The Insight by Lateef Adewole
“A people who elect politicians, impostors, thieves and traitors, are not victims but…accomplices.” – George Orwell
If there is any set of citizens that are guilty of the above quote, Nigerians should be. It is incredible that we cry foul when we are being pummeled by the people we claim to elect or who were appointed to positions of authority. This is not by physical attacks but criminal massive attacks on our scarce public funds. The way these people steal and squander our hard-earned or borrowed funds is scary. It is as if they are in competition to win gold medal for who steals most.
And they do not just steal secretly; they rub it in our faces. They do it with gusto and impunity. Otherwise, an appointee, in acting capacity as MD of an agency, would not have the audacity to tell us that they spent not 1.5 billion but 1.32 billion naira only as palliatives for themselves within two months of lockdown. When queried if they were not paid their salaries, he answered in the affirmative. He then went on to ask why shouldn’t they take care of themselves?
I am talking about no other person but our “fainting” acting MD, Interim Management Committee (IMC) of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), Professor Daniel Kemebradikumo Pondei. He made this statement in one of the interrogation before the House of Representatives before he “fainted”.
By now, in a saner society, the Niger Delta region should have been “boiling” (literally), as well as the whole country, with citizens demanding for the sack, arrest and prosecution of all the people who were ever part of all these mess. Citizens should have occupied all their homes and offices. They should not be sleeping with an eye closed, not to talk of sleeping in their palatial homes built from these stolen funds.
But, aren’t we Nigerians again? We are complicit one way or another. We are either directly or indirectly part of the heist or we are indolent, distracted or lackadaisical about what goes down. The highest that will happen is an e-war on social media. We have been reading endless comments on social media. Countless revelations have swarmed the internet. But that could be the end of it.
And for the youths and many adults right now, they have enough distractions already. Even if the usual football leagues in Europe, which used to be their preoccupation before, are not as “hot” as it used to be due to the coronavirus pandemic, there is alternative, which is the Big Brother Naija (BBN) Lockdown which just started. Their excitement about the amoral show will soon drown all these noise about stealing. It would be like that for another few months. So, people in government and those stealing our national resources can continue to have field day. The citizens are still busy.
These past few weeks seem to be the week of corruption exposé, just like I mentioned last week in my article. The sheer enormity of the revelations of corruptions and corrupt practices is overwhelming. I wrote twice already about two others (Magu and Malami). But for this trending case of NDDC, I was bereft of words to describe it. Anyone who is abreast of what is going on would be.
I cannot recollect the number of posts, stories, news, interviews, commentaries and the rest, that I have seen, watched or read about the NDDC matter. In fact, I prefer not to start highlighting the details of what were revealed that showed how humongous amount of money that belong to Nigeria and Nigerians have been mismanaged in the NDDC for 20 years since it was created. The figures are obscenely staggering.
The many ridiculous items which the managers listed as what the money were spent on made it even more painful. Let me not even start. For the IMC to share 1.32 billion naira among themselves within two months, while millions of people of Niger Delta were dying of hunger within the same period was nothing but evil.
The most interesting part is that, the majority of the current revelations were within the past one year, under an “illegal” IMC foisted on the commission in October 2019, as recommended by the “uncommon” Minister of Niger Delta, Senator Godswill Akpabio, who also happened to be neck deep in all of these, both now and in the past as governor of Akwa Ibom state and a Senator. He was even in the senate committee on Niger Delta then, the same people he now turned round to accuse of complicity. How could one indict oneself?
As these drama unravelled, the people of Niger Delta have been taking it in their strides. There is no “pim” from anywhere. The leaders who were often the loudest voices, the militants with their violent dispositions, the youths with their usual unrests, the politicians with their usual deceptive rhetoric, the civil society with their usual protests, whenever they wanted to tackle the federal government, have been sinfully silent!
Were all these to be an issue from the federal government, especially the current administration of Buhari, we would have heard series of press conferences from PANDEF and other Niger Delta Elders. Chief E. K. Clark would have written an open letter published in all dailies. The militants would have started threatening fire and brimstone. Politicians would have been chorusing how Buhari hates the people of Niger Delta. But now, who is the real enemy? The Niger Delta people are their own real enemies. They are all guilty of “criminal conspiracy of silence!”
How could that be with the revelations that an IMC which was put in place to oversee a forensic audit of the agency has also mismanaged 81.5 billion naira in a space of six months? The public hearing by the house committee investigating the matter has become a new comedy skit in Nigeria with numerous versions. Thanks to the main actors, Pondei, the “fainter” and Akpabio, who threw jabs at the honourables, just to disorientate members and the inexperienced substitute chairman of the committee, “pleaded guilty” of Akpabio’s allegations by his action, when he told Akpabio that.. “it’s ok..it’s ok. Honourable Minister, off your mic… it’s ok!”
