Nigeria: This Democracy And You! By SOC Okenwa

The Nigerian former
Permanent Representative to
the United Nations Alhaji
Maitama Sule is one blunt
statesman I hold in high
esteem for his patriotic
candour and eloquence. Sule
had won my admiration few
years ago when he engaged
in a ‘prayer’ for a new Nigeria
passionately asking God to
make it possible for him to
see in his lifetime a Nigeria
of new-breed politicians who
would deliver services to the
masses by caring more for
the people and less for their
percuniary gains. He had
asked God to send forth to
Nigeria “leaders and not
rulers” who would lead by
example and turn Nigeria
around! The prayer is yet to
be answered but we keep our
fingers crossed!
Alhaji Sule, ‘Dan Masanin
Kano’, was in the news
recently when penultimate
week he frowned at the cost
of running the National
Assembly and passed a
damning verdict: “It is too
outrageous”. The submission
was made by the retired
Ambassador at the awardees
night of the House of
Representatives Forum
comprising the upper and
lower legislative chambers.
Noting that in the First
Republic only three percent
of the national budget was
used in servicing the
parliament the old decent
man lamented the present
wasteful system in which a
huge budget is annually
devoted to servicing
indolence and unproductivity
in the various chambers.
The ‘Dan Masanin Kano’
called for a downward review
of the cost of maintaining
members of the National
Assembly insisting that he
was “very comfortable with
the old parliamentary
system” which “merely had
three sessions in a year”.
Continuing Amb. Sule
declared that “the system we
are operating today is very
expensive. We cannot afford
it”. Sule was merely adding
his voice to the general
concern by concerned
Nigerians about the huge
wages the Assemblymen are
drawing from the national
purse while involving
themselves in scandals and
embezzlement of resources.
But beyond this important
declaration against the
present prohibitive cost of
maintaining the Nigerian
‘legislooters’ Alhaji Maitama
expressed disaffection over
the state of insecurity in the
country admonishing
Nigerians to see love as the
only worthy religion. He said:
“All religions of God are
based on love. Love is the
greatest. Love is my religion.
I see myself as a Christian
and a Muslim and also as a
Jew”. With that particular
statement full of wisdom and
divine reverence Amb. Sule
had won over my heart! God
is one and His religion is
Love! Whoever loves his
neighbour as himself has
endeared himself to God
whether he be a pagan, a
hindu, a muslim or a non-
church-going Christian.
This twisted country must
only exist and prosper on the
democratic terms that suit
our status as a big rich but
blind country with the
minority controlling and
stealing the resources of the
silent abused majority. We
can no longer continue to
pretend that our democracy
is working and developing
well when few men and
women are being pampered
and over-fed by scarce
resources that are not
enough to break the cycle of
darkness in the landscape.
Nigeria does not need a
legislature that sits full-time;
she needs a part-time
downsized legislature (as
Amb. Sule rightly pointed
out) that convenes two or
three times in a year.
The Nigerian National
Assembly is perhaps the most
expensive legislative arm of
government in the world. But
the greater worry here is not
the outrageous budget
devoted each year towards
its maintenance; it is the fact
that the representatives and
senators out there are not
only lazy but corrupt and
incompetent. Barely a week
or a month passes by without
Nigerians being treated to
one awkward fiscal scandal
or another emanating from
the hallowed chambers in
Abuja. And in this
circumstance no serious
effort is ever made to further
democracy in the positive
sense by enacting laws
capable of changing our
primitive democratic culture
and holding the executive to
account.
While the Senate led by Mr
telephone-is-not-for-the-poor,
David Mark, is not ‘immuned’
from the various financial
scandals that had rocked the
legislature in recent times the
House of Representatives
seems to be more of a
‘House of fiscal horror!’.
Remember former disgraced
Speaker Dimeji Bankole?
Though soundly educated in
the West where democracy
functions normally he came
back home and decided to
criminally enrich himself by
inflating contracts and taking
kickbacks running into
billions of Naira. He has had
his day in court but now free
as a bird — enjoying the
looted funds.
