Living in a fairyland
By Levi Obijiofor

IF there ever was a fairy island somewhere in Africa, Nigerian leaders would be justified to claim credit for discovering that island of disbelief. We are all wrapped in the fervour of fairytale assurances. When political leaders speak in public, their statements expose them as people who have been living outside the country or as sojourners who just returned from a visit to Mars. Nothing they tell the public matches reality. One of the reasons why there is so much distrust of public officers and political leaders in Nigeria is their inability to reflect social reality in their words and their actions. Over the years, political leaders and government representatives have established a reputation for giving assurances they know they are incapable of upholding. Whatever happened to accountability and responsibility in government?.

After many years of watching promises made by government officials dissolve into thin air even before those officials have shut their mouths, the Nigerian public has learnt to scoff at assurances that emanate from political leaders. How wonderful it would be if federal and state government officials could dispense with niceties, come out cleanly and tell us that we are living in a fairyland, an imaginary island where we should expect to enjoy perfect politics and a perfect life. Consider the following instances. Right from the moment President Olusegun Obasanjo began to preach his anti-corruption gospel, he was short of many disciples because everyone knew that even among senior public officers and political leaders, there were people whose names would have made better sense if they were replaced with the word corruption, to reflect the true nature of their lifestyle.

Deprived of genuine and committed supporters, Obasanjo's anti-corruption campaign lost steam and sputtered fumes, signalling the imminent end of a bogus project. At some stage, Obasanjo began to doubt his own ability to mount a successful campaign against a disease of which many citizens have developed symptoms. Emboldened by his legendary stubborn determination, he carried on and, voila, in the sixth year, Obasanjo's anti-corruption fishing net caught many big fish in the National Assembly and in the Federal Ministry of Education. Since then, Obasanjo has been smiling even in his sleep.

Obasanjo has allowed the latest success in his anti-corruption crusade to becloud his sense of judgment and reality. Obasanjo said last weekend in Ado Ekiti, during his official tour of Ekiti State, that the battle against corruption would be a "total war" and that it would be won only with divine assistance from God. Acknowledging the difficulty of tracking and exposing corruption in the nation, Obasanjo said that "...in corruption war you don't really know who your enemy is. Under your bed there may be a corrupt person and he is sleeping with you and planning with you and you don't know. In fact it is a war that is worse than others". Given this open acceptance of the far reaching nature of corruption, it was a bit of a surprise when some days later Obasanjo dared journalists and indeed the nation to expose him and members of his family if anyone had evidence of corruption involving top government officials. Obasanjo's challenge to the nation is not in synch with his previous statement in Ado Ekiti. It was an unnecessary and laughable challenge, one that could be regarded as mere presidential bravado.

When Obasanjo challenged the nation to produce any evidence of corruption against him and his family members, one wondered whether the challenge was a State House stunt or a serious undertaking. Did Obasanjo really expect even the most daring whistleblower to expose any evidence of corruption against him and his family members, if there is such an evidence? No one in his or her right senses would want to put his or her life at great risk by challenging a president who holds a monopoly over the instruments of coercion. I raise this issue not to suggest that Obasanjo might eliminate a whistleblower people take him on on his words, but simply to draw attention to the hypocrisy in such a challenge, in the light of the intolerant nature of African leaders.

In Africa and in Nigeria, critics of government are roundly portrayed as enemies of the state. People who are not in support of the government are threatened, harassed, intimidated, jailed and tortured because of their political leanings and their desire to defend freedom of expression. In the prevailing atmosphere of political intolerance and the culture of sit-tight dictators, what is the probability that a whistleblower who exposed evidence of corruption against a tempestuous leader would find life easy in the full view of overzealous security agents? In some parts of the world, in particular in the former Soviet republics and in some African countries, investigative journalists who tried to expose official corruption against the leadership of their countries either disappeared without a trace or died mysteriously.

This is why I argued in the introductory paragraph that we are in a society in which political leaders routinely make comments that suggest that they are operating in a fairyland. Anyone who accepts Obasanjo's challenge on the surface must be living in a dreamworld. If Obasanjo issued that challenge in the expectation that he would appear immaculate before the nation and the international audience, he was wrong. As Obasanjo himself must have realised, there is a general perception among western leaders that political and military leaders in Africa are disgustingly corrupt and above reproach in their home countries. Our political leaders are not mature enough to tolerate scorching criticisms, not to mention bare-faced allegations of corruption at the highest level. For the nation to take Obasanjo and his challenge seriously, there should also be a guarantee at the federal level that whistleblowers against the Presidency would be given state protection against harm contrived by agents of the state. At the moment, there is a general perception in the country that corruption is endemic at all levels of government - state and federal - and that only the unfortunate people get caught with their heads stuck in Obasanjo's anti-corruption trap. By the way, why is Obasanjo not taking the anti-corruption fight to the states?

Consider another case of fairytale comments from a top crime fighter. When Sunday Ehindero was appointed acting Inspector-General of Police, he talked about his determination to transform the police force. Ehindero was also mindful of the poor image of the police and warned the rank and file of the police against extortion of money, a sore point in the checkered history of police-community relations. Ehindero also warned drivers not to give money to police officers at checkpoints. While speaking to cadets of the Police Academy in Wudil, near Kano, on Friday, 11 February 2005, Ehindero admitted: "Our image is at its lowest ebb and it is our responsibility to improve the image. We must change the way we police people. We must stop extortion of monies on the roads."

Well, despite assurances by Ehindero to transform the police by eliminating extortion, a police constable in Makurdi shot dead a commercial bus driver and a pregnant woman in early March. Three other passengers in the vehicle died as a result of an accident which followed the killing of the driver. According to media reports, the five people lost their lives over N20 which the driver refused to give to the police constable. Two weeks earlier, a 19-year-old girl was killed by a police patrol team in the same area. In the first week of this month, a 25-year-old man was shot and critically wounded at a checkpoint near Enugu. Again, the incident was connected to police extortion. The police hierarchy has now decided to set up an anti-extortion squad to check the embarrassment. It could well turn out to be a squad that chases its own shadows. Since Ehindero took over as police boss, the police has adopted a new slogan: "To protect and serve with integrity". Obviously the police are not yet serving with full integrity.