The recent release from a British prison of a former Governor of Delta State, Chief James Ibori has since it happened last month attracted comments from across the nation. While many especially Deltans were happy about the development, analysts from other parts of Nigeria were virtually disgusted over what they saw as a sheepish people turning an ex-convict into their hero.
Many of my avid readers and friends have wondered aloud why I made no comment on the subject. I must confess that for once I found a topic that I was not quite comfortable with because I couldn’t agree with the idea of eulogizing the former governor in view of what he was alleged to have done just as I couldn’t agree with those who felt that his release was not worth celebrating by those whose lives he touched. Luckily, in my visit to Asaba last week, I was well entertained by an interesting debate between some politicians who were on the opposite sides of the divide.
The anti-Ibori side threw the first jab that it was awkward of the pro-Ibori group to celebrate a common criminal who confessed to his crime and duly served his jail term in full. They argued that it was a shame that people were celebrating those who embezzled state finances which has largely contributed to our increased unemployment rate in the country, lack of healthcare services, deteriorating educational standards standard and disastrous democracy among other challenges. If such a situation continued, they imagined that our country would end up without values. Perhaps because of the numerical strength of Ibori’s admirers which tripled the adversaries, the voices of the latter were quickly drowned making it easy for the pro-Ibori group to marshal their points for hours without stop.
First, they warned against the erroneous posture that Ibori was the worst Nigerian ex-governor in a nation where every governor turns out to be richer than his state. They recalled what happened in 2015, when Senator Bernabas Gemade, a former National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) had to decamp from his party so as to qualify to contest the coming elections. His challenge according to the story was that the governor he nurtured having become more viable was set to capture his seat.
Nigerian politicians are like that, once in office, they overwhelm their sponsors, hence; many governors hardly support their deputies to succeed them. They mentioned the few who did like Shinkafi in Zamfara or Ganduje in Kano who hardly lasted few months before things fell apart between them and their predecessors. Interestingly, the aggressor is irrelevant as the issue is usually the control of state resources. So when politicians are loyal to a leader and are willingly to stand by him for all times, it is not that they are sheepish, the leader must have consistently touched lives as Ibori, according to his admirers, did to his dynasty of successors and other members of their party
The pro-Ibori side had an eloquent lead discussant. His response to the charge that Ibori was no doubt guilty because he was convicted by an impartial foreign judge was quite interesting. He began with an explanation of how Britain itself had since found out that the police that investigated the Ibori case were compromised.
He said corruption was not only an English word but that it was the British and other Europeans that taught Nigerians how to be corrupt adding that although they claim to abhor money laundering, they hardly ever return such funds to Nigeria making them corrupt custodians of stolen goods. A few days later, the point became clearer to me when I read a statement credited to the Chairman of the Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption, Prof. Itse Sagay, that Nigeria risked losing another $550m recovered from the Abacha family to the United States.
Speaking to reporters during a media parley on asset recovery jointly organised by his committee and Office of the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Foreign Affairs and the Diaspora, Sagay disclosed that the likely loss was contrary to the earlier promise by the U.S. to return the sum to Nigeria.
I honestly enjoyed the debate and if the truth must be told, we have to accept that there is no consensus in this country as to what constitutes corruption. After all, our immediate past President was once quoted to have said that all the noise about corruption in Nigeria was merely a perception. Accordingly, different people understand it differently as the circumstance suits them.
For instance, whereas a section of the senate believes that the acting Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) Mr. Ibrahim Magu should not be confirmed because of a negative report on him by the Department of State services (DSS), a few senators and the Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption think otherwise. Indeed, by rejecting Magu, Prof Itse Sagay believes that the lawmakers acted in self-interest thereby aiding corruption
So, before condemning what looks like a people’s indiscretion, it is probably wise to also hear how they arrived at their decision. Here is one instructive story. About a decade ago, a group of young Edo activists disclosed that they were shopping for another candidate because they felt the incumbent was too dishonest to be re-elected.
In later years when asked how come the governor they indicted was re-elected, they explained that they too changed their minds and voted for the governor because they found that the governor that they felt was a thief; would no doubt be better than his rival that they knew to be an armed robber! So, were such voters fools to have preferred the proverbial “lesser” evil?
Were they celebrating criminality? What this suggests is that the real difference between Ibori and other politicians is luck. Therefore, those who think Ibori should be tried again in Nigeria because his supporters celebrated his release from his British prison greatly miss the point. If we concentrate on Ibori, what happens to those who spent N1billion naira building one kilometre of a road?
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