Tony Blair, the immediate past British Prime Minister, is now in rude financial health. Few weeks ago, JPMorgan Chase, the pre-eminent American Investment Bank, appointed him into its board on a part time basis. It was reported that the part time position will earn Mr Blair around £2million a year. Similarly, on the 28 January 2008, it was announced that Mr Blair has joined Zurich, the Swiss financial giant, as a political adviser. This should fetch Mr Blair in excess of £500,000.00 per annum. Mr Blair has also been busy in the international lecture circuit. He charges between £100,000.00 and £200,000.00 per speech depending on the audience. In fact in November 2007, he charged a group of Chinese businessmen £240,000.00 for the pleasure of having him talk to them. Also in 2007, Mr Blair entered into an agreement with Random House publishing company to publish his memoir in a deal said to be worth £4.6million. Tony Blair stepped down as British Prime Minister on the 27 June 2007.

Now compare our own Olusegun Obasanjo. Since he left As Rock on the 29 May 2007, he has contrived to lose his hitherto international prestige. Rather than enhance him, the presidency of Nigeria between 1999-2007 appears to have diminished him. He now faces daily opprobrium not only from his army of detractors but also from the products of his own loins.

Politicians like to say that they are in the public service to serve their people. There is a sense {at least in the West} that a lot of people holding political offices would have fared better financially if they had been engaged in their profession, trade or industry. The need to serve and better the lots of their people is thus seen as the driving force why many politicians seek public office. Thus it is not unusual for some premiership footballers to earn in a month more than what the Prime Minister earns in a year. Indeed Tony Blair is on record as having said that without his wife’s income they probably would not have been able to send their children to decent private nursery schools. Politicians in the west thus generally accept the fact that whilst they can earn decent living when in government, this will not make them millionaires.

Nigerian politicians however operate under a different set of Codes of Expectation. Indeed our politicians appear to see public office as one unending buffet where every one of them is obliged to chop as much as they like! It seems that Nigerians see public office as the quickest and easiest means of ‘making it’ in the country. Although our politicians might protest otherwise,  the continuing pauperisation of the Nigerian people despite the abundance of human and natural resources, is a clear testimony that our politicians’ overarching desire is to so enrich themselves so that their children’s children never have to work in their lives!

Take the case of Tony Blair and Olusegun Obasanjo. Tony Blair left office without any substantiable whiff of corruption against him. There was of course the ‘honours for peers’ allegation, but this was judicially investigated and nothing was found against him. Surely there were no coded foreign accounts {in Nigeria!} or properties in choice areas of Ghana, or oil interest in Gabon! There were no last minute spooky multi-billion dollar deals awarded to coteries without due process. He has served his people to the best of his ability, retains his integrity and enhanced his global reputation. The time has now come for him to make some money. Olusegun Obasanjo, on the other hand, got to power in 1999 then verging on the edge of bankruptcy. He has served his people with all his strength {?}, left his people poorer than he met them, damaged his integrity and reputation but made bundles in the process.  By all account, he has become richer than he was in 1999 with investments spanning several strata of the Nigerian, and some will say, the world economy.

And there lies the crux of the matter. Politicians in the West know that if they are able to enhance their reputation whilst in office, they are certain to make money whilst out of it. Good performance  whilst in office is thus like a financial insurance policy to ensure financial security after leaving power. It is said that Bill Clinton made more money in the two years after he left the white House than he did for the duration of his presidency. This is not the case in Nigeria and even the Nigerian people expect public office holders to leave office richer than they went in. Until we have a collective attitudinal change to public office, corruption will continue to make the country one tedious perpetual work in progress.

Adebayo Kareem

Solicitor and Senior Prosecutor with the crown Prosecution Service {CPS}

Stratford London.

Telephone: 07947221449

Email: afasodew@hotmail.co.uk

Robot  # 1 | 29.01.2008 15:24

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