Time to go after our ‘political Hushpuppis’

Raymond Igbalode, a Nigerian Instagram celebrity better known as Hushpuppi, has continued to make the headlines after the police in Dubai busted him and his colleagues over alleged fraud amounting to N168 billion. The issue has continued to garner backlashes from majority of Nigerians across social media platforms. Such criticisms are understandable. Hushpuppi, by his action, has further denigrated Nigeria’s already plummeting image before the international community — where the nation is fast becoming synonymous with fraud. The outrage that trailed the prominence accorded Nigerians indicted for fraud by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) was indicative of the country’s bad media framing at the international landscape when it comes to fraud.

For the purpose of context, Hushpuppi should not be used as a yardstick for measuring all Nigerians. There are honest Nigerians toiling hard to eke out a living. The heroics of Ikenna Nweke, a Nigerian Ph.D student in Japan, who returned a wallet said to contain “huge sum of money” is apt in driving home this truism.

However, we would be failing as a nation, if, at the end of the day, the discussions and social media crusade around the arrest of the internet celebrity fade, as it has been the norm, without reflecting on those who have been looting our collective goodwill for long: ‘the political Hushpuppis’. Over the years, Nigerians have watched their few elected leaders living large while they wallow in penury. l have maintained on numerous occasions that Nigerians’ docility about issues concerning governance and national development has made it possible for our politicians to do almost anything they want and get away with it.

If a poll should be conducted today to test Nigerians’ knowledge about their leaders, l won’t be surprise that many don’t know the names of their elected officials not to talk of how to hold them accountable. Nigerian politicians are arguably among the most paid in the world, yet they equally boast of a baleful record of being the among the most notorious when it comes to looting public funds.

Hamza Al-Mustapha, chief security officer to Sani Abacha, late military dictator who died in 1998, drew the ire of many when he quipped in June that his then principal kept money overseas so that Nigerians would not suffer. It defies logic and insults intelligence that Al-mustapha and his likes, in a bid to redeem his late principal’s image, would be justifying looting of public funds. But that is what our society is gradually turning into.

The Hushpuppi case should be engineer true reflection on our core values as a nation. In Nigeria, time-tested virtues of honesty, integrity and love are fast eroding. We are gradually promoting a system where those with unexplained wealth are adored above hardworking Nigerians defying the odds to create a better future for themselves. The craze for flaunting wealth on the social media to gain acceptability and prominence is becoming the new normal. Such situation has further oxygenated the anomalies inherent in our political system.

The real change in Nigeria will start when Nigerians wake up to demand real reforms from their leaders. It begins with the masses raising the necessary questions and dissipating energy into tracking government’s handling of public funds. Annually, Nigeria earmarks huge amount of money into projects meant to better the lots of Nigerians from federal to local government levels. However, most of such projects are either completed on paper or left halfway with the budgeted funds unaccounted for. This had been the trajectory of the Nigerian state for many years. Unfortunately, the populace seemed unperturbed. We have relegated the concept of good governance in Nigeria to mean only payment of salaries and construction of roads.

There is no better time to go after the ‘political Hushpuppis’ in our political system than now. This must begin with a genuine campaign to change the narrative in our definition of politics. In our clime, politics is gradually becoming a quick way to amass wealth. We’re witnessing a surge of politicians who previously had no known profession or business but turned rich over a short span after their foray into politics. In actualising this, there’s need to revisit calls for reduction in the astronomical amount paid to elected officials. We need to return politics and governance to what it should be: opportunity to serve the people.

More so, we need strong institutional reforms that make looting difficult in various government parastatals. Our various anti-corruption agencies need to also up their game. If not anything, the country’s fight against graft has been fought on political grounds than not. The dusts trailing President Muhammadu Buhari’s mouthed fight against corruption is a quintessential example. If the hallmark of anti-corruption campaign is conviction of those found guilty of looting public funds, then we have little to show in our self-acclaimed fight against graft.

Also, there should be increased monitoring of budgetary allocations to ensure funds earmarked for projects are utilised. At a time when the social media has become a powerful tool across the world to put  elected officials under check, Nigerians cannot afford to be left behind. There’s no doubt that the social media was instrumental to the Black Lives Matter movement across the globe triggered by the killing of George Floyd, a black American. We can launch a campaign against the ‘political Hushpuppis’ in our system. And the right time to do that is now.

Ojo is a journalist at TheCable.