The Yoruba have an old adage: Aitete M’ole, Ole M’oloko. Roughly translated into the English language, this wise saying posits that due to the complacency of the farmer in failing to quickly apprehend the thief, the thief has completely overwhelmed the farmer.
In these times of the virtual economic collapse and moral bankruptcy that our dear nation, Nigeria is reeling under, perhaps no other adage should be considered more poignant to the collective consciousness of our peoples. For despite the abundant natural resources, which God has blessed this nation with, our successive leadership groups have presided over the continuous impoverishment of our people during the four decades of our national independence.
Over these years and through the various governments we have learnt and continue to learn of the colossal sums that have been stolen from the nation’s coffers by our so-called "leaders". At the same time we have been faced with the effrontery, with which these same "leaders" have and continue to assail our collective sense of social justice.
Recently it was reported in the national media that Mohammed, (the detained son of the deceased tyrant, Sanni Abacha) who is being tried for various economic and political crimes, has petitioned the courts to halt his trial and order his immediate release. His reason? The Abacha family has after all, returned a total of about 72-billion Naira back to the government. 72-billion Naira!
On reading this I wondered in sheer amazement if Mohammed was aware that 72-billion Naira is in excess of the combined annual national budgets of several states of the developing world. And this, as many Nigerians are wont to believe, is merely a tip of the iceberg of what was actually looted from the nation’s coffers by the Abacha family and their associates and acolytes.
The precise value of the total sums looted from the nation's coffers by our past leaders would by now be well beyond quantification. It is now commonplace to talk of individual loots in terms of hundreds of billions of dollars and pounds. The hardworking, honest and well-meaning citizens of Nigeria, who I have no doubt, still comprise the preponderant majority of our impoverished people must wonder what it is that drives a man to steal in such reckless abandon that we have experienced of our leaders?
Was it simply in getting power-drunk and acting in blind gluttony that the Abachas and our other past thieving leaders never stopped for a moment to ponder over the repercussions of their mindless plundering of the nation’s economy on the lot of the Nigerian people? How is it that after leaving office, a Babangida is able to build a 50 roomed palace in his hometown supposedly valued at over 500 million Naira while he is rumored to have amassed several billion dollars during his tenure in office as self styled military "president"?
Babangida’s regime, it was that presided over the worst case of the erosion of the country’s economy and pauperization of the general citizenry. In the midst of the mass poverty that he spread around the country could he ever have acquired his billions of dollars by fair and just means?
Perhaps attempting to rationalize the reasons for the kleptomaniac tendency of our past leaders will strictly be an academic endeavour, best undertaken by advanced psychoanalysts.
However, what is indeed crucial at this time for the Nigerian citizenry is to clearly understand the effects this tendency has had on our nation. We must all recognize that the mass poverty and indeed majority of the ills of the country today have their roots in the greed and avarice with which our rapacious "leaders" of the past have governed the country.
It is not hyperbolic to contend that Nigeria could have become a shining example for the entire African continent today had we been blessed with selfless and visionary leaders who had made our common interest their watchword.
Indeed the country would have evolved into a model state for the whole world to marvel at had the colossal sums stolen over the years from the country’s coffers actually been properly channeled into development programs for the sustenance and improvement of our social institutions and physical infrastructures. The country’s education system would not have fallen into its present dismal state, which has resulted in our institutions having virtually lost all credibility outside the shores of the country.
Our general healthcare delivery system would not have degenerated into the shambles it is in today that has seen our hospitals transformed into morgues where our people die daily in droves from common illnesses and conditions. NEPA, NITEL and the Water corporations whose functions are so crucial to the social welfare of the general citizenry would not have all deteriorated into mere non-functional empty shells that they now are. Our oil refineries would not have undergone criminal neglect and fallen into their current state of gross disrepair. And we would never have had to suffer the acute fuel shortages (experienced year in year out) in the last decade and a half, in spite of our being one of the world’s major oil producers.
Our industries would not be in the decrepit state they are now in, with the vast majority operating grossly below full capacity levels. The triple-digit devaluation of our national currency the Naira within a decade and a half and the consequential hyperinflation which have severely impoverished the vast majority of our citizens would never have occurred.