He served to Akpabio’s hand, but for the woman among who challenged Akpabio. The speaker later issued ultimatum for Akpabio to name the members who collected NDDC contracts or get sued within 48 hours. Akpabio did not. We learnt that the house has sued him. My opinion is that, the NASS should stop this grandstanding. Akpabio knew what he was talking about and Nigerians know that it is the truth. A letter purportedly written by him while in the senate to the senate committee on NDDC, asking for some jobs to be done in some areas in his senatorial region, has been in circulation for some days now. He was and still is an “insider”.
Let me mention a few. I saw a plank bridge purportedly constructed by NDDC at Elebele, Ogbia LGA in Port Harcourt, at a cost of 2.3 billion naira. NDDC budgeted 2.5 billion naira for desilting and clearing of water hyacinths but was inflated to 65 billion naira. 1,921 emergency contracts were awarded at 1.07 trillion naira. 4.3 billion naira was given to NGOs. A contract was awarded 55 times. All these were by previous management as alleged.
The IMC hired a Consultant on revenue collections from IOCs and was paid 1 billion naira monthly. They spent 1.3 billion naira on community relations. 85.6 million naira was spent on foreign trips while there was lockdown and closure of airspace between February and May 2020. 122.9 million naira was spent on condolences. 790.9 million naira on imprest. 34 million naira for image management. 641 million for media support for forensic audit. 5.8 billion excess payment to contractors. These are just very few of too numerous revelations.
This brings me to the controversial topic of restructuring. This is a popular chorus in the south, particularly in the South-West. South-South is about resource control while South East is Biafra. The North is the only region which seems comfortable with the way the country currently is, and understandably so. Except that the minority in the North Central have started agitating too.
However, with the kind of mismanagement of the funds of the NDDC in the past two decades and all other funds allocated to the Niger Delta in different forms like the huge allocations to the Niger Delta states, 13% derivation, Amnesty funding and Ministry of Niger Delta, with little or nothing to show for them, it seems their argument for resource control has been defeated.
Eventually, only the opportuned few are criminally benefitting from these funds and not the majority of Niger Delta people who still live in squalor while their leaders live in obscene opulence. That is not caused by the north or any other region. They brought that upon themselves while the people remained quiet. And “the man died!”
I have argued in support of true federalism through proper restructuring of the country. I wrote about this few years ago. My opinion is that, though, the current situation is not wholly due to abnormal structure we operate but bad leadership. I believe that this has been sustained because, the government at lower levels have the opportunity to hide under the unwieldy federal government that we have. The citizens focus more on the president, rather than their state governors and local government authorities.
Had all or most of the needs of the people have to be met by their states and local governments, with less power and resources at the federal, people will have no choice than to hold their leaders at those levels responsible and accountable. So, the pseudo-unitary government that we operate is a problem. Nigeria must restrucure to function. The best time ever in Nigeria was up to 1966 before the military incursion. Why are we flogging a dead horse?
Another issue of interest is the anti-corruption war of this administration. Almost everything is spinned to suit the narrative and posture of President Buhari as an anti-corruption crusader. I have heard since all these exposé began, that if not for Buhari, would we have heard anything? This I tend to agreed with, with reservations. What are they?
Truly, this is the first time such huge mess is being exposed in NDDC, like some other agencies with which we have been inundated, whereas these criminal activities have been on for decades. They could have been swept under the carpets or rugs as the case may be and made it “family affairs” like often done in the past.
But, I believe all these revelations did not happen because of any “force” of the president’s anti-corruption stance. They all happened because of “in-fighting” between and among the “thieving” parties who could not agree on the sharing of their “loots”. Hence, they chose to expose one another.
I say this because, on several occasions, many of these things that are now coming out and the people involved have been publicly told to President Buhari at one time or another, either by individuals, organisations, institutions or even agencies under his control but he never acted on them. None of those accused ever get suspended, investigated or punished. This created an aura of impunity for them and they got worse.
Also, how could Mr. President appoint people having corruption cases hanging around their necks? How is he comfortable supporting candidates who are in courts for stealing public funds? All because they are in his party or his allies? No matter how weighty the allegation against any associate of President Buhari is, they are rarely touched! That is not a sincere anti-corruption posture. Such fights cannot succeed.
All these also vindicate those who have been raising alarm about monumental corruption happening within this administration, contrary to the public posture of the government. There are currently too many corruption investigation cases going on right now. Worse still, the man saddled with the responsibilities in EFCC before, is also enmeshed in corruption allegations. He is battling to clear his name.
As recommended by many well-meaning Nigerians, the unconstitutional IMC running NDDC should be sacked immediately and proper board should be constituted. An internationally recognised forensic audit firm should be engaged to carry out thorough investigation of 20 years of thievery in NDDC. All culprits must be prosecuted and whoever is found wanting should be punished. NDDC should be removed from Niger Delta ministry, to be supervised by the presidency. But, do the people of Niger Delta want that? Time will tell.
May God continue to protect and guide us aright.
God Bless Nigeria.
Lateef Adewole is a political analyst and social commentator can be reached by email lateefadewole23@gmail.com or via WhatsApp +2348020989095 and @lateef_adewole on Twitter
