By Josef Omorotionmwan
FOR  some time now, thieves have invaded the privacy of the police by going to cart away, a large part of the money meant for taking care of the old men and women who had helped to catch thieves in years past. We are also informed that the thieving of the police money could be the handiwork of people closely related to them.

Between 2007 and 2008, the invaders had removed some N32.8 billion from the Police Pension Fund. And they are not yet done. The penultimate week, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, raised an alarm that they stumbled into the withdrawal of yet another N9 billion.

We are told that six suspects are now standing trial in an Abuja High Court and “the Commission is still investigating other complaints bothering on money laundering, fraudulent acquisition of properties and misappropriation of public funds”. The death of this case is predictable. Between the High Court, the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court, the process is porous enough to let the suspects off the hook “for lack of diligent prosecution”.

In the police pension scam, nobody is shooting. The thieves have carefully chosen the most innocuous segment of the population to deal with – the unarmed retirees. These ones have no guns anymore and those of them that have are now too feeble to pull the triggers.

For too long, university teachers in Nigeria existed below the breadline. Once upon a time, Prof ‘X’ came very late to an advanced students’ class. When he arrived, he was smoking and sweating like Christmas goat. What was the problem? His jalopy had broken down and he spent the entire day with the roadside mechanic and no remedy in sight. A particular student took note of this. When Professor got to school the following day, a brand new 505 Peugeot Salon Car, the best of those days, had been parked in front of his office and he was handed the keys to the car.

At the end of the semester, the student came out with an A+ in the Professor’s course. The debate on campus at that time was whether there was a conflict of interest on the part of the Professor. Of course, there was. Unknown to Prof, perhaps, he lived in a country that had, and still has, a very tall Code of Conduct for Public Officers. Section 1 of Part I of the FIFTH SCHEDULE to our 1999 Constitution clearly states: “A public officer shall not put himself in a position where his personal interest conflicts with his duties and responsibilities”.

And Section 6(1) of the same FIFTH SCHEDULE stipulates: “A public officer shall not ask for or accept property or benefits of any kind for himself or any other person on account of anything done or omitted to be done by him in the discharge of his duties”.

An ultra modern church now stands elegantly at Otuoke, the hometown of President Goodluck Jonathan. Understandably, our President was no longer satisfied with a situation in which he would worship in modern churches all over the world, including Aso Rock, but when he goes to his village, he has to contend with a church in an uncompleted building. He complained aloud and like in the case of the Professor and the student, the Managing Director of Gitto Construzioni Generali Nigeria Limited, GCG, heard him well.

Again, like in the case of the student and his professor, Gitto quickly swang into action and too soon, “a small church for about 400 worshipers” was ready. This is the gift that President Jonathan received for himself and his community, in utter violation of the very Constitution, which he swore to uphold.

A quick background check on GCG indicates that it is an Italian firm that has collected billions of Naira in contracts from the Nigerian government even in the face of allegations in the media that it has not executed such contracts prudently. Clearly, our President’s action puts a big dent on our fight against corruption. The anti-graft agencies cannot be bold enough to fight corruption where their boss has compromised. Neither can the Federal Government hold the company to account properly – the very definition of conflict of interest!

No amount of bleaching can turn the pig’s nose white. The constituency of the President is the entire country – from the Sahara to the Atlantic. Nothing prevents him from inserting the construction of 1000 churches and mosques into the budget to take them through due process. But, no, we must cut corners!

Who is asking the President to resign? The President cannot resign because this is Nigeria. In the more civilized climes, this is more than enough to pull down any government. We are not in doubt that Gitto has heard of Japan where they have had six Prime Ministers in the last five years; the factors warranting their exit are less than five percent of the executive iniquities in which we are swimming here.

Yet, in Nigeria, people are demanding the heads of those who have called for the impeachment of a man who has committed an impeachable offence. There is the ludicrous insinuation that the call for the President’s removal is because he comes from the Niger Delta. But was he not from the Niger Delta when he applied for the job? If the National Assembly is truly worth its salt, does it need to be reminded to do its constitutionally assigned duty? Suddenly, you want to have a corruption-free society when the people sitting in judgement are the very corrupt and the corruptors! Who can eat his cake and have it? So, let corruption reign!