A Sorry Country

[Richard Akindele]

POOR Nigerians! We have hit rock bottom, and there is nowhere else to go. There is nothing in the imaginative possibility that can completely describe or capture what is going on in Nigeria today. But what a sorry country! Nigeria itself is a daily enactment of disaster. Death has become routine. Nigerians no longer worry about death. It stalks the land. It comes with the fatality of being a Nigerian. We have buried the Generals who died in last week's air disaster with colourful ceremony. Put up a darned road show. We, as usual, convoked the frenzy of a national panegyric.

Then, we will forget it all. But the president put it quite well: not even in war does a nation lose eight generals in one moment. But we are not at war. We are faced with a phenomenon vaster than war. We are trapped in ambiguity. Nevertheless, let me first salute the spirit of these Generals who died between Obudu and Vandekeiya. I commiserate with their friends and families. The living can do nothing now other than to bear these mean deaths with fortitude. May our ancestors welcome those who have gone. If they choose to return, may they come back worthier than their last sojourning. But I do not wish to talk about these deaths, for they are but mere symptoms of a national crisis. We wait the report of the commission of inquiry set to investigate the accident. Yet, something also tells me that the commission of inquiry is a hollow gesture. We have had such inquiries in the past. Nigeria remains inexplicable. It seems like the more we inquire, the less we see. What a sorry country! The executive arm of the government of the federal republic has practically imploded under the weight of massive corruption. We must return to these developments even though, it seems, there are moves to suppress and obscure the dimensions of event that trail it.


There are important undercurrents in the unfolding story that seem quite disturbing and poignant, and Nigerians must be watchful. For instance, the story of the arrest of Garba Shehu, Vice President Atiku Abubakar's media liaison by the State Security Service signifies a very disturbing but familiar dimension to this saga. State security agents say they have arrested Shehu to question him for, "distributing money to journalists." This is very insulting to Nigerian journalists. The SSS implies that the Vice President has the media in his payroll, and that is why they're writing the story of corruption in the state house? I think it is a lame excuse. The media traction which this story has gained since it broke has more to do with a curious twist to its original intention: by providing deeper, more nuanced perspectives to the reports of the panel set out to indict the Vice President, and by showing adequate evidence of possible presidential sleaze, Atiku Abubakar and his team have opened a real pandora box of highwire shenanigans.

The emerging truth also seems to have rattled the President and he has embarked, it seems, on a number of unorthodox means to blunt the edges of Abubakar's counter-argument. Something else explains the abduction of Garba Shehu, and his detention in an "unknown place": a friend of mine says it is simply a reflection of the rise of "Abachanjo." A presidency that is overwhelmed by increasing loss of public trust, and confronted by a mirror image of its true self, and fearing further loss of ground and credibility becomes incapable of deep reflection. It acts, as Sani Abacha did, in blind fury, like a headless animal, with absolute disregard of the law, with brutal force, and merely from instinct.

We must remind the presidency that this is a democracy. Nigerians did not fight the monster of arbitrary rule in order to have another monstrous phase of arbitrary rule. Under a democracy, Garba Shehu must be accorded his full rights. The State Security Service has again, overstepped its duties, in the arrest and detention of citizen Shehu. It is crucial to remind us all, that the statutory obligation of the State Service is to the state and not to the President, because the state is permanent, and the President is dispensable. Besides, perhaps it is time for the National Assembly to revisit the laws establishing the State Security Service, and rein them in from their militaristic background, establish a proper, more civilized code of operation, and place them under the joint oversight of a board that would be made up of a broader council of state, and not solely, the President's.

But what a sorry country! Already, there is a move to squelch further revelation of the muck that is going on. I was particularly struck by some responses to this event published in the papers. First republic minister, Mbazulike Amechi and a Gowon-era minister, Ali Monguno, found nothing else of significance, except that the President and the Vice-President should stop talking because they bring too much to the open. They want an "elder's meeting" to resolve their differences. I thought this was disgraceful. These elder statesmen should be outraged by what has been revealed, and not to sweep the secrets back under the carpet! There were various reactions, including Bode George's, who urged Atiku Abubakar to "shut up."

This is precisely what Atiku Abubakar should not do. He should sing. He should provide further evidence on which the EFCC should finally be given the legislative coverage to move against the President, if he is found to have engaged in corrupt practices. But all these efforts by these men amount to an elite cover-up of corruption which has made Nigeria a laughing stock among nations. To top all is the mother of all hagiography authored by Mr. Greg Mbadiwe, lawyer and former ambassador to the Congo, in an article titled, "Corruption and third term: Blackmail Unlimited" published in the Vanguard. "As Nigeria's ambassador to the Congo I was well aware that every member of Obasanjo's government, the Vice-President inclusive, knew the direction (to) which the President was going as far as stamping out corruption" writes Mbadiwe.

Which is why the President took his hard stance against close allies like Sunday Afolabi and Tafa Balogun. The former ambassador concludes that those who are queuing behind the Vice-President in this matter do so out of misguided perceptions. The crux for me is that Greg Mbadiwe either willfully misreads the context of national anger occasioned by these revelations or he willfully obscures the reality. The Vice President has outlined a posse of conditions under which the President should be investigated for corrupt practices by an independent public prosecutor. Nigerians are horrified because in Atiku Abubakar's revelations, a President has clearly emerged out of the picture, who seems untrustworthy, hypocritical, corrupt, self-serving, and therefore unable any longer to exercise moral authority on issues like corruption in Nigeria.

If the Vice President's accusations against the President are true, the President has brought shame and damaged the trust and office of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, and may no longer be held to his oath. That is the point! It is in fact Greg Mbadiwe who obfuscates, being the notable kite-flyer of the third term drama, once again, I suspect, to deflect from the real issues as they stand. As far as Nigerians are concerned, the Vice-President is not "principled" at all; he is simply the unwitting vessel of damning truths. Providence has used him to expose the workings of the sanctum sanctorum - that hermetically sealed place - of Nigerian corruption. What a poor, sorry country.

Vanguard