By Douglas Anele
Since the creation of the colonial amalgam called Nigeria by the British colonial power in 1914, the country has gone through periods of relative peace and prosperity and periods of turmoil, anguish and violence.

There is no scintilla of doubt that the time immediately before the declaration of independence in October 1, 1960 and the years before the civil war in 1967, except for the coups of 1966 and the pogrom against Ndigbo which reached its omega point the same year, were years of unprecedented optimism in the potential greatness of Nigeria.

For instance, there was unprecedented economic growth in the mid-60s before crude oil displaced agriculture as the mainstay of the country’s economy. Furthermore, the most respected Nigerian politicians of the 20th century, including DrNnamdiAzikiwe and Chief ObafemiAwolowo, were still very active in government at different levels.

Despite the problems then, Nigerians believed that they could be sorted out peacefully as time goes on. Unfortunately, the civil war period between May 1967 and January 1970, the most traumatic event in the lives of a significant percentage of Nigerians particularly Ndigbo, changed all that.

Since the civil war ended, the country’s developmental trajectory has been swinging precipitously like a pendulum from one episode of religious and ethnic violence to another.

Bad leadership characterised by gross indiscipline and corruption has continued to jeopardise the country’s economic development and political stability. Of course, the long period of military dictatorship, especially fro
m 1985 to 1998, were terrible for Nigerians, both on the economic and political fronts.

Nevertheless, thus far I see the government of President Goodluck Jonathan as a mutant of the same anti-people leadership which is the stock-in-trade of past military dictatorships in Nigeria. Nothing has really changed in terms of the philosophy of governance and attitude of members of the ruling elite to political and economic power, which implies that despite President Jonathan’s “transformation agenda,” it is business as usual in the corridors of power.

This is not surprising: some of the people responsible in previous administrations for the decadent status of Nigeria and who ought to be imprisoned for corruption and maladministration are still either in government orvery influential in the portals of power.

A paradigm example of lack of critical intelligence and patriotic discipline in governance is the tardy and mediocre handling of the fuel subsidy Pandora box by Jonathan and his lieutenants. From what has been said and written on the issue both by supporters and critics of deregulation in the downstream sector of the petroleum industry, the trillions of naira federal government hasbeen spending since 1985 till date on fuel subsidy is the price Nigerians had to pay for gross inefficiency and corruption in the system.

In a serious country that depends to the extent Nigeria does on petroleum, the level of corruption and indiscipline that characterises the entire oil sector would not have been tolerated. Hypothetically, assuming that Nigeria has the kind of leadership that currently exists in China, the authorities would not hesitate to prosecute, and if found guilty execute, those convicted of corruption in such a critical sector of the economy.

I am not an advocate of capital punishment, although Iunderstand why hardened, high-profile, terrorists like Osama bin Laden and mentally deranged megalomaniacs like Adolf Hitler deserve any punishment meted out to them, including the death penalty.

Anyway, it is definitely rational and fair to severely punish top political office holders and members of the business elite convicted of graft by stripping them of all their ill-gotten wealth and sending them to jail for at least twenty years.

That is why I wholeheartedly endorse the harsh sentences handed to Madoff and Blagojevich for the crimes they committed. But Nigeria is not like the United States of America where the law, largely, is no respecter of persons.

If it were in Nigeria, Madoff and Blagojevich, as VIPs, would have hired a retinue of morally bankrupt senior lawyers who would bribe cash-and-carry judges, law enforcement agents involved in their cases, and senior journalists.

Eventually, the matter would be dismissed on the basis of frivolous legal technicalities. Everyone knows that official corruption is the most serious challenge confronting Nigeria as a geo-political entity which has seriously retarded her evolution into a strong, economically self-reliant, member of the international community.

But abominable over-pampering of prominent men and women of highly questionable character by the judiciary and law-enforcement agencies is promoting corruption among the ruling class.

Therefore, if you are elected into office or appointed a minister, commissioner, special adviser and so on, it is much better to steal billions of naira rather than millions, because the judicial system actually protects high-profile corruption – you would have more than enough to bribe judges and keep the rest for yourself.

Hence, despite the tough talk by President Jonathan and his predecessors about fighting corruption, the cankerworm has grown in audaciousness. One does not need a soothsayer to know that, as long as graft at the highest levels of political and economic power is not seriously sanctioned, people will continue to indulge in it.

A dangerous form of corruption crippling the country is the deliberate escalating cost of running the government. The 1999 c0nstitution is partly to blame for this, because some of its provisions permit spendthrifts in government to indulge their avarice.

Even so, Mr. President and his crowd of ministers and advisers etc. are yet to wean themselves from the toxic breast of sybaritic lifestyles which necessitate disgusting waste of over 80% of the nation’s resources on less than 2% of the population. The same abomination, mutatis mutandis, is replicated in the states and local governments.

TO BE CONTINUED.