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 Daily
Independent Online.
* Wednesday, June 30, 2004.
The case of Obasanjo and the 36 thieves.
By Sam Kargbo
There are things that
politicians do that make me sick. Visualize the ridiculous picture of a
delusive politician who labors to cut the image of an angel. I am
certainly not the only person that sees the pervasive liar in the
politician. But like me, many people tolerate the politician because they
are too busy laboring to make ends meet. If many of us were economically
secure enough to reserve sufficient energy for the scrutiny and policing
of the politician, many a rogue would not come near the political
arena. But alas! We are all
so economically marginalized that we care less about what the thieves are
doing in our names. This is why George Bush is in Iraq to make the world
safe for the Americans. This is why the spineless Blair will tell you
that he is supporting Bush to keep the British - American fraternity
stronger. That is why the astute Chirac, who in reality was bargaining
for better economic returns from Bush, will claim in public that he
stayed clear of Iraq to protect his beloved French citizens from the
devastating reprisals of al Qaeda.
Coming home, the pretentious Oshiomholes
are wont to dare the imperial Chief-Olusegun Obasanjo and his restive
snipers because they want to rescue the ordinary people from economic
bondage. Freedom from economic bondage my foot! The Ogunlewes present themselves
as striving to free Lagosians from Tinubu’s tyranny and Tinubu on his
part is putting his life on the line to secure the independence of
Lagosians from Federal dominion. What a way to martyrdom! For the love of
the people, Uncle Sege puts up with the insults of armchair and at times
outright discourteous critics. For the comfort of the people Uncle Sege
also continuously subsidizes petroleum products even though it would have
served him better if he had used the money he is wasting on the subsidy
to bribe the media and of course the political jobbers who are more
important and relevant to his political life than the so-called people.
If this would pass for a complete article,
I would have simply said that the politician is not just a pathological
liar but also more importantly an infliction on society. There is hardly
any calamity that befalls the individual or society that is not traceable
to the politician. The politician is the affliction of the poor and the
nemesis for idiots. Quote me anytime and anywhere: the worst thing that
has ever happened to mankind and the cause of civilization is the
politician. Unfortunately, for humanity time is not on our side to
rethink the place of the politician in the life of humankind. Our wants,
our fears, our uncertainties, our indecisions, and our failings have
surrendered us to the politician. Worse still the politician knows this,
and is making the best of it. Disappointingly, and this is the most
frustrating part, the politician is quick to use us to achieve his
crooked ends. Because of our preoccupation or pursuit of our alimentary
needs, we do not feed our brains with the necessary food for the needed
conscious and cautious thinking process. We become na�ve and easily
manipulated. In fact, politics, which in reality is nothing more than the
art or science of manipulation and deceit, has become the handiest tool
of the smart and clever rogues masquerading as servants of the
electorate. Instead of the politicians to use the gun to disposes you of
your resources he or she comes in the guise of a faithful servant and
like the power of the enticement of Satan on Adam, you will not know when
you give in and surrender your kingdom to him or her. Before you know
what hit you, he or she has taken over your life and it will take the
grace of God for you to reclaim your kingdom or whatever is left of it.
This sorry state brings us to the feud
between the Federal Government and the state governors over the
disclosure of what they are supposed to hold in trust for the citizenry.
In what Governor Bola Tinubu would describe as bad belle politics, the
president has been publishing the allocations of the states and that has
achieved the intended objective. The people are now in a position to
juxtapose what their state executives are actually collecting from the
national cake and their actual performance. This has indeed exposed many and if you conduct a poll
not many a state executive would get a pass mark from their people. As to
the question of what they do with the money, the Federal Ministry of
Finance and the Central Bank (who are in a position to know), say that
they simply bombard the mallams and purchase Euros, pound- sterling,
dollars and other convertible currencies and hop on the nearest available
plane and head to conniving banks abroad. To the governors, the workers
can wait for their successors for their salaries and of course,
development too can wait. As far as the governors are concerned, those
looking for the dividends of democracy should go and ask Aso Rock. After all,
the chief executive officer and highest beneficiary of democracy reside
there. They do not want to miss this opportunity to banish poverty in
their lives and those of their families forever.
The governors are not putting up a strong
fight to refute these accusations. Rather, they seem to tacitly ask Mr.
President to remove the log in his eyes first before pointing fingers at
those of the governors. The governors are also cleverly turning to us to
fight their cause and cover their nakedness. Many of us have fallen for
this. We have brushed aside the case against the governors and are
hectoring Mr. President to start his transparency campaign with himself
and his holier- than- thou executive wards. There is nothing wrong with
that except that we are in a hurry to overlook the havoc that this family
of younger politicians is wrecking on the polity. Believe me the thief in
the house is worse than the one next door. It is not funny to trivialize
the alarm raised by our two female ministers who from all indications
know that they are saying. The senior one earns dollars and has been
‘chopping’ dollar for a long time and is in a position to have at her
fingertips the global dollar terrain. If what is said of Dariye and the
London arrest over money laundry is anything to go by, I think it is high
time we took the activities of our governors seriously. This is not to be
construed as putting the presidency in a better moral stead. Like I have
said, no politician is better than the other but then some facts now demand
our urgent attention and one of such facts is the dangers of allowing the
governors to behave as if the economies of their states belong to them
and their godfathers. The states are nearer to the people and have a more
immediate impact on the people. I am not impressed with the efforts that
the so-called clean and virtuous governors are making to divert our
attention from the charges against them. What we should first insist on
is for the Federal Ministry of Finance and the CBN to publish security
reports on the culprits and wait for them at their exit in 2007 to
prosecute and accordingly, prevent those involved from using the stolen
funds to secure higher political offices tomorrow.
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