Late Justice Oputa Chukwudifu, a jurist of character and learning was known for his straight shots with words, and with the tenacity for passing good and enduring judgments. While delivering the 2nd Chief Dr. Alabo Graham-Douglas Memorial lecture at the Rivers State University of Science and Technology in Port Harcourt in late July 1990, the eminent jurist said that poverty offers the greatest assault on and violence to human dignity.
The Justice was right in his assessment of poverty and under-development as Siamese twins or twin-gods that breed slavery, class and negate balance, growth and development of a nation.
In his Christmas message to Nigerians on December 25, 2022, Matthew Kukah, the Bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Sokoto said that the immediate past president, Muhammadu Buhari’s policies made Nigerians vulnerable, faulting his anti-corruption credentials.
“It is sad”, he said, “that despite your lofty promises, you are leaving us far more vulnerable than when you came, that the corruption we thought would be fought has become a leviathan and sadly, a consequence of government marked by nepotism.”
“Clearly, in almost every department and with all indicators, our nation has become a tale of two cities”, he bemoaned.
Bishop Kukah regretted that the nation now witnessed wars between the rich and the poor, man and woman, across generations, along party lines, social classes, religion and ethnicity and so on.
Earlier in April 2022, Bishop Kukah had, in an Arise TV Morning Show, had declared that: “Buhari has done a terrible job as president of Nigeria”.
The facts attest to the acute observations of the revered Bishop on the performance bond of the eight-year rule of Buhari’s administration to the Nigerian nation. To most observers that administration was a colossal failure.
Regrettably, Ahmed Bola Tinubu, our new president, who has shown an appreciable level of audacity in dishing out directives, and understanding of the utility value of leadership in governance within a short space of his administration, is now saddled with the unbundling of the liabilities of the previous government.
First, was the fuel subsidy removal by his administration which has left Nigerian people poorer, helpless and totally desperate in making ends meet.
Said Tinubu on this: “It is one decision we must bear to save our country from going under and take our resources away from the stranglehold of a few unpatriotic elements”. This ostensibly is to assuage the fears of greater majority of Nigerians that Tinubu has come to rob Peter to pay Paul.
Of course, senior lawyer, Femi Falana, SAN, and human right activist, had in a publication titled: ‘Catalogue of Looting and Brigandage of Nigeria’, stated that subsidies are primarily of the rich, highlighting how the subsidy regime is being manipulated and how huge sums of money, he believes, can be recovered not just to subsidize fuel but also provide funds for development.
He revealed among other anti-people policies of government, the diversion of N40billion from Federation Account; additional revenue of $1.5 billion payment to Federation Account as part of 15-year fiscal incentives given to the oil companies operating under the Deep Offshore and Inland Basin Production Sharing Contracts Act which expired in June 2014; outstanding royalty payments of $63 billion, federal government’s denied revenue of $500million by a group of corrupt public officers, sale of public assets and enterprises, whose buyers turned round to engage in asset stripping, the non-recovery of deposits and the accrued interests of $7billion fixed in 14 banks, theft of crude oil, sale of some banks by CBN and the unaccountable trillions of naira spent to revitalize these banks, theft of gold and other minerals amongst others.
Meanwhile, some ex-ministers in Buhari’s administration have been summoned to EFCC on matters of transparency and accountability during their tenures in office.
Currently, the suspended Central Bank of Nigeria Governor, Godwin Emefiele is undergoing investigations as part of an “ongoing investigation of his office and the planned reforms in the banking sector”.
The list of corruption cases perpetrated by some officials of the immediate past administration is endless. A Tinubu administration is expected to clinically x-ray and investigate these financial and economic crimes against the Nigerian state and her people and bring to book those culpable to serve as a deterrent to future wanton rape of the treasury.
From the foregoing and many other disturbing revelations, the Tinubu administration, no doubt, has an arduous task in reconstructing the Nigerian governance system in tandem with equity, accountability, performance bond and the rule of law.
Fortunately, President Tinubu, in his June 12 Democracy Day nationwide address said that the democracy MKO Abiola died for is one that promotes the ‘welfare of the people over the personal interests of the ruling class and one where the governed can find personal fulfilment and happiness.
That, he said, is the hope MKO Abiola ignited throughout Nigeria in 1993.
He declared: “We shall be faithful to the truth, faithful to equity and faithful to justice. We shall exercise our authority and mandate to govern with fairness, respect for the rule of law, and commitment to always uphold the dignity of all our people”.
We recall that President Lazarus Chakwera of Malawi recently sacked his Labour Minister, Ken Kandodo over misuse of COVID-19 funds amounting to 6.3billion Malawian Kwacha (7.95million dollars). This is even after the minister had repaid the money to government coffers.
Incensed President Chakwera further said that over a dozen individuals suspected of committing the crimes exposed by the audit report have been arrested.
He declared: “If the finger of evidence points to you… you are going to prison”, he assured. Nigerians expect such stern measures in the Tinubu administration.
The task before President Tinubu therefore, is to show strength of leadership character by doing what is right and proper in the interest of the country, by facing head-on, these challenges that have held the nation bound since her independence in 1960.
Here, Justice Oputa’s words should ring a resounding bell: “Poverty and under-development breed slavery, class and negate the balanced growth and development of a nation”.
May I say that the challenge of tackling this hydra-headed monster that is corruption is the litmus test of the Tinubu administration. Nigerians yearn for good governance which revolves around visionary, enlightened and audacious leadership, selfless in its calling and with zero tolerance for cutting corners to spite the face of the great Nigerian state.
Can Tinubu deliver Nigeria from poverty and iniquity?
- Ekiye, a publisher, writes from Yenagoa, Bayelsa State.
