by Reuben Abati

WHY won’t the NPA Six who were convicted by Justice Bunmi Oyewole’s court, a court of competent jurisdiction, and who have since been kept in prison not wear prison uniform? The only explanation that can be gleaned from reports in yesterday’s newspapers is that Nigeria runs a two-prison system: one for the rich convict, another for the poor. The Sun newspaper in its “Life inside Bode George’s Cell” (October 31, p.13). and The Vanguard in its “Why Bode George, others refused prison uniforms” (October 31) offer a sad picture of all that is wrong with the justice administration system in Nigeria. The import of legal conviction and imprisonment is to remind society of the supremacy of the law and of the equality of all persons before the law. In reality, Nigerian Prison authorities allow a variation of this when they receive convicted persons into custody. If the reports in The Sun and Vanguard newspapers truly reflect the situation in Bode George’s cell, then whoever is in charge of the Kirikiri Maximum Prison has some explaining to do. Besides, higher authorities must find out why those in charge of the Kirikiri prison have allowed it to be turned into a PDP party secretariat.

We are told that Chief Bode George stays in a special cell, in a VIP section, and one asinine prison warder suggests that no one should expect a big man like that to be kept in the same section with pickpockets and armed robbers because after all, there is a classification of convicts by the prison authorities. Need that fellow be told that indeed pickpocketing and armed robbery may be a lighter than the grounds of the NPA six’s conviction and that the kind of privileges that Chief Bode George and co. are said to be enjoying violate the intent of their conviction by the court of law? Chief George, the papers report, has refused to wear prison uniform and the prison authorities have allowed him to bring along with him, a suitcase of clothes. A few days ago, we were informed that Chief George’s measurements had been taken and that his prison uniform would be ready by Friday. So why won’t he wear it? There is only one uniform for Nigerian prisoners. The case of the NPA six has already been determined; they may be granted bail pending the determination of their appeal for bail, but until then, they have to abide by the rules of prison life. At the moment, Chief George and his men are behaving as if the success of their bail application is a foregone conclusion but that is presumptuous and outrightly contemptuous.

Chief George is said to be taking this in his stride and reassuring his supporters that his imprisonment is the handiwork of his enemies and part of the price of leadership. The supporters reportedly arrive very early and they practically fall over each other to see their Godfather. To all intents and purposes, the Kirikiri prison has been turned into a car mart and a party secretariat. The Sun report states that Chief George starts holding court by 8 am. He obviously thinks that his conviction is a joke and the prison officials also see it as such! The big man does not eat prison food. Every day, his family and friends bring special delicacies for him to wolf down. Does he drink beer? Or wine? Or fruit juice? And is he also having that while in prison custody? I can imagine all the prison officials falling over themselves also to pay homage to the PDP chieftain.

One of them is quoted as saying that the likes of Bode George will always have their way in prison because an average warder’s salary is so poor; he survives by depending on the generousity of rich inmates. Corruption within the prison system compromises the justice system. No wonder it was disclosed not too long ago that persons who had been convicted and sentenced to various terms of imprisonment for drug-related offences found their ways out of prison and the records were doctored accordingly to cover them up. This was the finding of a panel set that was set up to probe the Nigerian Drug Law Enforcement Agency under the previous administration. There has been no further word on that scandal. A fresh probe of Nigeria’s prison system is long overdue.

The only inconvenience that Chief Bode George suffers, The Sun newspaper states is the lack of electricity. The prison generator is put on at 4 am and it is switched off at 6 am reducing the PDP big man to a fighter of mosquitoes, using every available fan to ward off heat and insects. If Bode George gets his bail and he gets out of this, he would at least have learnt that special lesson: no condition is permament. He must also have learnt one or two lessons about public service: namely that it is a double-edged sword for those who play games with the demands of integrity. Another lesson about human behaviour: prior to his conviction, he must have considered himself a sacred cow, an untouchable Godfather, but now he must know that he is human after all and that the law is no respecter of persons. He must not complain. What has been proven through him is that President Yar’çdua takes the rule of law seriously or that he does so when he so wishes.

