The
widespread misgivings Nigerians have harboured for some time now regarding President Obasanjo's soi-disant anti-corruption war are bound to deepen further with his handling of the
scandal at the Housing ministry. The manner of acquisition of public property by the dictator’s allies and relatives
of which Ikoyigate is only but the latest example does also
call into question the entire reform philosophy of his regime. The curious dismissal of the Housing and Urban Development
minister should be seen as a vindication of sorts of the position of those who have all along suspected that less-than-honourable
intentions form the basis of Obasanjo’s
anti-sleaze crusade.
The obvious scape-goating of the minister does bear the hallmarks of a pre-emptive strike the
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purpose of which seems to be her gagging or, at the very least, the withdrawal of a viable platform from which she could have offered what is tantamount to a rebuttal
of the president's dubious posture in this rotten affair. To have allowed Mrs. Osomo to talk posed a grave risk for the president and what is viewed as an agenda of personal political survival dressed in
the garb of a moralizing rhetoric. Obasanjo and his henchmen want Nigerians to believe that the dictator is a kind of latter-day Messiah –
something akin to the last Hope for our nation – who is committed to fighting corruption but alas, his actions
so far point to a sad pattern of grandstanding on the issue. Moreover, the president seems to be thoroughly enjoying
his thirty seconds of media glory, precariously perched as he is on a podium of inconsistencies and the minister’s
spilling of the beans could have taken the shine off the gimmickry associated with his sham campaign.
Commenting on the
bribery scandal at the Education ministry and the president’s attitude to some of the individuals allegedly involved
in it, Femi Fani-Kayode, Obasanjo’s Special Assistant on Public Matters, had this to say: “…This is only the beginning. This is what
I will describe as a messianic redemption of the country on the part of the president…You have to understand the
mindset of Obasanjo. Corruption is an anathema to him. He has
zero tolerance for it…”! And we are expected to tolerate this kind of fawning dishonesty from the regime’s mouthpieces
by applauding, if not actually aping their inanities!
But beyond the
louche familiarity of the tyrant’s messianic postulation, one is confronted with the fact that Obasanjo’s anti-corruption crusade is at once superficial,
half-hearted, selective and mostly given to histrionics which betray a profound insincerity
by those who think that subterfuge and a lack of finesse are credible alternatives to transparent leadership.
Obasanjo's decision to sack Mrs. Osomo barely a day before the date she promised
to reveal the documentary evidence pertaining to the sale of the federal government's landed property is quite
troubling indeed. This blunder on the part of the president will no doubt reinforce public distrust toward a regime
with a history of cover-ups, mischief-making and a facile resort to roguish tactics in dealing with sensitive national
issues. One of the pertinent questions being raised in this latest scandal of the PDP-led kleptocracy is that names
of other prominent figures have deliberately been dropped from the list of those alleged to have benefited from
the sale of the government houses in question.
Several commentators in the national press have rightly drawn attention to the haphazard, non-systematic nature
of the regime’s anti-corruption effort. Many observers have gone as far as suggesting a partisan political motive
behind the clumsy and dubious tactics being employed by the president in his crusade. Some of the concerns about
Obasanjo’s strange anti-corruption war need reiterating.
A critical factor
of our national politics today is the obsession on the part of establishment figures to protect their interests
irrespective of which regime is in power. And as we all know, the protection of those interests implies that national
development priorities are either discarded altogether or relegated to the background. For Obasanjo and his allies, the single-minded determination
to effect their political self-perpetuation or survival has meant subjecting the nation to all sorts of schemes
like election rigging or the use of security agencies and other national institutions to intimidate and silence
perceived enemies. The recent political brigandage that saw the imposition by President Obasanjo and his allies of one Col. Ahmadu Ali as National Chairman of the PDP should be understood in that light. It is apparent that a large
segment of the Nigerian society believes that the president’s posture in this anti-sleaze war is all about the
settling of political scores, with 2007 in mind.
