Monday
July 06, 2009 |
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One of the oddest jokes in Nigerian
politics is that Umaru Yar’Adua fancies himself a crusader against
corruption. In speeches and interviews, the man proclaims himself a foe
of the corrupt. His wife, Turai, weighs in from time to time with her
own railing homily on graft. His deputy, Goodluck Jonathan – a man whose
wife was twice caught with an unexplained horde of cash during his brief
as Bayelsa governor – is known to mount the pulpit and declaim against
those who put filthy hands in the public treasury. Yes, even Michael
Aondoakaa, Yar’Adua’s beloved Attorney General and Minister for Justice,
is fond of theorizing on the subject corruption.
It all makes for a tragic brand of hilarity. When a man like Yar’Adua
and his associates make a fetish of chastising the corrupt, what else to
do but to dolefully shake one’s head?
Yar’Adua has perfected the practice of fighting corruption with an
arsenal of cold, hollow speeches. Each time he, or a member of his
posse, utters a speech on the alleged war against corruption, Nigerians
and the world see hypocrisy personified.
Two years ago, a vindictive Olusegun Obasanjo, smarting from Nigerians’
resounding rejection of his illicit third term aspirations, decided to
wangle Yar’Adua into the Presidency. Yar’Adua came packaged as a robe
that beguiled the gullible. It was alleged that he was a man of great
honesty and integrity. He was even sold as a reform-minded politician
with a dash of radicalism. It was speculated that, as a bona fide
university graduate, he would bring a new sense of empathy, urgency and
vision to tackling the crises besetting the nation’s deprived sectors.
The Yar’Adua hype was built on falsehood and sustained by wooly
thinking. Some of us asked how an honest man would permit himself to be
the beneficiary of stolen goods – which is how, in the end, history will
remember Maurice Iwu’s 2007 “elections.” If Yar’Adua was driven by some
deep convictions, why was he so reluctant to step forward at campaign
rallies to articulate them? Why did he appear content to cede the
podium, time and time again, to Obasanjo to define him? If this former
governor was a man of vision, how come Nigerians had heard little about
his gubernatorial successes in Katsina?
For a brief moment, Yar’Adua seemed determined to maintain the myth of a
focused, thoughtful leader with scant regard for the pomp and pageantry
of office. He proclaimed himself a servant-leader, enunciated a
seven-point agenda, and declared his allergy to corruption. I didn’t buy
it for a minute.
By the time he finished his first year of tenancy in Aso Rock, Yar’Adua
had revealed himself for who he truly is: above all, an inept
administrator thoroughly confounded by the significant challenge of
running a complex behemoth like Nigeria. He has also dispelled any
doubts from the minds of some who wondered if an honest man would accept
a mandate tainted by pervasive fraud. In shamelessly leading the assault
on Ekiti during the re-run governorship polls, Yar’Adua has buttressed
his commitment to an electoral culture founded on open violation of the
public will.
More than anything, Yar’Adua’s true portrait has emerged in the bizarre
company he keeps.
Last Sunday, Punch reported that the Yar’Adua regime had funneled a N40
billion fertilizer contract to Notore Chemical Industries, a company
reportedly owned by former Governor James Ibori of Delta.
The paper speculated that the contract was seen as Yar‘Adua’s design to
reward the former governor “for allegedly bankrolling [Yar’Adua’s]
campaign in the 2007 presidential race.”
Yar’Adua’s latest largesse to Ibori fits into a telling pattern. Ibori
is docked for corruption, accused by the government’s anti-corruption
agency of pocketing a significant proportion of state funds during his
eight-year run as governor. But you would not know this from the way
Yar’Adua and his top lieutenants coddle Ibori, extending to him the kind
of preferment worthy of the most admirable citizens.
Ibori and Lucky Igbinedion (a now convicted ex-governor) were put on
Nigeria’s official delegation to the Beijing Olympics. That meant that
these two men, accused of grave betrayal of the public trust, were flown
to China, quartered in an expensive hotel, and feted at public expense.
More recently, the ruling party (no doubt with Yar’Adua’s blessing, if
not at his urging) declared Ibori one of its revered “elders.”
In a sentiment that exposed the depth of crass thinking in the Yar’Adua
regime, Olu Lipede, a spokesman for the Minister of Agriculture and
Water Resources, told Punch reporters that “Ibori is a Nigerian and he
has every right to do business.” Why hasn’t Yar’Adua ordered his staff
to comb Nigeria’s jails and identified the most hardened criminals to
line up for plum jobs in the government? Are these criminals any less
Nigerian than the criminals who hang out in Aso Rock?