This year alone, he has watched quietly as bank CEOS who donated to his campaign fund and that of the PDP were publicly humiliated. He has also refused to get involved in Bode George’s trial. Hopefully, all the persons who think that they are rich and privileged would learn from this, taking to heart the last line in Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex that no man should consider himself happy until he takes that happiness to the grave in peace. The air of happiness that is being created around Bode George’s presence in Kirikiri Maximum Prison is false. When all the visitors who see him in batches of five at a time leave, he would be left alone with mosquitoes and the eerie darkness of damp prison walls. He needs to be reminded that if he had been in China, he and the five others may have been given the death sentence. If he had been a Frenchman, he would not think that being convicted for corruption is a joke. Jacques Chirac, 76, former French President who has been charged for corruption is showing more sobriety than Bode George and he has not even been convicted yet. Chief Bode George and his men should stop behaving as if they are in a Guest House at Kirikiri. They are in prison. The reports about the special privileges that they seem to be enjoying should lead to an investigation.

But there is a flip side to all of this: with Bode George turned into a common criminal, and public opinion concretely against him and the malfeasances of the NPA six, the PDP elite may find in this a good excuse to launch a war through the courts against members of other political parties who may have skeletons in their cupboards. Allegations would have to be proven in a court of law of course, but should it happen and certain opposition figures get convicted, they would have no moral justification to complain about political persecution. The PDP hawks have made an example out of their own men, they may spare no knife in hacking the “political enemy” . Once this is upheld by the court of law establishing actual wrong-doing, so be it. More interesting scenarios await us before the 2011 general elections. But in the meantime, higher authorities should put an end to the offensive “Owambe”scene that Bode George and his supporters are allegedly staging at the Kirikiri Maximum Prison. Allowing a two-prison system that is based on class discrimination defeats the purpose of that system. There should be no hierarchy among prisoners, no double standard, no VIP-treatment behind prison walls.

Soludo’s Baptism Of Fire

PROFESSOR Charles Chukwuma Soludo would remember when he was baptised Charles at his family church. But that is nothing compared to the kind of baptism that he is currently receiving in Anambra state. His 78-year old father has been abducted. The kidnappers want N500 million, another group, OMEGA 12, has asked him to pay N5 billion. Is it possible for two different groups to kidnap one man? Soludo’s wife and children have since been relocated abroad. He has also moved his mother out of the family house. He and his supporters insist that whoever is behind this cannot break their will. But how much price is Professor Soludo willing to pay to realise his ambition of becoming the Governor of Anambra state in 2010?

There is no doubt that he is strong-willed. When he ran into trouble as CBN Governor over the redenomination of the Naira and he was practically disowned by the Presidency, he refused to heed the advsie that he should resign his appointment. If he is driven by the same resolve in this matter, he may choose to dare his opponents and damn the consequences. But if his father manages to survive the attempt on his life, Soludo would have to relocate him too. He may also have to relocate his siblings. And his nephew. And his in-laws. Even his associates. And he has to constantly look over his shoulders, lest he too is kidnapped. In the same Anambra state which he wants to govern, a sitting Governor was once abducted from the Government House. And those who did so are still active in that state, obviously.

Soludo’s travails have been linked to the manner of his emergence as the PDP Gubernatorial flagbearer in Anambra state and Chris Uba’s highly revealing outburst this week would further confirm that assumption. Hear Chris Uba as reported: “Soludo is a visitor in the state, he is a visitor in the party, but when he came we started the primaries, and in the delegate election he got only five, and when he got these few votes, Soludo himself went and brought a court order and told me, Chris Uba, that he brought that court order. He later came to my house to beg me for us to discuss. I told him to go first and vacate that court order, he told me the court order cannot be vacated. He also told me that he has about three court orders in his pocket….He has been calling me, begging me to soft pedal; and I said I will not soft pedal, that he must vacate because he came in through the backyard and he must leave through the backyard…

Soludo is not a member of our party, Soludo has not attended meeting anywhere… Soludo is a blackmailer but he cannot blackmail me to stop. I will continue to fight the cause I believe in…I will continue to fight his candidature till I get him out of office. He can’t try this in this party, he has ruined all the banks in Nigeria and he wants to ruin the party, it can’t happen. He knows the whereabouts of his father, let him bring back his father. Soludo is not at peace with his people, he is fighting with his people, he created an autonomous community. I want Nigerians to judge me and Soludo who has a skeleton in his cupboard…I am fighting a just cause and I have followers and my followers will not support illegality as exemplified in Soludo’s candidature.”

