Buhari must seize the momentum of the National Rally on Good Governance and Corruption
For once in recent years, Organised Labour in Nigeria impressed me with the protest march it organised against corruption in 13 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja, last Thursday. The states are Lagos, Oyo, Ogun, Kwara, Edo, Kogi, Kaduna, Plateau, Rivers, Bauchi, Jigawa, Abia and Enugu. This is the way it should be. Labour is a critical segment of the country’s population and should be in the vanguard of progressive movement, including calling governments to order when they are derailing. The last time we saw labour in action in this country was during the fuel subsidy riots in January 2012. Even by the time that struggle was over; many allegations were levelled against the labour leaders, with some Nigerians believing that they eventually sold out to the Goodluck Jonathan government.
Matters have not been helped concerning the Labour movement by the scams that have been brewing in its fold, first on the Nigeria Labour Congress’ (NLC) now messy and controversial housing scheme, and the last February NLC elections that were stalemated. Many people believed the latter was the result of the infiltration of the Labour movement by unprogressive elements in the country who would not want Organised Labour to speak with one voice, knowing that once they are able to unite, then, the antics of the corrupt ruling elite would be exposed and neutralised.
That Labour was joined by some civil society groups is a good development because the civil society groups that were very active in the military era simply went to sleep as soon as we returned to democratic rule in 1999. This, indeed, was one of the things that the looters exploited to empty our treasury.
I was fascinated not only by the protest march but also by the statements made at the rallies. Realising the despicable role that the judiciary had played in strengthening corruption in the country, the protesters warned: “Gone is the day when people that are corrupt will get perpetual injunctions restraining EFCC from prosecuting them. If we have such cases, Nigerian workers are ready to go to their residences and bring them to court and also interrogate the judge … We are also demanding that the penalty for corrupt public officers should be … capital punishment. It has worked elsewhere and there is no reason why it should not work here”. But this threat will remain an empty threat unless if the protest was genuine and it came from the bottom of the hearts of the organisers and their members. The point must be made, and poignantly so, too, that this is the mood of the nation. Those who want President Muhammadu Buhari to move on without looking at this sordid past are either the looters or their agents. We need to know what happened to our collective patrimony.
I suspect that it is only a matter of time for the looters to quarrel with the capital punishment for them because rich people hate the sight of blood. It is for the same reason that they dislike the word ‘revolution’. But they almost always instigate revolution with their actions. For those opposed to capital punishment, Ghana remains a typical example. We all know what Ghana was like before the intervention of Jerry Rawlings who publicly executed six military generals, including former heads of state, over the same issue of corruption in 1979, in what has become known as the “Jerry Rawlings Solution”. The result is what that country is today. Even former Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Farida Waziri, recommended the same panacea for Nigeria: “If some 20 high-profile offenders are tried and sentenced to death, this will send shock waves to Nigerians and curb both the impunity and intolerable prevalence of corruption in Nigeria”, she once said. Ghana may not be the best of countries even today, but it is far better than Nigeria in terms of corruption.
Again, China has capital punishment for corrupt persons and that country is not doing badly either. When we even consider that what we are contending with are not pick-pockets but hardened thieves, then we see the need to be more draconian about corruption. For every naira that is stolen from the public till, someone suffers. Indeed, we cannot count the number of people that the massive looting we witnessed in recent years had killed. We cannot quantify the amount of social dislocation either. So, why must we allow those who caused such havoc to continue to harass us with their ill-gotten wealth?
Labour has every reason to be worried about corruption. Many people have said it, and it is clear that this country has to kill corruption so that corruption would not kill it. Our textile sector is a typical example of how bad things have become for workers in the country and also a reason why Labour must be interested in how the country is being run. A company like Afprint, for example, used to operate three shifts with about 2,000 workers per shift; that was a workforce of 6,000 from one company alone. The 6,000 did not include management and administrative staff, not to talk of expatriate staff. All that is gone simply because of mismanagement and corruption in high places! And this is for just one sector of the economy. Unfortunately, many of those who ruled the country, particularly in the immediate past, do not seem to be remorseful of the grievous harm they did this country’s economy through their unbridled lust for public funds.
Labour’s intervention at this point in time is good. Indeed, elsewhere, such intervention would have sent the guilty panting because they know the implication. Labour however has to put its house in order to be able to continue to speak with one voice and sustain the trust and confidence of Nigerians. None of those who stole this country blind would be happy seeing that NLC and the Trade Union Congress (TUC) can come together to protest and even recommend the death penalty for them. If it is possible to check their pants, we would see evidence of the fear underneath. As for me, I do not have any strong sentiment for or against capital punishment. But then, I want to agree with Labour that people who brought this once-upon-a great nation to its present sorry state deserve nothing but the severest punishment. What they have done is worse than armed robbery. It is even the more annoying when such people are still walking as free citizens and making provocative and insensitive statements about the country, less than four months after losing out in a general election. In saner climes, many of these people would be hibernating in the remotest parts of the country, praying that no one should open the book of remembrance that would make people fish them out. Indeed, many of them would by now be cooling their heels behind bars or in hell in a place like China. But here they are, because this is Nigeria, they are just opening their mouths and all sorts of nonsense are coming out.
President Buhari should seize the momentum by ensuring that nothing goes wrong with the anti-corruption war. No one should be deceived that those who looted the country’s treasury, like their type elsewhere, would go to sleep. As they say, corruption will always fight back. The corrupt know they have murdered sleep and therefore cannot sleep any longer, especially with a person like Buhari as president. So, they must be plotting every minute on how to scuttle the anti-graft war if they fail in their bid to negotiate their way out of the mess they put the country. I hear some of them are already being led to the president by some eminent people who they think can get them out of trouble. I also guess the president knows better.
As I have always said, however, Nigeria should be interested most in its money; those of them who are penitent and return their loot may be pardoned. But it won’t be a bad idea if the hardened criminals among them rot in jail. If death penalty is considered anachronistic, then they should get nothing short of life sentence. There should be no opportunity of coming out of jail to enjoy the loot. That can only work in a country where people have a sense of shame; not in Nigeria.
