This is the case with our politicians today. If you dare call them OLE, they will deal with you severely. Not even the President will be spared. He may now face impeachment for pointing finger at some senators and house representatives as OLE, even though he called most of them hard working and honorable. Our politicians specialize in looting the treasury directly, indirectly or impeaching one another.

Yerima was recently suspended from the house for calling them bribe seekers. They had to deal with him severely. Yerima did not learn from those before him who dared call these honorable men, his cohort, OLE.

El Rufai was force to apologize and he was also exposed for paying foreign money (hard currency) to his Assistants, as expatriates. The same Mantu, who demanded bribe to facilitate his confirmation as minister, is now getting report about Wabara demand from poor Education minister. He should have listened when Obasanjo asked them to come clean. He decided to play the game in town and got burnt, so he is suing to clear his name.

When Nzeribe decided to expose his cohort, he was also severely dealt with. He did not generate much sympathy because of his unusual character. But he made his point and sensitized us to how money bags move around among the polititians.

It was Aluko who blasted those economic refugees including his brother, as failures who could not succeed in Nigeria, because they are too scared to come to Nigeria and join the ONYEOSI club like him. He actually got the support of his father, a respectable and honorable economist of our time. Blood is thicker than water.

Well, these are MERE allegations that have not been proven in the court of law. Most of us still remember that Oyi Okadigbo and his colleagues were finally pardoned after an investigation that was investigated by other cohort investigators!

The son of Abacha reneged on his promise after who and who of Nigeria got him out of prison and he decided to go to the court of law to challenge these MERE allegations.

There are also MERE allegations against BARAWO Makanjuola, Dariye, Tafa Balogun, etc. We are still waiting for Nigerian due process in many cases, another word for I will fight with a little of what I stole. We have to clean our judiciary to respond to these ills in our society, the same way others establish tribunals.

There are others that are so sacred that you do not mention them, unless you want to be severely dealt with. That is why I am surprised that my dear Arewa Man of the Year, Ribadu would dare talk about Babagida. I wonder if he was aware that Obasanjo in the front of the whole world at Harvard University, asked anyone who has any hard evidence against him to come forward. Poor Ribadu is in hot water for saying what everyone thinks.

When the Muslim heard that those in the Sovereign Conference (?) were getting 250,000 naira a week and may decide the faith of the Country, they asked Obasanjo for equality. Who can predict that the Muslims who constitute the majority of the Nigerian ruling class, looting the treasury for years would now ask for equal share. In Nigeria, that is what we call progress!

Right now, Obasanjo is the one eye man in the mist of people blinded by corruption. Yes, I heard about his son’s foreign account in the United States. Do not forget Abacha’s son also claimed to be a legitimate business man. So is the son of Kofi Annan. Can we separate the sons from the fathers? Of course business flows better because of the fathers.
However, unlike Abacha, nobody has accused Annan or Obasanjo of channeling illegal or stolen money to their sons’ bank accounts.

There is nothing wrong with one INO exposing another. We are doom if they all keep quiet. This notion that one has to be a saint to clean up Nigeria is unreasonable. Even Abacha did his own cleanup at the Bank and also exposed some people including a monarch. We should encourage other BARAWO to expose their cohorts, not discourage them. Watch out for - if you Tarka me, I Daboh you.

ROBBING PETER TO PAY PAUL: If this is how we see ourselves, do you blame receivers of our stolen properties if they refuse to return our stolen money taken from one rogue and ask them to return it to another. That is double complicity, aiding and abetting.

If a former leader wondered why Nigeria had not collapsed, we should wonder why anyone would trust a Nigerian. A friend from Ghana once told me that he heard almost on a daily basis that these many millions were stolen from Nigeria. How many millions are there in Nigeria?

Another friend who is an accountant and head of his department was once asked by his boss if he knew who sent a fax from the Central Bank of Nigeria asking for money. He was shaken with anger, he could not respond for fear of what might come out of his mouth. A colleague of mine actually had the guts to ask me about 419!

One Friday I decided to stop by a restaurant downtown for take home treat. As I was leaning on my twenty-something year old car that some people still admire, a well dressed white woman with two small children demanded that I (privileged black man?) give her money because she was hungry. I decided to give her the money for my treat that Friday and went home without. I wondered how much she would have demanded if she knew I am a Nigerian.

If Nigerians are known for corruption at home and 419 abroad, can we demand that these Paris club and others cancelled our loan, which to them is credit cards? Can anyone default on their credit cards without declaring bankruptcy in one form or another? I am not sure we are ready to forgo our foreign reserve and other private properties outside of our Country.

FROM 13 BILLIONS TO 34 BILLIONS US DOLLARS: Some of us remember Chavez, a lawyer who devoted his life to helping farm workers in the southern part of United States. Many of these workers before many people became aware, owed their boss or masters more money at the end of their working years than when they began. Their children and wives sometimes continued to pay the debt as second generation workers.

