On Yahaya Bello and the curious case of the Nigerian psyche

So, former Kogi State governor, Yahaya Bello, paid an astronomical $845,000 advance tuition for his children at the American International School Abuja just as he was leaving office. His people claim the money didn’t come from the state coffers, but from his own pocket (and I hear they are disputing the amount but that’s beside […]

So, former Kogi State governor, Yahaya Bello, paid an astronomical $845,000 advance tuition for his children at the American International School Abuja just as he was leaving office. His people claim the money didn’t come from the state coffers, but from his own pocket (and I hear they are disputing the amount but that’s beside the point). They also say his children had been in the school prior to him being a governor, and he always paid their school fees fully and timely. Which begs the question: what possessed him then to pay this amount in advance? What was he scared of? What manner of poverty phobia overwhelmed a man so used to money that he thought that he’d better pay in advance than wait until the fees were due? So, either the man was afraid of losing access to the state’s money pot or he thought this would be a low-stakes means of laundering stolen funds.

The law says we must use ‘allegedly’ even when undisputable proof exists as long as there’s been no conviction, so allegedly, Yahaya Bello stole state funds. He’s not the first to do so – we know how politicians become overnight millionaires/billionaires but he’s the one we are facing today. My people say that all dogs eat excreta, but it’s the one with its mouth smeared with faecal matter that gets called a shit-eater.

While Yahaya Bello was allegedly haemorrhaging his state’s common wealth, a 2019 report (when Governor Bello was serving a second term) put the poverty rate of Kogi State at about 64 per cent. The state remains one of the states with the lowest fiscal performance. While he was paying 14 years in advance for his children’s tuition, Kogi schools were dilapidated. They are not fit for his children to attend.

The EFCC has an N80 billion money laundering charge against Governor Bello, amongst others. He has multiple properties in Abuja (and elsewhere I am sure). Kogi citizens aren’t living in luxury; some workers weren’t paid for seven years, their children are going to schools with the minimum infrastructure. I don’t know how many of them will ever smell 1/10th of what Gov. Bello deposited for school fees alone in their entire lifetime. Yet, some of his citizens have been performing rituals to keep Governor Bello free from answering for his corruption. Na who do us dis abeg? What manner of Stockholm syndrome is this bikonu?

I don’t know what it is about the Nigerian psyche that makes us imagine that we must protect and defend “our own”, even as “our own” is stealing from us and impoverishing us. Folks will speak from both sides of their mouth – calling out corrupt politicians from other parts of the country, but once it’s a “son of the soil”, they sound a different tune.

How someone who’s mortgaged you and your children’s futures to ensure an affluent future for himself and his progenies is someone you’re willing to defend is beyond me. I don’t know if these people cannot make the connection between Gov. Bello’s wealth and their own poverty. Can’t they not see the difference between the school he’s paid over N1 billion in future tuition for and the schools their own children are forced to go to? The dynamics of loyalty and accountability in Nigerian politics, with personal connections and regional identity trumping the collective welfare, is our undoing.

On social media, the same citizens who bemoan the state of the nation see no irony in sharing videos of politicians from their regions living lavish lifestyles and defending those politicians from attack from those they consider “outsiders.”

The whataboutism that Twitter threads degenerate into when it comes to poor governance is disheartening. Because this foolishness is encouraged, our politicians are impervious to shame. So much so that we have grown men (the ones I have seen are male politicians) just strutting around like peacocks, walking around their compound, showing off luxury cars they most likely have bought with stolen loot, smiling without any trace of embarrassment.

We need a shift in attitudes towards corruption and governance. We must learn to take our duties as citizens seriously. We must learn to hold our leaders accountable, to demand transparency, and we must resist the urge to defend evil politicians just because we share the same ethnicity. After all, these politicians aren’t bothered by that fact. Grassroots activism and education would help to reorient current mindsets. If we do not learn to demand good governance, we would be stuck in this cycle of politicians coming in, carting off as much as they can and moving on.