As is usually the
case in such matters, many people are paying the price for this curious
anti-corruption crusade by an individual with messianic pretensions. One should hasten to hard that on the surface
of it, it doesn’t hurt Obasanjo
that some of the men and women named in recent scandals have actually been involved in corrupt activities. However,
you need to come face to face with the sordid track record of the figure in charge of the crusade and especially
his mischievous and remorseless mien to ascertain the magnitude of the deceptive enterprise behind his grandiose
rhetoric.
In the scam involving
the illegal disposing of government-owned property, for instance, the element of mischief and political calculation
was apparently very much in attendance. Apart from the muzzling of the former Housing minister and the selective
release of names of individuals allegedly involved in the scandal, it is noteworthy that one of the names on the
list of buyers was that of the Vice-President, Atiku. Two days after the release by the presidency of the list, Obasanjo’s office reportedly issued a statement stating that Atiku was not involved in the scam. So, one may ask, why release his name in the first
place? Could this be a deliberate attempt at character-assassination on the part of the president?
That President
Obasanjo is said to be opposed to Atiku succeeding him does make this tactic of releasing
names only to be followed by retractions very worrisome. This is political recklessness of the worst kind. It is
also akin to the personalization of the anti-corruption crusade – an untenable proposition. It is remarkable that
whereas the first phase of President Obasanjo’s anti-corruption crusade was reduced to what may be termed as vendetta against the late Abacha and his family, its second phase can be said
to contain the same vindictiveness but with a much far-reaching impact. The element of personalization and vindictiveness
which one has witnessed so far in Obasanjo’s anti-sleaze campaign is also very much evident in the president’s address on the N55 million scandal at the Education ministry, especially at
the point where he admonishes two former National Assembly leaders.
"It is the
responsibility of the National Assembly to cleanse itself, to show to Nigerians that it deserves their respect,
to rebuild public confidence, and to flush out those members who continue to derogate and degrade its integrity
and stature. Because this has never been part of the Assembly’s agenda, past leaders of the Senate and the House
got away with near murder and are now living in obscene opulence. Such opulence is without foundation except abused
privilege of being a leader in the National Assembly for a few years. Their honour, integrity and credibility will
remain impaired and dented no matter how they live and where they live and certainly cannot meet acceptance in
the eyes of their Creator. In the final analysis justice will catch up with them “.
It is one of those
ironies that the president does not appear to realize that the words expressed in the last quote are like a mirror
he is offering himself. When he expresses concern about National Assembly members “who continue to derogate and
degrade” the “integrity and stature” of that august body, we are reminded of a far worse desecration of Nigeria’s pre-eminent national institutions – the
continuing debasement, with impunity, of the presidency by Obasanjo and his allies. The president and his PDP continue to inflict a wholesale desecration on our national
institutions and life in general. The examples of their unwholesome and corrupt ways are many and varied. The dictator’s
current anti-sleaze campaign is yet another illustration of the corrupt identity of his regime. As for the pitch
about justice catching up with corrupt former government officials “who got away with near murder and are now living
in obscene opulence”, it is interesting that the president seems to limit his peculiar concern for justice to “past
leaders of the Senate and the House” – meaning, conceivably, those who have crossed swords with the tyrant since
1999. This looks like vindictiveness to me. It smacks of partisan political manipulation.
The concern that
political manipulation is informing the current anti-corruption war by the president has also led to the belief
that the recent antics surrounding the campaign are part of an orchestrated bid at diversion. Irrespective of where
one stands in this debate, one cannot ignore a palpable consequence of Obasanjo’s selective campaign, namely, the fact that it has already taken on the allure of a
diversionary ploy.
