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March 1

March 1 OPINION PAGE 42 Moro’s Sorrows! By Eugene Enahoro Former Minister of Interior Abba Moro is set to be arraigned on charges relating to…

March 1

OPINION PAGE 42

Moro’s Sorrows!

By Eugene Enahoro

Former Minister of Interior Abba Moro is set to be arraigned on charges relating to the 2014 immigration recruitment scandal. The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) allege that he and others, together with Drexel Tech Nigeria Ltd, contravened the Public Procurement Act in the award of the contract with no advertisement, needs assessment or procurement plan. The arraignment by EFCC comes as somewhat of a disappointment. If no one had died, there is little chance the scam would have caused an uproar. The crux of the matter therefore isn’t about public procurement, it’s about causing the avoidable deaths of law abiding citizens. Someone must be held responsible and found guilty of culpable homicide or involuntary manslaughter not public procurement violations. The anti-corruption war cannot be limited to the EFCC alone. The intended prosecution is analogous to the prosecution of military chiefs who embezzled money meant for arms then sentenced soldiers to death for complaining and refusing to be killed like their poorly armed colleagues. They too should be charged with culpable homicide not public procurement violations. As an analogy if a bank customer is killed in the process of a bank robbery, the main charge against the robber will be “murder occasioned by robbery” not simply robbery. The poorly organized recruitment scam was daylight robbery which caused the deaths of over 20 Nigerians as well as physical and mental trauma to hundreds of others. The shambolic process, supposedly meant to screen applicants for employment into a highly organized agency, was geared towards making money rather than towards employing the best hands. Instead of short-listing applicants into manageable numbers based upon criteria entered into the online database, hundreds of thousands were gathered into stadia nationwide and in the ensuing foreseeable melee lives were lost. At no time has anyone concerned expressed regret for what happened. Moro himself claims his “conscience is clear”. This type of clear conscience is usually the sign of a bad memory.

Critics who query why N1,000 was charged the first place appear to have forgotten that such extortion was sanctioned at the highest level. Things degenerated to the abysmal level of the immigration recruitment scam because it had become the norm for government agencies to use “consultants” to effect on-line registrations. Practically every government agency – including the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) which is supposedly service to the nation – extorts money from applicants for computer rendered services under the guise of increasing Internally Generated Revenue (IGR).

Database administration is one of the simplest tasks in modern computing which is carried out by retail stores, on-line shopping portals, warehouses, spare parts dealers, etc. Scandalously despite our government offices being littered with computers and budgeting hundreds of millions annually for Information Technology (IT), anytime a Nigerian government agency wishes to manage a database they require the services of a “consultant”. One is left to wonder exactly what the Ministry of Science and Technology is doing when government agencies have not progressed beyond using computers as expensive typewriters.

Nigerians are becoming increasing impatient with the “change agenda” as if they expected overnight miracles. Government spokespersons have failed to articulate the fact that the most important change the nation needs right now is an entrenchment of probity. The anti-corruption war should not be seen as an attempt to end corruption overnight, but as a war against people getting away with criminality. The biggest single change which President Muhammad Buhari can bring about within a short time is to ensure that people are held responsible for their actions. Corruption exists all over the world, what doesn’t exist elsewhere is that everyone gets away with it. In truth in Nigeria practically every political office holder (especially the former military officers who led the nation to ruin) has gone scot free after defrauding the nation. Bearing in mind that no action was taken against those millionaire military treasury looters it seems unfair to point the finger at politicians. When the debilitating and directionless military rule ended, the political class only wanted to catch up financially with the corrupt military officer class. The lure of public office when civilian rule returned in 1999 was not to render selfless service, but to dip fingers into the public till. Consequently companies were incorporated overnight and bank accounts opened into which billions flowed within a short period of time. With the massive de-camping to APC the truth is that even in this dispensation Nigerians believe that only the President and Vice-President are free from corrupt tendencies. Nobody who has passed through the corridors of power has remained poor even if it meant some other people losing their lives or limbs. The irony of the situation is that as the EFCC proceeds with its normal standard of incompetent prosecution the first thing Moro’s defence counsel will insist upon enforcing is human rights that he and his co-conspirators trampled upon and ignored so despicably.