Weighty words, quite interesting but would Chris Uba be willing to tell us what the “skeleton” in Soludo’s cupboard is and how in specific terms he has as he alleges, “ruined all the banks in Nigeria?” And as for him, is he saying there is no skeleton in his cupboard? Does Chris Uba remember any one called Chris Ngige at all? Soludo is being exposed to so much harrassment because he wants to be Governor. Chris Uba says he came to beg him. A Professor of Economics and former Governor of Nigeria’s Central Bank going to beg Chris Uba? Did he prostrate? How much book dis Uba read sef? I hope Soludo will not fall into the trap of swearing to an oath at a shrine! Howsoever the drama of his Gubernatorial ambition plays out, Soludo must see in this the urgent need for him to join the campaign for electoral reform. And hopefully, also, he would see good reason to keep away from the PDP: a party with an unlimited supply of strange characters and incidents.

In the end, the Anambra debacle is all about the underdeveloped nature of Nigeria’s political process and the failure of the PDP. By 2011, there may be more copycats kidnapping the parents and relations of candidates. And if all aspirants have to start the race by first relocating their relations to neighbouring countries, this would not only drive up the cost of political particpation, it will also shut out well-meaning candidates and compel us to ask: who would be left to vote in Nigeria’s elections? An electoral system that requires political aspirants to send their loved ones on exile to prevent their abduction belongs to the age of barbarians. Kidnapping for whatever reason is unjusitifiable, it is criminal. The kidnappers of Pa Soludo must be found and the innocent man must be brought back home. This is another test case for the Nigerian Police.

by Simon Kolawole

I don’t know much about Chief Andy Uba. He had always run his life away from the limelight, until he dived into the “murky waters” of politics. I have met him only once – at the THISDAY summit tagged “Nigeria Meets the World”, held in New York two years ago. He was in company with Alhaji Aliko Dangote. As I greeted Dangote and tried to “escape”, he grabbed my hand, turned to Uba and announced, mischievously, “Andy, this is Simon!” I had written very critical articles against Uba, so I was expecting some outpour of expletives. That was why I did not want to greet him in the first place. But, to my surprise, he greeted me warmly and asked, rather rhetorically: “Simon, what have I done to you now?” He came across to me as a soft-spoken, humble gentleman. All I did was smile. People I’ve criticised usually curse me when we meet. I was expecting a similar treatment from Uba, but he disappointed me.

In the event that you don’t know Andy Uba, an introduction will suit you. He was Special Assistant to ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo. He was the governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the April 14, 2007 election in Anambra State. He was declared winner by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). He was sworn in on May 29, 2007. But, in the shadows, there was a court case instituted by Governor Peter Obi to determine if he had served out his tenure in accordance with section 180(2)a of the 1999 Constitution. Obi had challenged the 2003 election in which Dr. Chris Ngige was declared winner by INEC. Obi pursued his case to a definitive conclusion and was sworn in as governor in March 2006 – almost three years after litigation. The next question was: would he serve just one year and leave office when the Constitution guaranteed him four years? Two weeks after Uba was sworn in, the Supreme Court returned Obi to the Government House with a judgment that his tenure would expire on March 17, 2010. The court berated INEC for conducting the April 14 election when it was well aware that there was no vacancy.

For whatever reason, Uba refused to give up. In a way, you would not blame him. He probably saw himself as a victim of circumstances. He probably felt a sense of injustice – a feeling that he was not responsible for INEC’s actions and errors. To everyone’s surprise, however, Uba went back to the Supreme Court, asking the apex court to reverse itself and restore him to office. The Supreme Court rarely reverses itself. I still do not know what gave Uba the confidence to try his luck. Several times he went back to the court but he eventually withdrew his plea and returned to a lower court, the Appeal Court, this time around to discuss the petition from the April 14, 2007 election. An elections petitions tribunal, basing its stand on the Supreme Court pronouncement on Obi’s tenure, had dismissed the petitions rising from Uba’s election on the ground that the election should not have held in the first place; in law, they say you cannot build something on nothing. The case ended up at the Appeal Court where the panel ruled the lower tribunal out of order. It said, curiously, that the tribunal should have listened to the petition on its merit, despite Supreme Court’s verdict. If you ask me, this was the beginning of Uba’s dilemma. The Appeal Court, for reasons best known to them, raised Uba’s hope and we are yet to get over it till today.

