5 April 2018
Just last week, the Federal Government came out with a list of six persons it allege looted the treasury of the Nation, the government, just yesterday, followed up with a list of twenty three persons to add to the previously released list of looters stating as the current additional persons were added that the list was in badges and will continue to be updated as the government deems fit. The list released so far has been generating so many ripples in the polity with the Government/Ruling Party and the main opposition exchanging words on the controversial list, which by the way has the Chairman of the People’s Democratic Party(PDP) as the first person on the list as well as other prominent members of the party featured on the first list.
Interestingly the Federal Government only acted to start the release of the allege looters of the Nations treasury after the People’s Democratic Party challenged the government to unveil the looters of the nation’s treasury after the Minister of Information had rejected the apology of the opposition party asking them to instruct their members to return to funds the looted from the treasury back to the coffers of government if they were serious about their apology. Clearly the Leadership of main opposition had not anticipated that the apology tendered by the National Chairman of the party will cause such a stir leading to a demand for them to show remorse by being fully accountable and taking responsibility for their misdeeds while in government.
It’s obvious that the expectation of the opposition was that by seeking for forgiveness the will benefit from the goodwill of Nigerians to fully forgive the party and give it another chance to return to power while riding on the growing disaffection against the ruling party by many Nigerians whom they intend to win over. Rather than the dust settling on this issue the government has maintained the heat on the opposition party by calling their bluff for a release of a list of persons implicated in the defrauding of the nation, the party may have hoped that the government will not go ahead with any such thing believing that members of the ruling party as well had been implicated in fraud. It also hinged their confidence on the perception that the government was not willing to come out with any list having resisted doing so earlier despite the pressure and litigations against the government to release such list and show transparency by a Lagos based civil society organization.
One thing that is clear from the foregoing, is that the list of looters of the nation’s treasury and the insincere apology of the People’s Democratic Party is now being exploited for political advantage by the government and the opposition party despite the latest effort of the government to come up with a list that is not only made up of members of the opposition but other Nigerians especially in the arms forces who are allege to have also corruptly enriched themselves. Unconfirmed reports am getting is that the main opposition has also come with its list of looters, who are mainly members of the All Progressives Congress including former members of their party it is intending to woo back to its fold such as the President of the Senate. Also noteworthy is the desperate attempt by the Chairman of the opposition to clear his name by giving the government 48 hours to apologize for including his name on the list.
The unity of the party is also being threatened as some prominent members are beginning to question the wisdom of the apology of the party chairman without their approval while some other members such as the former Deputy Senate President have gone on to grant interview to the press detailing the pattern the party went about its act of impunity while they were in charge of running the government. The former aviation minister, Femi Fani kayoed, in a social media post, described the earlier apology of the PDP National Chairman that began this uproar as “ill-conceived, unnecessary, misplaced, inappropriate, ill-adviced and unwise”. He wondered what the apology was for in first instance and that the party risked paying a heavy price for the apology and becoming a subject of ridicule and opprobrium. The former Aviation minister however indirectly admitted to Corruption in the 16 years of PDP rule in the country when in the same he stated that the Government that Prof.yemi Osinbajo heads with Buhari has indulged in 3 years in more corruption than the PDP did in 16 years. He concludes his post by saying “if anyone needs to apologise to the Nigerian people it is Buhari, Osinbajo and their APC and certainly not the PDP or indeed any other political parties.
In my CANDID OPINION this open bickering and altercations between the two political party close to the next general elections provides one of most valuable opportunity for the Nigerian electorates to make up their mind on which of the two parties they intend to thrust their mandate for determining their destiny and if this is not the right time to discard the two contending parties and seek for political parties that do not have in their fold any persons that is suspected of having unduly taken funds from the nation’s commonwealth or even used his or her office to gain inducements from those individuals and companies who had business to do with the government.
It is obvious that without a vibrant democracy and growing civil society, as we are beginning to have, we would never have had the opportunity to even know of such amount of money recovered from persons that are still holding public office, those people that held public office before now or those who intend to return back to such positions with adequate punishment by the Nigerian state on them, we would not even know of those who used the plea bargain policy enshrined in our laws to return only a portion of their loot and keep the rest, while using the outstanding balance to still gain maximum influence in society, we will not have influential politicians willing to expose their antics and connivance to abuse the integrity of our political system for their advantage and we will not have those grandstanding and still thinking they can take Nigerians for granted by playing the ostrich.
For me therefore as the politics of the List of Looters continue to trend in the Public Discourse let every independent citizen watch carefully with a view to making the right decision for 2019 knowing fully well that even if this is one sided at the moment, they have the opportunity through their ballot to also hold the other side of the divide fully accountable so that at the end this ” POLITICS OF THE LOOTERS LIST” will be in the overall interest of strengthening the Nigerian nation and freeing up vital resources for the ordinary citizens of the Country.
Ben Usang is a Civil Society leader, Development Activist and Public Affairs Commentator who writes from Calabar, Nigeria.
