By Dele Sobowale

“Money makes everything legitimate; including bastards”.Jewish proverb. (VANGUARD BOOK OF QUOTATIONS p 163).
And in no country is that statement truer than in Nigeria. Given loads and loads of cash, a certificate forger can be given an award, nay several awards, for integrity. It has happened before. It will happen again.

Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product, GDP, has clearly and stubbornly, refused to go beyond single digit to double digit, as envisaged by the nation’s economic planners under NEEDS I and II. You are forgiven if you no longer remember what NEEDS is all about.

Like SURE, (surely you recollect what that nonsense meant), NEEDS was trotted out by the Federal government, and authored by a world class economist, Professor Chukwumah (formerly Charles, if you forgot) Soludo, who laid out how Nigeria was going to become the strongest economy in Africa by growing at double digit by 2008. It never happened. On account of that great work of fiction masquerading as economics, Soludo was promoted to the Central Bank of Nigeria; where he promptly launched “CON-SOLUDO-TION” as banking policy.

Well, the wrecks of Oceanic and Intercontinental Banks, among others, will remain indelible testimonies to the effectiveness of “CON-SOLUDO-TION”. SURE was also authored by the possible next President of the World Bank. You don’t get more world class than that. However, if the fate of SURE is an indication of what the world can expect from that author, then preachers of the gospel can stop talking. The end of the world has arrived – sooner than they realise!!!

Having failed miserably with NEEDS I, NEEDS II was launched by Yar’Adua in 2008, again, promising double digit GDP growth by 2011. Well, wake me up somebody, 2011 has not yet arrived because the Nigerian economy is still stuck at single digit.

However, if the entire economy, like an obstinate donkey, refuses to race at double digit, there is one sector zipping along at double, perhaps, triple digit, in terms of turn-over or gross revenue. That is the award giving sector of the economy, whose marketers should be encouraged to list on the Nigerian Stock Exchange – after all the brouhaha about SEC/NASS bribery allegations have died a natural death. This is Nigeria; not Sweden. Nothing will happen to the main actors/actresses.

Since January of this year, three major “national” newspapers; several states chapters of the Nigerian Union of Journalists; magazines and so called civil society groups, have given awards to various personalities, under different categories – but, invariably, including the “Governor of the Year” and the “Business Mogul of the Year”.

Clever chaps, they know where to find the loot, sorry, money. And they are prepared to dispense with everything – integrity of the organization included — to get the money. Because, make no mistake about it; this is a matter of cash – nothing else. Forget the citations at the ceremony. The organizers will stop the day recipients stop giving money and congratulatory adverts stop flowing.

Forgive me if only a few names appear in this article, but discerning readers can pick out those to whom the references are made. I read part of the new book on Chief Segun Osoba; especially the contribution by the great columnist Peter Enahoro, Peter Pan. He recollected how late Alhaji Babatunde Jose, then the Editor of Daily Times, lamented that Peter Pan’s columns made a lot of enemies for the paper. Our own dear Uncle Sam also had cause to grumble out loud, during the Babangida and Abacha regimes that, “Kola [Animasaun] and Dele[Sobowale] were making enemies for him and the paper every week”.

In truth, when reading some of the stuff Alhaji Animasaun and I wrote at the time, it is a miracle that we are alive today. I don’t know if Alhaji still makes enemies for the paper, but an Abuja insider told me recently that “a lot of people fear you in this city”. I don’t want to make more enemies for Uncle Sam and VANGUARD – if I can help it. But, the truth, to the best of my knowledge, will still be told.

Every great idea, if care is not taken, soon becomes corrupted, and, in the hands of knaves, threatens society in an insidious manner. Awards, by media houses, irrespective of who started them, have become such an enterprise. Perhaps originated to induce good governance and service delivery in the public and private sectors, they have now become  purely commercial enterprises conferring no benefit on nobody else but the organizers and the recipients.

For instance, when three “national” newspapers, within three months, confer the title of “Governor of the Year” on three different state governors – two from rich, oil producing states and the third from Lagos state – the richest state – even those who have never attended UniJankara are bound to detect that people are being swindled. One Area Boy explained the whole scam by stating the obvious, obvious to Area Boys, that is. “Ile olowo l’ole ngbalo” [translation: “Professional armed robbers invade only rich people’s homes”].

Award givers have their eyes glued to the monthly revenue allocation to states published by the Federal Ministry of Finance. They know the states that are in the “Premiership” – Rivers, Akwa Ibom, Delta, Bayelsa, Lagos and Ondo. Unless he pays heavily for the honour, none of the governors of  states in “relegation zone” — Nassarawa, Gombe, Taraba, Ebonyi or Ekiti – among the poorest – has a chance of winning; even if they performed miracles – given the lean purse of their state.

The hoax becomes clearer when one realizes that two of those papers cannot even be considered “national papers” because the bulk of their circulation comes from a few states; one derives eighty five per cent of its revenue from the South West and has offices in less than twenty states. Its honour was conferred on the governor of the only oil producing state in the zone!! (How is that for coincidence?) How then do they assess the performance of the state governors? But, that is the least objection that can be made to these mockeries of awards for excellence. Wait for the rest.

THANKS IGP; TOLL GATES HAVE DISAPPEARED –2
“Reform must come from within, not from without; you cannot legislate virtue”.
Cardinal Gibbons, 1990.  (VANGUARD BOOK OF QUOTATIONS, P 210).

The first part of this short series ended last week with the report of my personal experience traveling through fifteen states since the Acting Inspector General of Police ordered toll gates nationwide to be dismantled. Still not convinced that the promulgation had reached all corners of Nigeria, I decided on another approach to obtain the status report on the compliance level in the rest of the twenty-one states.

Perhaps, you are wondering what my motives might be for wanting to undertake this study. It is very simple. Nigeria will not move forward unless we can tame the monster problem called CORRUPTION. And, the monster will not be slain until we start to make some progress with reducing it in the first line of law enforcement – the Nigeria Police. Not being illusive, by nature, and experience, I was not expecting the total overhaul of the police.

But, even the incremental improvements which could induce hope have eluded us. Abubakar was not the first IGP to order the toll gates to be dismantled. If he can make it stick, I have, at last found another public servant to stand behind. That is all.

So, on my own, I paid some long distance drivers plying Lagos to places as far as Sokoto, Maiduguri, Yola, Katsina, Makurdi, etc to call me if they come across any toll gates mounted by the police, apart from border joint police/army checking points. To be quite candid, I expected to receive hundreds of calls; and I was prepared to write about it on this page. The programme started three weeks ago and no call had come in except for the drivers to inform me when they return to Lagos – full of praises for IGP Abubakar.

Reform of the Nigeria Police had started and it is from the inside; as it should be. All we can do is assist Abubakar to deepen and sustain it.

End of story. Now I can turn to hunting down the scoundrels who trade in corrupt practices – however subtle.
P.S. Since the first part of this series on IGP’s instructions appeared on this page, several text messages had been received from Delta, parts of Akwa Ibom and Abia States regarding police officers flouting the order. Please send text messages to report such infractions and they will be duly reported –openly. We must support the IGP in this endeavour. It is not just his fight; it is a national effort to save our nation from the disgrace that checkpoints have become.