Growing up in Ado-Ekiti in the 70s was fun. Elders were symbols of moral rectitude. Kids were told that a good name was worth more than silver and gold. Stealing was the height of moral laxity. It always drew communal anger.
Whenever the elders felt it was time to reprimand those who might have crossed the line, they got youths to compose songs to fight the moral perverts. A group would move in the night, under the thick cover of darkness, and go close to the home of somebody who had broken the society’s unwritten but strong rules. There would be a lead singer who would call abusive songs against the offender. The crowd would chorus it. The offender would be mentioned by name. He would be advised to change his way. The next day, the night show, “Udi” would become the talk of the town.
That was when stealing – of yams, goats, plantain and palm wine from another man’s palm tree – was a grave anomaly that was frowned at by all. Somehow, the night rendezvous of songs full of biting invectives was effective, as offenders changed their way after their kids and wives had been well taunted with the shame their behaviour had brought upon their families.
Not anymore. Times have changed.
First, we had thieves, muggers, robbers and forgers. Then came robbers, pen robbers and armed robbers. They all seem to have yielded the big stage to looters. We no longer hear of stealing, theft and such non-violent misdemeanours. They fetched little. Looting – and its cousin, corruption – is the reigning king of the crime jungle, sucking in billions – without violence. Vicious armed robbers, I bet, must be envious. Kidnappers, apparently not to be outdone, have stepped up their evil trade. Some would not collect ransom in naira. They demand dollars. Or Euro.
How have looters suddenly become the lead subject of elite discourse? Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo, a professor of law to whom making a speech is as smooth as a knife cutting through butter, started it all. He said N150billion was withdrawn and shared two weeks before the 2015 elections. No economy, he said, could absorb this and remain on its feet. Yet, the opposition and their backers would brook no reference to this “mindless looting”. Any mention of the rape of the treasury is easily interpreted as a sign of the Buhari administration’s weakness.
Apparently unwilling to take it on the chin, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) challenged the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) to name the looters it kept on spanking for bringing the economy on its kneels. The APC picked up the gauntlet. It released a teaser; just five names and warned the opposition to keep quiet or risk having its leading lights named and shamed as the King Kong of looting.
PDP dared APC. Go ahead and name them, it rejoined. APC rolled out a long list of those who allegedly dipped their hands in the till. Many were enraged. PDP Chairman Uche Secondus threatened a legal battle to defend his integrity. He has hired a lawyer to lead his case.
Former Niger State Governor Babangida Aliyu demanded an apology. He said his name should not have been listed because he stole nothing. It was all malice, he concluded. How? Aliyu said he had been wooed to join the APC, but he would not yield, hence the decision to throw in his name. Interesting.
Former Permanent Secretary Godknows Igali, who is alleged to have looted N7billion, charged that his name was smuggled into the list “to create the needed effect”. He did not name those who did, but he saw himself as “a victim” and a “scapegoat”. Igali concluded that “these and many more afflictions will come like floods and pass”.
“There is nothing new under the sun. So, it is well, indeed,” he said.
Before bringing in the divine angle, I am told, Igali had risked an invitation from the Customs Service, which was to demand the identities of the smugglers so as to go after them. Could they be some out-of-favour rice smugglers who fell out with the authorities at the notorious Seme border? Who knows?
Femi Fani-Kayode’s response was swift and sharp. In a harsh and brash tone, he owned up to collecting the money listed against his name – just N860million – from Mrs Nenadi Usman, the Finance Director of the Goodluck Jonathan Campaign Organisation, now disbanded. The cash, he stressed, came from individuals who supported Dr Jonathan’s ambition to return to the Aso Villa. He dared anybody to call him a thief, stressing that the cash came from a private company’s account, which was used to house money from party supporters.
So infuriated was the PDP that it recommended to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) the proscription of the APC for, according to the opposition party, “undisputed revelations” that it financed the President’s campaign with looted funds. INEC is yet to grant the request. The PDP forgot that it had earlier challenged the APC to name looters.
Former PDP spokesman Olisa Metuh, who has N400million listed against his name, said it was all a plot to convict him at all cost. Was it not the same Metuh asking to be allowed to enter into a plea bargain?
Lawyers joined the fray. Some said it was simply contemptuous to name those who were in court fighting to extricate themselves from the web of charges thrown at them. The lists, said the legal minds, amounted to prejudging the cases in court. Others disagreed, saying: “Why won’t you mention names when your evidence is iron-clad?”
If the angry PDP chiefs eventually file defamation suits in court, what will APC plead? Extreme provocation? Qualified privilege? Fair comment? Public interest? Justification? Legal experts, many of whom we are lucky to have among us, have their job cut out for them.
Enter the moralists. Who is a looter? Is a politician who got money from his party to prosecute an election without asking where the cash came from a looter? Is it fair to brand somebody a looter without waiting for the courts to say so? Does this amount to jungle justice and mob mentality? Could the receivers have known that the cash came from questionable sources?
To a young man who read it all in the news, it was a call to some sober reflection. He said: “The only thing I have against this list is simple; why is it that all those who call themselves big men in my village, none made the first list? I thought they would make the supplementary list; none did. No wonder this village has made no progress; mud houses all over; red, rusty roofs and streets clustered with rickety motorcycles (okada) they call empowerment for youths.”
Another, a student, asked: “How much did Judas get for betraying the Lord and he became a symbol of treachery, his name tarnished forever? Thirty pieces of silver. I’m sure it wasn’t anything close to what an apprentice politician or the lowest ranking public official has taken. But, who will do the conversion now?”
The exchanges between the APC and the PDP have been quite interesting. It is the type the Afrobeat king, Fela Anikulapo-Kuti – may the Lord bless his soul – called roforofo, a fight in the mud. But, should it have been allowed to get this far?
I think those who insisted that APC should not talk about corruption–stealing, if you like – of the past got it wrong. How do you learn from the past if you don’t recognise it and take in the lesson of its calamities?
Besides, why ask APC to shut up when the Constitution gives ample room for freedom of speech? The right to talk and be talked about should not be abridged in any way. After all, yabis is no case (again, apology to the weird one, Fela).
Magomago over Magu’s fate
AFTER a brief lull, the battle to stop Ibrahim Magu from being the chair of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFFC) seems to be gathering steam. There are plans to suspend Magu for some old, frivolous allegations.
It is all in a bid to pave the way for a smooth relationship between the Executive and the Legislature, according to sources who are familiar with the latest plot to kick Magu upstairs or just dump him like some refuse.
If Magu has not done well, he could get the kick. Raking up some unfounded allegations to get him fired is a disservice to the anti-corruption fight that is so dear to the Muhammadu Buhari administration.
Those after Magu are said to be claiming that his hard-line stance could affect the President’s electoral fortune in 2019. Isn’t that putting logic on its head? Besides, has the President said he is running? It is clear that they cannot fault the man’s performance; the records are there.
There are many who can handle the job – so claim some critics. Yes, but what is wrong with Magu? No President worthy of his seat will succumb to intimidation over his choice for an office as delicate as the EFCC chair’s. I doubt if Buhari will, even if the lawmakers insist on grounding the system as they seem to be doing.
Let all the magomago stop.
