A tale of letter writers, clowns and unpatriotic generals

This is no parable. It’s a tale. A tale of letter writers, clowns, and generals who are not just unpatriotic but totally disgusting. They have been in the news for some days now. Of course, you already know them! But if perchance you still can’t figure out those I’m referring to, I’ll help you. 

Of letter writers, I am talking chiefly about former President, Olusegun Obasanjo, Nigeria’s most-renowned letter writer, who recently wrote a letter to the Senate and the House of Representatives lambasting members of both arms of the National Assembly of greed, impunity and corruption.

Of clowns, I’m speaking mainly about Dino Melaye, the clownish senator from Kogi West who described Obasanjo’s letter as ‘misplacement anger,’ and accused the former President of introducing corruption into the National Assembly. Melaye is in good company with some of his colleagues in the legislature who have turned the serious business of lawmaking to nothing but crude jokes with their conduct so far.

And of unpatriotic generals, I am writing specifically about the military leaders whose names have been mentioned in the ongoing probe of funds meant for arms which were spent during the immediate past administration of President Goodluck Jonathan by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) principal of which is the immediate past Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal Adesola Amosu, aside former National Security Adviser, Col. Sambo Dasuki (rtd).

President Muhammadu Buhari, you will recall, had in January directed the EFCC to carry out extensive investigation on the former Chief of Defence Staff, Air Vice Marshal Alex Badeh and former Chief of Air Staff, Air Vice Marshall Adesola Amosu over their roles in the purchase of military hardware during their tenures as part of the ongoing efforts to unravel the $2.1 billion arms scandal.

The directive, which followed the recommendation of a committee Buhari established to audit the procurement of arms and equipment in the Armed Forces and Defence sector from 2007 to 2015 which indicated that there were shoddy deals that involved billions of Naira and United States Dollars, also affected about 15 other retired and serving military officers.

Now, let’s take these one after the other.

Obasanjo, in a January 13, 2016, letter addressed to the Senate President, Bukola Saraki, and Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, lamented that our lawmakers had failed to show understanding, despite the present economic situation in the country, caused by a crash in the price of crude oil in the international market. He also accused the National Assembly of insincerity for its planned purchase of 469 cars worth N4.7bn for its members.

Hear him: “The waste that has gone into cars, furniture, housing renovation in the past was mind-boggling and these were veritable sources of waste and corruption. That was why they were abolished. Bringing them back is inimical to the interest of Nigeria and Nigerians. It will be interesting if the National Assembly will be honourable enough and begin the process of transparency, responsibility and realism by publishing its recurrent budgets for 2016 as it should normally be done.”

Obasanjo further writes: “The purpose of election into the Legislative Assembly particularly at the national level is to give service to the nation and not for the personal service and interest of members at the expense of the nation which seemed to have been the mentality, psychology, mindset and practice within the National Assembly since the beginning of this present democratic dispensation. Where is patriotism? Where is commitment? Where is service?”

Could anyone have put it better than Obasanjo did? But how did Melaye respond in his characteristic dramatic and loquacious manner? He said the former President was mistaking the 8th National Assembly as the same senate that “defrauded him in 2007 by collecting his money but refusing to implement the 3rd term agenda.”

“There was the case of bribery introduced by the Obasanjo regime in the desperate attempt to remove speaker Ghali Umar Na’abba from office then. In fact, there was open display of that bribery money on the floor of the house. That government exposed the national assembly to corruption and easy money. I hope this is not in an attempt to cover up and distract attention from the Halliburton and Siemens corruption allegations,” Melaye jabbed.

Now, while Melaye’s points are facts of history, and cannot also be waived aside, is it out of sincere patriotism or altruism with his unashamed support for corrupt politicians and morally-deficient politicians like him? Certainly not!

Again, while Obasanjo is often pretentious and sanctimonious, and is also as guilty as those  he usually accuses of wrongdoing in many of his letters if not more, I think the issues Baba Iyabo has raised this time, are germane and for which the National Assembly must give worthy attention to. The message must not be discarded for any reason even if we are not too comfortable with the messenger.

Meanwhile, concerning unpatriotic generals, I really wouldn’t want to recount the alarming scale of the fraud in the military which is being investigated by the EFCC where several billions of naira meant for arms purchase were paid for contracts not executed even as breaches like non-specification of procurement costs, absence of contract agreements, award of contracts beyond authorised thresholds, transfer of public funds for unidentified purposes and general non-adherence to provisions of the Public Procurement Act, were perpetrated.

