05 Aug 2007 |
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Is Alami Now A Hero? Former Governor of Bayelsa state, Diepreye Alamiyeseigha ought by now to have gone down in history as the first Governor in Nigeria's Fourth Republic to be sentenced to jail on the grounds of corrupt practices. He was sentenced to two years imprisonment, by the court of Justice Mohammed Shuaibu of the Federal High Court of Lagos, following a protracted trial and his admission of guilt in a 25-count charge. The judge also ordered the forfeiture of six of his companies, eleven houses at home and abroad and sums of money totalling about N600 million. But because the embattled Governor had already served out the term of his imprisonment in EFCC custody, he is already a free man. Under normal circumstances, Alamiyeseigha, who before now had jumped bail in England in a money laundering case - he says the British authorities organized his escape, and those ones are diplomatically silent (!), should be generally promoted and cited across Nigeria as a persona non grata, as a man who has fallen from grace to grass, as a living symbol of the fate that awaits corrupt leaders and a living lesson to all serving Governors and public officials. When the head of the Drug and Food Law Enforcement Agency in China was recently beheaded for his involvement in illegal and criminal activities, we held that up as the kind of treatment that should be meted out to corrupt Nigerian leaders. In other countries, corrupt public officers have been treated to similar fate. But here in Nigeria, Alamiyeseigha's trial and conviction have ended up as a farce and a sorry anti-climax. Whatever moral lesson that should be learnt from his trial and humiliation have been blunted by various attempts to glorify him. Since his release from prison custody, he has been treated like a hero. Concerned Bayelsans have had to raise funds for his treatment abroad in a curious show of support and solidarity. Spritualists reportedly organised thanksgiving prayer sessions to celebrate his return from prison while well-wishers besieged his home in Ikeja, GRA, Lagos, to pay homage. Alami is now on his way back to Dubai where the authorities only a few weeks ago, diplomatically shoehorned him out of their hospitals, not wanting to be seen to be supporting a discredited Nigerian leader. The former Governor has also been received in audience by President Umaru Yar'Adua at the Presidential Villa in Abuja where he reportedly was recruited as a kind of Honorary Special Adviser to the Federal Government on Niger Delta matters. It is not impossible that a Presidential jet was sent to Lagos to take Alamiyeseigha to Abuja, and that he traveled to the Villa in a Presidential convoy. He must have walked majestically on the grounds of the Presidential Villa, decked out in his Niger Delta regalia, complete with cap and walking stick, and resource control swagger, had quality audience with the President, enjoyed the pleasure of Presidential lunch. This is the same man who only a week earlier was at the mercy of prison warders at the Ikoyi prison and EFCC officials who treated him like a common criminal. The court found him guilty of using public funds to set up companies and a property portfolio, collecting kickbacks from contractors, and using his position to amass odious wealth. A week later, the same man was being treated by both the Presidency and a section of the public as if he was a prisoner of conscience and a victim of the Nigerian state. He has even been called the man with the solution to the Niger Delta crisis. From EFCC custody to the Presidential Villa as guest and Honorary Adviser, former Governor Alamiyeseigha must be feeling triumphant. He does not feel that he has been disgraced, and when he says he is a victim of the machinations of the Obasanjo government, he gets a good audience. This development is most unfortunate. It deals a big blow to whatever positive signal may have been represented by his conviction in court. The work of the court of Justice Mohammed Shuaibu has been short-circuited by politicians acting outside the court of law. When the President holds audience with a convicted man, with such a historically significant burden, and receives him with so much ceremony, he is unwittingly rubbishing the cause of justice. The court of law has done its duty and law is not morality. But in the Alamiyesiegha case, the Presidency has made a moral pitch which contradicts its avowed commitment to the war against corruption. So, Alami is now a consultant to the Federal Government on Niger Delta affairs? Excuse me. Anyway, the man had always insisted that he is the Governor-General of the Ijaw Nation. What has happened is that he has now been so recognized by the Federal Government. In his allocutus before the court, he had also suggested that his trial is responsible for the militancy in the Niger Delta. In that manner, he more or less admitted another offence against the state, with the arrogant declaration that he was merely admitting guilt in the substantive matter only for purposes of convenience. He spat in the face of the court; in his case, politics became a more important sub-text, even if his conviction is a label that he must now wear like a garment. But who knows? He could get a Presidential pardon very soon, and a national honour to boot. Moral revisionism, fuelled by complete amnesia is one of the more serious problems in Nigeria. But no other incident represents the anything is possible moral