Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Re: Bandits in uniform, or a country of anything goes by Chido Onumah

what if you stone a thief, and it turns out he was falsely accused?
whose honor is stained?
ken

On 4/1/16 4:20 AM, 'ugwuanyi Lawrence' via USA Africa Dialogue Series wrote:
> Good and great piece!
>
> As with his other books I would definitely order for this book.
>
> Assuming that there are strong reasons to hold that Nigeria would be better than this under a federal structure, this is a piece than can cause revolution and lead to a worthier federation!
>
> But I have very strong doubts on this!
>
> I am not saying that there are no thieves in Igbo land where I come from or in Yoruba land where I was partly educated.
>
> I am saying that it will be possible to stone an Igbo thief in Anambra State (crude as this measure may seem but even more crude as the thieves are) or an Hausa thief in Kano State or even an Idoma thief in Benue State than to stone a thief who is an Igbo or Yoruba or Idoma in Abuja! And if the thieves in these places can run to Abuja( interpreted here to mean Federal Courts or Supreme Courts) then you can see the power of the Nigerian centre.
>
> Working in Edo State for some years I got a memorable shock on how a federal idea of Nigeria could be a disservice to Nigerian humanity . One of their own, as a Governor, raked their wealth and looted the money belonging to his brothers and sisters; and as Governor Osumbor who took over would later say "made a disaster out of governance".
>
> He was later tried in Enugu where he wore a prisoner's attire to the scene as if to mock the whole process .He was later convicted but entered a plea bargain and paid some amount, something of nothing, in comparism to what he is believed to have stolen and/or looted.
>
> But, Why try a thief who is charged for stealing the money of Edo people in Enugu, you would ask ,assuming you are ready to mentally decolonise Nigeria with me!And who could have demdned justice on this matter more than an Edo man who is entitled to the money that was stolen!
>
> Well, this is where we are and may remain for a long time!
>
> And by the way....where is the Radio Democracy that Oga Wole Soyinka promised long ago?
>
> May be old age may have come and the idea is asleep!
>
> But…just imagine if there were such radio and information like this were broadcast on such platform!
>
> Lawrence Ogbo Ugwuanyi,Ph.D
> Associate Professor of Philosophy
> Department of Philosophy and Religions
> UNIABUJA.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> --------------------------------------------
> On Tue, 3/29/16, Cornelius Hamelberg <corneliushamelberg@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Re: Bandits in uniform, or a country of anything goes by Chido Onumah
> To: "USA Africa Dialogue Series" <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>
> Date: Tuesday, March 29, 2016, 11:40 PM
>
>
>
> This is
> a very important, thoroughly & superbly
> written
> exposé, explication and challenge by Chido
> Onumah!
>
> Justice
> must be done to those who have been swimming in the
> cesspit of corruption, without a thought to the poor,
> long-suffering and helpless
> masses.
>
> I have
> often regretted that I did not join the army. Just one
> coup, just one. Give me six months and I
> clean up thoroughly – line them all
> up
> no big grammar
> no defence lawyers and no corrupt pastors to beg for
> you . Yes I
> am a military thug and you have five minutes to
> start vomiting di
> money
> or else yu go
> quench here right now and the vultures nah
> dem go eat you tomorrow morning.
>
> The
> irony : di military
> : Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?
>
> "The important thing
> is for the trial to go on and if he is found guilty, bundled
> to jail. I am
> reliably informed that the rot in the military is far worse
> than what we have
> experienced with our politicians. And that is saying a lot
> considering the
> criminal proclivities of Nigerian politicians. We have seen
> a bit of the rot in
> the Air Force. We await the revelations from the Army and
> the Navy." (
> Chido Onumah)
>
> This
> means that there should be scrupulous vigilance failing
> which there could be a coup – remember how Buhari was
> toppled by Babanginda's coup
> d'état on August
> 27, 1985…
>
> "There are many
> Abachas, Dasukis, Badehs, Amosus and Sarakis in the system,
> people who "pledge
> to Nigeria my country, to be faithful, loyal and honest",
> yet they will steal
> from the same country at every opportunity. But why are
> millions of Nigerians
> who bear the brunt of the licentiousness of our thieving
> public officers not
> outraged?