But would you have ever imagined, for instance, that our country’s Chief of Air staff would authorise the procurement of two used Mi-24V helicopters instead of the recommended Mi-35M series at the cost of $136,944,000.00 when a brand new unit of such helicopters goes for about $30 million like Amosun was said to have done? Or would you have ever fathomed that despite the inflated prices of the sub-standard helicopters, they would even be delivered without rotor blades and upgrade accessories? Or would you have also imagined that a top officer like Amosu would be criminally-minded to the extent of falsely confirming that all four procured Alpha-Jets aircraft, rather than two, were delivered when he knew it was a big lie?

Honestly, I still can’t process how these military leaders, who are supposed to be outstanding leaders and role models, would have no qualms whatsoever in criminally diverting funds or even giving fake confirmations that weapons not supplied were actually delivered. Like I often say, some actions are so disgraceful they ought never to be heard in public that some people are doing such in secret. I think the soldiers sentenced to different prison terms for running away from confronting Boko Haram terrorists should be pardoned and released henceforth while we even apologise to them for the mistreatment.

However, what do these letter writers, clowns and unpatriotic generals all have in common?

It’s simply that they are all leaders who have no sense of history, or understand that posterity matters, or that a good name is to be preferred far above ill-gotten riches!

When supposed leaders unashamedly blame others for offences everyone knows they are also guilty of, they are nothing but hypocrites. When lawmakers pretend to be on the side of the people but are only interested in furthering their own interests, they are nothing but hypocrites. And when generals engage in shady deals, steal funds meant for arms, endanger the lives of their officers and soldiers, and expose their country to global ridicule  but pretend and carry on as if they are sincerely fighting the enemies of the state, they are nothing but hypocrites. All are hypocrites. Hypocrites, all! And verily, verily, I say unto you, such leaders usually end up being publicly shamed and ridiculed one way or the other!

I would even add that these were the type of leaders popular columnist, Simon Kolawole, was indirectly referring to in his beautifully-presented and well-received article, “The Parable of Dollars and Dullards,” published three weeks ago in THISDAY, and on TheCable, where he explained that the hopeless romance with petrodollars and age-old poor investment decisions and lack of foresight were part of factors responsible for the current free fall of the Naira and the forex crunch being experienced in the country today. “We are now paying for the sins of the past 40 years when oil boom overwhelmed us and we lost our senses,” Kolawole wrote.

Now, the lack of foresight that created the Forex crunch in the country was basically an error of leadership. And even if Kolawole didn’t mention leaders like Obasanjo or Melaye and his senator colleagues, or military leaders like Amosu in his intervention, I believe these leaders are part of the rot in the system and could have contributed much more to the country if they were patriotic and selfless enough. An Obasanjo for instance, despite his repeated denials till now, nine years after leaving office, was looking for an unconstitutional third term as President and was even ready to use state funds to bribe his way through like Melaye jabbed. It’s equally sad that almost 56 years after independence; we still do not have a nationally-accepted statesman. Obasanjo, who could have easily fitted into this position, is unfortunately plagued by very serious moral baggage and deficiencies.

And so, what lessons does this tale teach us as we conclude?

I think it teaches us that, as a people, we really must be more careful henceforth about the choices we make in respect of those we put in positions of power and authority. Leaders are supposed to be true patriots, role models and men of integrity but clearly some of those we entrusted with leadership like the hypocritical letter writers, clowns and unpatriotic generals, are not. It also teaches us that corruption, whether it is among politicians or military generals, is now an undeniable common denominator. The clean ones in each group are few.

It further teaches us that we need to conduct a thorough examination and reform on the kind of system we run which makes corruption so widespread in our country at various levels of power and authority.

And finally, it teaches us that we need to rejig the process through which political leaders emerge in Nigeria since we’ve not always been lucky to have our best materials who are God-fearing, positionally-competent,  morally-sound, intellectually-deep, patriotic-minded, vision-driven, posterity-conscious, and have proven themselves in previous engagements, leading us.

We simply can’t continue to do the same things over and over again expecting different results. That’s insanity like Einstein rightly said. Something must truly change. And part of that change, I think, includes reconsidering the involvement of military and other security agencies in elections in Nigeria with how they are being compromised by politicians, their partners in crime, particularly with the fresh revelations that are coming out now about how the last gubernatorial election in Ekiti state was tactically manipulated and compromised even before the first ballot was cast.

But do we learn any lessons here? And even when we learn lessons, do we ever put them to use?

Kolawole, an award-winning journalist and author, is Publisher/CEO, POSTERITY MEDIA, a publishing and communication company based in Lagos. You can follow him on twitter: @ofemigan.