Confronting Corruption In Nigeria 1 : Playing A computer Game

“ I realized it was stupid of me. I will not do it again… I had obviously turned off the sound”

–Trond Helleand, a Norwegian M.P., apologizing for playing a war game on his pocket computer while the legislators around him debated the possibility of real war in Iraq before this current Iraqi war.

In Nigeria today, Mr. President is currently plying a computer game with his mouth on the war against corruption as corruption and corrupt practices( C&CP) continues to sink the nations heritage and multi-billion cooperation like the Nigerian Airways, the Nigerian oil refineries, NEPA, NITEL, NNPC, Nigerian Ports Authorities, etc.

I expect Mr. President to follow the Norwegian M.P., example and apologize to Nigerians and write his letter of resignation if within one year nothing is on the ground on this war against corruption and corrupt practices.

What should interest Mr. President is that Nigerian masses are no longer interested in the computer game as it is presently programmed or what comes out of his mouth or any of his mind bugging uncountable aides, but rather, we are interested in what we witness in our daily encounters ( which is not programmed ) with the Nigerian police force, what we witness at tax offices, government offices, with the typist and commissioner of oath at magistrate courts, at pension boards, etc.

Mr. President should note that his excuse or that of the ICCP on the “ lack of evidence” to probe and persecute the IBB`s administration of eight years of transition to nothingness or to probe high profile collapse of numerous national cooperation’s and institutions under his administration is seen by Nigerians as lack of sincerity, commitment, and trust on the part of the administration towards the fight against corruption.

I am confronted with barrage of questions on the streets of Onitsha and in buses as to what the present administration is actually doing. More frequent is the charge that the fight against corruption which has been slow is even going slower than snail and has recently hit a brick wall. I can only agree with them that the fight has sunk to a new all time low –right down to the cesspool. The fight against corruption has been turned off at the ICCP offices, and government office where contracts for the allocation of oil blocks, reconstruction of the death trap of roads, importation of refined petroleum products are awarded.

The sound of the fight against corruption was turned off when the award of contracts for the construction of the Abuja stadium and the hosting of the All-African games was organized. It was turned off when our aging athlete were sent to Athens with 1.5 Billion Naira, turned off as the wings of the Nigerian Airways was gradually broken. Turned off as the oil refineries were turned to national museum. The tape recorder was even destroyed as the National ID card project was awarded. It was turned off as Tony Anine presided over the ministry of works that squandered more than300 Billion Naira on “road projects”.

They switched on the sound of fight against corruption at radio stations and television, at their meetings with the international community or at G7 summits to get debt forgiveness. The sound is switched on at the commissioning of a three room “ health center” that was built (not equipped )with three million Naira but the contract awarded at fifteen million Naira. The sound is switched on when four escape goats were paraded on the NTA for collecting 20 Naira on the roads while thousands of the colleagues indulge in the same act to the watchful eye of senior police and government officers on the same high ways.

The administration should better stop playing a computer game with the wealth and well being of the Nigerian poor masses. They should stop shrugging their shoulders and continuing business as usual. The worsening energy and corruption crisis is turning into an exercise in frustration to the comprehension of the poor masses. The question is if the government is heel bent on fighting corruption, what could they do?

Simple. Fighting corruption that has become endemic like AIDS should e seen as a moral imperative. Mr. President has to ensure that the rhetoric becomes reality. Its time to stop making loud noises and get on with the serious business of running a dying country.

Let Mr. President play his computer game with committed lawyers and judges in charge at ICCP. There are thousands of committed Lawyers in Nigeria that are hybrids of Dora Akunyili and his team at NAFDAC. It is time to face reality. ICCP as is presently constituted should be sacked and reconstituted with crop of lawyers and judges that will start by probing the activities of the present administration. Or is it that Mr. President has some “dead and decomposing bodies” in his cupboard? “Decomposing bodies” that can still be identified by forensic experts in the new ICCP before they turn to “skeletons”?

Mr. President should not worry; after all we have seen them all at Ogwuwgu Akpu Okija. They were there for all to see in the IBB, Abacha, and Abudusalami dictatorships. One wonders why he has not decided to exhume and take a closer look at them.

Mr. President should be reminded that life is too short to waste a time. He should be informed that the risky wave of corruption is destroying the country and impoverishing the lives of the majority of the poor masses. No wonder Chinua Achebe decided to snub him.

“ I realize that it has been very stupid of me. I will not do it again…I will from today turn on the tapes the video and the sound on…every corruption and corrupt practices in the past thirty years starting with the reconstitution of ICCP and an immediate probe into what happened to our oil refineries, Nigerian Airways, NEPA, NITEL, allocation of oil blocks and all contracts awarded by my administration… “ - Mr. President

This is the new computer game and the sound the Nigerian masses are anxiously waiting for