“Refusal To Expose Details Of Corruption To Ignite Public Response, IS Why The Corrupt Are Encouraged To Fight BACK.”
– PART (1).

“That is usually where the fight starts. And of course, corruption and the corrupt must win. Only for the mighty anti-corruption Zars coming later in turn to bamboozle us with tales of why they were unable to battle their victims or secure adequate convictions to serve as a deterrent for these heartless and highly primitive human Devils who are looters of everything in sight of our common patrimony all to themselves, families and their agents in the absence of institutional “Will” to put an end to these flourishing interprise where all of a sudden, nonentities and imbecilic elements determine the fate of the highly endowed all because of politics where, by some mistaken judgement of a manipulated electorate in sympathy out of their partisant support helped such questionable characters and heartless buffoons to gain power, they now have access to the humongous wealth in their possession as proceeds of graft not from hard-working but were monies stolen from Government coffers entrusted in their care meant for developments of men and material resources left unchecked by the relevant bodies and without consequences.”

— Obi Ojage

My personal experience in the year of the Lord, 2000, as a former member of the Board of Directors of the Federal Radio Cooperation of Nigeria, (FRCN ) Abuja, where more than sixteen persons of note were hatched to my removal for fighting insubordination and endemic corruption involving the establishment of 36 numbers of new FM Stations with state of the art equipments to be purchased abroad for which huge amount of the money was appropriated by the national assembly with almost all of it being released for that purpose, where their indifference beats all imaginations on the ridiculous length people go to fight just “one man” to realise their evil aim all and above the public interest, they took the oath of office to protect.

Guess what? All of that Hulubulu was a facade as the whole thing became moribund due to systemic corruption, unknown to me that all the clangour of zero corruption by the presidency then, was a fash.

Though they failed woefully to have me sacked outrightly as it wasn’t in the best interest of the Government to dare, haven’t discovered later in the well documented 20 pages petition I sent to both the then President Olusegun Obasanjo, the late Secretary to Government of the Federation late Chief Ufot Ekaete, Minister, Prof. Jerry Gana concerning the lies and atrocities that enveloped management of the 36 radio stations across the country under the headship of the DG. Eddy Iroh as head of management, months into our inauguration as members of the governing board.

In avoiding more scandal, due to my absence being the handiwork of Iroh who made sure the letter by the minister inviting me for a reconciliation meeting in his office with the DG who went about in Abuja, telling people how I want to remove him from office, did not get to me in Calabar, as the DG hijacked the process of mailing and delayed the letter sent through surface mail instead of DHL and made sure it got to me two weeks after the date of the meeting, in its place, the told tons of lies against me infuriates the minister who was now under enormous pressure by my adversaries for my sack, waited and did not see me, reluctantly wrote a memo to the President for my disengagement instead of a sack hoping I would reach out to him to plead for my recall.

But I remained undeterred, and thanked the Lord for life, I didn’t but left it to time to be my judge. knowing that the truth would be told one day not too long and those concerned would pay for their evil deed somehow.

However, that singular experience in Abuja taught me a lot of valuable lessons which is why I often bust into laughter when I hear those who have taken a vow to fight corruption continue to give reasons or flimsy excuses as to why they are unable to accomplish such tasks with all the powers backed by law and enough security at their disposal, something fundamentally is amiss in such case scenario and I wish to bear my thoughts here as simple and direct as I could on the possible cause of such shenanigans.

If one abhors corruption in its absoluteness and is given all the powers to expose or eradicate it, it is expected that such a person should endeavour to do exactly that without complaining or looking for a scapegoat where imaginary agents of corruption are usually said to be fighting back. That sounds hypocritical and undeserving of public sympathy in the face of one’s failure to act decisively.

I would think that even in situations where one is being obstructed by whoever, be it the president, from carrying out their statutory functions required by law in the fight against corruption, as is often the case, the right thing to do for carrying such a burden was to expose the whole gambit to the public, dam the consequences and resign with honour than ever coming up with the portraiture of a later-day saint armed with uncorrelated confessions swathed in exposure that are belated over what should’ve been done there and then to expose corruption if that was the goal, but I fear, its certainly usually not, I surmise?

THESE are common mistakes made by most anti-corruption Zars, especially as narrated in an elaborate interview recently granted by my brother OBONO-OBLA, former presidential aid in charge of the recovery of assets especially those earned through the proceeds of graft.

HIS drudgery left a sor test in the mouth particularly when it appeared that he allowed himself to be used as a pantaloon by many of those whose names were associated with corruption scandals in the past, I wondered what informed such a collaboration and what he thought they could do differently, except he had something dissimilar other than that which he portrayed.

FOR the tough man he was, I had expected him to have taken a stand with the evidence he had at hand to dame the consequences by revealing his findings to the press and wait for the public response or throw in the towel and vanish into thin air as he eventually did and see if corruption was not going to expose itself further when the masses of concern Nigerians decides to play the rule of a zar while he stays asunder to glimpse at what he has planted taking a form.