> There is
> no outrage
> because most of us will behave the same way if we found
> ourselves in the shoes
> of Abacha, Dasuki, Badeh, Amosu or Saraki."( Chido
> Onumah)
>
> The bold
> letters are for emphasis and I'm sure that the Adepojus
> and Ikhides might disagree -
> even violently - and
> bloody
> hell the
> Zalangas could be shouting most vehemently
> against the idea that they could
> possibly "behave in the same way if they
> found themselves in the shoes of Abacha , Dasuki, Badeh ,
> Amosu or Saraki"
>
>
> In
> my opinion such a preposterous
> idea is a
> low blow to the good
> citizens of
> Nigeria and an insult to
> their and our collective integrity . But obviously Chido
> Onumah intends that
> this low blow should prick the accused
> and thus affronted intelligentsia to the quick and more
> radical than what the
> Buddhists call right
> action, for justice delayed is
> justice denied and
> as the saying goes, "All
> that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men
> do nothing…"
> Nothing at all.
>
> Good
> words : "Knowing
> how powerful the thieving class is in Nigeria, President
> Buhari should be praised
> – I can't think of any politician who would have done
> this – for his courage
> and political will"
>
> As
> Lord
> Mailafia
> Obadiah (a good man) observed not too long ago
> "But it has also been said that the world has
> been prevented from utter destruction because of the
> existence of the 36 secret
> holy ones who are also presumably Jewish -- the
> Tzadikim
> Nistarim ". And then he went on to
> express the hope : "Let us all aspire to
> be counted among the secret holy ones who will redeem
> Africa!"
>
> In this
> respect, in my heart
> I pray that
> the
> relentless Lord of
> Knowledge Ogbeni Kadiri will be counted amongst
> the righteous ones because already he is
> sounding a little like the Prophet Jeremiah , sent to
> Nigeria and the Africans and
> hollering just like Fela : "This
> is an African court !"
>
> And as he had occasion to ask
> someone just the other day, "So
> what a hell are you waiting for?"
>
> That was a
> question….
>
> Cornelius
>
> We
> Sweden
>
>
>
> On Tuesday, 29 March 2016 18:49:00 UTC+2, Chido Onumah
> wrote:
>
>
> http://www.chidoonumah.com/
> bandits-in-uniform-or-a- country-of-anything-goes/
> I
> had a few sleepless nights last week. It had nothing to do
> with the
> searing heat in the country or the epileptic power supply by
> Nigeria's
> eternally dysfunctional electricity company. My discomfiture
> had to do
> with the report about the heist at the Nigerian Air Force.
> The dizzying
> allegations of sustained robbery by the officers in charge,
> though not
> completely surprising, left me breathless. I ruminated on
> the trial of
> Alex Badeh. I reflected on the figures, did the math, and
> was driven to
> despair.I
> then asked myself the same question I asked a few years ago
> while
> researching grand corruption in Nigeria and the looting of
> the Nigeria
> Police Force by an ex-Inspector General of Police, Tafa
> Balogun. From
> all accounts, Mr. Balogun was a pathological criminal who
> rose to become
> the chief law officer of Nigeria. By the time he was forced
> to retire
> in January 2015, he had stolen billions of naira belonging
> to the
> Nigeria Police in what would go down as the most barefaced
> stealing
> spree by a public officer in Nigeria. The question I posed
> was: what
> kind of country or system makes it possible for public
> officers to loot
> their establishments so easily, ceaselessly and shamelessly?
> To
> understand the Badeh and Balogun syndrome, this is the
> question every
> sane Nigerian ought to be asking. I shall return to
> this.Alex
> Sabundu Badeh, 58, until his retirement last year was a
> four-star flag
> officer of the Nigerian Air Force who served as the 18th
> Chief of Air
> Staff (October 4th, 2012 – January 16th, 2014), the 15th
> Chief of
> Defence Staff of the Armed Forces of Nigeria (January 16,
> 2014 to July
> 13, 2015), and Commander of the Presidential Fleet during
> Olusegun
> Obasanjo's presidency, according to a Wikipedia entry.
