NIGERIA’S political elite is a
conclave of vampires. They survive on the blood of their innocent victims, in
this instance the blood of struggling Nigerians who have nobody but God to
protect them. This elite class of political jobbers are quick to amass wealth
at the expense of the struggling majority. But they are never known to give out
scholarship to indigent students who need it, nor are they famous for setting
up foundations or charity organisations to research some of the killer diseases
that the vast majority of Nigerians are ravaged by.
Not even such diseases like
cancer that the jet set lifestyles of this greedy Nigerians expose them to
increasingly are accorded the benefit of research grants that would ultimately
be for their own good if not for all. Nigeria’s class of rich outcasts would
rather travel abroad to spend their stolen wealth in the enrichment of the
economies of those who already have more than enough to take care of their
needs.
Yet nothing frightens and rankles
more than the readiness of this elite class to make victims of Nigerians and
survive on the predicament of the poor. Their capacity for mischief has no
limits, and we see this again and again in the manner they deprive others of
the gains of our commonwealth. This is what we see today with the revelations
pouring in of how a few Nigerians have diverted funds meant for the procurement
of arms for our military into their own private pockets.
The Sambo Dasuki arms deal
scandal has served to show what blood-thirsty persons are most of our so-called
big men and women. Without lifting a finger or breaking a sweat, they connived
to turn the office of the National Security Adviser into the strong room of
slush funds for all kinds of illicit causes including suspicious payments to media
organisations. Dasuki was the benevolent and ever obliging Father Christmas
that dispensed favours at the drop of a hat.
Let those claiming that the likes
of Dasuki, Bafarawa, Dokpesi and company being currently tried for
misappropriation of funds and money laundering- let those clamouring for their
human rights –even when these rights have not even being manifestly denied
them- let their supporters be reminded of the rights of the hundreds of
millions of Nigerians who have had to bear the brunt of the greedy antics of
these big men and their associates.
No life, ultimately, is more
important than another even when we are not all treated equally before the law
in Nigeria. No amount of alarmist cries of politically-motivated persecution
can change the fact that these people have a case to answer. Let them address
themselves squarely to answering the case against them before shouting us deaf
with noises of a witch-hunt.
The people in question have
apparently perpetrated grave acts of economic sabotage against Nigerians,
exposed them needlessly to the death machines of Boko Haram and are yet
peddling the blackmail that they are victims of political persecution. The real
victims in this unfolding drama of greed and
pilfering are poor Nigerians who have been exposed to the insecurity of
insurgent and armed robbery attacks.
These are the real victims, not
the rich men and women whose stock in trade is to feign ill-health once they
are called upon to account for their ignoble actions. Or how else can anyone
describe the deliberate exposure of defenceless people to the depredations of
terrorists? All the while the Goodluck Jonathan government claimed to be
fighting insurgency without any result to show for it, it failed to disclose
that members of that administration were involved in the business of fund
diversion rather than acquiring weapons that could make our military a true
fighting force.
For this reason we can’t just
forget about the Jonathan administration and close the book on it as some have
urged. Yes, Buhari needs to face up to his own responsibilities. But part of
that responsibility is to ensure that acts of economic or political sabotage,
such as the current case of misappropriation and diversion of billions of
dollars for arms procurement, must be investigated. Lives and properties have
been lost on account of these. Such criminal acts cannot be overlooked in
situations where even Buhari’s own performance is being hobbled as a
consequence of such acts of sabotage.
Jonathan was quick to deny that
he authorised release of what we now hear is about $6 billion dollars, (rather
than the earlier advertised 2 billion dollars), for arms procurement. But both
his National Security Adviser, Sambo Dasuki, and his Minister of Finance and
so-called Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, have
admitted to the fact that funds meant for arms were in fact released. Iweala
has admitted to releasing, with the authorisation of the president, over $300
Million US dollars in one instance to Dasuki for arms procurement.
Dokpesi has not denied that he
collected billions of Naira from Dasuki. He has only said that it was payment
for an image laundering job done for Jonathan without telling Nigerians why he
should have been paid from the coffers of the NSA. Beyond the case of Dasuki,
Dokpesi, Bafarawa and Okonjo-Iweala, there are almost weekly revelations of how
Nigerians have been defrauded by persons in positions of power in the name of
providing security. Yet what we’ve had and continue to have are harvests of
deaths. Shouldn’t somebody account for this?
The Nigerian political elite have
been known to engage in ritual acts of shedding human blood for the purpose of
acquiring power. They have been known to patronise shrines where blood cuddling
oaths are taken in order to undermine their enemies. But with what is been
revealed now with this Dasuki arms purchase deal, our politicians have clearly
moved into the realm of direct wastage of Nigerian lives in order just to make
money.
They sent ordinary soldiers into
the battle field practically with their bare hands and call them cowards for
refusing to fight. They made it possible for ordinary villagers to be kidnapped
and turned into sex slaves even as they feign concern for their plight. While
Dasuki and Dokpesi now seek to enforce their own rights (and their rights must
surely be protected under the law), who among them showed similar concern for
the rights of the soldiers mauled down in battle or villagers either killed,
taken prisoners or uprooted from their ancestral land? Who speaks for this
silenced majority?
Nigerians need to get to the root
of this scam. They need to be assured they are not mere fodders in the greed
machine of the rich and powerful. And until these concerns have been fully
addressed cries of a witch hunt by those being called to account amounts to
cheap blackmail.
By Rotimi Fasan
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