The Days of the Jackals are Here - It is Business As Usual  
Kay Soyemi

Over the last few months, keen observers of the Nigerian socio-political horizon would have observed an ominous trend in the polity. A trend that suggests that all is not well with the matter. Indeed, there is a distinct malodorous taint in the air that suggests that it is not yet uhuru in the fight against corruption. To all and sundry, we are now entering a period in our nation’s development where the rule of law would become the norm rather than the aberration it had always been, but to those discerning Nigerians, there can be no doubt about it – it is the night of the long knives and the jackals are out to feast. The carcass, of course, is corporate Nigeria or its caricature. 

There is a general acceptance by all and sundry that if the foundation of a structure is weak, the structure itself shall remain inadequate, if it does not collapse. There is also a firm belief that a house cannot be divided against itself and remain standing. So it is, that I feel that the time is right for concerned Nigerians to raise the alarm about events currently unfolding within Aso Rock and corporate Nigeria. In the last few weeks, we have been sad and unfortunate witnesses to the homecoming events of two past governors who were accused and arraigned for stealing government funds. To the uninitiated or non-Nigerians, the events would mark a rather curious demonstration of the depravity of common or uncommon sense in the human beings known as Nigerian ‘politricians’ while to those many and silent majority of Nigerians who remain decent, the episode marks a certain upending of what our forefathers and forebears thought were decent. 

Yes, the Bible spoke about the return of the prodigal son and the welcome back from his father but I am not sure there is any part of the good book that elucidated the heroic welcomes to thieves. Yes, the book also spoke about the need to forgive, but in order to forgive; such act must of necessity be preceded by acts of penance and repentance on the side of those who have erred. I am not conversant with the Holy Qur'an and the tenets of the Hadith, but I doubt very much that there is a section in it that glorifies or edify the deeds of some common criminals that paraded as governors in the last dispensation. Having said these, I am sure that these thieving governors would not have dared to proclaim their innocence before the Égbesu or Áilala deities as they have before the gullible charlatans and jobbers on the political circus of Nigeria. Yes, we accept that they could obtain, the operative word being “obtain” legal justice in the courts of abracadabra provided the price is right for some of those dishonourable men in wigs who have graduated from the rank of charge and bail characters to the Bench. 

The signs that all is not well in the polity is when, to quote Bro Kongi, “the man in him died…when he refuses to speak up in the face of tyranny and oppression (and maybe corruption)”.  We now have a situation when an avowed defender of the tálakawá class remains silent when the jackals and vultures come out of the shadows with their long knives, hidden and open agendas and with daring wit, attempt to hoodwink us under the garb of “ruse of law” (Leonard K. Shilgba) whilst they rapaciously devour our collective heritage.  

Perhaps, Nigerians are being naïve when we expect vultures to defend the integrity of dead animals. Perhaps, chickens would grow teeth before this miracle occurs. Maybe, even pigs would fly. A situation where so-called political leaders and royal fathers troop out en masse to welcome convicted criminals who stole from the public purse is akin to madness or perhaps; there is more to it than meet the eyes. When one finger is soiled by palm oil, the other fingers are no less guilty. A situation where a previous public officer is charged with stealing from the common purse for the benefit of his and his family alone and he obtains a court order to “perpetually” restrain his trial and he is then actively defended by government counsels in the name of due process stinks to high heavens, even if it does smell at Aso Rock or its occupants fail to notice the stench. No wonder then, another big fish in the oily waters of state governance in Nigeria has also secured his ex parte order of perpetual injunction against trial for alleged theft of state funds. I will be taking a bet on more such cash and carry orders coming to public light for other indicted officers shortly. Nigeria, we hail thee! 

A situation where the public interest is now being subsumed for the interest of accused criminals cannot augur well for the development of the polity. When our AGF has become a loose canon in the fight against corruption and his sights are set on the defenders of the public interest such as the EFCC, then it behoves of decent men and women in the government, to quietly step up behind him and deliver the coup de grace before irreparable damage is done to the collective. We have been made to understand, perhaps brainwashed, that our current President is a decent man who would not want to stain his hand by swinging the deserving guillotine to save the nation from rapacious invaders and bogeymen, but we also have to wonder ‘on whose head lies the crown?’ 

That our current President and his team has envisioned 2020 as a dreamland destiny for the Nigerian craft is no longer a secret, but the stuff of nightmares considering the way the team is tottering along. Dear President, the message has to be stated loud and clear, “age 47 cannot be compared to that of a toddler”. I personally do not believe at this stage of our development and the new government that a miracle is going to occur within the next three years of the current dispensation as the foundation appear too higgledy-piggledy for my liking and comfort. As much as I detest to compare my dear country with the Western democracies, I cannot help but point our dear President to observe the precedent set by Gordon Brown in his first week in office when he was hit by all manners of crisis. We did not have to wait for 100 days to see the stuff he is made of, neither did we have to wait for donkey years before the form of his Cabinet was revealed. He hit the ground running because he knew what he wanted to do with power before seeking it and not the other way round. 

Ordinarily, where our hopes would have lain in other arms of the government to shore up the credibility and transparency of the governance process, the legislative chambers are largely comatose and embroiled in misdemeanours of their own making. As it was with all previous plenary sessions of the Fourth (or is it Fifth) Republic, the present swan song is the sharing of lucre and the fallouts arising from it. All plenary sessions in Nigeria, without fail, has always devoted its first weeks in office at looking at their own welfare and rarely does the matter of due governance for the benefit of ordinary Nigerians come into the equation till these matters are resolved to their financial satisfaction. The present crop of lawmakers have not proven any different, even if there are decent human beings among them, we have failed to see any glimmer. 

On the contrary, there are so many rumblings about ‘juicy appointments and committees’, over inflated contracts and contracts unduly awarded. What has now become abundantly clear to all is that the hallowed chambers are but salons for the sharing of political booty and loot. Where the legislative chambers have failed to deliver on its oversight functions to ensure that the executive arm does not derail, Nigerians would have no option (all things being equal) but to turn to the judiciary. However, the judiciary, with the exception of a very few men and women, have turned into a cash and carry portfolio for a thieving minority.  

So, in effect we now have a conspiracy of government against its citizens and probably need to query the definition of democracy as “government of the people, by the people, and for the people”. We now have a “government of the looters, by the looters, and for the looters”.  

There was a time in the past when Nigeria had a leader who was a good man but his time came to naught because he was surrounded by, or he surrounded himself with evil company. His going was not mourned, but cheered. Yet there was another time Nigeria had a leader who was seen as a bad man but his time became synonymous with the fight against corruption, albeit selectively, because he gave teeth to a man called Ribadu in the fight against the baddies. His going was cheered, but the way things are going, Dear Mallam, please be assured that Nigerians may come to regret fighting the third term. 

Let it not be said, “In the name of Yar’Adua…!”