Bode Durojaiye, Oyo
For war against corruption to be meaningful, sensible and acceptable to the general populace, those in authority must not only pay ‘technical’ lip service to it, “the defective superstructures must be thoroughly examined and the system overhauled”.
A writer and public commentator, Mr Adebiyi Odekanyin, gave the advice in an interview in Oyo town.
Odekanyin stated that for some decades, “Nigeria as a nation has been at the mercy of the cabal of people whose ineptitudes, maladministration, carelessness, greed and self-centredness are responsible for where we are today”.
He noted that the ship of the country took a deserved berth after its successful navigation of the troublesome sea represented by a plethora of events that threatened to swallow the ship on the high sea, the climax of which were the April 2007 general elections.
The public commentator submitted that the economy against all informed predictive analyses is yet to kiss the canvass even though it shows flashes of suicide attempt.
“It is this legendary resilience which has assumed a somewhat mythical figure that encourages the rulers to further subjugate the country and the ruled”.
While pointing out that former President Olusegun Obasanjo cannot claim ignorance of the tribulations of the common man, he said the former President’s utterances before and after leaving the office have proved “to be nothing but acrobatic displays to the gallery of populist approbation”.
He stated that Chief Bola Ige, the felled Minister of Mustice and Attorney-General, who the world regarded as Obasanjo’s alter-ego, served his country and friends so well in his life time, adding that the manner the bail of the executive suspect in his murder was negotiated will make the dead stir in his grave.
“Guilt has put on the apparel of innocence as innocence is then called upon to justify itself when the villain is heralded as hero”.
On the alleged mismanagement of oil windfall during the Babangida regime, Ayoade called for intellectual and academic enquiry into the saga.
According to him,”IBB has thrown a challenge which is the contest of the amount ($12.4billion) realised by the country during the gulf war. The gulf war lasted how many months?what was the selling price of a barrel of crude oil then?Multiply that (i.e how many millions of barrel per day?), what was the amount in excess of the usual selling price (may be as projected in a budget)?”
He stated further that whatever comes after the normal amount constitutes the surplus and that should be the amount that should be addressed.
“So, let a committee of tested economists, financial wizards in collaboration with officials of the Petroleum Ministry and other relevant agencies work on this, based on the available records”.