In the next few days, the Appeal Court sitting in Enugu is expected to give a “declarative verdict” on the status of Uba in line with its February 2008 judgment that the result of the April 2007 election was still “live” in spite of Supreme Court’s ruling on Obi’s tenure. Is Uba governor-in-waiting? Should he take over as soon as Obi’s tenure expires on March 17, 2010? Strong indications are that the Appeal Court will rule in Uba’s favour and spark off another round of controversy. A group recently placed an advert in the newspaper accusing Uba of inducing the judiciary to do his bidding. They said Uba had been promised the Anambra governorship as a “parting gift” by a top shot of the Appeal Court. A pro-Uba group has denied the allegation, describing it as nothing but blackmail. Whichever way you look at it, however, there is a buzz in Uba’s camp. The expectation is very high that he will be declared governor-in-waiting by the Appeal Court panel, which is said to be split 3-2 in Uba’s favour. This is quite intriguing.

Now let’s look at the matters arising. One, the Supreme Court has ruled in very clear terms that Obi’s tenure expires on March 17, 2010. That should be easy enough to understand by anybody. Two, the Constitution states clearly in Section 178(2) that an election to the office of the Governor of a State shall be held on a date not earlier than sixty days and not later than thirty days before the expiration of the term of office of the last holder of that office. In simple English, or arithmetic, 60 days to March 17 would be January 17, while 30 days would be April 17. INEC has fixed February 6 for the election, which is well within range. Where does April 14, 2007 come into the picture? The Constitution in front of me here does not say “not earlier than 37 months or later than 36 months”. Three, by constitutional provisions, the sitting governor is allowed to seek another term in office because he is entitled to a maximum of two. The incumbent will therefore be denied his right to contest. Four, since INEC has fixed February 6, 2010 for the governorship election in line with Supreme Court’s judgment, what happens to the winner of the election? Will he too become governor-in-waiting to assume office when Uba’s tenure expires on… I don’t even know what date that would be now.

Since feelers from the Appeal Court indicate that Uba is coasting home to victory, I think the Nigerian judiciary is in for a torrid time. The reputation it has won in this democratic dispensation will become food for the dogs. If the Appeal Court upturns the Constitution and Supreme Court’s pronouncement on this matter, I guess the logic will continue to haunt the justices for the rest of their lives. The honourable justices should also think of their names. The Anambra conundrum has claimed many victims in the judiciary, notably Justice Wilson Egbo-Egbo, whose career was terminated in disgrace. Whether we like it or not, a good name is better than silver and gold, no matter what the modern man thinks.

If the Appeal Court goes ahead to upturn what the Supreme Court has said on Anambra State, of course the case will go back to the Supreme Court. Any argument that a governorship election petition ends at the Appeal Court will obviously not hold water, because this is ultimately a constitutional matter, not just an election petition. The final question will be: going by Section 178(2) of the 1999 Constitution, can an election be held 36 months to the expiration of the tenure of the incumbent? The clear answer is no. On what law was the April 2007 election based then? Can you build something on nothing? The answer is no. I have this funny feeling that if the Appeal Court justices allow themselves to be lured into upturning a Supreme Court judgment, the National Judicial Council (NJC) will eventually pounce on them. My gut feeling is that many of them will end their careers like Egbo-Egbo. “Egbo”, in Yoruba, means “wound”. They will nurse their wounds for life – if they stand constitutional logic on its head.

Bode George and the Way Forward

The conviction and jailing of Chief Bode George – and five others, let me quickly add – came to many Nigerians as a shock. Most of the people who called me were incredulous. “Are you sure Bode George has been jailed?” was one question I had to answer many times. Now, I don’t blame the Doubting Thomases. When was the last time a big politician was sentenced to jail and given a prisoner’s uniform for corruption? You have to go all the way back to the Muhammadu Buhari/Tunde Idiagbon era to get an answer to that. I’m talking of 1984-85 – some good 24 years ago. Those born then have graduated from the university and married and had children. Quite some history. Since then, those who get sentenced to jail are the guys who snatch handbags at Oshodi. The guys who steal the billions usually get national honours and police escorts. So Nigerians are entitled to scepticism.

Even as I write this, I (like many other Nigerians) don’t really believe George will serve his jail term. It’s very unNigerian for a big fish to be caught and served justice in large dosage. While I do not rejoice over the plight of George (many of the politicians who are celebrating his downfall are worse criminals), I am delighted with the judgment for several reasons. The symbolism should not be lost on us if we are to strengthen nation-building and facilitate Nigeria’s development. First, it is assumed, or believed, that no big politician will ever go to jail in Nigeria. This belief fuels impunity and despair. Impunity because politicians engage in bad behaviour knowing fully well that they will never be brought to justice. Despair because many Nigerians have given up hope of justice. They end up saying “Nigeria is finished” and never expect anything good to come out of their country. This judgment is therefore capable of sending a warning signal to politicians that they can actually go to jail.

