A-LOOTER CONTINUA IN NIGERIA

Like a Pig in the mud, Public Office Holders in the Alhaji Umaru Yar' Adua Administration are now swimming in the murky waters of corruption. Egwu na tusi anyi oge a .When the lid was blown over the messy 300 million naira unspent budget saga in the Federal Ministry of Health, the Minister, his Deputy and others became the first casualties as they resigned in shame. Most people thought it would serve as a deterrent to other public office holders. Recent events have however shown that the 300million naira unspent budget saga was nothing but egwuregwu umuaka (child's play). The assumed fight against corruption within the Nigerian polity is as old as the existence of the country itself. Various regimes have claimed to fight against corruption. Pooh!! The fight against corruption between 1999 and now as we can see,is laughable. Big Name agencies like EFCC and ICPC exist in our Naija but “a-looter continua in Nigeria”. Check out the Sagem national identity card project scam to the Wilbros scam, the Siemens bribe scandal, the 2.3 billion naira National Assembly car scam and the Halliburton miasma, nothing worthwhile seems to have been done to Ndi oria.

The word corruption has become a recurrent decimal since the commencement of the 1999 democratic process. Between 1999 and 2003 the Obasanjo-led administration was accused of sectionalizing the fight against corruption. Corruption then became more pronounced at the corridors of power yet, the government at the centre did little or nothing to confront the monster which was gradually eating into the financial vein of the country.

Instructively, those who were later accused of perpetrating one form of corruption or the other were indeed key members of the Chief Obasanjo-led government between 1999 and 2003.

The zombie attitude of the former president, even when it was glaring to him that the monster(corruption) would soon take over the leadership of his government was heavily condemned. The Obasanjo sidon look attitude, it was gathered, was to ensure that he( Obasanjo) did not bungle his second term ambition should he decide to move against the corrupt government functionaries who were so powerful as to decide his political fate in 2003.

Therefore, between 1999 and 2003, politicians at all levels of governance had a field day enriching their pockets with tax payers' money. Barawo.

But shortly after the 2003 elections, the former president announced to the world that he will fight the monster headlong and he sent a bill seeking the establishment of two lame duck anti-graft agencies, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC) which were saddled with the sole responsibility of investigating and prosecuting corrupt public and private officials.

Between 2003 and 2007,EFCC claimed to have charged several public office holders to court but how many big names have been convicted. The anti-graft bodies are largely seen by many Nigerians as a willing tool in the hands of the presidency to cow and bring to their kneels, the perceived political opponents. These opponents were largely made up of former governors. Suffice it to say that a former governor and a former Inspector General of police, who were believed to be very close to the former president Obasanjo, are the only big names shabbily convicted on corruption charges by courts in the country.

Since the arraignment and conviction of the duo, no other big name has been sent to jail for corruption. However, on daily basis, Nigerians are being told of how past government officials have been arrested, detained and granted bail by the courts.

The Yar'Adua-led administration is yet to unravel numerous allegations of corrupt practices levelled against some government officials not to talk of bringing them to book.Is this part of the Baba go slow syndrome?

These cases to mention a few,include the allegation against the Chairman, Senate Health Committee, Senator Iyabo Obasanjo-Bello and other members of her committee .Up till now, nothing is being heard on the matter. The 2.3 billion naira car scam involving the leadership of the House of Representatives has also been consigned to the dust bin of history. Ndi ori

Before the last two cases was the Sagem international identity card project scam. After the death of the former minister of internal affairs, whose ministry was in charge of the project, it appears also that the matter, by the death of the former minister, has also been finally laid to rest.

Nigerians will not forget in a hurry the Wilbros scam, the Siemens bribe scandal and various corruption charges levelled against some former governors, which are yet to see the light of the day, not to talk of the Halliburton scam.These days,Government officers appear to have now perfected the art of looting in voracious manner. In the last couple of days alone ,there were three separate cases of massive fraud involving billions of tax payers money. Imagine 6.2 billion naira meant for rural electrification projects but was allegedly shared by top officials of the agency in charge of the projects and some senior law makers who are supposed to oversee the projects. What about the surprise that sprang up at the precinct of the universal basic education where the sum of 1.7 billion was alleged to have developed wings and flown into the Commissions' Directors deep pockets. The news that we heard was that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission arrested some top officials of the Universal Basic Education Commission over the alleged fraud of 1.7 billion naira. It was also reported that one of the Directors of the Commission was still agile enough to escape by jumping over a fence when he sighted the EFCC operatives.ole !

