The dramatic and corruptive breeze that engulfed some public office holders in Nigeria can deprive one of sanity. If not a serpent swallowing cash, monkey will cart it away or even disappear from the vault. Public offices have been regarded as places where manna falls from heaven. Once appointed, your name has automatically joined the league of millionaires even if you are a kobonnaire. They have succeeded in casting doubts on the modus operandi of all the offices.
Over the years, most public office holders in Nigeria have deployed different tactics and shameful lies to defend their greed, incompetency or corrupt practices. Prior to the influx of digitalisation, evidence usually disappeared in the flame of arson. It requires just a fire light and a pint of fuel; millions of naira had gone down the sewage. They were ready to cause physical damage to cover their ass in the court of law. What a shame!
However, arson method became out-dated with the Google or cloud storage. Every nooks and crannies of the offices have been wired to the extent that data are stored in the cloud and deliberate consuming of files with fire became useless. It was a success indeed but the people we are dealing with are corruptive geniuses as they came up with another decisive way; the surcharged contract method.
This method involves excessive awarding of fees to projects with the sole aim of getting their fat share from the contractor, if the company is not theirs. The leaked videos can be seen on Youtube; a disgusting figure showing the public officer (a father to someone) stalking the tax payer’s money in his babanriga. That does not mean that he invented the horrible method, No! There are hundreds of public officers who have done it and are still doing it.
Nevertheless, the method had become less popular with the creativity of investigative journalists who put their lives on the line to expose the ills. One will think the war is over only to be hijacked by animal laundering method. Only God knows what the next generation will call us when they hear that animals once laundered money for us; wicked, wizard or shameless? The method was forced out of radar with criticisms from every corner of the world but the thirty six millions swallowed by the mysterious snake and the seventy million swallowed by diabolic monkey are yet to be recovered.
With the above methods, one will be begun to doubt the authenticity of the slump scene of the NDDC Acting Managing Director, Prof. Kemebradikumo Pondei; was it a dramatic way of not-taking responsibility for the billions of naira scam or a slump. A slump that finds the perfect time to escape the host out of the public session, that’s a good attack against defenceless Nigerians!
Apparently, the slumping method is not a new concept; different people had used it in the past. Olisah Metuh who was accused of four hundred million thefts used wheel chair and failing health to get his case adjourned severally. Ayodele Fayose, the former Governor of Ekiti State, who had a case of money laundering and conspiracy on the missing two billion and two hundred million naira by EFCC. The case was on its to court when he sought permission to take care of his health in South Africa. He also appeared on TV with a bizarre costume where a broken neck was tied to carry the weight of a broken hand. Who does that! To people like Dino Melaye, this is not a new thing. He had used it severally; he even attempted suicide to avert many things.
Who knows maybe the NDDC Director had perfectly made his research, rehearsed the drama and eventually displayed the scene though not a perfect one. It was full of flaws, a slumped victim cannot feel any pain but our guy was forced to drag the hand of his rescuer when the rescuer jabbed his mouth beyond endurance.
To be candid, there are few public officers who still maintain the trust given to them. They are not affected with the tempting nature of money as they preferred their stainless identity over any amount. For example, the current Registrar of JAMB, Professor Ishaq Oloyede returned excess money amounted to seventeen billion eight hundred million in three years while the past Registrar remitted fifty million in seven years. I am not a judge but is it not glaring that something is amiss?
Or let’s take the prodigy and humble personality of Dr. Isa Ali Pantami, who left Saudi Arabia where he was earning huge amount of clean money to attend to the urgent need of Nigeria. He successfully refurbished the intellectual and physical structure of NITDA, improve the Digital face of the country and still maintain his decency. Today, he is part of the people with a clean slate record.
Or the candid personality of Adeosun Kemi, the former minister of Finance, who humbly resigned because of the issue of NYSC certificate; you should know better that if she had put efforts, she will get one. The faithful act that qualified her for an international portfolio.
To this end, if we are to use the pasts and present of most public office holders in Nigeria to predict the future; it would not be a mistake to say that the future is blur. They have succeeded in planting dubious methods of siphoning money in the heart of younger generation to the extent that, the main aim of becoming of public officer is not to serve but to become an overnight millionaire.
At this juncture, the constitution needs to be reviewed and enlarged to melt out severe punishment against the defaulters. Can we say we are just? When punishment given to a goat stealer is proportionate to the one who illegally gulped millions or billions of tax payers’ money?
Also, declaration of any form of assets should be mandatory for all the public office holders before and after their tenure. This will definitely minimise corruption and also promotes transparency.
Lastly, if public officers’ salaries can be tied to the minimum wages of the country, it will only attract people who are ready to work not to loot. It will arouse the interest of leaders not cheaters and it will bring together a group of people propelled by the intrinsic drive to better the country. It may sound harsh but it is the only way to separate the wheat from the chaff.
Muib Shefiu is a postgraduate student of Federal University, Kashere, Gombe.
