Former Delta state governor, James Ibori got a 13 year jail term yesterday. He would have been handed a longer term but the Southwark based court considered his guilty plea and gave him a discount. Having already spent over 640 days in prison during the trial period, the term is going to be further shortened the judge said. The conviction is proof that our judicial process is considerably mired in mediocrity as the conviction rate following indictments is too low. Some of us see sense in this imported justice though. Our governors, ministers and presidents prefer to holiday, take medical trips, have their children in foreign schools and most times prefer to bank their loot abroad. It is altogether fitting therefore, for them to get justice abroad.
Ibori with his millions one can say would not have been imprisoned here. His colleague a certain Diepreye Alamieyeseigha of Bayelsa state got the term of a juvenile while Olabode George and a few others had terms in prison look like a vacation in the Bahamas. It will not be stupid to suggest to the EFCC that evidence gathering take a new dimension, and after which such evidence be handed over to foreign prosecutors to indict and prosecute our corrupt officials in those safe havens of theirs. That would be justice made abroad. Meanwhile, the EFCC has thrown a party to celebrate the conviction of the former Delta state governor.
The world waited in vain yesterday for the Harouk Lawan led ad hoc committee on fuel subsidy to present its report. NNPC officials, top shots in the oil ministry as well as a few affected fuel importers all gathered at the National Assembly to get copies of the report but were kept hours on wait. The committee members and chairman were nowhere in sight as the media joined in the wait to provide their clients with the much awaited report.
Elsewhere, public enemy number one Boko Haram, it has been revealed are onto plans to bomb certain hotels in Abuja. This information is coming from the U.S. embassy here in Nigeria warning Americans and other foreigners to ward off popular hotels in the capital or meet calamity in the hand of the terrorist organization.
In other news, President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan returned to the senate yesterday asking for an upward review of the NDDC allocation amongst other things. The president had recently accented to budget 2012 a few days ago. This same budget had been thoroughly scrutinized by Nigerians at the start of the year. The supervising minister for the economy Dr. Ngozi Okonjo Iweala had this budget compiled and after a few days, the president wants parts of it reviewed already.
With a little thinking, one can conclude that mediocrity is at the helm of things in Nigeria. Someone says it is corruption. Corruption has suffered more than corruption can possibly be responsible for. Is corruption responsible for the absence of a well paid committee chairman whose findings a nation sat at home for 9 days? Is corruption responsible also for the inability of the president to properly evaluate a budgetary provision for over 4 months instead of rushing back to the Senate to say hold on, increase a certain section by a certain figure? Is corruption responsible for the inability of the EFCC to correctly prosecute cases beyond reasonable doubt? It is outright mediocrity all around us. We have all made corruption the euphemism for all that goes wrong. Recently, at a viewing centre, a fan argued that Yakubu’s miss at the World Cup was as a result of corruption. The fans' assembly agreed vehemently.
In a popular match watched by millions of TV viewers, a player took a free-kick that went wide, just as soon as he played it, he turned to the referee and said, “let me play it again, that was a mistake.” The referee said to him: “some players have scored by similar mistakes.” "It is a wretched taste to be gratified with mediocrity when the excellent lies before us." Benjamin Disraeli. Until we decide as a people to put away our love commonly accepted euphemisms and strive for excellence, we will continue to make the mistakes of the mediocre instead of the mistakes of the excellent.
Ibori with his millions one can say would not have been imprisoned here. His colleague a certain Diepreye Alamieyeseigha of Bayelsa state got the term of a juvenile while Olabode George and a few others had terms in prison look like a vacation in the Bahamas. It will not be stupid to suggest to the EFCC that evidence gathering take a new dimension, and after which such evidence be handed over to foreign prosecutors to indict and prosecute our corrupt officials in those safe havens of theirs. That would be justice made abroad. Meanwhile, the EFCC has thrown a party to celebrate the conviction of the former Delta state governor.
The world waited in vain yesterday for the Harouk Lawan led ad hoc committee on fuel subsidy to present its report. NNPC officials, top shots in the oil ministry as well as a few affected fuel importers all gathered at the National Assembly to get copies of the report but were kept hours on wait. The committee members and chairman were nowhere in sight as the media joined in the wait to provide their clients with the much awaited report.
Elsewhere, public enemy number one Boko Haram, it has been revealed are onto plans to bomb certain hotels in Abuja. This information is coming from the U.S. embassy here in Nigeria warning Americans and other foreigners to ward off popular hotels in the capital or meet calamity in the hand of the terrorist organization.
In other news, President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan returned to the senate yesterday asking for an upward review of the NDDC allocation amongst other things. The president had recently accented to budget 2012 a few days ago. This same budget had been thoroughly scrutinized by Nigerians at the start of the year. The supervising minister for the economy Dr. Ngozi Okonjo Iweala had this budget compiled and after a few days, the president wants parts of it reviewed already.
With a little thinking, one can conclude that mediocrity is at the helm of things in Nigeria. Someone says it is corruption. Corruption has suffered more than corruption can possibly be responsible for. Is corruption responsible for the absence of a well paid committee chairman whose findings a nation sat at home for 9 days? Is corruption responsible also for the inability of the president to properly evaluate a budgetary provision for over 4 months instead of rushing back to the Senate to say hold on, increase a certain section by a certain figure? Is corruption responsible for the inability of the EFCC to correctly prosecute cases beyond reasonable doubt? It is outright mediocrity all around us. We have all made corruption the euphemism for all that goes wrong. Recently, at a viewing centre, a fan argued that Yakubu’s miss at the World Cup was as a result of corruption. The fans' assembly agreed vehemently.
In a popular match watched by millions of TV viewers, a player took a free-kick that went wide, just as soon as he played it, he turned to the referee and said, “let me play it again, that was a mistake.” The referee said to him: “some players have scored by similar mistakes.” "It is a wretched taste to be gratified with mediocrity when the excellent lies before us." Benjamin Disraeli. Until we decide as a people to put away our love commonly accepted euphemisms and strive for excellence, we will continue to make the mistakes of the mediocre instead of the mistakes of the excellent.
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