Dishonesty and greed by the political class were identified as threats to nationhood in Awo’s 1947 ‘Path to Nigeria Freedom’ rejected by some ‘ethnic groups, their political parties and political leaders’ who believed whatever they cannot have cannot be good enough for Nigeria. Awo, who confessed spending quality time studying and proffering solutions to Nigerian problems while some of his political enemies were frolicking around had posited: “Given a choice between the white man, the traditional rulers and the educated elite, the average Nigerian would choose the white man first because with him he was sure of fairness and justice”. “The people’s angst against the traditional rulers”, he continued, “followed their acquisition of new powers without the attendant checks and balances that existed in the pre-colonial era”. Ordinary Nigerians, according to him found trusting the educated elite difficult because of their “dishonesty and greed”.
This is true today as it was back then. The traditional institution has lost its relevance in many parts of the country. Whatever respect it had left after years of receiving five percent of LGAs allocation to ensure they look the other way while developmental allocations were shared by politicians was further eroded by ex-President Jonathan ‘stomach infrastructure’ policy which allowed him to move from palace to palace allegedly distributing dollars to willing traditional rulers during last March presidential election.
Similarly, ‘dishonesty and greed’ by the political class contributed to the collapse of the First Republic, the 1967-70 civil war, Shagari’s twelve two-third presidency, Babangida’s eight years of ‘transition without end’, and his annulment of the 1993 presidential poll considered by many observers as the most credible election in our nation’s history, the betrayal of Abiola, the winner of the election and his death in detention. And closely linked to ‘dishonesty and greed of the political class’,one can add Obasanjo’s third term fiasco, his imposition of ailing Umaru Yar’Adua and an ill-prepared ex-President Jonathan in 2007 and 2011 respectively.
Of course, ‘dishonesty and greed’ are the only plausible explanation for Saraki’s desperation to keep digging in even after publicly admitting he hid inside a small car parked in front of the senate chambers for three hours while his 51 other elected party members were having a meeting at another venue with the president and sneaked into the senate chambers where he was adopted Senate President by 48 opposition senators and about eight of his supporters. The same goes for Ekweremadu who threw a party to celebrate dishonesty and greed and without restraint. He told reporters he and his ‘Like Mind PDP senators, under the guidance of PDP veterans like Tony Anenih, Uche Secondus and David Mark gathered in Mark’s sitting room throughout the night scheming how to usurp the deputy senate presidency which by convention belongs to the majority party, a convention he had benefitted from for eight years.
But in an effort to obfuscate the bane of the political class, dishonesty and greed, which Awo identified back in 1947, Saraki with his ‘like mind senators’, with huge resources at their disposal to hire SANs, public opinion molders, and buy space and airtime in the media, now talk of ‘witch-hunt, independence of the legislature, separation of powers and the protection of our nascent democracy’ after undermining the democratic process.
They in fact now play the victim. Thus when Mrs. Toyin Saraki on the strength of a petition by Kwara PDP which publicly congratulated itself saying, “We are particularly delighted that our painstaking efforts at chronicling the monumental heist that defined the eight years, almost uneventful rule of former Governor Bukola Saraki in Kwara, has not gone unnoticed’, was invited for questioning, what they saw was persecution. They did not only accompany her to EFCC’s office, they retired to the Senate Chambers to pass a resolution threatening the executive of the consequences of harassing wives of senators.
Not long after, the Code of Conduct brought the following charges against Saraki himself. Making anticipatory declaration of House 15A&15B McDonald, Ikoyi, Lagos; Failure to declare property on Plot 2A, Glover road, Ikoyi; No 1, Tagus Street, Maitama, Abuja (Plot 2482, Cadastral Zone A06, Abuja; – No. 3 Tagus Street, Maitama, Abuja (plot 2481, Cadastral Properties Limited); Property at 42 Gerald Road, Ikoyi earning him N110,000,000,00) per annum at a time the property was under construction; Failure to declare N375m GTB loan converted to 1.5m pounds sterling and used to purchase property in London; Operating a foreign bank account; Transfer of $3.4m from GTB to foreign bank account during tenure as governor and failure to declare leasehold interest in a property in GRA Ikeja among others.
Once again, the ‘like mind senators’ saw the only thing they wanted to see – persecution – by the executive. What followed was a vote of confidence on Saraki by 83 senators. He was later followed and mobbed like a movie star by 81 giggling merry-making senators who on entering the court tried to dissuade him from entering the witness box.
Some concerned Nigerians have tried to draw a parallel between what they have described as shameful behavior of our unreflecting senators and last week probing of Hilary Clinton’s handling of Libya crisis as Secretary of State by the American Congress. Some have even argued that in advanced democracies, Saraki and Ekweremadu and 81 like mind senators either for admitting to dishonest behaviour or for identifying with act bordering on fraud would have signed the warrant certificate for their political death.
But has it not be said that comparison can be odious? This after all is not America, Britain, Australia, Canada or Ghana but Nigeria where dishonesty and greed by the political class are routinely celebrated and where 81 elected senators will see nothing wrong with the amount of material wealth the Code Of Conduct Tribunal alleged Saraki amassed between 1990 when he took his first real job and 2011, the end of his tenure as governor of Kwara State.
But all the same, I sympathise with Bukola Saraki. Dishonesty and greed were not his own creation. Awo railed against it in 1947 long before 1961 when he was born. Saraki was similarly not the only governor whose wife would secure mouth-watering contracts from government. In recent time, the wife of a serving governor donated N5billion on behalf of herself and unidentified friends to the campaign funds of ex-President Jonathan and heaven did not fall. The alleged material wealth of Saraki, as Ozumba Mbadiwe would have described it, is like a small fry in the mouth of an elephant. They are nothing compared to properties scattered around the world listed against the names of some Niger Delta ex-governors by the British Metropolitan Police.
And to his credit, Saraki is not like some ex-governors dragged to court along with their sons by EFCC for money laundering, or those whose fathers stole the country blind.He is an illustrious son of an illustrious father, a proud owner of Kwara fiefdom. As ‘Bukola’, his Yoruba name indicates, he met wealth at home. He became a director of his father’s bank just after NYSC, a position which conferred on him the right to borrow as much as he desired without collateral and a rare opportunity he seized with his two hands.
If you ask me, I will say Bukola Saraki is a man much sinned against. Here is a young man who inherited dishonesty and greed from the political class, wealth and influence from his father now being persecuted by mischief makers and a poverty-complex mob for dishonesty and for amassing wealth, claiming without proof that not even Bill Gates can boast of properties listed against his name. It is however reassuring Saraki is determined to fight with all the resources at his disposal – money, influence and his 81 loyal senators who share with him a common bond as targets of arrest by EFCC either for armoured-car deals, money laundering or drug related offences.
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