The Pilgrim and the Clown of Ado

By Abu Najakku

There are two Nigerians the Presidency doesn’t normally join issues with. The two have something in common; lack of credibility and an inexplicable malice and downright aversion for almost anything Buhari. One is a grand loser and the other is certainly being troubled by what becomes of him in a couple of years from now. These two have done everything to ensnare the Buhari Presidency into a muddy pig fight, but the Presidential spokesmen have piteously ignored them

It is the highest form of irresponsibility for anyone to say, as Ayodele Fayose, the Governor of Ekiti state did last week that Buhari is aiming at islamising the country simply because he took time off his visit to Saudi Arabia to perform the lesser hajj. Those who know Buhari very well also know that although he takes his religion seriously, he never discriminated against anyone on account of what he or she believed in. Indeed, if the charge of religious fundamentalism had stuck as in 2003, 2007 and 2011, then probably, Buhari wouldn’t have been elected. Buhari is more exposed and by far understands this country much more than Fayose. He was in the army for many years and had worked alongside people of different faiths. Those who claimed that Buhari is religious fundamentalist have not been able to provide evidence of their injurious falsehood.

Fani-Kayode, who lives on his father’s name, is the other person continuously ignored by the Presidency. His provocative actions have all failed; his propensity for mudslinging as a basis for presidential media campaign during the last election has also fallen flat. I really don’t know what was it that Brigadier Arogbofa, the erstwhile Chief of Staff to President Goodluck Jonathan, told Femi Fani-Kayode that made him believe that the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) candidate was going to win the 2015 election. Fani-Kayode’s greatest problem today is surviving Buhari’s tough administration that doesn’t suffer fools gladly. Gone are the days when people just received alerts of hefty amounts of money in their accounts for doing nothing.

Femi Fani-Kayode no longer has free lunch or cheap accommodation, guaranteed in Abuja in the past by unlimited, dubious financial largesse cornered by the hitherto largest political party in Africa, now careering to the bottom. All you needed was to listen to the dissonance that accompanied the startling choice of Modu Ali Sheriff as their chairman. It is a sign of the times that the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) chose no other person as its chairman than the questionable character called Ali Modu Sheriff. Fani-Kayode who doesn’t hesitate to open his mouth wide on issues is now in existential danger as it was recently reported that Sheriff has promised to deal with him for linking his brand new chairman’s name with Boko haram insurgency. I hear too that some fringe group in Osun takes the threat from Sheriff seriously and has thus warned that nothing should happen to Fani-Kayode who now lives in fear. Chickens are indeed coming home to roost.

Ayodele Fayose, the misbegotten son, told us last year that his mother, at 70 years plus, leaked below and so he normally bought and tied nappy on her. I have never seen or heard of a well borne person who so disparaged his mother. For this reason, I don’t think Muhammadu Buhari would ever be worried by Fayose’s asinine criticism of him.

You would recall too that during last year’s campaigns, Fayose claimed that Buhari was terminally ill and had been flown to a United Kingdom hospital in an air ambulance. The statement had begun to gain such currency until Buhari had a glorious meeting with Tony Blair, the former British Prime Minister.

Lately, Fayose had not only criticised the President’s foreign travels, he had also advised that the Naira be devalued. He is so far the only Governor that called for the devaluation of the national currency; why he didn’t give former President Goodluck Jonathan that kind of advice remains a mystery. Fayose is such a busy body that rather than concentrate on fulfilling the promises he made to the people of Ekiti, he continues to poke at Buhari.

I have a strong feeling that even if Fayose succeeds in holding on to his office, the several criminal charges against him, including that of murder, will rope him at the end of his tenure.

By now, the foul play through which Fayose got “elected” into office as Governor in the last election is clear to all and sundry. I am sure too that as soon as his tenure is ended, the Nigerian security and judicial establishments will open a full inquiry into how and where he got the money to compromise everyone that assisted him in that election.

The use of the Nigerian Army, the Department of State Security and colluding with officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to rig election in Ekiti or anywhere should attract a stern punishment for the perpetrators. I am absolutely sure that the likes of Koli and even Momoh, the two army officers mentioned in connection with the stolen election of Ekiti will give useful testimony that will nail Fayose.

It is such a tragedy indeed and a great shame that the good people of Ekiti are governed by a clown. Ayodele Fayose should note that if his misguided statements happen to incite Christians against Muslims, he cannot escape the conflagration that will follow.

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