The shocking revelations regarding how otherwise respectable citizens of this great nation callously dipped their ten fingers into the public have continued to beat the imagination. By the time they pulled out their itchy fingers, funds meant to procure arms for the military in the fight against terror had disappeared. If not for change, would anyone have known the extent to which some persons can go in packaging deceit as the real deal? For, if we must say the truth, the little we have heard about the $2.1 billion (over N400bn at the time of the criminal act) arms deal scandal popularly known as Dasukigate should be a cause for concern to every rational mind. In fact, it should nudge us to the reality that no meaningful gain has been made from the ceaseless lip service that successive administrations have paid to the fight against graft.
While some have said the latest effort by President Muhammadu Buhari to confront the menace headlong may end up as another circus show due to some extraneous political factors surrounding his emergence, it must be said that there is more to the fight than the puerile rant of a witch-hunt by some sections of the society. Is it not intriguing that not one out of the persons currently singing like canaries with broken beaks at the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission has denied collecting huge sums of money from the office of the former National Security Adviser to President Goodluck Jonathan? I puke when I read sane minds trying to dribble round the real issue, mouthing nonsensical prattle about the need to give the accused some windows of escape in the name of rule of law.
Before we get things twisted, none of the persons under the investigative binoculars of the EFCC has been accused of spending part of the billions of naira legitimately raised to fund Jonathan’s second shot at the Presidency. In all honesty, we do not really give hoot about how the billions raised by Professor Jerry Gana and co at the launching of a campaign appeal fund was spent; it remains an entirely PDP affair. No, this is not about the N9 billion that the embattled spokesman of the Peoples Democratic Party, Olisa Metuh, said was shared among party members for campaigns, lobbying and patronage.
It is more about how Dasuki converted 2.1 billion dollars fund appropriated for the purchase of arms to fight insurgency, to curry political favours for his principal while the military suffered collateral damage at the warfront. Lives were lost, limbs were broken, military personnel were court-martialled, jailed and even sentenced to death for declining to prosecute the war with antediluvian weapons while all shades of politicians thronged Dasuki’s office to take from the booty. That, to my fertile mind, is the shame in the Dasukigate saga.
Aside the ludicrous subheads through which funds were unimaginatively siphoned, it is imperative to note that the fraud remains a monumental disgrace to common sense. How could anyone have imagined that he would walk free after hauling about N5bn from the fund for some nebulous ‘spiritual’ prayers? They must have thought that none of us would wear our thinking cap right if the news were to filter out that a media mogul cupped N2.1bn from the bazaar for a so-called media packaging for Jonathan with the scandalous alibi that the deal was sealed under the nose of the former President in Aso Rock.
Even the media know that something wasn’t just right about the N670m collected through a personal account by the Chairman of the Newspapers Proprietors Association of Nigeria, Mr. Nduka Obaigbena. The secrecy surrounding the receipt of the largesse was a mockery of whatever is left of the integrity of the print media, no matter the haste with which some media houses now try to dissociate their organisations from the fraud. It is obvious that so many hands had already been sullied by the putrid stench before the spirited attempts at image laundering which comes a tad too late.
Having said that, it beggars belief that some individuals are still trying to play the victim in a scandal that has seriously deflated whatever ego they were wearing on their padded shoulders. They want to smell like sweet-scented roses after taking a swim in the cesspit of graft. Among this group is the self-acclaimed Yoruba leader, Chief Olu Falae who was so sure that the entire Yoruba race would have gone to war if he had died in the hands of some Fulani miscreants who kidnapped him some months back. Perhaps the N100m he got from the Dasuki loot, ostensibly to package Yoruba votes for Jonathan through his Social Democratic Party must have fired that bloated self-estimation of his worth.
But then, we cannot really blame Falae for that cheap blackmail and his truculent, if not idiotic, argument that there was no basis for returning any money to government’s coffers since it was paid by Chief Anthony Anenih on behalf of the PDP. We place the blame directly at the doorstep of a government led by a President who did not give a damn about the murderous rape of the national till as long as he realised his second term ambition. If not, how would anyone have thought that the insignificant jesters in the SDP or even the Senator Rasheed Ladoja-led Accord Party would have influenced the minds of millions of voters in the South-West to vote against their conscience? They must have thought that the Yoruba are that hungry for crumbs! Now they know better.