And finally, if not for years of predatory rule and the fiscal recklessness of a succession of a voraciously self-serving set of rulers, Nigeria would have avoided evolving into its present social milieu of a society completely besieged by crime and disorder, with our law enforcement agencies virtually powerless to combat the underworld. Nigerians must understand clearly that nothing more than the greed and corruption of our leaders have denied us the fulfillment of the legitimate needs of the nation and deprived our peoples of decent social conditions and the most basic social services.
All these ills will never end until an end is put to this culture of official thieving by the country’s leaders and corruption and graft are brought under strict control. To effect this, the leaders who have looted the country’s coffers should not only be made to return their loots. They must also be made to suffer retribution for the grievous damage they have inflicted upon the nation and our people. To gloss over the problem by arguing that we should "let bygones be bygones" as some have said, will be at our peril and only assures the continued graft and rampant looting of the country’s funds, something we can no longer afford.
Clearly, the revelations of the ravage of the national economy during the Abacha years have shown that official corruption had reached drastic proportions in Nigeria. And as the saying goes, drastic problems require drastic solutions. In the late 1970s when Ghana faced similar problems following years of military misrule, three former Ghanaian military heads of state (Afrifa, Acheampong and Akuffo) were executed for looting the country’s treasury. The Ghanaian generals must be turning in their graves today and wishing that instead of having been Ghanaians they had been born in Nigeria where they would have gotten away scot-free with their loots as has been the norm here.
Today Ghana is much better off for that decisive action taken during her revolution. The country has since undergone profound socio-political and economic development unparalleled in the West African sub region. The rampant corruption of the 1970s is long over and the Ghanaian economy has grown steadily over the years. And only recently, an election was held in the country, in which the ruling party was peacefully displaced by the opposition, a feat that clearly exhibits the political maturity which the Ghanaian nation and her people have developed since the heady days of the Rawlings revolution.
Here in Nigeria, we should learn a lesson from the Ghanaian experience. Unless the looters and saboteurs of our national economy who have been responsible for the staggering pauperization of our people and the virtual collapse of our social institutions are brought to book, we run the risk of never getting out of our vicious cycle of corruption, bad governance and continued mass poverty.
As aforesaid, not only must ill-gotten fortunes amassed from official looting be returned, those who have committed such acts must be tried and properly and severely sanctioned before our courts of law. In this way alone will our present and future leaders be forewarned not to go the route of their corrupt predecessors. Failing to do this, in addition to the risk of continued rampant corruption, we also leave room open for the possibility of more vicious and arbitrary revolutionary retribution being meted out against these corrupt leaders by an angry underclass. However, such violent retribution as we well know from the experience in other places, cannot guarantee meaningful change and stability for Nigeria. Having reflected over the Ghanaian experience, it is also instructive to recall what happened elsewhere in our immediate environment in the West African sub region.
In 1980 in Liberia decades of the misrule of a self serving elite had created the conditions for a semi-illiterate sergeant, Samuel Doe to overthrow the government and end a supposedly democratic experiment over a century and a half old. Playing on the popular discontent of the Liberian masses, Doe effected the bloody public executions of President Tolbert and several members of his cabinet. Within a decade however, the Liberian revolution had revealed itself as a mere change of guards and it quickly consumed all it’s executors and plunged the country into chaos and a fratricidal civil war in which millions were killed or maimed.
If we are to avert similar social upheavals and turmoil in Nigeria, we must tread a fine line between the paths which the Ghanaian and Liberian people have followed in dealing with corrupt leadership. While we should avoid the resort to arbitrary extra judicial actions as the summary executions witnessed in both cases, we must nonetheless ensure a strict and equitable dispensation of justice for our past corrupt leaders within our formal legal system.
In closing I would like to quote another wise saying, this time the words of one of the most respected and revered national leaders in modern times, Mahatma Gandhi of India. "There is enough in this world for every man’s needs, but not enough for every man’s greed" the great sage once told his people. In Nigeria our rapacious leaders may indeed have come to show that there is not enough for even one man’s greed in this world.
Never again should we allow ourselves to be placed in the position where one man’s gluttony will hold the rest of the entire nation hostage and leave us as barren and bear as Sanni Abacha succeeded in doing before his ignoble demise.
Guides
Between one Man’s Greed