> He was born in
> Vimtim (a town sacked by Boko Haram in October 2014) in Mubi
> Local
> Government Area of Adamawa State, North East Nigeria, into a
> family of
> peasant farmers.Fast
> forward to Wednesday, March 16, 2016. The trial of Badeh
> began at a
> Federal High Court in Abuja where we were told that as Chief
> of Air
> Staff, Badeh made N558.2 million ($2.8 million at the
> official exchange
> rate of N197 to a dollar) monthly from the salary account of
> the
> Nigerian Air Force (NAF), an account we were informed
> predated Badeh's
> tenure. N558.2 multiplied by the 15 months that the
> diversion lasted
> (between September 2012 and December 2013) comes to N8.3
> billion. We
> know that not all of that money went to Badeh. He had to
> settle the
> boys, perhaps going as high as the ministry of defence and
> the budget
> office of the federal government! But whatever the balance,
> as Chief of
> Air Staff, Badeh was a stupendously rich man. I don't know
> any business,
> not even that run by Bill Gates or Warren Buffet that
> boasts of that
> kind of return on investment in 15 months. Badeh's
> loot, we understand, was the leftover after salaries and
> allowances of
> workers from NAF had been defrayed from the N4 billion
> received monthly
> and it was conveniently earmarked "for general
> administration for the
> office of the Chief of Air Staff". And he administered it
> in the
> interest of the Badeh clan. Badeh bought a retirement home
> for N1.1
> billion, a deserving prize for his trouble in ending the war
> against
> Boko Haram. He bought a commercial plot of land for N650
> million and
> paid N878 million for the construction of a shopping mall
> and another
> N304 million to complete the mall. When his sons wanted to
> own houses,
> he bought a house worth N260 million for his first son,
> renovated it
> with N60 million and furnished it with N90 million. And when
> his second
> son turned down a house worth N340 million, he ordered that
> a second
> house be bought for N330 million to compensate for the
> indiscretion of
> his man Friday."The
> amount in most cases was usually converted into US dollars
> by the
> Finance Officer at Nigerian Air Force Headquarters, Abuja.
> Thereafter,
> it is brought to the Director of Finance who in turn takes
> it to the Air
> House which is the official residence of Chief of Air Staff
> at the
> Niger Barracks," revealed a prosecution witness, Air
> Commodore Aliyu
> Yishau (retd.), who said he served as former Director of
> Finance and
> Account of the Nigerian Air Force (NAF). You still wonder
> why the
> country has a foreign exchange crisis.Badeh
> obviously had no business being in the Nigerian Air Force
> or building a
> career as a pilot trained at the expense of Nigerian tax
> payers. But
> this is Nigeria, a country of anything goes, where perverse
> actions
> perpetually multiply and endure as instruments of
> governance. Badeh, of
> course, is not alone. The man who succeeded him as Chief
> (Thief?) of Air
> Staff, Adesola Nunayon Amosu, a retired Air Vice Marshal,
> has been
> indicted in the arms procurement scandal during his tenure.