Also, there’s a high possibility that the George judgment will have a positive effect on other judges across the country who may have also come to believe, like many Nigerians, that big politicians cannot go to jail. Now they know those guys can indeed go to jail. The judges, I believe, will henceforth be encouraged to slam the hammer on these guys. Until Peter Obi pursued his election petition to a logical conclusion, no governor had been removed from office by the judiciary. This must have discouraged many judges from giving big judgments. However, as soon as Obi won his case and was installed governor of Anambra State almost three years after the election, the other tribunals and courts took their cue from the case and began to take big decisions. I expect the Bode George judgment to have a similar effect on other judges who are handling political cases involving former governors and former ministers.

Three, I expect that President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua will not interfere in this case, although his party is talking tough (“It is not over yet,” the party’s scribe, Abubakar Baraje, has said). Indications so far are that Yar’Adua is ready to allow things to run on their own. When the Minister of Power, Lanre Babalola, moved against the big guys at the National Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), attempts were made to reach Yar’Adua to call off the action, especially as a top prince was involved, but he refused. The recent removal of Francis Atuche as MD of BankPHB was a shocker – Atuche was Yar’Adua’s banker. The Yar’Adua family is a major shareholder in BankPHB (the president declared this in his assets form). Yet Atuche and BankPHB were not spared the hammer. I therefore expect that the President will not make any underground moves to get George and co. off the hook. In which case, our institutions will have an opportunity to grow in strength. The judiciary as well as the anti-graft agencies will only gain from this. Anything short of this and the judgment by Justice Joseph Olubunmi Oyewole will just be another false dawn.

by Reuben Abati

“MI’LORD has caught a big one. In fact not one, five. It is a wonderful day for Nigeria”.

“You always like to jubilate when someone falls on bad times. What’s the matter with you?”

“Why shouldn’t we jubilate? No, tell me, why shouldn’t we roll on the floor with laughter from rib to rib? When last did the long arms of the law catch up with big men who have mismanaged public resources? Madam Farida Waziri’s EFCC has been busy with too many cases in progress. Everyone who wanted progress with the anti-corruption war started yearning earnestly for Ribadu, the action-packed former Chairman of the EFCC. Now something big has happened”.

“I know. Mrs. Waziri has been beating her chest. President Yar’Adua must also be pleased”.

“But it is the judge that we should praise. He has shown courage and determination. It doesn’t matter what they do to him after this. He will be remembered for his courage in sending six big men to jail in one day, without the option of fine. What was it again? – the splitting of contracts, abuse of office, and disobedience of lawful orders.”

“Heavy matter”.

“And the whole matter took 14 months. The case began in August 2008 and now, it has been determined. Some other judges allow cases to drag on endlessly. And lawyers would be allowed to keep making frivolous applications just to delay the course of justice”.

“I hear this Oyewole is a no-nonsense judge. I recommend his example to other judges. Take a case, stay with it, do justice in record time”.

“You know for a moment, I thought Chief Bode George was going to get away. I mean the man is a big man in every sense of that word in Nigeria. Former Governor of Ondo State. Former Principal Staff Officer to the No: 2 man in the Abacha Government. National Deputy Chairman of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (South West). The topmost chieftain of the PDP in Lagos State. A friend of the one and only OBJ of the do-or-die politics fame. A judge looked at the man straight in the face and sent him to jail?”.

“They are already sewing his prison uniform at Kirikiri. Have you not heard? He will get it today. The moment he arrived, the prison authorities took his measurements. The law is no respecter of persons. Nobody is above the law. That is the good news in all of this.”

“Even those five others are big men. We are talking of Board members of the Nigerian Ports Authority and a former Managing Director of the NPA. The NPA is one of those lucrative departments. When a man is given a high position in a body like that, he throws a party”.

“But there is something about the case that I still don’t quite understand. I think there is an escape route for the NPA Six when the matter goes on appeal”.

“It doesn’t matter. What we know at the moment is that the men have been convicted. That is the position of the law. Did you not read that when Chief Bode George arrived at the Kirikiri Maximum Prison, one of the first inmates to welcome him was Major Hamza Al-Mustapha, Abacha’s Chief Security Officer who has been in that prison for nearly nine years”.

