When a team takes the lead in a football match, there is
a nervous state for the fans of the team in the lead; one goal lead is not
enough. There must be sustained effort at defending that lead or perhaps
scoring another till the end. Farouk Lawan scored and took the lead when he
submitted his report and earned huge cheers from the people. The match was not
over though for soon, he conceded an own goal when partook in the production of
a movie Farouk Also Likes Dollars.
The 4th time house of rep member was held for questioning
late into the night yesterday on his role in the bribery allegation scandal
brought by Chief Otedola of Zenon Oil. Chief Otedola in an interview with
selected newspapers revealed how the ad-hoc committee chairman on the subsidy
fraud had approached and pestered him for bribes to which he acceded and
offered to pay $3million with $620,000 being advance payment which sum has
since been collected by Farouk Lawan and his secretary Boniface Emenalo. Farouk
had first denied the allegation and insisted the video was a caricature of himself
only to later admit that he took the money to expose Chief Otedola. The House
of Representatives convened an emergency session today and amongst other things
suspended the ad-hoc committee chairman and ordered the probe of his secretary.
The house leadership has also reinstated the name of Zenon oil on the list of
the indicted companies on the report which the house maintains will be upheld.
And so it is that Farouk Lawan has conceded more goals
than he scored thus far. Sensing the general mood of the nation and word on the
street, the presidency has come out to deny influencing the sting action
involving a close friend of his government and party financier Chief Otedola. He
described the accusations as being baseless while he promised the report will
be upheld although his attorney general continues to maintain that fresh
investigations will be carried out.
Chief Otedola maintained that it was he who approached
the law enforcement after the former ad-hoc committee chairman had pestered him
for bribes. We can draw from inference that Farouk Lawan had approached Chief
Otedola to get an overview of the workings of the downstream sector, (agreed to
by both) then he had left the oil mogul. Then the SSS stepped in and probably
motivated Chief Otedola to offer bribes to Farouk Lawan to the tune of
$3million (an offer that might have been too palatable for the chairman). He
walked as bold as lion into a trap. This is our speculation.
There is a salient question from the whole scenario. Does
the report retain its sanctity? Many disagree. The House of Representatives
have kept faith with it. The Presidency for all intents and purposes can be
best described as sitting on the fence because it says it will continue with
the report but that fresh investigations will have to be done.
Let us look closely at two aspects of the report. The report
insists that more money than was allotted for subsidy in the budget was spent
by the federal government under the watch of this administration. That the sum
in question runs into N2trillion and most importantly that there was an attempt
to mislead the public on the policy. For all intents and purposes, that part of
the report is as clear as possible. The committee must be commended for finding
that out. Such is the burden of incompetence, corruption and nonchalance we
must enjoy for electing this administration. It is this part of the report that
must not die. It is this part of the report that the House of Representatives
and indeed the Senate must begin to look at. That part of the report insists
that there is an attempt to mislead the people. There should be no delay in
doing the right thing.
The other part of the report concerns the indicted
companies. We will work on a certain assumption (assumptions being the lowest
level of knowledge). If it is eventually proven that Farouk Lawan solicited and
took bribes from Chief Otedola, then there is every chance that there are
plenty other marketers who must have offered bribes for excluding their
companies from the list. How are we sure that the list of indicted companies
are not the ones who refused to play ball with Farouk Lawan?
A fresh investigation needs to be carried out. Shamefully,
Farouk Lawan has brought us to a state where one errand suddenly requires two
shifts to complete. It is sad that he stooped this low and made little of the
high expectations put on him. How could he have chosen to betray the populace
by joining sides with corruption? Perhaps Otedola polished the Benjamins and
perfumed them even more. He will go down in history as an Esau who for a morsel
lost his birthright. His suspension might just be the beginning of the end of
his political career.
Next issue, who will carry out that investigation? The EFCC?
That body is really rubber stamp these days; it has no mind of its own and can be
called off at will. The Police? Think again, the Nigerian police will rather
resume road blocks than expose all the culprits who dared take our money and
have left us poor. So who will bell the cat? The House or the Senate must not
even try to raise another committee to do again what Farouk Lawan did. The executive
led by Goodluck or good-joke as it were cannot investigate its friends and
financiers when the report clearly states that there is an attempt by it to
mislead the public. It refused to do so at the height of public outcry; it will
never do so now.
As it is today, the best that must happen is for the National
Assembly to show remarkable courage and begin impeachment proceedings against a
government that deliberately intended to mislead its people. Obviously that is
wishful thinking for the party in power will bring to bear their strong force
and prevent its members from delivering us from this inept yet scheming
leadership. The Nigerian people must rise up therefore and remind them: they
are employees and not employers.
Where are the civil society groups? Where are religious
bodies? Where are the labour unions? This is the time and indeed the time to
put an end to corruption. An administration that is run with intent to mislead
the people should not remain in office. Nigerians are dying as result of
subsidy withdrawal which has brought about more hardship than cannot be
described and yet we continue to suffer and smile. Someone must rise up and
show true leadership now or we will remain at this cross roads.
Comments