By Dele Sobowale

“Every government is run by liars and nothing they say should be believed”. I.F Stone. US Journalist, 1929. (VANGUARD BOOK OF QUOTATIONS p 80).

What Stone wrote in 1929 is still largely true today. Governments, by and large, are run by people determined to deceive their hapless “Fellow Countrymen”. Thus, when about three weeks ago, the Ministry of Trade and Investment, under “Lagos Boy”, Segun Aganga, announced that the government had created 1.4 million jobs since last year, I knew it was untrue.

And nothing gave the game away more than the fact that 1.3 million of those jobs were credited to the Bank of Industry, BOI. Readers of this column would recollect that, two weeks ago, I wrote an OPEN LETTER TO THE BOI MD, asking the bank to confirm the reported 1.3 million jobs created in one year. To its everlasting credit, the BOI was prompt in its response; which is voluminous. But the most important part of the reply to my inquiry is reproduced and italicized below.

“The attached summarises the highlights of BOI’s operations and their developmental impact over a ten year period 2001-2011. As indicated during our brief conversation, the number of direct and indirect jobs created under reference are cumulative not for one year”.

The challenge for the Minister, now, is to substantiate his claim or do the honourable thing – apologise to President Jonathan, to Nigerians and resign his appointment because the matter of job creation is too important to be left to liars in government. Unfortunately, truth is being murdered in Power, Petroleum, Justice and other Ministries as well.

From Fourth to First Estate (cont’d).

“Stewards are not hired for their intelligence but their loyalty and reliability” -Anonymous.

The whopper about 1.4 million jobs was delivered on behalf of the Minister by a former distinguished member of the Fourth Estate – Ms Kolapo – a brilliant economic and financial analyst and former columnist for PUNCH. That was until last year when she, like others, crossed to the First Estate.

Those few months seem like eternity now judged by the changes they induce in the carpet crossers. From diggers for facts; they turn to peddlers of falsehood. Kolapo of the PUNCH would have been among the first to see through the lie that she was asked to dispense three weeks ago.

It’s a pity. Obviously, it is now impossible to cross over from the Fourth Estate to the First without discarding a good chunk of the integrity which informed the selection by those in government in the first instance. At the Federal and State government levels, it had been a long history of former credible columnists becoming tools in the hands of the people they once denounced for dissembling.

One former commentator with the GUARDIAN was employed as Commissioner of Information by Governor Lucky Igbiniedon. Within weeks the quality of press releases improved, as expected; so did the quantum of lies that were sent to the public.

I once wrote to the former Commissioner asking to verify the claims made on behalf of the Edo government. Until, they left office, it was one excuse after another for not granting the request. Till today, no Commissioner of Information has accepted the challenge for verification of claims by the government he serves – except Governor Uduaghan, who gave me free hand to investigate the Asaba Airport Project.

By the time you read this column, I would have gone out to verify another claim by the Delta State government. Which other state government is ready? Yet, all the state governments are served by former journalists.

SHORT NOTES

116 Rio tourists

“O God let it not be true”. That was my prayer when I read that 116 Nigerians went to Rio for the Earth Summit. As usual Nigeria had the largest contingent of mostly idle people in Brazil. Far richer nations sent less than thirty and most Presidents stayed away. What could have informed this senseless waste of funds?

Incidentally, those defending the President’s departure to Rio by arguing that “the President can govern from anywhere” should tell us why George Bush cut short his vacation on September 2001 when the World Trade Centre was attacked. Was it because he could not govern from anywhere? No wonder Nigeria is getting no where. Jonathan has surrounded himself with the shallowest thinkers of any Head of State since 1960.

Georgia on my mind

“Georgia is one of the least corrupt countries in the world”- advert on CNN.

Georgia was a part of the former Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, USSR, until the units agreed to go their separate ways. It is now a separate country on its own. That advert designed to lure tourists to Georgia caught my attention and brought tears to my eyes. Will I ever live to see the day when Nigeria can make that claim?

Definitely not with Jonathan, Tukur, Oyinlola, Metuh etc as the leaders of the PDP – a party which is corruption incorporated. The emergence of Tukur, a former General Manager of the NPA, as Chairman of the PDP is symbolic. Something being researched now will demonstrate to all Nigerians why the PDP can never fight corruption.

ICPC recovers N627b Pension Fund

Apart from the fact that virtually every kobo was recovered from a “card-carrying” member of the PDP; the questions to ask are: where was the loot kept? If in banks, when will the banks’ top executives who collected the funds be prosecuted for receiving stolen funds? Lastly, can the ICPC please release the list of those caught with the loot?

Adventures in Prophecy (cont’d)

“You will one day become Managing Director”, I told a branch Manager of UBA, 97/105 Broad Street, about eight years ago. Last week, I received a call from Mozambique. He had been appointed Managing Director of UBA in that country. That is only the beginning. There is a Permanent Secretary in Delta State who has Ministerial appointment in his future…