It is increasingly becoming clear that Obasanjo's latest shenanigans regarding his so-called anti-corruption crusade are aimed at, amongst other
things, drawing attention away from his regime's bad ways and especially its role in the recent atrocities in Anambra
which culminated in the forced resignation of Chief Ogbeh as PDP National Chairman. It is noteworthy that so far, the anti-corruption war has been one big
show with our imperial president playing God – casting an all-conquering, infallible shadow over a deeply flawed
process even as he dispenses the moral equivalent of summary justice through the agency of state-sponsored outfits
with a tenuous claim to transparency. The use and abuse by the president of nominally legitimate state structures
in the furtherance of parochial political objectives is nothing new. In the supposed anti-sleaze war, the ICPC
has become a potent weapon against Mr. President’s political enemies, real or imaginary. The fear a lot of Nigerians
are expressing today is that Ribadu’s
EFCC is also being used as an ego-massaging instrument for Obasanjo. That both Justice Akanbi’s ICPC and Ribadu’s
EFCC are now part and parcel of the president’s self-serving schemes is amply demonstrated in the way and manner
the anti-corruption crusade has been waged since 1999 and the handling of Ikoyigate is no exception.
Some Nigerians
have argued that by naming members of his wife’s family in the Ikoyigate scandal, the president is demonstrating that he has no ulterior motives. This is a superficial
reading of Obasanjo’s gesture in this scam. In his desperation,
the dictator is probably naively hoping that the public will be so impressed as to consider his anti-corruption
posture as even-handed and therefore deserving of support. While still in the manipulative cum self-serving mode,
the president and his henchmen, one can fairly assume, expect to exploit the anticipated goodwill on the part of
citizens in order to avoid having to deal with much more embarrassing allegations of corrupt conduct like the one
involving the many foreign accounts of at least one of the dictator’s children and his curious business deals.
It has been alleged that a son of the Aso Rock tyrant, Gbenga
Obasanjo, is enriching himself at the people's expense.
Strangely, though,
there are Nigerians out there who would rather harp on Obasanjo Jnr.'s
standing as a businessman in his own right - as if that were in contention - than face up to the serious allegations
that this guy is using and abusing his family connections by indecently cornering the nation's collective wealth,
thanks to the regime’s much vaunted privatisation policy. Cancelling the sale of some government houses, even if
in the process some members of Obasanjo's family - extended or not - are inconvenienced by the revelation, is arguably a lesser burden, politically,
than having to 'expose' the dictator's son or transparently deal with the suspected massive corruption taking place
at the NNPC, for instance. And, by the way, who says a future sale of the same government-owned buildings will
not benefit other friends of the regime or their fronts? It is a double tragedy that the Housing and Urban Development
ministry has now been placed under the supervision of one of the characters who benefited from the illegal sale
of government buildings in Ikoyi.
It will take a gullible public for the diversionary ploy of selective crusading to succeed as a convenient cover
for the self-serving agenda of political survival and supremacy by a power-hungry president and his allies.
In his address
on what is now referred to as Budgetgate, Obasanjo did invite Nigerians to join in the fight against corruption. A few days ago, in an admonition
to the Police High Command, he reportedly reiterated his pledge that he would no longer tolerate corruption in
public service. Nigerians have heard that before. What they expect this time around, is that Mr. President will
stop playing games and earnestly fight corruption by beginning with himself and his immediate entourage. Largely
after-thought gestures like the recent arrest of Tafa Balogun
are bound to make people more cynical. The EFCC and ICPC should cease behaving like tools in the service of a tyrant
and his friends as they jostle for 2007. '419' – as in the 2003 electoral charade - , Anenih, Anambra, Odi, Zaki-Biam, the NNPC, NEPA, BPE, NITEL, these are some of the potent metaphors for the profoundly compromised
image of Obasanjo and the kleptocratic tyranny he is presiding
over.
The dictator and
his propagandists should realize that his regime has no legitimacy whatsoever and the more its contradictions and
evil practices become entrenched, the harder it will be to convince the average Nigerian as to the sincerity of
Mr. President in matters of public morality and governance. Nigerians must know that ultimately, it is their individual
and collective responsibility to sanitize their society. If we find the selective and self-serving anti-corruption
crusading of the regime unacceptable, it then follows that our advocacy as citizens and civil society groups against
sleaze and other forms of bad conduct should not be lacking in both transparency and consistency. The true war
against corruption will necessarily involve, amongst other things, a rediscovery of core values like hard work, honesty, the rule of law and a
sense of community.