> One of the
> criminal deals involved the procurement of two second-hand
> Mi-24V
> helicopters instead of the recommended Mi-35M series at a
> cost of $136.9
> million. The second-hand helicopters were allegedly not
> operationally
> airworthy at the time of delivery while a brand new unit of
> the same
> helicopters costs about $30 million. On November 13, 2014,
> two officers
> were killed when the Air Force chief allegedly pressured
> them into
> flying one of the unserviceable helicopters which crashed in
> the
> North-east region.According
> to reports, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission
> (EFCC) has
> seized houses and other properties belonging to Amosu, Air
> Vice Marshal
> J.B. Adigun, the immediate past Chief of Accounts and
> Budgeting of the
> Nigerian Air Force, and Air Commodore O. O. Gbadebo, who was
> the
> Director of Finance and Budget at NAF. When Amosu's wife,
> Mrs. Omolara
> Amosu, was arrested by EFCC operatives, the sum of N3
> billion was
> allegedly traced to her bank accounts. She has voluntarily
> returned N381
> million in three tranches of N180m, N101m, and
> N100m.Amosu's
> putative boss, ex-National Security Adviser, Col Sambo
> Dasuki (retd),
> alongside Shuaibu Salisu, a former Director of Finance and
> Administration, Office of the National Security Adviser,
> Aminu Babakusa,
> a former General Manager, Nigerian National Petroleum
> Corporation,
> Acacia Holdings Limited, and Reliance Referral Hospital
> Limited, is
> currently being prosecuted by the EFCC on a 19-count charge
> bordering on
> money laundering and criminal breach of trust to the tune
> of N13.5
> billion. A committee set up to investigate Dasuki's office
> indicted more
> than 300 companies and individuals, including serving and
> retired
> military officers. In one case, the committee found out that
> a company,
> Societe D'Equipment International, was overpaid to the
> tune of €7.9
> million and $7.09 million.True
> to form, the trial of Dasuki could not continue last week
> because he
> refused to show up in court. But he doesn't have to. The
> important thing
> is for the trial to go on and if he is found guilty,
> bundled to jail. I
> am reliably informed that the rot in the military is far
> worse than
> what we have experienced with our politicians. And that is
> saying a lot
> considering the criminal proclivities of Nigerian
> politicians. We have
> seen a bit of the rot in the Air Force. We await the
> revelations from
> the Army and the Navy.If
> you want to understand why Nigeria is not working, why we
> are a fourth
> rate nation, look no further than the Dasukis, Badehs, and
> Amosus of
> Nigeria, their compatriots in agbada (the grand boubou) and
> their
> partners in wigs. People like our billionaire judges, like
> Olisah Metuh,
> Stella Oduah, and Bukola Saraki, the Teflon President of
> the Nigerian
> Senate who is currently standing trial for false asset
> declaration and
> for repaying his personal loans with state fund. There are
> others like
> Ikedi Ohakim who as governor of Imo State paid $2.29 million
> cash for a
> property in Abuja, Ahmed Sani Yerima, Mohammed Danjuma Goje,
> Abdullahi
> Adamu, George Akume, and Josuah Dariye – executive
> scoundrels who have
> found refuge in one of the most disreputable institutions in
> Nigeria –
> the Senate. Not even the colonial masters could have damaged
> this
> country the way these men and women who claim to be
> Nigerians have done.
> Indeed, it's a safe bet that the legendary unfeeling
> colonial
> chieftain, Lord Lugard, will weep no end if he were to
> return to the
> house he built in 1914.Clearly,
> these thieving individuals like their alter ego, the
> fiendish late
> military dictator, Sani Abacha, have no concept of a nation
> of people.
> Their moral universe is limited to family and friends. That
> is why their
> politics, to paraphrase radical scholar and activist, late
> Prof Eskor
> Toyo, is reduced to a grabbing game, a cake sharing contest.
> So, for
> example, while Abacha was head of state, pretending to love
> Nigeria and
> working to uphold her honour and glory, he, his family, and
> accomplices
> were busy looting the country and stashing the loot where
> their hearts
> were: Switzerland, Liechtenstein, etc. In just one instance,
> in December
> 1999, the Swiss government announced the freezing of $550
> million in
> different banks belonging to Abacha and his family, former
> National
> Security Adviser Ismaila Gwarzo, and Abubakar Atiku Bagudu
> (current
> Governor of Kebbi State). It is simply impossible to know
> exactly how
> much Abacha and those around him stole from Nigeria in the
> five years of
> his tyrannical rule.There
> are many Abachas, Dasukis, Badehs, Amosus and Sarakis in
> the system,
> people who "pledge to Nigeria my country, to be faithful,
> loyal and
> honest", yet they will steal from the same country at
> every opportunity.
> But why are millions of Nigerians who bear the brunt of the
>
> licentiousness of our thieving public officers not outraged?
> There is no
> outrage because most of us will behave the same way if we
> found
> ourselves in the shoes of Abacha, Dasuki, Badeh, Amosu or
> Saraki.And
> the reason is simple: "Much of what passes for corruption
> is not simply
> a matter of greed but rather the byproduct of legislators
> or public
> officials who feel more obligated to family, tribe, religion
> or ethnic
> group than to the national community and therefore divert
> money in that
> direction." That was Francis Fukuyama writing about the
> relationship
> between nation building and state building in his book,
> Political Order and Political Decay: From the Industrial
> Revolution to the Globalization of Democracy. These
> bandits in uniform and agbada, according to Fukuyama,
> "are not
> necessarily immoral people, but their circle of moral
> obligation is
> smaller than that of the polity for which they
> work".Savagery
> rears its head when we believe something that belongs to us
> is stolen,
> when anyone comes into our small circle of moral obligation.
