spite of being sacked several weeks ago, Bode George still occupies NPA properties in both Abuja and Lagos. Back to the 4/19 elections, I strongly believe that Bode George should carry a lot of the blame in the loss PDP suffered in Lagos State. His loquacious, arrogant public endorsement of some candidates a clear two years before the elections ignited a crisis of confidence that tore Lagos State PDP apart even before the elections. In protest of those senseless endorsements by the neophyte in Bode George, some members of PDP in Lagos State decamped to AD while a good percentage of those that stayed behind indulged in anti-party activities favorable to the AD. Had Lagos PDP gone to the 4/19 elections united and strong with all the logistic support enjoyed by the other South West States, PDP would have “captured” Lagos too.

However, Bode George will have to live with the embarrassment of losing Lagos State for the rest of his life as it has really proved the Tinubu boys right that he is indeed a political neophyte who cannot even win a single polling booth around his house! Already! , he is a butt of jokes around town. After the elections and in spite of the woeful performance by PDP in Bode George’s constituency from the polling both in front of his house to his ward, local government and state, he still mustered the courage to put himself forward in his characteristic shameless and selfish manner for consideration for the Lagos State Ministerial slot without conferring with Lagos State PDP whereas there is someone like Funso Williams who was the rallying point of the party and on whose strength as the gubernatorial candidate, the party made a good showing in the governorship election in the state. While losing the ministerial slot might have been painful for Bode George, with the knowledge of hindsight, he should consider it a blessing because the Senate Screening would have provided an opportunity for his opponents to demystify his sacred cow status.

On good authority, I gathered that some “detractors” have massed up tons of petitions waiting for Bode George’s name to make the Ministerial list. Allegations like the Naval exam joker common among the Military circles could have reared its head again especially as OBJ seem to be the only ex-soldier ignorant of the gist. Also waiting for BG on the Senate floor had his name made the Ministerial list is the scam of shame at the NPA, thus, Bode George’s name would have been dead on arrival at Senate, demystified. He would have even fainted when confronted with the like of ever-caustic Senator Chukwumerije. Bode George should thank his stars that OBJ still prefer to have him shooting the breeze as the South West PDP henchman than face the Senate screening with all those skeletons in his cupboard.

In the past month or so since Bode George was disgraced from the NPA, messy snippets have been emerging from his cupboard. Kola Animasaun dedicated a small portion of his column in the Sunday Vanguard for comments on Bode George and it was simply amazing the kind of responses that came from the public. The Naval exam malpractice secret spoken in hushed tones among ex-military officers has been made public in that column in addition to being fingered as the recent buyer of an N80 million property of Alhaji Alhaji (ex-Finance Perm. Secretary/Minister) situated at Olosa Street in Victoria Island, Lagos. He may have been fingered rightly or wrongly but the supposedly new owner of the property is his 30-ish old daughter, Oyikan Bode-George. With all these dirges being sung for Bode George, OBJ still conferred CON on him but knowing Obasanjo, that investiture of unmerited accolade might just be the last hurray before he descends on him with the NPA albatross. Otherwise, for a country rated the second most corrupt in the world; it will send a wrong signal to the world if Obasanjo and his government keep tolerating Bode George as a sacred cow despite all these allegations.

We believe a systematic slaughter of OBJ’s ballooned sacred cows are long overdue but then it appears he has kicked off with the cast in the ID card scam. NPA ought to be the next bust stop! The probe panel constituted by the current Transport Minister, Abiye Sekibo should expedite action to produce a report the government can act on. Any contrary action will portray Sekibo and Bayo Sarumi as “bloody idiots” Bode George called them in an interview in the Sun newspaper, thus, they will soon become laughing stock and mere toothless bulldogs who ca! nnot even evict an ex-non-executive Chairman of NPA from its properties that they swore an oath to administer on behalf of the Nigerian people.

The purchase of Alhaji Alhaji’s property must be investigated thoroughly and with dispatch. Alhaji Alhaji is still alive and that makes the investigation a mere question and answer affair. Of recent, newspapers have been awash with Bode George’s statements that he can swear with his life that come 2007, OBJ will head back to his Ota farm. Of course, that is a decoy and in Bode George’s estimation a ploy to re-invent himself and continue in his grand delusion as a super sacred cow but he seem to have forgotten one of those things he mastered at Ijebu Ode Grammar School: any object propelled into the air, no matter how high its trajectory, must obey Newton’s law of gravity and find its way to the ground. Perhaps, he needs old classmates and childhood friends like the fearless Sunday Vanguard Columnist, Dele Sobowale, who has risen in his defense to remind him that there is no way escaping Newton’s law. His days as a sacred cow are numbered as Nigerians and friends of Nigeria all over the world eagerly look forward to the NPA probe panel report and subsequent prosecution as the barometer for measuring OBJ’s anti-corruption posture.

This is a challenge Obasanjo must not fail given his pedigree as a founding member of Transparency International.

Feb 2004