Looting of public fund is getting out of hand in Nigeria.Do you know that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC arrested the Group Managing Director of Transcorp, Mr. Thomas Iseghohi and two others over an alleged 15billion naira fraud.

Mr. Iseghohi was arrested along with the company's deputy general manager, Mr. Mohammed Buba and the company secretary, Mr. Mike Okoli.

They are accused of indiscriminate payment of consultancy services and professional fees to companies in which they alleged to have interest.

Sources at the commission confirmed that some of the companies used to perpetrate the fraud are global employment solution Incorporated, gesi, Global Information Technology Incorporated, Ankor Pointe Integrated limited and Harmattan Venture.

The source explained that 1.2million dollars was paid into the account of global information technology incorporated in the united state of America between July2007 andMay2008.

Global information technology incorporated was also reported paid 100,000dollars to investigate fire incident on NITEL property in Saka Tinubu, lagos.

Ankor Pointe also accused of having monthly retainership of 108,000 million dollars from 2007 till date to manage Transcorp oil block which has now been revoked by the federal government.

Another company, Hamarttan ventures is said to have been paid 500,000dollars for organizing meetings for the group managing director outside the country between December 2007 to march 2009 the sources said that that over n205million was paid as legal fees by the company.Ndi a kwesiri ngbagbu.

Earlier in the year,the House of Reps probed the 16 billion naira alledgedly wasted on power projects by the last administration.Ironically,the Head of the Committee who pulled a lot of stunt and sensation in the media during the so called probe,Ndudi Elumelu is now also in trouble over his alleged involvement in a 6.2 billion naira Rural Electrification Project fraud. The Chairman, Senate Committee on Power, Senator Nicholas Ugbade, his House of Representatives counterpart, Hon. Ndudi Elumelu, and eight others were arraigned at a Federal Capital Territory (FCT) High Court sitting in Gudu, Abuja, over alleged fraud in the rural electrification contracts. They were alleged to have withdrawn N6.2 billion from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) in December last year in respect of the phoney contracts.

Ugbane and others allegedly withdrew the money illegally from CBN account number 0103742014, using a number of companies as fronts.

The other accused persons brought to the court premises were Elumelu's deputy, Hon. Muhammed Jibo; Chairman, House Committee on Rural Development, Hon. Paulinus Igwe; the Managing Director of the Rural Electrification Agency (REA), Mr. Samual Ibi Gekpe; Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Power and Steel, Dr. Aliyu Abdullahi; Simon Kirdi Nanle; Mr. Lawrence Kayode Orekoya; Abdulsamad Garba Jahun; and Mr. Kayode Oyedeji.What about the millions of naira bribery that rock the Ekiti State INEC.

Why is the nation's treasury under attack by ferocious predators who run our public offices? The worry in all of these is not the revelation of such a crash in the system which permits such a mindless onslaught on public funds. The worry is actually that nothing eventually comes out of the arrest of public office holders “ wey chop our money” Matters like these are usually swept under the carpet, explanations that are offensively presumptuous are made of the scandals or at best plea bargaining may be entered into and the matter is soon forgotten. In other structured countries, individuals behind such scandals are put behind the bars for a long time and made to suffer a loss of dignity to serve as a deterrent to others on the same path way. This is the reason why impunity thrives and prevails in Nigeria.This is why oga dem dey chop our money yafu yafu. President dey chop,Governors dey chop,Ministers dey chop,Senators dey chop,Commissioners dey chop ,Accountant too dey chop.Dem dey chop am yama yama.A looter continua.If examples had been made of past felons, those who are going into public office will be more mindful of the way they handle public funds. Every day na for the thief but one day na for the owner of the house.The government should jail these thieves now.Nigerians are being pushed to the wall.one day,there might be a peoples' revolution.

-kenneth uwadi is from Mmahu-Egbema in Imo State, Nigeria