Remember ‘Hon.’ Ndudi
Elumelu? ‘Hon.’ Herman
Hembe? And ‘Hon.’ Farouk
Lawan? These are men
elected to make good laws
that would help improve the
democratic space in Nigeria
but they turned around and
sought to exploit the system
for their greedy selfish
interests. The various probe
panels headed by these
dishonourable men ended up
throwing more stench of
corruption into the air than
what they had been
mandated to probe. In a
country where every
institution that ought to
consolidate democracy
(especially the judiciary and
the legislature) is corrupt
then the system is bound to
fail and it has so failed in
Nigeria!
You may not be wrong if you
decide to call the House of
Representatives as a house of
fraud and fraudsters, “rogues
and armed robbers” (apology
to ‘Baba’ himself). We have
said it before that more
scrutiny should be done
before any man or woman is
allowed to be a candidate for
membership of the Nigerian
House of Assembly. Even
today we do not need
Obasanjo to tell us the
obvious truth we know all
along: that the NASS is
inhabited by ‘rogues and
criminals’ without conscience
— out to milk the nation dry
while pretending to be
‘honourables’ and senators.
Honourables and Senators
my foot!
The Farouk Lawan/ Femi
Otedola latest $3m subsidy
bribe scandal has exposed
the house members to
national and international
ridicule. The shameless game
of ‘if you Farouk me I will
Otedollar you’ continues
unabated with those charged
with investigating and
prosecuting the criminals not
doing enough to nail them
judicially. For me it is not
important whether Farouk
sought the bribe first or he
was set up by the business
mogul; what matters most
here is that the two are
criminals who should by now
be cooling their heels in
prison in a decent society
that frowns at issues of this
kind.
While Otedola as a successful
businessman in Nigeria with
his hands in many
prosperous business interests
has his high points his rise to
fame and power is not
without crime and deals that
left patriotism high and dry!
Today like the richest African
and billionaire cement
magnate Aliko Dangote
Otedola is a good friend of
President Jonathan and he
wines and dines with those at
the pinnacle of state power.
How do we now ever imagine
or expect that his shady deals
to maintain the flow of oil
will be jeopardised by a ‘little’
Farouk and his hungry
subsidy probe panel
members?
You see, I pity Hon. Farouk
Lawan for falling into the
hands of the Mafians! The
report his probe panel
released caused a national
‘commotion’ and stirred a
hornet’s nest. In a co-
ordinated and well-planned
and financed attempt to ‘kill’
the far-reaching conclusions
of the panel and its high-
profile indictments Farouk
sadly fell to the trap of the
bad boys in the system —
thus falling ‘mugu’ to the
masters of the game! Now we
are no longer hearing much
about the panel and what to
do with its recommendations
but how Farouk went to
Otedola to collect bribe and
how Otedola invited over his
friends in the SSS to monitor
and bear witness to the
criminal act of desperation by
those rocking the system.
One must warn here in the
interest of truth, fairness and
justice that ‘Hon.’ Lawan,
even though he has ‘fucked
up’ must not go down alone.
This case will definitely test
the resiliency of the Nigerian
judiciary and the law
enforcement agencies. It is
beyond comprehension that
a bribe giver will be allowed
to go scot-free while the
bribe taker will be jailed.
Even if in Nigeria we all know
that nothing is impossible
(including fixing elections
with Tony Anenih as the HOD
and commissioning murder)
those responsible must
ensure that justice is done
without any hint of dancing
naked at the sight of the Ote-
dollars!
Whilst Otedola has argued
that he meant to expose
Farouk’s greed (upon his
alleged demand for dirty
money in order to remove
Otedola’s oil company from
the list of shame) by inviting
his secret police friends to
witness the pocketing of the
marked dollars by ‘Hon.’
Lawan it is a crime to try to
set up a legislator on a
serious investigative mission
for the state. Yes, you don’t
try to compromise a
lawmaker doing a
legitimately-assigned business
of exposing the subsidy
scam. Or worse still seek to
tarnish his image or attempt
to destroy his integrity in the
process of holding you or
your company to account.
