Are Obasanjo & his minions above the law?

The apparent lack of enthusiasm to pursue Senator Iyabo Obasanjo and her brother, Gbenga Obasanjo is causing concern among Nigerians. President Yar’adua appears reluctant to hold Obasanjo accountable because he doesn’t want to embarrass the former President. For example, his administration is doing everything to play down the significance of the power contracts scandal in […]

The apparent lack of enthusiasm to pursue Senator Iyabo Obasanjo and her brother, Gbenga Obasanjo is causing concern among Nigerians. President Yar’adua appears reluctant to hold Obasanjo accountable because he doesn’t want to embarrass the former President. For example, his administration is doing everything to play down the significance of the power contracts scandal in which due process was deliberately ignored through waivers that were arrogantly granted by the former President. In fact, the Department of Public Procurement (formerly Due process Office) was the creation of the former Obasanjo administration.

In his testimony at a public hearing organized by the House of Representatives Committee on Power, the former Minister of Power, Mr. Liyel Imoke (now Cross River State Governor), openly admitted that he was granted waivers by the former President to ignore due process in contract awards. Consequently, many contractors took mobilization fees without performing, which itself compounded the infrastructure decay inherited by the Yar’adua administration.

Rather than calling these contractors and their official collaborators to account, the Yar’adua administration appears curiously irresolute on the issue. Strangely, a Federal government contract review committee has even told Nigerians that the power contract figures were exaggerated. The committee told us that the amount mismanaged is just about three billion dollars and not 15 billion as widely claimed.

The committee’s report is a further insult to the intelligence of Nigerians. Even if the amount mismanaged was a “mere” 3 billion dollars, shouldn’t those responsible for not executing the contracts be held accountable? Indeed, despite the deliberate attempt to play down the figures, 3 billion dollars is big enough to significantly improve Nigeria’s electric power generating capacity. Insincerity and corruption are largely responsible for the collapse of public infrastructure in Nigeria.

It was only recently that a former Taiwanese President, Mr.  Shui-iaban and his wife were sentenced to life imprisonment for corruption. Ironically, while the Taiwanese government was ready to hold its citizens accountable, no matter how highly placed, here in Nigeria our government is protecting those who have questions to answer.

President Yar’adua is arguably indebted to Obasanjo for helping him become a President in 2007 and as a pay back, he is openly reluctant to disgrace Obasanjo. But Yar’adua should not forget that he swore to perform his duties without fear or favour. Unfortunately, Yar’adua’s timid posture towards Obasanjo is making Nigerians wonder whether President Yar’adua is in office to protect Obasanjo or the public interest. Does the Yar’adua administration have any reason to prosecute low profile criminals while the bigger ones are let to scoff at justice?

While he was in power, former President Obasanjo had used all the powers available to him to recover billions of dollars allegedly stolen by the late Gen. Sani Abacha and his children. In fact, at one point, the former President arrested and detained Gen. Abacha’s son, Mohammed Abacha as part of his efforts to force the boy admit that he stole money and that he was ready to sign a deal to return the allegedly stolen funds.

Let us erase the impression created by Obasanjo that corruption began and ended with the late Gen. Sani Abacha. The fact is that corruption has now attained a trillion naira scale and became obviously worse under Obasabjo’s government, which at one time was awarded a badge of notorious distinctions as the leader in the league of corrupt nations of the world. According to Transparency International, which delivered the unenviable award, 50 percent of corruption was taking place in the Presidency under the nose of former President Obasanjo. Therefore, any genuine anti-corruption crusade must start with Obasanjo who became a multi-billionaire eight years after leaving office.

For example, the Coalition Against Corrupt Leaders (CACOL), which is led by a lawyer, has written several petitions and held public protests to press EFCC to investigate the sources of Obasanjo’s sudden wealth, including the multi-billion dollar transformation of Ota forms and the establishment of Obasanjo’s private University (Bells University) estimated at N40 billion. Nigerians are watching whether President Yar’adua will have the courage to bring Obasanjo to account. If he can’t, then let the ICPC and EFCC be dissolved rather than paying lip service to the efforts to rid Nigeria of corruption, which has destroyed the ability of the country to develop and make the lives of her citizens better.

Alao writes from Block 16, Chindo Yamusa Road, Keffi, Nassarawa State