Tajudeen Razaq Adegbenro
29 October 2008
opinion
The House of Representatives Committee that probed the 16-billion dollar power contracts scandal has finally submitted its report, leaving the nation breathless by the sheer scale on which the nation was brazenly robbed by a cartel with the collusion of well connected former political office holders.
In its findings, the committee recommended the investigation of former President Obasanjo, Governors Liyel Imoke (Cross River), Segun Agagu (Ondo) and Alhaji Ahmed Abdulhameed (currently Nigeria's Ambassador to Turkey).
Like a wounded lion, former President Obasanjo has dismissed the report as wicked, wild and unsubstantiated. But his frenzied reaction left many Nigerians unimpressed because the former president had every opportunity to appear before the panel to defend himself. His posturing is understandable because his moral pretence has been exposed for all to see. Despite blackmail and intimidation, the Ndudi Elumelu-led committee has recommended that the former president and the three other former ministers of power and steel have cases to answer. With this recommendation, the power committee has thrown down the gauntlet to the EFCC to prove that there are no sacred cows. Making the country to lose $16 billion for projects not executed is one of the worst crimes a public office-holder can commit against the country.
Obasanjo is known for his reckless disregard for due process, transparency or for protecting those who enjoy his favour. While he held office for eight unremarkable years, he behaved as if he were God's gift to Nigeria. Sometimes because of that delusional perception of himself, he regarded every other Nigerian leader as a crook except himself. He effectively used the EFCC blackmail to bend governors and other political office holders to his will because he himself was so confident that Nuhu Ribadu couldn't touch him; after all, he appointed him into the job.
The son of former President Babangida, Mohammed, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, the Abacha family and other unfortunate victims of Obasanjo's moral fury had all tasted the bitter medicine of the so-called anti-corruption crusade. No family had been hounded and mercilessly dispossessed like the late General Sani Abacha family under the so-called efforts to recover looted funds.
In 1999, Obasanjo was bankrupt until Atiku Abubakar and Otunba Fasawe came to his rescue by settling his debt. His bankruptcy status would have disqualified him from contesting the 1999 presidential election and the intervention of former Vice President Abubakar and Fasawe had saved Obasanjo by the bell. Ironically, Obasanjo went after them on the pretext of fighting his dubious anti-corruption crusade. Today, eight years after leaving office, he has transformed himself from rags to riches, becoming one of the leading billionaires in Africa who made their money through access to public office.
Curiously, the EFCC is telling Nigerians that it doesn't have the evidence to arrest Obasanjo. Let the former president tell Nigerians how he became a billionaire in just eight years, bearing in mind the fact that his businesses were in ruins while he was in jail. How much was his salary for eight years? Why did the EFCC kill the issue of Obasanjo buying 200 million shares in Transcorp while he was holding office?
In his vindictive zeal to vilify the memory of General Abacha, he went to every vicious extent to squeeze life out of the Abacha family members. And curiously, even the so-called looted funds recovered from the Abachas could not be accounted for. In fact, it got to a point where Nigerians began to suspect Obasanjo's motives in seeking to ruin the Abachas under the pretext of recovering looted funds.
Obasanjo's son has been indicted by a Federal Government Committee for influence peddling through the concession agreement with Indians to steal the assets of Ajaokuta Steel Company. Why didn't the EFCC go after him to recover the illegal kickbacks that he collected from foreign business crooks for using his connection to secure them lucrative contracts or business in Nigeria? Nigerians have not also forgotten how the EFCC refused to arrest Senator Iyabo Obasanjo-Bello over the Ministry of Health corruption scandal. It took relentless public criticisms to compel the EFCC to finally go after Iyabo.
It is high time we nailed Obasanjo to the counter so as to expose the phoney nature of his perceived superior morality. The revelations coming from the activities of the Petroleum Pricing and Regulatory Agency are also breathtaking. Nigerians have just been told that N64 billion was illegally diverted to private pockets. It is not surprising, therefore, why the so-called subsidy withdrawal by the former Obasanjo administration didn't benefit ordinary Nigerians.
With these emerging ugly revelations, is there any justification for the former president to viciously demonise the late General Sani Abacha? It is unarguable that the subsidy withdrawal policy by Abacha's administration was more credible than Obasanjo's. For example, with just N30 billion allocated to it, the scrapped Petroleum Trust Fund established by Abacha had executed many concrete and beneficial projects across the country to justify its existence. Despite the $18 billion debt relief and huge proceeds from frequent subsidy withdrawals, the former Obasanjo administration left Nigerians ever more cynical and sceptical about the justification of removing petroleum subsidy.
His epic non-performance was evidence of such cynicism. And now that he has been exposed, he shouldn't be left to escape justice. The 16-billion-dollar power contract scandal will determine whether President Yar'adua is his own man or morally timid to go after those who ruined Nigeria. Millions of public funds have been used to finance the national tour of the investigation committee set up by the House of Representatives.
Therefore, Nigerians will never forgive President Yar'adua if he allows the recommendations of the committee to go up in smoke. Our inability to implement the recommendations of public inquiries in the past has encouraged crooks to fool the nation by getting away with their misdeeds. By any standard, $16 billion is a huge amount to change the conditions of Nigerians for the better significantly. Already, it has been estimated that Nigeria lost N3 trillion as a result of corruption, mismanagement, embezzlement and reckless disregard for due process under the past administration.
By Chinese tough standard on public morality, even a case of negligence is enough to send a public office holder to the gallows. But in Nigeria, certain powerful offenders are awarded a crown for their misdeeds while the ordinary criminals are either hanged or sentenced to long prison terms. President Yar'adua is already at the court of public opinion; his entire integrity and public image will depend on how he handles the findings of the power probe committee. In fact, his commitment to the rule of law will be determined by his courage to call his pretentious predecessor to account.
Adegbenro wrote from No. 29B, Ibrahim Taiwo Road, Ilorin.
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