Minna literacy circle

“Reprove a friend in secret, but praise him before others.”

Leonardo da Vinci, 1452 -99

 

The Governor of Niger State, or as he prefers to be addressed, the Chief Servant, had planned a major National Discourse on Corruption in Minna for weeks. The date was Thursday, March 14^th 2013. He had enough confidence in his ability and personal integrity to invite people of very high networth in records, personal integrity, professional profiles and political standing. It was clearly intended as a major input into current national concerns over the damaging role of corruption in the degeneration of all key national values, institutions and standards. Professor Bolaji Akinyemi was to deliver the lecture, an event to be charied by Malam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria. The Sultan of Sokoto was Guest of Honor. Minister of National Planning and Deputy Chairman of the Commission, Dr Shamsuddeed Usman was to co-host, and invited guests included Governors of Ekiti, Osun, Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, Borno, Kano, Nassarawa, Kwara, Kogi, Anambra, Abia and Benue States. On the list of Discussants were Professor Sheikh Abdullah, Former DG ASCON and former Minister of Agriculture, Professor Chidi Odinkalu, Chairman, National Human Rights Commission, Mr Segun Adeniyi, Chairman of the Editional Board of ThisDay Newspapers, Dr Kabir Mato of University of Abuja and yours sincerely. A host of prominent traditional rulers, leaders of Civil Society Organizations, diplomats and politicians were invited to attend what was planned to be a loud voice in the fight against corruption and collapsing values in our nation.

 

Two days before the well-planned Discourse, Chief E. Clark launched a detailed and elaborate attack on the person of the Chief Servant over his claim that President had signed a document to serve for only one term, 2011 – 2015. The old man said many things to and about Governor Babangida, all of them uncomplimentary. References to political illiteracy, bad faith and outright dishonesty were all made in the lengthy diatribe.

 

Then the big blunder was unveiled just one day to the Discourse. The President announced a pardon for his former political benefactor and boss, D.S.P Aliemesiegha and seven others, including the late General Shehu Musa Yar’Adua. The nation was aghast, and went up in an uproar of denunciation and condemnation. On the eve of the Discourse, information was made available to the nation that late Yar’Adua and a few others on the list had actually been given state pardon by the administration of General Abdulsalami Abubakar way back in 1998. Voices became more shrill. Condemnations over the grossest forms of insensitivity and impunity were made louder by accusations over unforgiveable and elementary errors and incompetence.

 

It was in that atmosphere that the Minna National Discourse on Corruption was held. The governors did not attend, perhaps because those of them who belong to the APC felt that fraternizing with Governor Babangida, even on an important matter such as corruption, will take the shine off their recent coup de grace against the President in Maiduguri; or perhaps they were reluctant to be listed as cheerleaders in the Chief Servant’s travails with his party. His PDP colleagues, except for the River State Governor (who you could say is a fellow-traveler with Babanagida in the fight for the soul of the PDP) all stayed away. It is safe to assume that they played safe in these days when being in the right company in the PDP is vital to your political health.

 

Still, the Discourse was very well attended. An event intended to focus on the all-pervasive nature of corruption was however turned into a virtual opposition rally against President Jonathan’s administration by discussants and participants. You almost felt sorry for Dr Shamsudeen Usman, the Minister who represented the Vice-President, the lone voice who reeled out achievements and visions which in the context of the Discourse, sounded almost like well-articulated fiction. The Lead Speaker reeled out the most depressing statistics and reviews of the state of corruption in Nigeria, and while he avoided the pointed accusations of this administration as the embodiment of everything corrupt as others did, his lecture painted a gloomy future for a nation bleeding from massive stolen resources, falling apart politically, decaying economically and requiring  far-reaching and genuine restructuring  to salvage be salvaged.

 

Professor Akinyemi’s lecture should be on shelves and desks as a study in how corruption breeds massive political problems. The chairman of the occasion, Malam Sanusi, an activist in his own right hinted at the slant of contributions at the Discourse with his remarks on the damage of corruption, including moral corruption.

 

Then the discussants gave real substance to the Discourse. The governor of Rivers State, even while managing to restate his loyalty to his party, demolished any distinction between large scale pillage of oil and gas resources in, by or through the NNPC, and the sweeping pandemic of kidnapping for ransom in many parts of the nation. Speaker after speaker pilloried President Jonathan’s record. Scams which dot the landscape of his administration, given such uneviable prominence by the infamy and disappearance of a civil servant, Abdurrasheed Maina were chronicled while the huge crowd hissed and cursed. Corruption starts from the moral corruption of leaders, who think power entitles them to treat citizens and public assets with impunity. Corrupt leaders cannot be good leaders, because they cannot protect the state from the most basic forms of abuse: the abuse of power. Failure to maintain high standards in the manner leaders emerge or operate makes public office an all-comers' affair. Poor leadership cannot inspire quality; it cannot generate loyalty and support, and it cannot set standards and benchmarks by which every institution of the state, the economy or social values should operate.

 

The pardon of the convicted former governor of Bayelsa State was the most recurring indictment. The fact that the Presidency can hinge its defence only on legality and ignore its responsibility to morality of its action made the entire saga even more a target. The pardon opened up a whole can of worms. Speaker after speaker hinted at the possibility that corruption has won its battles against the Nigerian people well and truly under President Jonathan. If anyone doubted this, the pardon for Alieghmasihga was the confirmation. References were made to the refusal of the President to grant amnesty as requested by Borno Elders to facilitate a resolution of the insurgency, but a pardon was railroaded through a Council of State meeting for an ex-convict governor who stole billions from people who needed it for medical attention, roads, schools and power.

 

In the end, the Minna Discourse had all the semblance of an opposition rally. The Chief Host of course made valiant efforts at damage control. He pledged his loyalty to his party, in pointed reference to suggestions made that he should leave it for others in the event that his efforts to stand his ground for some evidence of sincerity and reform are scuttled on the altar of 2015. But he could not turn the tide against the deluge of criticisms against the administration and his party, and the mammoth crowd he had gathered would have had none of it anyway.

 

If he had designed a resounding riposte to Chief Clark, Governor Babangida Aliyu could not have chosen a better strategy than the Minna Discourse. But it will amount to granting him more than he deserved to say he contrived a forum in Minna just to spite the President and his legion of spokespersons. If anyone was responsible for the impact of the Minna Discourse, it was the President himself. The timing of the pardon of Aliemasiegha which coincided with the Discourse could not have been worse if it was designed by his detractors. The lampooning of the Chief Servant by Chief Clark one or two days before the former  succeeded in assembling a quality panel and crowd in his backyard to discuss corruption misfired very badly. The Minna Discourse was not the work of a political illiterate, even if he did not design all its elements entirely. It was an important event attended by very serious Nigerians anxious over the state and fate of Nigeria and Nigerians. It was a literate conclave of concerned Nigerians.

 

The Minna Discourse should suggest to the PDP that it has some serious problems, many of them to do with its key members. The party will do well to pay attention to nuisance value of people like Babangida and Amaechi. These two, on the other hand, should recognize the reality that the ground is shifting very rapidly away from their party. They are popular today because people think they stand for some principles in a party which has none. They should not think that they alone can reform a party which is clearly on a self-destruct mission.