Remember it was not too long ago that I harassed you on these pages with my famous dreams from the belly of that stupendously wealthy and egalitarian nation called Korruptistan. Sitting on vast oil reserves just north of the Equator, Korruptistan was led by the supremely pot-bellied and resourceful President Shege Babanshegu who went about his duties with messianic zeal.
Decades of the supposedly incompetent military dictatorships had left Korruptistan tottering on the brink of disintegration. Some shadowy, yet influential individuals tempted to believe they had more stake in the nation than the rest of us, installed Babanshegu in the hope that only he could rescue the nation from the precipice.
Having shown uncommon valour in the outcome of the civil war that threatened the federation, the new leader set about the task of reunifying Korruptistan in a manner that would have made the famous Italian patriot Giuseppe Garibaldi green with envy.
Press freedom became a sacred issue. The militants in the Delta region were soon made to realize the folly in their militancy. The ensuing peace, transparency in government and the zero tolerance for corruption, unlocked the enormous potentials of the nation. The price of oil, the major export commodity for the previously marooned nation, soured.
Foreign companies trampled over themselves to invest in Korruptistan and as capital in-flow replaced capital flight, Awuf the nation's currency, appreciated to unprecedented levels. The foreign investments also resurrected closed factories and created new jobs. The army of unemployed rapidly diminished.
The middle class also resurfaced, while brand-new cars replaced Tokunbo vehicles on the nation's major highways and inner city roads. It all seemed too good to be true, especially when Babanshegu vigorously resisted every effort to prolong his tenure by some crooked elements in his government. He wanted to be remembered as a great statesman much like Nelson Mandela.
He compensated the people in the choice of his successor Mauru Sarkin-aiki, who had just managed to keep his nose clean while those of his contemporaries dripped with dirt. He was the logical choice if only to protect the exchequer from the rats his predecessor had battled to a standstill in his famous and highly successful battle against corruption.
And because corruption will always fight back especially when its victims fail to protect their rearguards, the new leader was hardly surprised when American and European courts ensnared some heavyweights from his own party and previous governments for accepting bribes to facilitate the award of contracts to foreign companies.
To arrest the drift, Sarkin-aiki swiftly moved to strengthen the various law enforcement and anti-corruption agencies. The new government also liaised with the affected countries for the speedy trial of the affected individuals. The President shunned all entreaties to soft-pedal on the matter on the basis of political expediency. The whole nation saluted his strong resolve and zero tolerance for corruption. The culprits were subsequently tried and demystified. But it wasn't his only challenge on that front.
Being a sports-loving nation, Korruptistan had applied to FIFA to host its biannual World Youth football Championship and the request was duly granted. The Organizing Committee hand-picked by Sata Dole, the Director-General of the appropriate government agency, thereafter submitted a budget of 37 billion Awuf to the National Assembly for approval behind the back of his supervising Minister.
Unfortunately for Sata Dole the Minister queried the huge budget and took his case to the President Sarkin-aiki who was also not amused. A letter was swiftly dispatched to FIFA reneging on the promise to host the championship. But even before the letter reached FIFA the organizing committee claimed it could actually host the event with just 17 billion Awuf. Soon after, we were told 9 billion would do just fine. Haba?
President Sarkin-aiki was so impressed by the resolute stand of the Minister in saving approximately 28 billion Awuf for the nation. For his honesty the Minister was given a national award and elevated to oversee to a more plum and corruption-prone Ministry. As for Sata Dole, well, he paid the maximum price for the President's zero tolerance on corruption.
The President thereafter channelled his energies towards the issue of correcting the minor anomalies experienced in previous elections in the country. He set up a high-powered Committee which soon came up with far-reaching recommendations that gladdened the heart of the President. In line with his promise to the people for a clean reform of the sector, the President rebuked the hawks in his cabinet who insisted that he should retain the Chief Executive of the nation's electoral agency because it tallied with the practice in other parts of the world.
The President gave the credible answer that Nigeria was a peculiar case because its democratic structures were weaker and cannot compared to those in the developed countries cited as examples and the nation rejoiced at his wisdom, which further enhanced public confidence in the process.
And then suddenly, another golden opportunity presented itself for the President to prove his sincerity on the promise of electoral reforms beyond all reasonable doubts. A re-run election in a seemingly inconsequential state in union had gone horribly awry. The Resident Electoral Commissioner fearing for her life and her conscience swiftly went underground with some choice words on why she was doing so only to be declared wanted by the nation's top cop Mr. Harbi Dole!
The crisis brought the best out of the president on the side of the people especially after a posse of topless grandmothers took to the streets to protest. Harbi Dole was swiftly queried for harassing an innocent woman. The elections were put on hold while an Independent Commission of Inquiry examined her damaging allegations.
The international community welcomed the move. I was still dreaming that our dear leader had just received a special invitation from President Obama for a visit to Washington when I was awakened by the harsh ring of my cell-phone. Sweating profusely in the dark, I managed to stretch for the phone only to learn that dare-devil armed robbers had broken into the estate occupied by my elder sister.
