In 2006/2007 the police (EFCC) and the judiciary had more than enough to pursue the criminal offences of both Obasanjo and Atiku. But nothing happened. These arms of government are totally useless.
By Adeola Aderounmu
Adeola Aderounmu
If we back track to 2006/2007, that time when Mr. Olusegun Obasanjo was bidding for a third-term and spending billions of naira of taxpayers monies to bribe senators and legislators, we will also remember that the resistance to that bid was headed by his deputy, one Atiku Abubakar.
At that time Mr. Olusegun Obasanjo had turned the EFCC in the hands of Nuhu Ribadu to a tool of witch-hunting instead of the cleansing for which it was intended. So he turned the EFCC on his deputy but it was an incomplete process because no one was arrested or prosecuted. The EFCC published details of the criminal offences of Mr. Atiku and did so almost daily in various newspapers in Nigeria.
In the fight back, MR. Atiku’s media aides did a fine job. They dug deep into the criminal records of Olusegun Obasanjo and also made sure that these criminal records ended up the pages of the newspapers.
So for several months, Nigerians enjoyed a free soap opera.
The two men who were supposed to lead Nigeria were consumed by their quest for power, Obasanjo for the 4th term actually having been a dictator/tyrant in the 1970s.
Atiku won the fight because Olusegun Obasanjo did not get a civilian 3rd term in office. Majority of Nigerians were against the idea because it would disrupt the already dysfunctional constitution-one that had already ensure that majority of Nigerians are poverty stricken even to this date!
The saddest thing, from my perspective, is that when Yar Adua became the president of Nigeria in 2007, Nigerians went to sleep as if nothing had hapened.
The Nigerian Media is a piece of rubbish.
The Nigerian police is the biggest joke in the world.
The Nigerian judiciary, for me, is absolute nonsense and ingredients!
The media needed to pepper the system and the people. It failed, and even now still sleeping!
The police ought to have utilised the documents that were released by both Obasanjo and Atiku because they are hard evidence on each other’s criminalities. They both showed why the other person was a thief.
The Judiciary and the police had more than enough to pursue the criminal offences of both Obasanjo and Atiku. But nothing happened.
Nothing concrete had taken place in Nigeria’s civilian regimes to put criminals and thieves behind bars even in the faces of hard evidence.
Now we hear that Atiku is a top notch for the 2019 elections. He is aiming to become the president of Nigeria.
Nigeria is one of the few countries on earth where known criminals achieve their political ambitions. I don’t need a reply for this article. I don’t need a rejoinder. I am so sick of the Nigerian political system where people try one way or the other to justify why we must coninue to run the political system we have and why every four years we must queue behind a thief.
Once, Obasanjo had boasted that Atiku will never become the president of Nigeria. So far, this remain the case. I don’t know if there is a settlement between them now or if one had gone behind to beg the other.
In Nigeria’s politics, no enemy is permanent. It is the interest (to seek power and to steal from the commonwealth) that is permanent. That is why today APC government is full of looters and criminals from 1999 and earlier regimes.
As soon as Atiku’s interest came up again, the Nigerian Media owed Nigeria and humanity a re-publication of all the crimes that were made public by Obasanjo’s camp. They need to open the EFCC files and tell him why he needed to first go to court than to try to seek a return to the seat of corruption in Abuja.
They must re-publish those allegations and support them with the documents so that young people can see how Nigerian politicians have stolen their future even before they were born and whilst they were growing up.
People like me cannot prove these crimes, we have our limitations. Those who have access to the criminal files and offences and do not open them to the public and media will never know peace.
It is such duties that the media owed the people: to investigate, to bring back memories that could help to save the children yet unborn from these old scavengers.
For, once a criminal is allowed back to the seat of government, this entire circus will continue and suffering will persist in the land.
Atiku in my records is a criminal, just the same way as his boss Obasanjo was. They both made this clear in their roforofo fight. So this is not something l made up. They told us themselves!
Nigerians need to thank Obasanjo for his misadventure, his 3rd term quest which we together with Atiku made sure never came to pass. But Obasanjo will deny this 3rd term bid until the end of time. We don’t care because it does not matter anymore. The other pain left from that was the ghana must go bags that went to the sena-thieves and legis-looters.
That Atiku, like 99% of other Nigerian politicians, is a free man is a failure of the Nigerian police, the Nigerian judiciary and the Nigerian law system.
So don’t blame the people who classify the Nigerian police as the worst police in the world. There are so many reasons for that including the zero effect of ensuring that politicians are arrested and prosecuted accordingly.