conundrum at the heart of the Nigerian condition than the alacritous speed with which Alamiyeseigha has made the transition from felon to hero within a week. In the Second Republic, some Governors were indicted and sentenced to many years in jail for mismanaging public funds. Compared to what the Governors whose misdemeanours are now being revealed, those Second Republic Governors now look like saints. It is possible indeed to conclude that those who ruled Nigeria between 2003 and 2007 were bandits, with their eye-popping, and obscene wealth all acquired within such a short period of time. But the growing drift towards amorality in the Nigerian society was evident long before now. One of the Governors who was indicted during the Second Republic, his name shall not be mentioned, but please note that he was the most notorious of the convicted public officials at the time. He was sentenced to over 150 years in jail. The fellow was not only pardoned later, he subsequently showed up as a Senator of the Federal Republic, he set up a bank which wasted depositors' funds, and has been living happily ever after as an "important man" in the Nigerian society. One former Inspector General of Police once took a look at the National Assembly and remarked that most of the so-called distinguished Senators had been tried for one crime or the other in the past by his office! Thus, at every turn, we confront the collapse of values in our lives. Alamiyesiegha is the latest beneficiary of this omission. And there will be others. For example, former Governor Orji Kalu of Abia State, who is also standing trial for corrupt practices, has also visited the Presidential Villa. He went there shortly after he was released on bail. When the Kalu matter is also resolved, don't be surprised if President Yar'Adua offers him a position as a Honorary adviser on the MASSOB question in the South East. At their reported meeting, both men were said to have taken a look at the proposed Government of National Unity in which Kalu's Progressive Peoples Alliance (PPA) is supposed to play a part. Kalu is standing trial, but he is also at the same time, being consulted by the Presidency as a statesman! It is safe to argue that all things considered, President Umaru Yar'adua is at a crossroads in the matter between the EFCC and the former Governors. He has expressed his determination to sustain the war against corruption, but the former Governors are also his former colleagues, possibly his personal friends, men with whom he had once shared special moments and experiences and exchanged goodwill in the past. Would he forsake them? How far will he allow the EFCC to go in putting them on trial? He has said that his government's only interest in the matter is that due process must be observed but if he keeps having tea and handshakes with indicted or convicted former Governors, will he not send the wrong signal? This is a moral dilemma that only Yar'Adua himself can resolve. He may well argue that a man is innocent until he has been proven guilty and that conviction in a court of law should be enough punishment for a felon; once that is over, such a person should be accepted back into the community of men and accorded due respect. The only caveat is that the Presidency is not just another location and the President is not just another man. The Presidential Villa is not his personal property where he can receive any visitor of his choice as he wishes. Every gesture from the Presidency is bound to have larger implications, every visitor to its hallowed grounds, depending on who he or she is, could be a subject of necessary scrutiny. One piece of advice: President Yar'Adua should watch his guest list carefully. Hosting Alami within a week after his release from prison, and making a public show of his visit is unwise. And it is not exactly advisable to host whoever is currently standing trial in the courts among the Governors. If the President wants to show sympathy or express solidarity to any of his friends, he should do so quietly. A Presidential handshake with persons who have a case to answer or who have been sanctioned by the law can compromise the anti-corruption campaign, and the lessons that Governors and other public officials must learn. Worse: it can lay the Presidency open to charges of constructive interference. President Yar'Adua must remain consistent. Society's moral fibre is raised not only through the justice process, but more through the moral choices that society itself makes. In communities of old, a man who went against the social grain was isolated and ex-communicated, his family was stigmatized, his name was recorded in the community's Black Book, the stigma remained for life, from generation to generation, and this served as a restraining factor against any form of anti-social conduct. But in Nigeria today, moral choices have become negotiable and a good name no longer counts for much. And so anything is possible, so everything is relative. Don't doubt this: the day Alamiyeseigha returns to Bayelsa, there will be dancing in the streets from Yenagoa to Wilberforce Island, congratulatory messages in the media, a 21-gun salute by the combined forces of ethnic militants and kidnappers of the Niger Delta., and the media so complicit in this matter will report it all with relish and flourish. This is the sad thing about our country: on every score, in every matter, we find it so expedient to strike the recursive note.
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