I jumped into a pair of slacks and reached out for a t-shirt. It was 2.30 am! What a way to interrupt my sweet dream. I had to go in search of policemen to mobilize for a rescue operation, assuming of course, that I could find them in sufficient numbers and with serviceable vehicles. What a country! But don't ever assume that you have heard the last of my dreams.
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Mohammed, I am gladdened by your postulations, but is anyone listening? Is the Nigerian public able to decipher the moral implications your column has painted? Are we not too busy trying to make a living to survive day by day that we hardly have time to reflect on what is happening to us?
I read with interest the Nigerian Labour Congress's decision to move that the Nigerian Government institute a monthly salary of N52,200.00 as minimum wage for the working poor. If you take an average of a 40-hour work week or 8-hours a day, this would translate into an hourly wage of about N163.125. Given the current exchange rate of about N180.00 to the $1.00, this means that the average hourly wage of a working Nigerian would be less than $1.00 USD.
Yet, the revenue derived from the sale of crude oil, and the amount of corporate profits the multi-national companies are making from the country are not trickling down to the ordinary working man or woman on the street. It would appear that it should be the responsibility of the government to look out for the interest of its citizens. But, rather than blame the multi-nationals, we've got to look at the proportional distribution of shares in these corporations and their levels of attendant responsibilities.
Let's say for instance SHELL Petroleum Corporation, a Nigerian Registered Company, thriving well in the country since 1952. Of 100% shares of Common Stock, let's say that the Nigerian Government carts away 51% of the 100% shares. And, lets say that of the balance of the 49%, SHELL Petroleum controls say 30%, and the balance of the 19% shares are controlled by private Nigerians and other foreigners who might have sourced their funds in order to create a viable business entity we now know as SHELL Petroleum.
Now, if you were to go back to the theory of proportional distribution of shares, and for Nigeria, this would mean that the Nigerian Government should assume a 51% responsibility, proportionate to its size of controlling interest at SHELL Petroleum. Therefore, looking at these scenarios, Nigerians, especially those in the aggrieved regions where the oil comes from, should be looking at its government for absconding on its responsibility for ensuring that a portion of its 51% stake should be ploughed back into the region for development.
Because the Government looked the other way by failing to enforce vigorously its environmental laws, the foreigners who hold a less than measurable stake chose to abuse the environment which provided their bread and butter. These abuses began with the discovery of oil at Oloibiri since 1952. I realize these were all new to Nigerians at the time, and we had not attained our independence until eight years later. However, I would like to see the Contract drawn between the Nigerian peoples at the time and the Oil Companies made public for scrutiny. Were there any provisos in the Contract that were "Grandfathered"? Why would these companies operate with such impunity that when citizens like Ken Sara-Wiwa protested these abuses, the government felt compelled to have them hung? As a democracy, we owe it to ourselves to question the magnitude of the "Sins of our Fathers". Because no Contract is written in Stone, Nigeria as an "Independent Nation" has the right to seek redress where there are proven cases of utter neglect. The apportionment of responsibilities should be proportional to the applicable shares each "entity" holds in the 100% spread of responsibility.
It is not enough to blame SHELL or any other entity. It is the government's dereliction of its duties that caused these companies to abrogate existing laws that should have addressed these abuses. Because these abuses have gone on for such a long time, thus giving these foreign companies a sense that the government did not care for its citizens, these companies also felt compelled to compensate Nigerian citizens who worked for them wages that would continue to keep the employed unfit to survive at any cost. It is saddening to observe that in 2009 the Nigerian Labour Congress would even feel compelled to ask the government to consider paying its citizens wages that cannot sustain their living, let alone maintaining what the rest of the world categorizes as a "living wage". Where has all the money from the combined sale of Nigeria's natural and mineral resources gone since independence? I do realize that heavy contracts are awarded to foreign firms to build this or that. Why couldn't major contracts be awarded to Nigerian Engineering Firms to perform these tasks without any affiliation with foreign contracting firms?
It is truly the collective responsibility of those who have shares in these public corporations to take steps to show appreciation to the Nigerian people that they truly appreciate the opportunities they were given to survive, by ploughing back some of their profits into the local economy. When people begin to blame SHELL or other such organizations, we should realize the above-given formula for proportional distribution of responsibilities based on the apportionment of shares: Because he who has the lion's share should also have the larger responsibility to improve the lots of Nigerians.
Al Ghazali (a la Ghastly) allow me to relieve your nightmare with a Japanese proverb which says Vision without action is a daydream. Action without vision is a nightmare. As you dwell, endlessly, in condemning a more dynamic leader, in the person of President Obasanjo that you cleverly coughed as Babanshegu, who, by the way, is better than all the previous 9 Nigerian Hausa-Fulani-bred leaders, combined, including this useless crap, called YarAdua, ordinary Nigerians end up been the loser as a result. So, wallow in your misery as the rest of the world passes you by. A Mexican Essayist, Octavio Paz, once wrote that Modern man likes to pretend that his thinking is wide-awake. But this wide-awake thinking has led us into the mazes of a nightmare in which the torture chambers are endlessly repeated in the mirrors of reason. I say, Dream On, my clueless bro., as you go round and round, chasing your tail, going nowhere.