Femi Otedola, the oil
magnate, is the ‘undertaker’
sent by the oil cartel to ‘bury’
the embattled dimunitive
lawmaker in his ignorance.
Though Farouk Lawan has
little of my sympathy he
remains, in the reckoning of
discerning Nigerians, the
glorified ‘victim’ of this
mindless oil politics in
Nigeria. Otedola, much like
the reticent reclusive Glo
boss Mike Adenuga (who is
acting as a front for the
business concern of the
disgraced ex-dictator Gen.
Ibrahim Babangida), is an
economic terrorist in Nigeria
exploiting the loopholes in
the system to further his
economic interests.
While Nigerians have
collectively expressed their
opprobrium in the ‘Farouk-
ing’ business we are
reminded of how corruption
as a monster has refused
doggedly to be fought to a
standstill with an inept
government at the centre.
This issue of ‘i-gave-you-the-
money-to-expose-you’ and ‘i-
took-the-money-to-expose-
you’ between Farouk and
Femi distracts our attention
from the fuel subsidy fraud
exposition. Lawan ought to
be ‘crucified’ because he
allowed himself to be used to
kill a sharp smart report
detailing the sleaze in the
petroleum sector. And he
must pay dearly for it!
‘Hon.’ Ndudi Elumelu before
him permitted the root of evil
(money) to get the better
part of him few years ago
when a probe panel was
launched to unearth the
mind-boggling
squandermania
superintended by Olusegun
Obasanjo in the comatose
power sector. Like him and
Farouk Herman Hembe’s
hypocrisy was equally
exposed by the DG of SEC Ms
Arunma Oteh who accused
him and his other official of
collecting princely sum for a
trip abroad which they never
used for the purpose. Her
appearance before the
committee became a ‘soap
opera’ in which the beautiful
woman sought to control
proceedings with her
bombshell of corruption and
kick-back.
‘Hon.’ Hembe and his co-
accused are now standing
trial. (Thank God they are
being tried but we refuse to
hear about the so-called ‘plea
bargaining’ or whatever!) And
the Capital Market probe
report is now nowhere to be
found! The suspended and
recently recalled Ms Oteh
(whose “incompetence and
fiscal recklessness” has been
denounced by the House
probe for having
mismanaged her official brief
and blown millions of Naira
on food alone in a 5-star
hotel!) has been alleged to
have godfathers and
connections inside Aso Rock!
You can never tell with the
‘power’ under Ms Oteh’s
corporate suit skirt!
We therefore hold that if
Farouk is guilty then Otedola
is guilty as well, in equal
measure! It takes two to
tango! Using the illicit
proceed of crime which the
fuel subsidy scam represents
to blackmail a house member
(s) in order to be seen by the
Nigerian public as engaging
in a legitimate oil enterprise
is reprehensible enough!
Otedola and Farouk are guilty
in the public court and no
matter the executive
intervention the magic of
pulling off this one and
presenting same as
‘Faroukgate’ can ever stand
scrutiny.
Between this (nascent)
democracy and you, fellow
Nigerians, a clear case of
conflict of interest has
emerged unfortunately, a
crisis of confidence and
misplaced priorities. We
must, therefore, collectively,
intensify efforts to radically
restructure and deepen the
democratic structures on the
ground and put mechanisms
in place to turn the current
defective federalism into an
effective true federalism. We
can never be satisfied with
the status quo; we must rise
in unison to challenge bravely
the old unproductive order by
trying to do something more,
something new, something
different and by continuing
to mobilize our people for a
new dawn.
For our God and our country
we owe this as a duty — a
patriotic historic duty in
honour of a motherland
raped. There should be no
greater honour! And in this
wise Nigeria can be made to
work again to the benefit of
our abused teeming
population — those hungry,
homeless and jobless millions
who have thus far borne the
brunt of the criminal
undemocratic tendencies of
politicians operating, like
thieves in the night, from
Abuja.

SOC Okenwa
soco_abj_2006_rci@hotmail.fr

#CONSENSUS 2015