24 Aug 2008 |
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Ambassador Sam Edem, was on Monday arraigned before an Abuja High court for stealing N800 million belonging to the Federal Government. Nothing could be a better misfit than for one man to bear the prestigious title of an Ambassador and the debasing one of a thief at the same time. I don’t know what the ‘Sam’ in his name stands for, but I guess it could be for Samson or Samuel, whichever way; it does not sound good on Edem at all. While the former, though known for his problems with women, was never associated with stealing, while the later was a great prophet of God. How then did an ‘Edemic’ (read Endemic) thief turn out to be a Sam and also an Ambassador as well? Well, in Nigeria such anomalies are more of the rule than exception. The crooks are coroneted while the decent are despised and trodden upon. We look down on virtue and celebrate vanity. Edem is just one of the many square pegs we have in round holes, at the highest stratum of leadership in Nigeria. There is hardly any sector of the Nigerian economy; one could turn a curious eye without being assaulted with gory sights of dislocated infrastructure occasioned by unmitigated sleaze in high and low places alike. During the last two years, we witnessed what could have been another oil boom, but unfortunately as the price of crude oil soared higher, our poverty index rose correspondingly against the basic laws of economics. How can we make more money and become poorer? The answer lies in characters like Edem who’s IQ is too low to differentiate between public recourses and private income. Though the Police are prosecuting Edem for stealing N800 million, the matter goes beyond that. If this man could spend N800 million on voodoo alone, one could guess with reasonable certainty that he had illegitimate access to much more money that this figure. The EFCC must step in and do a thorough investigation to recover all the looted funds and any property he may have used it to acquire. Edem should be additionally charged for sabotage and for acts causing public unrest in Niger Delta region. Imagine what N800 Million can do for the people. It is amazing that someone who once occupied the dignified diplomatic position of Ambassador Plenipotentiary and Extraordinary to the Republics of Senegal, Rwanda, and Burundi as well as the High Commissioner of Nigeria to the Republic of Uganda could end up a common criminal. Reading his Biography on the NDDC website, one would think we had some sane being at the helm of affairs at the Commission. The website says he was ‘born… prominent and disciplined parents who were given to sound Christian tenets. His father was a Pastor with the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Zion Church and a great Community Leader with the status of the Chairman, Nsit County Council, and his mother was a Deaconess of the Church and a fashion designer of her time’. Edem obviously did not take after his parents and may his children not take after him. Amen And this takes me to the dearth of Christian values in our public life. With millions of professing Christians in Nigeria, one is at a loss why Christ-like-ness is so missing in our dealings with the state and fellow man. Christ’s golden rule ‘love your neighbor as yourself’ has been thrown into the dustbin as we run after prosperity and fame. Edem’s Biography also states that he is ‘a devout Christian, who is happily married to Doris, has children. With modesty, humility, diligence and discipline as his guiding principles; he has written his name in gold! ..bla. bla. Bla’. But we now know that these are pure lies. Edem could bear the name of a Christian, but had no love for the subjects whose welfare was trusted in his hands. Edem could profess to be a Christian but his heart was full of wickedness and greed. How could a man whom God has blessed so immensely and upon whom so many eyes were focused for hope afford to fall so cheaply to avarice? Could this man not have honorably returned to his village a great man after his tenure as NDDC Chairman? Would his people not have gladly given him a heroic reception? What else should God have done to Edem for him to be contented with life? Why must Edem seek to remain Chairman of NDDC forever? Look at the chain of traditional titles he accumulated to himself: The Ikpoto of Ini; Ete Ndito Ufoknwed Akwa Ibom (Father of Akwa Ibom Students), Obong Iberedem Etim Ekpo, Obong Idorenyin Iwaad Ekid (Hope of Eket Youth), the Atta of Oron, Obong Unwana (Prince of Light) of Nsit Ubium, and Obong Uko (the Courageous Prince) of Ikono. But alas all these hopes were placed on the wrong man. No wonder the Bible says that woe unto the man whose hope in is man. Psalms 146:3 warn emphatically; ‘put not your trust in princes nor in the son of man in whom there is no help and in Psalms 146:28- he that trusts in his riches shall fall but the righteous shall flourish as a branch. But there is a good side of this Edem. He hates violence! How do I mean? Instead of sending hired assassins after his enemies, he preferred to use voodoo, so that they could at least die from natural causes and perhaps less painfully. Hmm. What a benevolent crook! Edem cannot be alone in this fraud. The NDDC as an organization is ripe for a full-scale probe to identify the loopholes that could have given its Chairman access to so huge an amount of money. The Finance Department of the NDDC needs to be combed thoroughly to fish out possible accomplices. The ‘Juju’ priest who Edem allegedly contracted to do ‘spiritual’ work for him is a mere crook that needs to be treated as a receiver of stolen goods and jailed together with his ‘client’. It is ‘parasites’ like Edem that have persistently scuttled the efforts of the Federal Government to develop the Niger Delta. Had Asari Dakubo looked near and about him carefully, he would have recognized the real suckers of the Niger Delta and restrained himself from taking the blame to so distant a place as the North. The Bible says that a man’s foes shall be they of his own household (Mathew.10: 36). Edem has shown that the enemies of the Niger Delta are within. It is high time we make punishment for financial crimes more severe. It is only something like life imprisonment that could effectively deter ‘to-be’ corrupt leaders from dipping their fingers into public coffers.
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