Between democracy and lootocracy
By Gertrude Adenihun`
IT is amazing what life brings your way when he, I mean your better half decides to "ko igba wole". And so it was on a raining Wednesday, quite chilly too. At the balcony where we spend most of our morning these days, I heard him read... "correspondingly, a government headed by, or controlled by lootocrats is lootocracy". Without warning I blurted out, democracy, lootocracy what is the difference out here; ewure is a goat is ewu is akwiya. His laughter gave me an idea that I had just said something quite weighty.
I have Femi Okurounmu to thank for such a hilarious morning which gave birth to this article. Thanks also for the coinage: most brilliant. To be quite sure of my facts, I took up my-well-thumbed-dark-brown-with-age, Chambers dictionary and re-checked the definition of democracy, a government of the people, by the people and for the people. In our context this simply means the re-cycling of lootocrats, their cohorts, apologists, cronies, proxies and members of their immediate and extended families. Recently, the Senate President was down to earth in his explanation of this phenomenon.
Hear him - "politics is a serious business (in Nigeria)". He gave us an expose on the workings of the Nigerian politician before any 'election'. He sells his properties landed or unlanded, vacant or developed, jewelry, meaningful wearing apparels. If a man sells all his sellables to buy votes, he will stop at nothing to recoup such monies with interests to whatever degree or percentage he so desires. Our Executive is always in agbada with big pocket to contain the legislature and judiciary. These lootos come up with all sorts of excuses to bleed the nation.
In this day and age, new villages are being discovered in Nigeria! We hear of repeated floods, erosions " same land area, questionable fire disasters, desert encroachment, you name it. Bang! Bills are passed; votes are approved for the relief of these 'unfortunate' ghost victims. Has any one ever wondered or queried the whereabouts of these billions voted for these ghost disasters!
Yet sanity reigns around an 84-year-old architectural building called the Ridge Club, Umuahia. This all-wooden-one-storey-building stands in all beauty and majesty. These days, multi-billion Naira edifices are crumbling like a deck of cards. Reasons we all know too well; from shoddy work, to cheap materials, to figure adjustments; fraud, from drawing board to finishing. We now know that ethnic violence, religious upheavals, wide spread crises, insecurity, etc are instigated for selfish personal gains. These serve as conduit pipes.
Scanning through volumes of our dailies over the past two decades or more, you will come to the realisation that we have been taken to the cleaners over and over again by crooks, con men and women; dishonest and selfish Nigerians of the highest order. In the present lootocratic - I mean democratic dispensation a good number of state chief executives have had to battle cases of outright conviction, 'questionable- person-identification' falsification of all falsifiables; from documents to figures to mundane issues such as date of birth, educational institutions attended, educational qualifications - the list is endless. All these are in a desperate effort to stay in power; to continue the looting. We have heard of top officials being held with large sums of money at various airports around the globe. We now have a 'super man' who jets to the rescue.
Mr. Femi Okunrounmu's article titled "2007: Why Nigerians must say no to Atiku, IBB and Marwa" really ticked me off. What a magnificent piece of work. His assertion that "Lootocrats have appropriated the instruments of state power at their disposal to the protection of their anointed candidates into political offices at all tiers of government, and in any election regardless of the wishes of the electorate" says it all.
We are indebted to various monetary bodies around the world up to a whooping $33 billion or so they say. We also know that we can count on our finger tips Nigerians with more hard currency than the nation owes. That is our money you know. These lootocrats have acquired Nigeria as their private empire; virtually all the privatised sectors are owned by them directly or through proxies and surrogates. Petroleum 'up and down streams' communication, airlines, sealines and landlines, second and third generation banks are all owned by them, who taking advantage of the liberalised foreign exchange market policy (formulated by them) engage in various unethical and downright criminal foreign exchange sharp practices.
I can't wait to see fourth and fifth generation banks that will be owned and run by the offsprings of these lootocrats. These brats are now being injected into the main stream of governance subtly and surely. Like to hear it or not Nigerians are known over the globe as whizz kids in sharp practices. You can now imagine the outcome performances of these offsprings being tutored by their lootomaniac masters like popsies, mumsies, uncles, aunties, nephews, nieces and cousins and close friends of the family. The whole idea is for their kith and kin to take over, guaranteeing them protection from 'harm' after leaving office.
During the first five years of this present lootocracy, we were treated to sickening and disgraceful shows of shame again and again. One of such highlights was the display of "Ghana must go' bags right on the main desk in one of our Houses of Legislature. The populace was blatantly abused by the sight of these bags. We were told a number of contradictory stories - their origin, transmission and final destination. We were not given an insight into the figures though. Such announcement would have further boggled our already desecrated minds. Pray whatever happened to those bags and their content or contents
There are several sectors of unparalleled looting. These include Finance, Power, Petroleum, Works, Housing, River Basin, Ocean Floor, Niger Delta, Agric. Water Resources and so on and so forth. The Naira figures approved for these sectors are most indecent. Yet we remain thirsty, we are ill, we are in the dark most of the time, we are hungry, we have no roof, we have nothing. Other areas of conduit pipes are the Commissions, Advisories, Boards etc. These are duplicated and triplicated to make room for the easy flow of Naira and hard currency; and jobs for the endless rows of appendages.
Quite recently, a supposed consultant and ex-Governor of one of our states confronted each other at the SIB (State Investigation Bureau) office over a N180 million fraud - chicken feed though! But could it be that the ICPC was on vacation handing over to SIB - one of the many duplications, and triplications. Nigeria is a nation in depression, a nation of murder, arson, insecurity, rape, drug trafficking, human trafficking, sale of human parts (for you know what) thuggery etc. with their attendant side effect. It is awesome how a handful of Nigerians has held N120 million others to ransom.
Finally, Okurounmu pleads: "This is the time for all patriotic Nigerians to rise up, orgainise and give our people a better alternative for 2007. Good people with noble vision for this country must shake off their apathy, banish their fears and come forward to serve their nation. They must rescue the masses from the strangulating grip of our current selfish and rapacious political class and redeem our honour and image as a people. Nigerians are waiting!" Well said Femi. Please step forward. I am waiting.
Mrs. Adenihun, a veteran broadcaster, lives in Ibadan.