“Ten”

“Whatever”

“No condition is permanent, my brother”.

“I’d like to see more big men in jail. May be that will curtail their greed”.

“Like who and who?”

“Like all the ones whose cases are still pending.”

“Name one person”.

“I don’t want to be charged for contempt; only a Court of Law can determine who goes to jail”.

“You see? You are a coward. You don’t want to offend anybody”.

“Okay, you too, name somebody you think also deserves a prison uniform and a special welcome by Abacha’s CSO.”

“Walahi, prison no good o. So, where do you think they will keep Chief Bode George. Will they give him a VIP suite?”

“You think Kirikiri Maximum Prison is a five-star hotel?”

“I understand it is organised like one and you can stay in a VIP suite if the price is right. You may even get a chance to have your wife sneak in for an overnight stay, again if the price is right. This is Nigeria. Were you not in this country when the wife of a prominent prisoner took in while he was still in prison and it was reported that the pregnancy was his. At night, you may even be allowed to go home and return at dawn before anyone notices your absence”.

“One of these days, this your mouth will put you into trouble. But whether there is a VIP suite in prison or not, I don’t think Chief Bode George will find it funny”.

“I hear he is not taking prison food.”

“Don’t worry, he’d soon adjust.”

“But why are you talking about Chief Bode George? What about the other five?”

“This is Nigeria. Don’t be surprised if they are granted amnesty sooner than you think.”

“You think they will be granted bail pending the hearing of their appeal?”

“I suspect the men will be released at the Court of Appeal. I have been reflecting on the grounds of their conviction. Splitting of contracts, Abuse of office. Disobedience of lawful orders. These look to me like administrative irregularities. I mean when did a contract become an atom? Is Bode George a scientist turning contracts into atoms, and splitting them to create a bomb?”.

“Yes. A bomb of free cash. It swells the pocket, the mouth, the belly, and it can send a man to prison… Because public funds are involved, when you split contracts in order to top up prices, you are violating the law. This case should teach Board members of public institutions that if they abuse their fiduciary responsibilities, they may go to jail”.

“How will those big men look in prison uniform”

“That is not important. They don’t do fashion parade in prisons. A prison uniform is a prison uniform. One elewon is not different from the other”.

“Jesus Christ, the husband of widows!”

“I understand Chief Bode George’s supporters wanted to make trouble at the court premises. They became unruly, raining curses on the judge, and threatening journalists”.

“If they are not careful, they’d join their man in prison.”

“And to think Chief Bode George caused all this by suing The News magazine for libel. If he had known, he would have kept quiet.”

“It is like Jeffrey Archer and the UK Daily Star. Look, it simply means that big men should watch how they behave. A big man today can wear a prison uniform tomorrow. That is the way of the world”.

“Even if they sew prison uniform with damask, may my enemy never wear it”.

“Why? Your enemies should wear prison uniform. What kind of prayer is that?”

“You know I am a Christian. We are taught to pray for our enemies.”

“Well, don’t pray for people who split things that shouldn’t be split”.

“Like who?”

“Like the kidnappers of Pa Simeon Soludo, the father of Prof. Charles Soludo”.

“Prof. Chukwuma, please. He has retired his Charles.”

“Look, that is not important to me. What kind of country is this? Why would anyone kidnap a man, an old man, 78 years old, just because his son wants to be governor?”

“Some people’s wives and mothers have been kidnapped before now. And this is the second time they’d take Pa Soludo. When his son introduced banking consolidation as CBN Governor in 2006, and some banks lost their licenses, he was also abducted. He lost an eye during that incident”.

“It is a clear sign of Nigeria’s underdevelopment.”

“More like the failure of the Nigerian state.”

“It is obvious that certain elements are determined to intimidate Prof. Soludo, and frighten him”.

“The kidnappers are asking for N500 million.”

“What price must a man pay to be part of the Nigerian governance process”?

“Certainly not the life of a father.”

“It is called collateral damage, though”

“It is pure criminality and it should be condemned. It raises serious questions about human security.”

“This Nigeria tire me, no be small”.

“Look at what is happening with the U-17 football tournament that we are hosting. When other countries host such an event they end up making profit from ticket sales and endorsements. Nigeria is losing money. Other countries gain international recognition and pride, but Nigeria is ridiculing itself”.

“I hear FIFA is not happy with the Local Organising Committee. They are complaining about low turn-out at the stadium”.

“But I have seen some improvement this week”.

