by Kene Obiezu

Another day in Nigeria, another jarring discovery in what is a herculean (maybe Sisyphean) bid to clean up the Augean stables.

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) recently fended off a laughably misguided attempt by no less than sixteen states to inter it at the Supreme Court. The commission which sometimes provides the rod for its back found conclusive solace in the judgment of the Supreme Court which preserved the founding legislations of the commission and ensured that the attorneys-general of about sixteen states returned from their wild goose chase empty-handed.

It may be too hopeful to think that the loss would chasten the attorneys-general enough to make them concentrate on the weighty business of pursuing justice in their states. Given the antecedent of politicians in Nigeria, it is only a matter of time before they go fishing for another bone to pick with whoever or whatever catches their fancy, frittering away scarce public resources in the process, and exposing their states to opprobrium.

Weeks after Justice Uwani Abba-Aji rebuked the states led by Kogi State, and with all his hiding places finally overturned, former Kogi State governor Yahaya Bello, accused of diverting about two hundred billion while he was governor, submitted himself for trial.

Fresh from an audacious attempt to cripple it, the EFCC has continued with gusto it arduous and audacious work of fighting corruption in a country that has somehow morphed into a metaphor for corruption.

Just when Nigerians thought they had seen enough to confirm the colossal capacity some Nigerians have to be corrupted and to corrupt, the EFCC uncovered and recovered an estate it has described as its single biggest recovery since 2003.

The estate, a sprawling collection of 753 duplexes in the Lokogoma area of Abuja, was being built by a former public officer whom the commission has refused to name.

Citing legalese, the commission has withheld the name of the public officer involved from Nigerians. The question is, why shield thieves? In the midst of their man-made penury and poverty, Nigerians deserve to know those responsible for the crumbling primary school classrooms where venomous reptiles are threatening to bite their children to death. Nigerians deserve to know the names of those responsible for the bed-less hospitals where their pregnant wives die with their unborn children clinging to the sanctuary of the womb. Nigerians deserve to know those whose dereliction has dug the potholes that have become deathtraps on their roads. Nigerians deserve to know those whose unbridled stealing of public funds is sacrificing young soldiers and entire communities to terrorists in the Northeast and Northwest. Nigerians deserve to know those whose presence on their ship is provoking the storms now threatening to tear that ship apart. Nigerians surely deserve to know. Just like the government has hidden from Nigerians the list of those sponsoring terrorism in the country, to withhold such information from Nigeria is arrogance and criminal complicity in ignorance that is not bliss but bondage.

On May 29, 1999, months after brutal dictator Sani Abacha sank like a stone into the dam of death, Nigeria triumphantly tiptoed its way back to democracy. It was hardly believable that it had been achieved given the amount of blood that had gone into the struggle for democracy.

Twenty-five years later, Nigeria’s hard-won democracy is facing the sternest of tests from entrenched kleptocracy.
For many Nigerians, any and every opportunity to serve their fellow Nigerians in government is quickly and mindlessly mined for insane personal enrichment and aggrandizement.

This vice of unbridled plunder of public funds has become irresistible to many, leaving the country desperately short of selfless people to manage its affairs.

It is from this pool of mindlessly corrupt Nigerians that the country continues to draw its leaders. Never has a single problem spelled such disaster for a country.

*Obiezu can be reached at keneobiezu@gmail.com