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B N W: Biafra Nigeria World News |
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MIXED METAPHORS
LAST WEEK, the Minister for the Federal Capital Territory, Malam Nasir El-Rufai, apologized to members of the Senate, to whom he had referred as "fools." They were demanding that President Olusegun Obasanjo fire him. Actually, it was the President himself who had opened the season of apologies on behalf of the Minister before the young man realized he was in trouble.
Behind the closed gates of the presidential mansion, the President, himself renowned for an often untamed tongue, must have called the Minister a few names. And then, a contrite Malam El-Rufai - out of love of his job, or strategically determined to stay on to complete his mission in the administration - offered to visit the Senate. It was in those same halls he had once been humiliated when he showed up to address the legislators about two of their members having asked him for a bribe before they could back his nomination. Returning there last week, a troubled El-Rufai, according to reports, offered several apologies. It would be interesting to see if the Senators were persuaded to allow him continue as a Minister.
Let us be clear. What is more important than the Minister's job is for him to substantiate his superiority posture by answering the basic issues raised by the Senate's Public Accounts Committee. Did the Minister flout the rules, or didn't he? When he scoffed at the Senators, I believed he meant his badly-chosen language in the sense the legislators being vastly uninformed, rather than being stupid. This is the moment for him to demonstrate that he was not himself just being arrogant. He must produce the facts and figures, or resign his position. It is true that for a long time, some of the Senators have been looking for a tree from which to hang El-Rufai. It would be such a tragedy if they found one that the Minister had planted by himself. The Minister's apology applies to his "fools" comment, not to the content of his performance as a public official.
AND OH, how convenient for President Olusegun Obasanjo's "war" on corruption: only days after the after the British grabbed former Plateau State Governor Joshua Dariye in London for trying to lodge the Plateau State commonwealth on its soil, Nigeria charges him with false declaration of assets and for operating a foreign bank account.
For months, his government has insisted that State Governors are looting their states and hiding the money abroad. It is interesting that it is the one man that is already out of the power loop that is being charged. It reminds one of the late Sani Abacha being hounded all over the world as if he were the only man to steal from Nigeria. This is precisely what keeps President Obasanjo's "anti-corruption" effort at the level of rhetoric. When will he be able to stare down the powerful and the influential close enough to eat pounded yam out of the same bowls as he.
ALSO LAST WEEK, at a forum of accountants-general in Abuja President took aim at the bureaucrats. He accused them of engaging in corruption and sharp practices despite the ongoing economic "reforms". Sometimes, President Obasanjo is so...how do I put this...innocent! He catches Governors at it, Accountants-General, former military commanders, former ministers... and he is so 'surprised.' Nigerians around the world tell him about the property that public officials are buying up, and he is...so 'surprised.' Next sermon, Mr. President.
SO INSPECTOR-GENERAL Tafa Balogun is our 'Super Cop'? The award is courtesy of "Security Watch," an African Independent Television (AIT) programme. The producers of Security Watch win my sophistry award, for which they ought to be made to suck a fresh lemon on the air. It is a shame that the IG did not turn the award over to one of the unsung heroes within the ranks, or even dedicate it to the family of one of his men killed in service. AIT, it takes no brains to define service or success in terms of the powerful and the influential: it is known as bootlicking. This is why "Security Watch" is not worth watching.
SPEAKING OF bosses, it is that period of the year when the President compiles a list of people for National Honours. I wonder if the likes of Ibrahim Babangida, Muhammadu Buhari and Tony Anenih are eligible (again) this year.
IN QUAGADOUGOU last week, Obasanjo pinned the label of "continental embarrassment" on poverty and unemployment. At the extra-ordinary summit of the African Union on Employment and Poverty Alleviation, he urged African leaders to adopt far-reaching and comprehensive reforms built around people to reposition the continent. He said they should move away from rhetoric and demonstrate the political will to tackle the problem.
As the Chairman of the African Union, this gospel does not apply to President Obasanjo, of course. In his country, according to his own Employment, Labour and Productivity Minister, Alhaji Hassan Lawal at the same occasion, nearly 90 million people live below the poverty line. This proves that hypocritical leaders are the greatest danger to Africa.
IT IS also that period of the year when African leaders, fortified with large delegations, head to New York to make their ritual speeches at the United Nations General Assembly. Some of them would be fresh graduates of the "continental embarrassment" encounter of poverty and unemployment in Ouagadougou. For the privilege of a 10-minute speech, these leaders will spend hundreds of thousands of dollars. That, of course, would be before - or while - the wives and their delegations start partying and shopping.
ON TELEVISION, IBB last week dismissed allegations that he corruptly enriched himself while in power. On AIT's "The Sunday Interview," he argued that the Okigbo Report did not indict him concerning the so-called $12.4 billion windfall. IBB is entitled to his bluster. This is what happens when rumours, not facts and figures, are allowed to flourish. I would have urged President Obasanjo to publish the report and let it speak for itself. The President has said, however, that IBB did not loot Nigeria. In that sense, is it not in the interest of IBB to ensure that the Okigbo Report is published?
ON THE OKIGBO REPORT, it would be recalled that THE PUNCH last year championed the search for what was feared to be a missing national document. In 1994, the government of Sani Abacha set up the body to investigate how the $12.4 billion earned by the nation during the first Gulf War in 1991 was spent. Nearly one year ago, the office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation said that the document was not missing. It has yet to be published, but THE PUNCH wins my admiration for its efforts.
WHO IS Hilary Benn? He is the Secretary for International Development in Prime Minister Tony Blair's government. That makes him a key figure in the Commission for Africa, which Mr. Blair launched in February 2004. In Nigeria, ignorant and idle bureaucrats did not even know the man was, well, a man. Upon Mr. Benn's arrival in Nigeria last week in connection with the Commission, he was welcomed by banners and posters depicting him as a woman. Our people felt that his first name being Hilary was enough for him to be a woman. Worse still, his last name was emblazoned on the streets as "Ben."
Mr. Blair's Commission is investigating the roots of Africa's poverty, and hopes to find answers to its health challenges (including HIV/AIDS), poverty, conflict resolution and bad governance. It holds its second meeting next month in Addis Ababa; its first was in May.
* E-mail: [email protected]
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