> So,
> somewhere in Aluu, Rivers State, four undergraduates are
> lynched and
> burnt by mortally offended fellow citizens for allegedly
> stealing
> laptops and cell phones; somewhere in Lagos a woman is
> beaten and
> sexually assaulted by an incredulous and bloodthirsty mob
> for stealing
> pepper; in Ondo State, a man is mercilessly bludgeoned to
> death by
> "irritated angry youth" for being gay; and somewhere in
> Kano, a man is
> set free after more than two decades in prison for allegedly
> stealing a
> transistor radio. Yet each time Dasuki, Badeh, or Saraki
> appears in
> court, oozing splendor, they are not tailed by
> "ordinary" Nigerians
> mocking and jeering but by a throng of well-heeled lawyers,
> friends,
> associates, and family members. These high-profile
> supporters know that
> it is not only Dasuki, Badeh, or Saraki that is on trial.
> What
> they seem to be saying is, "That is the way the system
> works. Only a
> fool would want to be law abiding in a patently lawless
> society." So,
> Dasuki, Badeh, Saraki, and company, can sleep comfortably at
> night
> knowing full well that there is a chance that in the end
> they will be
> free to enjoy their loot. As a people, we have imbibed the
> dictum that
> when evil is commonplace it becomes a tradition. That is the
> case with
> corruption in Nigeria. Corruption is a national tradition.
> It has been
> with us since independence, got worse through many military
> regimes and
> became a directive principle of state policy in 1999 when
> the military
> again foisted one of their own, Olusegun Obasanjo, that
> exemplar of
> everything wrong with Nigeria, on a hapless
> nation.It
> is for this reason that these indicted public officers,
> rather than
> going to court to prove their innocence, shout
> "persecution" and
> "political witch-hunt" at every opportunity. You can't
> really blame
> them! Why should they be punished for upholding tradition?
> It is for the
> same reason that we have not heard a word from the military
> high
> command or from retired military officers, including
> ex-heads of state,
> on the revelations about our military. Knowing
> how powerful the thieving class is in Nigeria, President
> Buhari should
> be praised – I can't think of any politician who would
> have done this –
> for his courage and political will. Of course, the issue
> goes beyond
> President Buhari to the question posed at the beginning of
> this essay.
> As long as Nigeria remains the way it is, public office will
> be nothing
> but sinecure for self-serving individuals.We
> need to create a country where there is no incentive for
> Nigerians to
> steal from Nigeria. No sane person steals from himself. When
> people feel
> ownership of this country, we won't see the high
> incidence of wanton
> pillage of public fund currently going on at all levels and
> in all
> sectors.In the interim, let Nigerians
> who suffer the effect of corruption pick up the gauntlet and
> act. After all, the enfant terrible
> of Rivers State and now HONOURABLE
> (emphasis mine) Minister of
> Transportation, Rt. Hon. Rotimi Amaechi, once remarked
> publicly that he
> and other thieving politicians get away with murder because
> Nigerians
> have not risen to defend their patrimony by stoning those
> who
> gratuitously steal from them.con...@hotmail.com; Twitter: @conumahThis
> piece is an excerpt from an upcoming book: We are all
> Biafrans – A
> Participant-Observer's Interventions in a Country Sleeping
> Walking to
> Disaster.
>
>
>
> Warm
> regards,
>
> Chido
> Onumah
>
> Coordinator, African Centre for Media & Information
> Literacy,
>
> P.O.Box 6856, Wuse, Abuja, Nigeria
>
> www.africmil.org
>
> www.chidoonumah.com
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> --
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--
kenneth w. harrow
professor of english
michigan state university
department of english
619 red cedar road
room C-614 wells hall
east lansing, mi 48824
ph. 517 803 8839
harrow@msu.edu

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