“Artificial improvement. To keep the tournament going, the Nigerian authorities are renting crowds to fill the stands”.

“I know”.

“For the Nigeria-Honduras match, 40,000 tickets were given out free to encourage spectators to come to the Abuja National Stadium”.

“In many of the centres, school children are taken out of school and forced to make up the numbers at the stadium, I don’t remember which match I was watching. It was around 7.30 p.m. and I saw these helpless children, secondary school pupils, watching a football match they probably were not interested in. That’s child abuse”.

“In Lagos, the state government provides free transportation to and from the stadium”.

“In Bauchi State, Governor Isa Yuguda is buying up all the tickets for the matches, and asking people to just come to the stadium. He is paying N20 million.”

“All the governors and Ministers who are buying up tickets for free distribution, I hope it is their personal funds they are spending. I really hope so.”

“It is not only the Nigerian authorities that are bribing the spectators. I read a story in the Nigerian Tribune about how the Italian U-17 team decided to distribute sweets and T-shirts to spectators.”

“Wonderful.”

“And trust Nigerians. They supported the Italians.”

“When are they going to serve food? I beg if you know where they are serving food, let me know.”

“Hungry man.”

“But you know, the biggest scandal of the U-17 tournament occurred on Wednesday in Enugu. It rained heavily and the Burkina Faso-New Zealand match had to be suspended. The artificial pitch was flooded. It became bloated.

“I saw it on television. I saw concerned officials using buckets to drain water from the pitch’

“Nobody used a plastic bucket. You sef?”

“You mean you did not see people frantically using towels to drain water? I saw people using knives and blades to rip the flooded pitch open”

“And that is a pitch that was specially imported and installed. Expensive installation.”

“You never know. May be someone split the contract, and the contractor had no option but to do a shoddy job.”

“It is a shame.”

“Don’t worry. Soon, it’d be over.”

“That thing I said about food, don’t forget eh/”

“Mr. Food.”

“I just want to split some dollops of pounded yam.”

“Don’t worry, you won’t end up in Kirikiri for that.”

by Femi Adesina

Did our futurologists miss it in their crystal balls? Or were they as blind as bats in the daytime? How come they never told us that a Lagos Boy would pass through Kirikiri prison this year? Yes, perhaps the greatest ripple in the political waters this year so far is Monday’s conviction of former naval officer and top gun of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Chief Olabode George.

For 15 months, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) had prosecuted George and five other members of the board he chaired, which ran the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) from 2001 to 2003.

They had been accused of abuse of office, contracts inflation, disobedience to constituted authority, contracts splitting, conspiracy to commit crime, among others. And on Monday, Justice Olubunmi Oyewole of the Lagos High Court handed them a jail term of 28 years each, but they would only spend two-and-a-half years each in prison, as the convictions are to run concurrently.

The nation, and indeed the world, had waited rather impatiently for what is generally called a ‘high profile’ conviction from the EFCC, particularly since Mrs Farida Waziri took over as chairman in June last year. Former Edo State governor, Chief Lucky Igbinedion had been convicted for corruption, with a fine option that was described as not more than a massage (not even a slap) on the wrist. Thirteen Filipinos were also convicted for economic crime in a landmark case, the Vaswani Brothers had got themselves deported once again for economic crimes, billions of naira had been recovered from convicted fraudsters, yet what Hilary Clinton told us in her recent visit here was that the EFCC had “fallen off” in the last two years.

Now that the EFCC has prosecuted Bode George and others to a logical conclusion, I like that kind of falling off. If this is what it means for an anti-crime agency to fall off, I surely like it, and want more of such. Let the EFCC “fall off,” but let it get more big shots to answer for their crimes, and I don’t care what Hilary Clinton and other cynics say. Or do you?

The grip on Bode George’s jugular brings up a number of issues. One is that sacred cows too can eventually fall to the knackers. They can be led like sheep to the slaughter, dumb before the shearers. All we need is a dispassionate commitment to what is right, no matter whose ox is gored.

I remember how it all began. Chief Bode George was the Deputy National Chairman (South) of the rampaging PDP. If anybody had a sense of invincibility, it was George. Was he not one of the henchmen of the emperor, Olusegun Obasanjo? Was he not the one who led the tsunami that saw the PDP overrunning the entire South-West, except Lagos? They ran the country like a fiefdom, a personal estate, and their word was law. Under the Obasanjo regime, chairman of the EFCC, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, had personally investigated the contract bazaar at the NPA. His report indicted Bode George, but Obasanjo threw the report back in Ribadu’s face. The then EFCC boss kept quiet. His mandate was to hound enemies of the regime, not allies, and once he was told to shut up on Bode George, he played the obedient servant to the hilt.

