There was already some awareness that some evil-minded people were profiting from the colossal hardship being generated by the Boko Haram insurgency; the longer it lasted, the better for them. Little was however expected that some heartless individuals would go further on their thieving devilish pastime to actually seize the money that was painfully set aside to prosecute the war against Boko Haram and divert same into their private pockets through the instrumentality of a doomed presidential campaign.
As being revealed by the day, the criminal elements of the Peoples Democratic Party government greedily siphoned stupendous amounts from the nation’s treasury to themselves at the same perilous time when thousands of our soldiers were being slaughtered by the better-equipped and better-provisioned insurgents.
I am really at a loss as to what ex-President Jonathan, meant by his oft-quoted statement that his re-election was “not worth the blood of any Nigerian” when indeed it was the case that for his re-election, funds that were meant to prosecute the Boko Haram war and then save the nation from the carnage that characterised the conflict wherein our troops were being killed by the insurgents and thousands of civilians were also being killed, maimed and displaced on a daily basis were diverted to wrong ends.
From the statements so far squealed by retired Col. Dasuki at the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, being the then National Security Adviser, he shockingly paid out, “under instructions,” billions of naira meant for the procurement of arms for our embattled troops to chieftains of the Jonathan-led PDP government. The list of recipients is like a roll-call of who is who in their hierarchy, a revelation of institutional criminality — acts of grand infamy.
On the list are Chief Raymond Dopkesi, the owner of Daar Communications (AIT) who is alleged to have collected N2.12bn; Dasuki’s son, Abubakar Atiku Dasuki allegedly collected N90m to acquire a duplex at Apo, Abuja; Aminu Babakusa who pocketed more than N1.5bn for, hold breath, prayers and supplication; Betsia, N380m; Nduka Obaigbena of ThisDay, N670m for “energy consulting,” Chief Anthony Anenih who got N260m; Iyorchia Ayu who allegedly collected N345m through Starbrid Ltd for a shopping mall at Jabi, Abuja; Nwobodo, Odili and many others were also fingered for allegedly collecting millions of naira from Dasuki the Father Christmas.
If all these billions of naira were deployed to fixing our broken highways, building and equipping the dilapidated schools across the country, there would have been enough goodwill for Jonathan to successfully run his campaign on. But he opted for the roguish route and the electorate correctly rejected him.
None of these names is known to be an arms dealer or manufacturer neither is there any rational connection between the money they collected and the purposes for which the nation was told that they were meant for. Officials like the former finance minister, Mrs. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, and the Governor of the CBN, Mr Emiefiele, surely have a lot to tell the nation. Her feeble explanations so far about her role in the saga merely raise the suspicion as to her deep culpability in the whole mess. She cannot tell Nigerians that she did not know that the money that she was approving to be taken from the CBN was going into illegitimate pockets that do not have any bearing with the declared purposes of the withdrawals.
To give the transactions a semblance of “security spending”, the office of National Security Adviser was used as a conduit for making just any disbursement, including payments to marabouts, prayer men and ghost party supporters under the omnibus heading of “security.”
The wickedness of the PDP government was best demonstrated by the fact that whereas they were denying our troops the weapons required to fight Boko Haram through the diversion of the funds meant for their procurement, they were at the same time callously arraigning hapless soldiers before courts-martial for “cowardly act” and “refusing to fight” (with their bare hands?).
Another category of wickedness are those who, instead of hiding their heads in shame for their association with the PDP evil enterprise, are demanding that rather than deal with the thieves that have just been caught red-handed over the Dasuki-gate, the government should instead go on a wild goose chase to be probing past administrations by alluding to what they maliciously call “selective” prosecution, if not outright persecution.
Until all those so who are associated with this grand larceny are properly tried and punished or acquitted as the case may be, Nigerians shall continue to hold the new administration with justifiable suspicion. The good thing is that President Buhari does not look like someone that could be scared or blackmailed off the anti-corruption crusade, the same platform upon which his electoral mandate is established. If we fail to kill corruption now, it will kill us in no time.
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