The very essence of a free government consists in considering offices as public trusts, bestowed for the good of the country, and not for the benefit of an individual or a party. –John C Calhoun (US Statesman, in his speech delivered on 13th December, 1835).
The question on the lips of the majority of Nigerians is ‘where is the missing 20 billion dollars?’ And to this question nobody has given a satisfactory answer. Not even the president or the managers of the national vaults. The only person who pointed the attention of the citizenry to the missing dollars was given the boot thereby creating a suspicion that something is amiss. No doubt financial skullduggery has been going on for so long a time in the country’s oil sector oil the economy and no high-ranking public official let the cat out of the bag as Sanusi Lamido Sanusi (the suspended CBN governor) did even though he paid for this act dearly. Though the messenger might have been sent parking, still the message reverberates in our memories. All our attention is now on the president to provide us the necessary information as to the whereabouts of the said amount. This issue goes beyond political or religious inclinations as the integrity of Jonathan-led government is on the line.
The missing amount is a testimony to the grave financial misconduct in the oil sector where Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation is being used as the conduit pipe for siphoning the proceeds from the sales of petroleum resources that God has endowed the country with. This is usually done in connivance with the national treasury managers. The sack of Sanusi Lamido Sanusi shows to some extent that he does not belong to the pack. Otherwise, if ours were to be a society with high level of integrity as demanded by positions of leadership, the Group Managing Director of NNPC, Mr. Andrew Yakubu, the Finance Minister, Mrs. Ngozi Okonjo Iweala and even the Minister for Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Dieziani Alison-Madueke, would as well be given the boot while a probe panel is set up. Here, the reverse is the case. The cavalier attitude on the part of the concerned authorities gives one the feeling that the issue may be swept under the carpet. This reminds one of the subsidy scam. Those who were indicted in the scam still go about their normal businesses even in the same oil sector. They found willing and compromised accomplice in the country’s judicial system. Or how else does one explain the slow judicial process in bringing the culprits to book? The hapless masses most especially from the region where petroleum is explored continue to bear the brunt of this criminality: They watch helplessly as the commonwealth is shared greedily by the microscopic few who have gripped the sector by the jugular. They live in squalor and feed on the crumbs while their habitation is lapped up by oil spillage due to carelessness on the part of the companies owned by these cronies. They do not have access to good roads, no availability of potable water and no well equipped hospitals to attend to the ailing health of these people. The funds needed for these projects are stashed away in private accounts abroad by those who have unrestricted access to the national treasury. The public trust reposed in our leaders is derided as they ride on this to bleed the national vaults to enrich their pockets. This had been made known to the public by Sanusi Lamido Sanusi and to the discomfort of the government.
Really, whoever comes to equity must come with clean hands. A reliable source has it that the sacked financial chief was also involved in some financial impropriety. By not being consistent with the actual amount, he committed some financial gaucheries unexpected of his exalted office. At least he should have done his calculations very well before coming out to reel the incorrect figures unless he wanted to be a black sheep in the pack. Nevertheless, if on the other hand, Sanusi was absolved of any financial misdemeanor, it shows that his suspension will be generally perceived as a presidential cover-up for the missing petrodollars and also a means of getting back at him for his many ‘sins’ against the government in power; calling attention to issues the authorities would rather conceal, such as the extortionate salaries and allowances legislators appropriated unto themselves under the table, and the opacity of the reporting system on oil export earnings. However, if Sanusi was actually involved in sexing up the financial account of the country as alleged by the President, he should be made to face the music. In fairness to him, however, others must as well be given the boot most especially, the Minister of Finance, Mrs. Okonjo Iweala. On this, the editorial of The Guardian on 1st March, 2014 had it that ‘the Federal Ministry of Finance (under the full supervision of Mrs Okonjo Iweala) earns full blame for dereliction of responsibility by condoning over the years, opaque handling and retention by the national oil company, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, of significant amounts of proceeds that ordinarily should have been audited regularly and remitted to the Federation Accounts. Explanations that the unremitted funds were intact and within the system merely confirm willful abandonment of the ministry’s statutory duty of ensuring full collection and remittance of government revenues’.
Moreover, the government needs to be much cleverer in explaining to us why Sanusi is sacrificed and the 20 billion dollars is still missing. And again why only Sanusi? How are we sure that the probe panel that will be set up to look into the case will not be compromised most especially when the Ministers for Petroleum Resources and Finance still hold sway in their respective positions? And if eventually the reports are out and a protégé of the president is indicted or any of his benefactors, will the president be courageous enough to allow the law to take its course?
In the long run, the answers provided to the above questions by President Goodluck Jonathan will go a long way to dispel our doubts about his sincerity to recover the missing petrodollars and as well as showing that the suspension of Sanusi Lamido Sanusi is not a cover-up by the government as regards the whereabouts of the petrodollars or else the citizenry will conclude according to Samuel Johnson who said “where secrecy or mystery begins, vice or roguery is not far off”.
Adetipe Adekunle
+2347062387144
Adetipeadekunle05@gmail.com
THE SWINGING PENDULUM 