Africans who know history and listen to Nkrumah about Neocolonialism are aware. If not, learn from Danfur or children brought from neighboring countries into Nigeria as house help. Some bourgeoisies got mad at Jakande for building schools everywhere reducing the availability of house helps.

If you wonder why we owe much more than we borrowed, think about the person who borrowed money to buy a car and the one who borrowed to buy a house. Some Nigerians may remember that song about Bobby who bought a car and not a house. They called him a dirty name. So the worker asked the master why he owed so much while he had been working for pay all his life. The masters explained:

Rent – the workers did not own the boarding house, rental payment accumulate for their masters. The same as those big mansions Nigerians buy all over the world, paying big taxes to develop their schools and that community. The day he stops paying, he finds out the real owner of the house. The Japanese bought prestigious Rockefeller building at the height of the boom. They sold it back to Americans at a loss during downturn. Nigerians who work for dollars in the US can not afford those properties, how long can the looters and their lazy children keep them?

Food – The masters sell groceries to the workers at exorbitant prices. Foreign taste acquired by Nigerians abroad through travels, foreign suzies, and home copy cats who know everywhere in Europe and America without leaving Nigeria.

Water – Perrier water, Damon, Spring, sugar water and others imported into the Country.

Beverages – Minerals, champagne, beers, people’s drink, and others.

Light – Masters charge the workers for light by paying the bills and then pocket the differences. NEPA is a sink hole dripping/pouring into individual pockets.

Clothes – In these farms, the masters sell the uniforms. The same as our designer laces made anywhere but in Nigeria. If made in Nigeria, they have to be exported and re imported before Nigerians would buy them.

Security – The master has to pay for security to make sure nobody revolts against him or his family. More important, to make sure farm workers do not escape, without paying the balance of what they owe him. Nigerians pay for security too, at the top as police allocation and at the end as twenty naira per car. Since allocation hardly reaches the bottom, twenty naira help pay for family allowance and vehicle maintenance.

Farm Equipment – Machinery and Tractors used in the farm have to be paid for by the masters so that the workers can increase their productivity. Nigerians love Hummer trucks, Mercedes, BMW and Volvo. Not for farm or road building. It is for “feferity”. Usually the seed money pays for these first, whatever is left if any, pays for the execution of the project.

There was a joke about the load carrier who consumes bread in the days it was a luxury, hardly realizing that his bald head was paying for it. While interest was accumulating on our debt, there was no appreciation on our consumption, and we are passing on the debt to our children.

In spite of our reputation for corruption, Nigerians are known to be very educated and clever. Most of the crimes Nigerians are known for are white collar crimes. So how do we get out of this bondage is the 34 billion dollar question.

34 BILLION DOLLAR SOLUTIONS?

Our leaders have been traveling all over the globe hoping against hope that our loan will be forgiven. After all Mexico got some reprieve and other poor countries got their loan forgiven. Indeed, we have recruited Nigerian expatriates paying them in US dollars to see how our loan can be forgiven. The problem here is that nobody will forgive your credit card loan if you have equity in your house. The hired Nigerian expatriates know that. Nigeria has potentials that are wasted away by corrupt officials.

It is very ironic that the same military politicians who stole borrowed money are now the leading candidates to run the affairs of this Country again. They will be same people who will negotiate our way out of the same foreign debt. How would you like to face the same armed robbers who had raided your house, at the police station, but in police uniform? Or, better still, the same robbers out of military uniforms in civilian Agbada?

May be we can negotiate as we curb 419 from operating and get some return on our effort. We also curb drug trafficking that adversely affected Europe and America. Fighting terrorist is now big business, if we can handle our domestic terrorist.

Nigerians send billions of dollars home to their relatives every year. These are the same Nigerians who are too scared to come home and steal or not connected enough to earn US dollars in Nigeria. Then there is the other class of Nigerians who stashed billions of US dollars outside of Nigeria without working for a dollar in their life. Who should help pay back the debt?

Repatriation has been mentioned many times. It has been going on since the time of Marcus Garvey, Nkrumah, Zik and Awo. Slave labor built America and the children of these slaves deserve some compensation. If Europe and America decided on paying compensation, to whom should the check be made to? Corrupt Africans who sold the slave and got paid with mirrors or the children of the slaves who labored?

Legal means has been suggested by Professor Afe Babalola. Most of the loan were given to illegal Military Governments and shared with their foreign partners in collusion against Nigeria. We are yet to make our case on this. Has anybody confessed?

Some people have suggested that any money made or returned in the name of Nigeria should be monitored by that foreign Government. I think we still yearn for the days we were ruled by the British. Indeed, some people claim that was the good old days!

If we have the same brain, sometimes attend the same schools, our culture richer and our civilization in Africa is older than others, why are we so blinded by greed? African American kids feel better about themselves when they learn their African history and realize they were Queens and Kings with civilized culture at some point in time. We may need our historians to come to our aid. I know when Yoruba are given their oriki, they remember whose children they are.We need the African villages where everyone cares about others. Not everyone for himself.