In August last year, just two months after assuming office, Mrs Waziri pulled George in. I remember the man had been abroad, and rumours were rife that his arrest was imminent. When he landed at the airport, Bode George was all puff and bluster, telling the media that he had nothing to fear. Now, just 15 months later, he has every reason to fear. The wind has blown, and we have seen the chicken’s rump.

Ribadu has hailed George’s conviction, saying the law was at last catching up with the bad guys. From his Oxford University, United Kingdom base, he said it was “a measure of the shamelessness of our elites and the institutions that fuel their values that Chief George would be awarded national honour in our country, and that he could later sue some newspapers for libel on account of the damming indictment report I prepared against him. Chief George’s subsequent prosecution is evidence that ultimately, the law catches up with the bad guys.”

Very well said. Like I always maintain, Nuhu Ribadu did his level best in the fight against corruption in Nigeria. But his term was by no means perfect. He is not the paragon that some people try to make of him. Just like every one of us, he had weaknesses. He indicted George in a report in 2005. What then happened? Why didn’t the case go to court till Farida Waziri exhumed it in August, 2008? And Ribadu was in office till December 2007. Obasanjo left office in May of that year, yet he never revisited the indictment he gave in 2005. The truth is that under Ribadu, Bode George would never have seen the door of a courtroom, not to talk of standing inside the dock. He was a sacred cow, he was Obasanjo’s man, and it was outside Ribadu’s brief to touch the untouchables under Obasanjo.

I have written before that I have more confidence in the integrity of the cases filed before the courts by Farida Waziri. She seems more sedate, painstaking and thorough than Ribadu, who preferred the swashbuckling, headline-grabbing approach. Yet, this woman and the agency she leads have been the object of virulent campaign of calumny round the world, championed by Ribadu and his loyalists who thought the EFCC chairmanship was a traditional title that lasts for life. Never think nobody else can do a job you have done appreciably like Ribadu did at EFCC. Never like Elijah, think you are the only true prophet of God left, because there are many thousands others, who have never bowed their knees to Baal.

Bode George’s conviction is glaring evidence once again that nothing lasts forever. And what goes round comes round. You lie down with dogs, you get up with fleas. The only thing permanent in this world is change. Bode George in Kirikiri? It’s like a bad dream, nay, nightmare. It could never have happened when Obasanjo and Ribadu held sway. But a Pharaoh would always come, who does not know Joseph. More than anything else, this conviction has reinforced the rule of law mantra of the Umaru Yar’Adua administration. It is no mere platitude. Remember that Bode George coordinated Yar’Adua’s campaign, yet the law is the law. The president could have intervened, and the man would never have been arrested in the first place, not to talk of ever standing trial and getting convicted. At least, this is something good from a leader we have called a chronic foot dragger, a slowcoach, and many other names. Yes, he is all that and more, but he has at least respected the law and its processes.

We must equally commend Justice Olubunmi Oyewole of the Lagos High Court, who got this case concluded in 15 months, and who delivered judgment without fear or favour. He could have allowed frivolous injunctions upon injunctions, which would see the case drag for many years, till everyone loses interest. One hopes other judges handling corruption cases can take a cue.

Again, did you ever see Bode George in manacles while the case lasted? Did you see him dragged on the floor like they did to Tafa Balogun? Did you see him in handcuffs like they did to DSP Alamieyesigha, Abubakar Audu, and some others? There is a difference between playing to the gallery for the sake of temporal applause, for the acclaim of the international community, and doing things decently, in tune with what obtains in the rest of the civilised world. I pray we never return to the era characterised largely by sound and fury, signifying nothing.

Under the Babangida regime, Bode George, then a Navy Captain, was military governor of Ondo State. When he finished his tour of duty, a period not considered outstanding, he was asked what he would be remembered for. Jocularly, he said: “The people would remember that a Lagos Boy once passed through this state.”

George’s lawyers and the PDP have indicated that the verdict of the High Court would be appealed. Fine, it’s their right. Bode George may either get discharged, or the court can affirm the ruling of the lower court. But in the interim, one thing is clear: A Lagos Boy is now passing through Kirikiri prison.