Kleptomaniacs in Nigeria's National Assembly endanger democracy
By JONATHAN ELENDU
Special to USAfricaonline.com
NigeriaCentral.com
USAfrica The Newspaper
The
Black Business Journal
Since
the inception of the Fourth Republic in May 1999, the Nigerian
National Assembly has had three Senate Presidents and two House
Speakers. This high turnover is not due to loss in elections, deaths,
illnesses or resignations based on principles. All the former
officers were forced out on allegations of fraud; large and small,
perpetrated by these public officers.
While these have been sad episodes in the life of the young Republic, some of us happily applauded these outcomes. The reason for our support and applause was the realization that our country has come of age and our elected and appointed officials and the generality of our people have decided not to conduct business as usual. No longer were we going to stand by and look the other way while government and elected officials engage in corrupt practices.
Alas, we celebrated too early; for it has been business as usual.
In March 2001, the Senate President, Pius Anyim, and his counterpart in the lower chamber, went on a spending spree at the launching of the biography of Second Republic President, Shehu Shagari. They both donated millions of taxpayers money. This week, the new scandal brewing is the purchase of vehicles for senators by the Senate President.
The Nigerian Vanguard newspaper reported on April 9, 2001 that the total amount for the vehicles is N917,336, 400. This is a few million less than one billion naira. A breakdown of this expenditure shows that the amount covered the payment for 126 units of Peugeot 406 and fourteen units of Peugeot 607. This means that the Senate paid three and half million naira for each unit of the Peugeot 406. These cars were purchased from the manufacturer, Peugeot Assembly of Nigeria, PAN. The factory price of these cars run about one million naira less than what the Senate President paid for each of the cars. The conventional wisdom is that goods are usually cheaper if bought directly from the manufacturer. Also, there are discounts for bulk purchase. Apparently this conventional wisdom had no place in the Senate President's calculations. And this is just a tip of the iceberg!
The Senate President's office had collected nearly five million naira for the maintenance of his official Mercedes Benz car in December of last year. Incidentally, the Mercedes Benz car was purchased for the same amount, which is now being used for its maintenance, a year earlier.
It was revealed that a retreat for Senators at Calabar cost Nigerian taxpayers a whopping twenty-five million naira, while the country doled out nearly two-and-a-half million naira for the Senate President's portrait. Continuing this spending spree, the Senate President spent about seven and-a-half million naira for a media roundtable in October 2000, and another five million naira for the same event in December at Rockview Hotel, Abuja.
I attest to the fact that Rockview Hotel is a beautiful place, but to spend twelve-and-a-half million naira to talk to a group of journalists twice is worse than ridiculous; it is criminal. It is shameful!
As if not wanting to be outspent by his leader, the Deputy Senate President was paid fourteen million naira for furnishing his residence, while his wife collected one hundred and ninety-one thousand naira to make a trip to Lagos from Abuja. And the list goes on and on.
Senator Chuba Okadigbo (PDP-Anambra) was removed as the Nigerian Senate President on allegations of fraud. This was the similar reason for which his predecessor, Evans Enwerem (PDP-Imo State), was removed. The current Senate President Anyim Pius Anyim seems to have scontinued in the footsteps of his predecessors.
I have been wondering what it is that turns otherwise reasonable men into corrupt people the moment they get into positions of service. Even more puzzling is that this happens mostly to African politicians and government officials. There is corruption in every society, yet the audacity of the Nigerian Politician has no match in civilized societies.
Pius Anyim was not known as one of the very rich in his community. Little was known of him until he became Senate President. Those who schemed to get him there with the hope that this young man would restore sanity after the removal of Dr. Okadigbo must be gnashing their teeth in agony. I have asked this question before and I'll ask it again because I have yet to make sense of it: How can a man who did not have five million naira before he was elected (or selected) to the Nigerian Senate be comfortable giving away other people's money to the tune of five million naira in one day?
What kind of conscience does Pius Anyim and his colleagues in the Nigerian National Assembly possess? I have friends in that Assembly and I am beginning to think that I probably did not really know these men and women. These are men and women who claim to have achieved success in their lives before seeking public office. Yet, even the very rich amongst them would give nothing back to the society. Arthur Nzerible, who made history as the first man to donate aircraft to a political party, still collects allowances from the Senate. Senator Ike Nwachukwu (PDP-Abia State) co-owned an airline and is still regarded as one of the rich retired generals in Nigeria. Seantor Mike Ajiegbo runs a multimedia conglomerate in Nigeria. These men want poor Nigerians to pay for their cars, pay for their houses and furnish them and also give them millions of naira in yearly allowances.
These politicians have an incredible sense of entitlement. This is poverty of the worst kind: poverty of spirit. What drink or oath do these people take that turns them into kleptomaniacs?
How can these men and women continue to steal from a country that goes cap in hand begging other countries to forgive her debts? How can a country that pays her workers starvation salaries tolerate this kind of profligacy?
Senator Anyim would want to compare himself to U.S. vice president Dick Cheney or Republican majority leader, Senator Trent Lott. He should ask Rep. J. C. Watts, who is currently visiting Nigeria, whether Trent Lott would collect money from the coffers of the United States Senate to go talk to his kinsmen in Mississippi?
Nigeria's Senate President took over a million naira from the coffers of the Senate to attend a meeting of his kinsmen in Kaduna, a one hour trip from his base in Abuja. I have given up on the Nigerian elite, especially its corrupt politicians. It is obvious the god who created our politicians is different from the one who created the rest of humanity. This god took away their hearts and replaced it with stone. He endowed them with a spirit of poverty.
These are small people who have been entrusted with big responsibilities. It has gone to their heads and made them mad. We don't need them to dance naked in the marketplace as confirmation. Sane people think of the consequences of their actions. These people don't understand the meaning of conscience or consequences. They wake up everyday and wonder why the Nigerian currency continues to slide. It does not take a Harvard economist to see that the more they perpetrate these frauds on their people the more negative effect it has on the economy.
Wole Soyinka, the Nobel Laureate for literature, who once served in the corrupting military regime of retired Gen Ibrahim Babangida, described his generation as a "wasted" one. It saddens me to think that Pius Anyim and some of his thieving colleagues are members of my own (younger) generation. And they also have become monumental wastes.
It is equally important to underscore that the executive arm of Nigeria's government headed by another soldier, retired Gen. Olusegun Obasanjo, has been cited for corruption not only by Nigerians but by the U.S. State Department. It has been stated, in fact, it is common knowledge that Obasanjo's presidency has been "influencing" legislators through the power of monetary inducements to fight its opponents and achieve certain goals.
All those leave me to ask the question and wonder: Should the
latest effort at rebuilding the Nigerian nation become a waste to
people of African descent? God forbid!
Copyright©USAfrica Media Networks/April 10, 2001.
Elendu is a contributing editor of NigeriaCentral.com and USAfrica
The Newspaper, Houston. He is based in Michigan.
|
These views were
stated during an interview CNN's anchor Bernard Shaw and
senior analyst Jeff Greenfield had with Mr. Nwangwu on
Saturday November 18, 2000 during a special edition of
'Inside Politics 2000.' |
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