And Mr President fires back (2)

Aliyu Musa

In recent months the world witnessed some surprising prosecutions for corrupt practices and shocking convictions of former leaders/presidents. In April 2018, Brazil and South Korea, notably, did the needful by respectively sending former presidents Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and Park Geun-hye to prison for abuse of office and corruption. Peru had, in July 2017, ordered its ex-president, Ollanta Humala, to begin an 18-month pre-trial detention for illegally accepting from a Brazilian construction company a campaign donation worth $3 million. In South Africa, former President Jacob Zuma, humbled out of office in February 2018, is facing criminal charges for his alleged role in an arms deal involving some European companies more than two decades ago.

Nigeria, in comparison to Brazil, South Korea or even South Africa, is a desperately poor country, on average. While Lula da Silva was accused of illegally accepting a gift (property) worth $755,000 from a construction company, Zuma’s corruption allegation involves $5 billion and Geun-hye’s is to do with amounts raging between $6.5 million and $72 million. Interestingly, none of these is anywhere near the $16 billion the Obasanjo power project is alleged to have gulped or the $6 billion Obasanjo’s political ally, Osuntokun, admitted was spent on the project.

But Nigeria is not like any of these countries, despite each claiming it’s experiencing a massively incremental corrupt practices involving top government officials and politicians. In Nigeria, unlike anywhere else, corrupt government officials and politicians are shielded from the consequences of their actions by petty sentiments often propelled to despicable heights by their victims, the desperately poor masses, intoxicated by tribal and religious allegiances.

This is why, even after Chief Obasanjo boldly dared the government or anyone to initiate another investigation and possible prosecution, it would be difficult for his bluff to be successfully called off. In fairness to the south-west, though, it remains the only region to have resisted the temptation to align forces behind kinsmen accused of corruption, something every other ethnic nationality is guilty of. So, will a resuscitation of investigations into how the $16 billions dollars were spent provoke a different reaction from people in the south-west?

In my previous commentaries in which I weighed Chief Obasanjo’s political capital in the the south-west, in particular, or Nigeria, in general, I argued that to rely on him to directly (numerically ) influence the outcome of an election, especially one involving the position of president, could result in a monumental failure. But his strategic importance, as was seen in the 2015 election, cannot be denied. However, it does not mean that things cannot suddenly turn around and an attempt to subject him to trial for corruption could backfire, as his constituency could perceive it as a political witch-hunt and kick against it.

Already, the government and its anti-corruption agencies are accused of selective justice, a charge they have not been able to successfully dispel, given the political affiliations of most of those being investigated or prosecuted for corruption.

Despite these possibilities, though, it is still unlikely that the south-west would massively rally round Obasanjo, were the investigations that the EFCC re-opened this week progress to criminal prosecution and possible conviction. Many south-westerners, firstly, have yet to forget the unfair and ruthless decimation of Alliance for Democracy (AD), a political party that was immensely popular in the south-west and the battles of Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, being the only surviving governor, under Obasanjo’s watch. That Tibunu is today iconic in the politics of the region is largely due to his resistance and survival, in spite of Obasanjo’s relentless use of state powers to crush him and what was left of AD. AD has since reincarnated itself as Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), under Tinubu’s leadership (ACN is one of the key alliance partners that birthed APC).

Secondly, the ruling APC, despite its not so impressive performance, is still the party to beat in the south-west for various reasons, some of which were discussed in my recent commentaries on the political dynamics in the region and APC’s chances in 2019. Again, the people would rather not risk the current political and potential benefits of standing with the ruling party in spite of Obasanjo.

The above points, notwithstanding, Obasanjo is a hard and dirty fighter and would definitely fight to finish. And one of his strategies, as is already happening, is to steer ‘unignorable’ sentiments against the president and ruling party, possibly using religion. Religion is a very potent weapon, second or equal to ethnicity, in Nigerian politics. Time and again, it was used with precision and 2019 is not going to be an exception.

This is one major reason why Obasanjo could remain an untouchable for as long as possible, even if his ostensible sacrileges are too obvious to not fail to proceed to a criminal prosecution or a likely conviction, like those of Brazil’s Lula da Silva, South Korea’s Geun-hye, Peru’s Humala and South Africa’s Zuma.

(Concluded)

Police recruitment test, Jamb and the CAN campaign

The recent police recruitment computer-based test (CBT) is a subject of religious controversy, once again, in a country this has no shortage of such animosities. The Nigeria Police Force had reportedly contracted the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB) to conduct the test on its behalf and only one subject were the applicants to be examined on. But JAMB, according to a statement by its head of media, Fabian Benjamin, has a system whose software only accepts four modules at a time.

To get round this obstacle, Dr Benjamin said, JAMB had to upload three other dummy tests (questions) and, logically, modules were uploaded alphabetically, which was why Arts, Arabic and Agriculture were the ones added on. He argued further that instructions were clearly given, in addition to several announcements, that candidates for the recruitment exercise were to attempt only English Language test and no other. They were given 45 minutes, in total.

Anyone that ever sat any JAMB exams knows that 45 minutes are barely sufficient for one test. Asking students to attempt questions on four different modules in 45 minutes is, therefore, bizarre, insane and alien to reality. But it later emerged that some of the candidates claimed Arabic was imposed to, as part of a supposed Islamisation agenda, give Muslim applicants an undue advantage.

What is more troubling is that some enlightened, highly educated and strategically positioned Nigerians, who should know better, have chorused the claim. For example, a well-respected organisation of no less standing than CAN (Christian Association of Nigeria) rather than verify the allegation amplified it, regardless of the polarising repercussions. But even more baffling is the fuel some highly placed individuals, including respected journalists, have added to the controversy by using their traditional media and social media advantage to strategically peddle the misinformation.

Objectivity, balance and truth are essential principles of journalism. Any journalist that do does not know that stories must be double checked before going to press has no business in the profession.

This piece also appears in the Blueprint newspaper of Saturday, June 2, 2018.