Of course, the deployment of questionable funds to curry political patronage is not peculiar to the Jonathan government. In truth, it is a key element in the Nigerian political lexicon. It is a tradition that dates back in time. What is novel under Jonathan was the desperation with which they depleted the national treasury to pursue a personal agenda. At the drop of a hat, funds running into billions of naira were released to all manner of characters to fix the most benumbing issues. All shades of incredible associations were hastily registered at the Corporate Affairs Commission, to draw money from the bazaar template in Dasuki’s office. I just wonder if those who argue that Dasuki operated within the bounds of the responsibilities of a National Security Adviser had taken a reflective glance at the list of firms that drew lucre from that office. It was, to say the least; pathetic that such devious larceny received the nod of the highest office in the land. That was political patronage at its ridiculous best!
And so, Anenih said he distributed N260m to some persons to garner favour for Jonathan without benefitting from the sharing. Oh, let him sing that sorrowful dirge to the marines. Chief Bode George (the same man who, some years back, vowed to ‘capture’ Lagos) equally captured N100m to mobilise state coordinators. Sir, kindly wipe off that lie dancing on your lips. Even Mahmud Shinkafi, a former Governor of Zamfara State, also got N100m for the same mobilisation duties. There are Peter Odili, Jim Nwobodo, Ahmadu Ali and many others who confessed to receiving millions of naira to ‘mobilise.’ The harvest was just too smooth to be true. And there was Metuh who is still trying to explain how the NSA office lodged a whopping N400m into a firm he has significant interest in without any documentations or contract papers. Rather than submit such huge sum back to the government, he is said to have opted for a self-imposed hunger strike to prove his innocence. Another report said he brazenly attempted to chew the documents in which he wrote all he knew about the lodgements in his firm’s account. I can only wish him good luck in that suicidal journey.
I quite understand the modern-day apostles of rule of law, including those who would stop at nothing to tar Buhari with the despot tag just because their ‘heroes’ are being asked to vomit our collective yam which they swallowed even before the cooking. They ate the yam raw and they are now battling a discomfiting constipation. What baffles me is their utter lack of shame or even some form of remorse. People who took humongous funds and pocketed such under the guise of politicking are being projected as victims of a government on political vendetta. Really? Who, out of the dozens in the custody of the EFCC, has given a cogent reason for creaming off the money from our collective sweat other than the tomfoolery of offering dumb justifications? So Alhaji Yakasai collected N63m to seek peaceful electoral process from some prominent Northern elders. Does this excuse appeal to any logical reasoning? Iyorchia Ayu got over N300m for offering political consultancy in the form of an advice! Such expensive joke! How did Ladoja or even Falae distribute their haul apart from telling us that the payment was for some curious alliance to deliver the Jonathan mandate? And, for Metuh, how did his firm become the conduit pipe for the transfer of N400m when the party secretariat was said to have more than N10bn campaign funds to play with?
No doubt, it is not impossible that blaming a vengeance-seeking Buhari may satiate their craving for a psychological balance in times like this. That does not in any way preclude the fact that these pretentious statesmen (a misnomer) and fluke democrats have cheaply sold their honour and integrity in the twilight of their lives. No amount of brash idiocy and crass resort to spewing hollow verbiage can restore the high esteem in which these persons were once held by the society. The earlier they start living with the reality of self-chosen and unenviable fall from grace to grass, the easier it would be for them to grapple with the certainty of an enduring public odium. Pity.
NATION
END
The writer has spoken the thoughts of majority of Nigeria citizens. There isn’t anything more to add. Thank you sir for letting the world know how we feel about how elders and politicians have robbed us of our common wealth. God bless you.
Dear Yomi,
With respect I think you miss the point. The point being that the charges against them should and ought not be tried on the pages of newspapers.
As a journalist you ought to know better. When the charges are correctly made let them have their day in court. And you should be patient to await the courts verdict. The corruption here was government propelled so it is not for those accused to actually defend themselves.law is not morality.