Anyone who tries to scoop spilled milk will definitely take in contaminated milk. And it is futile to search for a black goat in the night. Also, those who don’t care about choosing their bedfellows would one day lie alongside’mammy water’ or a ‘pappy water’.
Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, a product of the Bretton Woods system, conveying the picture of a knowledgeable, credible and incorruptible professional is entangled in a web of scandalous financial transactions by a government in which she is finance minister and coordinating minister of the economy.
This government has been making out of budget expenses with regards to a bogus kerosene subsidy to the tune of 100 million US dollars monthly and the Finance ministry never considered it improper? It took only a CBN governor to point this out? The NNPC has a backlog of crude oil sales monies un-remitted to government coffers and this anomaly was not revealed by the government’s finance ministry? Instead, the whistle blower, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi who did this is seen as a ‘trouble maker’ and an ‘irresponsible’ government official who washes the dirty linen of government in public?
I keep wondering why and how a finance ministry and a Petroleum ministry would have jointly condoned a regime of an out of budget whooping monthly 100 million US dollars for Kerosene subsidy that is not enjoyed by anybody. And why and how NNPC would sell our crude oil and not remit the sales proceeds whether it is 10 billion US dollars, 20 billion US dollars or 12 billion US dollars and this administration’s finance ministry and petroleum ministry keep mum over such?
For me, the truth of the matter is that this administration’s conduct shows that checking corruption is not its focus. Thus, those who consider themselves as people with any modicum of integrity should stay away from the administration and desist from engaging in belated and fruitless defense that is at best irritating.
Nigerians cannot be deceived that the economics of governance can stand alone and yield results without a corresponding match in the ethical trust of the political leadership. If as Okonjo Iweala claims that the fundamentals of the Nigerian economy “remain strong”, how come are their multiple leakages that deplete our financial resources? Are these leakages that this administration turns its eyes away from, part of the strength of our economy? Let us shun this futile propaganda and face the real issue: There is no demonstrated will by this government to check economic leakages, for whatever reasons.
This administration that has chosen to treat corruption and corrupt persons with kid gloves is like a baggage of rubbish. Those who have the guts to carry such baggage on their shoulders must be smeared by dirt.
This government’s finance and petroleum ministries on account of these financial scandals have proven to be incompetent in discharging their responsibilities. For those, who sit over these ministries it is honourable to quit or step aside, even as any form of investigation goes on, if at all honour and integrity mean anything to them. I must state that Professionals or even pseudo Professionals who care about their professional reputation and integrity should always be careful in choosing their clients.
Trying to find refuge in expensive image laundering activity is a lame effort at getting things right. The right things must be done to create credibility. First, NNPC should be subjected to proper scrutiny along with the supervising Ministry of Petroleum towards unraveling all opaque transactions. And the Ministry of Finance should not shy away from its oversight functions of monitoring the receipts of crude oil sales activities of the NNPC. Just as the CBN is not a country of its own, the NNPC is equally not a country of its own. Are we afraid to confront NNPC or the Ministry of Petroleum? And why this fear?
Nigerians are increasingly getting bored of the serial habit of shoving critical issues of corruption under the carpet, while the leadership trudges on as if all is well. All is definitely not well with the image of this government, its leadership and all those who are associated with it, and by extension that of Nigeria.
The rot is beginning to stink and only a bold move in the right direction can stem this credibility crisis. Any other thing outside this is mere jamboree.
IKENNA OBI