If there is a report tomorrow classifying Nigeria’s judiciary as the worst in the world, l will sign under it. l will, because as long as criminals can vie for office in Nigeria, then we can as well do away with the police and the judiciary. Why do we have police and lawyers when criminals are what we get in public service?
A lot of people in Nigeria settle for criminals in political offices because of the anomaly that has become the normal thing. That is there are no saints in Nigerian politics and since the law is ineffective in dealing with looters and criminals in government, the people have accepted the situation.
The consequences are huge. Nigeria is withholding one of the most tragic mode of existence for humans. Forget about the flashy lives of the rich and the celebrities! More than 100m Nigerians are poor and live in extreme poverty.
Some Nigerians prefer to go and die as slaves in Libya. That summarises the mode of life in Nigeria!
The people think that saints will never emerge on the political platform. The people have accepted criminals to go and come as they like into government offices. The people are easily carried away by the cash that these criminals spread around mostly every four years.
Some fools will come to the social media to defend crooks and looters in goverment. They will ask you, what options do you have? They will ask you, who do you want to be the president? Stupid thinking, stupid questions, senseles mentalities!
The people of Nigerian unlike the people in Sweden or England do not know that their rights and they think that their lives depend on what the politicians do or not do (largely true) but it should be the other way round. The people, if they are upright and thinking straight, should ask accountability from politicians and fire them within 2 to 3 days if accountability is not given.
That is where the people, the media, the police and the judiciary have let the system down in this unified passiveness.
In Nigeria, people continue to choose between different grades of criminals, they call them politicians because they think they don’t have a choice. Nigerians don’t look inward to promote good people and people who can actually change the system for good.
The other sad thing about Nigeria is that since there is absence of accountability and as a result of almost 60 years of stupid leadership/rulership, the people don’t know what a real government feels like. So, even when a good person is put into government, the system corrupts the person and he or she start to steal or loot.
A friend once told me that if any person in public office does not conform to these criminalities, that the person will be killed or gotten rid off one way or the other.
That is why today, in many government offices, there is sharing of bonuses every Friday or other regular intervals. I mean there is a lot of loose cash in the Nigerian economy that it appears everybody is crazy and corrupt.
In any case, Atiku can continue to exercise his rights for as long as the useless system of government in Nigeria permits him. He is not alone, l always say 99,9% of Nigerian politicians are criminals/looters and it’s so true.
The system of government in Nigeria must change. If we restructure the political landscape and make the president a ceremonial and figure-head position, the corruption and even the urge to become a president will likely disappear. Now everybody wants to become the president or the governor because of the lawlessness in the land and the useless constitution on which Nigeria runs.
If Nigeria returns to regional government, Atiku will be vying to become a regional leader and l am sure the sharia law will cut off his hands if he is found guilty.
A regional form of government will bring about healthy competition among the various regions in Nigeria and any region lacking behind will ask for the heads of its custodians.
The regional system of government is the most promising option for Nigeria. The other option which is also growing nowadays is the outright dissolution of Nigeria.
One day the people will be pushed to the wall, they will take the laws into their hands too and they will chase the corrupt politicians, catch up with them and send them into exile or out of this world.
Nigerians, the ordinary citizens are hungry, angry, frustrated and see no meaning with life. Again, that is why crazy and lawless Libya is an option. I am sure there are Nigerians in Yemen and Afghanistan looking for ways to survive when we have a state governor who can steal 300 billion naira or more at this very minute and walk free!
The politicians are looting, living large, sending their children around the world, buying houses around the world and doing what they like with taxpayers monies. These crazy ways will stop. These crazy things will come to an end. I don’t know when, but l don’t think Nigeria will continue for another 60 years of criminals ruling and making the people slaves in their homeland and in places like UAE and Libya.
Nigerians must see the 2019 elections as an opportunity for 2 things.
One, push for political changes before the elections so that regions re-emerged no matter the opportunity cost. There is a need to pause this nonsense APC-PDP Dilemma deluxe.
Two, for once in our life time, look for saints, good people and visioners to move the respective regions forward.
If we recycle criminals in 2019, if we recycle those who became rich stealing from us (people who became businessmen/women after looting the treasuries around the country) and if we maintain the currrent system of government, then it is just another cycle of idiocy. Nigeria will remain a country heading nowhere.
aderounmu@gmail.com
Come along on:
Twitter @aderinola
Instagram @aderounmu
