Dasuki and the rest of us

On Friday January 8 when The Nation newspaper led with a story taken from an advert by the Office of National Security Adviser on companies and organisations who got contracts from the office, I wanted to call the writer. A brother in every sense and diligent journalist, my intention was to throw jabs at him that it must have been a slow day in the newsroom that forced the paper to lead with such a story. But the daily grind at the office prevented me and thank goodness I did not as further investigations and discussions with those who should know confirmed that the rot under Sambo Dasuki is deeper than what many of us outside know.

In the midst of the furore generated by Dasuki’s arrest and bail hearings, my usual answer to those who asked for my opinion was that let’s wait and see how it pans out. I’m equally interested in how the arraignment of major actors in the saga will go especially as it concerns the rule of law and securing convictions. Since that is an ongoing process, we can only watch from the sidelines as the story confirms what some have us have always suspected but which most of us usually deny, our country is a morally bankrupt one. You don’t get to become a chief of spooks for fun and so when Dasuki insisted on an open trial, I knew he must have kept detailed record and the saga will definitely expose most of our political leaders. A cheeky friend of mine, however, said that there is something we can thank Dasuki for, he spread the money round all the nationalities in our country. This just confirms that whenever money is involved and while tribe and tongue may differ, we’re united in dipping our hands in the public till.

Political scientists have written a lot about our weak state institutions and personalization of the state as seen in many African states, the Dasuki affair, perhaps offers the best template to study these two theories afresh. Just before throwing stones at the principal actors, hold a mirror to your face and if you are honest, you will agree that at a level, most of us are culpable. How do we fund our political parties? Where do we get money for campaigns during elections? Nearly all our political parties have godfathers whose sources of money are questionable but we are content to hail them and even ask for our share of the money. A politician high in the hierarchy of APC once told me a story of how many people will gather at the party’s national leader house because of his legendary generosity as compared to former governor Babatunde Fashola who is widely perceived to be stingy.

Where do we expect them to get such money? Party members always wait for ‘mobilization’ read money when election approaches before campaigning for their party candidates. As at today there is no mass membership political party funded by the contributions of members, which was the case during the first republic. We are discovering now that the battle for registration of political parties was not just for expansion of the democratic space but also as a conduit for looting as these parties are so in name only. Politics has now become a career where people hope to get rich without growing through the mill. Our religious institutions are also complicit as we interpret a sudden rise in people’s wealth as ‘favour’ ‘promotion’ and ‘divine enlargement’ with others ‘praying’ to God for such ‘elevation.’ What kind of testimonies do we share at our assemblies today?

At a level, we are all contractors and consultants brandishing our expertise and we only run after government contracts that are usually inflated. We have a Bureau of Public Procurement that is supposed to guide in contract awards but which has been rendered powerless. People still circumvent the Public Procurement Act 2007, as the institutions are so weak that a former governor reportedly used to sign approvals for release of money at airports and anywhere anytime. I’m a fan of the Yoruba home movies warts and all and a storyline seems incomplete without someone chasing after a government contract, apparently a major source of wealth to the directors and producers of these movies.

Good enough that one person has already refunded some money, but some pertinent questions include: what has been done to prevent a recurrence of such heist? Does the office of the national security adviser still have an allocation in 2016 budget? Does our constitution actually support such an office? What about states and local governments chief executives having ‘security votes’ which they do not account for? Until we answer these, another government might discover another Dasuki on assumption of office.