By Denrele Animasaun

“Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power.”— Abraham Lincoln

BBC scored an own goal last week by running a story about a restaurant in Nigeria, that served human flesh. There was no such restaurant and they did damage to the reputation on many Nigerians. They have since posted an apology:”

That the “article of May 16 reported that a restaurant in Nigeria had been shut down because it was serving human flesh. It was based on details given in a BBC Swahili article. BBC Swahili has now confirmed the story is incorrect and so we have removed the story from our website. We apologise for the error.”

Even the mighty BBC bop and it is sad that how they did not check their source, they were too quick to give a dog a bad name.

Time to pack and go

A colleague of mine told me that, there has been a swell of odiously rich Nigerians, taking up residence in the best part of town in London. Properties have been snapped up on Millionaires row by wealthy Nigerians hot footing it from home. They are getting ready to move out of Nigeria before the hand of GMB is pointed at them to cough up the money they misappropriated under the administration of GEJ.

President- elect Muhammadu Buhari and President GoodLUCK Jonathan 

It seems the fear of prosecution is real, they fear for their loot and the lifestyles it afforded them, will all go up in smoke and they are not willing to part with it.  No change there then and this nouveau riche are ousted politicians who have come to “invest” in properties abroad. Last month Dubai closed the bank account of such investors and told them to come and get their money, they weren’t happy to do business with such elements. The net is closing in and it will be very difficult for these people to keep their wealth safe and secure. Even Abacha’s loot was returned after so many years.

This  story will run  and run, these  people  will also  run  from pillar  to  post  with their ill-gotten wealth and  they will face the reality, that money  sometimes cannot  buy  you  a hiding place.  Like a house of cards it  will  come crashing down and, these looters will scramble  to get onto  their  private jets and attempt to  leave the  country  come 28th of May. It is definitely not over until the fat lady sings.

Give back the prestige

Story doing the rounds that Okonjo-Iweala had been awarded a Doctorate of Humane Letters this week by Yale University. A fellow Nigerian, Sunday Iwalaiye, has initiated a petition against her, that she is undeserving of such honour. The petition was placed on Change.org, the world’s largest petition platform and so far, over 3,000 have signed the petition. In it, Sunday, explained why the nomination should be rescinded: “Yale University gave its prestigious honorary doctorate degree to an undeserving Nigerian, and the petition reads: “There is no tangible evidence of any economic development in Nigeria under the leadership of Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala in all reality”.

The petitioners obviously  does not  believe that  people  should be  rewarded for  failure as it  adds that the: “Nigeria’s economy is still an oil-dependent economy that is debt and borrowing ridden as well as 100% consuming and importing in nature.”

The nomination of Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala was harbouring under her past unblemished record and her drive. The nomination for the Doctor of Humane Letters. Claimed that as Ngozi” You are a citizen of your country, your continent, and the world. Shaped by challenging experiences during your childhood. That is not the Ngozi of the present moment.

I  remember rooting for  Ngozi  as  a forerunner  for the  prestigious  at  the  world  bank.  Many including  me, felt  she had  indeed earned the opportunity  and had the  gravitas to head the World bank leas, roll on  present  situation , it  cannot  be said that the lady  had helped to  put  Nigeria’s economy on healthy platform even though she could have.

There was so much promise and hope that Ngozi was going to transform the fortunes of Nigeria and Nigerians as she had done when she was at the World Bank.  So  being Nigeria’s Minister of economic development and Minister of finance, the initial  promise to kick corruption and to ensure  transparency  was  a breath  of fresh  air,  she had  after all had  a proven record in the World bank, she had  worked  tirelessly and turned around the  fortunes of  many third  world and  poor  countries. So coming home would be inspirational enough to make the change. Or so you would think, so went wrong?

Whoever has nominated Ngozi for this prestigious accolade weren’t looking  at her  present achievement or lack of, they have been naïve at  most, and have been  hoodwinked that our  Ngozi  is  the  same.

So the  petition  went on to  explain this omission that;”the  citation from the Yale University does not reflect nor represent everything that has happened under the watch and the supervision of the Nigerian economy by Ngozi Iweala as the nation’s finance minister.

There is no tangible evidence of any economic development in Nigeria under the leadership of Ngozi Iweala in all reality. Nigeria’s economy is still an oil-dependent economy that is debt and borrowing ridden as well as 100% consuming and importing in nature.

Nigeria’s debt profile has risen rapidly under Ngozi Iweala and Nigeria has borrowed over $2 billion in the last four months alone to pay salaries of the federal and state civil servants. And our foreign reserves and excess crude oil accounts have both depleted heavily under Ngozi Iweala”

Nigeria has crashed and burned and this, it should be reaping the dividends of wealth and capitalism.