BY this exemplary action, the majority of the members of the public will hail such dogged and resoluteness. And that characteristically would mark the beginning of the end of corruption in Nigeria coming from the top. But to the contrary, most of these anti-corruption Zars as they’re called wait until they’re been forced to leave due to their inability to stand in defense of their assigned duty vehemently before spilling the bin. Crying wolves where there are none wouldn’t have been an option in this case.

I wonder how most of the anti-corruption Zars were going to faithfully execute their job when they are often seen exhibiting tendencies inimical to what they profess by embracing ostentation. Many of them have been known to move about mostly in very expensive Bulletproof SUVs, and several backup vehicles and insisting on living in apartments equivalent to 5-star hotel suites and flying first class all of which are entrapment prone to temptation to maintain a lifestyle that is above their recommended emoluments or exhibiting the very character and reason why corruption thrives.

Because those who embezzle funds meant for development do so to enable them to acquire excessive luxury far beyond their earnings. What differentiates the two is in this case prefix, one, is anti-corruption, while the other is corrupt-practitioner.

When their lifestyle of ostentation starts to conflict with their posturings in the light of what their underhand activities do to the fortunes of those they claimed to be fighting especially their open harassment to cover up complacency viewed by those culpable as nefariousness leaves a smear on their victims who, in trying to checkmate those overbearing attitude are left with no choice but to expose them in addition to calling their bluff, they turn around to say is corruption fighting back, that’s not true.

However, I thought It should be reasonably drummed into the ears of whoever wishes to join the novo class of Nigeria rich men through the back door by their volution to stay in glasshouses habited by horrid material beings entrenched in graft, it is wise that such a fellow desists from throwing stones. Doing so is anathema to the ethics of such habitation which is supposed to entertain only those with like minds. To do anything contrary is viewed as a betrayal of some sort now if you ask me. I have learned my lessons.

In Nigeria, you can only fight corruption if you must, by exposing the corrupt to the public and society will back you up to shame the corrupt and compel the authority of the Government concerned to take measures to deal with the culprit if they’re sincere. Where they’re not, it will show and nobody will ever take them seriously anymore and the mark of infamy becomes indelible on the shameless victims of graft however their pretences. But he who has blown the whistle igniting public attention is seen as the hero!

An example of that is what we see going on and the stalemate that endures after the current EFCC Boss Mr Ola Olukoyede exposed the unending corruption racket in the Ministry of Humanitarian and Poverty Alleviation without betraying any emotion nor allowing himself to be rattled by the series of job men and women deployed to derail the process. These characters with low esteem doted everywhere turn to cry more than the bereaved now acting as accomplices to the act or are hired as hatched men going around in different TV stations some of who are notable Layers and activists seeking to defend the indefensible. Yet, we want Nigeria to be better. How can that happen when these calibres of persons are seen encouraging graft for the sake of their stomachs?

But the more the culprits of such heartless and primitive looting of money meant for the poor keep mounting pressure shamelessly through various fronts the Nigerian way, including the engagement of some immoral media executives to change the narrative, the truth refused to abate nor fizzle out as the authority hands appear to be a tight way not to Nigerianize the issues hoping it would die naturally as many such cases before it. The reverse seems to be the case. Nigerians are watching with keen but reserved interest to see how the whole saga will play out.

The pre-shoot-dragging going on the part of the Government as it now appears in the case of the alleged shameful looting in the Humanitarian Ministry beats all rationalities.

Moreso, the logical reason why it is kept in abeyance is large because of the resistance and resilience of the current EFCC Boss, Olukoyade who insisted on announcing to the public what was stolen, how it was stolen, the amount involved, and those alleged to be culpable, all in plain language without any ambiguity. And so was BBC Africa and many other international TV stations across the world complementing the EFCC in amplifying the true side of the story even though many hypocrites have condemned the BBC story as pure blackmail.

The stalemated nature of the matter involving the looting galore in the Humanitarian Ministry as a cause for concern presently is all because of vested interest but which has been vehemently thwarted by the unyielding vogality of the current leadership of the EFCC.

Otherwise, the criminality in the matter as a deliberate act of stealing would’ve long fizzled out and been replaced with words like “negligence” as the official interpretation of exactly what they may have claimed happened if not for the important stance of Olukoyede constantly countering the fake news by paid agents to mislead the unsuspecting public in a shameless defence of unrepentant thieves who glow sanctimoniously with a fake air of entitlement to deceive an impoverished and a highly disgruntled society of mixed ages where many of their beneficiaries blindly believe is their tuff.

“Please join me in part (2) of the series where I will narrate the hellish experience in my attempt to echo the wish of Mr President to expose corruption while serving as a member of the Board of Directors of the Federal Radio Cooperation of Nigeria Abuja and many lies told by the person who knew nothing about what transpired and the Hero that I became as a result of that.”

End Time Message!

GOD WITH US……..

StreetReporters.ng